Running. It was one of Maria's most favourite past times. She loved how with every step she took, her worries faded away and brought a calming sense over her mind. It allowed her to think of plans for work, to make sense of complications.

It was simply,it was easy and it was healthy. Running was smooth, it was calming, it was a sense of normality throughout her entire life. She ran for fun; she ran for her life.

Nowadays it always felt like she was running for her life. If not hers, a friend, a civilian, a team mate. Always running. It soon lost its favour with Maria. One too many trips, one too many falls, one too many stumbles. One too many lives lost because of it. She soon began to hate running, the one thing that she looked forward to in her morning routine; she began to hate. Once what filled her with a sense of serenity was spent thinking about ever lose that happened because she tripped, because she wasn't good enough. That anger within her made her train for longer and train harder. She built up her stamina, she built up the muscles in her body to keep her and whoever was in her care alive.

The thing she hated the most was keeping her alive right now. She tried not to think of that as she held on tightly to the civilian as they ran through the desert. The poor man was stumbling over his own feet, dazed and confused from the heat, sweat dripping off his face. He kept look back as he ran and it was really beginning to piss her off.

"Stop looking back! You're slowing yourself down." Maria snapped at the man, she looked back at her team mates as they flanked around them in a protective circle. Their faces covered by their helmets and bandanas to keep the sand out of their faces,but even through all of that, Maria could see their determination to keep this one alive.

Five botched missions in a row. Five. Maria had went over them again and again in her head, but she could not see where they went wrong. The followed a plan, when the situation called for it the switched to their back up plan again and again. They had planned out every scenario possible for every mission, getting more and more meticulous with every failed mission but they still did not understand how their missions failed.

She still kept running despite this.

She continued to fight for the safety of civilians, the diplomats that she was saving. The royalty, the politicians. Who knew there were so many important figures that got kidnapped on a daily basis that needed the special forces in the army to rescue? Not Maria that is for sure.

She paused in her running, her chest heaving as she looked at her surroundings. There was sand everywhere, creating hills upon hills, creating a binding circle, a labyrinth of emptiness. They could keep running for days and never find a way out. It was a great way to never be found, which was perfect if that is what you are looking for, but when you have a politician that needs to be returned to the US to help give a speech to sway others to vote on funding countries that need aid, your superiors want you to be found and to return him to US soils. Which was a surprisingly hard thing to do when you were in the desert with no barrings on where you are.

"Cap. Why'd you stop? They can gain on us any second." Davidson spoke up.

Maria turned to face him, he had pulled his helmet off, his dark hair was dripping with sweat, his face had sections covered in sunburn, from where his gear had not protected his face. His eyes seemed to be slowly gazing over. Heat stroke. Maria looked up at the sun and back down at her team. They were all going to get that if they didn't find to hold up or find a way to signal for an extraction.

A signal would be dangerous, it would alert the enemies where they were and they have much better barrings of the dessert than they or the US army do. They would be dead within hours and it would be their sixth failed mission. Alternatively, the signal would save them. It could alert the army, an extraction unit could get to them within an hour, depending on how close they were.

"We have no idea where we are going, Davidson." She responded eventually, swirling around, keeping a tight grip on the politician. She hadn't bothered to learn his name, she learnt that this hurt less if he ended up dead.

"Surely anywhere is better than where we were, Cap'." Swanson said, the youngest of their group. She was small, very agile and amazing with a sniper. Maria could always reply on her to watch her back, just as Swanson could always rely on Maria to watch hers, make sure she doesn't get swallowed up in the male dominated army.

"True." Maria conceded, her eyes still searching for a way out, "but if we keep going the way we are, we will get ourselves lost and potentially never be found and that is the exact opposite of the US Army wants."

"So what do we do then?" Davidson asked, he was always the critic in the group, always kept Maria on her toes, thinking about consequences of her actions. Thats why she liked him so much that she kept him in her team, even after their superiors tried to move him teams.

