As we entered Fury's office, I let my arms go out wide, "Nicholas Joseph Fury! How nice to see you again?"
"Excuse me, Cahya, but how in the hell did you get Level 10 information like my full name?!" He was stood up, arms resting on his desk as he leaned forward to look at me, I sheepishly smiled.
"Definitely not because I was bored and hacked into SHIELD for funsies, definitely didn't do it that way," I sent a smirk his way and he just brushed it off.
He sat back down and gestured me to sit down, then he looked to Steve, "you are not to repeat this to anyone, now I need you to leave while I discuss how far Cahya's knowledge of top secret information goes." Steve stood still for a minute before I shooed him away with my hands, he reluctantly left Fury's office, probably sulking like a little kid who didn't get to sit with the grown up. I turned back to Fury, he looked back at me sternly. "So, Cahya, what other secrets do you know?"
I raised an eyebrow at him, questioning the tone he was using. No one talks to Cahya Stark that way! So I started with the most important information I had, "I know how you lost your eye, you tried to hide the file deep in some very boring and high clearance level data but I followed the trail you probably didn't realise you left, so now I know. I also know about the three new and improved Helicarriers you have and how you haven't given the rooms an upgrade, if I ever join SHIELD again I want there to be better mattresses and more space in the bedrooms, is that too much to ask?"
Nick looked slightly amused, an evil glint in his eye, he leaned his elbows on the desk and rested his chin upon his hands. "You ever divulge that information to anyone and I will personally hunt you down and do the same thing to you," he looked at me with meaning and I knew he wasn't kidding - not that I was going to tell anyone anyway.
"Whatever Nick," I rolled my eyes at him, "I won't tell anyone, I'll keep the amusing little secret to myself and not ruin it for Coulson. Oh yeah, I know he's alive too… But I suppose that's another secret I'll have to keep…" I seemed to ramble on before I was cut off by Fury coughing.
"I suppose if you already know all this it wouldn't hurt to have you look at the Helicarriers, we need to make sure all the tech has working programmes before we fit them to the Helicarriers. You think you're up to the job?"
I smiled widely, little did he know how much of a joy it was to finally be back working on something fun and not boring like redesigning Avengers Tower which did have bigger room and comfier mattresses and nice open windows that immediately lead to a drop that goes very far down to most probable death, and all those fun things. "Of course, I don't know anyone that you've hired who would be better, and considering you used my recruitment software, I know everyone - or at least how talented they are, and I'm more talented."
He smiled at my reply, "well then let me show you the project, in person." He stood up from his desk and walked out the door, expecting me to follow him. For a second I stared at the door and then my senses returned and I quickly jogged to catch up with him as he walked at a brisk pace. "Don't get left behind," he said loudly back to me, I grumbled under my breath and ran to make the distance between us non-existent and kept at his pace. I could tell it was fun for him to see me run to keep up with him and I scowled, stupid man, stupid pirate, stupid highly influential and important man, ugh! I rolled my eyes at myself and my inner thoughts. When we made it to an elevator, he got in and I got in after him. The identification scanner recognised him as a level 10 and he pressed the button to a floor that looked like a sub-basement level. I looked over at him without turning my head, the Helicarriers were below the building? How exactly were they going to fly them?
He smirked when he saw my confusion, probably happy he knew something I didn't. I started chanting my 'stupid man' chant in my head when the elevator stopped and we walked out into what looked like a giant warehouse. My eyes popped out of my head, of course, I had seen the plans for the Helicarriers but they looked much bigger in person. Especially three of them next to each other and they weren't even finished, they were still being built by a very large crew of workmen.
"This is Project Insight." He gestured to the Helicarriers and I took a few steps forward, marvelling at the giant aircrafts that were being built in front of my eyes.
I looked back at Nick, "where's the console? It would be best if I did my work on the Helicarriers, I can see exactly what the problem is at its source then." He gestured me forward to some stairs as we made our way down to the warehouse floor, or basement floor, or factory floor... I couldn't really believe this was all under ol' Trisky.
A few of the workmen eyed Nick and upon realising it was Director Fury they would let out a curt 'Director Fury' before carrying on with their jobs. We made our way to the first Helicarrier, Nick went over to a poor guy who was very nervous, letting us onto the Helicarrier. I nodded and gave him a reassuring smile, I guess the big Boss doesn't normally come down to the factory floor.
