TERRAN WAS A NIGHTMARE TO TAKE ANYWHERE. Natasha had been warned that morning by Clint when the man finally pulled himself out of bed, stumbling to the coffee maker and staring at it for a solid three minutes until a mug was pushed into his hand. The archer had explained, in a hushed, secretive tone, that Terran was one of the nicest people he knew, a pushover without trying to be, and she would have to exercise as much patience as she could if she wanted to keep from throttling him.

"I know you don't believe me, because you never do," he said, the redhead nodding in agreement, "But believe me. He's a nightmare. The nicest nightmare you'll ever have to deal with, but he's still awful."

She had taken his words with a grain of salt, assuming he was just being dramatic, but had noticed the way Terran greeted all the people they passed by as they made their way down the stairs of the complex, smiling at the mailman and trying to chat before being tugged away, greeting all the people in the parking lot and wishing them a good day.

"What are you doing?" she found herself asking, glancing at him from where she sat in the front seat with Clint.

Terran shrugged, looking up from his phone to smile. "Being friendly. Just because we're on a mission doesn't mean we can't socialize. It builds up more cover that way, actually."

She nodded carefully, furrowing her brow as she stared in front of her, settling in her chair as she mulled over Clint's words, as well as the file they had on the man. All she knew was his background and his current life, which didn't give much insight as to who he was as a person; that was information she would have to dig for, and she hadn't been given enough time for that. He was an elementary school teacher, that much she knew, but those teachers had to have breaking points, especially when dealing with children all day.

"Brace yourself," Clint warned as they climbed out of the van in the inner parking area, taking another sip from the large coffee tumbler he had brought with him.

"I think you're overreacting," she replied, the two making their way towards the clearance entrance, glancing behind her only to find the tall man nowhere in sight, "Wait, where is he?"

"God, here we go," Clint groaned, a guttural sound deep within in his chest, "He's probably by the van, let's go."

Confused, the smaller woman followed the man as they made their way back to the van, Clint calling for Terran by whistling, calling his name like a dog, nudging her to join in.

"You don't understand, he's the living embodiment of a golden retriever, you have to treat him like one," Clint pressed in response to her incredulous scoff and heavy eye roll.

The two made their way back to the van, finding Terran grinning down a confused, yet flustered woman, slouching down in an effort to seem smaller as they chatted idly.

"-that's so great, so you've always wanted to work in this industry, that's really admirable, it's a pretty demanding field," Natasha heard him say as they approached, the other agent glancing around, as if expecting to be jumped, unable stop grinning.

"Yeah! My sister thinks I'm throwing my life away, but I enjoy it," she replied, and Terran smiled, nodding as he complimented her on her ability to make that decision for herself.

"That's really nice of you to say," she said, nodding in finality, glancing over to the two agents approaching, "Oh! Barton, Romanoff, is-is he yours?"

"Unfortunately," Natasha quipped, holding out her hand towards Terran who said a quick farewell to the other agent before eagerly reaching out towards the outstretched hand, only for it to fall back to Natasha's side the moment he reached her.

"You have to throw the dog a bone, Tasha," Clint mumbled softly as they made their way inside, falling into the sea of rushing agents, all focusing on their own tasks.

"Where are we going?" Terran asked, bounding after them as he tried and failed to get a reaction out of the sea of agents he was currently towering over, sticking out like a blond sore thumb.

"Fury's in a meeting, so he said to let you meet the team and get situated with the place before he tells us what he knows," Clint said, holding up his phone for emphasis, but Terran was already nodding.

"So I'm guessing we're allowed one of those rooms where we can hang up all we know on a white board?" he said, following the two down a few hallways, smiling at the passing agents, "We usually got a lot of our planning done there, Clint."

"Yeah, though this is one of the more sit-and-wait type of missions, unless you want to go terrorize all of D.C. looking for this guy," the older man replied, taking another long sip of his coffee.

"Is that an option?" Terran asked Natasha who gave him a single, long look that told him exactly what he needed to hear.

As they made their way to one of the training rooms where the Avengers still working at S.H.I.E.L.D. had promised to be, Natasha was given even more reason to take Clint's warning into consideration.

"Hi. Good morning. I like your tie. You have green eyes, that's so great! Careful, you might drop those files. Hey, do you want some help with that box? Is that an ankle holster? Whoops, sorry, that's my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going."

Natasha stopped in her tracks, whirling around to stare up at Terran with wide eyes, struggling to maintain her composure as she watched him smile and greet the passing agents who were all caught off guard, glancing at the trio before continuing on their way, smiling slightly at the interaction.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, sounding more incredulous than anything else.

"Saying hi," he reasoned, shrugging down at her, "I mean, you work with these people, you gotta establish some rapport, and I don't know them, but if no one ever says hi, how are you supposed to feel appreciated?"

"Sweets," she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "We-we don't need to feel appreciated while we're trying to do our jobs, okay?"

"Of course you do," Terran scoffed, "It's called positive reinforcement, you're a smart woman, you know it. If you're constantly risking your life for the masses, operating underneath an umbrella with people doing the same thing you are, it's hard to feel like you're doing any sort of good and you start to wonder what the point of it is. If someone notices you, you realize that you do have an impact and you work harder because now you have something to anchor yourself."

She licked her lips. While it didn't apply to her, he had a point, but she wasn't about to concede to him saying hello to every passing agent for the duration of their mission. "It doesn't mean you have to keep talking every time we pass by people."

"When am I gonna have a chance to greet them again?" he countered, and she sighed, looking over towards Clint who refused to look up from where he was sipping his coffee, not pausing for breath.

