1965-01-14 - Doodles, Dining, & Data Mining
Summary: Old friends and project partners catch up for a possible new start on new soil, now commemorated in napkin form!
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
kai kitty fitz 


Fitz was still not in New York long and as it were, on this side of the pond called up the other two people he really new to… well, maybe to prove to Clint he could be social? He could! That was a thing…he thinks. Still there was something jut nice about the familiar in an unfamiliar place and rang up an old friend with the new one. For now he waited on his wonton soup to show up watching the door curiously and trying not to be nervous.


Kai is omnipresent in New York. One day he's in Greenwich Village, the next in SoHo, then again in Chinatown. Today, he's at the noodle shop, happy to meet Fitz there. He comes bouncing in the door, looking around, and when he spies Fitz, he beams. "Hey, man," he says as he wanders over. "Far out, you asking to meet me here. This is, like, one of my favorite places."


Kitty tucks a lock of hair behind her ear as she pushes her way into the restaurant. She had been pleasantly surprised to get the dinner invite. She scanned the room looking for her dinner companion, spotting him talking to another person she didn't recognize. "Hello!" She called as she waves and starts heading toward the table, weaving through the other diners.


Fitz grinned to Kai and shrugged a shoulder, "Let it never be said that pleasant company is overrated, or for good soup for that matter I suppose." And then Kitty showed up. The engineer's face warmed into a wider smile, even if his ears went a little red. He stood up to greet her because he was still his mother's on. "Kitty, I didn't think you'd actually make it. I mean I'm glad, or that- " He paused and took a deep breath. Professional Fitzy, you could do it. "Kai, a friend of mine from a bit ago, Kitty Pryde. Kitty, my… friend Kai." Sure, he'd go there. Kai was a recent addition but an amicable fellow. He offered to the other man that lived in Europe, "We met when she was on studies abroad at Oxford same summer I was taking University classes there."


Kai's accent is English. Londoner, to be specific. "Hello, it's a pleasure," he says, offering a hand to Kitty. "Oxford, you say? How impressive." From beat child to grown up capable of having a grown up conversation, all in the blink of an eye. "Have you been here before? The noodles are to die for."


Kitty shakes her head, "Not yet, but you are not the first person to sing the praises of the noodles." She shakes the offered hand before turning back to Fitz, "I was surprised to get your message, how long have you been stateside?" She shrugs out of her winter coat before moving to grab a seat.


Fitz was a little flustered, but really, this was a pleasant meeting, and apparently one looked forward to. "Just over two weeks. Um my research team," SHIELD, but let's not just talk about that casually, "moved me Stateside for some projects." grinning to Kai he said with modest aplomb, "Kitty happens to be one of the foremost leading minds in programming, did you know." He gave her the nod, genius that he was, respected genius above all else, "Taught me a few things that were incredibly helpful to my work which, I am not ashamed to say, I appreciate. Funny everyone winds up passing through New York, though."


Kai clucks his tongue and says "So many intelligent people." He shakes Kitty's hand, and he grins. "I'm an artist, and I used to be a waiter," he says. "I don't know anything about programming, but I do know good food." To that end, he gets settled, ready to stuff noodles in his face. "It's an honor to be surrounded by so many intellectuals."


Kitty blushes, "I don't know about foremost mind, but I'm glad I was able to help." She picks up a menu and begins to look through, turning to Kai, "So if you know food - what do you recommend off the menu?" To Fitz she asks, "What kind of project? Can you say?"


Fitz shrugged and was happy with the success all the same, "Well, it's true. And I can not say however, I am possibly in the field for seeing about finding a technical analyst and programmer who might… be looking to expand field of study a bit." He looked to Kai and summed up, "I need a new lab partner. Sadly the last one washed."


"Just order their plain noodle bowl," Kai tells Kitty. "It's made with chicken stock, I think. Whatever they make it out of, it's so good." He doesn't even look at the menu. Noodle bowl. Noodle bowl for elf now. "So are you two going to partner up?" he asks, all innocence. "You two could make a good team, right?"


Kitty raises an eyebrow, "Are you recruiting me Leo Fitz?" She resists the urge to smile outright. Setting the menu aside, she decides to trust the recommendation of the plain noodle bowl, she looks directly at Fitz, small smile still tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I am between jobs, and the mainstream school isn't all it's cracked up to be. Is the lack of a proper degree going to be a problem?"


