Arriving back at the academy from a two weeklong mission is always nice. I get to sleep on my own bed again. I also get tomorrow off of classes if I want. I usually use the day to catch up on sleep then workout. Natasha, my SO works me harder then any other SO would. I do love it because I will be an amazing agent.
"Sam! You're back!" My roommate Leslie exclaims hugging me at I walk into our room. I groan, "How was your mission? Are you hurt?"
"My mission went well. I'm just sore." I say not giving her details. She won't ask either. She loves gossip but respects when things are classified.
"Did you hear about the new guy in our class?" She asks. I perk up. New person? Our class doesn't get new people anymore. We are to advanced for newbies. "He is so dreamy." She sighs.
"So, that's why you're telling me. You want him." I say laughing.
"He is very serious about his training. So many of our classmates have invited him to go to the bar or just to talk and he always rejects them. Hell, Julie even offered to sleep with him, and he rejected her. So, I think he's gay." She says all in one breath.
"Jeez, give me the guy's life story much. He could not be gay. He could just want to become a great agent. He is starting late, so he might be staying focused to get caught up. Besides, if he is good as you say he is then he can smell her skanky ass a mile away and know to stay away, if he doesn't want an STD." I explain to her.
"I guess you could be right. What I can say is this guy is dreamy." She says shrugging. I grab my towel and start to leave. "Where are you going?" Leslie asks.
"Sauna, Natasha worked me hard after the mission as well." I say.
"I still can't believe your SO is Natasha Romanoff. Thee Black Widow." She says.
I remember when she found out, she screamed for an hour. Her SO in Agent Victoria Hand.
"Well, it's not as glamorous as you think it would be." I say.
I quickly leave down to the pool room. I see someone swimming laps and I head into the empty sauna. I strip off my workout gear. I head into the sauna and lie down on one of the wooden seats, in my boy shorts and sports bra. I soak up the heat and let my pain seep away. I hear the door open and look over. A man walks in and stops dead.
"Do you mind?" he asks.
"No," I reply closing my eyes again. I hear him sit across from me.
"Sorry, about bothering you it's usually empty now." He says.
"Not when I'm at the academy. I try to make it a point to visit the sauna every night." I tell him.
"I've been here for two weeks, and I haven't seen you here once. I actually haven't seen you at all." He points out.
"I was away. My SO wants me to go on missions to make sure the academy is training me right." I say. "So, why did you start at the academy so late?"
"How did you know, I started late?" he asks.
"Because you gave it away. I also have never seen you," I say.
"Oh, yeah. My SO wanted to train me mostly himself." He says.
"Oh, you have an SO. Congratulations," I say. "How did you get?"
"John Garrett." He says admiration in his voice.
"I spoke too soon. I'm sorry to hear that," I say.
"Why?" he asks.
"From what I've heard and seen. He's a wind bag," I say.
"A what?" he asks.
"Windbag. Dumbass." I clarify.
"No, he isn't." he defends getting upset.
"If you get to see other agents in action you will agree with me," I reply.
"Well, then who's your SO?" he asks still upset. Probably trying to get some ammunition on me.
"Agent Romanov," I say. I can hear his mouth open and close a few times before he finally speaks.
"Yeah, right." He says not believing me.
"She is but believe what you want. If you stick around, you will see." I say knowing I have nothing to prove. I hear him open the door and before he walks out, he turns back to me.
"Goodnight," he says. He walks away.
Before the door fully closes, I echo him. I hope he heard. Shortly after, I head back to my room. I decide to go to sleep. I have had a long two weeks. I didn't get much sleep. I never do on missions. You always have to be ready on them.
The next morning comes before I know it. I'm up at 5:30a.m. like I usually am. I look over and see Leslie still sleeping. I quickly change into running clothes. So, I can go for a run before everyone wakes up. I head down to the kitchen to grab some water and a protein bar. I see the guy from yesterday. He looks surprised to see me up.
"Your SO get you up crazy early to work out as well," he says filling his water bottle up as well.
"Yeah, something like that." I say. "Oh, I never got your name."
"Grant Ward. You?" He asks.
"Samantha Thorne," I say. I grab a couple of energy bars and hand him one. He looks at me confused. "You don't get hungry on runs?"
"Yeah, but I normally eat when I get back." He says.
"I do both, keep it though, just in case." I say. I put only one of my earbuds in and start my music. We both exit the building doors. I only use one earbud. So, if he wants to talk to me, he still can, and I can hear him.
"How long have you been training to be an agent?" he asks.
"I was sixteen when I was accepted here. I technically double my workload. I'm a field agent and computers expert." I say. "You?"
"I was sixteen when Garrett started my training," he says. "So, how did you end up with Romanov as an SO?"
"How did you end up with Garrett?" I counter.
"Not sure. He found me," he says with a shrug,
"Alright. The computer hacker agent Clint Barton and Nat were supposed to use was out with the flu, so I filled in. They liked me so much they wanted me as their regular hacker. They were told no with no reason why. So, they did some digging and found out I'm still in the academy. Natasha and Clint both sent in a formal request to be my SO," I say.
