Welcome to New York

[agent_cupid]

Clint guided the Quinjet down onto the landing pad with careful hands and an alert eye. The aircraft prototype handled like nothing else, a joint project with tech from Wakanda and Stark Industries and Clint was still a little overly cautious when he was flying it. When anything with Stark was involved, he was half tempted to expect it to turn into a giant robot or worse, drop out of the sky with warning. Still, he pulled the landing off without a hitch, coming to rest smoothly outside SHIELD HQ as he flipped off the controls and cleared the last of the landing procedures with the pleasant female voice over his headset, who had laughingly returned his flirting and had him grinning as he moved back into the main body of the jet.

It was a strange sight, the two gods and two young women in the back of the jet. Thor was sitting on one of the benches – the place he’d been most comfortable for the flight – while Sif sat across from him, having watched the entire flight from the window with avid interest. Both Asgardians had been understandably wary about being transported in the jet – or metal wingless beast, as it had been originally dubbed - and Clint had had his hands full with talking Thor out of flying the entire way. Lucky Doctor Foster had backed him on that, but it had taken a taunting jibe from Sif to finally get the scowling thunder god on board. Clint was pretty sure he was the only one who’d seen the female warrior flash him a sly wink before following him inside. Clint was fairly certain she was his favorite person at the moment. He had not been looking forward to Fury’s lectures if they’d gotten back to New York just in time to field all the reported sightings across the country of a flying man.

“Welcome to HQ, kids,” Clint retorted with a cheerful grin, his hands propped easily on his hips as he came back. “Safe and sound and all in one piece. I’m sure the welcome party’s out there for you, but I need to get you up to the Director’s office before we wander off for more sightseeing.”

Since that was Clint’s favorite part, no matter how many glowers he got from Fury for stealing SHIELD assets out into the city at large. It wasn’t like he was going to lose them. Although, granted, he suspected keeping a leash on the Asgardians, Doctor Foster, and Darcy was going to be considerably more of a challenge than showing Bucky the sights had been.

Still, the thought had him grinning in anticipation as he hit the hatch that opened the hatch and let the landing ramp lower into the secured courtyard he’d landed them in.

Comments

[taze_me_bro]

"Pfft, nothing super about it. Just iron will and a take no shit attitude." She grinned, making a little muscle-man pose as they walked, flexing her arms. "And biceps of pure steel. You see these? Curling tomato soup cans, every day."

[phil_coulson]

He gave Dr. Foster the general run down while herding them all through security. She had a lab and her equipment, and she was welcome to continue her research with an eye towards the Loki situation. If there was anything she needed, Sitwell would be on-hand to handle it for her.

When he glanced back, Darcy was making a pose, and Coulson took in the pair of them very seriously, his tone not changing in the slightest. "You might be ready to move on to clam chowder at this point, Ms. Lewis. It's important to challenge yourself." He held out a key card for her, name and picture stamped on the front. "This is for you. Sitwell will explain SHIELD safety protocols in-depth when we get you to the lab."

[taze_me_bro]

Well, she wasn't about to let Agent Coulson one-up her, so she played along. "Pfft. Chilli all the way. I hear Hormel is for real men. That'll be the only thing that can handle me now."

She threw in another flex for good measure. In for a penny, in for a pound. Then she took the pass, inspecting it. At least they'd used a good picture of her, only...

"...wait, when did you take my picture? This is really, really creepy."

[soldier_on]

Wonder of wonders, it wasn't hard to find Coulson and Clint soon after the latter finally arrived. Even if he hadn't known when Clint would be landing, he would've only had to follow the path of junior agents scattering in their wake. (Scattering by SHIELD standards, which mostly meant they walked really quickly in the other direction pretending they had something to do.)

Coulson wasn't looking his way right at the moment, and that gave him a nice opening to flash Clint a grin, and press the largest cup of decent coffee in New York into his waiting hands. "Welcome back, Barton. You owe me one hell of a story later."

"Barnes."

"I'm gone sir, just saying good morning." Bucky tossed off a lazy salute, and smiled at the cute new scientists. "Ladies." He added, light but respectful. "Sorry to interrupt."

[agent_cupid]

"Oh, thank god," Clint muttered under his breath as his fingers curled about the cup and he inhaled the aroma of coffee from his favorite little place around the corner from their apartment. "I could kiss you. Except Coulson would keep me in lectures for the next week about breaking fraternization rules. Especially in front of fresh meat," he laughed, returning Bucky's grin with one of his own before carefully schooling his features as Coulson shot him a Look.

Still, he managed to squeeze in a wink as Bucky backed away. "I'll find you later," he promised, holding his friend's gaze for a moment before he lifted his hand in a wave and continued down the hall with Coulson, Foster and Darcy, in considerably higher spirits as he sampled his coffee.

