"How does this thing work?"
Steve glanced up at the pair standing before him, hiding a smile behind his book. For the past few weeks, the Avengers had been in charge of teaching the shinigami how the myriad modern conveniences actually worked. Matsumoto and some of the lower ranking shinigami seemed to understand everything with the utmost ease, thank god, but Toushiro…
The utter confusion on the young captain's face was priceless. Every single time he tried to figure something out, he only succeeded in making himself more confused. He could use a flip phone well enough, which had Natasha sighing in relief (she'd been put in charge of making sure he could pass as a normal human being), but the concept of a touch-screen still eluded him. Even Thor understood human technology better than he did.
"That's a toaster, Toushiro-kun." The redheaded spy sighed, smiling fondly at the pre-teenager prodding curiously at the machine before him. "You know, you put bread in it, it cooks the bread, and you get toast?"
Hitsugaya's brow furrowed and he chewed on his lower lip for a few seconds, trying to process the information.
"I don't understand." He said shortly, and Steve and Natasha shared a look of disbelief. Every single time, he said the same thing, and never elaborated on what exactly was the part he couldn't grasp. Sighing, Steve put his book down on the break-room coffee table and stood up, crossing to the counter where the toaster sat.
"Toushiro, I think you're overthinking this." He said, rolling his eyes a little. "Here, I'll show you how it works."
At that, Toushiro looked interested, though he was still frowning a little.
"That's not what I'm confused about." He said sourly, turning to face the break-room's glass door, watching as a few of the SRD's agents scrambled around moving the reiatsu-based technology into some of the computer labs. The two Avengers present exchanged yet another look.
"Then what are you confused about?" Steve asked patiently, slipping a slice of bread into the toaster and pushing down on the lever. Hitsugaya shot him a puzzled expression, then prodded at the toaster again. Suddenly, the smooth patch of skin above his eyebrow glowed fluorescent purple and with lightning-fast pace his tattoo formed, the Power Stone's energy staining his left iris bright violet. A purple spark jumped from his fingertip to the wire plugging the silver contraption into the wall socket.
For a few brief seconds everything was perfectly still, and Steve came over, practically yanking the young captain away from the toaster with a sort of panic in his gaze.
"What are you thinking?!" he yelled. "Are you trying to blow us up?"
Hitsugaya frowned and the Power Stone's purple energy disappeared from his face and eye. His expression then was so innocent-looking that Steve felt some of his anger drain away, and the supersoldier leaned heavily against the counter, sighing and tapping his elbows against the shield on his back. Natasha also had an uncharacteristically anxious expression on her face, and Toushiro looked between them bewildered.
"What?" he asked, his tone a smidgen testy. "I was trying to figure out what makes that thing work! It's not reishi-based – none of your gadgets are, so…"
Natasha suddenly burst into laughter, understanding exactly what had been confusing the shinigami captain the whole time.
"Oh!" she laughed. "Toushiro-kun, it runs on electricity. Almost everything we use runs on electricity, not just computers!"
Toushiro went a bit pink in the face and muttered something like unimaginative humans, but then, without warning, the toaster exploded. A muffled roar of surprise came from all three of the break-room's occupants, and they threw themselves to the floor as shrapnel and molten toaster-bits flew through the air accompanied by a cloud of smoke. Overhead, the fire alarm went off and suddenly water was raining down from the sprinklers installed in the ceiling.
When the worst had passed, Steve uncurled himself from where he'd thrown himself about Toushiro and Natasha, his shield ringing dully with the force of the explosion. Slowly, he sat up, cautiously approaching the toaster's smoldering remains. Without a single spoke word, he unplugged the still-flaming device and watched in a sort of stupor as purple energy sparked in the toaster's broken shell.
Natasha came over and picked up a charred crust of bread. She turned back to the white-haired captain, who was steadfastly avoiding looking at anywhere but the now-sizzling remnants of what had worst been a working toaster. Steve also turned to look at the small shinigami, his soaked hair streaming water. Toushiro flushed a deeper shade of scarlet. All three of them were dripping wet.
"I blame Steve." Toushiro said without preamble, and several concerned – and equally soaked – members of the SRD came rushing in to help them. The three Avengers just stood looking at each other, ignoring the worried questions from their subordinates.
Finally, Natasha spoke up.
"Only you could weaponize a toaster in one poke, Toushiro." She said flatly. "You and maybe Tony."
Just then, Matsumoto walked through the door, her blonde hair sopping and stuck to her face. She blinked.
"What's this about a toaster?" she asked curiously. Hitsugaya's blush deepened.
"Nothing." He choked out. "Natasha, Steve, we will never speak of this again. Agreed?"
Quickly, the two nodded. Then Natasha seemed to reconsider, a wicked grin crossing her face.
"Oh, I don't know…" she said. "I think Tony would really enjoy hearing this story, don't you, Steve? Maybe I can tell him about it while I'm slaving away over that massive pile of paperwork…"
The supersoldier grinned at the way Toushiro's cheeks were paling rapidly, then pretended to think for a moment.
"Well, if Toushiro would consent to do our work for us we wouldn't have time to talk to Tony…" he let the sentence trail off. The white-haired boy stared at them openmouthed for several seconds – as did Matsumoto, who was well aware that the two Avengers were blatantly blackmailing her captain. Then Hitsugaya swallowed hard, his glare growing sullen.
"I hate you both."