outsiderslogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

who. Kasumi Goto and La Casa de Avengers
what. Friendly neighborhood stalking
where. Apartment of Steve Rogers and co
when. After the plot
warnings. Tony Stark?
note. Anyone in the apartment is free to start a thread or slip into an ongoing one!

Even on a place as populated as Omega, finding a red, white, and blue clad, shield wielding captain wasn’t exactly difficult. Especially for Kasumi Goto. And considering breaking and entering was the equivalent of a friendly wave hello in her line of work, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that rather than making an appointment she just let herself in. Which, once she was in there?

…Well, it wasn’t exactly what she’d been expecting.

Military types tended to have the whole order and practicality thing drilled in- not exactly her idea of décor, but what could she do. This place, though? Disaster would sound right, if it didn’t look like the parts strewn across the living room had been put there on purpose. She just hoped there was a good story to go with the mess. Whatever the case, she made her first stop the kitchen. She’d brought her welcoming gift of wine (or what passed for wine in the market places of Omega, not exactly a thousand dollar bottle, here) and figured she could at least let it breath while she waited. There had to be a corkscrew somewhere.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The apartment was a mess though it wasn't because of Steve. However he tried to straighten this up or that up, Tony would just accumulate more junk to fill the newly empty space. It was irritating. When he stepped through the door to see the mess, he was still surprised.

"Tony," he muttered. They were going to have to have a talk. That was all there was to it. This wasn't acceptable. There were four of them living here. If he needed somewhere to work it would have to somewhere else.

He shook his head and swung his shield down off his back. Steve stopped abruptly when he heard the faintest sound from the kitchen--super-soldier hearing was hard to escape, sorry Kasumi. He frowned, surely one of his roommates would have greeted him?

"Hello?"

There's a time for stealth, and a time to get noticed. And when in the house of a handsome super soldier, the time is certainly the latter. Kasumi was still trying to decrypt the organizational system of the kitchen- she was starting to suspect the answer was there just wasn't one- when she heard that voice. And she grinned into the cabinet she was currently half climbed in on her quest (and mission of general nosiness. Multitasker, that's her.)

"Captain. I'm on an important mission, looks like I could use your help."

Kasumi was in a bachelor pad--what did she expect? Particularly with the mess in the rest of the place Steve would be surprised if she really thought the kitchen would look any differently. It was also pretty barren.

He was incredibly confused for a moment and startled by hearing a woman's voice in an apartment where four guys live. Maybe if Tony were actually home but otherwise, she shouldn't be here. It took him a moment but he recognized the voice.

Steve kicked some of the junk he passed under the couch and headed for the kitchen. He frowned, "How did you get in here? Did someone leave it unlocked?" He was more concerned than accusing.

"Mm, guess I did. Though I'm impressed. Higher grade tech than I was expecting. I almost had to think about it."

She pulled herself out of the cabinet and, in one fluid motion, turned so she was sitting on the counter instead, elbows resting on her knees. The hood still obscured most of her features, but her smile was clearly visible. She didn't feel the least bit bad about the total invasion of privacy, and she didn't have a problem showing it.

"Do you boys keep a corkscrew, or do you just put on a show and open the bottle by muscle alone?"

"My roommate makes a living dealing with tech. This whole mess is his doing," Steve conceded, because for all the irritation that Tony caused him he could acknowledge that the man was incredibly intelligent and he knew his way around technology. "He won't be happy that you picked his lock."

Was it wrong of Steve to want to see the man's reaction? Probably. It felt a little more vindictive than Captain America should be. He needed to watch that. In the meantime, he will be a little uncertain about her and why she was in their apartment. She seemed nice enough on the phone but most people don't break into your home later.

"I think we do," he frowned and pulled a few drawers open at random. Steve decided it probably wasn't in the kitchen at all and stepped back out in the living room to rummage through a pile of junk. He extracted the corkscrew and returned to the kitchen. "Here you are, Ma'am."

