Chapter Text
Faith
My week started the same as it always did. With a coffee at Wilson’s around the corner from my apartment. This was my routine every morning before work. A little normalcy before the day ahead. My work was anything but normal. I needed a little normal in my life and that's why I needed to go to Wilson’s every day before work. If I knew what was in store for me, I would have skipped Wilson’s that day and every other day until he would stop trying.
On Monday morning I went into Wilson’s like normal an hour before work. Enough time to sit for fifteen minutes a drink a flat white and sometimes I would grab some toast if I had forgotten to grab breakfast at home. It wasn’t until I ordered my drink that I realised that I had left my purse at home. I had been out on a date the night before and used a different bag and had forgotten to put it back in my work bag.
“Sorry, I seem to have forgotten my purse, I will need to cancel that drink” was what I had told the Barista. I secretly hoped they would give me a freebie since I was in all the time but no luck. It was when I turned and walked away from that I heard that the man who had been behind me in line had offered to pay for my drink. I turned and looked in the direction of his voice. He was facing the Barista at the time so I didn’t see what he looked like but he was impeccably dressed. He was wearing a grey suit which from my guess was bought nearby at one of the designer stores, I used to want to be a fashion designer so I was pretty sure that it was from Slaters if I remember their design’s correctly, then again menswear was never my strong suit. Ha, strong suit, I made a pun.
He was wearing a plain white shirt underneath with a collar and from what I could see he was wearing cuff links on his sleeves although from this angle I couldn’t tell what they were. He had black dress shoes on and I’ll say he was very overdressed for this coffee shop. I understand there are a lot of banks and such around but still, it was out of place.
“You don’t need to do that for me”
He turned when he heard my voice.
“I insist, Call it my act of kindness for the day”
Once he had turned I had a good look at him. He was dark-haired, short and clean cut. His face was average nothing too special, a small amount of stubble and average bone structure. Although one feature that was quite notable was his eyes. A beautiful green, Vibrant as the grass on a summers day. They looked almost out of place as if they didn’t belong to his body.
“Thank you” I replied, I didn’t want to be rude and anyways, I wouldn’t have time to run back to my home, grab my purse and have coffee. I would have to skip the coffee because by the time I left my home it would be time to head to work. I waited with him for the drinks.
He turned to me “You could always join me if you like, I don’t mind the company.”
I was surprised at the offer, Most people tend to keep to themselves around here, it isn’t that common for people to make much conversation. “I’d love to but, I have to run to work, unfortunately, Maybe another time?”
He was a little disappointed I couldn’t join him, I could tell but he didn’t let it bother him too much. “How about tomorrow evening instead? This place does seem to be open late.” He smirked.
That smirk did warm my heart a little, It has been a while since I had felt a reaction like that. Even longer since someone asked me out in person. Dating apps had been all too familiar and as good as they are, they haven’t been that successful for me. “I’d like that” I smiled slightly. I wonder if I was blushing? I’m still such a schoolgirl about this type of thing.
“How does 7:30 pm sound?” He suggested.
My coffee was popped up on the side. “That sounds great” I grabbed my drink. “I will see you tomorrow then? I have to go.”
He gave me a wave as I rushed out the door. As I made my way back to my apartment I smiled a whole lot, I’m sure I confused a whole lot of people. I quickly grabbed my purse and rushed to work. I worked at S.H.I.E.L.D I was one of their lead scientists. I was quite valued actually, I was the lead scientist on their ‘TARDIS’ project. Get the name? Yeah, it’s a doctor who reference, I named it. Essentially it’s called that because we are working on a piece of alien tech that was acquired by S.H.I.E.L.D I’m not sure how they got it, that's not relevant to me, at least that’s what they say to me. I am to study it and see how it can be used within the organisation.
I gave it the name TARDIS because it turns out it’s some sort of time travel device, at least that’s the theory, I won’t do human tests with it because It’s too dangerous. Best case scenario an agent gets transported to some unknown time and is stranded, worst case scenario…. death. The chances weren't good enough for me to risk a human being. The tech was a wristband by the looks of it, made from some sort of gold material. It was similar to the gold of our planet but some of the proprieties were different, It gave off an alien reading when analysed. It had a small display on it and displayed things in an unknown language. My guess was Asgardian but I couldn’t know for sure since Thor isn’t really around much to answer my questions and Loki is off-world and hostile.
