Aileen almost winced as James suggested Ginnie work on an improvement for a parachute. He really wasn't making this any better for himself. Was he trying to piss her off? If so, he was doing brilliantly, and making their camping trip just that much harder. She took a couple of steps towards Ginnie, but by now her friend was beginning to calm down. Or at least pretend like she was. Aileen closed the distance between herself and her best friend and put a hand on her shoulder, but James seemed to have understood what she'd mouthed to him, so maybe the two of them wouldn't kill each other just yet. 
"I hate to sound like a broken record," She said, "But surely the best way to avoid making camp next to raptors or a T-Rex is to make camp in a hotel in California, rather than in Dinoland." She was by now pretty resigned to spending some time here, but she still hadn't expected something like a potentially lethal holiday when she'd joined the Avengers. 

She raised her eyebrows as James suggested he be paired with Ginnie for scouting. Did he just want to apologise again? She tried to wiggle her eyebrows at Ginnie, looking between her and James. It was always fun to suggest new ships to Ginnie. Although given the sheer volume of people Ginnie had ended up going home with over the course of their friendship, she occasionally did get with somebody Aileen had suggested. Still, despite how she acted around T'Shan, she wasn't sure a team relationship was the best idea. If something happened and they broke up it could be....messy.
"Oh I'm fine spending some quality time with T'Shan," She said, of course making it just slightly flirtatious, "We're in a whole new land, I'm sure he can show me some new things." Ginnie didn't have a suit with her, but Aileen was half-expecting a twig to be thrown at her.

She kept walking with T'Shan through the forest, letting him do all the spotting and tracking and the like while she took in the pretty surroundings.
"Yeah, that's a bit of a weird dream," She told him, "Why do you want to get into fisticuffs with a dinosaur?"

Cap looked at T'Shan and Aileen. "Listen, you two. Be on your guard. None of the usual BS that you two do. Don't get distracted by flirting. I'm not saying that to be offensive. You two work well together. I just want you both to bring your A games while wandering around out there. Deal?"

They wandered for a bit, James scouting slightly behind Ginnie, just looking for footprints or runs that denoted anything larger than a deer. He hadn't come across anything, so far. Other than the crabby redhead wandering in front of him. He wasn't expecting the apology, frankly. But that was the reason he wanted them to go off together. The two of them needed to learn to work together.

"Accepted." James took a moment and then walked up next to her, quietly slipping an arm around Ginnie's waist. "I have noticed that you might have some issues with control, Iron Princess, and I accept that. I think we need to work on that a little. If you want to fight me for control, let's do it in a more fun setting. With less clothing." He knew that if nothing else, it would show Ginnie that he'd forgiven her and that he'd moved on to making her laugh with bad attempts at flirting. He knew how much it took to apologize to him. So, he just played it off. He wanted her pride in tact.

Here's to being human and taking it for granted

She let out a wavering breathe when he said accepted, like it meant something that he was willing to forgive her. It didn't actually mean as much as she made it seem, though she didn't need to be fighting with him the entire time they were here. This wasn't the place for such a thing, she knew that, and she kept having to remind herself that. Yet again, it didn't help that she didn't have JARVIS here with her. While it was simply an AI, the robotic voice being in her ear tended to be something of a comfort to her.

She was about to start quickening her pace when she felt an arm hook around her waist. She went rigid for a moment, the want to push him away seeming to combat with the slight comfort she felt from it, making her want to lean more into it. She took another deep breathe and decided to allow the contact, though did her best to keep from leaning too into it. She listened to his words and it made her roll her eyes. A genuine smile crossing her lips. She had a few ideas of what she wanted to do and quickly tried to figure out which to go with.

Ultimately, she went with the third idea that had come to her mind. She knew it probably wasn't the smartest idea but if he wanted to make such suggestions, a small part of her felt the need to say something back. She stopped moving, hoping it would cause him to stop as well. She turned slightly towards him, leaning in close and getting up on her tip toes to try and get closer to eye level. Which, quite honestly, she knew wasn't going to happen. "Well, if you play your cards right, Captain, maybe you'll get that chance," she cooed, throwing a wink. She considered doing something else like giving some small kiss, well fake like she was going to at least but decided against that. They had more important things to do.

So with that, she turned away, pushing him gently so she could move ahead of him again. "Honestly, though, Jimmy, this isn't really the time for suggestiveness," she mused. The smile stayed along her lips, and she tried focusing on that rather than her prior worry and annoyance. Her eyes scanned the ground and trees around her, looking for signs of lifeforms they may need to worry about. So far, so good. "Seems everything's safe so far, though. Thankfully."

xxx	James Barnes Jr @thorson Aileen Barton
et voila~

The highs and lows of living, to getting second chances

✿

"Understood Captain. We will be good. Well, I do suppose that is open for interpretation. But we will do our best to refrain from sneaking into some bushes to do our own team building exercise."

