An Unlikely Romance - The Avengers (Part 1)

Tea and Bullets

"This is... incredibly uncomfortable."

"Well, if it would make you feel better, I could handcuff you to the chair."

"Seems more in character, from what little I know of you," you grumbled. Despite the tension of your last meeting, everything had reversed itself now. The man and woman from before had returned, this time with another man in tow, a younger man with a quiver strapped to his back. You'd even gotten to learn their names – Nick Fury, Natasha Romanov, and... well, the last one wasn't a name. He insisted on being called Hawkeye. Thankfully one of the others had eventually called him Clint, but you were still missing a last name.

All of you were sitting around an ordinary table that had been hauled in shortly before their arrival. They'd brought with them a platter of cookies and coffee, both of which you'd been extremely hesitant to taste, but found tolerable and hopefully drug-free. Considering you were still conscious and didn't feel inebriated, you were hoping that was the case. Perhaps the food being drugged would've been for the best, though; all this forced friendliness was so awkward it made you physically uncomfortable.

"You know, I thought you'd be a little more appreciative. Trust is a hard thing to come by in these parts, and I'm giving you a lot with very little in return."

"I'm giving you a lot. My cooperation, for one, as little as that seems to be worth to you."

"Without your memories it's impossible for you to help us with our investigation. But we may still have some use for you, if we can figure out what they did."

"Messed with all of my senses, that's for damn sure."

You'd slowly experimented, after being left alone (and conscious) for the first time. You didn't remember what your life was like before you woke up that first time, but you were obviously more perceptive than the others. Nick and Natasha had shown no signs of being bothered by the lights, but even when they were turned away you were nearly overwhelmed. When they returned, you heard footsteps for almost a minute before they finally arrived, and you could hear their voices through the steel. That one set Fury on edge- apparently, the rooms were supposed to be soundproofed.

"Well, your senses are what we're here to test," Natasha said, pulling out a card covered in sentences. Each was smaller than the last, to the point that you couldn't quite read the bottom two.

"What's the smallest line you can read?"

" Two fold two and three fold three, but four folds a quarter and five folds no more. Is that supposed to be gibberish, or am I hallucinating too?"

All three of them exchanged a knowing glance.

"Which line is that?"

"Uh, fourth from the bottom. Can't quite make out the one below it, something about 'doctors don't discuss dysfunction, they diagnose disease', but nothing before or after that. What the hell have you got me reading?"

"Something no human should be able to pick out. Think my record is line twelve," Clint said, eyeing both of them. "Where'd you find this one, again?"

"HYDRA base."

"What the hell is HYDRA? I'm being cooperative, could you guys at least give me a clue of who these guys are?"

"An organization. One you don't want to be a part of," Fury said, eyes cold as iced steel.

"This is going nowhere," you muttered, rubbing your eyes. "Look, if you guys are so worried about me being some weird-ass sleeper agent or whatever the fuck a HYDRA is, why not just let me go? Kick me out of your super-secret base and let me go. Give me some cash for an apartment and I'll find a job flipping burgers or something until I can get myself on my feet. Can't cause much harm if I'm working sixty hours a week to pay rent."