Natasha made it home at midnight, heading right for her room when the team stopped her.
"Hey Natasha," Sam called her into the conversation. She did her best to cool down in the time it took her to make it to the team in the living room. "Two days until the big split! What are you guys planning to do?" She shared a glance with Wanda before smiling at Sam.
"We'll tell when you tell us about your night," she answered.
"You know, we could still reschedule if you need us to," Steve offered, clearly trying to make amends. The rest of the team seemed to be taking the offer as his attempt at pulling out so she played along. Natasha forced herself to look at him without glaring. There was no point in letting the team find out they were fighting.
"No, we've got a whole day planned out already. You guys have fun." A clear refusal. That was what he needed to get it out of his head that she would feel like talking anytime soon. Smiling and bidding everyone good night, she headed off to her room and locked herself in, hoping for some rest before her meeting with Alexei.
The sun was far too bright the next morning, almost mocking her inability to sleep well over the past 8 hours. Feeling sluggish, she made her way out to the kitchen, praying that she wouldn't run into Steve. Lucky for her, it was Wanda waiting in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal in front of her and the TV turned on to the news.
"You're up early," Natasha said, passing behind her to grab one of her bars.
"Back at you." The ounce of sass in the girl's tone made Natasha smile. She really was happy to have Wanda around, even if they didn't talk much. She felt like the girl had a good sense of humor, considering all she'd been through. "So, what are these great plans we're not telling the others about?"
Crap. Natasha had completely forgotten about the plans. In lying, she forgot they really had never discussed the day before. "Gotta be honest, I have no clue. I wanted to win."
"I still don't know what a girl's night is. I don't think I've ever had one."
"Me neither. I think I went out for drinks with a couple of SHIELD agents last time I went to one. It wasn't all that exciting. I guess we'll just wing it. Maybe Simmons has an idea." Wanda nodded and kept silent, clearly not too optimistic about the night. Neither was Natasha, if she was honest, she just didn't want the boys to look so smug about their night off.
Training went especially well, better than Natasha had expected. As if proving her place, Wanda really stepped up her game that day. She had been thrown around a few times in the morning as the team began solo training on Steve's orders to isolate Wanda. It took a few hours, but she learned her lesson fast. Soon enough, she was doing as well as the others in covering herself and avoiding hits.
Pretending Natasha wasn't mad made training move along more smoothly for the two leaders. Occasionally, they would sneak a glance at each other in an effort to garner enough courage to speak honestly but they were both still too uneasy to speak about anything other than work. She tried her best not to wish the time would fly by faster, knowing she would soon have to speak to Alexei. She still had no idea what to say to him.
As if reading her thoughts, Steve asked her why she had to speak to him again. He was asking to cover for himself, knowing full well that she had to talk to Alexei to figure out something regarding her illness. "Why do they need you to talk to him?"
"No clue. I guess they're indexing him."
"I thought that was SHIELD's protocol."
"I guess it's ours now," Natasha said with a shrug before heading off.
Being in a room alone with Alexei was as uncomfortable as she thought it would be in the silence they met while they waited. FitzSimmons was still setting up outside, fixing the mirror so they wouldn't make a mistake again. They'd noticed after yesterday's trial that the programmable two-way mirror had been programmed the wrong way. In the meantime, she tried to avoid looking at him too long, still a bit in shock to his presence. She had so many questions but she knew she had made a plan with FitzSimmons not to seem too much like she was clueless about her history. They were concerned that if he figured that out, they would lose the advantage and he'd be able to feed her lies.
Before the doctors came in, Natasha finally met his eyes and he returned the look, smiling apologetically. She couldn't stop him in time before he started apologizing.
"I am sorry, Natasha. I really didn't think you'd mind. I figured you were all friends. I didn't think I would be telling them anything they didn't already know. You used to hate secrets." Natasha tried not to react to how completely unbelievable that sounded.
"I can hardly remember a time when I didn't need secrets to live," she remarked.