God, he'd missed New York.

[taze_me_bro]

Darcy gave the new guy - Barnes - the eye. She hadn't quite decided if it was a stink eye or a eyeballing of the hotty. Maybe a combination of both. She cleared her throat, and then liberated the cup of coffee from Clint's hands with a patented Darcy Lewis American Ninja Woman move. "Cool, thanks guy I don't know who hasn't bothered to introduce himself. Where's Clint's?"

She didn't like being ignored. And definitely not by cuties. And she grinned, just daring one of them to start up with her first. Sure, she wasn't some kind of super soldier spy assassin. But as she'd told Clint... she had a take no shit attitude, and that was really the most important thing.

[soldier_on]

Bucky spread his hands briefly, eyebrows raised. "I think you're holding it, hot stuff. Careful. That's a declaration of war around here."

He could still run distraction for Clint to snatch the cup back and hey, cute coffee thief. And like most good SHIELD agents, Bucky was very good at disappearing before Coulson had to give him a lecture.

[phil_coulson]

This was hardly the first time Agent Barnes had come by to deliver coffee after a mission, and for the most part Coulson ignored it. The timing had been impeccable anyway, because he doubted telling Darcy where they'd gotten her picture - or more accurately, not telling her - would do anything to endear her to SHIELD. She had signed the release forms. No one read anything they signed these days.

"Maybe you should share," Coulson suggested, but he didn't have much hope of Darcy and Barton showing the combined maturity of a five-year-old. "If you fight I'm taking the coffee away."

[agent_cupid]

The surprise that flitted over Clint's face was almost comical when Darcy relieved him of his coffee and it took him a moment to blink and recover before he reached over and lifted it off her, not needing anyone to run interference for him. He'd spent at least half of his life picking pockets out of necessity and the other half for fun. Considering this was his coffee, it counted as both.

"You know, you're lucky I like you. The last person that tried to touch my coffee ended up a pincushion," he informed her with a cheerful smile, although his gaze was still narrowed slightly, having no intention of being surprised a second time. He took a slow sip, enjoying it, before winking at her and handing it back. "I suppose I can deal with sharing. This time. But only because I suspect Coulson's gonna lock me up in about five minutes and I can't take you for your own." Or a second one for him. Had he mentioned he'd missed New York?

"Oh, and this is Bucky. James Barnes, actually, but no one but the suits calls him that," he introduced, his grin turning cheeky. "Bucky, meet Darcy Lewis. She tased a god. Be afraid. Be very afraid."

[taze_me_bro]

Darcy shrugged. If she ever spent time worrying about getting in trouble, she wouldn't do a lot of things, and her life, while potentially safer, would be a lot more boring.

"It's okay, dad," she informed Coulson. "Clint's playing nice for once."

She ignored all the posturing and macho. Sure, she knew that she could get her ass kicked by everyone in the room except maybe Jane. Once she'd admitted that to herself, it was easy to just let it go and move on.

So she just smiled sweetly at Clint. "And if you turn me into a pincushion, I won't be nearly as cute, which will just mostly suck for you since I'll be dead and won't care any more."

The smile turned into a grin for Bucky's benefit. "I totally did. He was acting weird. Nice to meet you, Bucky."

[phil_coulson]

"Good," Coulson replied, without missing a beat. "I would hate to turn this debriefing around." He met Clint's gaze briefly because yes, he would be indisposed in roughly five minutes. They still had to debrief on New Mexico once Dr. Foster was settled in. "And you'll have plenty of time for coffee dates during your next vacation in August of 2016."

The lab finally came into view, Sitwell moving in to shake hands with Dr. Foster, and Coulson busied himself introducing them and hoped their little pack of agents wouldn't multiply any further while his back was turned.

[soldier_on]

It looked like the time-honored tradition of threatening new agents with grievous bodily harm was still going strong. Granted, pretty much anything was fair game when it came to coffee. Especially Clint's coffee.

"Pleasure's all mine, Darcy." Bucky replied, returning the grin. "Tell me you're joining the team, 'cuz there are a few gods out there who could really use some tasing. And, you know, I hear Clint's into that kinda thing too."

[agent_cupid]

Clint just rolled his eyes at all of them. "All I wanted was a little peace and quiet with my coffee. And maybe a pillow. Why do you all make my life so hard?" he complained, although there was humor lurking in his tone as he sassed them back.

He was suddenly very relieved Fury had gone with the other two, since the last thing he needed was for the Director to take that as a personal challenge.

"Don't encourage her," he chided Bucky as his lips quirked into a grin. "Although I've already volunteered us for escort duty. Feel up to Charlie's some night soon? I think Darcy would like to see the sights. Unless you've changed your mind?" he asked, turning to glance at Darcy at his side.

