Viv and I headed straight to Manhattan. We still had some of the money we'd swindled from Stark so we'd be able to make a decent deposit on an apartment,
"So Captain Rodgers you know our names but we don't know yours" Viv said as we walked around the upper-class neighbourhoods looking for somewhere we might be able to live,
"It's Steve" he said looking slightly out of place in the t-shirt and jeans he'd changed into. Of course any looks he was getting were mostly women checking him out. Vivian and I attracted more attention.
Vivian in her black platform boots and black bomber jacket, me in my heels and clearly designer jacket. We looked like complete opposites which made people wonder what we were doing together,
"So you're a Captain. An army man" I said, "My great - great granddaddy was in the confederate army. He was a captain too. We had a picture of him on the mantle at home"
"Where are you from?"
"Miss Duke is from South Carolina and I'm from London" Vivian said. She was looking up at an old redbrick building, "let's go in here" she said walking into the building.
Steve and I followed her inside where she scowered a little notice board to find a number for a building manager, "ok do we use our actual names or -"
"Fake ones. Our actual names have criminal records attached to them" I said checking out the building
"Okie doke" so Vivan took out her phone and dialled the number speaking quickly while I tuned her out and checked out Steve, "she says she'll be here in ten minutes"
"I guess the British accent was an incentive to hurry" I said
Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, a slightly chic looking woman ran through the door,
"Hi" I put on my best fake smile and drew the word out, "I'm Lotte and this is Holly and this here is Luke"
"Naomi" the woman said pronouncing it 'nay-omi' "so you're interested in renting an apartment?"
"Yes we are. We've just moved to New York and we need somewhere to live" Viv said putting on her own fake smile and shaking hands with 'nay-omi'
"Well why don't we go on up then" 'nay-omi' said leading the way up the stairs, "You'll be living on the third floor. You could normally take the elevator but the stairs are normally quicker" 'nay-omi' continued to prattle on without realising that neither Vivian or I were listening to her.
When we got up into the apartment itself 'nay-omi' started talking about how there was only one previous tenant a little old lady who never was around because she was away at fashion shows or fucking twenty year olds.
I knew the only thing Vivian really cared about was where she could make explosives and what the wi-fi was like,
"Oh the wireless internet is fibre optic up to 25mb of speed" 'nay-omi' said
"We'll take it then" Vivian said looking at me
"How much is the deposit?" I asked. 'Nay-omi' was clearly a woman like my mother and instead wrote down a number on a piece of paper and handed it to Steve who in turn handed it to me and I handed it to Vivian who looked it and immediately took out her tablet and wired the required money into the account 'Nay-omi' specified,
"What are we like for cash?" I asked once 'Nay-omi' called her bank to check the money had gone in
"Enough to get furniture" Vivian said checking some things out on her tablet
"So furniture shopping" I said, "Steve do you know anywhere to get good discount furniture?"
"Um there used to be a place in Brooklyn" he said, "I don't know if it's there anymore or not"
"Well once Naomi gets off the phone -"
"Oh it's Nay-omi" she said sweetly although I could feel the sharp edge my mother's voice always held. Especially after her second glass of chardany
"Whatever" I said under my breath, "Well assuming the money went through. Luke and I are going to get some furniture"
"Oh you were thinking of moving in today?" 'Nay-omi' asked
"Well we start a new job tomorrow" Vivian said, "And we need a place to live" Vivian said
"Well I'll just get everything organised then" 'Nay-omi' said, "I'll return with your keys and your lease"
"Take your time" Vivian said as she closed the door behind 'Nay-omi' "Ok good now to check out how blast proof this place is" Vivian said with a smile making her elongated canines show
"And on that note I'm off to buy furniture" I said, "Try not to blow the place up" I said heading out the door with Steve following, "now where was this furniture shop?"
Vivian went around the apartment tapping on walls and floors getting a rough idea on the thickness of them.
"no time like the present" she mused pulling out a flash grenade from under her jacket. Opening the door to corridor she threw the grenade into the room closing the door as walked out the room
"fire in the hole" seconds later there was a slight vibration through the door and floor but no noise
"I'll be fine if I don't use anything too much" reopening the door Vivian darted across to the window to alleviate the room of the smell of burning. "Next test, good old firecrackers" Vivian always carried small packs of homemade firecrackers just in case of emergencies. she placed one string (contains four firecrackers) lighting it and leaving the room closing the door behind her. A smirk flashed across her face as the fireworks made no sound in either of the rooms "looks like we found a good place" Vivian sighed as she sat on the floor in front of the window with her tablet "Just wish we weren't at their beck and call" online gambling was one quick and easy way to earn some extra cash and a good time waster until Alice and Steve arrived back with furniture.