"Captain. Guess I can live with out the show for today."

She grin widened for a moment as she accepted the cork screw- mm, so few men with manners on this side of the galaxy- and she set to work opening up the bottle for her seated position. Two wine glasses had already been secured during her rummaging, sitting on the counter to her side.

To be honest, she'd like to see this 'roommates' reaction, too. It was rare someone of any skill ended up on Omega who wasn't already in some gang lord's pocket or another. While those types were fun to steal from, they usually weren't very good sports about it.

"And you have good taste in roommates. But watch out. Make too good a lock and people start thinking you have things worth protecting in here. Call it thief's instinct."

There was a small pause--she was serious about the show? He wasn't sure he could manage to pop the cork without damaging the bottle through sheer strength. He'll leave that part out though and just watch her open it. He didn't get drunk but he would drink socially, explaining the whole not drinking thing was too complicated.

Steve hoped she never managed to meet Tony. It was probably a folly but he could only imagine what the older man would have to say about her. None of it was what he would consider proper. Of course, he would probably only be more unbearable because she knew tech.

"Some people would disagree with you about that," he told her. They didn't exactly get along. There was always that one roommate right? "I'll make sure to pass your advice along."

"Ooh, you can't leave it here. Horrible hygiene? Secret love of porcelain horse figures? Or trashy inter-species romances?"

Tali. The Fleet and Flotilla obsession was cute as a button, but even Kasumi could only take a viewing once per lunar cycle. She wasn't entirely sure what a more masculine equivalent of that would be on past Earth, but she'd known all types in her time and line of work. Whatever the source of conflict, there really was nothing like a little gossip.

She handed him his glass of wine to sweeten the request, taking a small sip of her own as she waited.

Of course she would want to know details, Steve should have just let it lie.

"My problems aren't with his habits."

He knew that was vague but he really didn't know what else to say. It wasn't like him to insult someone's character behind their back. If he needed to comment on something he did it to their face. Sorry, he is boringly noble like that!

He opted instead to change the subject. She could make judgments for her own if she ever met him, "I think you promised me a name."

"Tease."

Oh, Steve. This just means she has to keep coming back until she sees him herself. Not that she's complaining. Hanging around in stealth mode will probably give her a hell of a view.

"Did I? Hm. Sounds like something I might do. But it's been a while. I might need new incentive to share."

He sighed a little, "It isn't fair to a person if you talk about them when they can't defend themselves."

Probably, until Steve could find somewhere to work out he would have to set up a makeshift... something in the apartment. He really didn't know what yet but there wasn't really a way he could go for a jog on Omega. He would probably get shot.

"New incentive? Like what?" Steve had a feeling he knew what she would want but he was going to ask anyway.

"Fairness isn't really part of the equation. Especially on Omega."

For the second question? She flashed him another grin, then slid off the counter to wander towards the living room, wine glass in hand. She hadn't really had time to be properly nosy about that mess before. Priorities and all.

"Well, let's start with something about you, huh?"

"Location shouldn't affect who you are," he told her. Otherwise, he would have been a different person awhile ago. He saw plenty that went against his morals during the war and then again in the twenty-first century. It wasn't easy but Captain America still had all those traits that Dr. Erskine picked him for.

He grabbed the other glass and frowned at it before--was it supposed to be that color?--he followed her out into the living room.

Steve tipped his head, "Alright, what do you want to know?"

Kasumi gave a quick, small laugh at the question, already nudging aside this and that on the floor so she could get a look at what was underneath. Someone was being productive...and drinking. Hm.

"Is 'who you are' too general, Captain? I could start with your favorite painter. Or bubble bath scent."

He didn't stop her from rummaging in Tony's piles. As far as the soldier was concerned, it was all junk. He assumed the man wouldn't leave important pieces of a reactor laying about and as far as he knew that was the only thing the other Avenger was working on for the moment.

Steve grinned and shook his head, he walked right into that one didn't he?

