Liar

Kennedy tugged one of Steve’s t-shirts on over her head, the soft material settling lightly across her shoulders. She pulled the hair elastic off her wrist and rolled the hemline up so that it sat along the waistband of her jeans. Once the shirt was tied off with the elastic, she shrugged back into her plaid shirt long sleeve shirt but left her jacket lying on the couch.

Her clothes were fairly clean, despite her jacket having taken a few scuffs in the ‘fight’ the other night. She still felt like she needed to dump a bottle of Febreze over herself. Ignoring the feeling, she sat down on the couch and began sliding her discarded jewelry on.

“I’m entering the inner sanctum! You better not be naked!” Kennedy called before stepping through the doorway.

Steve peered out of the bathroom and just rolled his eyes, which was hilarious in her opinion because of the toothbrush hanging from his mouth. She flashed him a wide smile before folding the paper towel she’d snagged from the kitchen. More than once she’d been stuck somewhere overnight without a toothbrush. That wasn’t anything new to her in the slightest.

“Toothpaste?” she asked, popping up around Steve.

Kennedy took the tube before she dampened the paper towel with water. She squeezed a dime-sized amount of the green and white paste onto the paper towel before bringing it up to her mouth and rubbing it across the fronts of her teeth. Her blue-lensed eyes flicked up to look at Steve’s reflection in the mirror.

“What?”

The word came out garbled because of the toothpaste on her teeth and the fact that she still had two fingers in her mouth. Steve just shrugged though she caught him fighting off a smirk. Rolling her eyes this time, Kennedy returned her attention to her makeshift toothbrush.

After rubbing the paper towel across her teeth several times, she crumpled it and tossed it into the nearby trashcan. Steve was swishing mouthwash around when she managed to spit out as much of the toothpaste as she can. Twisting her head, she took a mouthful of water from the faucet before swishing it and spitting it into the sink.

“I shouldn’t be surprised that you’ve done that more than once before, should I?” Steve asked once he’d emptied his own mouth.

“No, you shouldn’t,” Kennedy replied before flashing him a thousand-watt smile.

Leaning forward against the counter, she began doing what she could to touch up the remnants of her make up. The eyeshadow wasn’t too smudged or smeared and her eyeliner was mostly okay. She still carefully swiped her fingers around her eyes to clean up the few distortions.

“Thanks for the shirt, by the way,” Kennedy called as Steve walked out of the room to finish getting dressed.

“No problem,” Steve called back.

She walked out of the bathroom and back out through the bedroom to the living room. With a call of ‘I have to make a phone call’, she walked out of the apartment and down the hallway a few feet. After dialing her apartment’s phone, Kennedy leaned back against the wall while waiting to see whether Loki would actually pick up the phone this time or ignore it. Leaving him alone in her apartment was a pain ass in the ass for her to deal with. And it made her excessively paranoid.

The answering machine picked up and she swore under her breath. She didn’t have time to run across town to check on Loki and Ghost and then run back across town to get to Stark Tower. It wasn’t like she had a time card to punch but some part of her pushed her to be punctual no matter what.

“I know you’re there. And we’re going to break this fear of modern technology you seem to have. Don’t make a mess. I’ll be home in a few hours to check in,” Kennedy sighed before hanging up.

She walked back into Steve’s apartment and sat down once more to pull on her boots. Once they were laced up, she shrugged into her leather jacket and glanced up as Steve walked out, dressed as well. She wondered what he did with the Captain America uniform while he was here.

“What are you going to do for the rest of the day?” Kennedy asked once they were on their way to find morning coffee.

“Wander around New York, see what else has changed since the war,” Steve shrugged, his hands tucked into the pockets of his khaki pants. “Maybe head over to the Tower, see what I can do to help.”

Kennedy glanced over at him before reaching up and ruffling the short strands of her hair. Once she got the opportunity, she was going to dye it again but lighter. The color it was now was too close to her natural hair color in her opinion. She’d probably go for some shade of blonde when she did dye it.

