Author's Note:

It's been so long since I last updated this but I've written a really long chapter so hopefully that makes up for it. Enjoy :)

She muttered softly to herself in Mandarin as she dropped her keys on the floor. Carefully she placed her bags on the floor before bending down to pick them up.

"Would you like a hand with those," her neighbour asked gesturing to the bags on the floor beside her.

"No it's fine, I can manage," she smiled grabbing some of the bags.

"It's no trouble really," he smiled picking up the rest of the bags from the floor.

"If you insist," she replied dryly as she turned unlocking her apartment.

"You having a party?" He asked as he helped her unpack, placing the items on the kitchen island.

"Girls night," she said with a slight lack of enthusiasm, barely suppressing a shudder.

"Ah," he said as if it were explanation enough.

It certainly did look like a lot of alcohol that was piling up on her kitchen island.

"You work?" she asked as she placed some things in the cupboard overhead.

"Yeah, I'm a surgeon actually so I don't often get many days off."

She listened intently filing that small piece of information away. It could come in handy later perhaps.

"What about you?" He asked.

"I'm looking for a job at the moment," she said coolly careful not to give too much away.

He nodded accepting her answer, "Any specific field?"

"Aviation actually," she replied leaning back against the counter.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, it wasn't everyday that you met someone who could pilot an aircraft. His phone buzzed and he looked at the message releasing a sigh.

"Sorry but I gotta go, work," he said holding up his phone with an apologetic smile, "Duty calls."

She smiled and brushed off his apologies.
"Thanks for your help," she said as he headed for the elevator.
"Not a problem," he smiled "I'll see you around," he called before striding off purposefully.
She shut the door quietly before heading back to the kitchen and putting on the kettle. The girls would be over in a couple of hours and she still had a few things to do.

"Hiya stranger," Natasha smiled as Melinda opened the door. Despite herself, she ended up grinning back at her friend and hugged her briefly. It had been so long since they'd last seen each other.

"She beat me by a second!" Maria called as she came walking down the corridor from the elevator.
"Haha Maria," Natasha replied sticking out her tongue.

"Oh real mature," Melinda said dryly but with amusement sparkling in her eyes.

Maria rolled her eyes at Natasha as she hugged Melinda.

"So what's happened?" Maria questioned as they made their way into Melinda's apartment.

"Yeah, tell us everything," Natasha added.

"I thought the rule for girl's night was that we had to take a shot if we started talking about work?" Melinda asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Pft, we'll make an exception," Maria scoffed.

"Yes. Details first, then we'll start the shots after," Natasha said with a grin.

"There's nothing to tell," Melinda stated as they all made themselves comfortable in the lounge.

"Like hell that's true," Natasha smirked.

"Ooh I bet it's about Coulson," Maria winked.

Melinda sighed, suppressing a groan. Nat had found out about Coulson being alive after all of Theta Protocol blew up, and she was surprising cool with it. After she gave Coulson a good and proper verbal beating that was. The rest of the Avengers had been pleased to hear he was alive too, if a little miffed at having been kept in the dark for so long, Stark would not shut up about it for months.

"So it is about Coulson?" Natasha reaffirmed.

"Nat, Maria? Really?" Melinda asked narrowing her eyes.

"Yes!" Both women replied. It was always such fun getting to tease one another.

"You guys always had such a weird relationship," Maria pointed out wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, I never understood why you two never hooked up," Nat added looking genuinely thoughtful as if it was a serious conundrum that was bothering her.

"I'm gonna start the alcohol," Melinda stated, getting up from the lounge to fetch the drinks. There was no way she was going to make it through this without some alcohol in her system.

"Aww come on Mel, you two would've been a cute couple!" Natasha called after her.

"So you two keep saying," she muttered under her breath.

"But you left because of him didn't you?" Maria asked a little more seriously.

"I left because of me," Melinda answered sitting back down with three bottles of beer and passing the girls a bottle each. They were gonna start off easy first, save some of the harder stuff for later.

"I needed to do something for me," she shrugged.

Opening their beers the girls seemed to sober up for a minute.

"I bought nail polish," Nat announced randomly going over to grab her bag. She produced several bottles of nail varnish all in different colours.

"Ok, pick," she told the other women. "We're doing our nails tonight."

"This movie is ridiculous!" Maria called as the end credits of Titanic rolled over the screen. "There was clearly room for two on that door! Rose you bitch! How could you let Leo die?! Every time!" She exclaimed frustrated as Natasha and Melinda smirked at her.

"Shut up," she said to the both of them regardless of the fact that they hadn't said a word. She always reacted the same every time after watching Titanic. "Just wait til we watch Brother Bear, Nat," she smirked evilly. Melinda smiled, the movie always managed to make the infamous Black Widow cry every time without fail. It was hilarious. She'd missed the entertaining teasing that came so naturally between the three of them.

"I think my nails are dry," she pointed out trying to distract Maria from the movies.

"Hmmm yeah," Maria chimed in drinking some of her beer.

"You guys wanna order some food?" Nat asked flopping back on the lounge.

"Yeah, you order," Melinda replied chucking her phone to her friend.

