verb.
To come or go back to a place or person.
noun.
The firing of a weapon to counter a shooter's shot.
•
They recoiled from their pasts, and in doing so found each other.
But the universe isn't kind enough to let a moment of peace last.
It took se...
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Five Years Since the Snap
The cooling evening air bit at Kat's arms as she slowed her pace to a jog, on her final lap of the Compound perimeter. Running filled the time, in the same way it had done for her in Amsterdam. The burn of constant movement placating the fire of enhanced muscles that demanded to be put to use, the music in her ears drowning out her thoughts. It was an hour or two of peace, different to the silence that awaited her when she returned to the other parts of her routine. Reporting back that once again, there were no visible issues with the perimeter fence, showering, getting ready for bed - only to get up and do it all again tomorrow. Above her, only a faint streak of pink lingered in the sky, a silent indicator that it was time to head back inside. Perhaps check that Natasha was actually going to eat something substantial, more than the dry cereal she'd caught her eating out of the box that afternoon.
Bracing her hands on her hips, she diverted her path off the sprawling lawn towards the long driveway, hesitating as, over the blaring bassline in her ears, she heard the squeal of the gate sliding back, and the rumble of an engine. A single headlight swung into view as she slipped off the headphones that sat over her ears, a small smile tugging her lips as she raised her hand in greeting at the sight of Steve's motorcycle.
"Room for one more?" She called as he spotted her, slowing the bike to a halt as she jogged over to the tarmac.
"Depends." He hummed, pulling forward a few feet just as she began to get close, chuckling as she broke into a run again, "Can you catch up?"
Laughing, she grabbed for the back of his jacket before he could drive off, swinging her leg over the saddle behind him as she did so. "I'm not falling for that again." She insisted, reminding him of the time a few months earlier that he had raced her to the front door of the Compound - though she was certain he hadn't pushed the bike to full speed.
It was barely worth pulling him over, the minute or so that she saved leaning into his back as he raced down the driveway, but it meant that they could walk through the doors together. It meant an extra few minutes of catching up on the same mundane news they always had to share, but that didn't matter. A minute extra with her friend was a minute that wasn't spent alone.
They didn't speak of the misplaced kiss that they had shared a year ago. They never had. It remained an unspoken thing, a tiny, awkward moment of contact that they didn't touch.
Natasha was on a call when they entered the control room. In fact, Kat was sure she hadn't even noticed their entrance in the dimmed room behind the blue projections of Rocket, Nebula, Carol, Rhodes, Okoye... The usual faces. The reports Kat overheard as she crossed the open space towards the kitchen weren't anything out of the ordinary, they never were. That was why she focused slightly more on downing a glass of water and searching for something to eat as she noted the open bag of white bread and the half-empty jar of peanut butter left out on the counter, the knife still jammed haphazardly in the jar. She hadn't made it on time to insist Nat ate something resembling a vegetable.