"We just want things to go smoothly for yourself, Captain Hill." They had tried to placate her, but Maria knew what they were really saying; they did not believe that she could handle someone like Davidson. She knew that they had begrudgingly gave her the position of Captain, that if the a US Senator (a female one, she might add) insisting that she be promoted after looking into her work for the army, and after rescuing her. The senator had cried out that it was crime that Maria had not been promoted before hand, that if it had been a man her age, he would have been promoted even sooner. Thus, Maria become once of the youngest female Captains in the US history. Something she was very proud of, but it did not make life easier for her.

At first they gave her the easy cases and the misfits. She still remembered their poorly concealed smug looks as they showed Maria her team. She remembered how much that filled her with rage that she promised herself, if they did not turn out to be good at anything, she turn them into the best damn team the US Army has ever seen and she did so with ease. All theses misfits needed was some understanding and a firm hand and they turned into the most loyal idiots you have ever seen.

"Cap." Davidson called out, Maria attention to him. It was getting hard to concentrate. The heavy gear, lack of water and the heat for the past two days was slowly wearing her down.

Maria breathed in deeply as tried to think of a plan. Trying to pull the map of the area she memorised to the front of her mind and try to track their movements. "We've been going in a straight, diagonal line since we left the compound. At our speed for the past two days with the breaks that we've had, I'd say we've covered about 30-40 miles. Impressive, must be a new record for us. According to the map...if we go 10 miles to the south, their should be an abandoned factory. We can set up there, find some resources to fix our communication devices and bunker down for a while till rescue." Maria theorised. It was hard to think when dehydrated. The politician was given all of her water as he was the one who needed to stay alive, not Maria.

"Captain, you need some water, here." Fitzgerald said, holding out his canteen of water. Maria shook her head at the offering.

"No, you keep it. We need you focused, you're our technician Fitzgerald." Maria replied, closing her eyes briefly before opening them with new determination. "If we move now, we can be there before nightfall. Lets go." she commanded, glaring at them when none of them moved.

It seemed to annoy their politician.

"Well why aren't you moving!" He practically screamed, his eyes wide with fear.

"Respectfully sir, we will leave once the Captain has had a drink of water. The only way we are going to get out of here alive, is with her." Swanson calmly, looking at him in the eye with that look that made Maria so proud of the girl.

"So what? The US Army hires a bunch of nobodies who can't even get a politcally power person, like me, to safety without being mollycoddled by their commanding officer? Why am I wasting all my money and the governments to help train you pathetic assholes? What to you do with it? Spend it all on booze and fucking strippers?" The man spat, his arms flailing. "And you! So much for being the youngest female Capitan in the US Army! Fucking waste of money is what you are, a product of modern day feminism. Have to keep you women happy and pretend that you are equal or you fucking riot and that's a headache in itself!"

Maria's eye twitched. His insults hitting a little bit too close to home. She was not sure if it was his insults, his attitude this entire trip or if it was the dehydration getting to her, all she knew was that her hand sailed through the air and collided with his face in a loud smack.

"Pull yourself together, Sir!" She snapped at him, "Respectfully sir, it wouldn't be wise to insult those rescuing you. I understand that you are scared and dehydrated, but so are we. The team is just too caring for their own damn good but you and I can't hold that against them. We will getting moving, now." Maria grabbed the canteen from Fitzgerald and took several gulps before handing it back to him with a look that screamed "your ass is mine when we return to base" and was happy to see him gulp.

The politician just stared at Maria in shock, trying to splutter out a reply but Maria had no time for it as she grabbed him, kick starting them all into a light jog towards their destination. The politician threw them all dirty looks but continued running with them.

In the end they did manage to get their before nightfall, only just. The politician kept whining for them to stop, that he couldn't take anymore running. Davidson stepped in surprisingly and snapped at the man, which Maria was grateful for because if she was the one to do it, she would be fired as soon as she got back from this mission.

"Davidson, knock it off." She had snapped lightly, whilst nodding subtly in approval. They had to keep the appearance up that Maria was the disapproving commanding officer and that Davidson was the misfit that he was, it was the only way for it to work and for them to keep their jobs at the end of this.

