Skye watched as May, Ward and Coulson met Agent Hand for a debrief on the latest mission.

'So, what do you kids do for fun arou-'

Skye turned to see Fitzsimmons scurrying down a corridor labelled LABS.

'Of course.'

Skye wandered the halls of the Hub, occasionally stopping to look at things of interest. Walking down an empty corridor, Skye heard a rhythmic pounding from the door to the left. Letting her insatiable curiosity get the best of her, she cautiously entered the room.

She was met with a gym of sorts with countless knives and guns littering the walls. Of to her left was the workout section, filled with weights, treadmills and the like, at the far wall was an archery range and in the right corner was an assault course. But the source of the pounding brought her attention to the centre of the room, where a solitary red-headed woman stood, pounding at a punching bag, with surprising force.

'Barton! Only you are stupid enough to come here when I just got off a mission.'the woman said without turning around.

Skye's thoughts quickly went to the empty corridor she had just come down in the otherwise busy building.

'Um, no sorry to interrupt... I'm Skye...' She trailed off.

The woman turned around and glared at her. Despite the contempt on her face, Skye couldn't help but admire how beautiful she was.

'Agent Romanov. You're new here.'

'Ha! What gave it away?'

Agent Romanov looked at Skye for a moment, wondering if she should answer the retort.

'You said Skye.. Not Agent-whatever-your-surname-is.'

A dark shadow flashed across Skye's eyes for a moment before returning to normal, it was a while before Skye said,

'I don't have one... A surname that is, never had one, ever since I was dumped on the doorstep of an orphanage,' she wasn't sure why she divulged this information, usually keeping it to herself. Agent Romanov's eyes softened before turning back to the punching bag.

She set her self back to the steady rhythm.

'Its Natasha, or Tasha.'

Skye walked over to wrap her hands, pausing to ask,

'Hey Tasha, do you mind if I join?'

She grunted affirmative, and Skye proceeded to join the next bag along, settling into the beat provided by Tasha.


Clint always knew. He always knew when a mission took its toll on Nat, he was a spy for gods sake! He knew she would go to the gym and have a one on one with the punching bag, erasing the images of whatever horror she had to witness on her latest mission with each punch she threw. Ever since she gave that junior a broken rib, people tended to steer clear when she was like this. But little did Nat know, he was always watching, high in the vents. He knew she wanted to be alone and he respected that, but he would never leave her. He watched from above as Natasha corrected Skye's stance, helping her find her balance. She never allowed people with her when she was like this, more from fear of hurting them, than the anger. She knew what she was like when she got like this, and she was sick of hurting the innocent. Few words were exchanged and they went back to punching. Suddenly, Skye's pager went off, alerting her to her needed assistance back with the others,

'Duty calls, thanks Tasha, maybe another time. AC will want me presentable if it's for Agent hand.'

She rushed out the room before Tasha could ask who AC was.

'So, she's something'

Clint swung down from his vent and landed deftly on his feet next to Tasha.

'Don't say it.'

'She's awful pretty too' he said teasingly.

'Shut up. Shut up'

Clint swung her round to face him.

'Come on Nat, you trained with her, you helped her, when all past experiences would have bet on you breaking her nose, what gives.'

This was why she liked solitude, no reason to hide her emotions when no ones there, she thought. No, she thought, this is Clint, if anyone, he'll understand.

'She doesn't know me, Clint, do you know how often that happens off mission? She looks at me and she didn't see the widow, or the Assassin, she didn't have fear in her eyes or judgement or pity, she saw me, not my assignments. That was kinda.. Nice.'

Clint stared at her, surprised.

'Background check.'

'No! I'll never see her again, what's the point?'

'Lemme give her one, come on Nat, please.'

Clint ran out the room, chased by a shouting Natasha.


Back on the bus, Ward was dragging Skye to down to the makeshift gym, nothing like the one she had been in an hour ago.

'Okay, 40 minutes on the bag.'

Skye rolled her eyes,

'Hey robot I already did the bag back at the Hub.'

'Not with me rookie, I can't believe you willingly hit a bag for longer than ten minutes'

Skye shrugged, not mentioning the red headed motivation punching beside her back at the Hub, instead, returning to the position Tasha showed her, she started hitting the bag. Ward watched her movement, her stance, it had changed, better suited for a woman, smaller than her opponents.

'Your stance, it's different...better,' he muttered the last part to himself.