"I know what you mean. Well, I guess you would know it more. I was always the luckier one." He was being sincere but Natasha couldn't resist a sour joke.
"Yeah, until you died."
"Oh yes, I suppose that seems a little unfortunate. I make an attractive corpse though," he answered her with a seemingly serious tone though he smirked. Startled into looking him in the eyes again, she started laughing.
"I've almost forgotten how arrogant you are."
"How could you? It's all you would ever talk about in the time since we've met."
"In my defense, you were irritating."
"Music to my ears. It wasn't a good day until you found some way to complain about me."
"Half the time, I remember us fighting. How did we keep from killing each other?"
"We were left with two options. Either we had each other or we had the KGB. It seemed like an easy choice. Besides, we weren't all bad." Natasha couldn't help but feel a little uneasy on realizing how freeing it was to talk to him. The two doctors knocked to let them know they would be entering and Natasha looked at Alexei to explain quickly.
"FitzSimmons are coming in just to observe. Don't be afraid to say anything in front of them. With them, I don't have any secrets," she told him reassuringly, knowing he might be hesitant to say much considering how angry she was the other day. "Details will help your case if you want the base to trust you. They're matching our stories against each other and recorded history so just be as honest as you can and say whatever comes to mind. This is how we index people now," she lied.
"Index?"
"It's how we base our network of basically anyone important to the Avengers."
"I'm flattered," he joked. The two doctors entered and pulled up chairs, not too close to the table so the other two could have more space. They just took notes, having said they wouldn't ask many questions unless Dr. Garner sent them a message from outside of the interview room. "I hate to touch on the darker stuff but years have always been lost on me," she began when he cut her off with a shake of his head.
"I guess I should have realized that before. You always had that problem, ever since the graduation ceremony. I can only assume it got worse after each update. You still went to those when I died, right?"
"The updates after the ceremony?" Natasha asked, wondering if he'd add any more detail to that answer before she had to ask directly.
"Yeah. Every five years, I think you told me that. When they altered me, they made me go for the same updates, just with less side effects and memory warping. Even when I was dead, I guess I was still the lucky one. I also had to go less often. Every 10 years."
"Why did you take on the identity of the Red Guardian?"
"I didn't really have a choice. I would have taken the job anyway but they made me lie to everyone. My parents thought I was dead almost until the day they died."
"Ronald and Sophie passed?" she asked, clearly not having thought about it enough. He smiled a bit.
"I almost forgot you don't know how much time has passed."
"Just tell me," she prompted him carefully, bracing herself.
"You were born November 22nd, 1942, if that puts it into perspective," he answered as the doctors wrote their notes before watching the exchange. They seemed nervous for Natasha, for good reason as she was a bit shaken by the year reveal. She bit her tongue to keep from saying anything silly. It took her a minute to speak again.
"So you're telling me I was a wife in the 60s?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood and slightly disgusted by the thought. It read on her face, clearly, as Alexei laughed before nodding.
"Don't worry, you weren't very into the idea then either. I'm sure this won't be such a big surprise as it feels now. I'm sure you must have noticed with Ivan aging at a regular rate. Did he defect with you?"
"Yes, right before he died."
"I figured he would. You were his only child, he had a soft spot for you."
"He really cared about you too."
"He was like a second father to me. He was funny, I wouldn't have expected it from such a serious man. He did hate me at first though, just because. Remember? He really did father you, that man." Natasha smiled at the memories that came with his words. Simmons handed her a paper with questions, and she tried to smile at him before reading one to him.
"So why did you choose to reveal yourself now?" she asked carefully.
"A few things. The first was, of course, seeing you in the interview and realizing you were one of the Avengers. I guess with that I realized too much time has passed. I don't want to stay in hiding the rest of my life over a past I had few truly voluntary choices in," he answered after some thought. "You know, when I saw that interview I thought hell had frozen over." He sent her mischievous smile that immediately made her smirk.
"Why?"
"With every way we've been taught to hate that guy," he said, clearly referring to Steve, "burn his posters, mock his words and his legacy so long as the KGB had its hold on us, I guess even when he was brought out of the ice, I never thought I would see you able to be in a room with him. Let alone dating him."
