The Fixer

Operation Timeout

8:00 AM found Joanna waiting for Tony and Steve in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand and her phone in the other. "Agent Coleson." Steve greeted her with an only slightly hostile tone in his voice as he walked in.

She silently watched as he made his way to the cupboard for a mug and then over to the coffee machine. He was dressed in a pair of dark grey joggers, an unnecessarily tight dark blue under armor workout shirt and a pair of white and blue running shoes. The man had no right looking this good so early in the morning.

"Morning Captain." Joanna winced when she noticed her voice was still a little husky from sleep. Steve paused mid step to the drawer to retrieve a spoon for his cereal, giving her a brief heated look before going over to the fridge for the milk.

If she didn't know better she thought that his pupils had dilated. Taking a shaky breath to calm herself down she looked down at her phone for the time. "We'll give Stark five more minutes and then we'll go retrieve him." She says to Steve's apparent amusement.

"Good luck with that." He sasses as he sit's down at the table. Clearly wanting to put as much distance between them after she shut down his attempt to kiss her yesterday. Yeah, this is exactly why she didn't sleep with people she worked with. To avoid situations just like this. Joanna raised an eyebrow at his snarky tone.

"Maybe it was a good thing I didn't stick around to wake you up yesterday." Steve furrowed his brow at her mentioning their time together in the open even if they were alone.

"What do you mean?" He was confused about where she was going with this. Glancing over to the hall that led to the teams rooms to make sure no one was coming.

"You're clearly not a morning person." Steve scoffs at her observation of him as he takes a sip of his cup of coffee. He ignores her to begin reading his newspaper.

"Who's not a morning person?" Bucky asks, walking in wearing a tight black t-shirt with matching joggers and running shoes. His eyes glancing from her and over to Steve with a flirtatious smile on his face. "Mornin' doll." Joanna rolled her eyes at the nickname, but she couldn't help but give him a smile with a little nose scrunch. He just brought out her fun playful side.

"Rogers." She tells him sipping on her coffee and hooking a thumb behind her at the man, hoping Bucky hadn't caught the first part of their conversation. He laughs at her glancing over at his friend who was scowling at him for flirting with her. He'd picked up on whatever it was that was going on between them and couldn't help himself.

"Stevie is the definition of a morning person, sweetheart. Man wakes up with the sun ready to go. He's been like that for as long as I've known him." He gives her a flirtatious wink as he pulls out a bowl from the cupboard.

"Ahh, the sass is just for me then. Good to know." Joanna glances down at her watch not seeing the look on Steve's face at Bucky calling her sweetheart. That's what he called her and didn't appreciate his friend calling her that particular pet name at all.

A couple more minutes she notes. She'd hoped that Tony would at least try to make things easier for her today, but she had accounted for this stubborn childish behavior. Bucky chooses to sit next to her instead of his best friend with his large bowl of cereal. He scoots his stool closer to hers. She gives him a 'what are you doing' look, but he ignores it and leans over so he can whisper.

He's so quiet that she could barely hear him. "Hey, yesterday was a big surprise for all of us. Don't let his bad mood color your opinion of him. Steve really is a great guy." Sneaking a look at Steve over Bucky's shoulder she finds him glaring at them.

"Sure, whatever you say, Sargeant." She gives him a playful wink. Joanna looks back down at her watch with a grin when she hears Steve grumbling under his breath. Could it be that a certain Captain was a little jealous of his friend being flirty with her?