The team took the chance to relax. Sitting around waiting for their next piece of intel would only pile onto their anxiety. They deserved a chance to breathe and take time for themselves. They also deserved to eat a real- actually took time to make- meal. Each of them had their own assignment of things to prepare. It was almost as though they were making up for their missed family dinner. Though after spending every waking moment together for the past several weeks, it wasn't as special of an occasion as it normally was. They still made the most of it, joking around and talking about not so detrimental things. As she diced the vegetables (the only job deemed fit for her in the kitchen) Alex circled the conversation back to their current mission. However, it was anything but serious, "Hey, you could've fought Nikita before."
"If I did, then I definitely proved I was the superior Nikita," Throwing some seasoning in the pasta sauce, Nikita smirked. They had been having a lot of fun with the fact that there was a Gogol agent with the same name as her. The former rogue more so than anybody else. She kept claiming she was the best Nikita in the world. Alex and Birkhoff were quick to argue, taunting her for everything. She held her own with biting quips, but Michael continued to support her on whatever she said. Even Sonya gave reasoning for why Nikita was the best, yet that was mostly to rile her fiancé up. Although strange that they hadn't stumbled across anyone else with the same name as them with how common some of them were, it was probably for the best. They were only using the information to joke around and purposefully confuse each other.
"Didn't you get your ass handed to you by a couple of Gogol agents?" As the team put the finishing touches on their dinner, Birkhoff tried to end the argument. Nikita had been defeated in fights before, despite all of her boasting. Maybe one of those times was by Russian Nikita. Based on the information shared by Sam and Vasquez, they doubted it. But the nerd would say anything to take the former rogue down a peg. His question was met with eye rolls and a list of instances in which she lost. Most of them the whole team lost, yet it was still points against her. She wasn't so great, so how could she be the best.
It was all fun and games, and they all knew it. They wouldn't seriously try to bring each other down. If Nikita wasn't firing back insults at the others, they would've stopped teasing her. Their lighter conversations usually landed on them making fun of something. Did that make them mean people- possibly. But it always made them laugh, so what was the real harm. The team settled around the table, Barkhoff hopping between their feet. Conversation didn't stop once they dug into their food. If anything, the harassing got worse. Nikita beamed around her fork as she bragged, "Yeah. But I got my revenge the next time we met. I also beat some of them with a vacuum cleaner tube and a glass egg. So who's the real victor here?"
"You know what? On second thought, I really am glad I'm finding this out after the fact. What the hell were you up to before I joined?" Michael could only sigh. The married couple had caught each other up on most of their exploits during their time apart. Except little details like those more or less got forgotten. He was starting to become slightly relieved at that fact. They had both pulled stupid stunts in their pasts (some as recent as a couple weeks ago) and it almost always caused the other stress. Discovering the incidents years later, at least let them laugh about it. Or in his case wonder how she even survived on her own for so long.
"Dumbassery," Birkhoff snarked in reply almost immediately. Neither Nikita nor Alex could defend themselves. The two simply shrugged and nodded in agreement. Half of the reason they had felt overwhelmed at the time was because of rash decisions. That definitely had to stem from being dumbasses. However, once they got together as a team, those choices didn't stop. Without a doubt, the toughest lesson they had to learn was being smart. That entailed a lot of communication, and trust, and patience. It required harder work and dedication than their war did at times. They hoped they really had learned and grown. Or else it kind of didn't feel worth it.
"I honestly can't say I'm surprised by any of this," Backed by more nods from Alex and Nikita, Sonya chuckled. The whole team was crazy, not just the former rogue. They didn't have any normal stories to tell, including the ones they never shared. After wanting normal for so long, one would've thought they wouldn't have enjoyed that fact. Yet they had discovered the normal they had wanted wasn't what the average citizen had. They simply wanted moments like that one, where they could laugh and smile as though there was nothing evil or detrimental out there in the world waiting for them. It was something that gave them all the time in the world to be insane without consequence.
