"We can be spangly together!"
En route to Banner's Lab. Night. Daphne
Daphne was trying, and failing, to explain the concept of Harry Potter to Steve.
"Wait, so this boy has a lightning scar?" Daphne nodded. "Why? Was he hit by lightning?"
She laughed. "No, because he survived the Killing Curse when Voldemort tried to murder him," she explained to a muddled Steve.
"Okay... I'm still confused," he sighed, exasperated.
"Which is why we're going to watch them all!" she exclaimed joyfully.
Steve shook his head, smiling. Daphne was obsessed with films and any kind of literature. Give her a book and she'll practically inhale it. Tell her about a TV show and the chances are that she'll have finished the whole show within a week.
"How much do you want to bet that you'll enjoy them?"
"I'm not betting against you, Daph," Steve asserted.
"Why? Because you know I'll win again?" she gloated. He didn't answer and that was all she needed to know.
They continued the idle banter until they reached Bruce's lab. They had arrived to see Tony shock the doctor with an electric rod, making him yell out in surprise or pain.
"Ow!"
Tony moved closer to him, studying his expression. "Nothing?"
Steve stalked further in the room. "Hey, are you nuts?" he shouted at the billionaire.
Stark just ignored his outburst. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"
"Is everything a joke to you?" Cap questioned him. Daphne could see that his anger and frustration was building.
"Funny things are," Tony retorted, without missing a beat.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve scolded, then turned to Bruce. "No offense, doctor."
"No, it's alright." Bruce assured. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." He gave Tony a look.
"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony told Dr. Banner as if he were giving him ground-breaking advice.
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve insisted, seeming frustrated with the genius.
Tony started spit-balling questions. "You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Cap questioned him, apprehensive about the idea of secrets being kept from them.
"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony then faced Daphne. "And I bet that you know what he's hiding, don't you?"
She scoffed at his assumption. He couldn't be more far from the truth. "And what makes you think that?"
"Well, you are a SHIELD agent, after all. You're trained to lie all of the time."
"I guess the joke's on you then. I don't know what he's hiding. Surely a 'genius' like you can see that I'm not trusted in SHIELD." She put quotation marks around the word 'genius', mocking him.
He eyed her carefully, obviously trying to weasel out her lies.
"Okay, Kitty, I believe you." She groaned at the nickname. "But it's bugging him too, isn't it?" He pointed at Banner.
Steve looked at the other scientist expectantly.
"Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..." Bruce stuttered out. Daphne felt bad that he was being dragged into this spat between the other two men. Steve turned to him.
"Doctor?"
There was a pause that lasted for a second. "'A warm light for all mankind'. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."
"I heard it," the super-solider stated skeptically.
"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce pointed at Tony. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly-" Tony gave Steve a pointed look while Daphne covered her mouth, stifling her giggles. "...building in New York?"
Bruce continued. "It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"
"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Tony stated.
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce asked, referring to Tony. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"
"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," the billionaire said offhandedly, opening a packet of blueberries and eating a handful.
Steve looked taken aback. "I'm sorry, did you say-?"
"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He held out the packet. "Blueberry?"
Daphne reached out to take some, looking defensive when Steve raised his eyebrows at her. "What? I'm hungry."
"You just ate a pile of brownies," he reminded her.
"And you expect me to pass up on free food? No, thanks." She held her handful of berries closer to her, in a protective stance.
Steve turned back to Tony. "And you're confused about why they don't want you here?"
"An intelligence agency that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible," he jibed.
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them," Steve said adamantly.
"Following is not really my style."
Steve smiled then. "And you're all about style, aren't you?"
Ouch, that hit a nerve...
"Of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangly outfit, and B) not of use?"
Daphne glanced down at her white and gold catsuit, then shoved the blueberries into her mouth, raising her hand. They all turned to look at her. She held up a finger, signalling for them to wait a minute while she finished eating. Swallowing the berries, she gestured wildly towards her suit.
"Spangly," she said simply.
Tony gave her a look of annoyance.
