LIFE WAS BETTER OFF THE GRID || 1

Agent Starbucks

 "Where are we going?"

I had pulled Steve out of the tower and onto the crowded streets of New York. "To one of the most magical places ever." We walked the cross walk to the other side of the street, the tower looming over us. "Starbucks!"

"What?"

"Starbucks, you know. Those bright balls of fire in the sky, and a male deer, smashed together. Easy to remember." I tell him and drag him inside. Which believe me, is hard. It's like grabbing Barney and Clint by the ear when they're being jerks.

"I got that. But what is it."

"Coffee." I say opening the door. "Coffee?" He says. "What's so good about coffee?" I roll my eyes at him. "One of the first things I was introduced to in America when I came here about...hmm... a decade ago, by none other than Pigeonfart. So I will introduce it to you."

The line moved fairly quickly. Considering that it wasn't as busy as it normally was.

"Hello, what would you two like today?" The barista was a kid in his late teens and the name tag read Jayden. "Let's start you off easy. Um, one grande hot chocolate and one venti pumpkin spice latte."

"OK and will you be using you Avengers discount?"

Steve and I shared a look. He opened his mouth to say that there was no such thing as an Avengers discount but I beat him to it by hurriedly taking my ID out of my back pocket and sliding slamming it across the counter.

"Yes, we would both like Avengers Discount."

He used it as payment and I walked pushed Steve away from the cashier. "There's no such thin—"

"I am so high fiving Clint later."

~

"This isn't even coffee." Steve says as we go up in the elevator. "Well I wanted to ease you into things. With actual taste. That crap Tony has in the kitchen is to sweet. Tastes like I'm drinking a five year old girls soul." Steve gives me a wide eyed look. "Oh relax that not the craziest thing I've ever said."

"True."

"And if you want real coffee and can get you a plain black coffee, but th." I tell him. "Can't be as bad as 1945 coffee." I give him a sideways glance. The elevator dinged and we walked into the common room. Nat was sitting on a red love seat a book in hand and Pepper doing paperwork on the glass coffee table.

"Where is everyone?" I ask walking over to Nat. She moves over and let's me sit by her. "Fury wanted Clint at the Hub. And Banner and Stark are in the labs." She said not looking away from the book.

"Really? Without supervision? Do you know all that could go wrong? They could make a Frankenstein. Or a murder bot." Pepper looked up from her paperwork. "I highly doubt that they could make a murder bot."

"I'll take you up on that bet." I tell her and she rolls her eyes before turning her attention back to the paper work. "Do you know why Fury needed Clint at the Hub? I mean, it's not like he's important." 'Fury needs Clint at the Fridge/Hub/Sandbox' was code word for something came up with either Laura, Cooper, or Lila. She bend the corner of a page and sets the book down, and mutters under her breath, "Clint said something about a game or recital something like that."

I knew exactly what she was taking about. Laura and I had Skyped last week and she told me about Lila's ballet recital and Cooper's upcoming soccer game. "Will he be back by Wednesday?" I ask since Halloween was on Wednesday. "He should." She moves to pick her book up again. I see the title: Latin: How To Read and Write a Dead Language

"Really?" I give her a pointed look. "Oh don't look at me like that. I have a mission coming up that might involve  some Latin." I look at her skeptically. "Uh huh sure. Says the person who was obsessed with learning dead languages as a child." She elbows me in the ribs. "Says the girl who was obsessed with famous assassinations that included knifes and swords." I shrugged.

"Considering the circumstances, I was a pretty normal kid."

"Uh huh. Keep telling yourself that."