Matthew Moss & Cassandra Reed
Date: March 6th, 2021
Location: San Francisco SHIELD HUB Headquarters -> Movies -> Dinner
Skills:
Matt fixed his tie and gathered some items. He was a bit nervous. There was a very high possibility this could go badly, which Matt accepted and would not hold against Cass. He liked her but had no idea how she felt about him.
He still didn't know the rest of the team well, which felt weird, but everyone was so different. Matt was surprised a lot of them couldn't even stand each other as far as he could tell. After dealing with the whole Thane thing he figured he would know the team better. What he knew was there was a lot of anger issues, and secrets. So many secrets. Thankfully Cass didn't appear to have anger issues, which would work to his advantage if she said no. He could walk away from this with no injured pride.
He was satisfied with his appearance. Matt left his room and headed to Cass's, and knocked on her door.
"Cass, can I speak with you?" Cassandra sat on her bed with her tablet in hand looking over a few reports and whatnot that she needed to sign off on, she liked the tablet that Maria had given her back during Christmas it was a lot nicer as well. She then heard a knock on her door, and stood up hearing Matt's voice and made her way towards the door and opened it.
"Sure, whats up?" She asked letting Matt into her room.
Matt entered Cass' room and with a soft smile said,
"I was wondering if you'd be interested in going to the movies with me. Again. But like. Officially." Great he sounded like a moron. That was not at all what he had rehearsed. His face felt warm and he knew he had to be blushing. He was tempted to walk out of the room, but it was too late now the words were out of his mouth.
Cassandra looked at Matt and blushed a little bit, she hadn't dated anyone in a really long time and Matt wasn't bad looking either in her opinion either, and he was really nice as well. She wasn't sure how long he actually liked her, she smiled a bit more and nodded towards him.
"Yes to both I'd love to, just give me a couple of minutes and get ready?" Cassandra asked him.
"Thank you." There was a lot he wanted to say, and a part of him wanted to kiss her cheek, but he decided to be chill. Or at least try for it.
"Right, I'll meet you in the lounge." He said before stepping out of the room. His grin growing as he left the room. He took a few deep breaths and kept himself from shouting in the hallway before making his way to the lounge. He double-checked his pocket to make sure the tickets were there. And now he regretted not being more prepared. With like a card or something.
Cassandra was smiling more and more to herself as she closed the door behind her, going over to her closet and started to search around for some of her clothes. Before finding a nice
black dress, she didn't have much in the way of jewelry though since she rarely ever did buy anything like that. Cassandra started to do her hair a little bit as well. She grabbed her purse, as well as her keys, before coming out of her room and made her way down the hallway and towards the lounge.
"How do I look?""You look stunning." Matt said honestly. A little bit of breath taken away from him as he looked at her. The lack of jewelry didn't even bother him. In fact, it seemed to draw more attention to her features like her face. It was stupid how nervous he felt. Just because he hadn't dated anyone since his fiance, and that had been three years ago.
"How do I clean up?" He asked gesturing to his
suit. Matt enjoyed wearing suits, there was something so pleasantly masculine about it.
Cassandra blushed slightly rubbing the back of her neck slightly, she wasn't really used to compliments either and smiled at him.
"Thank you, you aren't bad looking yourself either." She said, as she adjusted her purse slightly not really thinking about it Cass went forward and kissed him on the cheek, he did look really good in a suit.
"So what movie did you have in mind?"Matt's face warmed as Cass kissed his cheek. He offered his arm for her and started walking to the motorcade. He had his motorcycle there, but it would probably be better to take a car.
"There are a few in theaters. A horror film about escape rooms, but it is the sequel. I don't know how important it is to have seen the first one. Then there is a historical war film, which I like historical stuff. There is also a new M. Night Shyamalan film, but I have a hard time watching his stuff after he did Avatar the Last Airbender so badly. Oh, and the new Ghostbuster film." Of the ones Matt listed only the Shyamalan film wasn't up his alley.
