Chapter Two
"By the way, the vending machine in the hallway's broken. Gummy bear?"
As much as she hates planes, Leila makes a point of getting off the plane after Coulson and Steve. Getting off the plane first probably wouldn't inherently read as a fear of planes, but she likes to be cautious.
Natasha is waiting for them on the runway. Leila feels vaguely relieved at seeing her–she's sure if Nat had been "compromised" she'd have heard about it by now, but it's good to see her in the flesh anyway, to know that she's here and solid, hasn't slipped away into the realm of vague spy terms and classified files that Clint has.
She doesn't say any of that, though. Just nods at Nat, smiling a little, who nods back. Truth be told, Leila's not used to being so attached to people, to caring whether someone else lives or dies on a personal level. It's unsettling.
Coulson introduces her to Steve, who also nods. "Ma'am."
"Hi." Natasha smiles, and then turns to Coulson. "They need you at the bridge," she says. "Face time."
"See you there," Coulson replies, and heads off.
"I'm gonna go too," Leila says. "I owe myself some gummy bears."
"Coulson?" Natasha asks, glancing pointedly at Steve.
"Yeah." They exchange smirks. Steve looks vaguely perplexed, glancing between them, before apparently deciding not to ask. Instead, he extends a hand to Leila. She takes it.
"It was nice meeting you," he says genuinely.
"My pleasure, Captain," she says, a playful half-smile tugging at her lips. She glances at Natasha. "Take good care of him," she says, and then turns on her heel to leave.
"No promises," Natasha replies after her.
Leila wasn't trying to break the vending machine. She just wanted her gummy bears.
She's already paid for them, the machine starts to turn, but then it stops and the candy is still hanging there, unattainable. The cartoon bear smiles up at her from within the brightly lit machine, like it's mocking her.
She's not trying to break it when she kicks it. She just wants to jostle it, to make it give her the candy that she has–again–already paid for. And it works, kind of; she hears them hit the bottom of the take-out port just as the light in the machine flickers off.
Leila glances around–no one else is there, thankfully–and then reaches through the slot to check. Her gummy bears are there, so there's that. She grabs them, and then straightens up, and presses a few buttons on the machine to see if it's working. Maybe it's just the light that's broken.
Nope. Totally unresponsive.
Leila shrugs, tears the bag open, and walks away. She's popping a gummy bear into her mouth when she wanders onto the bridge, where Fury is talking to someone Leila recognizes as Bruce Banner.
"Thank you for coming," Fury tells him.
"Thank you for asking nicely."
"Yeah, that's why we sent Romanoff. Our only other available agent with the necessary clearance is Whittaker–"
Leila perks up at the sound of her name–
"-and she can be...prickly," Fury finishes.
Leila's already stepping forward. "I have no idea what he's talking about, never in my life have I been anything other than a delight." She extends her free hand. "Doctor Banner."
He takes her hand. "Nice to meet you," he says. He hardly sounds genuine, but she decides not to hold it against him. He's obviously focused on more important things. His body language is squirrelly, hunching over just slightly, like he's trying to make himself smaller than he is. Which is understandable, under the circumstances.
"You too," she says, and turns to Fury. "By the way, the vending machine in the hallway is broken." Vending machines are probably below Fury's pay-grade, but she feels like she should tell someone.
Fury shoots her an unamused look. In response, she holds out the bag of candy to both men. "Gummy bear?"
Fury doesn't respond, just gives her that same look.
Banner, on the other hand, shakes his head. "Uh, no–no thank you," he says, and turns back to Fury. "So how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the tesseract, you're in the clear."
"Where are you with that?"
Fury calls on Coulson to explain, and Leila backs away from the conversation before it can get boring. Science has never been a particular passion of hers.
She's leaning against the conference table on the bridge when she glances over and sees Nat peering over some techie's shoulder, at a picture of Clint on a screen. She feels the urge to ask if there's any word on Clint, but that would imply that she cares–and anyway, Natasha's body language reads as a resounding "no."
Leila's not good at comforting, but she likes Natasha and she feels compelled to put at least minimal effort into doing so, so when Natasha straightens up and steps back, Leila steps forward, taking the spot by her side.
She holds out the bag, for the second time that day. "Gummy bear?"
