A Taste of Vengeance

“Good work, Agent Bane,” Fury commended me. He was one of the five people in the control room this late, everyone else in their bunkers sleeping. “Although I would like to know why you took out four of my mend and broke into his containment.”
I ran my hand over my face, exhausted. “Let’s call it intuition.”
“I don’t care what you call it, don’t let it happen again.” I nodded. “Banner and Stark are in the labs looking over that scepter of Loki’s. I assume you still know a little bit of science from your parents? You were always good at it.”
I smiled and nodded. “Of course, sir. Shall I see what the men are up too?”
He grimaced. “Baby sit, if you will.”
I groaned. “Baby sitting Tony Stark? Sure, Bruce will be in a total stress free environment with that one.”

I walked out of the control room before Fury could say anything else or chastise me on my comments. It was at least three in the morning, and the last thing I wanted to do was here him complain about my unpredictability. My personally theory was that if you wanted something done right, you couldn’t plan it, you had to wing it.

I walked into the science lab as Bruce was scanning Loki’s weapon of choice for gamma rays. Tony looked at me and made an exasperated sound, rolling his eyes as he walked around the counter to look at whatever Bruce was doing and said, “You again? Don’t you have a patriot to be making googly eyes with?”
I glared. “Taping into the security systems again? Don’t you, oh I don’t know, have work to be doing?”
He rolled his eyes and I smiled at the banter. “Can you see, I’m doing it?”

He took out an electronic pin and raised his eyebrows up and down. I went to shout at him but he jabbed Bruce with it, shocking him and making him jump. I threw my hand out lifting and smacking Tony in the head with a book for his idiocy. I could have sworn he was trying to get us all killed.

“Ouch,” Tony and Bruce said at the same time, Bruce from the shock, Tony from the book. I looked at the two morons, and was glad to see Bruce was undeterred.
“Hey!” a familiar voice called behind me. I grit my teeth as my heart sank and sped up at the same time. “Are you nuts?” Steve demanded, glaring at Tony for his stupid test.
“Jury’s out,” Tony mumbled, ignoring Steve for the most part. I too, tried to ignore the fact that he stood very far away from me “You really have got a lid on it haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Big bag of pot?”
“Is everything a joke to you?” Steve demanded, clearly angry. I got the feeling that Steve’s question wasn’t really directed at Tony, just like his anger.
“Funny things are.”
“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny.”
Tony furrowed his brows. “I get the feeling you’re actually talking to Captain Spock and not me.”
“Tony, he has no idea what Star Trek is,” I said, trying to divert the attention away from me.
Steve looked at me and I could feel the anger coming from his gaze. “It’s directed to both of you, who have managed to endanger the entire world in a span of fifteen minutes. You both need to focus on the problem at-“
“What do you think I’m doing?” Tony demanded, approaching him. “Why do you think Fury called us in? Why now? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation without having all the variables.”
“You think Fury is up to something,” I said, nodding my head. “I can see why you’d think that.”
“Please don’t get to comfortable in my head. You might get lost in the genius.”
“You guys think Fury’s hiding something?” Steve asked, looking at all three of us. “Just look into his head and you’ll find out he’s not.”
I shook my head. “I told you, I don’t just look into everyone’s heads all the time.” I looked hard at him and added, “I can’t no what everyone is thinking every minute of the day.”

At first, I had felt guilty about running out on Steve. It was obvious to me now, that there was something irresistible about him. Did I understand what it was? No, of course I didn’t. But did I want to figure it out? Yes, because for the first time in a long time, I had been able to tell someone about my past and about myself without them looking at me with pity and contempt.

