Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own any of characters depicted below that you may recognize...they belong to forces higher then me, and I respect them and applaud them for their beautiful creations.
"I'm surprised."
"Surprised?" Maddie shot Tasha a smile.
The two women walked along the crowded new York street, both in civilian clothes, Maddie in ripped jean capri's and a light gray hoodie, Tasha in dark wash jeans and a brown leather jacket.
"I never thought you'd want to have coffee with me." Tasha raised an eyebrow. "We're coworkers, yes, but hardly friends."
"Oh." Maddie furrowed her brow. "Is that what you think is happening?"
Tasha frowned. "We're not having coffee?"
Maddie smothered a grin. "WE'RE not." She agreed. "But you are having coffee."
Tasha crossed her arms and she stopped walking. Maddie paused next to her, blinking innocently.
"And who am I having coffee with?" Tasha pressed.
Maddie smiled and walked a few steps to the left. She pointed into the coffee shop. "You see that tall, thin, nerdy guy in the corner? That's one of Connor's new co-workers. He's a really nice, nerdy guy." Maddie smiled innocently. "I thought you guys would hit it off."
"You…" Tasha blinked slowly. "You set me up on a blind date?"
Maddie smiled evilly, and Tasha couldn't help herself. She laughed in disbelief.
"I know I'm out of bounds." Maddie said earnestly. "So if you feel like you need to fire me, I totally get it."
That's when Tasha figured it out. And Maddie, though she was good, wasn't as good as Tasha. Tasha had spent weeks undercover as the girlfriend of some of the most vile men in existence. An hour with a yes, kind of cute, nerdy guy was an easy price to pay to wipe the smirk off Maddie's face.
"Nah." Tasha shook her head. "It'll be fine."
Maddie's smile dropped off her face as Tasha opened the door to the coffee shop and made her way over to the young man seated in the far corner.
"Hi." Tasha smiled charmingly. "I'm Natasha." The young man blushed upon catching sight of her, but he stood and held out his hand nonetheless.
Yeah, okay, he was kind of cute.
"Reid. Uh, Spencer." The man was flustered.
"Reid, Spencer," Tasha repeated bemused.
"Spencer," The man tried again. "I'm…Spencer." He finished lamely.
"Spencer." Tasha nodded and took a seat. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Spencer nodded slowly and took a seat. He didn't seem to know what to say next, so Tasha asked him what he did for a living.
It took a few minutes, but Reid, Spencer, quickly warmed up and Tasha found that her enforced hour turned into two, and then into three.
Reid Spencer was brilliant. And kind of cute. And he had an honest goodness about himself that Tasha hadn't seen in someone in a long time. And when she'd asked him how he maintained that goodness in the face of all the evil he'd seen, his answer surprised her.
"The darkness is all-consuming." He admitted slowly. "The things I've seen and faced, it's horrible and it takes a piece of you, and if you see too much of it too often, you find that you lose more of yourself than you save of others. There's no completely coming back from that. The darkness never leaves you. But if you're strong enough, you don't let the darkness win. You find enough of the light to contradict your dark, and you never let the darkness consume. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it takes control. But as long as you always come back, the darkness can never claim you. You are still in charge of you."
Tasha found Reid Spencer to be fascinating, and when she agreed to seeing a russian opera with the cute, nerdy Spencer Reid, it wasn't to make sure that Maddie didn't win. It was because Tasha honestly wanted to go. She really did want to spend time with Reid.
And wasn't that just the weirdest thing.
Maddie was fuming as the two women walked home. Her nose was scrunched up and she breathed heavily.
But then, about ten minutes from their car, Maddie had wilted.
"You really liked him then?" Maddie asked. "It wasn't some ploy to get one over on me? It wasn't some twisted form of revenge?" Tasha shook her head.
"At first, yes." She admitted. "But…he's a good man. He's…different than anyone else I've ever spent time with."
"And that's a good thing?" Maddie asked skeptically. Tasha thought for a moment, then she nodded.
"I think it might be." She said lightly, and Maddie sighed.
"I guess I'm happy for you," She finally said grumpily, and Tasha smirked.
