TERRAN AND NATASHA TALKED ALL THE WAY UP, AND FURY WAS, WELL, FURIOUS. It was interesting, really, the man seemed to be seething with rage, though all body language and general tone indicated simple irritation, which was usually the temperament people had when they were held up a whole fifteen minutes because their companions decided to pause and make idle conversation with everyone who passed.

"-so I really appreciated the offer, she was really cute, but I had an eye on this other guy, who turned out to be her boyfriend, and all they were trying to do was wrangle me in this weird sex thing, and as much as I wanted to, I was just way too uncomfortable, because they didn't communicate with me until I got really confused, which didn't seem all that healthy."

Natasha nodded in understanding as Terran finally finished telling his story, and he knew that she wasn't listening at all to him, simply waiting for her turn, which was simply to have five minutes of silence, which he was happy to comply with, now that he had gotten his story out.

The two had fallen into the routine when Terran woke with a sudden urge to talk to someone, and with Clint out pretending to be on a mission, since Steve and Arabella were starting to get confused as to why there was no progress being made on Clint and Terran's fake mission, that only left Natasha, who was not up for the happy back-and-forth storytelling that Terran and Janelle liked to do.

So they compromised, Natasha half listening to Terran's stories, patiently waiting for her turn which was five minutes of pure silence. It was a fair trade, really, as she was well-versed in the art of tuning people out.

Unfortunately for her, the last time she tuned him out, he gave her sad eyes for the entire five minutes of silence that she had, which were surprisingly effective, and they even had Fury commanding her to actually listen to him so they wouldn't have to go through that ever again.

"That's actually disconcerting," she commented lightly, which was enough to apppease him, especially considering she showed some genuine emotion in her comment.

"I know right?" he cried, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair, "Honestly, I was just so wigged out, and I wound up going home alone anyways, so what was even the point?"

"Exactly," Fury said, his jaw clenched, "So why did you feel the need to bring it up?"

"Because it was weird, and I wanted her to hear it!" Terran cried, looking offended that Fury even question his decisions to tell the strangest stories he could to get a rise out of Natasha.

With the blond's attention elsewhere, Natasha was able to freely smile, rolling her eyes fondly as she allowed her lips to twitch upwards into a genuine smile.

Terran was never allowed to see it.

The elevator doors opened, and the trio faltered when they caught sight of Milo who was whispering softly into the ear of a blonde who was giggling, holding one of his hands, the other placed lightly around her waist, and Terran felt the need to clap for both of them.

Unfortunately, Fury beat him to the reaction, coughing, "Agents."

The two jumped back from each other, the blonde immediately falling into position, though she seemed rather flustered, only able to look up for a moment before catching Natasha's smirk and lowering her head, a nice dust of pink tainting her cheeks.

Milo, on the other hand, was a stammering mess, rubbing the back of his neck, motioning between the two of them as he tried to come up with some excuse as to why they weren't five feet away from each other just then.

"I don't care what you do in your spare time as long as you're ready to work," Fury said, though he did give Milo a look that clearly let him know they would be having a conversation later.

"Sir, I don't think being lenient with Milo is going to help the gossip," the woman said, and Fury turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Agent, let me be clear that this is the standard procedure, you two were just whispering like a couple of grade schoolers, I don't see why I have to give you any consequences. Unless there was something else going on?" he asked, and the woman shook her head swiftly, lowering her gaze, though she did glance over to Milo who was pinching the bridge of his nose.

Natasha walked over to the woman, whispering in her ear. "Really, Sharon? Him?"

"If you tried to talk me out of it a year ago, maybe I would've listened, but it's a little too late for this," the woman, Sharon, whispered back, though she added, "Actually, I probably wouldn't have."

This was loud enough for Milo to hear, and Terran watched as his entire face turned red, his lips tugging up into an involuntary smile, and Fury could only roll his eye and usher the young man down the hall, dismissing Sharon to go and do whatever it was she was assigned to.

"Have a good day," Terran called after her, and she faltered, whirling around to look at him with a surprised smile

"Thank you," she said, nodding towards him, "You too."

As Terran walked off, Sharon caught Natasha's gaze, mouthing her questions as she pointed towards Terran's retreating figure, Natasha merely rolling her eyes and jogging to catch up with them, bumping her arm against Terran's.

Once they stepped into the room, Terran let his mouth run.

"Who was that?" he sang, grinning teasingly over to Milo who pointed a finger at him, narrowing his eyes, though that did nothing to deter Terran, "Milo's got a girlfriend."