“I think I have an idea of one thing that you need that you don’t currently have,” Kennedy said after a moment.

Steve glanced down at her, one of his eyebrows rising in question.

“A great pair of ass-hugging jeans, that’s what you need,” Kennedy nodded with a pleasant smile stretching her lips. “Something that shows off your, most likely, well-toned ass. Or butt, whichever term you prefer.”

“I’ve yet to understand why everything nowadays is so overly sexualized,” Steve replied dryly as they walked.

“We’re just embracing our sexual selves in a very in-your-face manner,” Kennedy shrugged.

“I hadn’t noticed.”

Kennedy tilted her head to the side and gave him a look through slightly squinted eyes. Steve watched her, his brow furrowed in slight confusion, as she gave one sharp nod to herself.

“Wranglers.”

“What?”

“Wranglers. We’re buying you a pair of Wranglers. The working man’s jean.”

“I don’t need a pair of jeans,” Steve shrugged as they walked into the café they had visited the other day.

“It’s just one pair of jeans,” she replied with a pout. “I’ll even take you out to eat if you wear them.”

“Are you bribing me with food so that I’ll buy a pair of jeans?” he asked, smirking ever so slightly.

“The lowest that I’ll sink is bribery. I am not a begger, never have been and never will be,” Kennedy shrugged as she ordered her coffee.

Steve just shook his head though a grin tugged at the corners of his lips. Before she could even think about it, he slipped a bill onto the counter to pay for their drinks. Kennedy shot him a narrow-eyed glare before leading the way outside to the small patio area.

“Stop doing that,” she frowned in reprimand.

“I’m just saving you the money for when you take me out to eat,” Steve replied with a smirk. “You do realize how much I can eat, don’t you?”

Kennedy blinked for a minute, her brow furrowing slightly. She’d forgotten about the super-soldier serum. He probably ate like a pig when he wasn’t busy being a perfect gentleman.

“Well, that’s what they make all you can eat buffets for,” Kennedy nodded.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kennedy leaned back against the counter lazily, her feet propped up on the nearby lab table while her butt was firmly planted on the same stool that it had been for the past two hours. Yawning, she ran a hand through her short hair before stretching her arms over her head. Her job as a bodyguard for Jane and Darcy had required her to sit her on her ass and watch either one or both of them at the same time.

Thor was always popping in and out with something to do, say, or get for Jane. Darcy yammered on and off whenever the possibility presented itself, which made Kennedy almost regret not shooting her in the throat. Jane seemed to somehow tolerate the busty brunette with ease. Kennedy was fairly sure it was a learned behavior.

“So how do you get to be a SHIELD agent?” Darcy asked, finally directing a question in Kennedy’s direction.

Kennedy glanced up from examining her nail polish to look at the bespectacled brunette. Her eyes threatened to roll but she controlled the urge. She needed to think like someone not as easily irritated as herself.

“There was a flier in a coffee shop,” Kennedy replied dryly before taking a sip of her water.

“It’s a ‘I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you’ thing, isn’t it?” Darcy asked, her blue eyes bright and curious.

“I could tell you,” Kennedy smiled as she leaned forward, “but it wouldn’t be me who snuffed you.”

She only just managed to restrain the slightly maliciousness that threatened to creep out. Instead, she managed to force up some amusement as she returned to her former position. Her fingertips drummed against her thighs mindlessly.

Jane flitted out again a few minutes later, Thor’s familiar bulk appearing behind the door. Kennedy rolled her eyes slightly but slumped back against the counter. Thor was more than capable of protecting the petite brunette.

“Not to be rude or anything,” Darcy spoke up again, “but you remind me of that chick from the observatory. Kennedy is what Fury called her, right?”

Kennedy straightened slightly, her head lifting. She managed to push down the feeling of terror and resisted the urge to fire a kill shot right at the woman. Instead, she swallowed and brushed her short hair from her face.