He said with a laugh. Of course he knew that wasn't likely, well not yet. Although he was working up to that level. He simply wanted to take their relationship to the next level. Of course she seemed apprehensive. But then again it was a well known fact that he was terrible at reading people. He operated by the warrior's code and took people for their word. Problem was most Midgardians didn't operate by the same code he did. It would make things much easier if they did though.

He began to walk with Aileen, just looking for any potential signs of imminent threat. He didn't see a lot. They seemed to have gotten lucky and landed in a relatively safer area. There didn't seem to be much in the way of big and threatening dinosaurs. Of course his knowledge of dinosaurs was not as great as it was in regards to Asgardian beasts.

"We could have just done this in the jungles of Wakanda. Sure there are panthers and leopards, but generally nothing the size of a house. Well, usually."

He said before glancing over at her as she questioned why he'd want to fight a dinosaur. Sure he'd be more comfortable using Mjolnir but also was looking forward to the challenge.

"Why not fight a dinosaur? I have never fought one. Plus without Mjolnir there is the added challenge. I look forward to besting a Tyrannosaurs and taking something for a trophy."

He stopped and tilted his head listening. He shook his head before continuing on his way. He had heard what James and Ginnie had said and glanced over at Aileen.

"Typical of the Captain. He tells us not to flirt while he and Maiden are two steps away getting better acquainted, so to speak. It does not seem right that they should get all the fun."

He said with a wink. He then resumed walking with her examining the vegetation. This was definitely new for him. Then again most hadn't actually encountered this area. He had to wonder how many favors James called in to make this happen.

"Keep an eye out for the vegetation to get denser. It means we are getting closer to water."

Aileen raised her eyebrows as James warned herself and T'Shan off of flirting, and pulled the most innocent expression she could.
"Would I ever, Jimmy?" she asked him, "When have you ever known me to flirt when I should be on a job?" Of course, if any of them actually tried to answer that question, they'd have a pretty large sample to draw from. "Trust me, you're not getting less than my A+ game while we're walking with dinosaurs." Although she wasn't entirely sure what she brought to the group without her bow and arrow. James and T'Shan could punch a raptor to death if they had to. Aileen didn't have anything like as much strength.

Still, she couldn't help but snort at T'Shan's comment and lightly swat at his bicep.
"I promise to try and avoid getting drawn in my T'Shan's oh so subtle flirting," She said sarcastically, "And to try and keep that kind of team building on the down low." She wasn't expecting that to actually happen on this trip, however. Possible minutes away from death was hardly the most sexy atmosphere to be in, especially not when your teammates were presumably going to be a few metres away. Although if James and Ginnie started doing anything, well, Aileen would probably collapse their tent or something. Just for the fun of it.

As her and T'Shan started to walk, Aileen decided her game plan was to let him fight any dinosaurs that showed up while she threw rocks or something. He was the demigod, after all. 
"I still think a nice Californian beach resort is better," Aileen said, "Nothing trying to kill us and I get to wear a nice bikini. Plus I can get a tan. Here I'm just going to burn." She was trying to focus on petty stuff to avoid thinking about the possibility that she might die. Ginnie wouldn't actually let anything happen to her, would she? 
"And if you do, let me keep a tooth or something."

Aileen cocked a head as T'Shan told her what Ginnie and James were doing.
"Seriously? They're over there getting friendly?" Well sure, she found that hilarious, but James had literally told them to stay focussed. If he was trying to get it on with Ginnie, he clearly had other things on his mind.
"They shouldn't get all the fun?" Aileen asked, sounding amused, and lightly patted T'Shan on the butt. "Well, I'm not sure how much fun we can have while walking." She did take his advice, however, and started to pay attention to the foliage.

As Ginnie stopped, James stopped too and looked around. She moved closer and leaned in. James hadn't actually expected the lame attempts at flirting to work. His mouth turned into a small smile and then Ginnie pushed off of him and kept moving. "I like where this is going." He knew that if she was teasing him again, they were back where they should be and he was fine with that.

"No, no distractions. Perish the thought." He gave a little smile as Ginnie walked ahead. James took a moment to admire the scenery before going back to scouting out the area. The foliage was mostly undisturbed, which was good. That meant nothing bigger than a squirrel had come through here so far. As they came up to a clearing, James reached out in an attempt to pull Ginnie into the bushes. If this worked, then he'd be busy pointing to a small herd of Triceratops grazing, mouthing "Dinosaurs" to Ginnie.

James had been to the Savage Land a few times, but hardened agent or not, there was still a point that he turned into a 10 year old boy every time he saw a dinosaur. His face was lit up with a smile. He just pointed and gestured with his hands to the herd. At least, if they were quiet, they wouldn't scare away the wildlife. Hopefully.