Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For as long as she can remember The Asset has followed orders. Having been trained in the Red Room since she was a baby, brought up without an inch of compassion, speaking fluently in five languages before the age of four. The Asset never knew why she didn’t have parents or how she came into the possession of the Russians, all she knows is that they reared her to be a deadly machine, routine cognitive recalibration to ensure her loyalty, injections to enhance her. The same procedure the potential Black Widows were put through at the same time, she and the Black Widow class were kept at separate sides of the facility, but the young girl did hear that only one other survived the slew of injections.

The Red Room never gave her a name, they thought it was the best way to remind her that she was but a tool in their armoury, not worthy of a name. Her field designation was ‘Asset’ but she often had covers, quaint little girl’s names that you would never expect to belong to a five year old assassin. Her first kill happened when she was around five years old, though no one had ever actually told her her age, she disposed of the body quickly and efficiently and reported back to her handler, any remorse she should have felt was brainwashed out of her long ago.

She proved her worth again and again, desperately seeking even a single word or murmur of approval from her handlers, but none ever came. She quickly learnt not to be disappointed. As the years went on though the Asset did hear more and more about the astounding Black Widow, a precision machine, yes, but a precision machine with a name: Natalia Romanova. The Asset decided that Natalia must have been really amazing to earn a real name, far out of the little brunette’s league.

The Asset’s face probably would have shown surprise, if she hadn’t have been trained never to show emotion (emotion is weakness puny girl), when her handler told her she was being partnered with the Black Widow for a long undercover during the middle of what would come to be called the Second World War, but like always she followed her orders. She didn’t have clothes to pack, but she bought a small, tattered duffel bag filled with knives, guns, ammunition and a small amount of money.

The Asset was dropped fifteen miles from the location where she would meet the Black Widow, it only took her two hours to get to the location, her rigorous training making up for her short stride. The first thing the Asset noticed of the other assassin was her bright red hair, next she realised that the girl was a few years older than her so had quite a height advantage, so the closer she got the most she had to crane her neck to see the teenager. The red head gave her an assessing stare and looked a bit perturbed but stuck her hand out to the Asset, palm flat and facing the side.

<<Natalia Romanova>> She introduced herself in Russian. The Asset, however, cocked her head to the side and stared at the proffered hand in confusion, she didn’t have a clue what the older girl was doing, her missions had never involved her needing to study the intricacies of social behaviour.

<<What are you doing?>> She pointed to Natalia’s hand and the other girl already looked exasperated, she wasn’t as good at controlling her expressions it seemed.

<<You’re meant to shake hands when you introduce yourself to someone new.>> Well now the Asset could add that to her limited knowledge of normal behaviour.

<<Oh.>> Natalia rolled her eyes but lowered her hand back to her side.

<<What’s your name?>>

<<My field designation is Asset.>>

<<You’re The Asset?!>> The younger girl frowned at Natalia, she sure didn’t seem to be much better than her, she definitely wasn’t as good at controlling her emotions, they played clearly across her face.

<<They told me you were the best Mother Russia had ever created, you seem far too sloppy to me.>> She chose to ignore the indignant question, Romanova was probably upset at being stuck with someone so bad they didn’t even earn a name.

<<You are a legend. Almost every assassin or mercenary has heard of you, I just expected you to be a bit older.>> Natalia actually looked a bit apologetic for guessing wrong.

<<I believe I am ten years old, no one has ever told me so I had to guess. Did they tell you how old you are?>>

<<I remember my birthday from before the Red Room.>> Again the Asset scowled and tilted her head in confusion.

<<Before?>> Natalia suddenly looked very shocked and slightly appalled.

<<Yes, with my parents. When they died a man took me to the red room and they trained me with the others.>>

<<Huh,>> The Asset mumbled flippantly, <<I have always been there, since I can remember I trained and lived in the grey cell.>>

Natalia chose to say no more, up until then she never really thought twice about what her handlers told her, but she suddenly started questioning it all, here was a small girl who acted more like an automated machine than person, whose only displayed emotion was confusion (admittedly it was adorable, but sad), who didn’t even get a name. Despite Natalia’s training and the lessons drilled into her about weakness, she decided to show the smaller girl some compassion because it sure as hell seemed like no one else was going to.

Over the months they spend together on the mission Natalia quickly discovered that the younger girl was a far more proficient fighter for her size and was also a whole lot better at playing a different person. When they were in Germany, Natalia had to take the lead more due to the disgusted looks and general racist attitude that The Asset’s slightly Asian appearance garnered, but as they travelled through slightly more tolerant countries Natalia observed the brunette effortlessly slip into different personalities and nationalities, the girl was amazing and didn't even realise it.

They were temporarily staying in a barn in Italy, after almost a year of their covert manipulation of the war effort (strategic assassinations and inciting arguments could have very large impacts), when The Asset finally showed any real emotion around Natalia.

<<I always wondered what it would be like to have a name, to be a normal girl, to have birthdays and a family. They said that only real people deserved them, not programmed killers.>>

Natalia observed the smaller girl; she was laying on her back staring up at the night sky, watching in awe at the bright stars shining down on them. She felt a sudden pang of sadness and decided to remedy part of the situation.

<<How about I give you a name?>> The suddenness with which the younger girl moved into a cross legged position startled Natalia into letting out a little breath.

<<Really?>> She looked so eager that a small smile actually crossed the fifteen year old’s face.

<<How about Skye? The sky has no limits and neither do you.>> For the first time since they met, and probably the first time in The Asset’s life, the girl grinned, full of teeth and her eyes crinkled around the edges. Natalia thought it was one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

<<Skye.>> The small girl breathed and, even though it seemed impossible, her smile widened, <<It’s perfect.>>

<<I’m glad. Goodnight, Skye.>> Natalia rolled over and closed her eyes, the vision of The As- no, Skye’s gleeful smile flitting across her closed lids. She heard Skye sigh a happy breath and lie down as well,

<<Goodnight, Natalia.>> It didn’t go unnoticed by the red head that it was the first time Skye had used her first name. Natalia fell asleep smiling.

Their mission continued on for another two years, until the end of the war, and in that time the two girls grew to become friends. It was easier than Natalia thought it would be to get along with someone four years her junior, mainly because Skye was very mature for her age. Not only did they become friends but they also learnt from each other; Skye how to behave correctly in society and Natalia how to better portray fake or no emotion.

As they reported back to their handlers properly for the first time in three years they realised that they couldn’t show that they had grown attached to each other, they were trained to be the deadliest and most efficient assassins in the world. Natalia mourned the loss of a friend who understood her situation and Skye mourned both, the loss of the only person who had ever treated her with any kindness, and a name.

Natalia and Skye were never partnered again by the Red Room or the KGB because only a year after the end of the war, 1946, Skye started manifesting weird powers, she could make earthquakes, bring down buildings and repel bullets away from her in mid-air. Outside parties soon found out and whilst the Russians were perfectly amiable to injecting possibly lethal substances into children to make them live longer and heal quicker, they out rightly rejected supernatural abilities, so when HYDRA took Skye from a KGB base no one objected.