There were so many things in his comment she was still trying to understand. "We must have really hated him," she accepted first. "I didn't remember any of that. Actually, I still don't remember any of that." As an afterthought, she slipped in an answer to his other assumption. "We're also not dating by the way. It was just a very bad interview." He laughed.
"And here, I thought you were being brilliantly spiteful. What better way to stick it to our fallen leaders than dating Captain America when you defect from Russia?" he joked.
"That is a very good point," she noted, looking down at the next question. "How did you become the Red Guardian?"
"Well, fun fact, my plane did crash that night. Every time I think back to it, I realize that might have been staged on purpose. I was picked up out of the mess. They told me they had a mission for me when I was recovering. I agreed to it because they said it would heal me completely. At the time, my injuries were bad enough that I had some kind of complicated trauma I can barely remember."
"Did it fix everything?"
"And then some. They said they were developing this serum to progress super-soldier creation farther than Project Rebirth did with Captain America. I don't think they did what they were planning but they did succeed at making a super-soldier. It made me stronger, faster, a better athlete all around really. Clearly, it slowed my aging. They didn't change anything in my head like they did in the Red Room though." He continued though Natasha wanted him to elaborate on the subject of the Red Room. "It was after the procedure and my training that they told me I'd have to keep my identity secret. They said they'd told you on the day of the crash that I had died and I had no choice but to go along with it. They made it impossible for me to track down anyone and I had to keep my identity a secret. When I started looking for you, they said you had gone off the grid permanently."
"When did you defect?" asked Simmons.
"1989, I believe. I started laying low. Kept my identity a secret and changed my location as often as I could so the KGB couldn't find me. After it dissolved completely, I decided to stay in some quiet town in England. While I was still the Red Guardian, they taught me how to fake the accent well enough so I managed to stay invisible there for a long time." Putting down the list of questions, Natasha relaxed knowing soon they'd end the interview for the day, giving them all a break.
Simmons clearly followed suit, dropping her clipboard on her lap and crossing her arms. "Try it," she challenged, amused.
"Sure," he answered with a chuckle. "What's the next question?"
"Last one. Tell us about your life before the KGB turned you." Clearing his throat, he nodded before starting in on his story.
"My father was a pilot so since I was very young, he trained me to be one too. Flying became my favorite thing to do, so by the time I was old enough to join the Union's test pilots, I was very advanced. It was illegal to have learned that young but they didn't care since it was in their interest." Simmons smiled, clearly impressed by the accent. Just when Natasha was about to compliment him, he continued on in detail. "When I expressed an interest in assisting the KGB, I'll be honest it was for the glory. As soon as I joined, they told - not asked - me to marry Natasha. She wasn't even 18 yet but they were planning the wedding for us and it was supposed to be a big deal because we were both famous by this time. She was this renowned ballerina after just a few tours and they made up this whole story about how we met before we even got to see each other for the first time. We tried punishing each other to get through it. It was just before the wedding that we both realized we were mutually regretting our choice in trying to join the KGB."
Natasha didn't remember most of these details but she let him continue without changing her expression.
"We had an actual relationship by the time we were married, which I guess was very lucky considering the miserable alternative. Our priorities were each other rather than the KGB and I guess they were beginning to sense that. I kept up some guise of being loyal to the organization. They separated us with the crash test. While they had me, I thought I had no choice but to follow their orders. After that, they considered me loyal enough for their project." He finished with a shrug before nodding at Simmons. "How was it?" he asked in his normal accent.
"Eerily flawless," she told him before dismissing the interview and leading everyone out the door. She and Fitz rushed out comparing notes quietly without so much as a glance around. Natasha and Alexei followed them out the room together, Alexei making some joke about his accent that Natasha was laughing at when she looked up. To her immediate surprise, she saw Steve and Clint just on the other side of the two-way mirror.
Any guesses as to how much he heard? I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know how I'm doing. Please review!