When the arrived, they had almost collapsed with relief, but not before doing a quick perimeter search of the area they were in. There was no point in moving from where they were, the place was surprisingly stock with food and water, it made Maria suspicious but her judgement was clouded after two days of little food and water. She allowed herself and her team to indulge in the supplies, hoping that whoever put them here would not return for a while.

After they had their fill, the team decided who was to take watch and when. Maria offered to take the first couple of watches, and quickly silenced the protests with a sharp glance. Something about this place put her on the edge, yet her team seemed to dismiss it. That was not a good idea, but she couldn't fault them, not for what they've went through to get this politician.

So she took watch, walking around the place, inspecting the equipment that Fitzgerald would need to fix their devices. There was something familiar about them, so much so that she brought it up with Fitzgerald.

"US Army equipment, that's why they look so familiar to you, Cap. Lucky for us though, means we don't need to worry if they are a fit or not." He replied happily as he tinkered away on their devices.

Maria frowned, "why would US equipment be here?" she thought aloud. Something was not adding up.

"Dunno, Cap. I think we should just be grateful that this stuff was here, or else we would be stranded for days." He said, brushing off her worry with ease. "You should sleep of somethin', you become paranoid when your sleepy." He joked.

Maria rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder lightly, careful not to jostle him too much when he was repairing the devices. It wouldn't be wise. She rolled her shoulders and wandered a little further away than the perimeter that they set out from themselves. Once again she was left to her thoughts, she was thinking about how much she hated running, again. More in the sense that she hate not being able to fight back rather than the actual activity of running.

"Ваше правительство лжет вам." Someone said softly in her ear, causing her to jump in shock. She swirled around to see a gorgeous redheaded women staring at her in curiosity, her green eyes seemed to go right through her body and triggered something wonderful within...and of course the women had a gun levelled at her head.

"My government is what? Sorry I don't know that word, maybe cause my brain is fried...or maybe it's because you have a gun levelled against my head." Maria said testily, her hands slowly going up but a quiver of excitement went through her body. That women had said her words, words that had confused her for her whole life, only to confuse her more when she started learning Russian. It didn't deter her though, she assumed that it was some joke or something, but now Maria was not so sure. The failed mission, the US Army tech in an abandoned warehouse? Maria knows that they were told to stay away from here but desperate times called for desperate measures.

The women looked startled, the gun wavered. Maria agreed internally, this was probably the last place anyone expected to meet their soulmate.

"Maria Hill." She introduced herself, holding her hand out, almost cursing herself because what a shitty way to introduce yourself to your soulmate but she honestly couldn't think of anything else to say. All she knew was that she wanted to feel this women's hand against hers.

She had read up on soulmates and the bonds that they could have when she was younger, light knows that her father would tell her fuck all about it. She had asked once, he had snarled at her that she did not deserve a soulmate and that if he could rip that away from her, he would.

The soul bond could be complete in different ways, and was not always through sex. Although that was certainly the most popular option for people, as many of them consider that the most intimate thing they can do with someone, and that was basically how soul bond formed. Through intimacy. For some that could simply be holding each other, others through a simple touch. Whatever they thought to be intimate for themselves, was how it was formed.

Then the bond formed in more than one way, they could have an emotional bond where they feel each others emotions and can influence them to a certain degree. Another type was a physical bond, where they could feel anything that could affect the body, most people assumed that it was just a mixture of emotional and physical as if someone was fearful, they could have panic attacks which their soul mate would feel, but also if their soulmate happened to be hurt such as being punched, stabbed or shot. The soul mate would not only feel that, but they had the potential to receive that wound as well. Then of course you had the soul bond where is was both physical and mental, there was reports of bond mates being able to feel each others thoughts, communicate through their minds. In recent years these types of bonds have been increasing and the researches put it down to an evolutionary development, as we become a more communicated species the need for intimacy increase and so the bonds have developed to allow communicated telepathically.

Of course, it was all hypothetical, no one knew the real reason but that seemed to be as good as any other. All soul bonds have some basics that they all share, such as the ability to sense what their mate needed, the ability to understand each other like no one else.

Maria couldn't wait to see what type of bond she would have with her soul mate.

The women seemed gaze at the out stretched hand for a while, before carefully taking it, a shuddering breath at the contact. "Natasha Romanova." She whispered.

