FOOL'S GOLD | ❝Love is a dangerous game built for people that like to be fooled.❞
PRE → CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER | CLINT BARTON
A HERO OF HEROES BOOK
Cover by: lokidyinginside
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TENSLEY WAS A RELUCTANT MORNING PERSON. He hadn't been a morning person as a young child, never fully waking up until recess, dragging his feet through his morning routine, but as he grew older, being a morning person was the only way he, and subsequently his brothers, were able to survive, getting to school on time so there weren't more issues to be had if any adults tried to contact their parents or delay their schooling, and it had only gotten more necessary with time. So, despite his nature, Tensley was a morning person, and while he wasn't always chipper, he was at least lucid, and that's all anyone could ask of him, in truth.
He woke with the sun, though he rose before it, exchanging his comfortable grey sleep shirt for a more substantial black one, his flannel pajama bottoms for the well worn jeans he used for every one of these jobs. He forewent his usual leather jacket for the one he knew would never be recognized; dark and average, nearly every other man in Washington owned one, which made it perfect.
He went to the duffel bag, shoving the mask into one of the smaller inside jacket pockets he had sewn in, and the gloves into his jeans pocket; better to be tied with gloves than a mask. He adjusted the rest of the items inside, pausing for a moment before placing a few zip-ties into another pocket, leaving the rest inside the plastic. As for the rope and crowbar, he kept them where they were, but he couldn't help but dwell on the taser, unable to fight the shiver that ran through him; they wouldn't have given this to him if he didn't need it, and he hated what that implied.
"Jesus," he hissed to himself, shoving the taser into an inside pocket, zipping up his jacket before he could change his mind, the weight of the taser weighing heavily against his chest.
He picked up the two decks of cards he had dropped in the night before. He slid his original deck into his boot like usual, feeling more grounded with the added weight in his left shoe. It was the new deck that he was unsure about.
He looked to the hole in the wall, wincing when he realized that they would need to fix that, fearing they wouldn't get their deposit back. But he tamped down the financial concern for the moment, thinking about how this job would pay enough that he could start saving for Vinnie's college fund, maybe Harley too.
Steeling himself, he took the cards out, shuffling them for a moment, just to get warmed up. When he felt more comfortable, he cut the deck into quarters, taking two of the stacks and placing one in each of his back pockets. He unzipped his jacket, placing the other two into one of the other inside pockets he had sewn, deciding to prepare when he was finished.
After zipping up his jacket, he moved to prepare the duffel bag, adjusting the items still left inside, folding it in such a way so he wouldn't draw attention by holding a large, empty bag, but could expand it back to its original shape at a moment's notice. Fortunately, he had done this with other duffel bags, though this one was larger, so it was still more conspicuous than he would have liked.
He made his way to the kitchen, willing his footsteps to be light, even with the boots. Setting the bag down in plain sight, he went to make himself breakfast. He always had the same thing every morning, more or less, and despite his brothers' jokes, he didn't change; he liked the routine, it was one less thing to have to worry about, and was probably the one thing in his life that he could fully control.