"I got the tickets you exchange." He explained pulling them out of his pocket.
Cass smiled and wrapped her arm around Matt's and started to follow him towards the motorcade she started to think for a moment on what movies that they could see. She didn't really like the newer Ghostbuster films and she wasn't much of am M. Night Shyamalan fan either, looking at him she wouldn't mind watching a horror movie, or seeing a historical war movie either.
"Hmm, lets narrow it down to two and flip a coin maybe for which movie we should see, I'm leaning on a horror or the historical one." Cass offered.
"Good idea." Matt said. He put away the tickets, and then pulled out a quarter from his pocket.
"Heads, the horror, and tails the historical." He then flipped the coin and caught it tails up.
"Historical film it is. Next question, car, or my motorcycle?" Cassandra smiled slightly and watched Matt flipping the quarter and landing on tails, she didn't feel comfortable wearing a dress while riding a motorcycle.
"Car would be preferable, since dresses and motorcycles don't work well for me in my opinion.""That makes perfect sense. I've never ridden a motorcycle in a dress. Mind you I was never fond of dresses in the first place." He grabbed a set of keys for one of the SUVs, paused, turned to Cass.
"Want to drive? I'm not that great in cars, I prefer stick or my motorcycle. So I'm a little rusty. Especially, in the US." He had gotten his license here three years ago when he first transferred to SHIELD, but he had little use to drive SUVs in the time since.
Cassandra smiled for a moment if she did ride a motorcycle then it would just feel the wind going into places she didn't want, and anyone could probably see as well. When Matt grabbed one of the keys there she nodded, she had been in the US since she had been in college so she could drive pretty well on the American roads.
"Sure thing." She said as Cass took the keys and grabbed one of the SUV's, signing off quickly as well so that way SHIELD wouldn't think that one of their cars were stolen, and got in to start up their ride.
Matt got into the passenger seat. He quickly punched in coordinates for the theater. He had no idea how San Francisco functioned. It was supposedly a nice grid pattern on paper, but in reality, it was a disaster of one-way streets and bus lanes. There clearly had been no planning done when the town was made, and any that had been done had been before the combustion engine.
He glanced at Cass as she started up the SUV and pulling out of the motorcade. She was very pretty, and that was even when she was covered in dirt and mud. Matt disapproved of workplace dating, he blamed his ex for that, and he had seen it cause issues on this team even. Yet, here he was going on an actual date. His heart skipped a beat and he swore to himself that he would keep his worry for Cass professional. Heck, she had beaten M-pox.
"Favorite radio station?" He asked turning on the radio. He had his opinions on a couple of the local stations. He hated 107.7 the hosts for that show seemed like asshats.
Cassandra looked towards Matt and smiled at him, she was actually really happy as she pulled out of the motorcade and then eventually out of the HUB itself. She started to drive down the road, while paying attention to the GPS, when Matt asked for any radio preferences she didn't really mind. Cassandra focused on the road while occasionally looking back at him, she didn't really care if she was technically his superior on the team. She of course would be more professional while working, but she wanted to be happy as well to and hoped that she could make him happy as well.
"I don't have any preference really, what do you like?" She asked and looked at her phone for a moment.
"Or if you have music on your phone we could listen to that as well.""I do have music on my phone. It is mostly rock and German music though. You can tell me if you don't like a song and I'll skip it." He offered and then switched from radio to Bluetooth. The first song that started was an Annett Louisan song '
Die Katze'.
"This song is about a cat." He explained not knowing if Cass knew German at all.
"Which of course is one of the least rock songs on my phone." He laughed.
Cassandra listened to the song that Matt started to play through his phone and looked at him for a moment and smiled a bit, though she wasn't really a german speaker the song was actually really good.
"I didn't think you were into jazz or anything like that." Cassandra said towards Matt.