"Romanova? As in Russian royalty? Are you a descendant?" Maria fired out curiously as she gripped Natasha's hand tightly, a smile on her face.

Natasha shrugged in response and pulled her hand back, "I wouldn't know."

Maria tilted her head in confusion, but shrugged it off. Natasha might just be closed off, they may be soul mate but they were still technically strangers to each other. She nodded her acceptance of the answer and allowed herself to go into a lulled silence, simply running her eyes over Natasha, wanting to memorise everything. Before she had a chance, Natasha spoke up, dragging her attention from trying to memorise her.

"Your government." She said simply. Maria furrowed her eyebrows, remembering what Natasha had told her.

"How are they lying? Are they lying to me about something or is it something else, much bigger? Because the government keep many secrets, Natasha." Maria asked, shifting closer to the women. Oh sue her, she wants to be close to her soulmate.

Natasha seemed to want to pull back. The close contact clearly making her uncomfortable, so Maria pulled back, a little disappointed but it was completely understandable. So she sat at a respectable distance, wondering if she could slyly press their knees together. Natasha gave her a look but seemed to allow it for the moment.

"The government is keeping things from you. The army is not what is appears to be, the failed missions? Those were not accidents, they were intentionally set up to fail." Natasha explained vaguely.

"But why? Why would they do this, and more importantly, why are you telling me? Its clearly no secret that you're Russian. Probably a spy for the KGB. Why would you pass this information on to me? You told me my government was lying to me, before...before you knew we were soulmates." Maria pressed, her hand unconsciously gripping Natasha's knee.

Natasha pulled her knee back sharply at the contact and stared at Maria. "I researched you. You stood up for what you believed in, even if it went against your superiors. It's been marked in your file, not your public one, but your private one. It's stopped you from further promotions. Plus the missions you get sent on are outside US soil more often than not. It was easier for me to contact you, away from people who might cloud your judgement. " She replied with a shrug.

Maria frowned again. Natasha made it seem so simple, but everything about this was not. If what Natasha was saying was true, then the army was corrupt and the government was in on it. What exactly did Natasha expect Maria to do? Sure she was a captain, but being a captain had its limits. How was she going to be able to prove this true.

"Can you prove this?" Maria asked, "if I'm going to do what I think you're implying I should do, I need proof. I can't just go around accusing the army, my superiors and the government of corruption."

Natasha simply nodded and handed Maria a USB stick. "This is everything you need and I even put in it how you got this material in case anyone ask. Its believable and if they decided to check up on it, it will come back as true."

Maria stared at the stick in her hand, she still didn't quite understand, what exactly did the Russian spy (she never corrected Maria so she assumed it was true) want in US politics? "But why?" she questioned again.

Natasha gave her a look, one Maria would never forget. Her eyes held so much pain, something – or someone – had hurt this women so badly. "I have red in my ledger. I want to wipe it out, I helped cause so much pain in the US. I need to fix it."

Maria nodded, knowing that Natasha was not lying to her, not about this. The look in her eyes told her so, but more so the feeling in her gut let her knew that Natasha was telling the truth. "Must be a lot of red if you want to fix our government. That could take years." Maria said softly, rolling the USB through her fingers idly.

Natasha shrugged again. "It's a start."

Maria nodded along, not sure what to say to Natasha, but sitting in silence next to her made Maria feel things she didn't even realise she could get from sitting in silence with someone. She could feel a smile slowly stretch onto her face, her hand slowly reaching out to touch Natasha again. The women gave her a glance.

"Why do you keep wanting to touch me?" She asked curiously, moving her body away from Maria slightly.

Maria blinked, she hadn't realised she was reaching for Natasha again. "I don't know...guess it's the bond?"

"We don't have a bond." Natasha said bluntly. "From what I've read, we've done nothing to create a bond. This has been strictly business."

Maria tilted her head, so no one taught Natasha about soul bonds, she learned from a book like Maria. "No we haven't" she agreed, "but the bond can push people together, to try and make the bond."

"I've never read that before" Natasha said quietly, looking down.