Fitz was nervous as hell. You'd think the young man was asking her to prom but no, "I would really, find it a privilege, if you would consider being my lab partner and helping us in R&D." Looking to Kai there was a nod, "We built some fun things at Oxford, but really, we've you on file from help past, and it would really help fill some knowledge gaps. it'd be a privilege, to work with you again." High praise, better than being a romantic, they were engineers building the future, man.


An hour and a half later after some discussion to consider applications later, and Kitty left on a high note…


Kai has devoured two bowls of noodles. Loki's money gets put to good use. Now he settles back, patting his full belly. "She seems nice," he says once Kitty's left. "I like her." He eyes Fitz with a canny narrowing of his eyes. "I think you like her, too." Then he smiles.


Fitz had that sort of half-lost look in his eye and murmured stirring his soup, "She can do amazing things with electronic signatures. It's just… fantastic." He caught himself though daydreaming about the potential of scientific discovery and also what they might do with any of the recovered tech from Penglai. Ooooh somewhere Hawkeye was being thoroughly disappointed in him he was certain. He could feel the squinting. Still, it all put him in a very good mood. "Kai, there is nothing more wonderful in the world than seeing someone with the potential have the means to fulfill all sorts of possibilities and impossibilities. Imagine what we could do for the world- worlds in fact!"


"Your conviction is infectious," Kai says, and it's almost a complaint, but only almost. He pats Fitz on the shoulder. "I have no doubt you'll make all the words better somehow. You have that way about you. You're driven." Something the lackadaisical elf hasn't been for most of his ill-spent youth. Still he can recognize and respect it.


Fitz took the recognition for what it was, and chuckled. "I can't help it. There's so much just… out there. Had I a way to take it all in at once, trust me I'd consider it. I'd imagine that'd be a mite severe though." If only he knew about the Archive he'd amend that to a certainty. "How are things going with you? My research aside."


"With me?" Kai smiles wryly and shrugs a shoulder. "I'm all right. I live in the greatest city in the world, keeping the very best of company. I can't complain." Tilting his head, he adds, "What worlds have you explored? I've only really been on the two…three. More if inter-dimensional travel counts."


Fitz snickered in a joking tone, "Accidental spatial anomaly that pulled me to the other side of the galaxy for a short while count?" He was joking right? He shrugged. "Not really. I'd love to see something someday. Maybe. Under the right conditions. I mean we know there are Asgardians and so I reckon there's more, you know?" Even if Kai wasn't outed, Thor and Loki did a bang up job going 'Hi, we're here' in the media.


"That counts," Kai says with a firm nod, as though he were an authority on such things. "I know some Asgardians," Kai says. "Asgard is nice, but Alfheim is better. They make the best wine there." He takes a drink from his coke, then adds, "You should go to the next Asgardian feast. It's a who's who of aliens."


Fitz blinked and went a bit wide-eyed, "Never got to have a proper conversation at length before. I'd be thrilled if you were able to make introduction. At the very least, we learn about fermentation processes and extraterrestrial flora. I know of a couple people that would be over the moon about that." Not the least of which might be a certain biologist. "You keep saying you are an artist though, I'd love to see this sometime if you're ever up for it. I like seeing what inspires people."


"Sure," Kai says. "I know how to get in touch with Loki of Asgard. I can arrange for you two to run into one another." He flashes Fitz a grin. "He's a little mischievous, but I think it's because he's interested in figuring out how people work." He considers, then takes a napkin out of the napkin holder and says, "Do you have a pen? I'll sketch something for you."


Fitz looked immediately worried and seemed to want to ask Can't we start with someone who has never tried to hold a planet hostage? but politely refrained and just looked slightly concerned. In the end he reached under his coat and pulled a ballpoint pen from the breast pocket of his shirt and handed it to Kai curiously watching. he reasoned, "Sure, what could possibly go wrong there?"


Kai laughs as he says, "Yeah, what indeed?" He starts to sketch, holding the napkin taut. In short order, he creates a sketch of Kitty with laughter in her eyes, and he offers it over. For a napkin sketch, it's… well, it's kind of amazing. "Sorry for the rushed job," he says, "But it's all yours."


Fitz watched head tilting to the side, and then the side again, but not being an owl had to wait patiently for Kai to finish the sketch of his friend, and hopefully, again-work colleague. "That's absolutely brilliant, Kai. After turning four shades of red I think she'll be wonderfully flattered." Still it was a wonder, and it was nice to see the great anomaly of the universe captured for a moment even if ink on napkin. "William Blake said something about a crafter's work being a better reflection of the world than how we see it in a mirror. You may be proving him right, Kai. Bravo, you."


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