"It's actually really catchy.""Yeah, I got into her music when I was taking German. She is pretty easy to understand, and I got to go to a show of hers." Matt told Cass, they were soon at the theater. After they parked Matt went to the stand and exchanged the tickets.
"Movie starts in ten, we made it at the perfect time." He told her.
"Want popcorn or anything? I like Rasinettes." "Well maybe for our next date we could go to one of her concerts?" Cassandra suggested it would actually be pretty fun to go out to a concert as well. She got out of their car and locked it, walking along side Matt until they entered the movie theater.
"Popcorn with extra butter would be nice." She said giving him a smile.
Matt smiled as Cass suggested that they would have another date.
"I'd be happy to take you to an Annett Louisan concert." At the counter he ordered a large popcorn with extra butter, a box of raisinets, a soda, and a bottle of water. He handed her the popcorn and offered for her to pick from the soda or bottle of water.
Cassandra smiled at Matt.
"Then that will be our third date." She said as she stood next to him while her ordered what she wanted, once the order came through Cass gently took the large bucket of popcorn, taking the soda she did prefer having a soda while going to the movies.
"Thank you Matt." She said as she took a sip from the soda.
"Counting the first one then?" Matt grinned.
"Are we calling that our official date? Or today?" Matt asked. It felt a little forward, but at the same time, he had a feeling Cass was leading, which he was fine with. He would let her make the pace. Matt then went to the ticket taker and handed over their tickets and got directions to the theater room they were in. Once in the theater, Matt said,
"Dead center seats?" Those were his favorite because it had the best view and sound.
"Maybe it was maybe it wasn't." Cass said teasingly at him, it was more of a little playful tease deciding to let him think which was their actual official date. She occasionally took a small handful of popcorn while she let Matt hand in their tickets, her hands being a little bit full at the moment. It was really nice to just get out of the base even if it was just for a little bit, looking at the screen as some ads played.
"Center seats sound perfect to me." She said, before making her way up the aisle before finding a center row of seats, she remembered going to the movies when she was younger with her sister and they always found the backrow seats which was what her sister Carolina preferred.
Shortly the movie started. It was the basic sort of historical film, there were some inconsistencies, but overall it was a decent movie. Matt was the silent time during a movie, only offering occasionally commentary, and offering some raisinets to Cass when he opened the box. Most of Matt's commentary was about lighting or framing of a shot, which he explained was because of a semester he took a film class. Useless knowledge knocking around the back of the head.
After the movie, he offered his arm again and grabbed their trash to toss on the way out. Then led the way out to the car.
"Dinner? I have reservations at a Chinese place that came highly rated. It is called R&G Lounge." He hadn't eaten there yet, but he had been told that the lemon chicken there was amazing.
During the movie Cassandra was for the most part silent while looking at Matt occasionally as well, her arm gently resting against his while she watched and would listen to him as he gave some little tidbits about the filming. Though she didn't understand film or making a perfect shot or anything like that she found it interesting regardless while taking the raisinets occasionally whenever Matt offered.
When the movie finally ended Cass still had about a half of the bowl left she wanted to save the rest and usually did bring the bag or bowl back home with her to munch on as well. Cassandra perked up a bit when Matt had booked a place for dinner as well, and smiled at him taking his arm in hers.
"Dinner sounds perfect, I do love Chinese food as well." She said, she had heard of the place before but she hadn't gone there before either.
Matt grinned happy that Cass liked Chinese food. He seemed to have pulled off a good date.
"I hear the lemon chicken is great there." He finished off the water and tossed it, leading the way back to the car. Climbing into the car he started up the music again. This time a song by Beware of Darkness "
Dope". Matt got red in the face.
"Ah, yes, a rock song."Cassandra smiled as she walked alongside Matt until they were out of the theater and made their way back towards the car, she was enjoying the night so far. She climbed into the driver's seat, putting in the address for the restaurant, before pulling out of the parking lot as Matt started up another song. It was a band she wasn't familiar with but it was actually pretty good as she looked at him seeing his face turning red.
