Kyler
I was out of the hospital two days later, and back to training three days after that. Of course, the doctors had warned me to avoid overexerting myself, which meant that every workout was monitored. In fact, Nolan and I where sparring back and forth over the mats on the floor when Maria came strutting into the gym two weeks after I was released.

"Not bad Stark. Keep this up and you might actually make top marks in combat this year." She said. I had almost forgotten that we were due for our annual asset evaluations that weekend.

I signaled for a time-out and walked over to where Maria was standing, grabbing my water bottle on the way. "To what do we owe the pleasure, Director?" I asked.

"I need to talk to you." Maria said, direct as always. "Why don't you have a shower and meet me upstairs?"

"What did you do?" Nolan asked as rinsed the sweat from my body. He was standing in the shower stall next to me and I could smell his body wash drifting over the barrier.

"Nothing, I swear." I said, racking my brains for something big enough for the Director of Operations to show up at the Tower unannounced.

It wasn't long before we were changed and taking the elevator up the the main floor. "I'm just going to head down to the workshop." He said, as the doors opened. "Good luck!"

When I walked into the kitchen, Maria and Pepper were laughing over two cups of coffee. "I'll let you get down to business." Pepper said, excusing herself. "Do stop by more often though, we hardly get to see you these days."

I stood awkwardly at the edge of the room for a moment, not sure what Maria expected me to do. "Come sit." She said, indicating the barstool across from her.

I perched on the edge of the seat obediently. "What's this about?"

She took a sip from her coffee cup before casually responding. "I've decided reject your application to SHIELD's Operations Academy."

My heart faltered for a moment before restarting at twice its usual rate. "What? You can't, the doctors cleared me for all of my usual activities. I'm fine!" I insisted.

Her blue eyes regarded me coolly. "As the Director of Operations, I do in fact have the right to turn away applicants to the Academy under my command. And I know you're fine. I've seen you in action, you're at the top of your game."

"Why then?" I asked. I had had top combat scores for years, spoke more languages that many full-fledged agents, and I'd even gotten a perfect GPA the past semester. There was no reason for her to reject me.

"Because I feel that it would be a complete waste of time and resources to send you to an institution that can't teach you anything while a position that requires your unique skill set remains vacant."

"My skill set?" I echoed. What was that supposed to mean? What could I possibly do that none of her agents could?

She reached into her briefcase, pulling out a file and placing it in front of me. "Christina Parsons is the daughter of a very high ranking FBI agent."

The smiling, dark haired girl in the picture at the top of the papers hardly looked like a threat, but then again neither had Elva Oryek. "You want me to take her out?" I asked, looking over the next part of the file.

Maria laughed, actually laughed, before shaking her head. "Maybe for coffee. She needs someone capable to discreetly look after her when she starts school in the fall. I think you're the one for the job, so I've come to make you a deal. You make sure this girl makes it to graduation day, and I'll make sure you get your badge."

"I don't know what to say."

"Say yes."

I blinked a few times to make sure this was really happening. "Okay, yes. I'll do it."

"I was hoping you'd say that." She smiled as she pulled another folder out and placed it in front of me. "Here are all of the documents you'll need. Everything has been worked out with the school, you just need to make sure you're physically prepared. You'll find a tentative schedule and your room assignments in there, and a document with the class expectations and dress code."

"Dress code?" I asked, pulling the file towards me. What kind of college has a dress code?

"Solid colored leotards only Barton, there are certain expectations at the Boston Conservatory."

Liam
"Is he talking yet?" I asked as Sasha walked out of the interrogation room.

She nodded, cracking open the folder in her hand. " Kidnapping, assault, unauthorized possession of a deadly weapon, treason, terrorism, and attempted murder. I guess he didn't want to add obstruction of justice to the list. He spilled as soon as I told him that Ashby and Legarde had both already stood trial and that Oryek would be in prison by the end of the week."

"Impressive." I followed her to the office of one of Maria's higher-ranking agents, where she returned the documents she had been reading off to me.

"I just wish I could have been there when they were questioning Oryek." Sasha said.

Her parents had been allowed to conduct Ashby, Oryek and Legarde's interrogations, and had eventually discovered the full scope of their plan. We had been right that Oryek was the mastermind, and had roped Legarde into the scheme with the promise of an exponential return on his investment when they controlled every airline in the world.

Finding out why she had kidnapped Kyler was more difficult though, and apparently Natasha had had to threaten to stab her through the other hand before she would admit her reasons. Oryek insisted that she had only allowed Ashby so much control because he had promised her that he could create an unstoppable army for her. All he needed was a sample of blood from one of Captain America's children. When he'd spoken to Ella at the gala, he had decide that abducting her would be the easiest way to get that. Obviously they hadn't been planning on Kyler shooting one of their mercenaries and sacrificing herself so Sasha and Ella could escape though, and now Ashby, Legarde, and Oryek were going to be behind bars for a very long time.

