nextgenerationmarvel | Returning Home (Tina)

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Returning Home (Tina)

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Quinn returned home after working with Nika to find his targets and set his gear case and luggage next to the door as he came in, then put the flowers down on the end table near the couch. The house still smelled the same, though he wished it was taco night. Grumpy looked at him from the couch and promptly turned her nose away from him; she seemed to remember that he was persona non grata around these parts and Quinn sighed. Well, the cat hadn't ever really liked him so he couldn't be too upset about that.

Did Tina still feel the same way? That was the real question.

Quinn moved through the house slowly, but cautiously, wanting to make sure that it was empty before he got comfortable. He was still a little on edge after his mission and wanted to make sure that they weren't going to get ambushed the moment they stepped inside. He moved about the house silently, checking the kitchen, the rooms and finally the back patio. A look at the clock told him that Tina would be home any minute now and that he probably had some explaining to do when she got here. He didn't see the note he'd left her on the counter, so maybe she'd read it already. He could only hope she was ready to talk.

He took off his coat and washed his hands, then set about looking in the refrigerator for something to make for dinner.

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Tina came in, dropped her bag on the floor with a thud and saw his gear, which elicited a scowl from her. Going out of town to let her think apparently meant taking weapons which meant that he didn't really leave for her benefit and thus his note had been a lie, too. Fantastic. Grumpy looked up at her and blinked before shifting comfortably.

"Probably not much in there," she said as she walked into the kitchen. "Lots of takeout."

Quinn stood up quickly, a bit too quickly. He managed to bump his head on the door of the fridge.

"Ow! Hey, you." he said, rubbing the spot on the back of his head where he bumped it. He wasn't sure if she was scowling so he tried a smile on and pulled at the sleeves of his long-sleeve gray shirt. His black jeans and boots were his normal around-the-house wear, things Tina bought for him over the last few months when she decided his wardrobe needed an upgrade.

"You're eating takeout again? Babe, we said we were going to stop eating so much takeout this year, remember?" he said.

"How was work?"

"Eating out was easier then cooking after a few especially long nights. Work was fine. How was your trip?"

Okay. No small talk.

"Work went well. I'd forgotten how easy my old line of work was for me." Quinn said, stepping into the living.

"I, uh, got you some flowers." he said, motioning to the roses on the end table near her.

Tina looked at them.

"You can't buy your way back into my good graces, you realize," she said. She wasn't angry, but the flowers didn't make her soften that much, either.

"You didn't say anything about leaving for work in your note."

"I wasn't trying to do that. I was just trying to break the ice a little." Quinn said gently.

"And I didn't mention work because I knew it wouldn't go over well. I was hoping a few days might give you a chance to ease into it." he said.

"My issue has been the lies. By not saying that you went out of town for work-related things you didn't help ease my concerns about honesty, Steve." Pause. "Quinn. Whatever your name actually is."

"My name is Quinn. Quinn Barton." he said.

He sighed a little.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I should have. I can't go into a lot of detail because I...said I wouldn't. But I got paid." he told her.

"I was hoping we could have dinner and talk a bit more."

"Is your job going to be a continued string of you not ever being able to tell me what's really going on?"

"I don't know. I /want/ to tell you but I also don't want to put you in danger from knowing too much." Quinn said.

"My most recent job was capturing a couple of criminals hiding out in the mountains. I brought them in alive." he said.

"Do you think for one minute that it matters to some nebulous bad guy whether or not I actually know too much? They don't care. You could know nothing and honestly protest that but they wouldn't give two damns. They'd react the same way they would if you did indeed know everything so can you please give the trying to spare me bit a rest? You can't spare me. It is what it is."

"All right, all right, my mistake." Quinn said. "The urge to protect you is pretty strong. I don't want to lose anyone else I love, okay?" he said.

"I'm working with a mercenary group. I get paid per mission and I'll be the team marksman. Is that a good start on the honesty?" he asked.

"You need to understand that you don't have control of everything that happens in life. You need to understand that you can do everything right and bad things can still happen. The trick is to not fixate on the things that might happen and work with the things that you have power of, including your level of honesty with the people you have in your life," she said.