"That's why I'm glad she's telling me years later, so I don't have a heart attack," Michael nudged his wife gently. Of course he wasn't surprised she had used a vacuum to defeat an enemy agent. But if he had heard that as her partner at the time- or godforbid her handler- he would've freaked. Nikita was well aware of that, rolling her eyes and shoving back at him. He wasn't being that dramatic, so she couldn't say anything. But Alex and Birkhoff could. They thought up other stories they could tell that would rat out the former rogue. There was a chance she could retaliate in a terrible way. But it was a risk they were willing to take.
"Oh like you never gave yourself heart attacks from your own dumbassery," Instead, the team was distracted by Nikita turning it back on Michael. Half of the things she had done weren't even that bad. His anxiety certainly made a lot of things worse. All of their apprehensions had the chance to bury them alive. The team had gotten better at fighting to stay above it. But there definitely was a time where it nearly destroyed them. Along with learning to be smart, trying to just calm down was up there on skills they were struggling with. No one should really be making fun of it. Yet there the conversation went.
"Name one time," Michael was setting himself up for failure. Nikita smiled wickedly as she ate her dinner. She was going to take her time in torturing him. Her delay in response wasn't just dangerous for her husband, however. She was planning on shutting up Alex and Birkhoff for good. Well, more her best friend than the nerd. She had enough ammo to get at both of them, but Alex was so much easier to tease. Besides, Sonya was doing a great job of taunting her fiancé. Why would the former rogue take that away from her.
"Thinking I would ever sleep with Sam. I mean, who's stupid enough to do that?" Laughter instantly erupted after Nikita's response. Although she had snarked about her husband's jealousy, he laughed just as loudly as Birkhoff and Sonya. It was Alex that glared. She tried to argue that the topic wasn't about her, but she was ignored. No matter how long ago her one night stand with Sam was, or the reasons behind it, she was going to be teased for it. She simply had to accept it. Fortunately for her, Nikita was moving along with the subject, aiming to dig at Michael some more, "Also. When you thought I was pregnant 'cause I wouldn't talk about family."
Giggles died out in confusion. Leave it to the married couple to mention something that was completely lost on the team. Nikita and Michael managed to tune them out, as he called her out for listing more than one example and she smirked knowingly. Snapping out of her shock first, Alex had to know when that incident occurred. She thought her best friend would've told her about a pregnancy scare, unless it happened during that time when she didn't tell her anything. In that case, Alex was in the same boat as Michael. What the hell had happened while she was out of the loop, "When was this?"
Focusing more on their dinner than their friends, Michael and Nikita admitted that it happened around the time they found out about Max. Well that explained it. A silence washed over the team; the only sounds were the scrapes of their forks and Barkhoff's tail thumping against the floor. Going down memory lane to rile each other up was great, until they remembered the pain they had endured. It wasn't anything they couldn't survive. But it was certainly a mood dampener. When a few moments had passed, Sonya sighed and shook her head. Her lips slowly split into a smirk, and she helped her team return to their laughter, "Again, I honestly can't say I'm surprised you two had pregnancy scares."
"I'm shocked you haven't been pregnant before with Michael's track record," Birkhoff earned himself an instant glare from Michael. The 'three for three' jokes were already annoying enough. Leave it to the nerd to pile on more, however. Sonya and Alex tried not to, but they continued to chuckle. And Nikita flashed her husband a look that was unreadable to everyone else. It was full of humor and care, and it got him to relax with a sheepish grin. Grabbing onto his hand, his wife gave him a reassuring squeeze. Yet before he could squeeze back his thanks, she pinched at his skin and he winced. More giggles erupted around the table.
"Babe, remember when we talked about not saying every thought that comes to your head?" Lightly tugging at the end of her fiancé's long hair, Sonya quipped. Jeers followed from the rest of the team as they recounted countless times he should've shut up. Birkhoff took it in stride, but mostly because his fiancée was smiling so brightly. Moments like that weren't as rare as they seemed to make them. Yet with all the danger and stress they faced, getting their friends and loved ones to laugh with such abandon was magical in comparison. It made everything worth it. Family dinners and the peace they brought, as thrown together and eventful as they might've been, were always what they were fighting for.