"They have to send in formal requests?" he asks.
"Yes, if you have multiple requests, you spend time with the agents who want to be your SO and you pick the one you want." I explain. "They also have to be at least level five and considered a fit enough person to be a mentor."
"So, how did you choose?" he asked.
"Well, I had a few others, but I quickly rejected them. I spent a weekend with then and decided the better mentor would be Nat. I know no matter which one I picked I would get both, but I wanted my main mentor to be Nat. She would push me to be a better agent," I say. "And here we are, two years later."
"It's definitely cool that you impressed Romanoff and Barton that much that they wanted to be your SO," he says impressed.
"Well, Nat and Clint aren't used to being told no, when it comes to shield. Shield owes them a lot. So, we generally get first pick of new gadgets and pick of which missions we want to do. So, it can be cool." I say.
I speed up a bit noticing he's keeping up with ease. I was going slower, so he didn't fall behind.
"You get pick of your missions?" he asks with wide eyes. He is having no problems keeping up with me.
"Yeah, the more respected you are in the agency you get more freedoms. I know John Garrett gets quite a bit of freedom." I say. "It's how he was able to recruit you or else you would have had to go through the same process as everyone else."
"I will have to keep that in mind," he says as we near the end of our run. "What class do you have first?"
"I have classes off today. I might come join on some, but I generally take the day to catch up on sleep when I come back form a mission. It's procedure to give the next day off after a mission so the future agents can catch up on sleep. I don't generally need the full say though. A nap does the trick in most cases." I say.
"Oh alright, I'll see you later then." He says looking disappointed.
He can't be disappointed. Can he? He has to be. Nat taught me to read people and she's the best at it. Strange. I head up to my room and take a shower.
"Boo, you whore!" I hear Leslie yell outside the washroom door. This is a daily thing. She always wants the shower first but won't wake up early for it. So, she resorts to name calling.
"Maybe you should wake up earlier for it," I say back like always.
"Don't say such blasphemous stuff, Sam. I thought you were better then that." I hear through the door.
I finish up quickly and change into sweatpants and a tee to take a morning nap. I fall asleep to the sounds of Leslie in the shower. I smile to myself when she yelps, cause the water went cold. I sigh. I really missed mornings here.
I wake up again in my own bed. Normal people don't realize how amazing it is to wake up in your own bed after a week of sleeping on concrete. Well, when I got the chance to sleep. I only got an hour or two at a time. I decide to get up. I look at the clock and see that they are in sparing class. I head to join them.
On my way I get a text from Nat and Clint saying they will be here in the afternoon to go through target practice. I walk into sparring class and see everyone standing around the mat. I head over to see what the other people in my class are looking at. I see Clint and Nat going at it. I roll my eyes. Everyone else is so impressed. I notice Grant not looking impressed but looking analytically almost as if he is deconstructing the fight for all the moves.
"Alright! Done!" The instructor yells.
Clint and Nat separate. Nat looks up and sees me. She walks over to me.
"How you doing today, Sam?" she asks.
"Ready to spar if that's what your talking about," I say.
"Well, you're going to start with Grant Ward then finish off with Agent Romanoff." The instructor says.
I head to the mat that Grant is standing on. Nat and Clint follow me to watch and offer pointers. They always do that for me when they visit.
"Hey, I didn't think you would be here," Grant says.
"I woke up and decided to come. Doesn't her that this one texted me." I say pointing to Clint.
"Well, you had to know. I didn't think you would be at class," he says with a shrug. Natasha pushes him lightly. All three of us laughs. Grant just looks confused.
"Alright, you two time to start sparring." The instructor says to us.
Grant and I start circling each other. He takes the first move and I take him down fairly quickly. We do that for about an hour. Everyone else leaves for lunch, but Grant wants to keep sparring. I end up straddling him by the end. We are both panting.
"You're good," I say helping him up.
"You too," he says covered in sweat. "How do you still look so put together?"
"Nat taught me that. She said it's important that after a flight you still look put together and not like you just had sex." I say.
We both walk to the change rooms. I do a quick wash down to get the sweat off. I leave and see Grant waiting for me.
"Want to go to the cafeteria?" He asks.
"Sure," I say. We both walk to the café. I head to go get myself some fruit. He gets a hardier meal in a sandwich. We both sit together.
"Just fruit?" he asks.
"Yeah, after sparring. I have a hard time eating. My stomach in still jumpy." I say.
"You attending classes after?" he asks.
"No, Nat has pulled me out to practice my shot." I say.
"Speaking of your SO. Where are they?" he asks looking around.
"They have their own lounge for the SO's and instructors." I say eating a strawberry.
"Have you ever been in there?" He asks.
"Hell yeah, Natasha said if I can't lie my way into there, I'm a disgrace." I reply.
"Lie your way?" He asks.
"Yeah, it's a lie detector to get in. you have to pass it. She taught me how to pass every lie detector test." I say.