An introverted waitress stumbles into Captain America during Loki's attack on New York. After taking a bullet for him, he lets her go, wondering. She's on the run, but he can't know that. When she meets the Avengers again, escape is all but impossib...
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"I'm hungry!" Clint whines. I throw a couch cushion at him.
"You've been back here for ten minutes and you're already complaining?"
"You know, you're mean. Why didn't Tony leave me with the nicer of America's Most Patriotic Couple?"
"Because Steve is more responsible than I am, so he has work," I reply, flipping through a chemistry book I snagged from Bruce's bookshelf. I don't like chemistry at all, I realize, but I do like learning. Maybe I'll find something more interesting to read later. "I'm hungry too. Who's night is it for dinner?" We keep a system: seven Avengers for seven days of the week. I'm on Wednesdays. Of course, we usually have to switch things around because someone's always off somewhere else, but it keeps the tower running.
"It's Tuesday, right? That's Tony's night." He chuckles and I groan. Tony is notoriously bad at planning his night for dinner. Once we got cereal. Another time we got undercooked ramen noodles. I didn't even know that was possible. The clock reads seven. There's no way he has dinner, not when he's been cooped up in the lab all day. "So do you wanna order a pizza or something?"
"I know this really great place in Chinatown," I suggest. "I could grab us some takeout."
"That sounds great!" He says, grinning. "Here's twenty bucks, can you get however many egg rolls that buys?"
"Sure. Let me go see what everyone else wants." I could take the elevator but I don't feel like waiting, so I run down the steps, checking my watch before and after. "Sweet. New record."
I step into Tony's lab, slightly apprehensive. I'm not fully over my fear of them, and I'm not sure that will ever change. Still, it's a step in the right direction.
"Oh, hi!" Tony says, face like a deer in the headlights. I stifle a laugh. He's completely covered head to foot in wires.
"Do you want Chinese food?" I ask, choosing to ignore his situation. He seems to appreciate it greatly.
"That sounds great, I want - darn, it was my night, wasn't it?"
"Every Tuesday," I supply.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Just get me some chicken fried rice and I'll pay you back tonight, Lady Liberty." I roll my eyes but nod anyway.
"Where's Bruce?" I haven't seen him all afternoon.
"He's away for a few days. Went to California for some reason. I think he said something about Stanford. Maybe he's giving a talk."
"Oh, okay," I say. That's one less order for me to carry.
"Where are you ordering from?" He goes back to tinkering with something.
"This place in Chinatown. I'm actually going to pick it up."
Tony raises his eyebrows. "Do you want someone to go with you?"
