DESPITE THE WARM AND FUZZY FEELINGS, TERRAN WAS STILL GREATLY DISTRESSED. He was with Natasha and Clint, all three of them heading to their safe house, Terran's things in the back of the van, Natasha seated in the middle seat with him and Clint on either side of her, looking out the tinted windows with vague interest. He tried not to show how uncomfortable he was, forcing his leg to stay still.

"You find a boyfriend yet?" Clint asked, breaking the thick silence that had surrounded them since the moment they climbed into the van.

Terran scoffed, shaking his head. "Not yet, but I've tried looking. Trust me, it's not that easy to bring someone home, what with all the stairs I have."

"Yeah, that's the only reason," Natasha scoffed, and Terran glanced over towards her, surprised by how comfortable she was now, hiding his smile for fear of her closing up again.

"I'm a catch," he argued, motioning to his large frame, "I'm tall, so I can basically reach for anything that's up high, I can cook, I'm great with kids, I can have respectful discussions on almost anything, I'm a good listener, and my endurance is incredible."

Natasha didn't seem all too impressed, only nodding along with what he was saying, leaned back against her seat and closing her eyes the moment he finished speaking. He pouted, looking over her head at Clint who grinned, shaking his head.

When they finally made it to the safe house-more like safe apartment, really-Terran allowed himself to breathe, for only a moment, glancing over his shoulder as he carried his luggage out of the back, hustling after the duo who were already making their way inside.

"You okay?" Clint asked, noticing the way Terran kept glancing around, adjusting his jacket and trying to keep his face away from view of anyone and everyone, looking around for cameras.

"Yeah, I just," Terran swallowed thickly, giving a shaky smile to one of the other tenants that passed by them as they climbed the stairs, "It's been a while since I've stayed at some place that wasn't the complex or the X-Mansion. And it's been a really long time since I've had to worry about Constantin."

"Well, it's not like he's just around the corner," Natasha reasoned, "But I don't blame you. And don't worry, we have security surrounding the whole building and we're basically untraceable around here. We have some fun toys."

"Could I-" he began, pausing as they stopped in front of their door, Clint fumbling around for the keys, muttering to himself, "There's a kid at the complex that's got really advanced tech, if he sent over some blueprints, could we get that built, reinforce security around here?"

"Not to undermine this kid you know, but S.H.I.E.L.D. has technology far beyond the current consumer-made lines," Natasha pointed out, turning on the lights and stepping into the room, immediately going around and checking behind coffee pots and plants, peering out the blinds to the terrace, then behind the couch.

"Not to completely shit on S.H.I.E.L.D. but this kid doesn't just think outside the box, he took it apart, then made it a whole lot better," Terran argued, crossing his arms, "He's young, but he's already done some design work for the military. It won't hurt to get added security, especially since Constantin is gonna find us out eventually."

"Is he really?" Clint asked, sighing as he collapsed onto the couch, "'Cause I was really hoping to live to see retirement. Or marriage, depends on how much money I have."

"You can get blueprints, we can't guarantee we have the excess supplies, but you can try," Natasha relented, a clear dismissal, and Terran took as much as he could have, sighing as he moved to lie down on top of Clint, the other blond shouting at him.

"Get off me," Clint groaned, trying to push Terran off him, the other blond turning into dead weight, laughing into his shoulder, "Tree, I swear to God."

He looked up over to Natasha who simply smirked down at him, leaning over the back of the couch as she watched him flail. He motioned towards Terran, sighing with defeat. "Tasha, please help me, I'm suffering."

"I thought he was your best friend," she hummed, nevertheless, reaching out and tapping Terran on his shoulder, motioning for him to sit back while she jumped over the back of the couch, sitting between the both of the them.

"You're my best friend," he argued, tugging her away from Terran, narrowing his eyes at the other blond, "You two might be working together, but if she winds up liking you more, I swear to God, I will cry."

Natasha snorted, whispering in his ear, and Terran gasped, jaw dropping. "Okay, that's true, but you didn't need to say it, that was so rude."

