Something Different

7: Suit Up

Wednesday, 7:48 am

"Hey," I yawned as I walked into the kitchen, seeing Nat standing in front of the stove with an apron on.

"Hey, sleepyhead." Nat greeted, briefly looking over and smiling at me before returning to her pan.

"Smells good! Are those pancakes?" I asked as I took a deep breath in.

"Take a seat, I just finished." She nods as she turns off the stove. I prepared the table and brought out the maple syrup while she placed the last blueberry pancake on the stack beside her. As we were about to call the rest of the team, we heard soft conversations coming from the hallway.

"I smell food!" Thor suddenly bellows, his voice echoing through the hall making Nat and I laugh. We greet the boys as they pile in and take their seats, each taking a couple of pancakes for themselves.

"This tastes wonderful Lady Natasha!" He exclaims as he stuffs his face with pancakes.

"Glad you like it, Thor." Nat chuckles, everyone amused at Thor's over-enthusiasm with pancakes.

An hour passed when everyone finished, prompting me to clean up since it was my turn today. I was loading all the dishes into the dishwasher until Nat walked up to me holding her cup of coffee. "How're you feeling?" She asks.

"The real or 'I'm a newbie' answer?" I jab, doing air quotes before turning the dishwasher on and facing her.

She sips her drink, pursing her lips at the question. "Let's hear the newbie answer first" She requests, leaning her weight against the table.

"Well, I'm feeling great!" I say with a grin a little too wide that screams "I'm dying inside" which earns a playful scoff from Nat.

"So, what's the real answer?" She asks, raising her brow.

"I feel like I've been thrown into a blender filled with rocks only to be spat out straight into a wood-chipper that suddenly decides to work after ten thousand years once I've landed into it."

"Mm. Graphic," she says monotonously as she takes another sip of her coffee.

"Not my fault you guys decided to tag-team me." I groaned, quickly cutting her off when I realized what that sounded like.

"Not my fault you progress unusually fast." She repeats, lightly chuckling at the insinuation.

"Unusually? What's that supposed to mean?" I question, my brows furrowing as I cross my arms.

"It means... You might want to get ready." She smirks, trying to divert the topic.

"Hey! Don't– Wait, ready? Ready for wha–"

"Sir, Director Fury is calling for a meeting," Jarvis announces throughout the room, suddenly cutting me off. I quickly face Nat in disbelief who just shrugs and smiles before heading out, Everyone quickly finishing before following her. As we were about to reach the meeting room Tony halted everyone in their tracks, making us face him.

"WAIT! MY COKE!" He shouted as he ran back to fetch his drink. A deep sigh was shared as Tony reappeared, immediately being served deadpan looks from the entire team. We piled in and sat down, chatting while waiting for Fury whose footsteps I could hear coming down the hallway.

"Morning! I'll keep this quick." Fury's voice boomed as he opened the door. He started up the hologram at the center of the table, typing a string of words before displaying snow-capped forests covering a gray monolithic building.

"We found the location of the scepter. It's a Hydra base in Sokovia," he continued, enlarging the building so we could see the blueprint.

"You'll be retrieving it and the weapons it created," Maria added, startling me as I didn't notice her standing behind. She passed us tablets containing the information, letting the team process the mission.