Water Or Wine

Chapter 2

The sun rises and I am still at the tower. I can feels Druig trying to find a way back into my mind, his hand gently caressing the walls. The elevator door opens revealing Maria and Steve "he's all over the globe." She confirms "robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in an emptying the place."

The walk up the stairs and I follow after then "fatalities?" I ask from beside Steve and the other woman answered "only when engaged. Most of the guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see." We start up another set of stairs and Druig's presence in my head leaves letting me relax.

"Maximoff" Steve muses after a moment "that makes sense he'd go to them. They have someone in common." Maria brings out a tablet and looks down at it "not anymore" she says before handing it to him. I peer over his shoulder at the tablet in his hand. Strucker is dead, with the word peace written in his blood on the wall behind him "well I won't be sad to see him go" I say.

I spot Thor a little way away and excuse myself "what's on your mind?" I ask leaning against the wall opposite him "you don't have to ask" he says in his deep masculine voice "you know my mind is open to you." I swallow hard and look around for the others "you know I would never do it without permission" I mutter and Thor chuckles "except when I was a child and you had to figure out whether it was Loki or I who had done the bad thing."

I crack a smile then and look over at the blond male "only because you were both such good liars." We both relive some fond memories before Thor flips his hammer in his hand and says "I think you need to tell the others" I frown and cross my arms neatly "about me being-? No, they are - they are not ready for that yet." We both look down at Maria, Steve and Clint all talking to one another "the longer you keep it from them the harder it will be for them to accept the truth" he says and places a hand on my shoulder "you taught me that Noel."

I wait for a moment before nodding my head "fine, I'll uh- I'll do it soon I promise" and Thor flashes me a comforting smile.

"Are you seriously going to tell them what we are?"

A familiar voice asks in my head, I clench my jaw, checking my walls which are still intact. So I counter his question with my own.

"How did you get in?"

I can almost picture his all knowing smirk as he says

"You were thinking of me, my love you know that's how I got in"

My stomach twists and I push my thoughts down.

"Not now Druig please, I have stuff I need to deal with"

"You mean clean up a mess those human's created. Again"

"Judgment isn't a good look for you D"

"Everything is a good look on me sweetheart or have you forgotten"

"Goodbye Druig"

We all move around a table together and Steve hands Thor the tablet "what's this?" Tony asks coming round to my side "a message" I answer wrapping my arms around me "Ultron killed Strucker." Thor slaps the tablet into Stark's chest and he takes it for himself looking at the image displayed on it "and he did a Banksy at the crime scene" he jokes "just for us."

"This is a smoke screen" Nat says from where she is sitting on a chair "why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Steve folds his arms across his chest and says "Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."

Natasha continues typing on the computer in front of her "yeah I bet he..." but gets interrupted by a beep from the screen "yeah. Everything we had on Strucker's been erased." I shake my head calmly "not everything."

We start going through paper files, thank god Fury always kept these incase of emergencies. "Well these people are all horrible" Bruce muses as he picks up one of the files "wait." Tony says "I know that guy. From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Steve looks over at Tony accusingly and Tony defends himself by saying "there are conventions, alright? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab."

Thor passes a photo to me and I look at it. It shows a man in his late 40's maybe early 50's with short greying hair and a tattoo on the back of his neck. Thor points to the tattoo "this?" He asks and Tony shrugs "ah, it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it." He shakes his head and points at something on his neck "those are tattoos" Thor says matter of factly "this is a brand."

Bruce offers to search it up but I shake my head, peering at it more closely "I know what this" I state and everyone looks at me expectantly "it's a word in an African language meaning thief." Steve raises his brows and asks "what language" I shrug and peer close "Wakanda."

Steve and Tony look at each other then and the dark haired man says "if this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." he trials off and Steve says "I thought your father said he got the last of it." I know what they are talking about and am aware of the fact that Wakanda has plenty of vibranum left to power every city on the planet I decide to stay quiet because otherwise I would have to explain how I know that.

"I don't follow" Bruce says pushing his glasses further up his face "what comes out Wakanda?" And Steve glances at his shield "the strongest metal on Earth" he answers before turning back to Tony "where is this guy now?"

We start on our way to finding this man, I sit on my own in the jet and Thor sits next to me. He nods his head and I close my eyes.

"Why won't you tell them?" He thinks as he feels me enter his mind.

"I don't know, I guess I'm scared. Tony would want to experiment on me and I'm not allowed to let him do that. I'm already pushing the boundaries by being on this team"

"They will find out eventually what will you do then?"

"Can we stop talking about this please? How's Jane?"

"I don't want to talk about that either"

Just then Natasha comes over and hands me a dagger, I take it and she smirks at me "just incase" I nod and she walks away.