Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, nor am I affiliated with them in any way. All characters (aside from Nev) are not of my creation, and I have no rights to them.
The chapter title is a song by The Last Shadow Puppets. I am not affiliated with the band in any way and hold no rights to the song.


It's getting dark. I don't know what time it is, but being winter the sun goes down so early now. Most of SHIELD has dispersed for now, but a few rooms are still lit. I go back up to where I'd left Nev, and she's still there at the computer. The room is otherwise empty.

"How late are you supposed to stay?" I ask, watching her conquer the letter and number sequences as they flash across the screen.

"I could have left half an hour ago, but I wanted to wait for you. Mostly because you have the only key if I want to get back into your place," she says, trying not to smile. "We can leave now, if you want."

"Not if you're in the middle of something. I recall making a statement about origami cranes and covering the walls with them. See, the up side of my many pocketed belt is that I can store origami paper and pins. I came prepared," I say sort of absently. "The people around here get mad when I use their stationary for stuff like that."

"When did you learn origami?" Nev asks, still concentrating.

"Probably the same time I learned to make pancakes. Those are easy. Crepes are not. Crepes are evil bastards," I tell her as I start rooting around for the paper. I pull out a fairly decent sized stack and sit at the desk next to hers. I push the key board away and start folding. I notice Nev looking from the screen to watch intermittently.

"Can you make anything else?" she asks, eyeing the growing pile of multi-coloured paper birds.

"Yeah, one other thing. Two if you wanna split hairs." I finish up the crane and start folding the other thing. "If you stop here, it's a hat. But if you keep going… Now it's a boat. But cranes can't steer boats and don't wear hats so you'll have to keep it." I set it on the desk space in front of her.

"The USS Hack n Slash," Nev says before going back to work. I watch what she's doing now, but I still can't make sense of what I'm looking at.

Why hack n slash? That seems like a pretty brutal name for a completely adorable paper ship. Unless… she's a hacker and you…

"Hack n slash. I see what you did there," I say finally. She laughs and turns her eyes to me.

"Took you a minute," she teases. "I should be done with this sequence in about 45 minutes. Make as many cranes as you can and I'll help you pin them before we leave."

Oh, bonding! You haven't done that in a while! Well, technically you're doing it now, so you're already a step ahead.


"So, 847 cranes. Who's gonna come in to admire them?" I ask as we look at our paper crane wall paper.

Maybe you should herd the ducks from the pond in and see what they think.

"Honestly probably only me. And Maria because she's overseeing my testing." Nev looks disappointed. "But it sure looks cool." It had taken almost an hour to get them all up, but it was worth it. Nev's still holding the boat I made. "Origami doesn't seem very Deadpoolish," she says after several moments of silence.

"Yeah well, no one ever asks about that stuff," I answer, feeling a little bummed now that she's brought it up. "I am mostly witty remarks and killing blows, but no one ever asks what I do outside of that. Mostly nothing, but sometimes I like folding paper and cooking batter on a stove."

We shut the lights out and start heading for the exit. This building is creepy at night. Nev must think so too, she's looking around at everything. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding as we step outside and the door closes behind us, clicking as it locks to anyone outside trying to get in.

"That place is weird enough when it's daylight. At night it's just like those places you see in those goofy ghost hunter shows," she says, taking a moment to look up at the mostly darkened building. It is actually pretty intimidating. I'm ready to be free from this place, and we make for the new vehicle.

How many people know you're the new teacher's pet and got the Oprah treatment? Might make them more bitter. Can't win for losing can you?


She's sitting on the other end of the sofa from me again. The difference is that this time, her legs are draped over my lap. Our empty Chinese food containers are packed in the bag they came in, but neither of us have been motivated enough to get up and throw it away. Or in my case, I'm just so thrilled for the contact that I'm not going to break it.

Sweet Lord you sound desperate. The last woman to touch you was Natasha, and that was more of a slap than an affectionate touch.

"I sure hope you never slap me," I say, regretting it immediately. Nev giggles.