"Don't worry, Stevie," she began enthusiastically while light-heartedly punching his arm. "Now, we can be spangly together!"
He smiled down at her tenderly.
Bruce interrupted then. "Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?"
Cap paused for a moment, taking in the possibility but shaking it off quickly. "Just find the cube." He walked out of the room. Daphne contemplated for a moment then quickly hurried out after him, saying goodbye to Tony and Bruce first. As she left the lab, she heard Tony yell out; "Don't forget that you need to turn into a cat for me!"
She chuckled quietly as she ran down the corridor.
Helicarrier corridors. En route to Hull of ship. Night. Steve
Steve was striding through the corridors of the Helicarrier, ignoring the looks of awe on some of the agents' faces as he walked past. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he barely noticed someone calling his name, repeatedly.
"Hey Steve! Stevo! Stevie Wonder! The Stevemeister! Steve!"
He finally turned towards the voice, breaking out of his reverie, to see Daphne running down the corridor. She was weaving in and out of the agents in the hallway, calling out an apology every so often.
How does she have such energy?
Sometimes he couldn't keep up with her excitable moods. She acted as if someone had shoved tonnes of sugar into her body, though, he had to admit, it was oddly refreshing and endearing. Her personality was different from anyone's he'd ever known and it brought out a side of him that he didn't know he had.
She stopped in front of him, resting her hands on her knees. "Should not have had those extra brownies," she mumbled to herself.
He couldn't help the laugh that came out at that. "Why? Getting a little rusty?"
"I'll have you know, I could kick your ass anytime, anywhere," she threatened, raising a finger at him.
"Sure, sure." He grinned.
"Don't tempt me. Anyway, where are you going? And why do you look like a man travelling to the deepest, darkest parts of the Earth?"
"I'm looking for something."
She groaned. "Come on, man. If I wanted a puzzle, I would have brought a Rubik's Cube."
"Rubik's... Cube?"
"It's the most frustrating thing in existence, and not something I want to rant about right now."
"I have a feeling that if SHIELD were hiding anything worthwhile, then it would be hidden in a place that no-one would go to, right?"
"So you admit that you think something fishy is happening?"
"Maybe," he grumbled quietly. "I want to be sure before I make a decision."
They turned a few more corners, reaching their destination of the Hull Hangar. Steve used all of his strength to slide open the heavy iron door, leading into a secure storage room. He enjoyed seeing the expression of amazement and awe on Daphne's face, if he was being honest with himself.
They both cautiously walked into the room. It looked like a large warehouse, filled with stacked, metal crates. Steve looked upwards, seeing another level, and leapt up high, holding onto the catwalk railing and pulling himself up.
He heard Daph moan from below. "Seriously? Can't find a way up like a normal person?"
"Are you fine with making it up here?" He called out, a tad smug. He found that he could easily joke around with her.
"Does a bear pee in the woods?" She retorted.
She closed her eyes, seeming deep in focus. He couldn't help but use this opportunity to stare at her. There wasn't much light, but his enhanced senses allowed him to see as he would in the daylight. He watched as her features relaxed, face softening. Her ivory skin was only marred by the scar on her face. It didn't lessen her beauty at all though. Not to him. It defined her, made her different to all the rest. He continued to gaze at her, only for her to disappear in a flash of gold.
He looked around desperately, about to call her name, when he heard someone cough behind him. He span around and found her standing there, smirking at him. "Aw, did you miss me?"
He stared at her. It was his turn to be in awe. She shifted under his gaze, looking uncomfortable with the attention. He turned back around, searching for anything SHIELD might be hiding.
They entered another room filled with steel crates and started going through them. Steve opened a crate and froze, anger seeping through him. "Daphne," he called her over.
She stood next to him and peered into the crate with a similar expression. It was filled with HYDRA weapons. "Oh, crap."
He looked at her, in the way a parent might look at a naughty child. "Language."
"Seriously? Now you worry about my language?"
Finished the chapter. I hope that Steve isn't too out of character. Please let me know if anything's wrong with this.
Love you guys
-Jess xo