Just a little shorty. I didn't want all of this info in one chapter. I guess it felt weighty to me. Anyway, enjoy.

Also, just as a general announcement, I changed the summary. I wrote it while I was feeling very moody and writing developmental scenes for Bruce and Amira. While the things written in the original summary are all things that are true about this story, they by no means encompass this story. In fact, the last thing I wanted to do when I started this was let the romance eclipse the adventure I have planned. I sort of totally defeated that purpose with the summary. I will paste the original summary on my account page so it can be read there. Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing of Marvel's.

Chapter Three - And Business is Good

"But-"

"I said blow it!" He bellowed. She scrambled to retrieve the detonator switch. She clamped her finger down on the trigger as soon as she found it. The following percussive blast was muted by the weight of the earth that concealed it. The bad guys just took a serious blow. If they didn't make it out of this situation alive, at least they crippled Hydra before they went out. Cries of panic and chaos erupted from the compound and echoed out into the desert.

"Good call." Amira said.

"You can thank me when we make it out of here alive." She fumbled with and almost dropped the pistol he tossed to her. "That's all I've got. How's your aim?" He barked.

"It'll suffice." She stammered with faux self confidence. "Let's just hope they don't get close enough for me to have to use this." She steeled herself. At this point, she had to assume something bad happened to their pilot. She couldn't think about that now, though. She had to focus. Black figures could be seen coming over the bluff. Hawkeye drew an arrow and Amira checked her clip.

"Hey 'Mira, what're you planning on doing with that gun? You couldn't hit the ground if you fell off a ladder!" A mocking voice crackled over their earpieces and the rhythmic sound of propellers beating the air soon followed. She wanted to scream but at the same time she had never been more happy to hear his voice. Relief almost overwhelmed her.

"Damn it, Aaron, this isn't a joke. What the hell took you so long?" She shrieked. He just chuckled at her fury. He brought his quin jet to a hovering stop beside them so that they could hop into the aircraft. The back ramp had already been lowered for their convenience.

"I had to fly in low to avoid being picked up by radar. It took longer with how many ground patrols they had where I came in from the west." He stated matter-of-factly as she boarded.

"I don't care, Aaron! If you're going to be held up like that, you need to let us know." She punctuated her statement with a noisy smack on his shoulder. He just laughed and put a defensive hand up. His dark eyes crinkled at the corners. He had her same burnt umber eyes and dark brown hair that curled in an unruly fashion. Only, where it made Amira look rather unkempt, it made him look like a rakish charmer. His rugged stubble helped as well, or so he had reportedly been informed by 'the ladies'.

"You're just lucky you're blood, Aaron. Next time, I'm going to- I'm going to-." Amira stammered, her eyes narrowing at her loss for words.

"Going to what? Beat me up? You've been saying that since we were kids and you haven't made good on it yet." He quipped. She just growled and mumbled something about breaking her foot off in his ass. He steered the craft high into the sky as the straggling hydra agents fired on them. Amira jumped as a bullet ricocheted off of the frame of the quin jet with a shrill ping.

"Buckle up." Clint advised as Amira took her place beside him. She nodded and acquiesced. Amira then plucked the little mobile device from her satchel and offered it to the Hawkeye who snatched it with a grin on his face. She noticed the Stark Tech logo embossed in back of it."Fury will be very interested to see what Herr Holbeck was hiding."

"And also we didn't die, which was nice." Amira sarcastically drawled. Clint shook his head and smirked. And they both fell into a comfortable silence for awhile. The ride smoothed out and soon they were sailing over empty vast desert.

"Have you given the job offer any thought?" Clint piped up after a time. Amira groaned in response.

"I don't know, Clint. My life is crazy enough as it is." She sighed, her hands twisted in her lap as she spoke. "Besides, I would miss spending quality time with you. You know, blowing stuff up and just creating a general, perpetual calamity." She had hoped saying this would ease her inner tension. Clint released a bark of laughter.

"There'd be plenty of that. Actually, there'd probably be more." Clint mused. Amira hunched over to cradle her round face in her hands.

"I promised Fury I'd discuss it with him when we get back to HQ. I don't think I'll be able to avoid him."

"Why don't you just use your abilities to sneak past him?" Clint inquired.

"I've tried! I swear he's immune to my manipulation. He sees right through it every time." She cried with incredulity.

"So much for being 'Lightfoot'." Clint prodded.

"Ew. Please don't call me that, Hawkeye." She bit back.

"Joke's on you, kid. I love my handle."

"Of course you do, Clinton." Amira mumbled. He still heard her and pulled a face as if he'd just swallowed sour milk. "How much longer, Aaron?"

"We're about an hour out. Get comfortable." He replied. Amira inclined in her seat felt the true weight of her exertions. She smelled like a hog and, simultaneously, felt like she had been mauled by one. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss the Avenger's Initiative with Fury. Maybe, if she was lucky, he had been kidnapped by some rogue ex-Spetsnaz hired out by terrorists (or something equally exciting) and will have forgotten the subject entirely by the time they recovered him.

She had exactly seven minutes to strip down, shower, and change. This was approximately three and a half minutes more than she was usually allotted. A successful mission was always rewarded with a little bit more pampering time and she would relish every sudsy, clean second. She slammed her locker shut and made for the shower room but hurriedly backtracked when she spied the dog eared label on her locker had come slightly unstuck. She pressed down on the edges hoping to put off replacing it. She liked the one that was currently applied there. Whoever assigned and labeled it for her had misspelled her name 'Amira Mizrabi' which amused her.