HYDRA’s version of brainwashing was a lot more abrasive, it included electrostatic shocks directly into the brain, the pain was a strong incentive if the actual brainwashing was not enough. It did not take long for Skye to gain full control of her powers, due to the fact that she already had every other aspect of herself in completely control already.

HYDRA gave Skye a new field designation: Quake. It wasn’t much but in Skye’s opinion it was better than The Asset, plus HYDRA already had an Asset; an American soldier who they had experimented on fell out of a train and into a valley, they replaced his arm with a metal one and started on his electrostatic therapy. He tried to resist it a lot, which Skye knew would only cause him more pain and she wondered why he did it, until he finally gave in.

Skye was given a lot more freedom in the tasks she was given, was allowed to use her instinct a lot more with HYDRA and gradually she helped then insinuate themselves into the newly founded SHIELD and build themselves up again, but underground. It take a few years, occasionally being partnered with the new asset, or the Winter Soldier as his field designation was, but eventually HYDRA are running smoothly behind the scenes of most major intelligence agencies.

When they no longer needed the Winter Soldier, they cryogenically freeze him, but because she doesn’t age nearly as fast as normal humans, due to her Red Room enhancements, they just keep Skye locked up and let her out for regular training and to ‘deal’ with a target.

It is 1952, Skye thinks she is around twenty years old, when she gets sent out on a mission and meets Natalia again. They were both tasked to get rid of one of two business men who happened to be very good friends so they saw each other in their reconnaissance of their target. Skye spotted Natalia first and waited for the red head to come over to her, it took a few minutes and at first Romanova did not recognize the woman but Skye saw the moment it clicked in her head.

The read head stalked over to Skye in her secretary clothes and primly sat down on the bench next to the younger woman and pretended to casually admire the scenery in central park, Skye knew she was searching for possible threats and studying her target.

“Hello, Skye.” Natalia greeted in a perfect Manhattan accent, Skye grinned.

“Long time no see, Natalia. How have you been?” Natalia finally turned to properly take Skye in.

Natalia’s breath caught in her throat as she looked at Skye, the pretty girl had grown into an absolutely breath taking woman, the casual smile she was sporting made Romanova’s stomach do funny things, she had always loved the brunette’s smile but it had never before had that particular effect on her

Skye was thinking a similar way to Natasha, she had always known the spy was beautiful but after not seeing her for so many years, then seeing her again when she had fully matured seemed to only amplify gorgeousness. Skye was far from complaining.

After that they teamed up to get to their targets, strategizing the best way to pick off their security and get them relatively isolated so there wouldn’t be any witnesses. It was as they were still riding the adrenaline rush from their success that the women retired to Natalia’s hotel room and spent the night together like they never had before, exploring each other’s bodies with precision and reverence. Spelling out their affection for the other on their skin until they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning they separated again, reporting to their individual organisations. It carried on like that for many years. Sometimes, if one of the heads thought it necessary, the Winter Soldier would be unfrozen to accompany her on a mission, it was after a few of these instances that Skye realised that the man’s memory was wiped after every mission, just enough so that he would know who she was but not actually remember any of the mission. Skye assumed it was the only way the brainwashing would work, he had had a life before; friends and family, he needed to not have something to fight for.

Every time Natalia and Skye saw each other they would spend time together, either talking or getting lost in each other’s body or both. Steadily, the affection each woman held for the other grew, in spite of one of the most basic lessons taught at the Red Room: love is for children. The Winter Soldier was even loaned out to the Russians for a few years and partnered with Romanova, but still the spy was oblivious to who exactly Skye actually worked for.

By the time the eighties came around Natalia and Skye knew they were in love but neither admitted it nor did they try and distance themselves from the other, even knowing how stupid it was to form attachments in the business they worked. Gradually, as same sex relationships became more accepted they went on covert dates of sorts, to bars, clubs or diners whilst carefully disguising themselves.

Skye thought no one knew, not their employers, not the people after them, no one, but she was quickly proven wrong when Natalia defected to SHIELD in the early 2000s and the brainwashing became more frequent, ordering Skye to kill Natalia if she saw the other women. They would have erased all memory of the defector had Natalia not been so interwoven into Skye’s history and being. HYDRA did not know how much they would compromise the efficiency of their best weapon if they were to remove Romanova and they were not too keen to find out.

It wasn’t long into Natalia’s, or Natasha as she was going by now, SHIELD career that they stumbled across each other again. Natasha’s partner on the op was an archer, Clint Barton, Quake had researched him, before Natasha’s arrival he held the position of SHIELD’s and Fury’s top assassin. He was keeping an eye on the situation from the sky, perched on the edge of a tall-ish building with a relatively unobstructed view while Natasha was doing the ground work.

Skye spotted him first, but he wasn’t her mission, so she carried on to the abandoned warehouse where her target’s deal was supposedly taking place. The Asset stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Natasha standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by the dead bodies around her, however, she must have made a sound because Romanoff’s gaze shot up to hers. That’s when her programming kicked in.

Skye flung her arm out in Natasha’s direction, the following air wave flung the other assassin into a wall ten feet away. Skye stalked towards her friend, her lover, with cold eyes even though she was internally screaming at herself to stop, to turn around and leave before she killed the only person she had ever loved. The programming was winning though, Skye pulled her handgun from the holster at her right thigh and aimed it at Natasha’s head, just as she was about to pull the trigger Natasha’s teary and confused eyes looked up at her.

“Skye?” Natasha whispered desperately, wanting this to be some sort of horrible joke, but the other woman’s emotionless gaze wasn’t promising, “What are you doing?”

Just like that, the use of her name, the only thing that knew one else knew about, not the Red Room, not HYDRA, made the programming crack a little bit. Skye’s eyes softened into a loving look that Natasha was more than familiar with but her jaw was clenched as if she were fighting off pain.

“You need to leave.” Natasha didn’t move from her place on the ground, “Please.”

“Why? Why are you trying to kill me?” Then Natasha did stand up, she walked to Skye so that they were toe to toe, their noses were almost touching, Natasha had to tilt her head back to look into Skye's eyes, “I thought you cared about me.”

It took all of Skye effort to not move a muscle, she did not know if she could control her actions if she did, but at Natasha’s devastated, pleading expression a single tear rolled down her cheek.

“I love you, Natalia. But they knew about us. They… they messed with my head, if I ever saw you my orders were to kill you.” The taller woman laughed mirthlessly, “They really don’t like SHIELD.” At that point both women had tear tracks running down their cheeks, Natasha gave Skye a wan smile, a little desperate, a lot sad.

“Come with me, with us. They helped deprogram me, they can help you too, please.” Natasha begged.

“I can’t, дорогой. The method, it’s different to the one the Red Room used.” Skye could feel her control start to slip, her orders overpowering her mind, “You need to leave! Now! I can’t control it anymore.”

Natasha quickly studied the woman who held her heart, Skye’s eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, her every muscle was tensed, Natasha realised she really was losing control. With that in mind she decided to make the most of what could be their last friendly encounter, she pushed herself up and brushed her lips across Skye’s.