"Fine," Nat sighed picking up the phone. The phone buzzed in her hands lighting up the screen with a text message. "Ooh! Message," Natasha cried out, face lighting up with mischief.

"Pass it here," Melinda said holding out her hand, not all that keen on the idea of her best friends reading her text messages. Those two could be so immature sometimes. Alcohol just made them even worse.

"Who is it?!" Maria asked slyly, eyeing Melinda.

"Guess!" Nat said playfully, pulling the phone out of Melinda's reach as she tried to reclaim it.

"Hmm… Phil?" Maria asked thoughtfully.

"Nope, guess again," Nat answered.

"Uhh… Andrew?" She tried a different guy giving Melinda a curious look.

Melinda rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Really?" She asked, "you two think that the only person who's going to text me is a guy."

"Well we're both here so.." Maria trailed off looking at her meaningfully.

Melinda huffed at her getting up to fetch some more alcohol just to escape them for a bit.

"Just tell me," she heard Maria whine to Natasha.

"It says 'hey'," Natasha smirked.

Those two must have drunk more than she'd realised Melinda thought. They were behaving like twelve year olds.

"But from who?!" Maria whined almost jumping on the lounge.

"It says… uh unknown number," Natasha looked at it quizzically.

Melinda suppressed a laugh at both her friends' expressions, one thoroughly confused and the other looking rather put out.

"Ha," she smirked at them placing the bottle of scotch on the coffee table along with some glasses. "Serves you two right."

"You're no fun sometimes Mel," Natasha pouted as Maria nodded along in agreement.

"Yeah, what happened to the wild child that used to pull off some of the greatest pranks in history?" Maria asked teasingly.

"First of all, I grew up," Melinda stated as they both mouthed 'boring' at her, "and second. I was never a wild child," she said mock offended.

Both women burst into laughter.

"Ha, you were the wildest of us all!" Maria cried through her laughter.

"Yeah, and that's including the whole gang," Natasha added.

"Right," Melinda dead panned. She was very amused by the whole situation, both her friends obviously knew that or they wouldn't continue teasing her, but even now she still had a little difficulty openly showing how she was feeling.

"Yeah, remember that incident with Sitwell and the hair removal cream?" Natasha asked with an evil grin. "It took months for his eyebrow to grow back, and whenever he raised the other one it used to look so funny because it was this one furry little caterpillar doing the wiggle on his face."

"Those poor junior agents!" Maria exclaimed as she laughed at the memory. "They used to have such a hard time trying not to laugh at him when he gave them orders."

Melinda smirked to herself. That was a pretty great prank and it wasn't her fault Sitwell fell asleep in the controls room and she happened to have a box of hair removal cream with her. It was pure luck, honest.

"Oh, and remember that time we decorated all of Rumlow's gear and made it into the best hello kitty dress up set?" Maria asked grinning widely at the memory.

"Pink was always a good colour on him," Melinda pointed out, eyes twinkling as she recalled the sight of Rumlow dressed in a pink bedazzled tactical suit. It was a spectacular image actually, he glittered with jewels no matter which way the light hit him. Putting the jewels and sparkling diamontes on and dying the gear pink had actually been a little difficult and not to mention a time consuming task. With the three of them however, it had been much more enjoyable and far more efficient, and the vision that was Rumlow exiting from the locker room was well worth all that work.

"Yeah didn't he get booted off the mission for that because he 'wasn't dressed appropriately'?" Nat laughed.

Natasha had actually been called to take his place on the team for that, which was extremely ironic and just made the prank seem even funnier. Rumlow was an arse.

"Well stealing his clothes really gave him no other choice than to wear our alternative," Maria chuckled.

"I'll never get over the time that we managed to get Phil with the whoopee cushion every time," May grinned. That had been one of their favourite pranks, and also one of their longest running ones. Every time Phil had entered a room and taken a seat, one of the girls had somehow managed to catch him with a whoopee cushion. It was extremely immature and old school, but it was also highly effective and not to mention hilarious. Phil, after three months of endless laughs at his expense, was not impressed.

"Well he, Clint and Garrett started it," Natasha said.

It had infact been the boys that had started that prank war.

"I swear Fury was going to kill us when he walked into the clingwrap over the door frame," Maria said with wide eyes just remembering Fury's reaction. He'd yelled at all six of them, Coulson, Barton, Garrett and of course Maria, Nat and Melinda. He'd told them that they were lucky that they were his best agents or otherwise he would've shipped their sorry asses off to some remote base, separating them all and have them pull the night shift for the rest of their had effectively put an end to their prank war, but it didn't stop them from pranking. Melinda and Clint after all, had a very big reputation as the best prank artists SHIELD had ever had the misfortune to employ.

"We used to have such fun, all of us together," Nat reminisced.

"And we also used to get into so much trouble," May pointed out. How often they had had to suffer the consequences of their pranks and deal with inventory, was a number too high to remember.

The doorbell rang interrupting their conversation.

Melinda rose from her seat to answer the door, it was probably food. She was a little surprised and confused when the guy handed her a bag from DJ's.