It was silent again.

Maria still did not know what to say, she knew that she should be more concerned with the fact that there was apparent corruption within their government, but she couldn't find herself to care. All she wanted to do was get to know Natasha more, to hold her close or be curled up in her arms, both sounded so appealing to her. She wanted to make that look in Natasha's eyes go away, no matter how long it took.

"You need to focus. We don't matter. The army being corrupt? That matters, that matters more than our soul bound. It's not going to go anywhere." Natasha said coldly, standing up.

Maria heart thundered in her chest. She has waited a very long time to hear her words and then her soulmate tells her no? It was never an outcome she allowed herself to think about. Her father always had told her that if she ever met her soulmate, they wouldn't want her. She never wanted that to be correct, yet here she stood, in front of her soulmate as she denies her.

It hurt like a bitch.

Maria spluttered for a few seconds, trying to think of something to say. She couldn't. Her eyes lowered to the ground, not sure how to press the issue.

"I'll ah, I'll have a look at this when I get home." She said, clearing her throat a little. She slid the USB into a secure pocket and stood up, her eyes on briefly looking at Natasha, who still had the same cold look on her face.

Natasha nodded, and quietly slipped away, leaving Maria standing there by herself. It only took her a second to shake herself out of it, realising she had left her team unguarded for a while now and quickly made her way back to them to make sure they are alright.

"You guys alright?" she asked softly once she made it back to the team, looking at them as they sprawled out around a make shift campfire.

Swanson looked up at her with a smile and nodded "Yeah boss, how's the perimeter?"

"Secure. Has he been alright?" She replied, flicking her chin at the politician on the ground, sound asleep.

Swanson shrugged "He ranted a bit after you left, Davidson shut him up again. Was pretty hilarious , Cap, you shoulda saw it." she said, grinning at Maria.

Maria smiled down at the young solider and sat down beside her, clamping her hand on the women's shoulder. "Wish I did, probably would have gotten my ass kicked when we get back to base though." Maria joked back, relaxing only slightly. It was hard to relax when you knew your soulmate was running away from you, with each step getting further and further away from you. Wiping themselves clean of you with each step. It was very disheartening, but Maria had to stay strong and get her tropes back to the base.

The two continued to talk for a while, talking about everything and anything that came to their minds, but they somehow steered clear of their past and childhoods, it was clearly a bad point for the both of them. They two of them did not stop until they heard a loud clang in the distance causing both women to look up startled. Maria quickly stood up with her gun drawn as Swanson kicked the others awake. They formed a secure circle around the now awake politician, their eyes and ears open, watching for someone to move.

It was silent for a few minutes, they almost let their guard down, then, all hell broke lose.

Bullets started flying everywhere as men in tactical uniform appeared screaming at them to get down and surrender. Based on their lack of identification on the uniforms, they quickly realised that they were hired merch's or henchmen. Possibly both. What they were doing here? That was another matter completely, but they were clearly aiming for the politician.

Maria barked out orders for her team, their number one priority. Spread out, take as many as you can and don't die. It was easier said than done. They were dodging bullets left, right and centre, rolling on the ground, grabbing the politician as they moved backwards, trying to find a way out. They were slowly becoming surrounded and if they did not move now, they would die. She signal to Swanson, letting her know that she would try and hold their attention as they escaped. She nodded her understanding and quickly gathered the team as Maria finally shot back with amazing accuracy. She tried her best to aim for the building around them, hoping that she would cause enough damage to spread them out and distract them so that her team could leave.

She made the necessary mistake to look backwards to see if her team made it out safely, they had but it cost Maria a bullet to her leg. She cried out in pain, clutching at it desperately with one had as she tried to shoot with her other, pushing through the pain. She attempted to leave the area, but she couldn't get very far and was rewarded with another bullet to her side, it had just grazed it but it was still painful.

She sprawled to the floor as she tried to move, only to be tripped and her gun was kicked away by the henchman. The man levelled a gun at her face, his own face covered with a black clothe and sunglasses, yet Maria could still feel his attempt at intimidating her. It wasn't working, she learned long ago to never be intimidated by looks.

