"You know, most people knock," I said, dropping my blazer on the sofa.
"Most people don't have a balcony on the fourteenth floor." Fury turned from the balcony towards me. "New place."
"Well, I'm sure you knew about this place the second I stepped foot in here," I responded with an exasperated tone, tired of his mysteriousness.
He looked at me with a slight smile before returning to a serious demeanour.
"I'm ready to formalise the arrangement," he said.
I noted that he said 'I', not 'we', most likely meaning that he intended on hiding our partnership from his superiors.
"Yeah, I'd be pretty mad if you broke into my place just to tell me I had been rejected."
"There are conditions we didn't cover initially."
I gestured toward the sofa, and we both sat down opposing each other. It was the same dynamic as our first meeting, thought he sofas were nicer, and the room was larger.
"You report directly to me. Nobody else gives you orders, and nobody else knows the terms of our arrangement. That means the no-surveillance condition stays between us."
I almost wanted to jump for joy at that statement; it was as good a deal as I could've asked for.
"Agreed."
"You don't kill without prior authorisation unless the situation absolutely requires it."
I raised my eyebrow slightly, but didn't hesitate to agree.
"Sure."
I had no particular murderous proclivities. Sure, if the situation called for it, I'd do it, but killing people wouldn't exactly net me any extra fear. It was a far better option to just traumatise them and let them spread stories of me to their friends, creating extra fear.
Fury paused for a moment, perhaps surprised at my easy agreement.
"And you show up. Not when you want to or when it's convenient, when I call on you, you come."
It took me a moment to consider that.
Being a hunting dog for Fury didn't sound particularly glorious, but it would likely give me access to several scenarios capable of generating great fear.
"Within reason," I added a slight stipulation.
"Within reason," he repeated, nodding his head.
We sat in silence for a minute, both of us mulling over what we had just agreed to.
"There's someone I want you to meet." Fury finally broke the silence.
Internally, I ran through the handful of people Fury would have an interest in.
"He's been out of commission for a while. Still getting his footing."
I held back the widening of my eyes, instantly clocking who Fury was talking about before he even finished his sentence.
"He needs to understand the world he's operating in now has people like you in it. Better he learns that in a controlled setting."
It was a reasonable enough justification on the surface, but I suspected Fury also wanted to see how 'he' reacted to me.
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
---
The facility was about forty minutes from the city of New York. It appeared unremarkable from the outside, appearing to be an administrative office.
Fury walked me through security without stopping for a moment, probably having cleared my entry in advance, as the agents hadn't reacted to my presence in the slightest.
We stopped outside a door at the end of a corridor. Fury knocked twice.
"Come in." The voice of a calm man answered.
Fury pushed the door open.
I couldn't help but smile ever so slightly as I saw who it was.
[Captain America 0/1]
Steve Rogers was standing by the window with a sketchbook in his hand. He was exactly as physically imposing as the film had suggested.
He looked at me with clear blue eyes that were assessing me in the same way I was assessing him.
"Steve, this is Varis. He's recently joined our roster."
Steve crossed the room and extended a hand towards me.
"Good to meet you," he greeted me first with a smile.
I shook his hand whilst mimicking his expression.
"Likewise."
He looked at me for a moment with a strange expression before releasing our handshake.
"Not bad."
I maintained a kind expression even as Steve's eyes flashed with slight suspicion.
The "not bad" comment had been about the handshake. He'd felt the strength behind it.
Fury watched both of us quietly for a moment.
"I'll give you two a minute," he said, and left before either of us could respond.
The door clicked shut.
Steve looked at it for a moment before turning back to me with an expression which was somehow simultaneously open and unreadable.
I took a moment to look around the room. It looked similar to that of a college student, albeit quite a bit cleaner and more organised.
There was a single neatly made bed, a desk with a lamp and a few folders bearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo, and a small bookshelf with some titles that genuinely surprised me.
'Harry Potter?'
Well, I supposed that he was still catching up on the current world.
The most obvious thing was the lack of anything personal, no photographs, no shield, nothing to indicate the room belonged to Captain America.
Seventy years was a long time to be gone, to say the least. There probably wasn't much left worth displaying.
"Not much to look at, huh?" Steve said with a self-aware tone.
"It is what it is." I shrugged my shoulders.
"So, how long have you been with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"About twelve hours, you?"
"Three weeks. Still getting used to how everything works."
The second sentence suggested his 'situation'. He probably assumed Fury already briefed me on him, which in fact wasn't the case.
I decided to simply go along with whatever Steve said to me, considering Fury, the pervert he was, would be listening to every word uttered.
"How's that been going for you?"
"Strange. Everything moves faster. Not just the cars; the people, they talk faster, walk faster, think faster." He paused for a moment, looking outside the window. "Feels like I've been left behind."
I looked at him carefully. I had no idea of how to respond to his surprising openness.
A moment of silence passed before he spoke again.
"Fury said you'd be useful to have around."
"The man says a lot of things."
Steve smiled slightly.
"Yeah, but I think I'm starting to figure out why he said that."