"How did you get burgers delivered?!" She called to Nat still standing in the open door.

"I know a guy," was all her friend replied with a sly look, causing her to roll her eyes. Typical Natasha.

"Hurry up and bring the food!" Maria called as Melinda kicked the door shut. "Time for Brother Bear she announced," smirking evilly at Nat.

"Aww… You need a Kleenex Black Widow?" Maria teased Natasha as the redhead wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand.

"I hate you," she deadpanned glaring daggers at her friend.

"There there," Melinda said patting her head. She couldn't help herself and laughed at her friend's expression. "I'm sorry Nat," she laughed.

"I hate you all," her friend said turning her face into Melinda's stomach where she was lying with her head in Melinda's lap.

"Aww Nattie," Melinda teased running her fingers through Natasha's hair.

"Nope," Natasha replied, shaking her head with her eyes firmly shut. "Not talking to you guys."

"But you just did," Maria pointed out with a smirk, lying down on the lounge with her head hanging down off the edge.

"Still not talking to you guys," Natasha sulked pressing her face further into Melinda's stomach.

"But you-"

"Shut up Maria," Melinda cut her off rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" Maria cried jerking her head up and almost knocking herself out on the coffee table.

Melinda snorted trying to cover up her laughter, so much for being a super skilled agent. Apparently it doesn't apply when you're drunk.

"What'd she do?!" Natasha asked perking up suddenly turning her head to see Maria scowling at the coffee table.

"Agent Hill over there almost knocked herself out on the coffee table," Melinda grinned laughing just a little.

"Ha!" Natasha laughed sitting up, "you were defeated by a coffee table!"

"Was not!" Maria cried back indignant.

"Yeah?" Natasha smirked at her, "I bet I could jump over it long ways without a run up."

"I dare you," Maria squinted her eyes at her a fraction as she stared Natasha down.

Melinda watched on amusedly, waiting to see how it would all unfold. Things were starting to become interesting.

"Watch me," Natasha stood up adjusting her top.

She stepped towards the coffee table, mouth set in a firm line. Suddenly she jumped up into the air landing gracefully on the other side of the table. Turning to look at Maria she gave her a look of challenge.

"Fine," Maria said standing up only a little unsteadily and taking her place at the end of the table. She then jumped over it too and they both turned to look at Melinda.

"What?" she asked taking a sip of her drink.

"Your turn," Nat said tugging her up from her seat.

"Ok, ok," she cried to stop Nat from dragging her across the rug. "Let me show you how it's done," she smirked before vaulting over the table with ease.

"Next challenge!" Maria smirked looking for the next thing they could possibly do.

"How about…" Nat called as she rifled through Melinda's kitchen. "Chubby bunny!" She declared holding up a couple of packs of marshmallows. To which Maria clapped and Melinda smiled.

"I gotta warn you," Maria said eyeing the marshmallows, "I'm real good at this."

"Chubby bunny," Maria said proudly as she stuffed the ninth marshmallow into her mouth, looking at the others.

"Chubby bunny," Melinda said back staring her down as she placed another marshmallow in her own mouth trying not to gag as a marshmallow hit the back of her throat..

"Chubby bunny," Natasha said with a grin as she added another marshmallow.

The game was extremely intense and competitive, neither of them willing to give up yet. Finally when they got to the twelfth marshmallow Melinda bailed. She spat her marshmallows out into the rubbish with a slight look of disgust.

"Remind me why people play this game again?" She asked looking at the marshmallows sadly. "It's disgusting and a waste of marshmallows."

"Erh himph ff of fun!" Maria cried struggling to speak around the marshmallows in her mouth.

"Chuppy bu-ph" A marshmallow flew from Natasha's mouth as she tried to say 'chubby bunny', hitting Maria square in the forehead. Her eyes widened as she realised what had happened and Maria looked stunned as the marshmallow fell from her forehead leaving a moist patch behind. The moment was broken though by Melinda laughing at them before tripping over the rug and falling into the lounge. Her friends watched as she continued to laugh, face down in the lounge, shoulders shaking. It had been so long since they had heard their friend laugh so freely and without care, they'd missed hearing the sound of if. Finally she sat up to look at them, hair a little wild about her face but her cheeks had a lovely pink flush to them, which could have been either the alcohol or the laughter, maybe both. What made them both smile and laugh though was the joyful little sparkle in her eye and the contagious sound of her laugh which they couldn't resist joining in with. It was too rare an occurrence that Melinda ever fully let go of her tight control, seeing this was like finding a diamond in the rough. Maria grinned around her mouthful of marshmallows as Natasha laughed beside her before choking on a marshmallow and having to spit her mouthful into a bowl, the marshmallows now a goopy mess. Melinda laughed harder, the sound of her unrestrained laughter filling the room. Maybe girls night was just what she needed.

A/N

If you made it to here, congratulations! That was a really long chapter for me and also a really hard one to you for reading and please leave a comment. It only takes a second and it absolutely makes my day. If you have any ideas or prompts that you'd like written or just want to chat, feel free to message me on tumblr (hardcore-evil-regal). I promise I don't bite.