JULY 2011: OPERATIONS ACADEMY
None of them looked forward to the presentations at the Operations Academy. Fitz and Simmons because of the rivalry between Sci-Tech and Operations. Kat and Clint because the majority of the graduates they knew personally from Operations were complete tools. But since they had to go, they could at least arrive in style.
"This is our ride?" Fitz asked when Clint pulled up in a black Jeep with the top down and doors off instead of the nondescript black SUVs SHIELD normally used.
"It is," Clint said, slipping on his sunglasses with a smile as Kat hopped into the passenger side.
"SHIELD approved this?" Simmons asked dubiously.
"The proper paperwork was signed off on." Kat shared a conspiratorial smile with Clint, her eyes glinting mischievously. She may or may not have hacked the system and electronically approved the request.
The two scientists piled into the backseat. Clint gunned the engine and they were off. The sun was bright above them as they curved down backroads. Kat leaned her head back, closing her eyes and soaking up the sun as the wind whipped her hair around her. Clint kept sneaking glances at her out of the corner of his eyes. Flipping on the radio, he grinned as a smile lit up her face.
Operations was a completely different atmosphere than Communications. There was PT on the front lawn, with drill instructors yelling like they did in all the military movies.
"Remind me why we're here if none of us actually attended Operations?" Kat asked.
"Didn't Agent Barton graduate from Operations?" Simmons turned to Clint. She thought it was a pre-requisite to be a field operative.
"Nope. I was recruited after a one-time stint in the circus."
"You never told me you were in the circus!" Kat rounded on him with mock indignation.
"One-time." He hadn't even made it on the flyer.
"What'd you do before that?" Simmons asked.
"That's not important. What is important is I never attended the academy." He'd have washed out in the first week if Fury tried to send him there. He doubted he could take the instructors yelling at him to move faster without snapping back at them.
"Yeah, the closest here would be Agent Lee," Fitz chimed in, making Clint and Simmons turn surprised glances on him. "She attended a few mixers here when she was at Communications."
"Now who's holding back with their past," Clint said.
"Like playing beer pong with some Operation cadets is the same as a life in the circus," Kat said, turning to face Clint, walking backwards in front of him.
"It was one show," Clint waved it off. "And now I insist we challenge someone to a game of beer pong before the end of today."
"I never said I was any good." Though she was sure Clint's aim would more than make up for her rusty beer pong skills.
"Wait, how did you know Agent Lee attended mixers?" Simmons asked Fitz.
"She tests some of my new gadgets. Sometimes we swap stories about our days in the academies," Fitz shrugged.
"So, Fitz is your tech guy," Clint said in an 'aha' way.
"You're not poaching him from me," Kat said as he held the door open for her.
The group's joking faded when they stepped into the auditorium filled with students dressed in all black, sitting ramrod straight with unimpressed looks on their faces. The audience was disinterested when Fitz and Simmons did their presentation, making the pair even more awkwardly insecure.
"I doubt the charming tale of how you two started working together will go over well with this crowd," Fitz commented as he passed Kat and Clint.
Instead of doing the whole Q&A thing they'd done at Communications, Clint started talking once Kat introduced them.
"Alright, listen up. You all need to stop being overconfident assholes to anyone not in Operatives. Because you know what's going to happen when you graduate? You're going to be in the field, using tech and weapons that someone from Sci Tech makes you and patiently teaches you how to use multiple times to make sure you don't accidently kill yourself. And you're going to need someone from Communications on the other end shutting down security systems, getting your tech to work when it goes offline, and helping you with an escape route when your extraction's been compromised. They might not be able to do our jobs, but we sure as hell wouldn't be able to do our own damn jobs without them."
Without another word, Clint set down his mic and walked off the stage.
"What he said," Kat said, still stunned, and a little turned on, by his speech. "And for the record, Sci Tech is way better at beer pong than you."
JUNE 2011: TRISKELION
"This is Agent Martinez. How can I help you, Agent Romanoff?" Angie asked, taking the patched through call. She'd never worked with Romanoff before. She knew Kat had, and she also knew Romanoff was to Barton as she was to Kat.
"Is that KitKat?" she heard a male voice calling from the background.
"No, now keep your eyes on the road," Nat said, shutting the sliding window from the front of the van to the back.
"Let me guess, that was Agent Barton?" Angie asked with a smile. He's the only agent who regularly worked with Romanoff and who referred to Kat by that nickname.
"He's pouting because I'm calling in and he doesn't get to talk to Lee."
"Kat's not in today anyways," she said, her eyes darting over to Kat's empty desk. She'd been forced to take some time off because she'd accrued too much leave. Even with the mandatory half-days, she'd still probably have use-or-lose leave by the end of the year.
"That wouldn't stop him from calling her."
"And she'd always answer for him." No matter where she was, or what she was doing, Kat always took Barton's calls. They'd once been at a music festival on the Mall and Kat had ducked out to take Barton's call. "But you didn't call to talk about Kat, right?"
"Right," Natasha said, snapping pictures of the paper's they'd stolen from a member of the Portuguese crime family. "I need your help creating a secure line so I can send pictures through to the lab without compromising my alias."
"I think I can handle that." Relieved, her hands flew over her keyboard. Seeing Romanoff's name pop up on her dashboard had her palms sweating, thinking it'd be an impossibly hard task. It was Agent Romanoff, aka the Black Widow. Whenever she asked for help, it usually meant things had gone way past complicated.
