"Heads up." Maria approached Hope who was sitting on a park bench, tossing her a blue glowing object. The woman responded with catlike reflexes, easily catching the item. Maria then casually sat down next to her, lifting a foot up on the bench and relaxing an arm over her knee. She turned to look at the woman who was beautifully lit by moonlight and the cyan neon glow of the object that she now held in hand.
Hope studied the object for a moment before ripping her head up to look at Maria. "Did you really just throw an arc reactor at me?" she asked in amusement, as if she couldn't believe her actions.
Maria shrugged with a smirk. "Apparently."
It'd been two months after their first meeting when Hope had contacted her; texting the phone number that Maria had left her. It was situated inside the suitcase that held the last part that she'd supplied Hope with at the restaurant. It took Maria nearly three weeks to acquire the item for her. Not that physically getting it was the issue, the problem was that she was busy on assignment in South Asia and had only just arrived state-side that week.
"I was surprised you asked for one of those." Maria pointed to the part. "I thought your dad hated Stark along with all his tech."
Hope sighed as she put the part into her bag. "Yeah, well, he doesn't need to know. I'm tired of our power issues. They're setting back the whole project." She patted her bag. "This thing should work perfectly, by my understanding of it." She scrunched her face as she cocked her head at Maria. "Please don't tell me Stark knows where his tech is going to."
"Nah." Maria couldn't help but smirk at her adorable face. "That was one of his many reject reactors. The issue with this particular one was the type of glass used in it. According to his notes, it wasn't sturdy enough to go into battle with."
"Are you telling me you stole Stark tech from out of the garbage for us?"
"I'm not completely sure one can steal garbage. But yeah. Pretty much."
Hope shook her head. "You really do have your talons hooked in everything. Trash cans included," she said plainly. During their first encounter Hope had compared S.H.I.E.L.D. – and to an extent, herself – to an entitled dog marking its territory. But her words seemed a little different this time. Hope shifted on the bench, sliding her thigh up on the seat so that she could better face the agent. "So, if you feel justified in taking from your own friends what's to stop you from taking from us too?"
"I'd say your giant ants," she retorted with snark. "There's no way I'm dumpster diving when one of those creatures could pop out at me."
Hope bit down on her bottom lip as she stifled a laugh. "Our ants do not hang out in the trash!" Maria couldn't help but grin at her reaction as she locked gazes with her, intently staring into her pretty eyes. It was too dark to make out their colour at the moment, but Maria had already memorised their shade of green with specks of brown from the last time they'd met up. Hope's face then turned to one of annoyance. "Could you please stop that?"
"Stop what?"
"Stop making it hard for me to hate you. It's easier for me to distrust people when I hate them."
Maria could have sworn she felt her ears grow hot in a blush as she dropped her chin into her hand; her elbow resting on her erected knee as she studied the woman next to her. She was possibly the most beautiful woman she'd ever laid eyes on, and in their brief interactions, she seemed to have such a tender personality which seeped through her thinly coated tough-act-persona façade.
"Sorry," Maria responded cheekily. "But you know" – her words came a little more weighted now – "you can trust I'm here to build bridges, not burn them." She briefly cocked her head as she realised her choice of analogy. "Pun not intended, yet now I'm kinda wishing that it was."
Hope narrowed her eyes at her, yet she had a smirk on her face as she said, "Please, I trust you about as far as I can throw you."
"Well, I reckon you could throw me pretty far if you shrunk me first."
Hope's face split into a grin. "Are you giving me permission to shoot you with my particle blaster?"
She glared at her, holding back a smile. "Possibly. Then I could at least fit inside my old S.U.V. again."
Hope erupted into soft laughter. "I'm not even sorry about that. Serves you right for spying on me."
Maria chuckled. "Well, here I was hoping I could convince you to bring it back to size for me." She sighed. "My favourite Hungarian chew candies were in there."
"That's what you're concerned about?" Hope's eyes twinkled at her ridiculousness.
"Vehicles are a dime a dozen at S.H.I.E.L.D. but those candies are locally made in a small town about seventy-five clicks outside of Budapest," she said defensively.
Hope shook her head before she looked up to gaze at the stars. The wind tousled her long hair, giving Maria the urge to reach over and push her fingers through her locks. The way it moved reminded her of the gentle ocean waves that she often witnessed from the deck of her grounded helicarrier on calm days at sea. She always had the desire to run her hand through the water then too, but was never able to reach it. Hope just looked so breathtaking in that moment. Maria clasped her hands together around her knee as if she had to restrain herself. Hope sighed before she focused her attention back onto Maria which made the agent awkwardly look away; scared that Hope had somehow known her inner thoughts. Maria took a second to regain herself before casually meeting her gaze once again.
"Do you really not have any plans for our bridge?" Hope asked in seriousness, yet she lacked the edge when she had inquired about it at their last meeting.
Maria stared into her eyes, which were almost haunting as they implored her for the truth. She had every intention of being honest with her as she explained. "A large portion of my job is made up of collecting intel and resources, which often includes fostering relations with those who hold valuable assets."
"But your intentions were not to foster relations with us."
"No, not at first. My original orders were to covertly guarantee the completion of your project."
