Consider this as my Christmas gift.
Intersession: Guys Night III: Part Three
Six Years Ago - Somewhere in Brooklyn - 17:06
Xavier glances next to him and smiles to himself when he sees his date, Britney Braun, looking out the window as her shoulder bop to the rhythm of the song playing on the radio. Her hands are in her sweater sleeves, but he can still catch glimpses of the many rings she wears when the light hits them. They don't shine as bright as her eyes when she smiles at him. Her green eyes are usually distant as if her mind is elsewhere and lost in thought. Although her mind is a chaotic minefield, she usually seems at peace on the outside. It's beautiful— she's beautiful.
If he wasn't driving, he could stare at her all day.
Xavier glances down at the gas gauge and sees the arrow pointing in the unfavourable direction. He groans.
"I hope you don't mind, but we're making a pit stop," Xavier tells her.
Britney blinks a few times before looking at him. She tilts her head a little and grins. "I'd much rather be stranded at the side of the road."
Xavier laughs. "You're cute."
Britney glances at him, still beaming brighter than the sun. If Xavier wasn't driving, he would stare at her all day as they cruised down the road. Sometimes he thinks about letting her drive so he could watch.
He turns into the closest gas station and when he parks at a pump, Britney gets out of the car as well.
"Actually, let's skip our dinner plans," Britney says.
Before Xavier could ask, Britney ran into the convenience store attached to the gas station. Once he finishes filling the car, Britney skips back out with another bright smile, two hot dogs wrapped in greasy paper, and two slushy cups in the crooks of her elbows. She gives him one of each before unwrapping her hot dog. Xavier grimaces until she meets his eyes and he smiles, but she narrows his eyes at him.
"What?" Xavier asks.
"I got you a red, white, and blue slushy," Britney responds as she bites her hot dog. "It's fitting."
"I don't do well with gas station food."
"Really? You? Come on."
"Nobody goes to the gas station to eat."
"I do."
"No, you don't."
"You'll be fine."
Xavier was not fine. He instantly threw up in the trash can next to their gas pump. It was the hot dog for sure. The American-themed slushy, while on brand for him, was also delicious so it wasn't the problem. Britney stands next to him, sipping her green slushy after throwing her used hot dog wrapper over his head into the trash.
"So that's where the valiant Xavier Rogers has his limit," Britney announces, "God bless the USA."
"I told you so," Xavier grumbles.
Britney pats his back, right between his shoulders, before ruffling the hair at the back of his head. "There, there. It takes a special kind of man to throw up in daylight at a corner gas station in Brooklyn."
"Shut up."
"Make me."
Britney sips her slushy as she steps away from him. She shimmies in her steps as she grabs the squeegee from their pump and starts washing his front window although it wasn't necessary. She looks back at him and sees him staring at her as he normally does, which makes her face etch in concern.
"What's wrong?" Xavier asks, straightening.
Britney grins a little. "You're hunched over a questionable trash can and asking me how I'm doing. I'm finer than fine. You look like you're going into the light."
"I might be. We should've just been stranded at the side of the road."
"I told you so."
"Why were you looking at me like that earlier?"
"Like what?"
"Your smile just disappeared."
Britney shrugs. "I'm concerned about you. How could I be with someone who can't even manage the gas station? I have standards too, you know."
Xavier's heart skips like she did leaving the gas station. "You wanna be with me?"
Britney sips her slushy again and sticks out her green tongue, making him laugh.
"Relationships are about compromise and whatever crap," she tells him. "As if I know anything about them. But I'd look over the gas station for you. I also got you these thinking we'd be up to something later, but you need them now by the looks of it."
She tosses him a pack of mints.
-o-
Xavier doesn't even remember driving home after he dropped Britney off. They ended up driving around for a few more hours, circling roundabouts and the waterfront. Then he was alone in his car with half his slushy and parked in his driveway. He wasn't sure how long he was sitting in his car, but even while driving home, he couldn't stop thinking about Britney Braun nor did he want her to have to go home.
