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CHAPTER TWELVE MAYBE I'LL START DATING
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Stark Tower was crawling with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents half an hour later, going in and out of the building like ants. Riley was sitting at the bar, nursing a drink and ignoring the looks of disapproval shot his way by the few people who cared that he was under twenty-one. He didn't much care for the age law when it came to drinking, especially considering he was handling guns on the regular and had just risked his life in a city overrun with aliens. A city that the board had come very close to nuking from existence, on top of everything. Riley wasn't about to let anyone tell him what he could or couldn't drink after the complete chaos he had just lived through.
They were currently waiting for the STRIKE team to come and get the scepter as well as the Tesseract, though Thor had made it very clear they weren't going to be taking Loki. He was going to face consequences for his crimes on Asgard. Riley didn't know what exactly that entailed or if the punishment would even be enough, but he decided not to ask. It was better if he didn't know. Besides, it didn't much matter to him what happened to Loki after Thor took him back home. All that mattered was that Loki wouldn't be on Earth anymore, and that was good enough for him. He finished off his drink right when the STRIKE team arrived, and Riley left his empty glass on the table in favor or twisting on his stool to watch their process.
He only recognized two men on the team: Brock Rumlow and Jasper Sitwell. Riley brightened, raising a hand to wave at Brock, feeling a little smug that Rumlow had to keep working and Riley didn't. Sitwell glanced over at him, catching his hand movement out of the corner of his eye. He rolled his eyes when he realized it was just Riley, turning to take the scepter from Nat instead. Riley didn't blame him, as Riley tended to make fun of Sitwell a lot, out of pure annoyance. That was actually how he and Rumlow had even met. Rumlow found Riley's teasing of Sitwell absolutely hilarious. Rumlow noticed Sitwell's attitude as he was passing by, and he chose to head toward Riley instead of toward the Tesseract, which Nat had placed inside some sort of metal briefcase made to carry it around.
"I just helped save New York and that's how he greets me," Riley said once Rumlow was near him, though he spoke so loudly that everyone in the room heard. "With an eye-roll."
"Eh, he just doesn't wanna admit how hype everyone is right now." Rumlow reached up and planted his hand on top of Riley's head, disheveling his hair more than it already was. He proceeded to ruffle it so roughly that Riley let out a sound of complain and jerked away, scowling. His body was in enough pain, he didn't need Rumlow making it worse. Rumlow laughed and dropped his hand. "Good job, Cho. Really." Riley watched him turn away, then ducked his head, an embarrassed smile playing at his lips. Rubbing at the back of his neck, his smile dimmed, and he glanced around the room in curiosity. Dimly, he was aware of Rumlow barking orders, his friendly tone from earlier gone.