Usually Skye would give anything for her S.O to get chatty during her training, an excuse to stop and talk, but she continues punching away, before replying,

'An agent showed me, said it was better for my build.'

'Who?' Ward asked surprised, usually the other agents were quite rude to skye when she was there, following the belief she 'hacked her way into an agent.'

'Agent Romanov.'

Ward sputtered. Actual sputterage from mister-I-have-no-emotions.

'What,' she asked surprised,

'who is she?'

'I would have thought you knew, you were obsessed with superheroes, I thought you knew who all the avengers were-'

'I TRAINED WITH AN AVENGER?! SHE'S BLACK WIDOW?'


Skye had taken to going down to the gym at every opportunity, much to everyone's surprise, she could often take out Ward in sparing, even asking to join on May's tai chi. No one questioned it though, glad she was actually committing to training.
When ever at a shield facility, Skye would head the gym, hoping to see Tasha there, but it didn't happen for 3 months, although she caught the attention of the other agents.
On one occasion, a group of junior agents wanted to test out Ward's new rookie, remembering him from particularly horrific training days back at the academy when missions were slow.

'Well, if it isn't Ward's new hacker, you sure he doesn't keep you around for the eye candy?' Skye sighed, knowing this would happen at some point.

'Well,' she drawled, 'guess it's a shame for robot I'm a raging lesbian.'

The group of juniors laughed to each other, alerting the senior agents in the room, including Ward and Coulson. Most of them were, intrigued, believing the 'hacked her way in' theory, but Coulson was concerned. They stood and watched, waiting for the pin to drop. The ringleader, of sorts, walked over to Skye, grabbing her ass and pulling her towards him, the scent of cologne burning her nose. He leaned forward, whispering in her ear

'Oh hon, that won't mean a thing when you're screaming my name.'

Coulson started forward, before Ward pulled him back, saying,

'Don't, she can handle herself, she will gain their respect, and others,' he glanced warily at the other agents in the room,seeing the malice behind their eyes,

'if she does it this way.'

Skye glared at the man grabbing her ass, before head butting him in the nose, then following by kneeing him in the groin, watching as he fell to the ground.

'Sorry, I don't mix pleasure with business, well... more like displeasure.'

Ward snorted as the man groaned on the floor. Everyone else in the room was silent, before a rush of 6 junior agents charged at her.

-2 minutes later-

'Uggghhhhhh.'

'Sorry boys, she told you, ya aren't her type.'

Ward grinned at the agents on the floor, before watching Skye address the other agents in the room,

'Anyone else wanna go? No? Good. I'll see you on the bus, AC.'

Everyone was left in the dust as she stalked off the the shower rooms.
Unknown to her, there was a man in the vents, chuckling, filming the whole fight. He sent the video in a text, captioned,

'She's quite the firecracker, reminds me of you.'

When they finally met again, two weeks later, the gym was empty.

'So wanna spar?'

'Skye.'

'Tasha.'

'Ya know, you've been the topic of gossip for days, I could hardly believe it when they told me the girl, who couldn't punch a bag right a few months ago, took down 7 of the most promising juniors.'

Skye laughed, thinking back to that day,

'Didn't think you were the type to listen to rumours, Tasha,' she teased.

Skye didn't mention the rumours she had heard about Tasha, not wanting to ruin the banter.

'Oh I'm not, but when I'm faced with undeniable evidence,' she shrugged, and pulled out her phone and brought a video up, grinning,

'Now that's a rumour I believe.'

They spent the afternoon sparing, and whenever Tasha did a particularly impressive move, Skye stopped, and learnt the move, till she perfected it.
This happened whenever they met over the next 6 months, sparing, learning. Skye never mentioned the avengers, and Tasha never asked about the orphanage, remembering the conversation about her name.
Skye never mentioned their meetings to the team, either, enjoying the look of surprise when she destroyed a guy, using one of Tasha's moves during a mission.
Her response always deflective and teasing.


Natasha was having a crappy day.
Back at the avengers tower, Tony was being a dick. All the spider jokes, he even got Spider-Man on the phone, for gods sake (who sounded like a 14 year old child). Banner was in the lab, Thor was on a date with Jane, and Cap was on mission. Clint was being incredibly unhelpful. Said he had a lead on his stupid 'Skye background check'. Tasha don't know why he was even bothering, it's been months. He said something about what kind of a name is Poots. She decided she wasn't going to ask.