She paused, turning to look at him, and Terran reveled in how he had managed to catch her so off guard that she looked genuinely shocked. "You heard me?"

He tapped his ear. "You know I can."

Natasha shifted at that, staring at him for a moment. She still had trouble coming to terms with the fact that she was in the presence of someone who had gone through what she had gone through, or at least something close. Of course, she couldn't know what he had and what he didn't, because the Wolf Spiders had, for the most part, been a failure.

Finally, she looked away, standing up from the couch. "I'm gonna go get my room set up, take an early night. We have a lot to deal with in the morning."

With that, she retreated down the short hallway to one of the three rooms in the apartment, the resounding click of the door locking behind her breaking the silence she left behind.

Clint stood as well, patting Terran's leg as he went. "Gotta get in on that good free trial death. See you in the morning, Tree."

"Night," he said softly, even though night had only just fallen, the sky still showing signs of light past the growing dark blue.

Sighing, he settled back against the couch, long legs dangling past the armrest. Pulling out his phone, he called Janelle, pressing the phone against his cheek as he moved to lie on his side, cushioning his head with his pillow.

"Yeah," she greeted, and he smiled, closing his eyes.

"Hi," he greeted, sighing heavily, "How's everything?"

"It's alright," she hummed, the sound of her cooking in the background, "Everyone misses you, as to be expected. Nicky and Rhett are sleeping over tonight, they're back in their old room, though I wouldn't be surprised if Nicky goes back to your bed, you know how he gets."

"Yeah, I do," he admitted, thinking back to the young man-still a boy in his mind. He tried not to think too much about him, because it was already hard enough as it was to be away, if he had too good of a reason, he wouldn't hesitate to leave.

"How's Clint, what did you learn?" Janelle asked, and the two never had to worry about their calls being intercepted; perks of having Nicky to fiddle with their things.

"He's good, same as always," he replied, laughing as he thought back to his friend who was only a few yards away, "I, uh, learned a lot. My new mission partner's neat, she's...I don't know much about her, but we'll be friends eventually."

"Terran," Janelle interrupted, "What's wrong?"

The blond sighed, shifting even further into the couch, mumbling, "I miss you. And I'm scared."

There was the sound of Janelle setting down her knife, moving to lean against the counter. "It's okay to be scared, Terran. But you know you can't just up and leave when things get scary."

He took a steadying breath, shaking his head. "I don't wanna die, Janelle. I have too much to do."

"Who said you were gonna die?" she asked, in the voice she always used when one of them needed to have their head screwed on right.

"You don't know what he's like," he pressed, sitting up to check behind the couch, as if Constantin himself was listening in, "I needed to be stabilized after the experiments, but he never needed to. He was the only successful Wolf Spider. I was just the only other one to survive."

"But all your enhancements are still in place," Janelle pointed out.

"Because Xavier and his crew had to mess with my insides to make sure that I survived, Constantin didn't need any of that," he argued, tugging at his hair, "You don't get it, Janelle, he's untouchable, it's horrifying. He stood up against our trainer when we were just first starting out, and that guy..." he trailed off, goosebumps prickling all over.

"It's okay to be afraid," she soothed, "But don't let it consume you. I gotta go, I need to make dinner. Get some sleep. Love you."

"Love you too," he sighed, listening to the dial tone as Janelle hung up, leaving him alone.

º º º

"Wake up, Sweets."

Terran shifted, groaning as he sat up from where he had fallen asleep on the couch, massaging the crick in his neck as he blinked up at Natasha who handed him a mug of what he hoped was coffee.

"What's the plan for today?" he asked, blowing over the scalding hot liquid, peering up at her.

"Wake up Clint," she said, jerking her thumb towards the hallway, "And check in to see if we got any news from recon. And you're gonna have to train if you want to keep up, so you might as well meet the others while you're at it."

"Others," he repeated, raising his eyebrows, "You mean..."

She nodded, her lips twitching up ever so slightly. "You've heard of the Avengers, right?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 05.19.18 ; )

This chapter was pretty short, but there was only so much I could do, so let's just live with it because next chapter is gonna be quite long and have a lot more going on with it.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!