LEO FELT LIKE A LITTLE KID AGAIN, EATING COMPLIMENTARY BREAKFAST WITH HIS UNCLE NICK IN HIS SLEEP CLOTHES. His feet barely touched the ground as he ate, looking up at Fury as he dug into his potatoes with cheese and bacon bits, Fury taking a bite of his egg, pretending that he couldn't feel Leo's gaze. Whenever he would glance up, Leo would quickly duck his head down back to his food, struggling to hide his smile as Fury breathed through his nose, continuing to eat.

"How old are you?" Fury asked, raising an eyebrow, and Leo snorted, swallowing his food.

"I'm twenty-two," he replied, tilting his head, "You just making a joke, or is that gonna affect my work?"

"The kid's nineteen, almost twenty," Fury replied, shrugging, "So I wouldn't take it to mean anything. Arabella's twenty-one and she gets along just fine."

"Twenty-one?" he repeated, eyes widening, "Man, I didn't realize she was so young when this all started. But anyways, when do we go?"

"When I'm finished eating," Fury cried, motioning to his full plate, "You don't rush your elders, Leo, it's disrespectful."

Leo laughed as he took another bite of his food, trying not to choke as his shoulders shook, grinning at Fury who just rolled his eyes, refusing to give his godson the reaction he wanted, though unable to keep the slight twitch of his lips and the raise of his cheeks.

It was nice to fall back into old routine, even if it had been years since they had. Fury had sent agents to Leo's apartment to gather all his things, as he was essentially moving out to go live in the facility. That was something that didn't sit right with him, he wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"So I'm just moving in permanently and all the stuff I can't bring with me is being sent to storage," Leo said, climbing into the awaiting black van, Fury taking the driver's seat.

"I know it's sudden," the older man began, and Leo scoffed, starting interrupt him, only to be stopped, "And I know you don't always work well with spontaneous decisions, but fact of the matter is, this is a job. You are being transferred as part of your job. So you're going to have to deal with it."

"I don't even know what Upstate is, I had to Google it," Leo grumbled, crossing his arms as they pulled out onto the street, "It's hours away from Manhattan and I'm guessing we're gonna be surrounded by trees and I don't know, Uncle Nick, can I handle trees?"

Fury paused at the red light, turning to look at him. "Is that really your main concern right now?"

"Of course not," Leo cried, throwing up his arms, "I'm worried about my elderly neighbor, because I know she can handle herself, but she's having a harder time doing things by herself and she's watching over kids, and what if something happens and I'm not there, I'm just hanging out with my trees in Upstate New York, how is that supposed to ease my conscience?"

Fury shook his head, sighing. "Leo, we've been over this, you can't blame yourself for everything—"

"Doesn't mean my mind won't convince me it's my fault," Leo countered, "But whatever, that's fine, I can move on from that. Maybe."

"You're going to have to," Fury pressed, eyes trained on the road as they made their way out of Jersey, "We've been over this for years, Leo, holding onto every little thing that goes wrong will kill you, especially in this line of work."

"Then maybe I'm not meant to be in this line of work," Leo said, silencing Fury indefinitely. "I only went into this because I was expected to. Everyone in the family's an agent, it wasn't like I was given any choice for other options."

"You always have a choice—" Fury tried, but Leo cut him off, shaking his head.

"Not actually!" he cried, shaking his head, "In high school while all the kids were talking about their top three colleges, I already had my foot in the door, I didn't need to specialize in anything, my last name already had me in, because I've been prepared for this my whole life, but I'm not like you. I can't just not care, it's not like me."

"That's why we're sending you to this job," Fury explained, and it was clear he was trying desperately hard not to shout, because Leo had been conditioned to cry whenever anyone raised their voice at him.

"What do you mean?" Leo sighed, looking out the window at the passing view.

"I mean, out of all your family members, breathing or otherwise, you're the only one that cries during sad episodes of Spongebob Squarepants," Fury cried, shaking his head, "You're the only out of your family that hasn't completely blocked themselves off when it comes to work, and there are only a handful of agents like you that are willing to compromise themselves for their emotions, and most of them are ones I can't trust to connect with a kid who unwittingly agreed to be a Nazi."

Leo turned around quickly, starting to speak, "Actually, I did some digging and I don't actually think they or the others knew they were joining a Nazi organization, because the violence started in Sokovia was a product of HYDRA, right, and they were approached by a HYDRA scientist, so they were most likely coerced and convinced that they were doing the right thing and left in the dark, doesn't mean that they're totally in the clear, but if you look at the facts, you can make an inference—"

"That's what I'm saying," Fury interrupted, holding up a hand to keep the young man from continuing any further, "No one would care to listen if they already finished their case, but you dug it up yourself. I don't know why, but you never draw a line between work and home, it's all the same to you. You're the same no matter what."

