Who are you? (A Loki Love Story)

Chapter Twenty Two - Phi, Fitz, and Simmons

   My foot is tapping the ground underneath the table, nerves blasting through my system. I look up at the clock for the hundredth time. 1:58pm. I got here almost fifteen minuets ago, and have been thinking about everything that could go wrong in this meeting. I sipped some more of my coffee, and looked around the small café again. It was called Secret Recipes ( I just made it up. If it exists, then ok ) And Phil and I had stumbled upon it last year, my last time out in public and not in a SHIELD base until the Loki incident.
        Loki........ I would be lying if I said that I didn't think about him. I had replayed our last conversation a million times over in my head, and my lips still tingled slightly when I remembered him kissing me. He had stolen my first kiss, which is pathetic really, considering I'm nineteen. I pause and look at the date on my phone. Correction, I was nineteen. I'm twenty now, and it didn't really surprise me that I had forgotten. Birthdays were not very good days for me if I did remember them, and I've never actually celebrated one.
        I look back up at the clock. 1:59pm. Why was time moving so slow? I wanted to get this over with, or at least get over the impending shock of actually seeing him alive. The waitress comes over and refills my coffee, giving me a small smile before leaving. I stir in some sweetener, watching it dissolve, and trying to think of what I should say. Should I say anything? Maybe I should just let him explain. I wonder if Nat and Clint have told him that I was mad at them. If they had, he would know why, but I doubted it, since They didn't stop me before I left, even after the training room incident. So if they knew, they didn't want to talk to me about it.
        2:00pm. I scan the diner carefully, not seeing anyone familiar. I sighed and put my face in my hands. This was frustrating, everything about this. I can't really believe that I believed that he was alive. It must have been some cruel dream, and now I was going to have to apologize and explain to Clint and Nat. That's going to be a fun conversation.
        Through my fingers, I see two young adults slide into the booth directly in font of me, making themselves comfortable at my table, and someone slides in right next to me. "I didn't think that we were late? I did say two o'clock right?" I hear a familiar voice say from beside me. I lift my head out of my hands, and I slowly turn to look at the person next to me.
        "Phil?" I say with a whisper.
        "In the flesh." He says, and I decide to test that statement. I poke him in the forehead, and he chuckles. "Satisfied?" In response, I pull him into a hug, squeezing hard, because I didn't want to lose him again. "Cant...... Breathe..." I hear Phil gasp out, and I quickly let him go.
        "Sorry, I just..... You're here. You're alive." I say, tears filling my eyes, threatening to spill.
        "And you got a lot stronger." He says, chuckling again.
        "Sorry..." I said, embarrassment making my cheeks turn pink. "Who are your friends? Where were you after the battle? Why didn't Fury tell us that you were alive?" a stream of questions flow out of my mouth, before I realize that I am rambling and I snap it shut.
        "After the battle, I was taken to Tahiti for physical therapy. You should go sometime, it's a magical place." He says, pausing, remembering. "Fury didn't tell you all that I was alive because the team needed a push to get it going."
        "And your friends?" I ask, gesturing to the man and woman in front of me.
        "Leo Fitz and Gemma Simmons, the two scientists that I have selected to be on my team." He says, and I shake their hands. "Just call them Fitz and Simmons. Everyone else does."
        "Sophie Crest, pleasure to meet you." I say, smiling. After a second I add, "You two look very familiar. Have we met before?"
        "The pleasure is all ours." Simmons says with a large smile.
        "But I don't think we have ever met before." Fitz adds.
        "Are you sure? You both even sound familiar. I mean, with your accents." I say. Now I was positive that I had met them somewhere before, I just wasn't sure where.
        "Well, we would say that you look familiar too, you do really." Fitz starts.
        "But it is probably just because you are an avenger." Simmons says. "You were all over the news with the others."
        "I was?" I ask, honestly surprised. The exchange a look and laugh until they realize that I wasn't kidding.
        "You need to watch something other than your dramas." Phil says with a sigh, causing me to laugh.
        "Once Upon a Time is a quality TV show. You know that you love it." I say,  and Phil rolls his eyes. "So what did the news say about me?" I ask Fitz and Simmons.
        "Well, mostly it was the stuff they said about the others, wondering about good or bad." Fitz says.
        "But there was also a reoccurring interview of children that you had saved." Simmons adds. My eyes widen at that.
        "Th-They interviewed those kids?" I say, surprised.
        "It was all over the internet." Phil said. "I was so proud when I saw that." I smile up at him.
        "You are taking that thing I said about you being a father figure very seriously." I say, making him look away in embarrassment. "Has he told you what happened when he first met Captain America?" I ask, making him flush further.
        "That's okay, they don't need to know about that." He says quickly, causing the two to laugh. There is a small silence after that, and I take my chance to study Fitz and Simmons. I knew that I had met them before. They were really familiar, and I recognized their accents.
        "I know where I've met you before!" I say loudly, suddenly remembering. They jump a little, startled at my outburst.
        "What?" They both say at the same time.
        "Last year, were you part of a group of students touring the hellicarrier?" I ask.
        "Um, yes." Simmons says warily, not sure where I am going with this.
        "You guys were in the labs and everyone left without you. You were wandering the halls until I found you two and helped you find your group." I say, leaning back with a smile. Recognition dawned on both of their faces.
        "I remember that now! You just walked right up to Director Fury and demanded to know where we were supposed to be at." Simmons says.
        "I remember being terrified of the Director." Fitz mutters, and I laugh, causing him to blush a little. Phil's phone starts to go off, and he excuses himself to answer it. Half a minuet later he returns to the booth, but doesn't sit down.
        "Fury wants to see me, so I need to get you two back to the bus." Phil says, and they both nod and get up. "Fury wants to see you as well, Sophie." Phil says when I don't get up.
        "How did he... Scratch that. He knows everything." I say, annoyed.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


