Arachnophobia

2.5

                                     Alex

"First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk." Nat said to Steve, who was speed walking. The two of them were dressed as a couple, and me as their kid. How classy.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off."We enter the apple store in the mall, going straight to the laptops.

"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are." Nat said calmly.

"How much time do we have?" Steve said, looking around.

" Uh...about nine minutes from..." She pops the flash drive into a MacBook Pro.

"Now."

"Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands." Nat mumbled.

"Can you override it?"

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly.." Nat said cockily. Cant give up her ego. Steve and Natasha continue to try and find out what's on the flash drive while I just watch. As a computer nerd, you could just run a tracer.

I tapped Nat's shoulder, annoyed. She took forever. She looked at me, and I shoved my glasses up my nose. Nat stepped aside and watched as I ran a tracer.

"You're running a tracer..."

"A what?"

"This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."

"Can I help you guys with anything?" Some weird long haired hippie came over. An apple employee.

"Oh, no. My fiancé and kid were just helping out with some honeymoon destinations."

"Right..! We're getting married."

"Congratulations. Where do you guys thinking about going?" Steve looked at the monitor and saw the signal traced to somewhere in New Jersey, right where I expected.

"New Jersey."

"Oh." The employee looked at Steve for a moment, then at me.

"I have the exact same glasses."

"Wow, you two are practically twins." Nat deadpanned as she looked out and watched me.

"Yeah, I wish. Specimen. Uh...if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron."

"Thank you."

"You said nine minutes, come on." Steve said.

"Shh, relax. Alex's got it." The signal is coming from Wheaton, NJ.

"You know it?" Nat said.

"I used to. Let's go." Steve pulls the flash drive from the computer and we walk out of the store.

"Standard tac-team. Two behind, to across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro." Two agents are coming straight towards the three of us.

"Shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something I said." Nat said as she pulled me in close.

"What?"

"Do it!" Steve quickly puts his arm around Nat and his hand on my shoulder, laughing. They didn't suspect shit.

As we went down the escalator, I spotted Rumlow on the escalator next to us going up, and Nat turned to Steve.

"Kiss me."

"What?" Steve said.

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable." Nat said. I grabbed Nat's phone and acted as if I was watching YouTube.

"Yes, they do." Nat quickly pulled down Steve's head and kisses him making Rumlow look away as he goes past them on the escalator. I didn't look up, I was intrigued by Natasha's photos of us together.

"You still uncomfortable?" Nat deadpanned, grabbing my shoulders and steering me down the escalator.

"It's not exactly the word I would use."

Two hours later

"Where did Captain America and Spider-Man learn how to steal a car?"

"Nazi Germany."

"Mm." Nat said, looking to me in the back. I was leaning against the door, my legs across the seats.

"And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." Nat slowly takes her feet off the dash.

"Alright, I have a question for you, oh, which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?" Steve said, annoyed. I'd been watching youtube videos of myself, saving people. They were fun to watch.

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?"

"That bad, huh?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying."

"No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had." Nat said, trying hard not to laugh.

"You don't need practice." Steve scoffed.

"Everybody needs practice."

"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead."

"Nobody special, though?" Steve chuckled as Nat spoke.

"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience." Well no shit sherlock. You were an icicle for 70 years or something.

"Well, that's alright, you just make something up."

"What, like you and the one who doesn't make a peep?"

"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I."

"That's a tough way to live."

"It's a good way not to die, though."

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is, and that other someone doesn't even speak a word."

"Yeah. Who do you want us to be?"

"How about friends?" Natasha laughed softly, looking over to me. I only shrugged. The whole friends thing was never my thing besides Ned and MJ.

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers." Nat said, answering for me and herself. Nat knew I hated making new friends. The enemy of my life. Introvert is what I get called, and they are not wrong.

I used my own phone to message Ned, not having talking to him since spring break. I couldn't use Nat's since they'd track that shit.

April 5th, 2014
Hey Ned, what's up?

                                Hey Alex! I'm chillin with MJ

Snazzy, I'm with Rogers and Romanoff.

                               That's so cool! Where u at?

Cant say, but ill ttyl

                                                             Cya!

Cya Ned.
Read at 2:51 PM