We made our way onto the giant aircraft and Nick Fury led me past lots of scaffolding and have laid pipes towards the console whose room looked like it was going to be one of the last to finish. There were large sheets of white covering opening where windows were supposed to be, I went over to the console and turned it on. "I'll be fine from here, Nicky, she'll tell me what's wrong with her." I stroked the machine, probably making Nick uncomfortable but the nickname I gave him probably made him more uncomfortable.
"I'll need a report on my desk just before you leave back to New York." He promptly left and I was finally alone to get to the root of this beauty.
First I checked the things I could in this state of construction, like if the lights were working and if the sensors were also working. The few fixtures they had I was programming, as the idiot who had done it before was an idiot who had just copy-and-pasted their whole program for each fixture with minor tweaks. By the time I had finished all of that it was getting late so I texted Steve to meet me at the doors of Triskelion. I made my way up towards the elevator when I saw someone I hadn't met before, with Nicky Fury. I slowed my walk in front of them.
"Hey Nick, who's your friend?"
"Cahya, this is my friend and colleague, Secretary Alexander Pierce." I stiffened, how did I not know about Secretary Pierce? I smiled at him, "and he's just here because I have to go away for some diplomacy things and I need my best man here to run things." Alexander Pierce smiled at me and shook my hand.
I decided to trust him, there weren't many people that could call themselves friends with Nick, and I trusted Nick's judgement. "It's very nice to meet you," I nodded at him and continues, "I'm terribly sorry but I have a friend waiting for me so I should be going." I smiled once more and moved past them to the elevator.
Once I was out of the elevator back on the ground floor, I saw Steve smiling at me and walking up to me. I smiled back, "hey!" I hugged him once he had reached me and he hugged me back, one of the best things about having guy friends was they usually gave really nice hugs. "How was your day then?"
"Nothing much happened, recon and planning for missions but nothing exciting." I nodded and smiled, interlocking our arms as we walked towards the exit.
"Ah same, just some boring tech stuff that I had to do because the other tech guys are lazy and messed it up." He nodded at me and then stopped, he unlinked our arms and jogged over to the reception, collecting my bags. I smiled and took a couple from him, then instead of walking out of the front doors, he led me to another elevator.
He leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I brought my motorcycle so I thought we should take that back," I nodded and walked into the elevator, his whisper still tickling my neck, all the hairs on the back of my neck were standing to attention as a shiver ran down my spine, and he didn't even know that he did this to me.
As we made our way to his bike I was trying to stuff some of my bags into others until I only three bags. He turned to me and handed me a helmet, taking a couple of bags and transferring the contents into a backpack before handing that back to me. I stared at him, "you realise that you have now definitely creased all of the clothes I bought right?"
He chuckled, "Yeah, well, I have an iron so they'll live." I grumbled about having to iron clothes that wouldn't be squished if not for him before shrugging on the backpack and climbing onto the back of the motorcycle.
I looked at his waist, wondering if I should wrap my arms around them, on the one hand, it would be safer if I did that, but what if he felt uncomfortable? I decided to just try and hold the back of the seat, waiting for him to start the bike when he turned to me.
"Are you going to hold on or do you want to fall off Dorothy?" I stared at him for a second and silently put my arms around his waist, holding on rather lightly. I felt him shake his head and then start the motorcycle up.
As it pulled away, I realised I would have to hold on tighter so I did, basically squishing my whole body into his. I closed my eyes the entire time that we were travelling until he finally stopped for good, and I only knew he had stopped for good when he tried to pry my terrified arms from around his body.
As soon as I felt his hands trying to pry away my arms I flew back from the motorcycle, and just as I let go I quickly tripped over my own two feet and landed on my butt.
"Oh my goodness, are you okay?" Steve ran over to me to help me up but I smiled.
"I just fell on my butt, nothing except my pride is hurt." I dusted myself off and stood back up, not able to look him in the eye. Instead, I opted for the second option of quickly running into his building and up to his apartment.
I heard him jog up the stairs once I had made it to the top, "well that was over-dramatic." I rolled my eyes, I'm a drama queen, deal with it.
