Sighing, I leaned back and rubbed my temples. Managing the diner wasn't as complicated as managing a whole freaking business. My head was hurting from all the thinking and hard work.
It was four in the afternoon, London time. In New York, it would be eleven in the morning. I still hadn't really gotten used to the different time zone, so my stomach was getting hungrier by the minute.
"Finished?" Ronald said, walking into the library with a glass of my favourite beverage. "Yes, for the day at least. I'll be doing more tomorrow, but I think I have done enough for today." I replied, taking the offered Bourbon and Cola.
"Good." He said, smiling at me and taking the seat opposite me. Ronald wasn't one to speak much more than one syllable, but it's something that you get used to.
I took a sip of my drink, letting the cool liquid slide down my parched throat. I hadn't really left the library all day, so I was thirsty. "Where's Natasha?" I asked him.
Ronnie shrugged his shoulders. "Her room, I guess." When you did get more than one syllable for an answer, it normally wasn't a very confident one.
"Okay. How was your day?" I questioned, flicking through some papers to do with the business. "Good. Yours?" He shot back quickly. I nodded, "Great. My head's a little sore, but I'll get over it."
Ronald nodded and looked out the window. The room was silent. But, it wasn't an awkward 'I don't know you' silence, it was more like a 'I may only have known you for less than fourty-eight hours, but we get along well' silence. Which was true. In the past day that I had been there, we had gotten on quite well.
Every now and then, while I was working, he would pop in and just say something that was funny or really helpful, still using his one syllable / unconfident answers.
Natasha also would come in quite often. But she was sorting out different things like the employment and location of the business, while I sorted out the whole thing money-wise.
Next week, we would be doing more exciting things. It turned out that while I was here, doing my first mission, I would also be doing my second mission, which was small in comparison.
I would be hunting down a man who was illegally selling weaponry and stop the operation. Whether I had to kill him was my decision, and I told myself that I would only kill him if it was the last thing that I could do to stop the illegal sales.
"Nervous?" Ronnie asked me, breaking into my thoughts. I turned and looked at him, his green eyes staring at me. I swallowed and nodded. "Yeah. Quite." I replied, setting my empty glass on the windowsill. Cause, yeah, we were sitting on a window seat. BAM, pure awesomeness. I love window seats. They are like a magical bubble in this despicable world.
"You'll be fine. You're the type of person that excels at these kind of things." He said, for once breaking his one syllable or unsure style of talking. I looked at him, quite surprised.
He laughed. "I am observant." I laughed as well. "Thanks, Ronnie. Shall we go? This library is getting a bit overwhelming." Ronald nodded and we stood up to leave.
*
"Hey." Natasha said as we walked through the door. I moved my head in a greeting and plonked my ass bottom down on the couch. Ass is such a coarse word, and a business person would never use it.
"A little tired, are we?" She asked as she handed me a glass of wine. I accepted it gladly. "Yeah, but it feels good to get back into it." She smiled as she sat down across from me.
We were in her room. It's theme was cream and red, which was funny, cause it red matched her hair. It was the same design and furniture as my room, just a different colour scheme.
"Don't forget to do some training." The red head said. I nodded and stood up, downing the rest of my wine. "I'm going to go Skype the team, wanna come?" She shook her head, saying she had to do some more work.
*
"Avallone!" Tony's voice called over Skype. I smiled at his delayed figure. "Tony, how's life?" He was grinning. "Great, but I miss you." He said, though his mouth only started moving after the sound stopped.
"How's the others?" I questioned him. He shrugged. "Not so great. It seems that they are really bummed. But that's enough about them. How is life in London?" I was surprised. He questioned about how my life was going instead of talking about himself, that was quite different.
I smiled. "Great. The mansion here is beautiful-"
"Mansion? Oh, please, I bet that place would seem like a cottage compared to one of my houses." He cut in. There we go, the normal Tony Stark is back, and I can't say that I missed him all that much.
Laughing, I replied, "Tony, please, let me finish. Anyway, it's amazing here, and I made friends with the-." Again he cut me off. "Friends? Is it a boy, because if it is, I'll punch him in the face, and I surely won't be the only one who would want to."
"Shut up Tony." I heard a familiar voice say in the background. "BRUCIE!" I screamed, making Tony clamp his hands over his ears. Banner came up so I could see him and waved awkwardly.
"Good to see you, Avallone." He commented, making me grin like a mad-man. "You too, Bruce. How's life for ya?" He looked down, obviously saddened. My mind instinctively flickered to Natasha. Shit.
"I - I just miss you Avallone. Having your bright face gone from the tower, well, it feels wrong." He said, almost sadly. "What about Nat?" I asked quietly, hoping that Tony still had his ears covered.
Bruce stared at me like I was crazy. "Natasha? She's so quiet that I hardly even noticed that she was gone." If she had heard that, would her reaction be? Would she be fine with it, or would she be badly hurt?
"Oh, okay. How's the others? Tony didn't really answer my question all to well." I said, brushing the matter of lightly, like it meant no big deal to me, or good friends of mine.
"Thor, he misses you, but he visited just Jane yesterday and she is coming over next week, I think, so he is excited about that. Tony, well, you can guess. He is kind of a mess right now." Bruce said, but was interrupted by a "HEY!" from the kitchen. "Steve is quite sad, he's practically moping around, when he isn't attacking the sand bag in the training room. Loki hasn't changed, though he seems more bitter than usual, but that's probably because he is going back home to be put on trial, or something. Clint misses you both, since you two left, but mostly missing Natasha, no offense." I nodded, slightly relived about how freely he talked about Natasha and Clint. That's a good sign.
Suddenly, what he said registered in my mind.
"Wait, did you say trial?"