“She was bad ass. Except for when, you know, she shot me.” Darcy made a face and Kennedy hid her smirk. “Where do those kinds of people get their training though?”

“Depends. Every country has those kinds of people. You get secret organizations, mostly terrorist, that recruit people and turn them into spies and assassins. There are mercenaries who work job-to-job. Some people go into secret government agencies or even get their basic training as cops or military.”

Darcy nodded and Kennedy could tell that she was dying to know where Kennedy had gotten her training. According to the information in her file, she’d been recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. around three years ago and that she had some weapons training. There weren’t many legal ventures for women to enter to receive specialized combat training outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.

“She’s going to be spending all her time with Thor, isn’t she?” Kennedy asked in an attempt to not sound like a complete bitch.

“God, you should have heard it after he had to leave. Thor this and Thor that,” Darcy groaned and rubbed her temples. “I mean, he’s hot, great body, but that’s a serious long distance relationship.”

Kennedy smirked slightly before folding her arms across her chest. She lifted her feet onto the nearby table again so that they remained propped up. Her back rested against the counter while her fingertips carefully prodded each side of her ribcage. The side where Steve had kicked her and then driven his shoulder in still hurt more than the side where she’d been repeatedly punched.

Thor returned soon, Jane in tow, to gather up Darcy and take her off to lunch with Jane. Relieved from babysitting duty for at least an hour, Kennedy left the lab. She didn’t have time to run home to her apartment and she didn’t feel comfortable in the slightest to make a call. If Steve was hanging around, she could probably snag him and take him to get lunch, just so that she didn’t have to hang the Tower.

It took her a few minutes to find Steve but she eventually found him upstairs with the others. Her skin crawled at the thought but she forced herself to breathe calmly. The worst that could happen was that she was shot through the skull. The other possibility of having her ass handed to her by no less than three other people wasn’t all that appealing either.

“Your girl’s here, Cap!” Clint yelled the moment Kennedy walked into the room.

Kennedy shot a glance in his direction. This Clint was much different than the Clint she’d worked with. For one, this one was much louder and far more obnoxious and she’d only been around him for a day and a half. His blonde hair was in a neat, casual disarray and his blue eyes gleamed mischievously as he sent a wink in her direction.

Steve got up from the couch, his blue eyes flicking towards Clint in slight amusement. Kennedy just reached up to flick her short hair from her face before she hooked her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans. The slight pressure on the denim made them sag slightly.

“Not my girl, Clint, just my…well…” Steve began before trailing off.

“Your girl,” Kennedy supplied dryly, a smirk quirking her lips.

“See? She even admits it,” Clint smirked. “Is that your shirt that she’s wearing, Cap?”

“Leave it alone, Clint,” Steve replied good-naturedly.

“I think he’s jealous,” Kennedy smirked, blue-lensed eyes flicking in Clint’s direction.

Clint turned to look at her, blue eyes gleaming brightly as he walked over. Dressed in a t-shirt and jeans with a pair of battered boots on his feet, he didn’t look like much of a threat. The little footage that she’d seen of the attack on New York during Loki’s invasion hadn’t featured too much of Clint. There was more of his past missions and training sessions in the S.H.I.E.L.D. databanks though. He was just as deadly as the rest of them.

His eyes skimmed over her in a quick, brief assessment as he reached where she and Steve were standing. Kennedy’s gaze flicked over him too, if only out of habit to see if there were any obvious weapons on him. Her own gun was hidden for now.

After a moment, Clint’s gaze flicked up to meet her gaze. A thin, mischievous smirk stretched his lips.

“I love a woman who can handle herself in a fight,” he said finally, eyes gleaming. “Especially when she can wear her cuts and bruises well.”

Kennedy’s only response was to let a ghost of a smirk tug at her lips. Clint winked again before turning and walking away to disappear further into the Tower. Her gaze flicked towards Steve who just shook his head and gave her a bemused smile.

“Lunch?”