"So," Natasha said, pausing to hold onto the side of the van for stability when Clint took a corner too sharp. "You're Lee's friend, right?"
"Her best friend, yes," she said, only half listening to her as she typed in the codes that would allow a private and secure file transfer.
"Then maybe you could get her to do something about her and Clint. I love him, but he's driving me up the wall. They just need to stop dancing around their attraction and hook up already."
Angie paused mid-code. Finally, someone who understood her frustration.
"Right! They've had months of witty, flirty banter. They need to put their money where their mouths are."
"Can you tell Lee that?" She'd tried telling Clint, but he never wanted to hear it. In fact, there were times he'd purposefully turned his hearing aids off so he couldn't hear her.
"Oh, I have. She's stubbornly refusing to take a leap of faith when it comes to Barton."
"We have difficult friends," Nat said, finally getting the greenlight to send the documents through.
"We should start a support group."
JULY 2011 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY
"Alright, after three speeches in one day, we need to blow off steam. Any suggestions?" Clint asked Fitz and Simmons. They'd gone to the academy so they should know the best hang out spots nearby.
"The Boiler Room?" Fitz asked Simmons.
"What's the Boiler Room?" Kat asked after Simmons nodded her head in approval.
"You'll see, follow us," Simmons said, turning right at the bottom of the stairs, away from the parking lot. Apparently, the Boiler Room was on campus.
The Boiler Room turned out to be an actual boiler room, with major modifications. Standing on the metal staircase above the room, music played from overhead speakers as students milled around. There was a fully stocked bar, pool table, retro video games and…
"Look, beer pong. What do ya say, KitKat?" Clint asked when he saw the table set up below.
The two teamed up, taking on the winners of the last game. The students were smart, but not even a masters in geometry could stand up against Clint's aim. He never missed. Kat, on the other hand, fumbled a few times, but overall, they cleared their opponents' cups, becoming the new champs. Soon there was a large group around them and a line of challengers eager to try their hand against them.
"It's mathematically impossible," one of the onlookers murmured when Clint banked a trick shot, showing off a little.
"I'm kind of glad you didn't go to the Operations Academy. Our record in beer pong tournaments would have been much lower," Kat said, taking a swig from her beer bottle. Fitz had bought them both a round when it became clear they wouldn't be drinking much from the red solo cups in front of them.
"Nah. I'd be too distracted with you on the other side of the table," Clint said, causing Kat to miss her next shot.
They won the game on Clint's next turn, but instead of resetting the cups and starting a new game, he let a new set of students replace them. Resting his hand on Kat's back, he led her away from the table and towards the bar on the other end of the room.
"You want another drink?" Katherine asked when she realized where they were headed. She eyed the bottle in his hand. He'd just gotten it.
"Not yet," he said.
A robot manned the small griddle behind the bar, making grilled cheese sandwiches. After paying, the robot flipped two sandwiches on paper plates and the student manning the bar slid them across the counter to them.
"All that winning made me hungry." Taking a bite of the sandwich he stifled a moan at the cheesy goodness. Nothing paired better with beer than melted cheese on toast. He finished it in three bites, washing it down with a few swigs of beer.
"Remind me never to challenge you to an eating contest." Kat smiled at him and took another bite of her sandwich.
"That's nothing, there was an act in the circus who could unhinge his jaw like a snake."
She shuddered at the thought.
"I still can't believe you never told me you were in a circus act."
"It's really not that exciting," Clint shrugged.
With a smirk, Kat dropped her sandwich so she could sign the word 'bullshit' like Clint had taught her. Clint grinned, surprised she'd remembered it, before signing back at her rapid-fire.
"You do remember you only taught me a few words, right?"
"I know." He took another sip from his beer.
"Are you going to teach me what you said?" He'd signed so fast; she couldn't even begin to imitate the words herself.
Slowly he showed her each sign. It took her a few tries but she finally managed to repeat all of it without any mistakes.
Forming his left hand into a fist, he held it up, tilting his wrist down and up almost like he was knocking.
"Yes." Clint said.
"Yes, what?" Kat asked, still unsure what she'd signed.
"Yes, I'd love to go out on a date with you," Clint said, his eyes twinkling, signing as he spoke. Kat blushed, picking up on some of the same signs she'd just learned.
"Smooth," she said.
"I thought so. So, where will you be taking me on our date?" Clint asked, leaning in closer.
"Technically you asked me first," she pointed out.
"Okay, I'll plan it. Any food allergies I should know about?"
Kat didn't have time to ask if he was serious before Fitz and Simmons interrupted them.
"There you two are," Fitz said, pushing through the crowd and stepping between them.
"I just got word from the pilot," Simmons added as she stopped beside him. "Wheels up in twenty minutes. We have to go."
A/N: I had so much fun with this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it! I had someone mention it was hard to follow the back and forth timeline of this story. From here on out I plan on mostly writing in chronological order, but I realize the past chapters might be hard to keep straight on what happened when. So, I will be posting a timeline for everything that's happened in this story so far on my Instagram page (gracelesslyfalling). If you want me to include it at the end of the next chapter as well, let me know!
Wieda: I'm responding to your review here since your private messaging is turned off. Thanks for leaving a review! I'm so happy you love it. Hope you liked this chapter too.
Heaven-water-sister: your private messaging is turned off, so I'm responding here. Glad you loved the chapter. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know!
Rach
xoxo