"Where are you taking him." He asked in a deep voice.

Maria stared at him defiantly, her lips pressed tightly together. It seemed to aggravate him and he slammed the boot of his shoes into her ribs. She didn't give him the satisfaction of a grunt of pain, she simply kept on staring at him, refusing to give in.

"I said," he hissed, his face scrunched in a snarl. He had brought his face as close as he could, so much so that Maria could smell his breath. Fish. Yuck. "Where are you taking him."

Maria advert her eyes as her answer, there wasn't much more she could to communicate she wasn't going to tell them without opening her mouth.

The man sighed deeply, standing back up and walking around. He was tsk-ing quietly to himself as he looked at her apologetically. "I tried, Captain Hill, I tried the easy route by asking nicely. I even repeated myself and I don't do that often." He said patronisingly, chuckling at his own choice of words. "But now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to really hurt you." The man had picked up a hammer and was tossing it between his hands, as if he couldn't tell which hand he would like to use, left or right?

"Now," he mumbled, crouching down next to her, "I'll give you one last chance, just tell me where he is and I'll let you go, pain free." He offered her, once again trying to play the nice guy.

Maria simply gritted her teeth and prepared herself for the pain she was about to feel. She felt like closing her eyes, but it would be a sign of weakness, so instead she focused on Natasha. On how much she wish the women wanted to get to know her, wanted to stay by her. It would be nice to have her here – no that's not a route she wanted to go down, giving herself false hope.

The man sighed once more, "alright then," he mumbled to himself and without a second though he raised the hammer and rushed it back down, slamming into her stomach, forcing the air out of her lungs. Maria bit back the cry of pain, but couldn't help the twisting of her body in an attempt to get away from the pain.

"Where is he?" the man snapped, bringing the hammer down once more, causing Maria to double over in pain.

"Fuck you," she managed to spat out, a stubborn glare on her face as looked at him.

She watched the anger in him swell up as he tossed the hammer to the side and grabbed a different instrument. Maria couldn't quite make out what it was, all she knows that as soon as he brought it down on her wrist, she could feel the bone shattering. It felt like a loud noise in her body, one that reverberated throughout her body. She couldn't help the cry of pain that left her body, it was pretty hard not to. Maria tried to wriggle away from him, gasping for breath, as she was trying to breath through the pain.

"If you just tell me where he is, all this can stop." He tried to bribe.

Maria gritted her teeth and tried made one last move, if she was going down like this, she was not going to go down without a fight. She twisted onto her side and brought her knee up fast, striking the guy in his side. He sprawled to the floor and seemed confused for a moment, but that gave her all the time she needed as she sprung to her feet, she double over but kept her eyes on him as he stood up and stared at her.

"Well, looks like the kitten still has some claws left." He sneered, twirling the hammer in his hand and lunged.

Maria did her best to avoid his flurry of attacks, side steeping, ducking and even tried leg sweeping him, but she failed. The pain was distracting her from her usual fighting techniques and found herself fumbling over the simplest of moves. She ducked once more only to have his knee stuck in her back, striking her back to the floor with a cry of fury from her, and a cry of triumph from him.

Maria was lying on her stomach, breathing hard as she had done for the past twenty minutes, just trying to catch her breath. Just one simple thing in this chaotic moment. She squeezed her eyes shut as he towered over her, she could practically feel like the smug look on his face.

"I warned you. Don't say I never warned you." He said, and stuck her over and over all over her body. "Where is he?!" He bellowed, anger and frustration fuelling his movements. "Where is- oft!"

Maria froze at the sound of him going down, he landed with a thud next to her and she turned her head to look at him curiously and blinked when she saw a knife hanging in his eye.

"Sloppy, I know, but quick and effective way to get him to stop. He's still alive, I'll deal with that later." Came the familiar Russian accent.

Maria looked up at her with a strained smile, happy to see the women again. "Hey, perfect time, I was about to be minced." She chuckled, laughing at her own joke, wheezing slightly.

Natasha just looked down at her, an eyebrow raised, clearly unimpressed. She reached her arm out and pulled Maria to her feet. "You've could have died."She stated.