"Well I felt embarrassed," I said honestly, looking him in the eye, "so now that you're home you have to try on what I bought you!"
He groaned at the idea but I just shoved some clothes towards him, spun him and pushed him towards his bedroom, "I'll be waiting out here to see how they look! I got your sizes from your existing collection of clothes so don't even try to get out of it by saying they don't fit!" I yelled, making sure he could hear me.
There was a pause, an awkward amount of silence, and then his voice rang out, "you went through my clothes?!" The exclamation wasn't asking for an answer, it was a rhetorical question. It had caused to me laugh out loud, definitely loud enough to be heard through the door.
A few minutes later, begrudgingly, Steve came out of the bedroom in some jeans, a white shirt that didn't stick to his skin but he had nonetheless tucked in and his leather jacket. "Now that looks much more modern, you can even keep your jacket, it suits the look! But you have to untuck the shirt" He shuffled a bit, pulling at the waist of his pants which was a lot further below what he was used to.
I walked over and forcefully lifted his shirt so that it became untucked and then let it go. "There, much better," it wasn't until I realised that I was very close to his chest that my heart started pounding again. I retreated, walking backwards towards my space. "Ummm… So there are a lot more clothes to try on, here," I chucked him his backpack and the other shopping bag and turned, making my way back to the sofa and bringing a blanket around my knees.
He came out once more in some nice looking normal guy clothes and then as he went into the third time to change, my eyes started to droop and I laid on the sofa, just closing my eyes for a second.
It was when I felt a shake on my shoulder that I woke up again, "Cahya," his voice was soft and quiet, it sounded so kind, so safe that I smiled. Then I tried to open my eyes much to their disagreement.
"What?" My voice sounded tired, "how long was I asleep?"
He smiled at me, "only a couple of minutes, I was just going to take you to the bedroom but I thought you might want some dinner first. I don't have much in so I then realised I would have to go to the store and get some food. And then I realised that even after an entire year of knowing you, I don't know what you like to eat. So I decided to wake you up and ask you."
I nodded sleepily, "I like most things, just nothing too spicy and nothing with cheddar, most people think it's weird that I like most cheeses but I don't like cheddar or red Leicester. I even like blue stinky cheeses, just not basic cheese - it tastes really weird and I don't like the texture." I smiled lazily at him. "I don't know if I can stay awake until you get back but if I fall asleep on this sofa you are not to move me, you deserve a night in your own bed." I think he nodded but I couldn't be sure because by the end of my little ramble on cheese I was already falling back asleep.
When I woke up, I was in his room again, I rolled my eyes, huffed and stormed into the living room. "You can't just put me in your bed, you need to sleep there too!"
All I heard was a chuckle when Steve came round the corner with a plate of food and a piece of toast in his mouth. He handed me the plate and took the piece of toast from his mouth, "I told you, it is not the gentlemanly thing to let you sleep off the sofa."
I rolled my eyes, which caused a smile to appear on Steve's face, it was my signature move after all, "well, at least let me pay you some rent." I said it so resolutely that he couldn't possibly argue.
However his smile didn't waver when he replied, "no, never," he sat down on the sofa and I sat down next to him, eating my bit of toast from the plate he gave me.
Little did he know that later I would find out his bank details and wire him the money, and without my details, he couldn't pay me back. I whipped out my phone and noted down the idea, knowing I couldn't do it in front of him right now, as I was writing down my idea his voice rang out. "Why do you have your evil plan smirk on your face?"
I looked at him, surprise replacing my previous look on my face, "I didn't even realise I was doing that... That was completely involuntary…" I was shocked that I couldn't keep it together or hide my evil plan making - well, not evil, but mischievous.
He looked at me like he didn't know if he wanted to, believe me, I smiled sweetly at him and then looked back at my phone. I saw the time and smiled, I had to leave. "I have to go now anyway. Actually, I have to go in like half an hour but I need to start getting ready to look fabulous, so leave the questioning until after work."
"Where are you going this early in the morning? I know normal people work this early in the morning but you're definitely more of a late morning or early afternoon starter." I smirked at him, wouldn't he like to know, he wasn't going to find out anytime soon. I skipped to his room, closing the door and grabbing some clothes I had bought yesterday for myself and the new underwear I bought as well and left his room to go to the bathroom. On my way to the bathroom, Steve tried to block my path and question me further but I just sidestepped him - an advantage of being small was being quick and able to duck under tall guys arms.