I was pulled back to the present by the sound of Sasha's voice. "Did you know she'll need multiple surgeries to reconstruct her hand?" She asked, grinning at the fact that she had caused such severe damage.

"You're incredibly terrifying sometimes." I informed her as I followed her down another slate gray hallway.

She led me towards the training area on the base, red ponytail swishing behind her as she walked. "You haven't run screaming yet." She noted before ducking into the women's locker room.

We met back up in the gym, both changed into training gear and ready to tackle a long workout. Our asset evaluations were just around the corner and we both wanted to make top marks this year. It also didn't hurt that we had both turned in applications for SHIELD's Operations Academy, which provided a nice incentive to stay at the top of our game.

The gym was pretty quiet at this time of day, mostly just a handful of probationary agents and trainees milling about, so we took the time to warm up and stretch out on the mats before beginning our session. I was surprised to see that she had chosen to forgo her usual all black attire in favor of charcoal capris and a bright teal training tank that made her hair stand out even more than usual.

"Time limit?" She asked, standing up and facing me.

I shook my head. "No, first one to hit the mat loses. No matter how long it takes."

She nodded and took her place across from me on the mats, signaled that she was ready, and then came at me as soon as I had done the same.

It always amazed me how differently Sasha's fights with me where from the ones she had with her sister or Nolan. When the twins sparred, it was like watching an elaborate dance with Sasha throwing sharp punches and her sister avoiding them in fluid motions, only to retaliate with a swift kick of her own. Sometimes it could take several minutes before one of them found the tiny window of opportunity they needed to tip the scales in their favor. With Nolan she was almost completely offensive, constantly pushing him backwards towards the edge of the mat with insistent attacks from her feet and hands.

She fought me very differently though, in a way that challenged the both of us, exploiting my strength and size and taking advantage of her speed. She would be easy for me to overpower, but I had to catch her first — and she made that damn near impossible. Which is probably why, after what must have been close to fifteen minutes, she had gained the upper hand. I had misjudged her intentions on one hit, turning to counter it and leaving my back exposed just long enough for her to leap onto it and drag me to the ground, gracefully rolling out of the way before I could come crashing down on top of her.

"Best two out of three?" She asked, holding out her hand to help me up.

"How about a little two-on-two?" We both turned around to see that a handful of agents had gathered on the edge of the mat. The one that had spoken up, a stocky guy with a buzz cut, stepped forward. "It'll be fun."

"Pick your partner." Sasha said before I could so much as open my mouth to protest.

He summoned a tall brunette girl from the back of the pack and the two of them joined us on the mats. They couldn't have been higher than level two agents, but my guess was that they were trainees. Sasha went over the terms of the fight while I watched, taking a long drink of water and trying to listen in on the whispers of the assembled spectators.

We shook hands before taking up our stances, and at the sound of a bystander's whistle we were on each other. I could tell right away that the agent I was fighting had picked the wrong partner. Her long limbs weren't nearly fast enough to land a blow against Sasha, and hardly moving her feet wasn't helping either.

I was faring just as well. My opponent and I were more physically matched, but his fighting style was completely textbook for a graduate of the Operations Academy — a blend of boxing and Taekwondo that allowed me to anticipate his next move without much effort.

It didn't take long for Sasha to duck under her opponent's arm and sweep her feet out from under her, and when I landed a solid kick in the stocky guy's chest and knocked him over I'm almost positive I saw some money exchanging hands between a few of the agents who were watching.

"Who's next?" Sasha asked, straightening up.

A commanding voice from the back of the room made the group scramble. "Playtime's over Miss Barton."

"Uncle Phil!" She exclaimed, bounding over to him.

"Careful, Sash. You're gonna squeeze him to death." I said, laughing at her childish antics. It was nice to see her drop her icy persona every now and then in favor of warm affection.

The former Director shook his head. "I leave for two weeks and you're already picking on Maria's agents? She's not going to be happy if you break one of the trainees."

"Maria wouldn't get mad at me." She said, helping to smooth the creases she'd made on his suit jacket. "I'm her favorite."

"Well, be that as it may, you have to be more careful with the new agents. We can't have them getting scared off."

"Fine." She agreed, pouting dramatically. Oh gosh, not that pout again.

"Maria wanted me to have a conversation with the two of you. Why don't you hit the showers? She's out of her office for the afternoon, we can talk in there."

"Are we in trouble?" Sasha asked as we hastened towards the locker rooms.

"I have no idea."

Two hours later
Sasha
It had just started to sink in when Liam pulled the car into the garage of the Tower.

"Should we say anything?" He asked, glancing over at me.

I bit my lip for a moment, mulling it over in my head. "Let's wait until dinner." I decided. "Then we can tell everyone at the same time."

"Good idea." He turned the car off and the two of us slid out, heading for the elevator.

"Hey Liam."