Skye was surprised at first but quickly sunk into the kiss, trying to convey all of her remorse and love in the movement of her lips. The kiss was calm and frantic, loving and loathing and it seemed to last forever until Natasha felt Skye become slightly too aggressive. The red head pulled away, locking eyes with Skye.

<<I love you too, Skye. Never forget that.>> She replied in Russian, then turned on her heel and sprinted out of the building.

The brunette let a few minutes pass, waiting for the sound of a jet departing, before she let go. All of the tension in her body exploded out of her in the form of her powers. The ground around her cracked open, dead bodies falling into the gaps, and the building crumbled down around her. She fell to her knees surrounded by broken brick and metal work, her head in her hands, and screamed.

Above her, Natasha watched from a SHIELD aircraft as the building she occupied only a couple of minutes ago, collapsed to the ground and her heart ached at the sound of complete anguish that emanated from the small figure in the middle of the destruction.

“I’m guessing there’s a story there?” Natasha sighed and turned back to the man who was slowly becoming her friend, one of the only people in her life, apart from Skye, who did not inherently fear her

“Yeah.”

“She loves you and I believe you love her, if my Russian is correct.”

“It is.”

“I’m sorry, Nat. I can’t even begin to imagine how that would feel.” Natasha knew his heart was in the right place but she suddenly felt very angry, at the universe, at Skye’s handlers, so she snapped her head to look at Barton.

“You mean the only person I’ve ever loved being brainwashed to kill me, or the fact that that they, whoever they are, have messed with her mind in the first place?” Barton managed to look both flustered and pitying.

“I, uh, both I guess. Also from the display I just saw, I’m pretty sure she’s number one on SHIELD’s most wanted list and Fury has a personal vendetta against her, rumour has it Quake had something to do with his non-functioning eye.” Natasha growled at the archer.

“Her name is Skye. And this never happened, okay?” Barton was quick to hold his palms up in a surrendering motion.

“Never happened, just a routine mission.”

Natasha nodded at him in approval and turned back to stare out of the cockpit window. Clint didn’t comment as the, notoriously stoic, Black Widow silently cried for most of the journey back to base. He just told her when they were ten minutes out so she could collect herself, he knew she wouldn’t want anyone else seeing her emotionally compromised.

The Asset took a couple of days to report back to her seniors, no one mentioned Natasha when she arrived so she did not bring it up. She did, however, start thinking of ways to become less susceptible to mental conditioning they put her through, she never wanted to come that close to killing Natasha ever again. Her methods worked to a certain extent, she would still follow orders, she had no control over that, but she could find ways to deviate from said orders or stretch the parameters of them.

Meanwhile, Natasha dedicated herself to collecting as much information on Quake as she could, many people thought she was just a myth, along with the Winter Soldier. No one had any clue who she worked for and the few people who did know about her or had come face to face with her did not know the extent of the assassin’s powers. Though the people who had encountered her on missions where very surprised to note that she never actually came close to harming any of them, she strictly went in, took care of the target and left, barely even sparing a glance at the trained agents.

That meant that Skye did not enjoy killing, only went in completed her mission and tried to get out with as minimal causalities as possible, Skye had always been like that and it made Natasha happy that even though she was being physiologically controlled, she was still Skye.

In 2006 Skye was taken out of the field and sent to a HYDRA base in Sokovia at the request of Von Strucker, one of the newest heads of HYDRA. He was interested in what made people have powers, he was intrigued by both Skye’s powers and her Red Room enhancements and ultimately he started experimenting on her, deciding that her improved healing would make her the perfect candidate.

She did not go on missions when she was stationed with Von Strucker, but she did have regular training and cognitive recalibration sessions when she became a little unruly. Not many years after her arrival, Von Strucker acquired two new subjects, they had their training in the same room and after a while she was tasked with teaching them the basics of being a weapon: fighting, undercover and manipulation, the girl took to the last one the most.

As the twins were in their early teens Skye got away with only teaching them the very basics in a leisurely manner, she spent most of her time in their presence trying to figure them out. After a few conversations she knew that they volunteered, she kept silent when they asked her why she was there and they got the message, and she knew that they were orphans and wanted revenge on Tony Stark for making the bomb that killed their parents.

Skye thought it was a stupid reason to want revenge because Stark did not actually control what his bombs were used for, only sold them. Ironically, at the emergence of Iron Man, the superhero alter ego of Mr. Stark himself, Von Strucker became more invested in invoking powers into people, he mostly experimented on Skye, due to her enhanced healing. It took years, Captain America was discovered and defrosted, there was an alien invasion in New York, which showcased the true extent of all of the Avengers powers for Skye to learn and know how to combat if needed (that was what Pierce told her in his visit anyway), but finally Skye exhibited new powers.

They discovered them in her sleep, they came to wake her one morning and she was floating above her bed. She had training without the twins after that, while they were being treated with the same things that had given her new powers, and she was honing her ability to fly in a very large high ceilinged room. It took Skye a lot longer to master her flight skills than it did her quaking power, Von Strucker theorised it was because she was born to have the latter set of powers but had to acclimatise to the new ones.

She was still in training for her new powers when HYDRA tried to rise from the shadows. She had heard about Natasha’s exploits and she felt a rush of pride, maybe I won’t have to be under anyone’s control much longer, was her first thought. Despite this she still put a greater effort into resisting the brainwashing, she made them think it was still as potent as ever, when in actuality ever since her transfer to Sokovia, the treatments affected her less and less, she was becoming immune.

Natasha knew, the moment Arnim Zola’s consciousness started explaining HYDRA’s survival, who had been controlling Skye and it only made her more motivated to destroying the organisation once and for all. She was not surprised when the Winter Soldier did not recognise her, Skye explained that his memory was wiped after every mission to keep him compliant because he had not always been a weapon, he had had a life. Though, she was surprised that the Winter Soldier was James Buchanan Barnes, Captain America’s child hood friend and WWII hero.

Natasha did not tell Steve the real reason she knew of the Winter Soldier, nor that she knew someone else controlled by HYDRA but she was quick to join the other Avengers in locating Loki’s sceptre, the more HYDRA bases they raided, the closer they got to finding Skye. The only person who knew her deeper motivations was Clint but he wisely stayed quiet on the matter.

She holds out hope that Von Strucker's base is going to be the one that contains both Loki's sceptre and Skye, it is with that motivation that Natasha suits up for what will, hopefully, be the last HYDRA raid and gets in the jet to Sokovia.

Chapter Text

Only Skye is sent out when the Avengers attack the base, the twins too field inexperienced, even with their powers. So she flies out, purposefully coming out of the other side of the building than Stark arrives at so she doesn’t have to take him out. Her direct orders were to “hold them back” so she makes a half-hearted attempt to do that whilst casually listening in on the Avengers’ comms. devices. She knows that they will easily get through the energy barrier, Stark is more knowledgeable than anyone in the base in the energy field, so she doesn’t worry about that.