Once I was finished in the shower, I changed and left to knock on the next door over. The girl from outside Steve's apartment block answered the door, she still looked familiar. I smiled sweetly, "hey, do you have a hairdryer I can borrow? Steve doesn't have one."
"Oh… Ummm… Sure." She retreated into her flat to get the hairdryer and came back quickly with it, but she was holding it and not holding it over, I looked her in the eyes, raising an eyebrow to ask what was wrong. "So are you like… Steve's girlfriend?"
This caused me to burst out laughing so hard that Steve opened the door to his apartment to look for the commotion, between laughing, I tried to tell him. "She… Thought…. That… I… Was… Your… Girlfriend," I continued to laugh, one of those deep ones in my gut so much it hurt. When my laughter died down, I wiped the laughter tears from my eyes and smiled at her. "Definitely not," I smiled once more and she smiled back for once, giving me her hairdryer.
I quickly thanked her, ran back into Steve's apartment, past him who was still standing in the hallway still, and as quickly as I could I dried my hair; passing the woman her hairdryer on my escape of the apartment block to go on my mission to the Smithsonian.
I started to walk there, knowing it wasn't opening for another half an hour to give me enough time to get there just for when it opens. As the guard unlocked the door I shot inside, going straight past all the cool airplanes to the Captain America exhibit.
There was no one there yet, the doors had just opened, so I took my time, going through it at my own pace. I took pictures with each interesting bit, like me in the height measuring to see how tall I was compared to tiny Steve - who looks so small and innocent and fragile that I just wanted to protect him. Turns out I was still shorter than Steve when he was small, he was 5 foot 4 inches and I'm 5 foot 3 inches so only an inch smaller but still, it was upsetting.
I took a few pictures that weren't shameless selfies and were for important information about his life that I didn't know before. When I finally reached the Howling Commandos part I saw someone I had heard Steve mention only briefly before - Bucky Barnes. I remembered how hurt he sounded when he mentioned him, how sad he seemed, and I studied the picture of Bucky.
He was handsome, Steve had said he was a real charmer and that he had offered Steve a place to stay when his mother died - and both of those times he almost ended up in tears at the memories. I took a picture of the text, and the picture, making sure the images were sharp. When I had gone through the whole exhibit, I made my way to the gift shop, buying all the Captain America things I could - action figures, shirts, jackets, plush toys and fake replica shields. I bought them all, and changed in the toilets into the shirt and jacket, knowing it would embarrass Steve later at SHIELD.
I smiled and left the museum, hailing a taxi and telling him to drive me to the Triskelion.
As I arrived, I noticed people looking at me with a questioning gaze, the few agents who knew me on the carrier had amused smiles, they knew my antics too well to find it odd. I grabbed my phone and called Steve, after two rings he picked up.
"Hey, Cahya."
"Hey, Steve, where are you? I'm at my good friend Trisky's and I was wondering if we could have lunch together or something? Meet you in the canteen." I turned the call off before Steve could protest and made my way to the canteen.
I was the first there, so when Steve walked in, he saw my attire and tried to turn around before I saw him but I saw him. "Steve! Hey!" I shouted loudly, waving my arms largely so he couldn't ignore me, then for the benefit of my humiliation ritual, I said even louder, "I didn't have anything to wear so I had to borrow your shirt and jacket, I hope that's alright!" He looked at me with a glare the could kill, but then grumbled knowing that avoiding me would make it soooo much worse and we ate together.
As we left, I made my way to Project Insight, and as I entered the elevator, I saw Alexander Pierce. "Oh hey, Lexi, is it okay if I call you Lexi? I call Nicky, well, Nicky and I thought that it's only appropriate that I give you a nickname." He smiled a tight smile, not arguing with me, and then the elevator began to descend.
"So, what exactly are you doing today on Project Insight?"
"Oh nothing important, just some techy stuff - it would bore you to hear me talk about it." I smiled nicely at him and that's where the conversation ended. The elevator dinged and we were finally at Project Insight - second day here I come.