Then the stupid coffee shop got her order wrong. Who wanted caramel in a perfectly good black coffee? Bitter and strong was how she liked it, she chose not to dwell on the irony there. Now, she was at the Triskillion, being followed by the stares of all her co-workers. This is why she hated paperwork. All the gawking and whispers that came with not having an office. Skye wouldn't be like this. She would come talk with her, instead of whisper behind her back. Suddenly Natasha's thoughts went to a conversation she had with Skye.

'So, you lived in a van?'

'Yeah, right up till I was taken in by my team. Why does that surprise you so much?'

'Well you're a hacker, wouldn't you just hack a bank account?'
'I wasn't a thief, I worked for freedom of information, I wanted to help people, not steal from them, money was never the goal... Besides, it beats some places I've slept.'

Tasha hadn't questioned it, knowing her past was buried down deep. Sometimes Skye seemed like she had more secrets than her. Instead she asked,

'Where is your van now?'

'I don't know, Shield had this little triangle thing that started the ignition and drove the car away, no driver and all! I assume it's somewhere in the New York base, where I was at the time. I miss it, sometimes I sneak into one of the vans on the bus just to be alone, to feel home.'

That last comment seemed perfect right now. Tasha knew shield, knew it's protocols, it would have kept Skye's van, in case she ever left. For once she was glad for Barton's background check, knowing when Skye was found. She checked the archives for that date, and found the vans lot number. Gathering all her paperwork and her laptop, she walked to the vehicle storage bunker.

Skye's van was a clunky old thing, but inside, it was warm and cozy. She set up at the desk, and revelled in the silence and the absence of prying eyes. Skye was right, it was comforting. She kinda wished Skye was with her.

The next day, everything went to shit.


Skye looked at the screen, showing Captain America, and Natasha Romanov's faces under the words 'known fugitives'.

No.

Skye quickly deleted the alert. She wasn't going to hunt down a friend and ol' Stars and Stripes over there, not for shield, not for anything. She didn't inform her S.O, or tell Coulson, screw protocol.


'Bucky?'

'Who's Bucky?'

Natasha felt a gun on the back of her neck and saw Sam and Steve in the same position. Shit.


Ward is hydra.

Her mouth felt dirty, the traitors lips still hovering over hers.
She wanted to murder him for Eric. She can't, she couldn't take him when he wasn't holding anything back. This wasn't sparing anymore.

She took his hand and followed him on the bus. She knew she was probably going to die. Goodbye, Coulson, May, Fitzsimmons...

Tasha.


'All my aliases have been released, I need to tie up a few loose ends.'

Bullshit.

They didn't know that though. No. She wasn't tying up a few loose ends, she was making them. Everything had been released, including a (now un-)redacted document concerning a little orphan girl and a massacred village. She was finding out why.


'Director Coulson.'

'Please Skye, it's AC.'

'I thought you didn't like it...DC,'

She teased with a wink.
Ignoring her banter, he turned to his team. He had just received confirmation from a group of visitors coming to the playground. If anyone was loyal to shield, or at least what shield stood for, it was them. He told his team just as much.

'Guys... It's the avengers.'

'Shit. Shit, fuck me.' That was the current thought process going through Skye's brain, 'She's coming here, she's going to know I know.'

'They don't know I'm alive, just that there's a new director, appointed by Fury. It's going to be rough, there will be tears, probably from me, screaming, and most importantly... Knives. Black widow is going to be pissed. I'm legitimately terrified. Just don't get in her way. She might kill you... Oh they'll be her in,' DC checks his watch,'three minutes.'

Fitzsimmons sputters at that. They look so scared, if she wasn't so worried, she might've laughed. May and Trip as ever, looked emotionless, but Trips fists were shaking slightly by his side.
They heard the rumble of a quinjet land in the 'car park'. They were here.
They could here the voices approach. One of them louder and more excited than the others. Stark.

'Oh Skye, don't fangirl, it's embarrassing, and they just want to feel normal.' May said behind Skye.

Don't I know it, Skye thought to herself, letting out a chuckle.

The group of superheroes turned the corner of the hall, trailing after Billy, rambling about lanyards to Captain America. But they broke their stride as they saw our group, mainly at Coulson. Fury flashed on Tasha's face as she saw him. She strode forward to him, but then she saw who was behind him. She reached Coulson and pushed him aside, rushing to meet Skye in a bear hug. Everyone stared, but going unnoticed by the women hugging. They stood there for a minute. Until Skye murmured in Tasha's ear,

'I thought you died, there wasn't anything, no trail after. No mention of the Black Widow besides what had been released.'

