Ghost of You

n i n e

This might have been quite literally the longest day of my life. I was completely exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally. The fact was that I just couldn't keep up with these people, and that truth weighed heavily on my pride. I was this close to taking a caffeine filled syringe and jabbing it in my arm and praying that by some miracle it gave me super powers. At worst it would either revitalize me or knock me out if the dose was too strong, both of which were outcomes I was content with. 

This day. This goddamn day. Thank god it would be over soon.

I twisted my wrist to look at my watch. Shit. It hadn't even been a day. Only twelve hours had passed since we had left Clint's family house this morning. How could that even be possible? I began recapping the events of my recent past, mentally cataloguing my itinerary like an entry of my nonexistent (or existent, I'll never tell) diary.

Hour one, fly to New Jersey. Hour two, sneak off the jet. Hours three through nine, intense fighting and graphic damage control. Hour ten kiss my boss. Hours eleven and twelve, finish fighting, then do my best to ignore the boss I just kissed on a cruelly  and ironically small jet back to Stark Tower accompanied by two super-powered Sokovian twins.

Yep, this wasn't going to be awkward at all.

Steve was flying us back. Given his track record for crashing planes I wasn't sure if it was such a good idea. When I asked, he had assured me he knew what he was doing. I had no idea he even had his pilot's license. Then again, there was a lot I didn't know about Steve Rogers. I didn't know how to work with him, I didn't know how to have a conversation with him that didn't end in a brutally sarcastic screaming match, I didn't know how or why he had ended up kissing me or how that was going to factor into our situation. My guess was that it wouldn't. That we would both just pretend it never happened until Ultron was dealt with and I would hand in my resignation, as planned. From the way our brief and tense conversations had gone since the kiss, I would have put money on my guess being correct.

"Can I sit here?"

I jumped slightly, my head snapping up to look at the origin of the voice. 

"I come in peace." The female of the set of twins was standing in front of the bench where I was sitting, well hiding, at the back of the plane. She was smiling, her palms raised in the air in a sign of truce. I nodded, scooching over a bit to make room.

"I'm Wanda, that's my brother Pietro." She said, pointing over to where he was standing on the other side of the plan, tapping his foot impatiently. I laughed.

"Yeah I know, you guys are kind of famous around here." I stuck out my hand for her to shake. "(Y/n)."

She fit her hand in mine returning the gesture. I still wasn't totally comfortable by this and I had a feeling the rest of the group would be even less welcoming to the idea. Steve seemed convinced they were here to help, that they were just two kids who had gotten wrapped up in something without realizing what it actually was. I figured the least I could do is try and give them the benefit of the doubt, they just didn't really seem like kids to me. They were too mature, too angry to only be eighteen, although I suppose given their background their anger was understandable.

"Are you one of the Avengers?" Wanda asked me, curiously.  "I haven't seen you fighting with them on the news or anything."

"No- no I'm not." I shook my head. "I just work for Tony's company, global securities management."

She paused for a moment, her fingers drumming lazily against where they rested on her knee. 

"What about you and Captain Rogers?" 

My eyebrows scrunched in confusion as I looked at her. 

"You're together, no? A couple?" She stated it as a question but she said the words with such conviction that it was clear she didn't seem to doubt at all that she already knew the answer.