My work went as normal as it could be when you're studying alien technology. Before I knew it, it was home time. Although for me home time is 8 pm most days. Working for an organisation like S.H.I.E.L.D means long days sometimes I don’t leave the place all day. I’m one of the lucky ones though, People like my brother never really leave their place of work at all. I haven’t heard from him in a while, I hope he’s doing well. I headed home and straight to bed and when I woke I got ready to do the whole thing again.
I didn’t see the man at the coffee shop today, I did have a look around the store to see if I was to see him before work. No luck. I went to work like normal however there was one thing of note today. There was a new girl. Well, she claimed to be. When I entered work she was standing by the entrance to my lab, which contained the alien device I was studying. Due to the nature of what I was studying there was a key card reader on the outside of the door. The girl claimed she had misplaced her key card. She wanted to use mine to get in.
“Sorry, but for security reasons, I can’t do that” I explained.
“Come on, Just this once, It seems like such a drag to go and get a new one” She teased.
“Sorry, Rules are rules, You look genuine but you know what it’s like, You could be anyone.” And with that, she scowled and left. Yes, she looked official. She had a lanyard around her neck with an ID attached. ‘Kelsey Williams.’ The ID looked real enough but if she had truly misplaced her key card then she would know that protocol is to tell the security team and they will give out completely fresh key cards to everyone to prevent an incident. Kelsey never returned. Good thing I remembered protocol.
I left work early at 6 pm, I didn’t mind staying behind tomorrow to continue my research. When I got home, I quickly showered and got changed for my coffee date with… I realised then I hadn’t gotten his name, Silly me. I looked through my wardrobe for something appropriate for a coffee date. I was drawn to a green skater dress I owned. It had a formal collar and a small cut out in the chest making it more casual. It had long sleeves and the skirt stopped at my knees. Perfect first date wear in my opinion. I put on some simple black slip-on shoes with a little black bow on them. I let my ginger hair hang loose, I had some pretty nice natural waves in my hair when it chose to cooperate and lucky for me, today was one of those days.
I put a light pink lipstick on and some black eyeliner, Nothing to fancy just a small cat-eye. I finished off with some mascara and grabbed my black clutch and made my way to the shop. He was there already. The shop was quite quiet at this time of day and only had a few students scattered about furiously typing away on their laptops. He was sitting in the window in a small booth, The seat was black leather which complimented the cherry coloured wood of the tables. He seemed to be zoned out, He was just staring out the window as the rain slowly started to fall.
I approached him and looked at his outfit. Another suit I see, It was tweed suit this time with a green tint. He was wearing a matching waistcoat this time. He had taken his suit jacket off though and I could better see what his body was like. He was quite fit, A little muscular but he wasn’t toned, He didn’t care about showing them off then. I slid into the booth in front of him which snapped him out his daydream. Right before he came back to reality I got a quick look at his face and he seemed rather, lost? Yes, that was it exactly, He seemed lost.
He smiled at me once he saw me, he had such a nice smile but something about it felt off, Almost not entirely genuine, I thought I should get a grip. This was the type thing I always did. Find the flaws in every person I dated. I’ve been burned before so it’s so easy to subconsciously avoid relationships when you can. From that moment on, I promised myself that this time I would not mentally sabotage this date before anything even happened. I always put too much pressure on it. This time I would just have fun, Maybe we will go home together, Maybe we will see each other again, maybe we never will.
“You look beautiful” He stated and gave a playful smirk.
Damn, That smirk seemed to make the butterflies in my stomach go into overdrive.
“Thank you, You're looking pretty good yourself” I smiled to meet his. “I meant to ask, What's your name?”
“Ah, My name is.. Luke, Yourself?”
He hesitated in telling me his name. There I went again mentally sabotaging the date. I threw that thought out my brain and decided to ignore it.
“Faith”
“Nice name, It isn’t a name you hear all too often is it?”
“Yeah, I haven’t met many other Faith’s, If I can thank my parents for anything it’s the unique name, I guess”
“I like it, It brings attention to you, If your name was Jane, for example, it wouldn’t reel people in as much, However Faith, well if I saw that, I would immediately think, That's a girl I wanna know”
I looked down and smiled wider. I was easily pleased I know, but what can I say, When an attractive man gives you attention it’s hard not to smile. “Thank you, I hope I’m worth knowing.”
“I think you are” He stated.