"A mercenary group? What on earth made you decide to become a mercenary?"

"Well, I've got a unique set of skills that makes me especially prepared to be a mercenary." Quinn said.

"My mother was an agent of SHIELD. My dad...is kind of famous if you've ever heard of him."

"That doesn't mean you should be a mercenary. There's a whole lot of negative connotation to the term mercenary."

"I know there is but I can't exactly go back to my job with SHIELD, seeing as I kind of walked out on it a year ago." Quinn said, scratching the back of his head.

"But I'm doing as much good as I can in the best way I know how right now." he said.

"There are jobs that don't include weapons. Or jobs that do that include law enforcement."

"Law enforcement requires a pretty deep background check. Also, I'm an American in Italy. I don't exactly have a passport under my assumed name. If they go looking, they'll learn a few things about me. If I come up on SHIELD's list, then we get visits from men in suits." Quinn said.

"I thought about going back to America a few times but...then I met you and I really liked it here. So I stayed." he said.

"No one said we had to stay in Italy. We could go back to America at any point." She didn't want to tell him that she could very literally make him a perfect assumed identity, that she could game the system. That would bring up questions that she simply didn't want to answer.

Which was a kind of lying. She went a little pale.

"Men in suits really don't bother me."

"Do you /want/ to go back to America?" he asked her. "I thought your family lived in the States and that you didn't really get along with them?" he asked.

Quinn realized that he didn't know a whole lot about Tina, but considered it a fair trade as she didn't know much about him.

"My mother lives in the United States. I have absolutely no idea who my father is. Kind of hard to not get along with someone you've never met."

This would be news.

News, indeed. This was the most he'd ever heard about Tina's family.

"Then maybe we should go back to the U.S. and do family introductions?" he suggested.

"My mother is the last person in the world I want you to meet. Ever. She's an unpleasant individual that I really like to keep separated from as much as possible. Sometimes that's impossible, but but I do what I can."

"Okay. Well...maybe you could meet my Dad. He's not a bad guy. He and I disagree on a few things. Okay, a lot of things, but he's a good man." Quinn said.

He walked up to her.

"I miss you, you know."

"I'd like to be able to say that I miss you, but I still feel like I don't even know you. I'm having a really hard time matching your name with your face because your face isn't Quinn to me."

Quinn was starting to be sorry that he'd ever called himself "Steve". It was playing hell with his life now.

"Yeah, I guess I get that. But I'm still me, no matter what name I use." he said.

"You keep saying that, but you don't seem to understand that yeah, maybe you are still you to you but you didn't have to live with a completely different concept of who you are for a year. I am the one making an adjustment here. I'm the one having cognitive dissonance."

It felt like they were having the same conversation over and over again. He said he was the same person and she didn't feel the same way. He didn't know how to combat the issue though he knew he needed to.

"Ask me about myself. I'll tell you whatever you want to know about my family and my past." he said.

"I ran a background check on you. The basics aren't going to cut it. And apparently you're not left-handed."

"I'm ambidextrous." Quinn said.

Pause.

"It counts."

"That is so not the same thing!"

"It totally does!" Quinn retorted.

"It totally doesn't! Different neurons and stuff in your head. Not the same thing as being a southpaw! And it's like cheating!"

"How is it cheating? You can do the same stuff that everyone else can do with two hands instead of one. If anything, it's harder because you have to actually train yourself to be good with both hands instead of picking one and sticking with it." Quinn said.

"You don't have to train for anything. Being ambidextrous is innate. It's natural. You have equal use of both hands naturally. It's cheating!"

"It's not cheating. It's just something I can do, like how you mess with computers! Is that cheating?" he asked.

"No, but I also don't really do anything that someone who doesn't have mutant powers couldn't do with a little bit of time and smarts!"

"What you can do takes at least a degree or two."

"Actually it doesn't. I met a kid in Rio once who could put me through my paces and he was in the sixth grade. Kids are crazy smart. The only thing special I can do is actually 'crawl" through a computer."

"You can crawl through a computer? That's pretty hot. Not gonna lie, babe." Quinn said.

He paused.

"Are you going to be mad about this forever?" he asked.

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Returning Home (Tina)

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