After setting that in order, she swiped her soap, which was on a rope, and dashed into the communal shower room. The rather unappealing room was a caricature of a gym shower, with it's old mildew ridden tiles and it's very unique smell that she likened to the inside of a wet paper bag. None of that mattered, of course. All she felt was glorious, hot water searing away the grunge from her flesh. She watched with hedonistic glee as the dirty, brown stained water crept down from her legs and swirled into the drain between her feet. Her skin became roseate wherever the scorching water tracked down her body. After soaking for as much extra time as she could she retrieved for her soap and scrubbed her flesh raw.

Amira could only use scentless soap and didn't fuss with the inconvenience of shampoo which did her hair no favors – not that she cared; as long as she could tie it into submission at the end of the day. Her abilities were delicate, in that way. If an unfriendly caught a whiff of something out of place or heard a noise that didn't make sense, she could easily be uncloaked. It was a very brittle house of cards, indeed. She had to explain countless time to her fellow teammates that it wasn't standard run-of-the-mill invisibility. In truth, she never technically vanished, she used her abilities to make people ignorant to the fact hat she had been standing there the entire time. She could alter perception on a basic scale. It had it's advantages over standard invisibility but it also had many drawbacks. She used to have a favorite perfume and fun jingly charm bracelets, all of which she had to slough off. This job came with sacrifice, needless to say.

Another body joining her in the shower shook her loose of her thoughts. Of course, by now, being nude around other women was of no consequence to her, she simply resumed her scouring.

"I take it the mission was a success." A sultry voice echoed across the tiled room. Amira smiled to herself.

"Well, I'm alive, aren't I?" She replied, seemingly talking to her shower knobs. "Your intel was invaluable, Romanoff. As usual, we couldn't have done it without you." Natasha switched on her own water.

Of course, Amira could not help but sneak a glance at the crimson-haired assassin. The first time she ever shamelessly spied Natasha from across the locker room she was kept up all night sullenly comparing her own awkward angles and imperfections to Natasha's impossibly stunning figure. She knew that Natasha didn't need any parlor tricks to get what she wanted. With her fluid sinewy build and her petite waist – it was no wonder that she was able to talk a slightly drunk Hydra lieutenant into giving her an impromptu tour of their top secret underground facilities. Now that Amira was a little older she was proud to have gotten over her initial envy. Mostly. They spoke very few words to one another but had developed a very good working relationship when the Black Widow had offered to help her with her dismal close quarters combat skills, which came as an immense shock and, likewise, an immense honor. Amira suspected she would never best her in a spar but with her help in training she had become many shades deadlier than when Fury brought her on.

"Though," Amira spoke up, "Clint will tell you that things became dodgy for a bit there. It almost came to a fire fight." Her tone was slightly boastful but good-natured.

"Oh God." Natasha laughed in her own dark way. "Someone gave you a gun?" Amira blanched briefly and then scowled.

"I'm not that bad." She stewed. Why do people keep saying things like that? She thought petulantly.

"Tell that to Nigelson. He still won't go in the range if you're within a five mile radius." She ribbed while working shampoo through her own hair.

"It was a mistake anyone could have made! I'm not even sure that it was my fault-" Amira explained, as if guiltless.

"Not your fault? Who mistakes a tactical shotgun for a grenade launcher?" The redhead interrupted wryly. Amira could not see her face but could picture the sly smirk painted across her full lips.

"We can all agree that those two things should not be on the same table." She argued while rinsing off the last slick layers of soap off of herself. Suddenly, she was interrupted by the alarm of her wristwatch notifying her that her shower was, in fact, over. She groaned and sagged for a moment and then summoned all of her strength to obey her own schedule. Time management was very important to her, even if she wasn't on the job. She begrudgingly switched the water off and stalked away, her soap, with included rope, in tow.

"See you at debriefing, Mizrahi." Natasha called out over her shoulder. Amira wrapped herself in her towel and murmured an affirmative as she left. The sooner she slogged through this debriefing the sooner she could plant her face firmly in her pillow and sleep.

"We crippled Hydra today, of that there is no doubt. But make no mistake, they are not gone and they won't be until we have snuffed them out entirely." Fury lectured. It was an impressive speech but it was pretty much lost on the exhausted crew before him. Amira had her head in her hands and had been nodding off the entire time. She had spied Aaron secretly flipping through audio books on his smart phone while sneakily slipping in earbuds before debriefing began. Clint was leaning back in his chair, daydreaming, no doubt. And Natasha was leaning up against the wall watching with a cat-like gaze. Fury could see that his ragtag team was fatigued from a days work but he couldn't stop himself from raising an eyebrow and frowning.

"Are we clear?" He barked. Everyone jerked to attention. Amira almost fell out of her chair. They all mumbled an affirmative after sharing guilty looks among each other. Fury, apparently satisfied, dismissed them. Amira practically leaped out of her seat. She pushed Aaron none too gently out of her way knocking his kippah off and causing him to crash into trash can. She tuned out his yelp of complaint. She was almost home free.

"Not you, Mizrahi." She stopped dead and slowly turned to see the expected glower of her commander. She cursed over her breath and barely tried to hide her petulant disappointment.

"Yes, Fury?" She grumbled. She scowled when she heard Aaron snicker with schadenfreude.

"My office." He commanded and turned to leave. Amira followed pulling an awful face behind him as they made their way to his office.