She tries to fly covertly but then the Hulk jumps out of nowhere and comes straight at her, the only way to avoid being crushed like a tiny bug is to aim a pulse of air at him, and unsurprisingly he flies in the opposite direction and lands on his arse which garners some other attention. Namely Hawkeye’s, Quake deftly avoids or knocks back the arrows sent her way and flies out of his range, she’s about to quake the ground under Thor a bit when she hears a very familiar voice over the comms.

“At long last is taking a little long, boys.” Skye knows who it is immediately, without even flying over and seeing her for the first time in over fifteen years, taking out Von Strucker’s men with a grace and ease that Skye always found enchanting. Skye thinks that is when the last of her programming finally breaks down, she stutters in her flight and plummets into a clearing in the trees, she propels herself enough at last minute to avoid any injuries but she stays there for the duration of the fight.

Skye pays no heed to the twins who, against orders, are taking on the Avengers, or to the screams of falling soldiers around her, it’s just the same sentence running through her mind. She cannot force her body to move, even though she knows she can help, can take down Von Strucker for good, but it is like her body is separate from her mind. She can hear Roger’s confused exclamation of “How many damn enhanced are there?” and the friendly rapport between the team members but she only comes back to herself when she hears Stark’s voice.

“Guys, don’t bring down your guard just yet. The first girl, the one who flew through the air and batted the Hulk around like an over inflated beach ball, she’s still here.”

“Where?” Come’s Roger’s response, instantly tensed for another attack.

“In the clearing over from the jet. She’s just- She’s just standing there, looking forward. She looks like a lost puppy.”

“We’ll converge around the edge, be alert, it may be a trick.” Commands Natasha, dejectedly. They found the sceptre, no more raids, no more chance of finding Skye with the Avengers’ help.

Within the minute all of the Avengers are converged on the tree line of the clearing, slowly closing the gap between the unknown woman and themselves.

“The base has been taken, your boss is not in control anymore.” Captain America, always straight forward.

Skye looks up at Rogers and Stark, who are standing next to each other, her expression completely lost, eyes void of any emotion. The two avengers use her stillness to take in the woman: average height, dark brown hair, brown eyes with a slightly Asian tilt to them, but above all her posture is slumped and her face portrays an emptiness that the two men can only find heart-breaking, even if only minutes before she was attacking them.

“Please don’t let me hurt her.” Her voice was quiet, laden with fear and weariness, as if she were resigned to whatever horrible fate they deemed her worthy of.

All of the Avengers tensed up at the mention of hurting someone before they fully comprehended the meaning, then most of them just tilted their heads in confusion. Apart from Natasha who immediately perked up at the familiar voice.

“Who?” Stark inquired in a gentle voice, at the same time as Natasha stepped forward slightly and spoke in an awed whisper.

“Skye?”

The amount of emotion that bled through that one word had Skye snapping her eyes closed and fighting off the urge to turn and take her love into her arms and never let go, but Skye did not know if the kill order would still affect her, so she kept her focus on the man in the metal suit. Everyone looks between the mystery woman and Natasha in confusion, obviously trying to figure out the story, Skye just ignores them though, conveying her message as plainly as possible.

“Whatever you do just make sure I don’t hurt her,” the brunette swallows back a sob and continues, “I don’t care what happens to me, just don’t let me hurt her. Please.”

None of the men lose their confusion, in fact for most of them it was only amplified by her, seemingly nonsensical, words. Therefore none of them took any action and Skye was about to send a pulse through her brain to stop any harm coming to anyone, then she saw something click in Stark’s expression, a comprehension quickly followed by a grim set to his features.

The metal man seemed to have put some of the pieces together and, trying his best to block out Natasha’s desolate expression, brings his arm up and quickly shots something at Skye, grimacing as he does so. The woman almost immediately crumbles under the weight of her own body, her knees slamming to the ground, but Natasha manages to reach her just before Skye tumbles backwards, releasing a strangled sound of despair.

Carefully, Natasha guides Skye’s limp body to the ground and cradles the woman’s head on her lap. She gently strokes Skye’s hair with reverence as silent tears track down her cheeks. Rogers, Stark, Banner and Thor watch the scene in shock, seeing their normally emotionally distant team member crying over some stranger’s limp form was not something any of them expected that morning.

Suddenly Stark realises that Natasha must have got the wrong idea because her quickly walks over to her, kneels down and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. It only seems to make the assassin shrink in on herself and hug the brunette closer.

“She’s not dead, Natasha. Just unconscious.” He informs her in a soft voice, he may not know much about the red head but he does know that his heart hurt to see her like this.

Natasha’s head snapped up to look him dead in the eye, the sudden movement caused him to fall backwards and lose his balance and he ended up falling on his ass very ungracefully.

“Really?” Natasha asked with a renewed hope in her eyes.

Stark nodded, “The dendrotoxin is strong though, normally knocks people out for around twenty hours. It’s the most concentrated you can make it without killing someone.”

Suddenly Natasha is absolutely beaming at Stark and everyone else is left bemused at the jarring changes of emotions in the last couple of minutes. Natasha looks down at Skye’s slack face with, what Stark can only describe as, a look of complete adoration, before a realisation seems to dawn in her mind.

Natasha hoists her arms under Skye’s armpits and struggles to lift the uncooperative body into a standing position but Rogers soon steps in to help. He pauses in front of Natasha and she gives him a nod and an appreciative smile and he scoops the woman into his arms in a bridal carry.

“We need to get out of here, Barton needs medical assistance sooner rather than later.”

No one questions Natasha’s sudden change in attitude, just dutifully follow her in silence whilst trying to figure out the story behind the woman in Steve’s arm and their friend. Whatever it was, they all concluded, it was going to be good.

When they arrive back at the jet, Stark goes straight to the cockpit to set the course to the Tower, from the corner of his eye he watches as Steve gently sets the unconscious woman in one of the few actual seats on the plane. After Steve moves away to talk to check on Barton, Natasha straps the brunette in with the buckles then, which surprises everyone it seems, she brushes back the girl’s bangs and kisses her forehead. With one last, lingering, look and a brush of the cheek Natasha moves over to talk with the rest of the team, quickly glancing at Barton on the way.

As soon as they are at cruising altitude Tony calls Dr. Cho and arranges for her to be at the Tower with her equipment by the time they get back, he walks to talk with his team mates after hanging up, casting an anxious and assessing gaze at the archer and unconscious mystery woman.

He may not show it outwardly very well, he never had been one for showing his emotions in a healthy way, but he genuinely cares deeply about his friends and he is willing to do anything to protect them which is why he is currently very worried about having an injured tem member and an unknown HYDRA enhanced on his jet.

Thor and Steve are talking about the course of action for Loki’s sceptre whilst Natasha and Bruce are just silently sitting next to each other, one staring at the unconscious brunette and the other switching between staring at the wall in front of him and the assassin to his side. Wisely, Stark steers clear of the emotionally tense and confusing area around the latter two, instead making his way over to the two oldest embers of the team.

