Coffee
Shop
Tokyo,
Japan
August
2015
“Do you think we’re better friends?”
“I can tolerate you more, if that’s what
you’re wondering,” A laughed. She took a long sip from her coffee and exhaled,
“What’s with this, Peters? You’ve been weird the entire day,” she said,
quirking a brow at him. Across her, the American flashed a grin and stretched.
The two of them had chosen to have a small session at the local coffee shop; A
had brought her laptop and Peters had his tablet. They would talk and work on
their other matters, exchanging ideas back and forth.
On some days, they would talk about work
and nothing but work. On other days, one of them would go personal and the
other would listen. On the rare few, both of them would end up sharing with
each other. It was an odd arrangement, granted that they had started off
roughly with each other, but they managed and were able to make their
friendship work.
“Don’t assume anything.”
“I’m not. I’m just asking.”
“Well…” Peters cut his cinnamon roll and
eventually set down the utensils, “It just came to mind and all. How Squad
Alpha was able to come up and all that shit,” he shrugged, “Seeing as it’s been
what – three years?”
“…it’s really been a long time.”
“Yeah. So that’s just me, wondering,” he
explained. “Nothing too deep. Just wondering if we’re better friends than we
were a few years ago, when we were starting fresh in HQ.”
“If we weren’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here
with you. But since I am, I think it’s fair game to say that we are better.” Peters smirked at that and
A rolled her eyes at him. “…we’re not kids anymore, Pete. We’ve grown past our
stupid arguments.”
“Thankfully.” He raised his glass of iced
coffee to her, “To us.”
“To us.” The sound of clinking class
resounded in their ears for a moment, and the two managed to exchange smiles.
* *
* * *
In the beginning, A preferred to be alone.
Peters liked interacting and flirting.
Apparently, this wasn’t a good mix. Touta
had to step into the argument and force them to stop – A looked like she was
about to explode and Peters’ eyes were burning with irritation. Unable to do
anything, A merely made an angry noise and stomped off without explaining what
had happened.
For the next couple of weeks, things would
be cold and tense. Peters and A only interacted if they really had to.
Otherwise, they would do anything to avoid the other. A busied herself with
work while Peters assisted Touta and went out during the weekends. A,
preferring to be alone, worked with herself and herself only, not wanting
anyone else to get in the way.
When Fate had chosen to group them together
into one Squad with Touta as the head, the Japanese prayed to every god he
knew.
Peters and A working together could either
be very, very beneficial or very, very explosive. He could tell that the two
had potential: Peters was passionate and physically gifted. On A’s part, she
had a certain rationale and a high level of intellect which could carry them
through their investigations.
The first mission turned out bad. There was
arguing. There was insulting. There was a lot of fighting and Touta had to step
in again.
The succeeding ones got slightly better
each times. A would begrudgingly listen to Peters’ own theories and the
American would sometimes let A put her rationality over her heart. Touta hoped
that it was the start of something better, but part of him knew that those
kinds of things simply took more time.
So he waited.
Eventually, his hopes did come true – that
Peters and A would be able to make a deeper friendship instead of a relationship
full of insults and wisecracks.
However, it had two come in two very
wrecking ways.
The first was when Peters ended up horribly
shot and ended up in the hospital. A few bullets went awry and his streak had
taken over. The next thing Peters knew, A was watching him with her arms folded
over her chest and a disapproving look on her face. Despite that, however, her
form was tense and her fingers were trembling, nails digging into her skin
slowly. Even amidst her cold look, he could easily see and trace the worry in
her eyes.
“You’re
an idiot,” she muttered angrily. When she looked at
him fully, he could see that her eyes were red and puffy. At first, he wasn’t
completely sure if it was because he was on intense painkillers that he ended
up seeing things.
But upon talking to Touta later that night
after A had left, the Japanese just nodded and confirmed that she did indeed
cry.
(Touta recalled how it was. A was cursing
and swearing and pacing, calling each and every agent who was there with Peters.
At the end of it, she had worried herself to the point of tears. Touta chose
not to remind her of it since then.)
“You
know that she was screaming, right?”
“What?”
Peters forced himself to sit up and Touta pressed
the button so that Peters’ bed would position itself rightly, “She screamed at who?”
“Your
team mates for the bank mission.” Touta smiled a
little, “She yelled at them for not doing
their job rightly and putting the life of a co-worker at unnecessary risk. I’ve
never seen her more angry.”
“Are
you sure this is A…?”
“Very.”
Touta glanced at him, “It may not seem like it, but she’s awfully concerned for us – for
you.”
Peters personally found it impossible.
Their relationship became less strained from that point, but there were still
moments of tension and awkwardness.
And then the second incident happened.
He honestly didn’t know what had gone
wrong. One moment, A was up and moving. The next moment, she had collapsed onto
the office floor, knocked out. Peters heard himself swear and rushed to her,
trying to get her to wake. It was undoable – she was fully out and it took
almost all of him not to panic.
Touta saw him helplessly holding A, and the
look in his eyes screamed for help.
They ended up finding out that she had
passed out due to exhaustion and fatigue. Touta had watched as Peters quietly
went out. When he next had contact with him, Peters asked for the keys to her
place as well as the address.
A few days later, he found out that Peters
restocked her fridge and bought a few cookbooks to help out. Joining the
cluster of gifts was a slice of her favorite cake.
When he heard that she had awoke, it was
Peters that time who ended up lecturing her about her health upon visiting.
It was a horrible way to make the two bond,
but it still managed to do quite so. Peters checked on A’s eating habits more frequently
while A set a watchful eye on Peters during missions and such. The worry had decreased throughout the months, but it was still there. A would double check if Peters had his bulletproof gear on. Peters would leave A slices of cake and such in return when the days would go rough and she'd end up working even harder.
“Better friends?”
Peters looked at A. She had closed her laptop and was watching a little too closely; while their topic was totally casual and meaning well, she had gained a slightly nervous composure.
He knew exactly what she was thinking and decided to put those thoughts to rest.
“I think we're definitely beyond our shitty, younger selves,” he told her. Relief filled her gaze,
“Yeah,”
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