Eventually, he heads inside his house, taking his slushy with him. He sees his father reading a newspaper in the kitchen.
"Hey, how was your date?" Steve asks casually.
"I threw up at a gas station," Xavier responds.
Steve lowers the paper. "Did not expect that at all … but you look happy so I see that it still went great."
"Dad, I'm going to marry her."
Xavier can't even believe he said that himself. He never thought the words, they just came out of his mouth without warning. However, he doesn't regret saying it. Those words strung together fit so perfectly.
His dad, on the other hand, has now put the paper down on the table.
"What?" Steve asks.
"Britney Braun will be my wife one day," Xavier states. God, he hopes Angela isn't home cause she's the last person he wants to hear that sentence.
"Xavier, let's talk about this further when you've stomached a meal."
Xavier shakes his head. "No, Dad, I'm serious."
"You've been on, what, three dates with her? She isn't even your girlfriend."
"So? She'll be that first."
"You're a teenager. You don't know anything about marriage when you've barely lived a life."
"I want to live one with her. You said the same thing about Mom when you met her."
Steve pauses, narrowing his eyes. Xavier knows his father is picking his words, selecting the best response to say since Xavier just called him out. He knows his parents' love story. Mom always had a crush on Captain America from the stories she grew up hearing. Dad fell in love with her instantly. They married 3 months into dating.
"Don't bring your mother into this," Steve states.
"Why not?" Xavier challenges. "You wanted to marry her when you only knew her name."
-o-
Present Day - Somewhere in Brooklyn - 11:54
After a mind-numbing weekend, the boys and their Costco haul are finally on their way back to the Academy. Xavier wasn't even sure if he was supposed to be working over the weekend, but his phone didn't ring once so either The Academy is in perfect condition or was wiped off the face of New Jersey. Either way, what bliss for him to return. His mother gave them each a container of mashed potatoes for the road and Keith was munching on it in the back until they pulled into a gas station.
Xavier unbuckles his seatbelt. "Can you guys grab some snacks—"
Daniel, James, Imanu, and Keith were already running into the gas station as if it was Costco. Xavier steps out of the car and sees that the card reader is broken his pump and that he would have to pay inside. He glances at the other pumps and it's the same situation. Annoyed, he walks inside the store and stands in line behind the other drivers, seeing his friends throughout the store.
Keith is getting a slushy for them, mixing flavour combinations in the biggest cup sizes offered. Imanu and James are raiding the snack section, grabbing bags of chips and candy. Daniel is at the fridges, looking at the drinks. A slushy doesn't count as a drink. It's its own category. But sometimes, slushies and soft drinks are a peak combo.
Xavier focuses back on the line that hasn't moved since he stepped in it. The man second in line catches his attention. He's unsettled, moving back and forth on his toes, looking over his shoulders repeatedly although nothing changed in the few seconds since he's last checked. He's wearing a baggy sweatshirt that's a few sizes too big, and although Xavier can't see the front, he can tell by the way his arms are bent and moving that he's fidgeting with something in his pocket.
Xavier's stomach churns. Without moving his head, he looks at who else is in the gas station: the old lady currently at the counter pays, drops her change in her purse, and shuffles out slowly. Minus one. The next person walks up to the counter with a handful of lottery tickets. Xavier's here, the shifty man, two people between them in line. Four people. There's the cashier, a family of four by the magazines, two people waiting by the bathroom, and one person presumably inside the stall. Eight people. Then there's Keith, Daniel, James, and Imanu. Four people.
Total of fifteen people.
The family steps out without buying anything. Minus four. The person in the bathroom walks ours, wiping their wet hands on their jeans before leaving. Minus one.
Xavier moves a step ahead when the person with the lottery tickets leaves with a fresh batch. Minus one. He hears footsteps behind him from someone joining the line, but nobody new enters the store. Thankfully. The shifty man walks up to the counter, leaning against it with one hand in his pocket.
Now a new total of nine people.