        Phil and I both walk, side by side, into Fury's office. He looks up at us from across his desk filled with paperwork. "Agent Coulson. How was your little outing?" He asked. I raise my eyebrows at that, but Phil answers normally.
        "It was good, sir." He said. "Why did you need us here?" He says a second later, getting strait to the point.
        "I need you here to help me talk to Sophie about what we discussed earlier." He says. Phil frowns slightly, but nods in agreement.
        "Talk to me about what?" I ask, curious. Fury sighs, but answers.
        "We want you to become an agent." Fury says. I instantly get angry, balling up my fists at my sides, and open my mouth to tell him exactly what I thought about that, when Phil spoke.
        "Just hear him out, Sophie." I don't says anything, allowing Fury to continue.
        "I want you to become an Agent like Bruce or Tony, only doing the occasional solo missions, but having availability to everything an avenger would have. You would be mostly an Avenger, very few jobs on the side." He stops and I consider it seriously. It was different than the offers from before.
        "I think it would do you good." Phil says. "You could be great at this, and I think you should take the chance."
        "Do you really think that I would be a good agent?" I ask, and they both nod. "I just don't want to be like Clint and Nat and have to come at your beck and call. I want to live MY life." I say quietly.
        "And you would be able too. You wouldn't be just a field agent." Phil says. "You would just be.... You. With a little SHIELD help and training that is." I let the words sink in.
        "Can I sleep on it?" I ask, surprising them both. Fury nodded.
        "Did you need anything else from me boss?" Phil asks. Fury shakes his head.
        "No, just inform Sophie about the situation with you and the Avengers." he says, and Phil and I leave, opting to walk the short way back to the tower.
        "Mainly, you can't tell any of the Avengers that I am alive, and I would stay away from talking about it at all, even to Natasha and Clint." He says. He suddenly grabs my phone from my hand as I pull it from my pocket. He fiddles with it for a minuet before handing it back to me, and I see that he has put in a new number under 'EMERGENCY ONLY' in my contacts. "I'll only call if I need something important, and you should only call for the same." He says in complete business mode. I roll my eyes and put my hand on his shoulder, stopping him a block before the tower.
        "I understand Phil. This is important for you and the team, and I'll be careful, you don't need to worry." I say. He gives me a relieved smile, and I give him another hug. "I know that you need to go, so I'm just going to say this. Be careful." I say when we let go.
        "Shouldn't I be the one telling you that?" He asked with a laugh.
        "Nah. I live with the Avengers. Not much is going to be able to hurt me." I say. We smile at each other one last time, and leave, each going different directions. I hoped that I saw him again soon.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


