WHO: Kaine Parker and Natasha Romanoff. WHAT: Talking with the caged tiger that is Kaine. WHEN: Monday 7/16. WHERE: Lawrence Public Library. RATING: PG-13. Kaine has a mouth when he’s not pretending to be Saint Peter. STATUS: In progress
12:00 PM Lawrence Public Library 7/16/2012
Kaine stalked through the doors to Lawrence Public Library an hour and a half early for his meeting with the Black Widow. Any and all trace of Peter Parker was gone, from the way he carried himself to the way he dressed. Peter went in for all that geek chic, skater bullshit. For a meeting that Kaine was fairly sure was a trap, he went for functional over fashion. The leather jacket was a killer in this heat, but it would serve as decent armor against blows and still leave him freedom of movement, as would the light white t-shirt underneath. For pants he went with slightly loose-fitting cargos, and the pockets contained small knives he could utilize if necessary. He was hoping he wouldn’t have to, but of all the people in the “super” community, Kaine knew not to underestimate the Black Widow. He’d been good enough for the Guild in his day, and someone of his skill knew damn well when they were dealing with someone who could be their equal or even maybe better. The whole thing was rounded off with a pair of very light sneakers, which would allow him quicker movement if he needed to break out the acrobatics or make a quick escape. The sunglasses served no purpose other than to cut down the glare of the harsh summer sun. He’d been letting his dark brown hair grow back in since shaving it back in Houston, and it had now reached the shaggy stage.
He gave off an aura of tension and anger, glaring over the rims of his glasses at anyone that looked at him for too long. Even now, being physically identical to Peter Parker, people that knew the both of them would be able to tell him apart from the real deal. Peter usually carried himself loose and relaxed, and there was a certain amount of openness from him that gave off a friendly vibe. Kaine was nothing like that. Anyone that saw Kaine would think of nothing more than a caged tiger barely restraining itself from ripping the bars apart and going on a bloody rampage. The image wasn’t exactly dispelled as he began stalking up and down the aisles of Lawrence Public Library, and as he made his way through them he found his path clearing itself as people hurried to move out of the way. Kaine took notice of it but didn’t pay it any mind. People were sheep, mostly, and when sheep sensed a wolf in the flock they got the fuck out of the way on base instinct. Occasionally he would deliberately stop, yank out a book, glare at the back of it for just long enough to give the impression he was actually looking for something, and then shove it back into its place and keep walking.
After pacing the entire length and breadth of the publicly accessible areas of the library, and fairly confident that most of the Avengers except Romanoff, Barton, and Hill wouldn’t know how to properly stealth if it bit them in the ass, Kaine returned to a particular aisle, grabbed Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and headed for a table he’d seen earlier. There were three chairs, one of which he fully expected to be unused. The other he kicked a little farther back into a corner, where he could observe every aisle that exited into the little alcove the table was in. He also had a good view of the window to the right, in case Romanoff arranged for a flier or support from an external team. Then he plopped down into the leather chair, put both feet up on the table and crossed them at the ankles, and opened the book to make it look like he was reading. He’d already read this one cover-to-cover, and even if he hadn’t he wouldn’t be reading it now. It was more a message for Romanoff, which was why he kept the cover visible. He didn’t want this to go badly, but he wanted to be sure it was abundantly clear that he was ready for it to, just in case. A second later, he remembered the other message he wanted to send, and fished a ziplock baggie out of the outer pocket of his jacket.
He placed the chocolate bar in the exact center of the table. The message wasn’t altogether subtle, but Kaine didn’t need it to be. I am capable of destroying you if you fuck me over,, said Sun Tzu, but I would genuinely prefer this to be a peaceful arrangement, said the Hershey bar.
The blades in his pockets said nothing. Not until they needed to, and if they did, no one would ever hear them.