Before Xavier could yell that the man has a gun, the weapon is released from his pocket and points it at the cashier. The people in front of Xavier in line bolt out of the store as the young cashier throws his hands in the air.
"Empty the register!" The man yells. "In a bag, now!"
Xavier quickly looks back and the people near the bathroom and his friends are still in the store. Keith accidentally left the slushy machine running in gobsmacked shock as he watched cause he put his hands up as well. Daniel has made it to Imanu, covering him. If anything happened to Imanu, they'd have to respond to Iqadi and the state of Wakanda … and he knows which one is scarier. Xavier has no clue where James went. If he escaped the store, he swears—
"Hands behind your head. Get on the ground!"
Xavier blinks at the gun pointed at him as the cashier continues filling up a plastic bag with cash. His body burns like a freshly ignited fire as he straightens his shoulders and looks the man down in the eyes.
"Or else what?" Xavier asks.
Xavier may be a head taller, at least 50 pounds heavier, and unarmed weapon-wise (not counting inherited super soldier goodness), but he's not the one holding the gun. He is also not, however, the one with a shaky hand holding said gun.
"I said," Xavier mutters coldly, taking a step closer to the man but never breaking his gaze. "Or else what?"
The man says nothing, his whole arm trembling now.
"Drop that!"
James grows back to his normal size beside the cashier who is now crouched under the counter. The gun is now pointed at him.
"That's how people get shot," James says, grinning.
"Both of you, on the ground, now!" He yells.
"Can't shoot both of us with one gun," Xavier argues.
"Besides, you're not the only one with one," James says.
James points a finger gun at the man and Xavier bites down on a grin forming at the corner of his mouth.
"Are you serious?" The robber asks.
James doesn't blink. "Yeah."
The robber looks back and forth between Xavier and James.
"Not even keeping your eye on the one with the gun?" James questions. "Your mistake."
James fires bioelectricity from his finger gun, shooting the gun out of his hand. At that moment, Xavier swoops low as he bodychecks the robber to the ground. They slide on slushy that spilled from the machine Keith left on and Xavier pins him to the sticky floor. James leaped over the counter and pointed two finger guns at him, now glowing.
"Holy shit," Keith mutters in pure awe. "That was like a comic book."
-o-
Moments later, the police showed up and finished the arrest from there, handcuffing the robber and taking statements from witnesses. Xavier gave the necessary details important for the police report, Daniel answered questions that were asked, Imanu pretended not to know English, and James and Keith recounted the final battle in a fantasy novel. After that, Xavier cleaned up in the bathroom and some wipes they bought. The cashier of the gas station offered to give them whatever they wanted for free, but James tapped his credit card before declining the offer.
Now they sit by Xavier's car at the pump, watching the police take over.
"That was the first time we were taken seriously as agents," James beams proudly. "Do you think we have to report it to SHIELD?"
Xavier shrugs. "I'm not doing the paperwork. Besides, had to tell the cops we're agents."
At least until someone makes him. James might have more fun filling it out, though.
"This was the best trip ever," Keith says.
"Look at you guys as field agents," Daniel comments proudly. "I'll tell Vander on your behalf."
"Only you would end up at a robbery on your vacation," Imanu says.
"As you said, going home isn't a vacation." Xavier smiles. "I'm glad you didn't get yourself killed. If you died, I'll have a lot of explaining to do to Iqadi and the state of Wakanda and we all know which is worse."
"That'll be the case whether I get killed or not."
James laughs. "Imanu being here during that was an international crisis waiting to happen. And Keith is a felon so domestic as well."
Keith chokes on his slushy. "I am not at the same level as a Prince Consort. By the way, Xavier, thanks for inviting me over."
"What can I say?" Xavier asks rhetorically. "I have fond memories of this corner."
"Like what?"
Xavier looks towards the police cars flashing red and blue, but his gaze is past it as he sips on his green slushy. His mind bounces back to the past and a small grin lights up his face, but there's a tinge of sadness in his eyes.
Keith nods in solidarity. "Oh, I get it."