▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 ━︎━︎ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐆𝐮𝐲 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐘𝐀 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐄 time to process everything before forcing herself to go back into work. She trained every day with Natasha, she went back to training the soldiers. She was doing everything possible to keep herself from thinking about it. She stood in the training room, punching the punching bag with her hair pulled into a ponytail. Sweat glistened across her skin, her breathing was heavy and she was allowing all her frustrations and anger and grief to be taken out on the punching bag.

     She paused when she felt someone watching her, causing her to stop and turn to look at them. She'd never seen the woman before, or if she had she didn't remember her. Liliya rose a brow. "Can I help you?"

     "Oh, uh, no." The dark haired woman shook her head. "I was just exploring the place."

     Liliya hummed. "Do I know you?"

     "Right. Sorry." She walked closer to Liliya, holding out her hand. "I'm Skye Reva."

     Liliya hesitantly shook her hand. "Liliya."

     "You're Steve Rogers girlfriend, aren't you?" Skye asked.

     Liliya nodded. "I am. However, I'd prefer that to not be the only thing I'm known for."

      "I get that." She took a step back. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I truly was only exploring, but it was also an attempt to find my room. I'm new here."

     Liliya cocked her head to the side. "You're that magic wielder, aren't you? The witch."

     Skye pressed her lips together. "I am."

     Liliya allowed a sigh to leave her lips as she unwrapped her hands, placing the wrap in her bag before motioning Skye to follow her. "Steve briefly told me about you last night. I pictured you to be a lot different in my head."

     Quickly, Skye caught up with her. "What do you mean?"

     Liliya glanced at her before looking forwards again. "Shorter."

     "Oh. Well, you are taller than me."

     "A common occurrence around here." Liliya hummed. She walked past multiple doors, going down a few flights of stairs before coming to a stop. "Here you are."

     Skye's face grew red in embarrassment, she'd passed the room multiple times. "Thanks."

     "So, what exactly do you do?" Liliya asked. This was her way of trying to be friendly. She had a feeling it wasn't really going as planned.

     Skye hesitated. "Well, I just use spells and stuff."

     Liliya rolled her eyes. "I know that much."

     Skye sighed. "I haven't discovered a way to be helpful to you guys yet, but I'm working on something. I'm hoping that it will keep you alive on missions. I mean, you guys are the Avengers after all."

     Liliya pointed at herself. "Oh, no, I'm not an Avenger."

     Skye frowned. "You're not? But. . . well, I mean, I just assumed because you are dating Steve Rogers and from the training I saw back there I just thought they also sent you out on missions and stuff."

     "They do." Liliya nodded. "Being an Avenger is different from being just an agent. I'm still trying to clear my name. You can't be an Avenger if your have a red ledger."

     Skye furrowed her brows. "You're in debt?"

     That made Liliya laugh. "Yeah, something like that. Well, it was nice to meet you, Skye. Welcome to the circus." She turned and walked away. Instead of going back to training, she went in search of Steve. Naturally, she found him with a pile of files in front of him. When she entered the room Steve looked up and gave her a small smile.

     "How'd training go?"

     Liliya shrugged. "The usual. It's not as fun when you have no one to train with."

     "Natasha will be back from her mission soon. I know she's your favorite training partner."

     Liliya rolled her eyes. "That's because she can match my speed unlike you old man."

     Steve pressed his lips into a thin line, nodding his head. "Oh, so that's how it is."

     Liliya smiled. "It is." Steve jokingly scoffed and Liliya pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I love you."

     "I guess I love you too."

     Liliya's mouth fell open, but a laugh escaped her lips. "You guess?"

      "I'm just kidding." He chuckled, grabbing her hand. "I do love you."

     "I do have a question." Liliya hummed. Steve looked at her expectantly. "I just need to clear something up. I'm not. . . I mean, I'm not an Avenger right?"

     Steve looked at her for a moment. "Well, do you want to be?"

     Liliya let out a breath. "I mean, that's a title for heroes. I'm not a hero. Not like you or Tony. I'm not a good guy, Steve."

     "You are." Steve disagreed. "You are a good person, Liliya. The things you did in the past weren't your fault. You didn't have a choice. But now you do and you've changed and you've become a good person. You did the best with what you had. You were just trying to survive. No one can blame you for that."

     "I guess so."

     "Well, I know so." He ran a thumb over the top of her hand. "What made you think about this?"

     Liliya shook her head. "Something Skye mentioned to me." She stood. "Thanks for clearing that up."

     "Hey," Steve gently grabbed her hand before she could walk away. Liliya turned to look at him and he stood. "You can be whoever you want to be, Lils. You can be an Avenger if you want to be, or you can just be you. Whatever you want to do, I'll support you."

     Liliya stared at him for a moment. "I don't want to just be me. I know you think I'm this amazing person, but I don't believe that. Not yet." She bit the inside of her cheek, taking a moment to think. "I think being an Avenger would allow me to push myself in the proper ways needed to become the person I want to be." 

     "Is that want you want?" Steve softly asked.

     Liliya nodded her head. "It is."

     He gave her a small smile. "Well then, Liliya Petrova, you are officially an Avenger."

Something in her sprouted and she felt pride spread through her chest. She'd come a long way from that little girl that had been thrown into a house fighting for a life. Now, she was an official Avenger. Now she was one of the good guys and that made a smile pull to her lips.