"I don't know where to start," he admitted. "I'm a soldier. I signed up during World War II. It took quite a bit of determination to get that far. I had a few health issues. Now I'm part of a team of superheroes."

So he skipped a lot there, he didn't know how much he wanted to tell someone he didn't even know the name of yet.

She tilted her head to the side for a moment, hand drifting to touch the back of her ear as she made sure the translator didn't just glitch on her. Superhero. Well.

"Now there's a term you don't hear everyday."

"I'm not the one that picked it," Steve managed to look a bit sheepish.

Yeah, it definitely wasn't one of those normal phrases. They called him a lot of things--the first superhero was one of them but it wasn't a term he was entirely comfortable using. Steve was just a soldier--a powerful and larger than life one but at the end of the day he was just a man.

"The group we work for say that because we're... different, from normal humans." It was difficult to explain. They were all special in their own way but even Bruce was still human. He thinks.

"Biotics? Genetic engineering? Prophetic visions from ancient alien rocks?"

She grins as if it's a joke, but that's life around Commander Shepard. Always a zany match up of larger than life people. Miranda and her genetic perfection was almost mundane when put into the context of all the different kinds of people the Normandy had picked up over the years. Some days, Kasumi was a little surprised she'd even been asked along for the ride.

Until she remembers she's the best there is, of course.

"I don't know about any of that Ma'am," he shook his head. Steve didn't really even know what genetic engineering entailed. Is that what the serum was? Was the Hulk? He needed to look it up or... "I'm not sure what you mean by genetic engineering but the only thing special about Tony is his suit."

Which isn't here, so that means he isn't special. It was kind of a sore point. They've argued about it more than once.

"I'm a good deal stronger and faster than most humans."

Engineer? Interesting. Not something to underestimate. But, to be honest, the 'suit man' was put out of mind at that last bit. Faster, stronger, longer lasting? Hmmm.

She abandoned the poking around to slip onto the couch, tucking her legs up under her. She'd resume poking through all the drawers and closets when she had the place to herself.

"Nothing like human ingenuity. You have to tell me if whoever did your genome shows up. I just might send a letter of appreciation."

The suit really was spectacular. Steve just had a low opinion of the man that wore it. It seemed kind of backwards, he knew, but Anthony Stark wanted nothing more than to help himself even with the lives he saved it was all just to make him and his company look good.

Yeah his stamina was pretty impressive... not that he would be thinking in the same terms as she probably was and he would stammer for an hour if she asked.

Steve pulled over a rickety looking chair--after he haphazardly dumped the junk on it into a pile on the floor--and sat down facing her. He glanced down at the floor uncertainly, "Sorry, I don't think you'll get that chance."

"Like that, huh? Still."

She gave a tiny shrug and dismissed the little concept of death with one casual hand wave. Multiple universes? She knew that that meant- or at least had a pretty good working theory. On some of it.

"Was Omega on the list of places you'd be seeing in a lifetime?"

Well Steve didn't know anything about all that, as far as he was concerned dead was dead. People didn't come back from it and Erskine was definitely gone, Steve was there to see it. Multiple universes he sort of thought he understood.

"No, I don't think it existed yet." Or if it did, they didn't know about it. "Spaceflight was still pretty limited, even in the twenty-first century."

"Looks like the past might have a habit of showing up then, hm?"

It was almost a sore spot at this point, that dull hope that people she wanted to see- one person in particular- would wander out of death and back into her life. No luck so far. But it was an impossible hope to ignore.

"Maybe, there are a couple of people I wouldn't mind seeing again."

Bucky came to mind though she might not entirely realize the entirety of his meaning. Steve didn't make a habit of spreading his story around. It was one of those things he wasn't sure he should tell people. There were a lot of questions surrounding surviving in the ice for seventy years.

It seemed about time for a subject change and he didn't really mind how abrupt it ended up being either.

"Before I was a soldier I was an art student."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only