"The earliest ones are very old," she told him. "So you make have seen them; but the newest one in the trilogy just came out. Men In Black? It's about a secret organization that monitors alien life on the planet. The aliens live among us, some disguised as humans, even famous people, political figures, Elvis - or animals. Others just stay out of sight. The Men in Black handle sightings, hostiles, and mind wipe witnesses with this neat mind-wipey thing... and they wear cool black suits and sunglasses."
Pepper frowned as she listened. "You must have lost more than a few there," she said. "African war camps... at least you went in inoculated. Tony - S.I. has been trying for years to implement this brilliant new system for getting medication faster and cheaper to more people in under developed nations, but you know what it's like. Even if we can get them to agree to it, the despots take everything before the people can benefit from it. And if the diseases don't kill them, the bullets do... I can't imagine watching that for ten years." She squeezed his hand.
Some people knew death was coming and waited for it sanguinely; with quiet dignity. In Pepper's experience, there was nothing dignified about a slow death. "Jamie clawed and scratched his way to the grave," she said bitterly. "He did not want to die, and in the end, he did not go softly into it. We knew it was coming, but we both hoped; that's the worst part - the hope." In another, later time, hope would sustain her for three months and free her from despair when a reprieve was granted, but years earlier, she'd discovered that hope was as fragile as a butterfly and easily crushed.
"He'd slipped into dementia the last few months, and I had to have someone sit with him when I was in class and school and he just cried when I was gone. Just cried. He was only a year older than me." There was no more sadness when she talked about him, just resignation. He was long enough gone that although she still felt the pain of his loss, she had no regrets.
"Cactus," she repeated. "I have a few now," she admitted. "There are a lot of different varieties, and some of them are very beautiful. They're really perfect for people like us. There are also these terrariums you can get that have different mosses, and miniature flowers and things in them that you only have to add water to every few days. You can have rocks and even little houses and figures put in them, as well, but they're basically self-contained environments that get humid, so they require constant tending. You do need to trim them sometimes, though. They're very pretty."
The kiss made her blink and do a mental flail, not knowing how to respond. Smiling, Pepper laughed softly, looking down at their hands, hoping he wouldn't be put off by her not returning the gesture. "Thank you," she said sincerely, hoping it didn't sound as wrong as kissing him back would have felt. "You're a very good, very kind man, Phil Coulson. I like being with you."