"You know you are kind of cute when you blush right?"Matt turned a deeper red.
"I...uh." He was at a loss for words. It was a compliment but not one that you said thank you to. He cleared his throat.
"It is just that I agree with this song. You're dope." He tried to keep a straight face. 'Dope' was not part of his normal vernacular and it felt weird saying it, but it was true. He agreed that Cass was badass.
"Though the song might be going a bit farther than I would expect or want on a second date." Cassandra smiled seeing his face turning a bit redder at her compliment as she continued to drive while listening to the song, dope was certainly a word that Matt never used really. Maybe her sister did when she was around her sometimes whenever she did have the time to visit her.
"Thank you." She said while looking over at him and smiled, though she didn't really see herself as a badass she was just an agent that simply wanted to do her job.
Soon they were at the parking lot near R&G Lounge. San Francisco was a parking nightmare. Another reason Matt preferred his bike in most situations around town. It was fast and efficient and he didn't get stuck on the 101. Whoever invented that monstrosity needed to be put on the raft. Matt offered his arm again to walk from the car to the restaurant. Inside he checked in with the lady behind the hostess counter. They would have to wait a little bit longer but there was a bar behind the hostess. Matt ordered a lychee martini out of curiosity.
"I don't know how you feel about any alcohol with driving, but this is tasty. If you are absolutely against it we will come here again and I'll drive the bike. Sadly that'll mean no dress." He offered Cass a sip of his drink if she was game.
Cassandra managed to find a parking spot after searching around, and parked the car once she got out Cass wrapped her arm around Matt's and followed him into the R&G Lounge, looking around the really nice restaurant. She wouldn't mind having to wait a little bit to be seated as she looked over at Matt.
"I wouldn't mind having a lychee martini or two." Cass said she wasn't opposed to having at least one drink so long as she didn't get super tipsy she'd be able to drive well enough back to the HUB. She thought about teasing him a little bit about the dress comment, but she didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable.
Matt ordered another drink this one for Cass. The bartender made a second one, sliding it to Cass. Matt held up his glass for cheers.
"This honestly has been a pleasure. I look forward to more dates if you've enjoyed yourself." "Mr. Moss, your table is ready." The hostess said. Matt nodded and started to follow the hostess. She went down a set of stairs and through a couple of rooms to a small quiet room with a handful of two-person tables. "Here are your menus. Your waiter will be with you shortly if you have any questions." She walked away, Matt set down his glass and pulled out Cass' chair for her.
Cass accepted the drink once the bartender had given it to them as she looked at Matt and smiled cheers as well before taking a quick sip from it.
"I am having a lot of fun, thank you." Cassandra said as their hostess came over, and she followed shortly behind them and down the small flight of stairs she blushed slightly when Matt pulled out a chair for her. It wasn't really something she was used to really but it was really nice as well.
"Good." Matt said taking his own seat across from her. He took a sip from his drink, then opened his menu. Very shortly there was a waiter there asking them if they wanted any other drinks. Matt ordered a pot of tea, jasmine, and water. Several things looked delicious and Matt glanced at a near-by table to determine that this place did serve family style. That meant it would be best for them to pick two to three dishes that sounded good to both of them and share them. They would have leftovers for certain.
When the waiter finished taking their drink orders and left Matt asked,
"Do you like Hong Kong-style chow mein? And how do you feel about soups? When this place was recommended to me I was told the Lemon chicken was the best dish, so I want to get that and a soup. Not the Bird's nest though." He winced at the idea of eating bird's nest soup.
Cassandra smiled softly at Matt for a moment and hen looked towards their waiter, and ordered herself a water she turned her attention back towards Matt when he asked her a question.
"I've never had Hong Kong-style chow mein before actually." She said towards him, as she started to look through the menu and thought about what she wanted to order.