Nat glances at her and then, to Leila's surprise, takes a gummy bear from the bag and pops it into her mouth.
"So, what'd Coulson do?" Nat asks, words slightly muffled around the candy she's chewing.
"He actually kept it together longer than I thought. We were almost here when he dropped 'I watched you when you were sleeping.'"
Natasha snorts. Before she can respond, however, Fury calls her.
"Agent Romanoff, would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory please?"
Natasha nods, grabbing an extra handful of candy as she leaves. "You're gonna love it, Doc. It's got all the toys."
Leila's in the on-call room of the helicarrier, drifting in and out of sleep–she hasn't slept in almost a day, and while she's used to that, she figures if she's going to go up against an alien-slash-god she should probably rest while she can-when Natasha comes in, waking her up.
"Time to suit up," she says, but Leila figured that was the case. People know better than to wake her up for something trivial. Not that Natasha, personally, is afraid to wake her up–but then, if it wasn't important, they wouldn't have sent Nat anyway.
So she sits up, stretching.
"Fury wants to talk to you before we take off," Natasha adds. "I'd hurry."
Leila glares at her.
Ten minutes later, Leila's more or less ready, tugging her gloves on as she reaches the bridge. Fury's got his back to her, overseeing the command center.
"Romanoff said you wanted to see me?" she says by way of greeting.
"That's right." Fury, as usual, doesn't miss a beat–doesn't hesitate, isn't surprised. He turns to face her. "Nat will be running comms from the jet. I want you on the ground with Rogers."
"I assumed as much, Director."
"That's nice," Fury says, his words laden with sarcasm. He turns halfway back to the command center, and when he speaks, his voice is softer, and he's barely moving his mouth. "I want you to make a point of taking Loki's powers. Or copying them, at least. I wanna know what this guy's capable of. That's your priority. We clear?"
"Clear as Cristal, Director."
"Good. Head to hangar 3."
She does.
There's a very sudden increase in sound when she enters the hangar, with the open air whipping around her, brushing stray strands of her into and out of her face. (She's used to that; there is no rubber band on earth that can keep all of her hair in one place at a time. There's too much of it. She's made her peace with that.)
Under that, though, she can still hear the steady hum of the quinjet's engine. The jet is all ready to go, except that the back door is open, and she could swear there's a note of disapproval in the sound it's making, as if the machine itself is judging her for her lateness.
Maybe it's mad because of the whole vending machine thing, she thinks as she hops in. She doesn't notice that Steve is holding out a hand to help her until she's already in. It's a bummer, because it would've gone with her whole image perfectly. Princesses always have footmen to help them into carriages. Instead, she's forced to offer an awkward "thanks" as he drops his hand.
"Anytime," he says, sounding just as awkward, and sits back down. Leila sits across from him.
"Nice of you to join us," Natasha says from the cockpit, taking the brief opportunity left by the back door sliding back up into place to turn to face her teammate.
Leila shrugs and gestures to herself. "This doesn't just happen."
Natasha rolls her eyes and turns back to the controls, and the jet takes off moments later. It's quieter now without the open air, just the sound of the machinery, which doesn't seem nearly so judgmental as it did before. Apparently the machines have forgiven her for now.
"So what'd Fury want with you?" Natasha asks.
"He just wanted to make sure his very favorite agent stayed safe and hydrated while in the field."
"That's sweet, but he could've told me directly."
Leila takes off one of her gloves and throws it at the back of Nat's chair in response. Nat doesn't say anything back, but Leila is pretty sure she's smiling anyway. Steve is; he has his head ducked, smirking, the way you do when you're trying not to laugh.
He seems to shake it off though, reaching for the glove before Leila can–although he's still smiling when he hands it back.
She smirks back and takes it. "Thanks."
He nods in response, and she pulls the glove back on. It's silent until she snaps it closed around her wrist.
"Hey," Steve says, and Leila looks up. "I just wanted to say sorry. If I offended you earlier, on the way here."
Leila's not sure anyone's ever apologized to her for putting her on edge. At least, no one who wasn't afraid of her, anyway.
She smiles. "No worries. I don't know if you've heard this about me, but I can be prickly."
His lips turn up into that amused smile again. "Good to know."