Settling In
“So,” Tony started, just pulling things out of boxes at this point, “I know you go to a school kind of close to the tower, but there’s another one that’s closer.” He felt Sage’s gaze snap to him, and did his best to keep his face neutral. This was her decision. “Jean suggested that we transfer you, but I kinda wanted your opinion on the matter. How’s the school you’re at now? Would you like to transfer, or are you good where you’re at?” He glanced toward her and saw her glance away, intently studying the cover of the book in her hands.
“Uh,” Sage cleared her throat. “I think… I’d like to stay. I’ve been doing really well where I’m at, and I’ve actually made a few friends there, so… yeah.”
Tony nodded. “Alright, then. Oh, also, I won’t be able to drive you to school, because, well.” He motioned to his face, smiling when Sage giggled. “Loki would totally take you… if he had a driver’s licence. Which we’re working on. JARVIS, remind me to work on that.”
“Of course, Sir. Sir?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“There’s a reminder to ‘work on’ getting Mr. Laufeyson a driver’s licence.”
Sage cackled and Tony rolled his eyes.
“Sage, remind me to donate my sassy AI to MIT.”
“Right. I’ll be sure to do that.” Sage couldn’t resist litting sarcasm ooze from her words, making Tony throw up his hands in mock-desperation. “The amount of utter sass surrounding me!” He smiled when Sage giggled again and went back to unpacking things. “Not to be that guy, but holy shit, Sage, how many books do you have?”
She grinned sheepishly. “You wanna see my list?”
---
Loki knocked softly on the door as he entered, a little taken aback but not at all surprised upon seeing the state of the room. “I can see that you two still have quite the way to go, but Barton made food.”
Tony’s face lit up. “Did he make grilled cheese? Please tell me he made grilled cheese.”
The god chuckled. “Yes, he did. Honestly, Anthony, did you expect anything different? Grilled cheese is the only thing Barton can make.”
“You say that like he doesn’t make a damn fine grilled cheese.”
Loki rolled his eyes, then surveyed the amount of books strewn about. “I believe we should put in an order for more bookshelves.” When Sage flushed, he smirked at her fondly. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a similar affliction. We can set the bookshelves after we eat. I’d gladly help you shelve your books. Do you have a specific organization method, or could I assist with that too?”
“Oh, she’s good, Lo’.” Tony winked at Sage as he took a sip of long cold coffee. “Got a whole cataloging system based on genre and author’s name.”
“Really?” Loki turned back to Sage, arching an impressed brow. “That must have taken quite a good amount of time.”
“Oh, you have no idea.” Sage gushed about her entire sorting process all the way out to the elevator and down to the common floor. “And then, I had to sort them. Ugh, it took days.”
“What are we talking about?” Coulson asked as they entered the kitchen.
Sage flushed slightly, just realising how much she must have been talking to have missed the entire journey to the kitchen. “Uh, m-my books. I’ve- well. I’ve got a whole bunch of them, see, and so a while ago, I decided that I needed a way to know at a quick glance which books I had in a series, how many books I had in a certain genre, et cetera.”
“What are your favourite series?” Steve joined in, looking actually interested. Sage was a little surprised.
“Well… Probably The Lord of the Rings. If we’re talking about the series I have the most of though… That’s definitely either Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew.”
“Those are still around? Man, those series are almost as old as us!” Steve hit Bucky lightly on the chest and the brunet chuckled.
“Ain’t that the truth.” He gave Sage a toothy grin. “How many do you have?”
“Not nearly as many as I’d like. I think I have about twenty books from each series… I’m not quite as into amassing the full series as I was when I was much smaller. Plus, there was a point in the series where I started just… not liking them as well. Like, somewhere in the fifties. I’m not sure. Pro tip, if you like the original series, do not read the casefiles books. They were terrible. I hated them.”
Steve chuckled. “Good to know. What’s your favourite Hardy Boys?”
“Funny you should ask.” She smiled shyly. “Actually, um. The very first one. You know, Tower Treasure. Because, when I was really little, my dad read it to me. I didn’t realise until years later, after he was... gone, that he’d… never actually finished reading the book.” Her mouth twisted up wistfully. “It was fun though, discovering an ending that I’d never heard before.” She forced a smile, and accepted the grilled cheese that Clint offered her, noticing with a tiny, undignified snort that Tony was already well through chowing down on one.
“So, how are you liking things here so far?” Clint asked her with his most charming smile. “You can say Pietro weirds you out, it’s okay.”
“Hey!” Pietro seemed to be trying to glare at Clint, but the effect was ruined by the bit of melted cheese clinging to his chin. Sage tried not to laugh.
“I think I’m more concerned about whether I weird PIetro out, but, no, um… Yeah. This is… cool.”
Tony beamed at her, leaning slightly into Loki. Hopefully this meant that nothing they’d done or said so far had made her uncomfortable. This could work.