TERRAN DIDN'T EXPECT TO BE ATTENDING A S.H.I.E.L.D. AGENT'S FUNERAL. He always wondered what it was like when agents died, though he had always assumed they were quiet and only close family friends knew. Maybe that was the case, but it didn't seem to be the case for legends.

He was seated towards the back with Clint and Natasha, and he wondered if the people up front were the family of the deceased or if they knew him personally, but Natasha was quick to point out that, of all the people who had set up the funeral, it was the family that had been vehemently opposed to it.

"The Schwartz's are like S.H.I.E.L.D. families, one of the first agents was a Schwartz and they've just been pumping out some of the best agents. This guy was Milo's dad, but most people don't know that since it's a common name, but we all knew who he was," Clint explained, trying to whisper, though Natasha had to push his head closer to his ear so as not to disturb the people who were getting everything started.

Terran never liked funerals, they always reminded him of death, which made sense, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it, though this funeral was like a military send-off, only much more important.

The talks of the man's successes were long and drawn out, and while there was a general silence throughout the large room, that didn't mean that everyone was silent, as was evident by some of the commentary made by some of the people around them on the truth of the stories.

"He wouldn't like this," a redhead whispered from where he was sitting next to Terran, catching the blond's attention, the young man wringing his hands together, talking more to himself than anyone else, "He wouldn't like it."

Terran turned to look at him. He was an agent, no doubt about it, but his suit wasn't like all the others', and his face was as red as his hair, his nose running and his eyes rubbed raw. He watched as he tried to hold back tears, only to break down crying, hiding himself from everyone incredibly well, as it seemed only Terran noticed.

"Hey, you're okay," he whispered softly, reaching out and holding him the way he used to hold Nicky whenever he was crying, "Hey, it's okay."

"He wouldn't like this, he doesn't like stuff like this, he always said it was a waste of time," the young man sobbed, and he couldn't have been much younger than Nicky.

"What do you need, you need some air, some water?" he asked, looking for an exit and the refreshments table, taken aback by how non-professional this agent was being; for someone who worked at the highest risk job, he was certainly more emotional than most.

"I want my dad," the young man cried, and everyone turned to him then.

Terran looked forward, seeing the woman seated by Fury standing up, her eyes red as well, sighing softly when she caught sight of him, Fury standing as well, more concerned. Terran tried to understand what was happening, his mind racing, but it was easy to fit the pieces together when he realized why Fury had been so panicked the last he had seen him, as well as seeing Milo rush from where he was seated somewhere towards the middle, sprinting over towards them and hauling the young man to his feet.

"Dad wouldn't want you to make a scene," he whispered lowly, though he was hugging him tightly.

"He wouldn't want any of this, why didn't anyone listen, he told us he didn't want a funeral," the young man cried, and Terran hated the sound of crying, hated it more than anything else.

"He's not gonna yell at you from the grave for crying and bringing flowers to a funeral you didn't fund or plan, it's okay," Milo whispered, but he sounded choked up, and it was clear he had been crying himself, and Terran had no idea who this father was, but he sure put his sons through a lot.

"Keep going," Fury said, standing and making his way towards the boys, everyone still watching him go, pausing when he turned around to glare at them, "There's nothing to see. Keep going."

"Director can't play favorites, and he doesn't, he puts those boys through just as much hell as the rest of us, but the difference with them is that he'll hug them if they're crying and he's seen them grow up, and agents can get really petty," Natasha whispered softly, so soft it didn't need to be by his ear and he still would've heard it, but she nevertheless leaned up to whisper it to him, her breath hot against his cheek.

"I've heard stories, he and Schwartz were friends, maybe partners, I'm not sure," Clint said, and Terran's heart shattered.

At least, his brain told him it shattered, he only felt a small rattle, but the idea of losing Janelle was enough to make him hurt, but actually losing her would break him.

Yet there Fury was, still standing and off to comfort someone else with only minimal redness in his eyes.

"We're taking a leave off work for a week, let him mourn," he said to the both of them, and the two laughed, shaking their heads, and he frowned, "Wow, you two are heartless, the man lost his friend."

"This is Fury we're talking about, he throws himself into his work," Clint explained, and Terran's eyes grew dark, the continuing funeral service turned to white noise.

"That's not healthy," he said, and Natasha snorted.

"You think any of us here are all that healthy?" she asked, and Terran felt his stomach drop, because this was exactly what Nicky was talking about when he said he wanted to offer help.

If the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was going off doing his work while not mentally stable, that could prove hazardous to not only S.H.I.E.L.D. itself, but the rest of the nation, possibly the rest of the world, and of course Nicky would want to help them, he would want to make sure everyone was safe.

Which only meant one thing.

"Line up Fury, the mom, and the two brothers. There's a little doctor I know who's gonna be making a lot of house calls."

º º º

"I forgot Skype was a thing."

"Of course you did, you're old."

Terran laughed, looking on the computer monitor to Nicky who seemed exhausted, but elated, his hair mussed and his eyes tired and his body rather tense, but he was smiling. It wasn't a big smile, but it was there, and it was happy and bright, and that was all Terran needed.

He was back in the apartment, and Nicky had just finished up all his conversations. It had spanned about two days, as the mother was hardest to coax and Fury was adamant that he didn't need to talk to a shrink about his problems, but Nicky was somehow persuasive.

"They really just needed someone to talk to, anyone could've done it," the young man said, because Nicky was like that by nature.

"But you knew what to do because you're being trained," Terran finished, and the young man laughed softly, ducking his head and nodding, and Terran grinned, "Well, look at you, little man, you're getting out there."