"You need to learn that lesson too, Nikita," Alex soon shifted the teasing to Nikita. She tossed her crumpled napkin at her, finally finding a way to retaliate. Except the former rogue simply shrugged. Sure, saying the wrong thing has gotten her in a lot of trouble- especially when she was a kid. But she considered her ability to get under the bad guy's skin a gift. Michael, not so much. He didn't say anything on the contrary, though. He actually knew how to hold his tongue. Also, he wanted to sleep next to his wife that night.
"I will, the second you learn how to protect your right side, Alexandra," It was an old blow to land, yet it still held true. It was also the nicest comment Nikita could make. Alex hadn't had a broken arm or wrist in a long time, which was great. But she also hadn't learned the balance of striking and defending. It was how her stronger side was always injured. In her defense, her fighting technique hadn't really been the priority lately. When the team fought against the human traffickers she aimed to take down, she did more of the corporate espionage as the nerds hacked and the agents fought. The situation changed with the bastards, just as it did with everything else. Old habits had to disappear.
Alex would've been more willing to accept that, if Nikita didn't constantly bring up that flaw in her sparring. The former rogue wouldn't even teach her the highly skilled level of fighting she did, unless she started to control her momentum and protect her side. It was a fair argument, but Alex was sick of it. She did perfectly fine on the last mission. She was the reason they discovered the regiment had made a reappearance, after all. She didn't deserve to be made fun of. At least not for that, "Will you ever let that go?"
"It's still pretty bad," Michael couldn't help but add. He had his own flaws while fighting, they all did. Sometimes their moves were predictable. Sometimes they were a little too rash or emotional. And sometimes they were overconfident. As long as they attempted to improve, what was the harm. Birkhoff, however, was loving the taunts that weren't directed at him. And Sonya rolled her eyes. Nikita and Alex leveled glares, one way more harsh than the other. Michael just sighed. There was no use in redirecting the team once their egos were in play.
"Shut up. You can't work a computer for shit," Alex fired back, much to the enjoyment of Nikita. She nearly choked around her last bite of food as she giggled. As helpful as Michael was in everything, he was not a handyman. Spycraft, intelligence, combat, operations, he had all that down with such amazing skill. But computers and fixing things, absolutely not. It definitely made for some fun nights when the married couple moved into their beach house and tried to assemble their new furniture and set up their devices. Although it led to their first fight as husband and wife (because she wanted to call Birkhoff for help and he refused), it ended up becoming a fond memory. Their ridiculousness truly knew no bounds.
"I'm still having trouble with audio forensics because of the shit you pulled," Responding with an old story, Birkhoff jabbed. It took everyone else a second to remember what he was talking about. Michael got there first, rolling his eyes. That was such a bold faced lie. The nerd had fixed the problem right then and there. No one could permanently disable Shadowwalker, not even the damage Spyder had done pushed him back for long. He was simply being an ass for the laughs. Unfortunately, it worked.
"What happened to thinking before you speak?" A shiteating grin pulled at Michael's lips. He pushed his empty plate away from him, daring Birkhoff to try him. He leveled a small joking threat in reply, instantly riling Nikita and Alex up. Mischief gleamed in both of their eyes, while one chanted 'fight' and the other wondered if she should set up a makeshift mat. When the women were met with nods, they pushed away from the table. They sprinted to the other room to prepare for a sparring match, Barkhoff excitedly on their heels.
"Well, there goes family dinner again," Sonya strived to sound disappointed, but she was as excited as the rest of her team. She, Michael, and Birkhoff cleared the table, ignored the dishes claiming they had to soak, and settled in for another one of their famous battle royales. Alright, so taking the time to relax included more than just eating and making each other laugh. They also had to prove themselves in a sparring match. But, again, it was the normal that they had created for themselves. It wasn't perfect. But at least it was filled with love, joy, and care.