New York City — a warm, crowded pizza restaurant that slled like fresh dough and cheese. The four of them had taken a corner table, though only three sat like normal people.
Selene, Alice, and Jill were already done with their food.
Luke, anwhile, was still working his way through what had beco a quiet spectacle. He was on his twentieth pizza — full-sized, deep pan, extra cheese — eating as casually as if it were his first al of the day.
He wasn't rushing, just steadily clearing slice after slice with a comfortable rhythm. The won watched him with the kind of expression that ca from running out of words to describe sothing.
"Stop staring at ," Luke said, still chewing. "You're making lose my appetite."
They all turned toward him with matching deadpan looks, the slow kind that didn't need any words to express what they were thinking.
Lose his appetite?
Now?
After twenty pizzas?
Jill whispered, "Pretty sure he doesn't have one."
Alice crossed her arms. "He eats like he's absorbing it directly."
Selene let out a small, amused breath. "If this is him losing appetite, I don't want to see him hungry."
Luke rolled his eyes and reached for another slice, but his hand paused. Sothing about his expression shifted — nothing dramatic, just the sort of look soone gets when they notice sothing familiar.
A small, simple smile tugged at his mouth.
"And speaking of appetite," Luke said, glancing casually toward the restaurant entrance, "soone important is coming."
The three won looked at him with matching confusion. Important? Who?
Luke tilted his head slightly, that familiar subtle awareness settling over him. A mont later, the restaurant door opened, letting in a brief rush of cool air.
Natasha stepped inside, wearing her usual composed expression as her eyes swept across the tables. It didn't take long for her gaze to find Luke — and once it did, she started walking straight toward them.
Alice leaned a little closer to Luke, keeping her voice low. "Friend of yours?"
Luke gave a small grin. "Sothing like that."
Selene's eyes narrowed just a touch, recognition flashing across her face.
She had seen Natasha before — very briefly, but enough to know the woman wasn't just another operative. And she certainly rembered the story of Luke's… creative attempt to catfish her.
Alice and Jill picked up on the shift imdiately. Whoever this redhead was, she wasn't just soone — and she clearly had so history with Luke.
Selene let out a quiet breath, more amused than annoyed. "Of course it's her," she murmured under her voice.
Natasha reached the table and ca to a stop beside Luke, taking in the scene in front of her.
Luke sat there with sauce at the corner of his mouth, a small mountain of empty pizza trays stacked like battlefield trophies, and a strangely satisfied look in his eyes as he continued eating like nothing around him was unusual.
"We need to talk," Natasha said, her tone crisp and controlled.
Luke didn't bother pausing. He pointed at the empty chair across from him with the sa casualness he used to order another pizza. "Then sit and talk."
Natasha's gaze moved from him to the rest of the group.
Her eyes lingered on Selene for a second — she rembered her from their earlier encounter.
The other two won, though, were new faces. A blonde and a brunette, both with the kind of posture and sharpness that told her they weren't ordinary bystanders, and both clearly comfortable around him.
Natasha didn't comnt, but her thoughts were imdiate and very dry.
'Of course he vanished for a year and still managed to surround himself with new won. This man really doesn't take a break from being a playboy.'
Luke kept eating like the situation around him didn't exist.
Natasha, anwhile, was ntally preparing herself to convince one of the most unpredictable and dangerously capable n on Earth to help with a problem he had absolutely nothing to do with. The thought alone was exhausting.
"It's important," Natasha said, her voice firr this ti. "Not sothing we can talk about in a place like this."
Luke finally swallowed, wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin, and gave her a mildly interested look. It was the sa laid-back expression he always threw at her — the kind that made it impossible to tell if he cared or not.
"You know," Luke said casually, "if it were anyone else walking up to bother while I'm eating, I would've thrown them out of the restaurant."
He said it like he was ntioning the weather. The ssage was clear: he hated being interrupted mid-al. Of course, Natasha got a pass.
Beautiful won always did — Luke didn't hide that, and he never pretended he had sha about it.
He stretched, pushed his chair back, and stood up. "Ladies, head ho. I need to go sowhere."
Selene raised a brow. Alice and Jill exchanged a small glance. None of them were surprised — Luke got called into random chaos way too often for this to feel unusual anymore.
The three won didn't argue. They stood up together, each giving Luke a quiet, unmistakable look before leaving — a simple "don't overdo it" reminder without a single word spoken.
He answered it with a small nod. Once they walked out, the atmosphere around the table shifted.
Luke turned his full attention to Natasha.
He stepped in front of her, close enough to make it clear she had his focus, and t her eyes directly.
"So, Natasha," he said, his tone almost conversational, "one year ago, I told you to pass a ssage to that bald-headed boss of yours. I said very clearly: don't ss with the Tesseract."
"But what happened? He ignored it. You all poked it, prodded it, experinted on it… and now an alien god strolls in, steals it, and turns it into a world-scale problem. And here you are, coming to for help."
He didn't need her to confirm anything. He already knew the tiline. Loki stealing the Tesseract fit perfectly.
He tilted his head and gently hooked a finger under her chin, lifting it just enough for her to et his eyes again.
"So tell , Natasha…" he said quietly, not unkind but very direct, "do you really think I'll help?"
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