Serenity

Eight

"So he was a nerd?" Natasha summed up, as Aubrey finished her story. And the two stepped out of her car, Natasha with her striped disguise hood up.

"Yes! He was a total nerd, a super smart dorky nerd." Aubrey beamed, cheeks flushed from talking about James for so long. "He loved Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit," she laughed lightly. "He kept making jokes about being there when the books first came out he loved 'em so much." Aubrey admitted.

"What about you Agent Romanoff? Anyone in your life? Or is that not for you?" Aubrey asked, following then other woman into the mall.

"Yeah, you might say there's someone." she said coolly while Aubrey tried her best not to look like she was on the run from the law.

"Might say, huh?"

"She's classified." was all the former assassin said with a smile.

"She?"

Natasha gave Aubrey an odd look at the excited tone.

"Sorry, HYDRA isn't the most accepting place, so it's nice to meet someone who, er, shares my interests?" she fumbled, and Natasha smiled like she was holding back a laugh.

"Figures." Nat - Aubrey was unsure if she was allowed a friendly nickname yet - had gone back into business mode now.

"Where are we headed?" Aubrey asked, noticing a directory up ahead.

"Anywhere that has a computer Natasha can use." Steve said, and Aubrey turned, she'd kinda forgotten he was there.

"Leave that to me..." Aubrey said, cracking her knuckles.

The directory was backlit very brightly, and Aubrey dimmed it so it was less hard on the eyes.

She must have looked insane, holding a hand up by the bulb inside the map to dim it as she and two hoodie wearing companions stared nervously around the mall.

"Okay, so we're by... Bath and Body Works, over there." she said, pointing to the pungent store. "And we want to go here, to the phone store. So it looks like we just need to go up one floor and keep going straight."

"We could try this one," Steve suggested, pointing to the name of a store on the list.

"Steve that's the one I was talking about, if we just go upstairs and keep going straight, we can get to it." Aubrey insisted, with a small giggle.

"What about here?" Steve suggested, pointing to a Game Stop. It's bound to have computers,"

"Steve, there's no computers in a Game Stop." 

"Right, so we head to the phone store." he decided, and Aubrey nodded.

Aubrey was used to being on the run, just not from S.H.I.E.L.D, so she lapsed back her into old ways, monitoring everything and everyone near her.

"First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk." Natasha advised Steve, and Aubrey nodded in agreement.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off." he grumbled, following Nat and Aubrey through the mall.

The escalator was crowded, and Aubrey found herself pressed between Nat and Steve, who both looked calm and unflustered by the close contact.

On the second floor, they walked in silence, all three of them watching their surroundings calmly and trying not to seem suspicious.

Aubrey spotted the storefront up-ahead and leaned over to Nat. "Cover?"

"Newlyweds, all of us, we're looking for honeymoon destinations."