Maria shrugged "part of the job, Natasha. I thought you left."

Natasha sighed and started walking, pulling Maria along with her. "Let's get you back to safety." she grumbled, causing Maria to look at her in confusion.

"Hold on, Natasha." Maria said, pulling her arm back, making Natasha pause in her steps. "I don't...why are you doing this?" Maria knew what Natasha had said but a part of her was hopefully that she did want Maria, that she did want to try and make something of their soul bond.

"This is not about the soul bond, Maria." Natasha snapped, "if you do not make it back home safely, then who the hell is going to look at my evidence?"

Maria's heart sank a little further, if that was possible, at Natasha's words. She wished, oh how she had wished, that Natasha had changed her mind and was coming back for Maria. She guessed it would just be a dream from now on. Maria sighed and nodded her acceptance, slowly walking forward, guesting for Natasha to lead the way. At least she met her soul mate and she is not left wondering for the rest of her life about them.

"Lets go." Natasha said quietly, leading them out of the compound. Maria sighed once more before reluctantly following.

~BH~BH~BH~

It has been two weeks since Maria returned to her base with her injuries, she had turned to face Natasha to thank her for her help, only to find that she was nowhere in sight. Her shoulders had dropped as she walked into camp, her team surrounding her with smiles on their faces as they pulled her to the medic tent. Her superiors had came in, stern looks on their faces as they took in Maria and listened to her report. They had not said anything about it, just casted each other a look before telling her that that was her tour finished and that she was on medical leave till all her injuries have been healed and cleared by a doctor.

Which was a bitch because some doctors held you back even though you could clearly do your job.

Which led her to her currently predicament, bored out of her mind and lying sprawled out on her couch. The tv was on, filling the small, brick apartment with light in the middle of night. The couch was well worn in and had a grove which suited Maria perfectly when she decided to sleep on the couch because she couldn't be bother walking to her room (which was a lot when she was not working).

There were two things she just could not get out of her mind, one; the USB stick that lay hidden in her underwear drawer and two; the person who gave her it, her soul mate. Although, if she were truthful to herself, she cared more about the fact that Natasha did not want to be near her more than the potential corruption within the army. She had tried tracking Natasha down once she had got back home, using her siblings to their advantage only to come up with something she might not have ever wanted to know.

Natasha Romanov was really the Black Widow, a notorious assassin who previously worked under the KGB until the Russian operation fell and she became a freelancer. There were many organisation that were looking for her, some had to kill orders, other had order to bring her in. They did not specify what they were looking to do with the women, but Maria could not imagine it would be anything good.

One agency stood out against the rest, SHIELD, they seemed to be watching her the most and had the most information one her – which was the scary part; they had two paragraphs on the women and blurry photos which could have been anyone. Maria had no idea that this organisation existed, apparently, according to her sister, they were founded by a women named Peggy Carter after the second world war (funded by Howard Stark) and had been building up a name for themselves before slowly making themselves known to the world. It sounded interesting, Maria was not going to lie but it also seemed a little shady. She may have to look more into it...at a later date.

"You've been looking into me. Why?"

Maria bolted upright, hissing through her teeth in surprise as she saw Natasha standing in the shadows of her apartment. "Natasha." she breathed out, she moved swiftly to the women, stopping just within arms reach of her.

"Why have you been looking into me." Natasha repeated, looking into Maria's eyes.

"I've been looking for a way to talk to you...see if anyone knew anything about you." Maria confessed, "apparently no one knows more than two paragraphs about you and a couple of very blurry photos."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at that information, "CIA?" She guessed, folding her arms.

Maria shook her head, "no SHIELD."

"SHIELD?" Natasha mused "That's a few times they've come up...do you know who they are?"

Maria shrugged, only knowing what her sister told her, "They are a relatively new organisation, but apparently they were formed just after the second war, funded by Howard Stark and headed by Peggy Carter. A very espionage agency that does the dirty work for the government that only a secret agency can do. They've been building up their reputation and only recently started making themselves known to other organisations."

