Universal Displacement

Closure and Endings

 There was a loud knocking on her bedroom door and Sutton staggered over to it, still rubbing sleep out of her eyes as she blearily opened the door and stared up at the person waiting.

"I hate this routine, you know," she said. Her voice was still thick and unused sounding at this hour. "I don't remember asking to join in on this in the first place."

Steve smiled good naturedly and stepped away from the door so she could join him. He was much too awake looking for this early in the morning. As always. Sutton could only just see the sun peeking out from between the various skyscrapers.

"Come on sleepy-head," he said. "You've been doing it this long already."

Sutton was already in her work out pants and shirt, so she huffed as she joined him in the hall. Together they made their way for the elevators which would take them out into the city and cold morning air.

"When do you go back to DC again," she asked teasingly. "Maybe I'll actually get some sleep then."

Steve laughed easily, shaking out his limbs and stretching as they made it outside to the sidewalk. Sutton mimicked his movements, as she always did.

"Aw, you can't say it's all bad," he said.

Pretending to think for a moment, Sutton balanced on one foot as she stretched a hamstring.

"True." She relented with a quirk of her lips. "There's coffee at the end."

They set off at a jog, Steve going slow enough to keep pace beside her, as they made their way down perpetually bustling New York City streets. By this point she was already used to the slight hum as the reactor registered and adjusted to her increased activity.

As much as she didn't enjoy mornings, she had to admit she'd come quite a ways since Steve had started dragging her out to jog. Breathing was a little easier and she was actually gaining some weight in lean muscle rather than just fat as she worked on eating more. The doctor was at least pleased with her progress, and she still hadn't keeled over, so Sutton considered it all a success.

When they'd finally jogged down to the nearby park, Sutton waved in farewell as Steve shot off at a clip that she could never hope to keep up with even at her healthiest. She made sure to maintain her own pace as she jogged through the park, going for awhile until the reactor beeped at her to let her know she should start lowering her heart rate back down. Sutton did one more lap to cool down, stretched like Steve had shown her, and then made her way to the coffee shop just outside the park and got herself a latte. Sitting in a chair facing the window, she sipped at the hot drink and let her mind wander until she could see Steve's tall form heading her way.

She ordered him a black coffee and met him as he reached the door, then they started the walk back to the Tower.

This was Sutton's favorite part because the agony of running was over and she got to chat with Steve and drink coffee at the same time.

She continued to finish off the last of her coffee and fully wake up as she waited for Steve to ask the day's question; it was his turn. Sutton had already forgotten exactly how the ritual had started, but it was a fun game and it hadn't dipped into any uncomfortable territory thanks to the rule that you could ask anything you wanted, you just had to be prepared to answer the same question in return. Steve hummed and took another drink of his coffee.

"Ok," he finally said. "How about a favorite childhood memory?"

Sutton took a moment to mull it over before a smile crept up her face.

"Alright, first one that comes to mind. Before my mom married Howard, we really struggled with money and stuff. She would try to do something special on my birthday, at least, but the year I turned ten had been especially rough. On my birthday she told me that we couldn't do much, so Grandpa was going to take us fishing. And at ten, I can tell you, that did not sound like a fun idea to me. I begged her to do anything else, but nope. She insisted. So, we drove all the way out to get my grandparents and then we hit the road. I remember thinking it was a little strange that we didn't have any fishing poles or anything, but I was too distracted to really think about it.