Somehow the conversation about the sceptre turned into Tony planning a party to celebrate the recovery of the Asgardian’s spear, not that anyone is complaining, it managed to redirect everyone’s attention to a jovial conversation, even Natasha takes her eyes off the brunette for long enough to chip in.

Although, that only seemed to draw more attention to the elephant in the room that Tony thought he was doing a pretty good job of tactfully ignoring. Fortunately, for Tony and his big mouth, it was Steve who finally addressed what everyone was wondering, but in a slightly more subtle way

“So, what’s her name?” He nods his head to the brunette whilst still keeping eye contact with Natasha.

She smiles slightly, as if she doesn’t even realise she is doing it, “Skye, her name is Skye.” She almost looks like she wants them to approve of it, so Tony gives the woman an appraising look then turns back to Natasha and bobs his head a bit.

“It suits her.” Natasha really does smile then, it’s not toothy but it is wide.

“I thought so too, that’s why I chose it.” At everyone’s confused expressions and a few bewildered sounds, she continues, “When we first met, she didn’t have a name, just a field designation: The Asset. They said she wasn’t worthy of having a name, but she manages to be one of the kindest, funniest and happiest people I’ve ever met, despite what we were made to do. She deserved a name at the very least.”

She looks up from Skye, somewhere in her speech her eyes had drifted again, to survey her teammates. They pretty much all look angry and for a split second she worries that they will do something to Skye, but then she realises that, without even knowing much about the girl, they are all angry for her, not at her. That makes something warm and fuzzy bubble up in her chest and she gains a whole new appreciation for her friends.

“Don’t worry boys, the people who said that are long dead.” That seems to mollify them, even if there is a little bit of fire burning in the back of their eyes.

“How?” It’s the first time Banner has spoken up since he un-Hulked, his voice is timid and a little worried, not sure if he really wants to know the answer. What she says next confuses everyone though.

“I assume natural causes, of course it was a secret government branch so some probably popped their clogs in slightly less natural ways.”

“Natural causes? How old where these guys?” She thinks Thor understands what is going on, given his silence and contented features, but the rest of them are still bewildered. Stark’s incredulous face would actually be entertaining in any other situation.

“In their thirties mostly, some in their fifties.” Suddenly Natasha loses most of her self-assuredness and scratches the back of her neck slightly, a self-conscious move if there was one, “It’s more about how old we are.”

“What do you mean?” Stark’s voice has taken on a more cautious, guarded quality and Natasha winces.

“I lied about when I was born. Quite dramatically.”

“Like a band-aid Romanoff, just tell us.” Steve commands, but in a disappointed father way, not an army Captain way.

“I was born in 1928, I’m 87 years old. Skye is around 83.”

Tony sputters, lots of ridiculous arm gesticulation and stunted speech attempts. Steve just gapes at her, his mouth moving wordlessly like a goldfish and his wide eyes flicking between the two women. Bruce looks plain confused, like a lost puppy who doesn’t understand why he is being left in the house when the owners leave for the day. Thor simply looks amused by everyone else’s reactions.

Once everyone has calmed down enough to listen to an explanation, Natasha tells them about the Red Room, though she keep that to the bare basics, and her time with Skye in the war then how she didn’t see the girl for almost another ten years. She tells them that they kept meeting each other through the years, but she needs a second to steady herself when she talks about defecting to SHIELD and how Skye was then brainwashed to kill her on sight, after that suddenly everyone understands what Skye was talking about in the clearing.

For the most part, the story she told them was the abridged version, but it got the point across concisely. When she finally got to the end, no one said anything for a while and she was afraid that they would kick Skye out or something equally as bad but Tony gave her an affectionate smile and said with absolute surety:

“We will do anything to help. I have the equipment to undo mental programming back at the tower, I made it for Capsicle’s friend, but if it’s needed it will work on Skye too.”

In a rare show of affection from the red head she wraps her arms around Tony’s shoulders and hugs him tightly, whispering thanks in his ear. In an even weirder turn of events, Tony hugs Natasha back.

“It’s no problem. What kind of person wouldn’t help after hearing a story like that?”

The hug only lasts a few seconds and only when they pull back do they realise how long they have been talking, they can spot the top of the Avengers Tower in the distance. Tony sets about steering the plane to land in the tower while everyone else gets Barton ready to depart and get help.

He takes his cue and walks over to Skye and starts unbuckling her to take her to the room he has set up with the recalibration equipment. As Natasha passes, with Barton, she calls out to him.

“She should only be out for another couple of hours. The serum prevents us from being knocked out for too long!” With that she turns the corner and helps push Clint to Dr. Cho and her machine.

“Great.” He mutters after the assassin, then turns back to the slumped woman in the seat, “Let’s see if we can get you to the room shall we.”

He hums and haws for a bit on the best way to carry her, his first couple of attempts are a bit awkward, it’s not that he is not strong, it is just that carrying an unconscious person is drastically harder than an awake person. Eventually, he puts on the Iron Man suit, minus the helmet, and carries her bridal style through the quieter hallways and into the medical room. He places her on the bed in the middle and tells JARVIS to alert him if she shows signs of waking up.

Then he goes to find the rest of the group, after a slight detour to take off the suit, no one needs to know that he couldn’t carry a slim five foot six girl without the aid of a mechanical flight suit. Nope, he doesn’t need to be teased for that.

Chapter Text

Maria Hill was used to seeing weird and dangerous things, it was part of her job at both SHIELD and Stark Industries, but walking onto Stark’s jet to find one extra person on it, an unconscious person at that, had never happened before. So of course, after talking Rogers through the two enhanced that she had actual information on and becoming very amused at watching him try to decipher the overly complicated explanation she gave him, she tracked down the mystery guest to get a good look.

She observed Tony walking away from the room, trying his best to quiet his footsteps as he went which ended up just looking like exaggerated tiptoeing and a bit of propulsion from his thrusters, it was hilarious. As soon as he was out of sight she walked into the room, all she knew about its use was that Tony had been working on a project in there with Banner for a while and now no one went in it.

The room was white all over; floor, ceiling and walls all made of sterile white tile. On the right side, surrounded by lots of metal arms and what looked like some kind of retractable helmet, was a slightly reclined chair, the kind you would see in a dentist’s. However, on the other side of the room was a small hospital bed, but drilled into the floor instead of one wheels, it had ankle, wrist and head braces made of a thick leather material, knowing Tony, though, it was probably something a lot more complicated.

The reason she was there in the first place was laid out across the bed, the brunette was not strapped down, simply there. Quietly she walked over to the woman on the bed, she hesitated a couple of feet away, just in case the girl suddenly moved, but she deemed it safe enough to walk over and brush the hair out of the unconscious woman’s face.

As soon as the other woman’s face was visible she gasped and physically recoiled; it was Quake. The Avengers had brought one of the most infamous, legendary and dangerous assassins back to the Tower and had not even tied her down! Did they not know who she was? The woman had literally been SHIELD’s most wanted since the organisation’s inception.