"I thought that was a problem," Leo grumbled, "Thought I had to get rid of that, else I'd get killed on my first day."

Fury scoffed. "Hell, did your dad say that to you?"

Leo nodded. "Every day since I was ten. He never told you?"

Fury shook his head. "He never wanted to end up like his father, man was a great agent but a downright shitty father. But guess he didn't really know what to do when he ended up with an empath like you."

"But you liked me," Leo countered, sighing as he moved to rest his head on his armrest closer to Fury, "You said it was okay that I cried when the neighbor's puppy died. Said it was nice I saved all my allowance to buy her a new puppy."

Fury reached out to stroke his hair, sighing. "It was alright 'cause I knew you'd be a good person. But your dad's right, if you were gonna be like him, you couldn't cry over the puppies and the dead bodies and try to argue for the people you're tracking down."

"Barton did that and now we have Romanoff," Leo pointed out, and Fury rolled his eyes.

"Barton's one of the handful, but he can distance himself if he really wanted to," he explained, "But you know what your family's like, and I know what it's like. Point is, you care a lot. More than anyone in your family does and more than most of the agents we have left. And you're young, so that's a bonus."

"So I'm convenient," Leo finished, closing his eyes, a pained feeling spreading from his chest to his arms and legs.

"You're necessary," Fury countered, "When I was told that there were concerns about the little shit, I thought of you first."

Leo frowned. "If you're gonna call him that, he's not gonna think anyone cares about him."

The young man was turned away from him, his head on the armrest facing the glove compartment, so he couldn't see the way the older man smiled, allowing himself a true, genuine one, not fighting against it.

Case in point.

º º º

"We're here, kid."

Leo yawned as he lifted his head from the armrest, groaning at the crick in his neck as he yawned, rubbing away the sleep. They were, in fact, not quite there, but Fury wanted him to get a glimpse of the view through the trees, knowing the young man would enjoy it.

"Wow," Leo gasped, watching as it slowly came into view past the forest, a large white building surrounded by a few other buildings, "It's really big."

"It's bigger when you get in there, trust me, " Fury said, unsure of whether he wanted to tell the boy that he did, in fact, help run the place, "You happy to be here now?"

Leo quirked his lips to the side, taking in the scenery as they climbed their way up to the area itself, shrugging. "I'm still not sold on the trees."

Fury snorted, shaking his head as they parked, Leo scrambling to follow him out of the car, feet scraping against the rocky path, squinting past the sun at the facility, taking in the groups of agents milling about.

"So who'm I supposed to be working with?" Leo asked, watching as an agent moved to park the van, taking his things with them.

"Well, Romanoff is helping Rogers train all the new recruits, and Barton drops by at times, but the both of them are out at the moment, so that leaves Rogers, Rivendell, Rhodes, Wilson, Vision, and the twins. Get used to them, they're basically all that you'll be seeing unless you want to drop by and visit me and Hill or make friends with some of the other agents."

Leo nodded as he spoke, following him inside, pausing when he let his words sink in. He gasped, whirling around to stare at him. "You're staying here too?"

Fury smirked. "Kid, I run the place. Me, Hill, and Selvig, it's just a new base of operations for the Avengers. We won't see a lot of each other, but I'm around."

Leo grinned, taking in the glass windows with a new perspective, following Fury down hallways and past furniture and open rooms. "Where are we going?"

"To the main training area, Rogers said they'd be there when we arrived," Fury replied, "They have more casual gyms, though, if you want to lift or go on the treadmill, I know you like doing that. You're not a part of the team, so you don't go on missions, but if you ask, I doubt they'd have any problem with training with another person. Good target practice."

Leo made a sound of disapproval at his last line, and Fury simply laughed to himself, leading the young man through various hallways, passing by agents, Leo smiling and saying a soft greeting as they passed, moving faster whenever Fury's longer legs got ahead of him.

Finally, they found themselves on an upper floor, making a left towards a large hangar, standing on a catwalk and looking down at the group of people who all paused at their entrance, looking up in confusion.

Leo ducked his head slightly under all the eyes, waving. "Hi."

He turned to the right at the sound of footsteps, eyes widening at the sight of none other than Steve Rogers, sweaty from training with his shirt clinging to his body. He gave Leo a small smile, holding out his hand.

"You must be Leo," he panted, nodding towards the others, "I'm Steve Rogers. Glad to have you on the team. We'll finish up in a second, then you can meet us all properly."

Leo shook his hand, openly staring, his lips parted as he stared up at the taller man. Sparing a glance over to Fury, he whispered, "Okay. Now I'm sold."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MAY 25, 2018/REWRITTEN: JUNE 22, 2018

So here we are! The last rewrite before we go back into new updates, though these are all actually new updates if we think about it. Next chapter is dedicated to Leo get settled in, so that'll be interesting.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!