"Please," Terran said, catching her attention again, "I just want to. It's kind of been my life's goal since I was brought to this country, you know?"

Natasha sighed, shaking her head; he just had to bring the programs into this. Shrugging, she gave small nod, turning back around on her heel, motioning for the blonds to follow her. They obeyed easily, Terran making sure to greet the agents in a softer tone, glancing over to her every few moments.

"You hurt the puppy's feelings," Clint tutted, taking another sip of the coffee cup that had been empty since they stepped into the building, "Make it up to him."

"He's a person not a dog," Natasha grumbled, but she had to admit that the feeling of sad eyes trained on her back every so often was taking a toll, "I'll introduce him to Rogers, I hear he has a crush."

"Who doesn't," Clint scoffed, "That's like asking someone if Thor is objectively handsome, of course he is. Even the straightest of men, if interested in sex, would gladly go down on him."

"What's this about Thor?" Terran interrupted, "Is he here?"

"No, sorry, man," Clint said, and the blond made a disappointed sound in the back of his throat but said nothing, instead going back to smiling at passing agents.

"We're here," Natasha said, glancing over her shoulder with a small smirk, the kind she used when she had the upper hand in something, "Try to stay calm, okay?"

Terran raised a confused eyebrow as he was led into the room and immediately tripped over his own feet.

In the middle of the room was a sweating Steve Rogers going to town on a punching bag, shirt clinging to his chest and his hair plastered against his forehead, too focused to hear them come in.

"Rogers, we have company," Natasha called out with a smirk and the blond immediately slowed, sighing as he shifted to look at them, raising his eyebrows at Terran.

Unwrapping his hands, he raised one, nodding in greeting. "Hi. You're Clint's mission partner?"

"Yeah," Terran breathed, stumbling forward with an outstretched hand, looking down at the slightly shorter man, "Terran Sweets. You're Steve Rogers?"

The blond gave him a wry smile, shaking his head, and Terran nearly swooned. "That's what they keep telling me."

"No flirting, Fury won't like it," Natasha interjected, Steve immediately ducking his head and turning a bright red, Terran pouting down at her.

"Just a little," he tried, and she shook her head, "What if I refer him to a friend?"

"What is this, a doctor's appointment?" Steve scoffed, but he was smiling despite it all, still breathing heavily, so Terran counted it as a win, "I'm not really looking into the dating scene, Nat's tried setting me up too, but I appreciate the offer.

"Okay," Terran said carefully, sighing as he thought back to Rhett, adding, "A friend says hi."

Before Steve could ask what he meant, Clint spoke up from where he had walked over to another member of the Avengers who was using her powers to lift the barbells and weight off the ground, making them float around the room.

Arabella Rivendell. Terran had heard stories about her from Clint, she was the equivalent to the baby dropped off at the doorstep of a church, growing up there and learning the tools of the trade. A mutant girl who hadn't been taken in by the X-Men for whatever reason, she had been tasked with aiding the Avengers during The Incident despite being so young.

"This is Arabella, she's the baby of the group, age-wise, at least," he explained, the girl swatting him on the arm for his comment, "Ow. The real baby is Bruce's girlfriend, but she works for Stark Industries, not here."

"Are you joining the team?" Steve asked, inclining his head in genuine interest, "Because we'd be more than happy to have you, though we've disbanded since there's no new threats."

"You're like the Backstreet Boys," Terran commented, and Steve blinked. The taller blond cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. "I can show you later, they're a band? It's-never mind."

He turned towards Natasha who was now reading over a message on her phone, raising her eyebrows. "Fury wants to see you. Come on, I'll show you where the debriefing room is. Clint?"

"Hm?" the older man said, looking up from where he was letting Arabella float him around, "Oh, yeah, right. The mission. See you guys later, we can catch up and order some pizza, disrupt security and all that."

Saying goodbye to the trio, Steve and Arabella went back to training, the young woman beginning to throw projectiles at him to test his reaction time. Terran watched for a few moments, finally pulling out his phone and taking a video, texting it to Rhett as he followed Natasha and Clint down the hall.

"Who's that for?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, and Terran snorted.

"Rhett Reiser, he and Steve grew up together. You know the story," he sighed, running his hands through his hair as they rounded a corner to a similar looking set of translucent walls, "I'm getting really homesick, what does he want to show us?"

"What I want to show you," Fury's voice rang out, causing him to jump, "Is proof that you're gonna want to actually try and not harass every agent in this building."

"I was being polite," Terran grumbled, huffing as he followed the man into one of the office spaces, plopping down on a chair that immediately began to roll away due to the force.

"Okay," Fury sighed, sliding over two tablets and a manila folder, "There's surveillance footage of Constantin and photographs of where they assume one of his locations is. That's where you two come in."

"Oh, I love dying, I jump into seedy looking warehouses every day, great dating scene," Terran mumbled as he flicked through photos of Constantin entering an abandoned looking warehouse, his stomach churning at the man's facial scars and sleepless eyes.

"So when do we go?" Natasha asked, ripping her gaze away from the tablet where she was playing the surveillance footage on a constant loop, memorizing every step and pattern this man could possibly have.

Fury jerked his head to the side. "Now."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 05.26.18 ; )

So you see a lot of Terran when he's not under high stakes pressure, he's really a friendly giant that really confuses people and I love him a lot, please love him.

Arabella is the main OC in my Wanda Maximoff fic 'Missing Pieces' and Bruce's girlfriend is an allusion to my Bruce fic 'Inside Voices'

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!