Telling Agent C why @not_Hydra has been coming home late
"And why does the coffee taste like you made a pot of coffee and then used that as the water for another pot of coffee?"
"That's not a bad idea, now that you mention it..." Xe trails off, considering, and adjusts xyr gloves before continuing. "It's just a little bit extra strong."
"You've been sneaking out and not getting home until far too late to get a reasonable amount of sleep, haven't you?"
That earns him a pointed look. "Seriously, Dr. C, how do you know everything I'm doing? I know you didn't implant anything because I've checked. Yes, I know it's not a very good use of resources, but they keep giving you the shaft on shit we need, and you're not going to stick it to the man, so I figure I can do it for you."
"I really did not need to know that." Phil resists the urge to rub his temples. He can feel the promise of a headache looming.
His tech pulls off xyr gloves and retreats to the cabinet in the corner. Xe returns shortly with a cup of fresh coffee and a couple of small white tablets. "Here, sir. It's normal coffee, not extra-strong-for-the-morning coffee. Why are you staring at me I'm not to be trusted? You're the one who hired me."
"I seem to recall the other two candidates mysteriously turning up injured or dead shortly before I hired you." He takes the pills anyway; the coffee is, as promised, normal coffee. Xe must have made a fresh pot since this morning, he muses.
Xe waves xyr hand dismissively. "Those were unrelated incidents."
Phil pretends he didn't hear that. If he's honest with himself, this tech has turned out to be an unexpectedly good choice. That's not really the surprising part, but if he admits to having heard anything that could connect xem with those incidents, he'll lose xem. He's not sure he'll be able to find another minion willing to stick around for at least five or six years without losing any enthusiasm for xyr job, and he doesn't really have the spare time to even look. "Who have you been sneaking out to see, Riagán?"
"No one—xe works for SHIELD," xe mumbles, in the end. "It kind of happened by accident, really."
It takes all he has to not do something drastic. "Someone who works for SHIELD. Doing what, exactly? How does this happen 'by accident'."
"Ballistics!" Xe brightens. "We started talking after I posted that one picture with Stevie... you know. It's a surprisingly popular picture. I swear I'm not sharing any of your secrets. We kind of avoid talking about work unless we have to. Mixing professional and personal lives gets distracting."
Phil presses his lips into a tight smile. "I'm sure it can be. How is that working out for you, anyway?" (He doesn't mind their occasional moments of chatter, as long as they're getting work done.)
"Well. Um."
"That well?"
"You know how Steven kind of stares at Bucky from a distance before he pounces? Yeah, it's kind of like that, but with cupcakes."
"... You do realise you're romantically hopeless, don't you?"
"Yeah, I kind of had that figured out."