"I think I might get hired at Oscorp, actually," he said, tracing patterns into his desk, "S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't gonna hire me right on the spot, so I might as well start getting out there, and I hear there's a position. Maybe."

"That's amazing, Nicky," Terran said, because it was, and he was grinning and his face hurt, yet he wasn't all that happy.

"Yeah," the young man said, propping his cheek onto his hand, "But that's not gonna be bad for the complex, right? I mean, I'm not living there anymore, but still, I don't want you guys to be traced."

"Don't think about us," Terran said immediately, because his worst fears were being realized in ways he didn't want; he'd rather take Constantin than deal with this.

"Well, I can't just do that," Nicky said, and the young man looked startled at his confession, glancing towards his bed.

"Okay, normally, I would force you to really analyze this and realize how stupid you're being for putting the complex before yourself, and since you're a little genius, it means a lot that I'm calling you stupid, but I'm gonna chalk it up to you being super tired, so off to bed," Terran said, making shooing motions towards him.

Nicky laughed, shaking his head. "You're joking."

"No, I'm not, go to bed, young man, you did great, be proud of yourself, now get some rest," Terran sighed, and Nicky smiled, reaching out to turn off the monitor, only to falter.

"Can-can you stay on? Just 'til I go to sleep?" Nicky asked, and Terran knew he shouldn't indulge it, knew that he should've told him, no, he had other things to do, sorry, but he couldn't say no to him, he couldn't.

So he stayed on. He watched as Nicky stepped away from the monitor, climbing into bed which was just out of view, because Terran forced him to sleep with his head away from the desk so he wouldn't be tempted to stay up all night. He stayed with him for the five minutes it took for him to fall asleep, and the two hours it took for him to make sure he would stay asleep.

Then he left the call on so that he could hear Nicky if he was having a nightmare.

"You're up late," Natasha said as he walked into the kitchen to eat his dinner which would've been cold if they hadn't tried to keep it warm for him.

"Where's Tensley?" he asked, because while Clint's boyfriend had left them some time ago to head back to work, they had seen him at the funeral, "And everything's fine now, everyone talked their hearts out for hours."

"You can't possibly think that them talking it through just makes it fine," Natasha said, leaning forward, her hands still wrapped around her mug.

"Of course not, then we'd only need one shrink per county, but it's a start," he said, piercing his food with a fork and popping it in his mouth, "They talked their hearts out, Nicky hasn't gotten any sleep, and I don't know what he did, but it worked."

Natasha sighed. "I hate to admit it, but you're right. Milo called, he told me and Clint that his mother was up in her study for four hours before she came down to grab the takeout they bought. She ate with them, then went up for another hour."

"See?" he offered, pointing his fork at her, "Even a woman more seasoned than you at the art of distrusting everyone was able to trust someone she didn't even know."

"People do stupid things when they're emotional," she said stiffly, and he sighed, shaking his head at her, because there wasn't much else to do.

"I'll get you to trust me one day," he sighed, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Who said I didn't trust you, Sweets?" she asked, and he faltered, whipping his head around to stare at her, his eyes wide.

She shrugged. "I'm not saying you're Clint, but you're a solid Stark. You saved my life. I owe you."

He laughed mirthlessly, unsure as to why that last statement hurt him so much. "So that's why you've been so nice to me? Because you feel like you owe me something? Because thanks, but I don't need your pity friendship."

"It's not pity," she said sharply, much too defensive to be a lie coming from a seasoned liar.

He sighed, shaking his head, chewing on his food with distaste. "Now look at me. I can't even trust you."

"Glad you've come to your senses," she snarked, and he glared at her.

"You push people away," he said simply, "You push people away, because you don't know where the mission ends and the people start, you think they're one and the same, but once we get to the part where you're a regular person, you don't know what to do, so you keep everyone at a distance so no one gets hurt, but newsflash, sweetheart, I'm not going anywhere. Constantin or no, you're stuck with me."

The two fell into a tense silence, Natasha staring at a fixed point on the floor, Terran staring at another on the other side, angrily eating his food, hardly being heard, the blood roaring too loudly in both their ears.

Then, "Why?"

He turned to look at Natasha who still wasn't looking at him, and he was unsure if she had been the one to speak. "Hm?"

"Why?" she repeated, turning her head to look him dead in the eye.

He shrugged, raising his eyebrows, lips quirking up in a smile as he glanced away again, murmuring softly. "I don't know. I think I like you."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Well, that's stupid."

He laughed. "Oh, I'm well aware of that. But, as you well know, no one's ever said I was anything but stupid."

Despite being so short, her legs were quite long, and Natasha reached out and knocked her foot against the back of his stretched out leg. "You'd be right. I have a bet that you'll kill us long before Constantin does."

Terran laughed at that, because there wasn't anything else left to do, he wasn't upset by the Constantin jab, he wasn't happy with it, he just laughed because that was all he ever did, was he laughed.

"This is insane," he sighed, shaking his head as he stared at his food, "I mean, what are we doing?"

"Living?" she offered, taking a sip of her drink, "Doing what we know best."

He nodded carefully, staring down at the table. "Yeah?" He raised his head to smile at her. "Why don't we shake it up a little then?"

Like he said, no one had ever said he was anything but stupid.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 10.26.18 )

This chapter was all over the place, I know, but I'm honestly so proud of its outcome, I mean, we got even more about Terran and Nicky, enough to satisfy so now their interactions can just be building up towards the end, we got to show some emotion in everyone with the funeral as well as call to Leo Oberholt, and Terran and Nat had a pretty important bonding scene.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!