She was kind of happy for herself too. She wrapped an arm around Maddie's shoulder.
"And now," She began dramatically, "I'll have to return the favor."
"You're going to try and set me up?" Maddie raised an eyebrow.
Tasha nodded, and thought. Then she shot Maddie an evil smile.
"Steve's single," She teased.
Maddie laughed in disbelief, then her nose scrunched up and she ran towards a nearby garbage can, retching loudly.
Tasha stood there, stunned at the visceral reaction. After a few moments, Maddie returned, a sheepish smile on her face.
"The thought of being with Steve is really that disgusting?" Tasha asked, bemused.
Maddies eyes widened. "...Yes?" She said after a moment. Then she nodded. "Yep. That's totally it."
Tasha rolled her eyes, and the two women contiued walking.
"So Steve is out," Tasha tilted her head. "But what about,"
"No!" Maddie laughed, shoving as Tasha persisted. "Okay, but there's always,"
"No!"
And Maddie and Tasha returned to the base as more than just coworkers...as friends.
#5: Set Tasha up on a blind date
Maddie was hiding in the woods from everyone when she found a guy bleeding on the floor of the forest.
He looked like crap, there was blood everywhere, and the man was muttering in some weird language.
The man looked too skinny for eating, so she'd called Conner and half dragged half carried the man to the edge of the forest.
Conner had sighed heavily when he'd arrived to find Maddie with a half dead guy.
"You couldn't have just taken him to the base?" He'd chastised.
Maddie had scoffed. "I don't know where he's been." She argued. Conner had just rolled his eyes, loaded the man into his back seat, and drove Maddie and the half-dead man to his apartment.
Maddie called Tasha and told her she was having friend time with Conner and that she would be back in a few days. Tasha had argued then relented, then had promised not to tell Steve.
Maddie nursed the guy back to life and then, when the man was conscious for the first time, interrogated him on his whole life story.
The guy had been honest. And Maddie had smiled and been just as honest as the guy had.
When the man was finally healed, he left armed with enough information to take out The Avengers, the world, and maybe a lot of other things too.
But Maddie trusted the guy. She shared vital information with him because he would never tell anyone else or do anything with the information.
Loki Laufeyson would never do anything like that.
Unfortunately for Maddie…he didn't.
How was Maddie supposed to know that the legendary angry crazy guy who tried to take over the world had randomly decided to become really nice now?
She thought for sure that he appeared in the middle of the Avengers Game Night in order to kill them all.
He was only there to give Steve information that meant a war between all the nine realms and thanos could be almost entirely avoided.
He even apologized.
What kind of evil criminal was that?
Loki thanked Maddie for saving his life, and explained that this was him returning the favor.
Steve had been oddly relieved that Maddie's reason for staying at Connor's for three days was a half-dead ex-evil villian and not for any other reason.
Maddie had no idea what those other reasons could be, and she didn't ask.
She was too mad.
Because…She STILL wasn't fired.
What a waste of three days.
#14: Give an enemy vital information
Turning Pietro's alarm clock off was less a tactic to get fired and more for revenge.
Every time Maddie failed at getting fired, Pietro would make fun of her and tease her mercilessly.
Maddie was tired of it.
So, the night before a big mission, she turned his alarm off.
Which totally WASN'T a childish move…it was an evil move.
Pietro would get in trouble for sure.
Except that particular mission had gone wrong and the avengers had been captured, and they would've all been killed if Pietro hadn't been available to sneak in from behind and take out the villians, saving the Avengers in the process.
And then Pietro had the BALLS to inform Steve that Maddie had told him she had a gut feeling that something was going to go wrong, and that Pietro should stand by, just in case.
Maddie had received a light chastisement for going against Steve's order, and then a lot of praise for trusting her instincts.
Maddie slowly began plotting Pietro's death.
And Pietro just laughed at her.
#10: Turn off someone's alarm
I'm a crazy big criminal minds fan so...I couldn't help myself. Reid is my favorite!
Maddie is a donkey on the edge, and she could've died with the Tasha prank! But she...didn't?
More to come. And it gets a little bit feels-filled from here on out, sorry guys, (or not sorry?)
~CLC~