"Don't give me a reason," she says smartly. Before the battle of slightly witty remarks can get into swing, my phone goes off. Nev points at hers in the wall. "Does it need a buddy?"

"No. I learned the very painful and hard way that Cable does not like his calls ignored." I reluctantly answer it. "What?"

"We took out Lady Gaerna-"

"Who?" I ask.

"-out in Egypt-"

"When were we in Egypt?" I ask again.

"Wade, you almost blew yourself up. Did you do that whole mission without knowing anything about it?" he's almost yelling.

"Maybe." I look sideways at Nev, her hands are over her mouth trying to hide that she's smiling at me. I make a face at her and she quietly laughs.

"Well listen to this. She wasn't the ring leader. Tomorrow we're taking Clint and Natasha-"

"No. One of them slapped me and I fought the other," I argue. "If they're going, I'll be hiding in my closet, where you won't find me."

"I'll hope it wasn't Clint who smacked you," he says slowly.

"No, it was Natasha. Apparently she didn't appreciate me appreciating how low she had her zipper down. It was a compliment," I pout.

"God, Wade, really?" Nev asks.

"And why'd you fight Clint?" Cable asks with a sigh.

"I don't remember, but he paid me and it was sorta fun," I say, trying to remember the details better.

"That was Bullseye." Cable sounds impatient.

"Bull, hawk, I don't care which animal is his favourite this week. But now that I remember it was fun going after him, ok. He can come. But not Natasha," I say firmly.

"She's coming. You're coming. Bullseye and Hawkeye are two different people. See you tomorrow." He hangs up and I slump a bit.

"He got the last word. You seem disappoint," Nev says. I nod.

"It's like losing. I lose enough arguments with my brain, I don't like losing them with actual people," I tell her. Her legs are still over my lap, and in looking to be comforted I get brave enough to rest my hand on her knee.

Is no reaction good or bad? If you pull back that'll definitely get you-

"I'm going with you, right?" Her voice snaps me from listening to my brain.

"Probably. Did you want to stay here?"

You don't want her to stay here. You'd feel so much better if she's there when you finish whatever you're doing.

"Because I'd like it better if you went. Someone I don't cringe at when I see them," I say slowly. She swings her legs away from me-

Now ya did it. You couldn't say 'someone I like'?

But in place of that, she moves my arm to rest along the back of the sofa and leans into my side, legs stretched out to the other end.

Let's change the tone. Yay, you did it! Claps for Wade!

"Hello," is all I can say. She tilts her head up to look at me.

"Good hello?" she asks, sounding almost nervous. I drop my arm around her in response.

Somehow over the next hour of doing nothing but watching the TV, which I'm great at, we devolve to her laying on me with her head on my chest and our legs tangled and both my arms around her. Maybe it's Cable's non-negotiable employment distracting me. Maybe it's that I told Peter and he didn't discourage me. Maybe it's that the first thing I did when we walked in was take off the stupid mask, and instead of screaming or getting sick, Nev gave me a big toothy grin. But any worry I had about this forming relationship is very gone. For now.

This is great and all, but if you slept like this you'd probably destroy your back.

"I do need my back for stuff like walking." Nev moves her head to look up at me. "We should go to bed if we're going to sleep, which I'm starting to have problems fighting off." I clarify for her. "Couch is nice, just not for sleeping. It's a little short for me." I pull her up with me as I sit up. She stays where she is when I stand and make for the hallway.

"Should we… Should I sleep out here tonight?" Nev asks. I freeze at the entrance to the hallway. I don't look at her.

"That's kind of a tricky question. Should you? Probably. But I don't want you to. Also it's still pretty cold, with winter lasting longer than just last night," I say.

You're being awfully dangerous about this.

"It's worth the risk," I counter myself. I do have moments where me talking to myself turns out to be a good thing. This is one of those times. I don't hear her move but suddenly her arms are around me and her head is against my back. Pretty sure my heart just broke its own speed record. She pulls away and goes around me to slip into the bathroom, to change presumably.

