An hour later, all of them sat around the table, talking at the same time, asking about what they had discovered. Steve and Nat talked with each other. Meanwhile, Tory sat with a tablet and a laptop opened in front of her, hacking into the security system from London's traffic, Bucky sat on her left side, searching for any upcoming events that would lead a crowd to the streets.
"Wanna explain what's this all about?" Tony asked, eyeing his sister, then the man beside her with questioning eyes.
"We know where HYDRA's going to attack next," Steve spoke up, everyone turned to him. The room fell silent, finger fastly tapping on a keyboard the only sound that could be heard.
"Then why are we still sitting here?" Stark questioned again.
"Not really wise all the Avengers to all of a sudden arrive in London. What are we going to say... 'Oh don't worry, we just came to take down a terrorist organization that wants to spread a virus on the world starting from here?'" Tory told them, her eyes never leaving the screens.
"London it is?" Bruce mumbled, focusing on the glass windows in front of him, ignoring the woman's sarcasm.
"Yes. We don't know when yet. I was thinking on half of the team to go for a recognition mission if we find something, the rest be ready to go," Steve explained. Tory arched her eyebrows in frustration.
"Tony please, take a look at this."
She handed her brother the tablet, a new bunch of passwords blocking her work on backing down the firewall.
"You're hacking into London's security cameras? What the hell!?" He looked at her.
"We need to have eyes on the streets. Try to find anything that's out of place. Cars, agents, weapons. That's the best way," Nat countered, walking to Bucky, who was awfully quiet since they entered the room.
"Found anything?"
"Queen's birthday is in two days," he responded, pointing to the information on the screen as if it explained a lot of things.
"The whole guard will be there, a bunch of people to see the royal family on the Buckingham Palace, the parade. Perfect opportunity."
"Well, it appears they want it to be a big tragedy," Vision commented, crossing his hands.
"Chaos would fastly spread," Wanda pointed out, her eyes fastly glowing red.
"And it's done... We have access to all the public places with cameras," Tory informed them, mirroring the footages to the big screen for everyone to see.
"Alright then. Want you all ready to live at dawn. We need to approach without been noticed by anyone."
Steve said something else, but Tory didn't listen. She had her head on other things. Both Starks were the ones to create everybody's weapons and combat gears. For this mission, they would need protection against the diseases, in case they couldn't stop it from launching and her mind already had ideas.
"We'll inform their special forces about what's going to happen," Cap continued talking.
"I'll talk to Sharon. She's in London for some security breach," Tory spoke up, reaching for her cellphone on the table.
"You keep in contact with her?" Natasha asked curious, a little bit of dislike on her voice.
"Sure. Since the whole DC thing and Aunty Peggy's... you know..." she answered, her voice cracking on the end, remembering the painful memories of the funeral. She cleared her throat and got out of the room with the phone on her ears. Steve and Bucky exchanged a look.
"Some weird shit you got there man, I'll tell you that," the Falcon recalled, a smug smile on his lips. The fact that his best friend kissed his first lovers niece and now she was friends with his new girl made him laugh.
"Wh..." the blond was about to question, but Tory reentered the room.
"She's in alert. We'll meet some of us on the CIA headquarters there."
"You're all dismissed then."
As all of them got out of the room, Tory stopped her brother and Doctor Banner.
"I need your help on the lab," she began, both men looking at each other before nodding for her to continue.
...
The Avengers spread through the tower, prepping for everything. They could sense the tension in the building. It was like this every time a big amount of casualties was at risk and something intense was about to happen.
Tory was on her lab, analyzing some samples of diseases on the microscope, looking for the specific part of the cells that attacked the human's body. She wanted to create a vaccine that would immediately back down the virus for at least some time, so they could get back to the tower and try to fix it. No one would be immune, but it would slow the process of been infected.
"Bruce, did you find it?" she asked, looking up. The doctor was doing the same thing as her, but with Steve and Bucky's blood. Both supersoldiers couldn't get sick. If they could find where in their cells the serum worked to do that, they could, maybe, create what they needed.