        We were all in the main room at the tower, Tony making us all stay until we met Pepper. We sat in an uncomfortable silence. I knew we had to talk about something, and I wanted their opinion on Fury's offer. "So.... I meet with Fury today." I say, and everyone looks up at me.
        "Fury? What did he want?" Tony asks.
        "He, uh, offered me a job as an agent again." I say, which gets a few raised eyebrows.
        "How much did you go off on him this time?" Clint asks with a sigh.
        "I told him that I'd sleep on it." I say, causing surprised looks all around. "He said it would mainly be like Tony and Bruce, few solo missions, mainly avengers stuff, and I'd get all the information as well." I look down at the floor, listening to the silence.
        "You should take it, kid." Tony says. I roll my eyes.
        "I think I might. And how many times have I told you not to call me kid? I'm twenty for goodness sakes!" I say. I hated it when he called me kid.
        "Well, you do look and act a lot younger than your age." He says with a smirk. Suddenly, he frowns. "Wait. Twenty? When did you turn -" He's cut off by Nat's phone going off. She looks down at the caller I.D. and frowns.
        "I've got to get this." she says, answering it and walking to the other side of the room. We can all hear her side of the conversation.
        "Romanoff." She listens for a second. "Wait, What?" She says, spinning around to look at me. "When was this?!" She says, voice getting louder. "She did WHAT today?!" She is staring me down, and I'm trying to shrink into my seat. "How long has she..... That explains a lot." I can feel her eyes burning a hole in my head. "No, don't worry. We'll be having a long talk after this." I slowly slide myself between Bruce and Steve. "Thank you. This helps the problem we've been having... mhm.... Okay, talk to you later. Bye." She hangs up and crosses her arms, giving me a death stare that makes me want to self destruct. Everyone looks between Nat and me, worried.
        "Don't let her get to me!" I whisper hurriedly to Steve and Bruce, pulling them in front of me, shoulder to shoulder so they act like a barrier.
        "What did you do?" Asks Steve, looking a little worried Nat walks over to Clint and says something to him, so only he can hear. He sits strait up while listening, and looks over at me. Not angry, just.... sad? Sympathetic? She tells him something else, and that's when he looks a little peeved.
        "That explains a lot." He says shortly, starting to glare at me as well.
        "Sophie, would you mind having a private talk with us?" Nat says in a cold voice.
        "Um... I'd rather stay here if you don't mind.." I say with a nervous laugh.
        "We do." They say at the same time, starting to walk towards me. They walk behind the couch and lift me up by my armpits, high enough so that my feet didn't touch the floor. I hate being short.
        "No, wait , THIS IS KIDNAPPING! THIS IS ILLEGAL! LET ME DOWN!" I yell as they take me from the room.
        "Should we help her?" I hear Steve ask.
        "YES, YES YOU SHOULD!" I yell, trying to hang on to the door frame. Clint hangs on to me, and Nat pries my fingers from the doorframe. They carry me to a spare bedroom, since the bedrooms don't have cameras in them. Great. Now they could kill me without any evidence. They sat me down on the bed and locked the door. They both turned to me, glaring with their arms crossed.
        "Something you want to tell us about?" Clint asks.
        "Nope..." I say with nervous laughter.
        "Then why don't you explain, Nat? I only heard the summary." He says, turning to Nat.
        "Gladly." She says with a smirk. "Apparently, little miss fireball over hear answered my phone when Phil called, the night we got here. He and Sophie here met up today before they went and talked to Fury." She says. "Details?" She asks me.
        "Fine." I huff. "You were all asleep when Nat's phone started to ring. When I saw that it said emergency, I figured that if you were needed, I would wake you up, so I answered it. When I found out it was Phil, he explained. We set up a day to meet, and I put the phone back. You know the rest." I say, hugging my knees to my chest.
        "Why were you so mad at us?" Clint asks, and I raise an eyebrow.
        "You seriously have to ask?" I said, anger lacing my voice. "You both had the power to tell me that the man I trusted most, the man I looked up to, was alive. But no, you let me mourn. You let me hurt. FOR THREE FREAKING MONTHS!" I yell. They both look down, guilt written across their features.
        "We didn't know how to tell you. When to tell you." Nat says.
        "Anytime after the attack would have been perfect. So much better than me finding out on my own." I say, hurt.
        "We're sorry-"
        "Don't." I say, cutting Clint off. "I've already put the situation to rest in my mind, after our little bet. I just want this to be over." I say.
        "Friends?" Clint asks.
        "Friends." I confirm. "It will take a while to go back to normal, but friends." I say. They nod, and we leave to go back to the main room. I strut in first with Nat and Clint trailing behind, and plop down in my seat.
        "Why is it that they dragged you from the room kicking and screaming, but when you come back, they both look like kicked puppies?" Tony asks. I shrug.
        "We had a conversation." I say. "It's not really your business. It's between me and them." I say. Just then, the elevator dings, and a tall, skinny, strawberry blond woman walks out.
        "Hi, I'm Pepper." She says with a smile. I can tell right then, just by the way she carries herself, and lights up a room, that we are going to be good friends.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


        After the dinner with Pepper and the team, I go back up to my room and pull out my phone, dialing Fury. Pepper had been funny, smart, and could keep Tony in control. I was right. I did like her.
        "Director Fury." Fury says when he picks up.
        "Hey Fury, It's Sophie." I say. "Sorry for calling so late, I just needed to tell you something."
        "Get on with it." He says in a gruff voice.
        "I accept your offer." I say.
        "You-You do?" He asks, clearly surprised.
        "I could do it, seeing as it's not like a regular agent. Maybe it will do me some good, getting out more." I say. There is silence. "Director..?" I ask, wondering if the call dropped.
        "Welcome to SHIELD Agent Crest."

        What did I just agree to?