We ordered our coffee after that and made small talk while we waited for it to come. My flat white came and he seemed to order a black coffee. I put the cup to my lips and sipped.
“So, What brings you to this part of the country? Work or family?” I asked.
“ Neither actually…” He replied stirring his coffee, “I’m just wondering, I just suffered a great loss and I’m not sure what to do with myself so I’m kind of looking for my next… inspiration.”
“Poetic… I hope you find that inspiration, it’s frustrating not knowing what to do next… I’m kind of in a similar situation myself, I just got out a relationship a few months ago and it feels like my life is a whole lot less inspired..” I trailed off. I wasn’t sure what I was trying to say. Ever since my breakup, it had been the same old routine every day. Coffee, work, coffee work, coffee work. Sometimes there would be a date or a mate date sprinkled in there for flavour but none of it brought me joy or excitement. Then again my last relationship didn’t give me those things either, it’s just the issues I faced seemed to outweigh everything else that mattered.
“How about work? Does that not inspire you?”
I sighed. “Not really, I’ve been on the same assignment for weeks with no progress, It’s infuriating.”
He nodded. “I get that, What is it you do?”
Time to think of a credible lie. Which one should I use this time?
“I’m a Lawyer”
Hopefully, he doesn’t ask me too much. It isn’t my strongest lie but I can’t tell him what I do. Anyway, I’m not putting too much pressure on this date, may as well have fun with it, use a lie I’ve never used before.
“Oh fun,” He said sarcastically, I giggled a little.
“Yeah, It’s not the most fun job in the world but the pay is good”
He leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee. “How about a family? Do you not see them much? Surely they could help in the inspiration department.”
“I don’t see them much, I’m adopted actually, My mother lives back there and my dad left when I was ten” I took a sip of my coffee and put it back down. “My brother is over here but he’s away for work, I’m not entirely sure where he is now, How about you? Much family around?”
I saw a glint in his eye when I said that, There was some anger in those eyes. “My family doesn’t really care for me at the moment..” His fists were clenched but his tone remained calm, He wasn’t quite angry at me, more at the memory. “I’m adopted as well you see and I did some… things that they disagreed with and it left a bad taste in their mouth, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go back to them.”
I frowned a little. I wanted to pry further but I could tell there was a lot of emotion there. I relaxed and touched his hand that was on the table. He flinched at the human touch. “Well, It’s a shame because you seem like the sweetest guy I’ve ever met.”
He smiled after that and we talked for the best part of an hour. We laughed a tonne and it was the most fun I have had in a long time.
“Sorry lovebirds but it’s closing time,” The Barista said to us as he approached the table.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, We will get our things and leave” I replied as Luke and I stood and got ready to go. The rain had gotten pretty bad and it was pouring down. I looked at it and sighed.
“Everything okay?” Luke asked.
“Yeah, I just didn’t bring a jacket or an umbrella... I’m going to get soaked” I groaned.
“Well lucky for you…” Luke said grabbing an umbrella that was underneath his suit jacket. “I came prepared, I will walk you home and we can share the umbrella.”
I shook my head “I can’t ask that off you.”
“I insist, You could always reward me with some more conversation at your place if you’d like” He suggested.
I was definitely blushing now. “That sounds perfect” I replied. The butterflies in my stomach were in overdrive. A date hadn’t gone this well for me since… well ever. We wandered to my apartment under his umbrella trying to avoid getting soaked. We then clambered into my apartment and I turned the light on. I turned to him and saw that his right shoulder was soaked because he was making sure I wouldn’t be.
“You shouldn’t have done that for me” I started touching the wet patch on his jacket. “Let’s get this off, you can let it dry on my radiator.” I touched his suit jacket ready to take it off him when I realised I must be overstepping. I looked up and those green eyes were staring at me, not with shock or annoyance. It looked like he wanted me too. We were so close. I kissed him. I didn’t believe I would do it. I’m not the forward type. I pulled away and looked down.
“Sorry... I shouldn’t off done that…” I stammered. I felt like I had made an idiot of myself. I felt his hand on my chin and he pulled it up and kissed me back. This time there was passion in this kiss. I kissed him back and pulled his jacket off.
I think we all know what happened next. We made love, It had been the first time I had done so for a while. Especially with someone, I was starting to feel a connection with. Little did I know that this would be a mistake that would throw my whole life into chaos.