The landlady soon reappeared with a set of keys though she didn't look too happy, that quickly changed when she saw Vivian and her tablet,
"Are you any good with computers?" she asked,
"I should be, it's my job" Vivian joked backed "I take it you have computer problems?"
"Darn thing wont load anything" she huffed, handing Vivian the keys and lease
"I can have a look if you want?"
"O that'd be swell" Nay-omi smiled rushing off to fetch the laptop.
If Vivian had her way she'd have chucked the whole thing out of the window 'How can one person have this much shit on their laptop?'
"Okay first problem you've overloaded the laptop so it's not the fact that it won't load it's just very slow and you're second problem you're using Internet explorer" Naomi was hovering behind Vivian who was still sat on the floor,
"Why is that a bad thing?"
"Internet Explorer is terrible, you should at least use google chrome." where computers are involved Vivian becomes a critic if you're not doing it right, "you need to invest in an external hard drive, you've completely filled your hard drive hence why it's running this slow"
"I don't have one of those..."
Vivian was ready to push Naomi out of the window with her laptop "do you have any memory sticks?" blank expression from the landlady "they're usually about this big, you plug it into the USB port here" Vivian was slowly losing her patience
and something clicked with Naomi "O yes I have one of those! I'll go get it"
"Thank god!"
"Is this okay?" Naomi passed over a small pink VW beetle USB stick,
"That's fine"
"I bought that ages ago! it was just so cute. I didn't know what it was for" Naomi prattled on loudly luckily Vivian is a master at drowning people out.
"I highly suggest investing in an external hard drive, they're not expensive and you store all your music, pictures etc on it allowing your laptop to run faster." Vivian handed Naomi the laptop and the USB car back "Also I'd advise on uninstalling the sims3 and all of its many expansion packs, because it takes up far too much space on here and with your current specs it won't run at its best either."
Naomi smiled and nodded, she probably didn't understand a work Vivian sat "Where can I-"
"Computer stores. Amazon." the English woman sighed deeply "Next time I go shopping I will pick you one up."
"O thank you! I can pay you back of course."
"If you have any computer or electronic problems just ask"
"O that's wonderful, if you're good with electrical things too it'd be so much easier to ask you then hiring someone and of course as a 'thank you' I can lower your rent too"
"Deal Mrs Nay-omi" Vivian smiled as the landlady exited the room leaving her to the large empty space that was the apartment "Thank god she's gone"
Steve and I were wandering around Brooklyn trying to find the discount furniture store. In the ever changing nature of New York he couldn't be sure if it was still where it used to be,
"Now explain something. You're from Brooklyn?" I asked
"Yeah born and raised"
"But you don't know if a little furniture store is still where it was twenty years ago?"
"Seventy years ago actually" Steve said
"Ok now I'm confused. How could you know if a little furniture store was here seventy years ago?"
"Oh uh ..."
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
"Well the thing is I'm not really in my twenties"
"Could have fooled me"
"I was in my twenties seventy years ago when I joined the army. Oh hey I know this neighnourhood. Yeah I got beat up in that alley. And that used to be a parking lot"
"Wait just a cotton picking minute. Who exactly beat you up?"
"Oh well I used to be really skinny" Steve said
"Ok you're not telling me everything are you?"
"The furniture store should be around here somewhere" Steve said trying to change the subject
"Oh no. Come on boy out with it" I said standing my ground and folding my arms over my chest
"Ok but you probably won't believe me" so Steve told me how in 1944 he was this 90 pound weakling who wanted nothing more than to join the army.
He tried six times and finally a german doctor put him through on the basis that he didn't like bullies and his six tries. So he went through basic training and was chosen to be the first in a long line of super soldiers only it didn't go exactly to plan and the doctor died and Steve instead of heading over seas to help with the war effort he became the 'dancing monkey' known as Captain America, "I finally did get over seas to fight. I ended up fighting a nazi deep science division called Hydra. Their leader was a guy called Schmitt who thought he was better than everyone else and wanted to prove it by blowing up the allied forces"
"Idiot"
"So in the end we managed to stop him but I lost my best friend in the process"
"Sorry to hear that"
"Yeah and then the plane that was headed for New York was gonna wipe out everything so I put it in the water somewhere in the artic and thanks to the sereum I was able to survive for seventy years"
"Wow that's one hell of a life story. But you know you look spry for an older gentleman. Now where was that furniture shop?"