"Yes, for the past year, I have, what's it to you?" he demanded, and Terran grinned, reaching over to ruffle his hair, the younger man shouting in protest, batting at his hands.

"Focus," Fury called, though he did allow Terran a few more moments of teasing before finally forcing him to sit.

"So what we know is that Constantin is back and is trying to find people who will work with him to make this utopia of his, and killing them if they disagree, everyone is in danger, can we all just die," Terran recapped, sighing as he rubbed his face, looking over to Natasha who had her tablet in her hands, going over their notes, "Did I miss anything?"

"We need to know where he's located and exactly how he's planning on achieving the utopia," Natasha said, not looking up from her tablet.

"My team and I are working on that," Milo said, though he noticed Fury shifting slightly and furrowed his brow, "What's wrong?"

"Milo, I'm still vetting them," he said, and the young man looked confused, shaking his head.

"This is a good team, what are you vetting them for?" he demanded, and Fury sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Milo, Sweets and Romanoff didn't nearly die because they got lucky, someone warned them when they were supposed to show, and the only ones who could have to be a part of your team. Now, I'm vetting them slowly so they don't get suspicious, but you need to either run by yourself or let them go out," Fury explained, and the young man groaned, rubbing his face.

"I know you're right, but I really don't want to believe you," Milo groaned, rubbing his eyes, "I know it means absolutely nothing, but these guys are my friends. I trust them."

Natasha turned in her chair, inclining her head towards Terran who scowled, pointing a finger towards her with narrowed eyes.

Fury's gaze darted between the both of them, but he elected to simply continue talking to Milo, "As your Director, I need you to use your head and decide what you want to do."

Milo chewed on his lip as he glanced towards the two Russians. "Guys...what do you want to do?"

"Whatever will put me and her in the closest proximity possible," Terran said immediately, throwing his arm out to stop her from saying something that would be strategically more beneficial to their mission.

"You two are already living together," Fury sighed, shaking his head, "But if that's what you want, you two investigate Constantin, Milo..."

"I'm gonna...strategically vet my people. I'm their friend, it'll be easy to stab them all in the back. Hopefully only metaphorically," the man groaned, pushing himself up to stand, stretching his arms over his head, "Can I invite Sharon?"

"No, you cannot invite Sharon, this is serious work," Fury scoffed, shaking his head, "Besides, she can't know about this. You didn't tell her, did you?"

"Of course not, she might be my girlfriend, but she understands work as much as I do, we agreed to put work first when we got into this relationship," he said, crossing his arms, looking rather put out by the entire ordeal, "So, if you'll let me go, I'll get started."

Fury motioned towards the door, and the younger man nodded towards the three in turn, and Terran gave him a thumbs up as he passed, making his way out. There was silence for some time, as no one knew what to say next.

Then Natasha spoke, "We're on a goose chase, we need a solid plan and we need security, he isn't above targeting civilians to get what he wants."

Fury nodded in understanding, glancing over to Terran who was staring at a fixed point on the table. "I know. Right now, we have a few leads, but we don't know what they're leading you to."

"We'll work with what we have, for all we know, we might not have a mole at all," Terran supplied, though his suggestion was weak at best, and he sighed.

Fury rubbed his mouth, shaking his head. "As far as we're concerned, we have to pretend there isn't. But be careful."

Natasha sighed, rising to her feet. "You're clearly babying us since Sweets is here, so are you giving us an extraction plan as well?"

Fury didn't blink as he looked up at her. "Do you need one?"

Natasha raised her chin. "I don't."

The two looked over to Terran who set his jaw, narrowing his eyes. "Whatever you're implying, save your breath. I've already hurt enough people, I'm not risking any more."

Fury nodded. "Then get to work."

º º º

Terran and Natasha were sent back to their apartment with more information than they'd like, forced to sift through them all in order to narrow down their options to make sure they didn't chase down too many dead ends while Constantin got the best of them.

"If I was a mentally broken test subject made by the KGB hellbent on warping the world into a communist utopia, who would I target and what would I do to achieve my goal?" Terran asked, staring down at one of the files.

He and Natasha were camped out on the couch, him on one end, her on the other, seated between his outstretched legs, her own bracketing his hips, and he was too busy celebrating her comfort with him that he couldn't even dare think of jeopardizing things by tickling her.

"What I want to know is why he had targeted the technician that he had," Natasha said, nudging him with her foot, "But we do know that, if they don't immediately cooperate, he snaps and kills them."