"The lemon chicken sounds really good soup would be nice too." Cass looked at the Birds Nest Soup, she hadn't heard of it before but seeing the price was really crazy in her opinion.
"The West Lake Minced Soup would be nice.""So, what made you want to join SHIELD in the first place?" Cassandra finally asked, deciding to change the subject a little bit she didn't really get to ask him when they had gone on their little movie date from before.
Matt thought for a moment deciding how he was going to tell Cass about his past.
"Well, I was part of the SBS when I underwent Terrigenesis on accident. They had no idea how to deal with an Inhuman. I was on some time off and my fiance broke up with me. We had been in the SBS together. After that, I just couldn't go back. So I requested to be let go. I didn't know what I was going to do after that, but SHIELD put in an offer and I took it. That was three years ago. I've since been on a few missions and teams." Matt had just finished speaking when the waiter came over delivering their drinks.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
Cassandra leaned forward as she started to listen to Matt as he told her why he had left the SBS, and joined SHIELD in the first place and nodded, it would have probably been really awkward to still be working with an ex on the same team.
"Do you still keep in contact with any of your friends from the SBS?" Cass asked him while looking over towards their waiter and smiled a little bit and nodded as she looked at the menu for a moment once more.
"For an appetizer, I'd like the Salt & Pepper Calamari, and a Fresh Crab Meat Winter Melon Soup?" She asked while looking over at Matt.
"I'll have the Hot & Spicy soup please, for my appetizer. The Calamari sounds good." Matt nodded. The waiter wrote down their order.
"I'll put that in," He said leaving them alone. Matt looked at his menu.
"Yeah, there a couple of them I still talk to. Obviously, I don't talk with my ex though." Matt frowned.
"Him leaving me like that, it felt like. It felt like this one girl I dated before I had come out. When I came out she dumped me saying she was a lesbian and I didn't meet the criteria. So like because I was different from what they expected I wasn't worth their time." It felt weird being this honest and open with someone about the breakup. He hadn't talked to many people about it. His mother, and his therapist. And only his mother because she had insisted on it.
Cass watched as their waiter went away before turning her attention back over towards Matt as he answered her, and nodded not to many people talked to their exes really in her opinion. She reached over and gently rested a hand over Matt's and gave him a soft loving smile, while looking over at him.
"Well your ex is missing out then. But that's good that you still keep in contact with some of your other friends back then." She said smiling.
"Thank you. And I'm glad too.' He smiled back at her. The complement felt good. He wanted her to feel good too, and wanted to tell her what he thought.
"I'm sure any ex of yours is kicking their own butt for letting you get away." Matt asked, putting his free hand on top of Cass'.
"So, why did you join SHIELD?" He wanted to understand Cass. He liked her, a whole lot, and wished to understand her. What he felt was different then it had when he had been with his ex. With his ex things had just been casual and then they just kept being together. With Cass he wanted to take his time and make it all count.
Cassandra blushed slightly feeling his hand on top of hers, her hands were surprisingly soft despite them being bullet proof, as she met his gaze and smiled.
"They probably are." She said with a slight laugh, when he asked her why she joined SHIELD in the first place, it really did feel like a lifetime ago actually when she was normal and didn't have her powers.
"I was fresh out of MIT graduated at the top of my class that year, when some agents approached me offering a job at SHIELD. I was kind of young back then and felt like it would be cool, so I signed up right away. I went through the Communications Academy, worked mostly behind the scenes originally with computers before being assigned to Agent Coulson's team for a while. Then my assignment with the X-Men for a few months, that was all before the Phase Three Experiments.""I only know a little bit about the experiment. What I've picked up, from the water cooler chat if you will, -" Matt was interrupted as the waiter at that point arrived with their appetizers. "Would you like to order your main course?" He asked them.
"Right, can we have an order of Hong Kong-style chow mein and Lemon Chicken. Anything you want specifically?" Matt asked Cass.