"Peggy Carter." Natasha sighed, "knew she would come back to bite me in the ass." she grumbled and walked past Maria, flopping onto the couch, causing Maria to blink. This was a total one-eighty from her mood the last time they had talked. Maria walked tentatively to the couch, sitting next to her.

"Have you looked at the USB or is it still hiding in your underwear drawer?" Natasha drawled, looking at Maria.

"You've been spying on me?" Maria accused.

"No, I've been watching you to see if you've done what I asked of you." Natasha countered lazily.

"So spying on me."

"Nope, watching you, two totally different things. Also it's time for your medication, here." Natasha continued and casually handed Maria her meds plus the glass of water that was sitting on the table next to hers.

Maria took the handed items in a stunned silence. Natasha had totally been spying on her, keeping tabs on what she does daily, that was the only way she could have known when she had to take her medication.

"I also ordered us pizza, spicy chicken with a bottle of coke, that's what you usually get, right?" Natasha off handedly said as she picked up the remote and turned the TV to the programmed that Maria usually watched on a Wednesday night.

"I've been home two weeks, and somehow you've got my routine down to a tee and you've clearly scouted information on me and did all of this without me knowing." Maria stated, astonished.

Natasha suddenly looked very interested in one of Maria's pictures, it was the one of her siblings and herself camping when they were teenagers. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Maria just gave her a look that usually had her team spilling their guts to her, but Natasha stood strong and they ended up watching the TV show in silence until the door rang, signalling the arrival of their food. Natasha went and got the food and they were back to silence. It stilled amazed Maria that Natasha knew all of this, it showed off her spy skills that were clearly associated with the Black Widow.

"Look." Natasha started, breaking the silence without looking at her. "I don't know much about the whole soul bond thing...but I talked to someone who explained it all to me... made some sense of some confusing things that have been happening since I met you..." Natasha explained, a hint of nerves in her tone.

Maria almost beamed at that information, so that's why Natasha was keeping tabs on her. "You want to try the whole soul mate thing out? That's why you've been trying to find out what I enjoy. You know, you could just talk to me and ask me on a date like a normal person." She teased.

"Whatever." Natasha grumbled, "it's just some stupid things."

"But it means a lot, that you went through all this hassle to know stuff about me, in a slightly creepy way, but you came forward and told me plus you got my favourite pizza. You're totally forgiven for the stalking thing. Just asked next time." Maria said, happiness bubbling within her and she knew that she would be all over Natasha soon with her excitement about her wanting to try.

To start off small, she placed a hand on Natasha's knee and squeezed tightly, grinning at the women next to her who gave her a hesitant smile in return.

"We can make this work. I promise...I just need you to try." Maria asked tentatively, unsure of what they were going to do next. Just because Natasha showed some promise in regards to their bond today, doesn't mean that she was going to stick to it and be comfortable with everything right away. "Are you staying the night?" She questioned hopefully.

"Your meds make you over confident" Natasha said simply, refusing to comment further and turned her attention back to the tv. "Yes... but I'm leaving tomorrow morning. Do not expected me again for a couple of weeks." Natasha had added on as an after thought, still completely focused on the tv and refusing to talk further.

Maria attempted to engage her in more conversation, but was just met with silent stares or arch eyebrows, so she just shifted closer to Natasha with ever commercial break of the show and kept her hand firmly on the women's thigh. Eventually, she was close enough that she cautiously rested her head on Natasha's shoulder and slowly moved her hand so that she was grasping Natasha's. The women was tensed up slightly, but other than that did not seem bothered. She certainty did not make any attempt to move Maria's hand, so they stayed like that till Maria began dozing against Natasha.

Natasha had firmly shook Maria's shoulder and led a tired Maria to her room and placed her fully clothed under her covers, only taking off her sock and shoes. Maria was half asleep as she watched through hoodie eyelids as Natasha seemed to debate climbing into bed or not. Eventually Natasha made her mind up and climb in beside her, coming close enough that Maria could steal the heat from Natasha's body, but not close enough to touch. It would do for tonight, they were still getting used to each other, Maria had to remind herself and let herself fall into a deep sleep, trusting Natasha to wake her if she was in need of any help, a smile on her sleepy lips.