Maria backed away quickly, not turning her back until she closed the door and locked it with three different passcodes and a thumb print check. She stared at the closed door until her heart rate slowed to a normal pace, not much could scare Hill but that definitely did, then turned on her heel and stalked to the Avengers lounge area, intent on asking Romanoff what hell she thought she was doing, she had to have known, she was a SHIELD agent for god’s sake!

She must have been in the room for longer than she thought because just as she opened the door to the lounge the whole team was coming through the other way and they had all changed from their combat gear into more comfortable clothes. Even Barton was with the group, clutching his side and leaning on Romanoff slightly, but otherwise keeping pace.

Maria twirled on the spot and walked with the group, she soon realised that they were headed to the room with the assassin in. The fact that every single one of the Avengers were going to be in the room made Maria feel a little safer about the situation, Quake surely couldn’t take them all out before someone got the drop on her.

After Clint’s skin had been remade and Tony and Bruce had had their science chat, probably about what experiments to do with Loki’s sceptre, the team went to their individual suites to clean up and get changed. Tony had insisted on giving them all a safe place to stay whilst they took out HYDRA bases, no one had complained, it was definitely one of the more luxurious secure facilities to stay.

Just as they all congregated in the communal area, it was lunchtime after all, they were interrupted by JARVIS.

“Sir?”

“Yeah, J?”

“Your guest is starting to wake up.” Almost everyone is on their feet in an instant, Clint had the excitement, just not the physical health for such movement.

They just approached the door when Steve’s manners got the better of him, Jarvis may not be a real person, but he was unfailingly polite “Thank you, JARVIS.”

“My pleasure, Mister Rogers.”

They brush past Hill without really noticing her, Tony and Steve leading the metaphorical charge. Though Natasha and Clint manage to shoot Maria a wan smile each, their strain for two very different reasons. Maria takes that as her cue to shut up and just keep walking.

They enter the room in single file and line up on the other side of the room to their visitor, Maria is oh-so-thankful that she is closest to the door. The woman on the bed has obviously only just regained consciousness, as her movements are still some-what clumsy, Hill could have found it adorable if not for the knowledge of who exactly she is.

The brunette sits up and blearily wipes her eyes with the back of her hands as she swings her legs around to sit on the bed, facing the wall of Avengers. She does not seem shocked by the force in front of her as she runs her gaze over them in a half-hearted attempt to gauge the threat they presented, it was automatic.

Near the end of the line everyone could see her whole body tense up and clamp her eyes close, her knuckles went white as she squeezed the edge of the bed tightly. Quickly, her brow creased in confusion and her grip on the bed loosens just enough for the blood run back into her hands, Natasha takes this as a good sign and takes slow but deliberate steps forward. Taking her to three foot in front of the adorably yet heartbreakingly confused woman.

“Skye?” Natasha asks, timidly.

Slowly, Skye creaks one eye open to stare at Natasha, then the other, at first she looks scared and hesitant but her expression quickly morphs into one of love and awe. Gradually a massive grin takes over her face, an action that Natasha mirrors.

“Nothing. It’s not telling me to do anything.” No sooner has Skye said that, is she jumping off the bed and taking Natasha in her arms, finally doing what she has wanted to do for the last fifteen years.

<<I missed you so much. Every day I would think about you and what I would do if I saw you again. I have to say crying wasn’t one of those things.>> Natasha huffs a laugh into Skye’s neck and sniffles a bit, Skye realises that her use of Russian is probably automatic seeing as most of their current company speaks many languages.

<<I thought I’d never see you again. So you are a vision to me no matter what you do right now.>> Skye speaks into Natasha’s hair, quietly breathing in her scent and holding her tight. She hasn’t touched the woman she loves for fifteen years and she is very tempted to never let go again.

“Always the charmer, Skye.” Natasha laughs and pulls back to look Skye in the eyes, the taller woman shoots her a mischievous grin.

“What can I say? You just bring it out in me.”

Natasha actually manages to roll her eyes, it’s starting to seem to Skye that no matter how long they haven’t seen each other, they can just dive straight back in where they left off. Then Natasha laughs again, a full and beautiful sound that Skye can’t resist, so she doesn’t. She leans down to brush her lips across Natasha’s lightly, there is a pause between the laughter stopping and the red head responding, (it’s tiny really) but soon Natasha is pushing back against Skye, bringing their lips and bodies even closer than before.

Skye forgets how to breathe for a few seconds when Natasha gently bites her lower lip, when she remembers, though, it is in a gasp, letting Natasha deepen the kiss. Skye and Natasha get so lost in the sensations of the give and take of their tongues that when they feel a moan vibrate their chests, neither know who made it and, frankly, they don’t care.

They also don’t hear the not so subtle throat clearing coming from Stark and Barton, they only separate when harsh whisper hisses trough the room.

“What the hell is going on?!” Obviously louder than the speaker thought it was, because Maria immediately gets a deer in the head lights look and snaps her mouth shut.

Reluctantly, Natasha shifts to face Hill but she keeps one arm looped around Skye’s waist and Skye does the same. Natasha tries to look as authoritative as possible but she makes the mistake of glancing at Skye who has a goofy, love struck smile on her face which only triggers Natasha’s own. The pair end up staring at each other again, getting lost in one another’s eyes so Barton does the honours of answering Maria’s question, based on what Natasha told him during his time in the ‘skin machine’ as he dubbed it.

“Natasha has her girlfriend back.” He pauses and looks like he’s thinking something over, then continues, “And she’s not trying to kill her.”

All Natasha can make herself do is nod along to what Barton says with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm. Skye is still smiling down at Natasha, completely oblivious to everything around her which only makes everyone, apart from Hill, look at them with ‘awww’ expressions. Hill just opens her mouth a couple of times, looks at the Avengers team then thinks better of it and just walks out, if they want to deal with a super powered assassin, that’s their choice.

Chapter Text

Everyone stared after Hill for a second, in confusion, but Natasha quickly shook herself out of it. With her arm still around Skye, she stepped forward, bringing Skye with her, which brought the team’s attention back to the couple.

“Skye, this is my team.” She raised her hand to point at each member as she said their name, “Steve Rogers, Thor, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton,” He shoots Skye a little wave and warm smile, the brunette thinks she’ll like him, “and the woman who just, rather abruptly, left was-”

“Former Deputy Director of SHIELD, Maria Dorothy Hill.” Skye supplied. Tony gaped at her while Rogers and the rest were a little more subtle in their surprise. “I was a HYDRA asset, I needed to know as much as possible on SHIELD’s big players. Including the Avengers.” She says in way of explanation.

“Her middle name is Dorothy? That’s perfect!” Exclaimed Stark, looking like he was planning all the ways he could embarrass the woman.

“She also knows twelve ways to kill a man with her bare hands in under twenty seconds. Your body would never be found.” Skye smirked as the billionaire paled.

“That’s some detailed research.”

“I had to follow her around for a bit, before she was made Deputy Director. It was actually on my report that she got that position. They needed someone who would question Fury and undermine him in the eyes of subordinates.”

“I wouldn’t tell her that.” Barton supplied, “I’m not sure she would take it too well if she found out HYDRA was the reason she got promoted.” The rest of the group hummed in agreement.