"I think so. Are we going to use their blood?" he asked, turning his attention to her, who was moving around the lab, gathering different glasses with various substances on her arms.
"Nope. If we use it, the side effects wouldn't be good. Maybe someone would show up with some of their abilities... but without the whole process and the right quantity of the super soldier serum in your blood... Let's say it wouldn't end well."
With everything on an empty table, they started working on the vaccination.
On the lab next door, Tony worked on the other thing his sister had in mind. He was building a gas mask, basically. But this one was built with Tory's nanotechnology. It looked like a small device, but with the robots, the mask could mold into their faces easily, converting the air they were in into the only thing they needed: oxygen.
"Hey, want a hand?" Tory yawned entering her brother's lab.
"No. I'm almost done. All ten of them," he answered, not looking at his sister.
"Oh... you did it fast," she said, closing her eyes for a second.
"I'm going to bed then. I think Bruce and I did it. Anyways... when you're done, go get some rest, please. You'll need it," Without any further words, she exited the lab, yawning again, tired.
She arrived on her floor almost crawling. Tory walked by the boys' doors, all the lights down, probably already sleeping. Passing by Steve's, she saw his lights still on and stopped, contemplating on knocking at the door or just keep walking.
Choosing the first one, she softly knocked twice and waited, the door opened some seconds later, to reveal a concerned and shirtless Steve Rogers.
"You're okay?" Was the first thing he asked. She smiled gently.
"Are you okay? When was the last time you had a proper night of sleep Cap?" Tory asked back, looking at his tired and sleepy eyes.
"Don't know. Last week?" he answered, scratching his neck.
"Thought you were going to stay on the lab 'till time to go."
"Finished things earlier and your light was on. Want some company?"
He stepped aside to let her in, answering the question wordlessly, and closed the door behind him, not saying a word. She went to the armchair on the corner of the room and took her coat off, then the shoes.
"Can I borrow one of your shirts?" Tory asked entering his closet, hearing him humming in response. Opening the drawer she always stole clothes from, the woman took a grey shirt and changed. Going back to the bedroom, she found Steve on his bed, sitting against the headboard, blank expression on his face.
Sensing someone moving on the bed, he looked over to her, sitting in front of him, holding his hands, making smooth circles with her thumbs.
"You know everything will be okay tomorrow, don't you? We'll make it back here with only some scratches and people to arrest."
Steve stared at their linked hands, sighing.
"You know that's not how it works. It never is. People always die, one of us always get seriously injured," he answered her.
"Let your thoughts out of the mission for a bit. Let's talk about other things."
She touched tense spots on his arms, going up to his shoulder, feeling the tension slowly going away.
"Do you ever miss it?" Tory asked after some minutes of silence. Steve opened his eyes in confusion.
"What?"
"The 40s, when things were simpler for you. Having a more normal life. The thing you needed to worry about most was getting married or the war."
"I do sometimes, sitting in a bar, after a long day of work, listening to jazz, couples dancing to slow music, the laughter," he answered her, placing a strand of brown hair behind her ear.
"But I like being here, things are much better."
Steve looked at her, eyes staring at her lips a little longer than he should. Tory noticed, smile spreading on her face. Remembering what Nat told her yesterday, she moved closer to him, both their breaths mixing into one, lips lightly brushing.
She waited to see if he would pull away. When it didn't happen, Tory kissed him, hands moving to the back of his neck, pulling slightly on his hair. Steve's hands went to her back, dragging her closer to him. It had been so long since she kissed someone who wasn't just a stranger, she had forgotten the feeling of warmth spreading through her body, how good it felt, how safe.
Fighting for some air, they broke the kiss. Steve held her close as if this was only his imagination playing tricks on him. Foreheads touching, both of them stayed in silence, listening to each other's breath.
"Nat was right. You're a good kisser." Tory commented, making him flustered. Looking at him with a grin, she crashed her lips on his once more, surprising them both.