They parted, and Tasha looked in Skye's eyes.

'I know, about your parents... I had a lead, I went to investigate..'

Skye didn't have time to react, as someone cleared their throat behind them. Clint stood there, a shit eating grin on his face. He pulled Skye into a brief hug.

'Its great to finally meet you, Skye.'

'Wait, that's Skye? Omygosh, I love you!'

Skye grinned at Stark, as he blushed at his unexpected outburst. Skye glanced at May, who stood in shock and gave her a look as if to say 'look who's fangirling now?' A look of recognition showed on Thor and Dr Banner's faces. As much as Skye was loving the attention, she looked confused at the recognition from the avengers. Tasha quickly said,

'Clint showed them the video. With the junior agents.'

A grin grew on Skye's face. Suddenly Coulson found his voice, and he exclaimed

'What the FUCK is going on? Skye how do you know Tasha, and what video and why do none of you seem affected by my sudden revival?'

Skye laughed. She saw the same look Coulson was giving her mirrored on Fitzsimmons, Trip and May's faces.

'Umm, well, I met Tasha about 10 months ago, when we were at the Hub, I was bored, she taught me how to box, properly, unlike ward,' she said, the last part bitter.

'Ever since then, whenever we are at the same base, we meet at the gym and train, she's taught me a few moves, and we became friends. As for the video, remember when I was attacked by those douche juniors back at the base in Germany? Well there was a video and I guess they liked my moves, ' she finished off pleased.

Tasha laughed.

'Yeah, they watched it about 100 times. And Phil, we've known for ages, you were there that day, we saw you in the video with ward. We went straight to Fury and he told us you were under orders not to come to us, we understood, although we didn't know you were with Skye.'

Coulson finally relaxed.

'Bucky's not here, he's back at the tower with Sam Wilson, I sent you his file. Bucky's still adjusting, he's not good with new situations, we thought it would be better for us to come first, make sure everything checks out,' Steve said to Coulson.

Coulson nodded, glad there would be no more unexpected drama. After they introduced to others to the Avengers, everyone split off to there respective areas, Tony and Fitz, Simmons and Banner to the lab, Cap and Coulson to his office to plan, and Skye, Trip May, Tasha, Clint and Thor to the massive gym, big enough for all of them.


'Nat, what do you mean, you know about my parents?' Skye asked tentatively.

Natasha paused, waited for the others to pass them on their way to the gym. They were alone.

'I know, about the village in china, your 084 status, everything.'

Skye's eyes brimmed with tears,

'Oh god, don't tell the others, May and Coulson know already. A whole village died. Some monster killed my parents, and a whole village, for what?'

Realisation dawned on Tasha's face.

'Oh Skye, you don't know? Those monsters... They were your parents,' Tasha whispered.

She was crying now too, hugging her tight. Skye didn't say anything. Her body shaking with sobs. They stood there for hours, until Skye dragged Tasha to her room. She lay on the bed and curled in a ball.

'I'm a monster. I'm a thing. God what's wrong with me? What am I?'

Tasha's heart broke watching her. She moved to the bed and hugged her, tight.

'Its alright, I'm here, your not a monster, you're Skye, a beautiful, badass spy with awesome hacker skills. You are amazing, you're not a monster.' Skye looked up at Tasha through her tears, and stared at Tasha.

'How can you even look at me? I'm a freak. I probably have some freak monster power.'

'Um, have you noticed? I live with a metal man, two soldier from WW2, an angry green monster, a god, and a super assassin with trust issues and a therapist with wings.'

Skye laughed and snuggled into Tasha.

'Thanks Nat, you're the best.'

From this position, Skye could hear Tasha's heartbeat, pounding away. It reminded her of the day they had met, the pounding of Tasha's punches, so violent yet graceful. A smile tugged at Skye's lips. The beat of her hearts soothed her, slowed her racing thoughts till she drifted to a calm sleep. Tasha follows not long after.

Skye would be lying if she said her dreams hadn't been consumed with a beautiful redhead. She would also be lying if she said she didn't feel a fire burning in the pit of her stomach, yearning for Natasha Romanov.

She would be lying, it doesn't mean she would be terribly convincing.