[taze_me_bro]

"Well, I'm mostly here to just... I don't even know. Make Jane's coffee, I guess." Since she probably wasn't going to be useful doing even the minimal stuff she'd done before. Jane had a whole team of nerds now, which meant Darcy wasn't exactly useful. She glanced at Agent Coulson. "Hey dad, what am I supposed to be doing here anyway? My BA is political science, not like... science with numbers and stuff."

With a shrug, she gave Clint a grin. "Never. Unless you're trying to find a graceful way to back out of the deal, grandpa."

[phil_coulson]

He sent Dr. Foster off with Sitwell, and from the look on her face while she went she was genuinely pleased with her new toys. Which left him with only three more agents to coral.

"I'm contractually obligated." He informed Barton, which in a way wasn't entirely untrue. "I think they just do it for fun."

Barnes shrugged an agreement, because he absolutely did.

All joking aside however, he wouldn't tell Darcy she'd been brought along because of the sheer dumb luck of being acquainted with Jane, a pair of demi-gods, and SHIELD's more stringent search-and-seizure policies. As with every eventuality, they were prepared. He clasped his hands in front of him.

"SHIELD has some very exciting co-op opportunities. You'll find an information packet in your on-site apartment, if you're interested, but otherwise we thought you might like to finish your credit with Dr. Foster. Fetching coffee is a much rarer talent than Agent Barnes might have led you to believe."

[soldier_on]

Bucky shot Coulson a look, but he grinned at Darcy anyway. "That's why they keep me around; good looks, charm, coffee. It's not a bad deal."

He was really enjoying the novelty of someone not knowing he was the oldest guy in the room. Being called 'grandpa' got old pretty fast, though it was funny that Clint got it instead of Coulson.

"And I'm always up for a night on the town. Do I get to bring a date too?"

[agent_cupid]

"I'm pretty sure Darcy thinks she can take up both," Clint smirked, stealing his coffee back once more after she had the audacity to call him 'grandpa'. Bucky would never let him live that one down and he wasn't sure Coulson would either. Why did he like these people again?

"Actually, considering it's Darcy, I'm not so sure she can't," he added a moment later, snorting with a laugh as he cast her a sideways look. She'd held her own with Asgardian gods, despite the fact that she seemed tiny even beside him. "But sure, if you've got a hot date. Should I be jealous?"

[taze_me_bro]

Darcy nodded, listening to Coulson first. As much as she'd rather flirt with the boys, she still did have to think about life after college, if nothing else. And this was definitely a possible career boost, if it didn't mean fetching coffee for the rest of her life. "Okay, I'll look it over when I get there," she said. "I kind of have to finish out the credit with Jane no matter what, though. I want to graduate on time."

She turned her attention back to the boys, which... were they being flirty with each other? It was adorable, and she wanted in on it, though it also opened the possibility that she wasn't going to get laid any time soon.

Or maybe? If Bucky had a date... hell, who knew. She could roll with the punches like a big girl and just have a good time, since that was kind of the point of the whole thing. "The more the merrier, right?" she said, grinning. "But I'm a bad influence. You've been warned."

[soldier_on]

"Absolutely," He grinned at Clint before shooting Darcy a sidelong glance. "Fair's fair."

Steve needed to get out some anyway. He'd been trying to give him some space, and some time to adjust, but he'd have met Clint by then, and Darcy seemed like an easygoing kinda girl. If Steve still wasn't up for it, though, he supposed he could bring Agent Mysterious from R&D.

"Anyone in this hallway strike you as a paragon of virtue?" He teased. "I think we can handle you."

[phil_coulson]

Coulson nodded at Darcy. "That shouldn't be a problem. It was good seeing you again, Ms. Lewis. Agent Barnes."

"Sir." Barnes responded promptly, and winked at Barton before turning back to Darcy. "So, need any help finding coffee for your scientist..?"

Coulson turned and headed off down a different hallway, expecting Barton to follow. SHIELD didn't have strict fraternization rules in general, so on an entirely personal level he really didn't want to be a part of this conversation much longer, especially with Barton gesturing beside him. He waited until Barton fell into step before he spoke again. "So, how was New Mexico?"

[agent_cupid]

Clint let off motioning at Coulson in reply to Bucky's 'paragon of virtue' sentiment, giving his handler an innocent grin when fixed a familiar Look. He lifted his hands in a shrug before grinning at Bucky. "Stay out of trouble, man. Catch you later," he bid him before winking at Darcy. "Goes for you, too. Try not to taze anyone without justifiable cause."

He gave them both a playful salute before falling obediently into step behind Coulson, hands tucked into his pockets in a cheerful manner despite the long hours of debrief ahead.

[Jumping down a thread]