He stopped in his tracks, turning around to face me. "Yeah, Sash?"

Now or never. I stepped closer so we were standing toe-to-toe. "I never thanked you for having my back when Kyler was taken. You've been nothing but loyal and understanding, and I've done nothing to deserve that from you."

"Sasha, you don't have to earn my loyalty, you're my friend." He interrupted.

"And that's exactly why I don't deserve it!" I countered. "Because despite my better judgement, I don't want to be your friend — at least, not if it means I have to sit back and watch you be happy with someone else. And really that just proves that you shouldn't even be wasting your time with me at all, because that's really fucking selfi- hmm…"

I hadn't really considered how our height difference would factor into things like kissing. In the end though, it didn't seem like an issue at all when my toes were dangling a couple inches off the floor and he was holding me flush against him like I weighed nothing, cradling the back of my head with one hand. All that mattered was the gentle way his lips were moving against mine, and how it turned everything else in my head into white noise.

I was slow to open my eyes when my feet found the ground again, but when I did his brown eyes met mine. "There is not a millisecond that I spend with you that I consider wasted time. Got it?" I nodded as best I could with his resting on either side of my face. "Good." He said before leaning back down for another quick kiss.

It didn't end up being very quick.

By the time we (finally) made it upstairs, half the Tower's residents were either in the kitchen or helping to set the table.

"How did the interrogation go?" Mom asked, handing me a stack of plates.

I got to work setting them each on a placemat. "It went well. He was easy to break once he found out Legarde and his money weren't going to be bailing him out."

"Good. I'll be glad to finally put all of this behind us."

I nodded in agreement. "Oh, we ran into Uncle Phil while we were there. He says he'll stop by sometime this week, he just has to get settled into the new place first."

Liam and I spent the next several minutes recounting all of the details he'd given us about his trip, and by the time we had finished everyone was taking their seats while Liam and I stood awkwardly behind our chairs.

"Um, we have something to announce." Liam tried, glancing around the table as all eyes turned to the two of us.

"Well you better not be getting married, that's all I have to say." Steve said, taking a sip of his water.

"It's not that." I said as Liam's face reddened. "We're moving to Los Angeles."

There was a chorus of confusion and chocking noises as Sharon patted Steve's back, trying to help him cough up the water he'd inhaled.

"But, why?" Ella asked. "That's so far."

"SHIELD needs us to run a long-term op at UCLA to gather intelligence." Liam explained.

On my right, Kyler stood up. "I feel like now would be a good time to tell you all that I'm moving to Boston." She blurted. "Maria's asked me to work a security detail there instead of training at the Academy."

The table erupted into questions again. "Settle down! Why don't we all sit down and let them explain?" Pepper suggested, diplomatic as ever.

With everyone seated and quiet Kyler explained that she would be attending the Boston Conservatory to act as security for another student.

"Boston?" Nolan asked. "That's only twenty minutes from Cambridge."

Kyler just shrugged. "That's where Maria needs me."

"So are you two running security too?" Sharon asked, as casually as she would ask about our plans for the weekend.

Liam glanced over at me, as if wondering how much we should say. "No, we'll be running surveillance and gathering intel."

"You're posing as students then?" Sophie asked.

"Yup." I said shortly.

Dad piped up from further down the table. "So, what are you studying?"

"Uncle Phil thought linguistics would be a good choice in major for me." I said. "I'll also be minoring in Russian."

Mom raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Russian?"

"Еще один простой класс." I said, proving my point that the classes would be easy. "У меня был очень хороший учитель."

"You know, UCLA has one of the top three linguistics programs in the world." Pepper offered.

"That's what Uncle Phil said too." I said, hoping this conversation would be ending soon. I had already gone through one interrogation today, I didn't feel like being on the receiving end of one. Under the table Liam gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

"What about you, Liam?" Izzy asked. "Did you pick a major?"

"I'm majoring in history." He said. "It's always been my favorite subject, so I figured it would be a good choice."

"So, when are you guys leaving?" Ella asked, trying unsuccessfully to hide her sadness.

"We're not sure yet." Liam said.

Sophie looked down the table at us. "Probably about the same time as Andrew and Izzy though, right?"

"Look, there are still a few details to work out, but we'll tell you guys as soon as we know the details. Any other questions?" I asked, a bit irritated.

"Yeah, I have one." Nolan said, raising his hand as if we were in a classroom. "Are you two holding hands under the table?"

If the sudden reappearance of our hands on top of the table didn't give us away, Liam's blush certainly did.

I decided he was really cute when he was embarrassed.

A/N: This ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated, so I have decided to extend the story by adding another chapter. The next update will be the final one for tlosad, and then I will probably be taking a short break from this universe before starting a collection of drabbles and short stories revolving around these guys. The Q & A Blog (tlosad . tumblr . com) is open, and will remain open, so please keep sending in questions! As usual, I would love to hear your thoughts so please leave a review!