"But I screwed that up for you," Hope said bluntly.
"Right." Mara nodded, conceding to how she was bested by Hope. "So now here we are."
"Here we are." She then added onto Maria's words. "With you hoping to become allies with us. So if a time ever arises that you need our bridge, we'll be here to welcome you over." She nodded in understanding.
"Precisely. And in exchange, we'll supply you with parts and protection."
Hope bit her bottom lip in contemplation before she sighed. "I have to say, it sure sounds like an innocent sales pitch."
Maria could see her apprehension, choosing to acknowledge it. "Like a free weekend in The Hamptons. But as soon as you get there they surprise you with a mandatory day long seminar about purchasing a timeshare? That kind of innocent sounding sales pitch?"
"Yeah. I'd say that's a pretty accurate analogy."
"I know this will mean little to nothing to you, but I do promise you, you will not be screwed over in this."
"Well, we kind of already are. It's not like we actually have a choice here."
Maria sighed, knowing her words to be true. Once S.H.I.E.L.D. had its sights on something, they were relentless. She herself was relentless too. Maria's face must have reflected her internal dialogue because Hope responded to it plainly.
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
Before Maria could think up something to say in return, Hope's mobile phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket, answering it as she stood up.
"Hey." She slowly began to pace as she listened. "No! Don't turn it off. I'm doing a full system diagnostic on it." She put her hand up to her forehead as she took in a deep calming breath before cutting off the voice. "Yeah, I know it's malfunctioning. Hence the test. I need to know exactly where the problem is." She listened in agitation before she instructed, "Dad, do not turn it off. I'm coming back now. Okay? Just please don't touch it." She walked over to her bag, picking it up off the bench to throw it over her shoulder. "Okay, see you soon. Bye." She clicked off her phone.
"He might be a genius particle physicist, but – boy – does he ever show his age when it comes to computers." She complained, making the agent chuckle internally. "I have to go." Hope then locked eyes with her. "Goodbye, Maria." Her voice had a hint of softness as she said her name, which made the agent's hairs prickle up on her skin.
Maria gave a warm smile as she replied. "Goodbye, Hope." The woman smirked and nodding before turning around to walk away. Maria watched her fondly as she disappeared into the darkness.
"You like her."
Maria whipped around in her seat, fists up and ready to defend herself, as Natasha Romanoff sauntered from behind her before she sat down next to her. "Dammit, Tasha! What are you doing here?" she asked in annoyance while dropping her hands.
"After you made contact and changed your mission, Fury called me in."
Maria eyed her suspiciously. "Why?"
The Russian woman of Tibetan ethnicity nonchalantly wrapped her hand around Maria's thigh. "To observe."
"Yeah? And what have you observed?"
Natasha scooted closer to her, resting an elbow on her shoulder while bringing her face right in close to Maria's, as she often did. "That you sat on delivering Tony's reactor for nearly three weeks."
"I was out of the country."
"Yeah, but I wasn't. You could've easily asked me to get the part and deliver it for you."
"I didn't know you were read in on this file."
"You have the authority to read me in," she retorted sweetly.
"I didn't think I'd be away for as long as I was to have to do that." Maria tried her best to justify her actions.
Natasha hummed a chuckle. "You are such a terrible liar, Maria." She gently pushed a piece of brown hair out of Maria's face as her gaze pierced into her untruthful friend's eyes. "You really must like her." She teased.
"And what if I do?" Maria bit her lip. Something that came unnatural to her. She only did it in attempt at playing at Natasha's game of coyness. "Does it make you jealous?" she asked, knowing the answer would be no. They had a very unique relationship over the years. Natasha was her closest and dearest friend and she loved her immensely. They also had an open, on again off again, sexual relationship. They had never committed to each other as anything other than loyal friends but they had still fallen into bed on occasions together, using each other as comfort.
"You're cute." Natasha pushed her fingers through Maria's hair, playing with it. "Trying to arouse me like I'm the one on your mind right now."
"Tasha, stop." She gently pushed her busy hand away. "Besides, I'm pretty sure she's straight and dating Scott Lang."
"I highly doubt they're dating since he's currently under house arrest and she's currently underground. And by the way she was looking at you" – she leaned in to whisper into her ear – "I don't think she's all that straight." She then lifted her body gracefully out of her seat as she walked away. "See you back at H.Q. I'll keep my door unlocked in case you need to burn off all that pent up energy you're holding in there." Maria rolled her eyes at her before chuckling at her friend.
Maria then brought her other foot up onto the bench, hugging her legs in tightly as she took a moment to herself to gaze up at the stars. Her mind started to wander, wondering about Natasha's involvement, hoping she wasn't going to compromise her jurisdiction over the operation. Often her friend's presence meant ulterior influences at play inside the organisation. The last thing she wanted was for Hope's scepticism of her (and her motives) to be proven right through actions she couldn't control. She hated to admit it to herself, but she didn't think that she'd be able to take unfair advantage of Pym tech. She was okay to pinch products out of Tony's scrap pile, but it felt so different with Hope. Maria sighed, crashing her head down into her knees, angry for allowing herself to get attached. This was not her. She was better than this.