Neither the group’s silence, nor Stark’s uncharacteristically subdued behaviour lasted very long. Tony quickly hassled everyone out of the “boringly sterile” room and into the lounge area, they all sat down just as lunch was produced by in house chefs that Stark had insisted on hiring for the Avengers’ stay.

Natasha practically sat on top of Skye when they settled into the sofas, the brunette balanced a plate in one hand and hugged Natasha close with the other. It surprised the team that the two women acted like a completely normal couple, sharing embarrassing or just funny stories of the other, definitely not how many of them expected the two deadliest people on earth to act around each other. But hey, love was love, so the men just revelled in seeing their friend happier than ever before.

They all spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know more about each other, in an effort to make Skye feel more comfortable they all shared stories of themselves, though they tended to stay light-hearted. If the team hadn’t of been so distracted, they would have noticed Bruce becoming steadily more reserved, only giving his input if someone asked, but they were distracted so no one noticed, especially not Natasha.

Eventually, long after the sun has set and everyone is struggling to keep their eyes open, Thor decrees that they should all retire to their sleeping chambers. Skye giggled at his manner of speaking throughout the whole evening, so Thor, in his undying good nature, exaggerated that trait. Everyone was glad to see such a damaged person manage to be so carefree, they couldn’t even begin to imagine what the poor girl had been through (she may be 83, but still looked younger than the whole team) and Tony was starting to feel an odd protectiveness for the former asset.

Upon parting ways, Skye smiled, a little hesitantly but no less sincere, at all of the others as well as shake their hands. When Natasha and Skye were finally alone the younger woman almost collapsed onto her girlfriend (Barton had said it, and she liked it). Natasha carefully led the taller girl to the bed and, not bothering to change as they were both in sweats, pulled Skye down with her. The couple were both asleep in a matter of seconds on top of the sheets, curled into each other, only taking up a quarter of the small double.

As Natasha woke the next morning, all of yesterday’s events came rushing back to her. A contented smile bloomed across her face, an outside observer would have described her expression as one of innocent glee or ‘the cat that got the cream’. Her stomach immediately dropped when she stretched out across the bed and met nothing but air. Her eyes snapped open and Natasha bolted upright on the bed, her heart racing.

Of course it would all be a dream, an elaborate, cruel dream. Natasha could almost feel the warmth on the bed where she imagined her companion slept. With a dejected sigh, Natasha collapsed back onto the bed and closed her eyes against the tears she felt forming. The red head didn’t know how long she was lying there, but after staving off the tears and preparing herself to get out of the bed, she heard the bedroom door open.

There, nudging the door closed with her hip whilst juggling a steaming mug in each hand, was Skye. As Skye turned Natasha saw her surprised look.

“You’re awake.”

Natasha grinned, “Yeah.” So it wasn’t a dream, her oldest friend really was here.

“I originally only planned to be gone for a couple of minutes, but coffee machines have got a lot more complicated since 2005.”

Skye set the coffee mugs down on the nightstand nearest Natasha and sat down by her hip, mirroring the Avenger’s smile. Natasha chuckled slightly at Skye’s half sheepish, half frustrated expression.

“Well, that and Stark insists on kitting out everything in this place to a ridiculous standard.”

“Mmhmm. Anyway, on my sixth attempt I’m pretty sure I managed to make a half way decent cup,” Skye placed it in Natasha’s hands, “enjoy.” She paused, “Hopefully.”

They sipped their coffees in silence for a while. Natasha wasn’t ever going to admit it, but Skye made a better coffee on her sixth try than Natasha was still making many months later, Skye had always been a much quicker learner.

“So what do you want to do today?”

“Seeing as I’m wanted by about as many governments, crime syndicates and terrorist cells as Tony Stark has millions, it’s probably best to stay away from the public to avoid CCTV. A lot more of them around now.”

Natasha, purposely avoiding the topic of ‘HYDRA kept her locked away in a castle for ten years and it was ridiculously close to a Disney princess story’, thought for a second and then had an idea.

“I could give you a tour of the tower? Could probably rope Stark into it as well, he loves to show off at any opportunity, but he could also explain a lot of things that I can’t. You always had a knack for engineering.”

“Mmm, that could be fun. Only if you come too though, you can be dumb with me.” Skye paused as a cheeky grin appeared on her lips, “At least until I leave you in my dust, anyway.”

The next thing Skye knew she was on her back, eating cotton after Natasha had pelted a pillow at her with unerring speed. Removing the pillow from her face, Skye half-heartedly glared at Natasha, the red head just looked down at her as if she had no idea why Skye was on the ground, she hadn’t even spilt a drop of her coffee. Skye huffed and climbed back onto the bed, then over Natasha, the younger girl was quick to wipe the exaggerated innocent expression from her face with a passionate kiss. Skye carefully plucked the mug from Natasha’s hand and placed it on the side table without parting their lips, which freed Natasha’s hands for other things.

Just as Skye’s lip reached Natasha’s collar bone and had her hands up the woman’s flimsy cotton T-shirt, Skye bounced off of the bed, leaving a dazed and extremely turned on Natasha staring at her incredulously.

“Come on then. Get dressed and show me around, I want to see where you kind-of live.”

Natasha stared at Skye, waiting for her to come back to bed, so they could get far more acquainted with the piece of furniture, but Skye had already left and come bouncing back into the room holding a bundle of clothes with what looked like a sheet of paper on top.

“Look,” Skye exclaimed gleefully, “someone dropped off some clean sweats in my size. Hey, and there’s a note.” She held out in front of her and started reading aloud, “Dear Skye, I know you didn’t exactly get a chance to pack,” the women snorted, “therefore you probably need some clean clothes, I already sent someone out to go get some real clothes for you, but in the meantime these were the only clothes I could find in your size. Tony Stark.”

Without warning Skye starting stripping her clothes from yesterday, they were a little muddy and stinky as she had had to wear them for two days already (she only got clean clothes every five days with HYDRA, so really it wasn’t as bad as it could be), and walked, buck naked, into the adjoining bathroom.

Just before disappearing beyond the doorframe, Skye shot a sultry look at Natasha, who had managed to come to her senses enough that she bolted towards the door, dropping off articles of clothing as she went.

The shower lasted for an hour and a half, it would have gone on much longer had both of their stomachs not rumbled embarrassingly loudly, at the same time. Since neither of them had any plans to go out in public that day, Natasha joined Skye in wearing comfy workout clothes, it was only after getting dressed and moving to collect her watch and phone from her nightstand when she realised what time it actually was.

It wasn’t nearly as late as Natasha thought it would have been, only nine am. Skye must have woken her up at seven, she didn’t want to think about when Skye woke up, especially since they only got to bed in the small hours of the morning. But she seemed refreshed and energised, Natasha wondered just how many of the coffees Skye had tasted before settling on the final one.

"So what's the breakfast situation around here like?" Skye asked, slipping on a pair of Natasha's sneakers.

"We tend to wonder up to the common area, it has a little kitchen area. Everyone is usually there at around this time."