I make my way to my room, and nudge the door closed to change. I hesitate pulling the suit off. Sure, I sleep in a shirt and pants mostly because I've got some prescription grade self-esteem issues regarding my appearance, and partly because it's cold. But I'm still wary about… Well, appearances are more important than most people will admit. No sooner had I gotten comfortable when I feel her get into bed beside me. I turn over and take her in my arms. I bury the lower part of my face in her hair, kiss the top of her head. I'm wondering what I did to deserve this... and when I'm going to lose it.

Just shut up and enjoy it. You're happy, and she's happy. Don't destroy this one, if you can manage. Don't add to the hurt of the others.

As if on cue to quell my insecurities, she shifts in my arms and her lips find mine in the darkness.


"You look unusually happy. I feel like we should all be on alert," Natasha says, looking at me suspiciously.

"I see you already are," I shoot back, making a boob-grab hand motion at her. She swings to slap me, but I was expecting that, she's done it before, and step back out of her reach.

"Why are we taking you again? We could probably do this without you," she says. "But I trust Steve, so-"

"Jesus, is he coming too? Who ISN'T coming?" I ask, annoyed.

"He isn't, relax. He just told us that you were a great choice," she says, looking past me. "Ask him yourself what he said." I look behind me as he walks into the room.

"Curious?" he asks. I nod dumbly. "After what you did getting the particles back- and you'll have to excuse Tony being mad that you took the spotlight from him- I went to ask Cable what really happened the night you two ran off. Why'd you let him take the credit?" He looks puzzled. I lift myself up to sit on the table in the middle of the room.

"Would you have believed me at that point?" I ask. "Be honest, lying is immoral!" He's quiet.

"Regardless of that, you impressed me back there. Since you already handled a sect of this organization, and because of the ability you demonstrated earlier this week, I thought you should be included. You could always back out, but I'd be disappointed if you did. I know you're a good choice for this," he says.

He sounds like Parker, being all righteous and feely. What's wrong with these people?

"No. I'll go," I say, looking at him guardedly. "You talked to Parker didn't you?"

"I did. He agreed with me, if that means anything," he says with a shrug.

"Your only issue is that you kill everyone you see, and as far as I know there's nothing wrong with your eyesight," Natasha quips.

Are you… speechless?! You're the one failing me here.

"I'm not speechless. I just don't have anything to say," I mumble.

"That is essentially the same thing," Steve says. He looks at Cable as he plows past and takes a seat at the table. "Where's Hawkeye?"

"He's probably picking his animal of the day," I say with a nod.

"Wilson, you're an idiot. I explained to you last night that they're different people," Cable spits. He's not in a good mood.

Hurry, think of something to say that'll really rile him up!

"And why animal eyeballs anyway? Or eyeball, it isn't plural, is it. Because he could be like Hawkwing or Bullhorn or maybe next he can be Lobstertail-" Cable flips the table, sending me tumbling into the wall, the corner of the table sticking me under my right lung.

"This is already getting off to a great start," Clint says, looking at us all. I push my mask up for him before I speak.

"'Sup Lobstertail," I say, giving him a little wave. He sighs and is nice enough to help get the table off me.

"I know you have some… differences, so do I really want you to explain why you called me Lobstertail? I'm not buying anyone lobster dinner, before anyone asks," he says quickly.

"Nah, I just think Hawkeye is a weird animal/body part combination," I tell him. I peek out the door, looking for Nev. She'd stopped in to see Fury, but that was almost twenty minutes ago.

Parker said to be close-lipped about this.

"Yeah, because I'm always close-lipped about everything."

"Not even a little," Cable grumbles. "But you could probably afford to be a little less talkative."

"He's fine," Steve says. I look at him, both suspicious and grateful over his attitude.

"If you don't like the table, fine, but you don't have to throw it," Coulson says. Clint and I move to set it back. "Normally I'd let Cable here get this underway, but with Clint and Natasha joining you, well. Sit down, be quiet, and listen.' He's looking at me.

"Me? I would never," I say, feigning shock.

"Ok, here's what we know…"

Didn't he say not to fall asleep? No, he said listen. You can listen and sleep at the same time…