Work Text:
Briefing meetings amongst the Avengers can sometimes drag on endlessly and become way too dull to maintain some of the members’ attention. That’s why some of them developed a habit of talking amongst themselves during meetings. At first, it was just a few comments shared between people sitting side by side, but it eventually turned into full-blown conversations being maintained in the middle of the briefings.
I got so bad that they had to come up with a way to discourage that behavior. That’s how the “chit-chat” jar idea was born, a way to charge a penalty fee to all those who dared talk about anything not related to the briefing while this one was taking place. And for some time, that measure was actually quite successful, with the price going up the more someone talked. The cheapest tier is $1, while the most expensive one can reach $5.
However, the Avengers can be very resourceful when they set their minds to it. Thus, some of them took advantage of certain knowledge they possess and started to communicate through another medium that didn’t involve their mouths. And since they can’t really use their phones to text each other, given that it’s too obvious, they resorted to using their fingers for something else.
So is the case in the latest briefing meeting the Avengers are holding, which serves as preparation for one of their upcoming missions. This time around is Tony’s turn to lead the presentation of the intel they got, but as it usually happens when he’s the one “manning the ship”, his monologues can get a bit tedious and venture off into unrelated tangents.
That’s what prompts one of the supposedly attentive heroes to gently elbow the person sitting next to them to get their attention and ask how much longer they have to sit there and endure Tony droning on about extra information that they don’t care about.
“How much longer?” Bucky taps on the glass surface of the table.
The Sergeant is directing his question, made through Morse code, at Rogers, who’s sitting right next to him. He’s doing it in a way that not only is clear enough for the Captain to understand, but discreet enough to go unnoticed by Tony.
“Soon,” replies Steve once he decodes the message while Stark is not paying attention to him. “Pay attention.”
The reprimand is supposed to sound firm, but the Man Out of Time doesn’t know how to convey that through the tapping of his fingers without drawing unwanted attention. So, he just hopes that the other man understands the firmness of his words anyway.
Unfortunately for him, he has no such luck.
“But it is boring,” whines Barnes in reply, pouting at his best friend.
“Bear with it,” Rogers retorts, gritting his teeth while glaring at the other man.
“Cut it out,” comes the furious tapping of Natasha’s perfectly manicured fingers, interrupting the other two in such an abrupt way that they’re startled.
Neither of them was expecting anyone else to join their conversation. Nevertheless, the stern look the Russian is sending them speaks volumes of how irritated she feels with their constant tapping. Although, it’s just that, not that she’s really paying attention to Tony either.
“Yeah, some of us are trying to not get distracted while not paying attention,” Clint chimes in, furiously tapping his long sentence in a way that makes it impossible for Bucky and Steve to follow him, who just stare at him.
What’s probably more impressive, though, is that Hawkeye doesn’t get caught by Stark, despite his long comment.
“What he say?” Bucky asks, looking dumbfounded.
“No idea,” answers Steve, amazed by the archer’s skill. “I got lost.”
“He said shut up,” Romanoff helpfully supplies.
Given how often she and Barton communicate using the code, and how he unabashedly uses it with such proficiency, she has become accustomed to being able to understand him despite the velocity in which his messages are delivered and the length that the same comprise.
“Indeed,” taps Clint, effectively ending the exchange.
All the while, the rest of the heroes present can’t help but stare at their teammates, wondering what they are doing in the middle of the briefing and behind Stark’s back.
“What are they doing?” Wanda asks her partner in a whisper, turning slightly towards the android in search of answers.
“They are communicating through Morse code,” Vision succinctly provides, voice low enough to be heard only by those closest to him.
For obvious reasons, he can understand what’s being said by the others, even going as far as to follow Clint without difficulty.
“Really? That’s so cool! What are they saying?” Peter wonders, a bit more loudly than would be prudent.
“Why are they doing that anyway?” Scott asks over Parker, ignoring the kid’s question as well as the others.
The fact remains that they still are in the middle of a meeting, thus why they should not only speak as quietly as possible but also as little as possible. Last thing they want is to be caught red-handed and be forced to pay the penalty fee. Of course, Peter doesn’t know much about that since he would never dare to get distracted during a meeting, except for when something catches his attention, like people talking in Morse code.
“They probably don’t want to be caught by‒” Rhodey begins to answer Lang before he gets cut off.
“Hey, the group in the back, something you want to share with the class?” Tony taunts with sarcasm, unamused by being ignored by his friends and coworkers.
That is ironic in itself, considering that he’s the one more prone to space out or get distracted during a meeting whenever someone else is leading it. Still, hypocrisy isn’t an unfamiliar concept to him.
As soon as Stark turns his scolding attention towards the table, the part of the Avenger team members that had been whispering amongst each other scramble to apologize and make up excuses for not having been paying attention to Tony’s briefing. Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes, who had been conspicuously talking through Morse code can’t help but snicker at the others and send them looks full of smugness, smirks and all.
In the end, Stark is having none of it, and since he didn’t notice the tapping noises behind his back, he didn’t buy the admonished Avengers’ reason for their interruption. Instead, he just points at the “chit-chat” jar, expecting everyone involved in the verbal conversation to put a dollar as punishment for having been whispering during the briefing.
(Bonus content)
“What are those two doing?” Sam asks when he pops up in the kitchen, looking for a soda.
He’s staring at Peter and Scott, who are huddled over the coffee table in the lounge, sitting across each other and tapping their fingers on the table while they look over some papers.
“They are trying to learn how to use Morse code. They have been at it for two hours,” Rhodey answers from his spot next to the island, sipping his coffee with leisure.
All Wilson gives in response in an amused snort before shaking his head in disbelief, astonished yet not surprised at all that
Peter: .... .. / .... --- .-- / .- .-. . / -.-- --- ..-
Scott: . -- / ..-. . -. .. / ... -- .-- / .- .-. .. / -.-- -- ..-
“I think you mispelled that. You keep getting some letters mixed up,” Peter pipes up, brow creased and lips quirking upward a smidge.
“Really? Oh, man!” Scott exclaims, dejected by his inability to get the alphabet right. “Okay, one more time.”
And like that, both Avengers keep trying to establish a conversation entirely through Morse code, hoping to at least manage to deliver a few understandable sentences before they call it a day. Unfortunately for them, they don’t succeed.