The Agent of Malus

Chapter 4- I have never hated a door this much

The next day

I woke up at 5 am that next morning.

I'd been getting back into my normal sleep schedule, so I'd been waking up earlier and earlier every morning.

Eventually, I wouldn't even fall asleep.

But that's beside the point.

When I exited my room, I didn't bother with being quiet as I went to her spare bathroom to take a shower. As I passed Bryce's office, I heard keys clicking, so I knew she'd probably been awake since 3.

"Morning," I called to her.

"G'morning," she called back.

I quickly showered, drying off my hair with a towel I brought and getting dressed into some new clothes. I combed out my honey-blonde hair and exited the room, going downstairs to throw my clothes and towel into the laundry.

"Hey, Bri, do you want to watch TV with me? You know, because I'm here?" I called up to her.

"Yes, wait a minute. I'll be right there," she called in response.

I knew from experience that 'I'll be right there' meant 'I'll be there in 5 minutes', so I went ahead and pulled out the cereal and poured myself some.

Because hey, who doesn't like sugar for breakfast?

I poured in the cereal, then the milk(because for some reason Bryce thinks that's a big deal) and pulled out a spoon from the silverware drawer.

To my complete surprise, Bryce actually came down on time.

"What's with the face, did you expect me to be late?" she smirked, smacking my shoulder playfully.

"To be completely honest, yes, I did," I sat down at the table with my bowl, watching as she very carefully poured herself a bowl of cereal.

"You didn't put the milk in first, right?" she demanded.

"No, of course not."

"Good," she said approvingly. "The last time Natasha came over, she purposely poured the milk in first. I literally could not stop cringing for the next hour."

I laughed openly. "Why do you even care?"

"BECAUSE IT LOOKS SO UNNATURAL!!" she exclaimed.

"You know, back in the day, they thought being gay was unnatural when it was really something that was 100% natural. Maybe one day we'll find that we've been pouring cereal incorrectly our whole lives and have to pay thousands to the people running the 'correct-way-to-pour-cereal' mafia that's been trying to tell us this for years."

Bryce stared at me for nearly a full minute, the ends of her mouth twitching up.

"What? I mean, for all we know, that could be-"

"I don't discriminate against people for pouring cereal wrong." she scoffed.

"...yes, you do."

"DO NOT!"

"You literally just said that pouring the milk first is unnatural."

"IT IS!"

"So you're-"

"I'M STANDING AGAINST THE PRACTICE, NOT THE PEOPLE!"

I rolled my eyes. "You know, I feel like that should be the next homophobic slur because I hear it literally all the time."

Bryce glanced down, clearly trying not to laugh. "Okay, fine. Maybe one day I'll have to pay the cereal mafia Stark's whole fortune, but until then, I'm going to keep pouring my cereal the CORRECT way."

I smirked, and so did Bryce. Suddenly, we were both roaring with laughter over the stupidity of our last conversation.

Well, to be completely honest, it wasn't entirely stupid. I mean, I asked Shuri why it feels so unnatural, pouring the milk before the cereal, and she just responded with "because it is".

Thank you, Shuri, for your words of ever-living wisdom.

"Anyway, you wanted to watch TV?" Bryce said.

"Yeah, what do you want to w-"

I was cut off by a loud knocking coming to Bryce's back door.

Yes, her back door.

We caught each other's gazes of confusion, then stared at the door.

The person knocked again.

"Do you want to..?" I asked softly.

"No. I'm not answering if they're knocking on the back door. They can go to the front," she replied. "How about we head into the living room?"

I nodded, and we both headed into the living room with our breakfasts.

The door's knocking grew louder.

Thud thud thud.

"Just ignore it," Bryce advised, but her tone was growing worrying.

Thud thud thud.

"I'm gonna get my phone... just in case," I said quickly, sprinting up the stairs. While I was up there, I pulled on my metal sleeve and hid it under my fabric sleeve, tucking my phone in my pocket. Bucky had texted me- "How's Bryce?"- but I didn't have the time to answer it at the moment, so I just ignored it.

Bryce eyed my hand, which was covered in metal, now that I had the sleeve on.

"Don't overreact, it's probably-"

The pounding on the door sounded yet again, but this time sounded like a car ramming into it three times.

"THAT'S IT!" Bryce exclaimed, leaping to her feet. "Whoever's out there better be ready."

She marched to the door, and I followed, hot on her heels.

She let out a sharp breath, seeming like she was trying to relax her shoulders before opening it, just a crack.

"What?!"

She flung it open all the way to reveal an empty yard.

Now suspicious, I stepped in front of her. Bryce went over to the counter, pulling on some silver wristbands. I didn't bother asking what they were and stepped outside, my sleeve at the ready.

"Do you see anything?" Bryce asked from behind me, sounding a bit worried.

Before I could respond, the world flashed, and everything went dark.