"Look, when I talked to one of the goons at that bar," Terran said, because he didn't forget about the bar, "He said they were developing weapons and devices, so if anything, they just wanted more and more help, but they have something, they've made stuff already."

Natasha nodded solemnly. "Who knows where else they're scattered."

"What I want to know is how Constantin was able to get a hold of so many people so quickly, he was kept in complete isolation, wasn't he?" Terran asked, and she pointed towards him, quirking an eyebrow, and he sighed, "We don't know for sure."

"Everything has a weak spot, there is no complete trust, if you look close enough, you'll find it," Natasha said, shrugging as she continued to look through her files.

He sighed, setting his own aside and leaning forward, reaching his arms out to grip the armrest of the couch on either side of her, Natasha unmoving as she stared him down, his face much closer to her now.

"I get it, you don't trust people," he said softly, narrowing his eyes, "But explain to me why you're making such a fuss about mentioning it at every second."

She raised her chin. "So maybe you'd understand."

"What do you get out of me understanding, you said you didn't understand why I trust people, you didn't say I was wrong, you just said you didn't agree, what do you get out of me believing you and deciding that I shouldn't trust anyone else?" he demanded, his brow furrowed and his voice raising slightly as he desperately tried to understand why this woman was trying so hard to infuriate him.

"Because you're a bleeding heart, and I don't need you getting hurt," she said, shaking her head, "You're like Clint, he trusts and he loves and he's afraid of commitment, but he wants to save everyone, but you're so ready to take on everything, and Clint's already saddled with me, I don't need someone else getting close."

"What about your teammates," he countered, and she scoffed lightly, shaking her head.

"No one knows me, Sweets, that's kind of the point, and you need to back away before you wind up getting hurt," she said simply, and he rolled his eyes.

"Quit being such a drama queen," he scoffed, waving his hand towards her dismissively.

"Excuse me?" she breathed, staring at him.

"This isn't a soap opera, wake up," he said, snapping his fingers, "If you have trust issues, I don't blame you, with what you had to go through, it makes perfect sense, but don't act like this 'boo-hoo, you bleeding heart, you're gonna get hurt and I'm gonna hurt you' bullshit is anything more than you trying to justify that you just don't understand."

"As if you know me-" she started, her voice raising, but he cut her off.

"I don't need to know every little thing about you to infer from what I do know that you need control," he pressed, "You don't want to not understand, you need to have full control of the situation because that's how you were trained, that's how you survive, but when there's me and I'm so much like you but so different, you don't know how to peg me, and you're scared, and I get that. What I don't understand is how you went from being pretty nice to me to downright hostile. No, I do understand. You're scared."

She just stared at him, her jaw clenched, her words slipping past her pursed lips and gritted teeth. "You don't understand how hard it is."

"I don't understand, not fully," he relented, nodding, "But damn it, Natasha, I don't hate you for it, and I'm not shoving it down your throat that it's great to trust people."

"Yes, you do!" she cried, tossing her files to the side, "It just oozes out of you. You trust everyone, you bare your heart and soul and all these feelings out to every person, and it makes no sense."

He blinked at her, pausing for a long moment before finding his voice, his tone utterly deadpan. "I hardly feel anything at all, Natasha. That's the thing about you and me. You're good at hiding that you feel everything. I'm good at hiding that I can't feel anything that all."

Natasha paused for a long time before mumbling, "I don't feel everything, just...more than I let on."

Terran nodded, too fired up to even acknowledge that she finally told him the truth. Finally. "See?"

She sighed, pressing her palms against her eyes. "I don't understand you."

He shrugged. "That's fine. No one said you had to like me."

She raised her head, looking more tired than anything else, her voice small as she sighed, reluctantly admitting, "I don't not like you."

He smiled, picking up his file and opening it again. "I don't not like you too."

Natasha sighed, slumping down and grabbing her own files, setting her feet by his hips again. "Just don't get attached, Sweets. It's not worth it."

He shrugged, his eyes trained down at his file. "You're way too late for that, but I appreciate the suggestion, even though it's worthless and has absolutely no meaning in my life."

With that, he continued to read, him also slightly slumped, his eyes trained on his lap, and Natasha slumped even further, her legs and file obscuring her face as the two tried to find some pull over Constantin.

From behind the cover of her file, Natasha smiled.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 11.02.18 )

This was such a character study, I need to plot out the rest of the chapters, but this was like a lot of yelling at each other, just like last chapter, but like now they're like pushing even further and they're gonna mellow out now after this I promise.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!