“His secrets have secrets, Captain and it’s bothering them too, even if they don’t want to say it.” Tony gestured to Bruce and I. I said nothing, but Bruce put up his hands, as if to say he wanted no part of this argument.
“Doctor.” Steve’s tone was somewhat pleading. The anger had left his face, and now it seemed he was torn between his honor as a solider, and something that was obviously being hidden from him. If I hadn’t been so angry with him for being insensitive, I would have felt bad. Would have.
Bruce took a couple of moments to respond, and removed his glasses. He looked tired and worn out. “A warm light for all man kind,” he began, Steve nodding. “His jab at Fury? I don’t think it was intended for fury. It was intended for you-“ he pointed at Tony. “Even if Barton didn’t tell him about the new tower, it was all over the news.
“Stark tower? That big ugly-“ Steve paused as Tony sent him a narrowed look. “Tower in New York? What about it?”
“It’s powered by an arch reactor, and from Ash has just learned from her… could you even call that an interrogation? Well she learned he’s building one for the cube. But if it was so set on keeping that information a secret, why the jab?”
realization hit me. “Because Tony wasn’t invited to do work on the cube. They wouldn’t let him near the project, even if he was the best one for the job. So why weren’t you called in?”
He frowned. “Well I should probably look into that. Soon as the decryptions are done breaking into SHIELDS-“
Steve looked pissed. “Did you just say-“
“Jarvis has been running it since we hit the bridge,” Tony told him, clearly not impressed with how slow Steve was to catching on to all of this. “In a few hours we’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has been trying to hide. Blueberry?”
I flicked a couple from the bag telepathically and crunched into them, savoring the taste.
“Yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you on the project?”
“Tony’s too smart. Wow didn’t think I’d be saying that,” I muttered, hopping up on the counter.
After tossing a glance at me Tony turned back to Steve. “Exactly. An intelligence agency that fears intelligence? Historically not awesome.”
“Well I think Loki’s trying to rile us up,” he said. He sent a particular glance at me and I frowned. “He’s trying to start a war, and if he separates us he wins.”
“That’s only part of it,” I said, shaking my head. “He doesn’t want to just start a war, he wants to destroy us. He failed at conquering his own planet once. He’s not just going to conquer this planet- he’s going to recreate it in his vision, and he is going to take every ounce of revenge he can.”
Steve looked unconvinced.” We have orders. We should follow them.”
“Yeah,” Tony scoffed. “Not really my style.”
“And you’re all about style, aren’t you?”
“Out of this room, who is A.) wearing a spangly outfit and B.) Not of use.” He turned to me. “You’re one of those.”
I hopped off the counter. “Don’t come crying to me when you can’t decode the energy patterns.”
“Just find the cube,” Steve growled, following me out the door.

I made to walk down the hallway away from him but he caught my wrist, spinning my back around. I cringed, knowing this could be going nowhere in my comfort zone, since there was a mix of hurt, confusion and resentment written on his face plain as day.

“Mind telling me what the hell that was all about earlier?” he snapped at me. “Do you think it’s funny to make fun of me just because you can tell what I’m thinking and I have no idea what’s going on in your head?”
I stiffened. “Would you give the mind reading a rest god dammit? I don’t know why you think that just because I can do these things I always do them! Clearly my word means nothing to you if you don’t believe I have no idea what’s going on in your head!”
I ripped my arm away from him and turned around, storming away from him. A thick feeling had entered my throat. A feeling I hadn’t had in three years and made me feel like a little kid again. I was so angry with myself. My walls were crumbling around me, all because of him.
“Well what am I supposed to think!” He yelled at me. “You tell me some sob story to what, make me feel better that I told you about my past and then the moment you realize I felt sympathy you ran away!”
I whirled around, screaming at him, “It wasn’t a fucking sob story!”
“Then why did you run away, like you didn’t even care I was about to kiss you?” He demanded, hollering right back at me. I knew Tony and Bruce were watching us in the hall with an amused interest. I could almost feel their laughter.
“Because what Loki said scared me!” I screeched, voice carrying throughout the hall. I shut up instantly, breathing hard. There. I had said it. it was like a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders, and suddenly the words came tumbling out, as they so often did with him. “I could hear his thoughts, teasing me about human sentiment and feelings, because I like him, I don’t know what to do with them! I’ve lived my life comfortably alone and without love, or affection or friends that are like… like- I don’t know! Like you! And here you come, big and grand and Captain America, who has to save every god damn damsel in distress, and when I found myself wanting to tell you everything, wanting to spend time with you and I didn’t know what to do god dammit!”

Steve stared at me for a long time as I stood there, feeling so insignificant that I could kill myself. His face was unreadable for once as he stared at me, his blue eyes piercing. I found myself crying and I let out a small, pathetic choke and whipped away my tears, muttering, “And now I’m crying, which I haven’t done in three years. God you suck.”

Suddenly Steve was laughing and I felt like I was missing something completely irrelevant. My temper surged.
“Why are you laughing at me?”
Steve took several strides until he was so close I began to get drunk on his smell. Heat radiated from his body and I looked down, trying to hide the teenage tears running down my face. I was a total idiot, and he was laughing at me for it.
Steve lifted my face with a finger, as he had done earlier that night, but I found he was smile this time. His cerulean eyes were big and beautiful, glimmering with an unknown happiness. His chiseled jaw worked into a smile as he shook his head, looking down at me through his long, blond lashes.
“I’m laughing,” he murmured. “Because I think we are the dumbest, most romantically inept people I have ever met.”

Then his lips were on mine. I had no idea if I had gotten on my tiptoes to meet him or vice versa, but I knew that I was suddenly no longer on the helicarrier. I was somewhere else, in between serenity and bliss. His lips were soft against mine, and everything I had imagined them to be and more. It was not long, or hard kiss, but it was perfect, and when he pulled away, I realized I had stopped breathing all together.
He laughed again, using his thumbs to brush away the tears. “You are no damsel in distress, Ashlynn Bane. You are a beautiful nightmare.”