"I could maybe pull a few strings to get you some files on it or something if you'd like. Though I am curious what you have heard." Cassandra said giving him a smile, when their waiter came over she looked down at the menu for a moment again.
"I'll have the Soy Sauce Chicken please." She said looking over at their waiter and smiled.
The waiter nodded, wrote their order down, and disappeared into the back again.
"I'd appreciate it. Honestly, I don't know much. I know that's how the team originally was created. I know there is some resentment toward it. Even though everyone was a volunteer. I know some people were lost during the experiment. I saw Niah's face when someone mentioned it once. She got that haunted look she does when talking about the time travel stuff. I do know that you, Maria, Novikova, Sparky, and Niah are what remain. At least I think it is just the five of you. I heard something about a simulation, but I don't know what happened with that. And of course, I know about an alternate reality and Ultron. Cause those happened right before I joined the team. But that isn't important when talking about the experiment itself I suppose." Matt told Cass, then took a sip of water. He had some suspicions but very little had been officially shared with him.
"There were more of us at the time, one of them turned out to be a HYDRA agent, some were killed on a mission and I believe two were reassigned to another team." Cassandra said, as she took another drink before setting the glass down and ran a hand through her hair slightly.
"Why the Phase Three Experiments were started, was because groups like The Avengers, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, all of them have their own things they have to deal with, and can't be everywhere all at once. If something like New York were to happen again then we would be better prepared to handle it.""You've had a few HYDRA agents in the team, right? Not just the ones from the original group. That makes sense. And spreading it out so not everyone is clumped in the same area. I wonder if there have been more attempts with it." Matt wasn't a very scientific person but he suspected the team had been heavily tested and with the information from them they might be able to tell with people who hadn't had any sort of mutation at all if they had the potential for it. He didn't like the idea of that. Felt a lot like the road to eugenics. His own exposure originally to the Terrigian mists had been accidental, and technically his secondary exposure was on accident. If predicting who would change was possible then it was even more possible to be used against the general population.
"I hope it doesn't happen though. If we play God too much we will suffer the consequences.""Yeah there were two who wanted to blow up the Playground who we thought would have been new additions to the team, but they were dealt with rather quickly." Cassandra said as she leaned back a little bit a part of her didn't like the fact that they had more then one HYDRA agent trying to get into the team.
"Phase Three was funded by HYDRA hoping that they could turn us to their side, but I'm pretty sure SHIELD won't be doing that again. I do agree with you though.""HYDRA did not think that through. I mean two of the team are married to each other...in a very gay way. That's not very HYDRA of them." He grinned at the idea and thought of it. He didn't know everyone in Phase Three's leanings but at least two of them were not and could not be actual Nazis.
The waiter brought them their dinner and refilled their drinks. Matt thanked him then looked back at Cass when they were alone.
"If given the choice would you do Phase Three again. Like say you restarted your life with all your memories back in time to just before you made the decision would you do it again?" "Yeah, that probably wouldn't even go well for them." Cass said with a slight laugh as she took another drink when their waiter came back with their food. She looked up at their waiter as he refilled their drinks and smiled towards him.
"Thank you." She said when they were alone again Cass started to think for a moment.
"If I could do it all over again, I would I think it has made me better as a person from what I was before." She answered as she reached forward and started to eat the chicken.
"Personally I would have my accident again. I am happy with all the people I've met since then. They are good people. And some of them are hot." He said the last part with a grin and a wink. They chatted some more over dinner about random things. When the bill came Matt paid for it. They made their way back to the car, Matt opened the door for her.
"One last kiss, may I have a question?" He paused, laughed, and asked
"One last question, may I have a kiss."Cassandra blushed a little bit at Matt's compliment tucking a stray strand of hair out of her face.
"You aren't that bad looking yourself." She said giving him a loving smile once dinner was done, Cass smiled at his question and leaned forward and gave him a loving kiss. Letting it linger there a little bit longer and smiled before taking a step back.