"Shall we take our leave then, Miss Romanova?" Skye offered her a crooked elbow which Natasha, biting back a laugh, looped her arm through.

They managed the short walk to the elevator before Skye got too fidgety and Natasha had to release her in fear of dislocating her shoulder.

"To the common floor, Miss Romanoff?" Asked the disembodied, British AI. Skye jumped back a bit with wide eyes, quickly, though her expression turned to one of wonder. Natasha shook her head with a smile.

"Yes please, JARVIS."

Skye snickered and whispered to herself, "JARVIS. So predictable."

"He wasn't in your research?"

Skye shrugged, "I knew what HYDRA knew, HYDRA knew what SHIELD knew and SHIELD knew surprisingly little about Tony Stark, other than he is Iron Man and was dying for a stretch."

Just as she finished talking the elevator doors slid open, revealing the common room. But something seemed different to yesterday. Natasha nudged past her, entangling their hands as she went so that Skye stumbled after her.

"The bar turns into a breakfast kitchen in the morning." She had noticed Skye's confusion.

Skye did a one shouldered shrug then her smile was back in full force and Skye was dragging Natasha to the breakfast bar. Natasha had always been amazed by Skye's capability for joy, especially with their work and her upbringing, if you could even call it that. The red room trained her to be an asset, she was never allowed a childhood or engage in childish activities, Natasha guessed that Skye made the most of the little freedom she was given on assignments by taking joy in the small things.

Halfway across the room, Skye let go of Natasha’s arm and told her to sit down, she would make her breakfast. So the red head plopped down next to Tony, who was tinkering with one of his suit gauntlets, and nudged him in the side lightly.

“Huh?” Tony came out of his engineering daze inelegantly.

“You want to help me show Skye around the tower?” Natasha raised an eyebrow knowingly, “You could tell her the technical side to everything. Lord knows you complain about no one understanding you half the time.”

“Would she understand though?” Tony glanced over at Skye, who was gracefully making omelettes, toast and pouring juice all at the same time, “I mean she hasn’t interacted with any technology circa 2005.”

“She’s a quick learner. And Skye has always been good at that kind of stuff.”

Tony looked sceptical and diverted half his focus back to the mechanical glove in his hand, but conceded none the less, “Okay. What level of understanding are we talking here? Can use the internet? Could she hack before?”

Natasha looked smug for a second, then schooled her features into nonchalance and casually inspected her nails, “Back in the war we managed to get a copy of Alan Turing’s original notes for his enigma code cracking machine, she studied them and later on ended up having a major role in the premise's adaptation for modern digital computers.”

Throughout her explanation, Romanoff watched Tony get more and more astounded until the final bombshell when his hand slipped and the glove accidently went whizzing off. Straight towards Skye, who he was already looking at in awe and respect. The brunette never even glanced away from her pan, though, suddenly, just as the glove was about to hit her, she flew into the air bringing the pan with her, managing to flip the omelette onto a waiting plate in the process. The gauntlet just careened into the wall, bouncing off and crumpled to the floor.

Calmly, Skye floated back down to the floor, picked up the plate and a glass of juice, then walked over to where the two Avengers were sitting, ignoring the shocked faces of everyone on the team.

“You know, I actually forgot you could fly. It’s really awesome!” Tony stated, enthusiastically.

“Yeah.” Came a breathed chorus from Steve and Barton, even Thor and Banner looked awed.

Skye dropped down next to Natasha and placed the plate in front of the other woman, “I won’t say I forget, but I’m still not used to it. And I have been able to fly for, like, over two years now.”

“How fast can you fly?” Barton asked, bringing what was left of his breakfast over from the breakfast bar to sit opposite the trio. The others soon followed.

“Well, they didn’t want to let me go too far and their equipment could only be used indoors, but from a hovering start, I could go from 0 to 600 miles per hour in ten seconds.”

“Indoors?”

“It was a large corridor with an open wall at one end. Well, I say open, it was more like I couldn't slow down in time the first go so I blew it open and no one fixed it.”

“So you can go the same speed as a commercial jet. That’s pretty cool. And you shaped computing as we know it. And you can create earthquakes. Please tell we there’s something you can’t do.” Pleaded Tony.

“I, uh, I can’t juggle and whenever I shoot a gun I say ‘bang’ in my head.” Skye shrugged then blushed and tried to hide it in Natasha’s neck. Romanoff just turned and brushed a kiss to her hair.

“Aww, that’s adorable!” Exclaimed Clint, whilst everyone else just wore amused expressions.

“Sometimes I wonder how on earth you’re the world’s best, and most sought after, assassin.” Natasha mused.

“You’re just jealous.” Skye pouted.

“Mmmhmm, whatever you say, sweety.” Natasha hummed, drowned in sarcasm.

“Really feeling the love over here.” The taller woman grumbled.

Natasha just laughed, soon everyone was joining in, starting with Thor’s low chuckles and eventually Skye retracted her head from her girlfriend’s shoulder and grinned. She didn’t often get to make people laugh and she was far from bothered that it was at her expense.

Chapter Text

After the laughter died down Steve and Thor went off to the gym, citing that Steve rarely got to train with someone of similar strength, then Clint followed them, grumbling something about a stupid injury and stupid superhumans. Skye guessed that he was going to watch them spar and she admitted to herself she wouldn't be averse to watching them either.

Skye had heard tales and accounts of the Avengers prowess in the field but had never really got to assess their skill up close, apart from Natasha's, but even she probably picked up some new things.

Banner hesitated for a few moments before also excusing himself to the lab for some background research he was already doing. Skye bid them all goodbye with a wide smile, a gesture that was mirrored by almost all of them, Banner seemed perpetually subdued in demeanour, though he seemed nice enough.

The little cautious, untrusting part of Skye brain labelled him an unknown variable and told her to stay alert. Skye tried to ignore it, the man was probably just shy.

Turning back to the two remaining Avengers, Skye clapped her hands together in excitement.

"So... when does the tour start?"

The first place Tony took Natasha and Skye was the SI floors, more specifically, the head management floor. The same level that held Pepper's, Happy's and Hill's offices, the engineer led them to Pepper's empty office and sat Skye down in the swivel chair.

"Now let's see what you can do." Stark said with no small amount of glee.

With a little guiding from Natasha, Skye soon got the hang of the new model of computer. Within ten minutes Skye had coding running across the screen at increasing and ridiculous speeds and her eyes were following it all, taking it in and learning it.

Tony was actually impressed with the woman, and a little proud, though he didn't know where that came from. Well, that was right up until JARVIS spoke up over the speakers in Pepper's office.

"I believe my programming has been changed, sir." The way of speaking was the same, but the accent was thick Russian.

Stark groaned.

"I should have thought this through better." He mumbled into his hands.

"I think it's an improvement." Natasha commented, in her own heavy, Russian accent.

"Everything's better with a Russian twist." Skye grinned back at Natasha but then paused in thought, "Except democracy, that's decidedly worse with a Russian tweak." Skye mumbled.

Natasha and Tony hummed back in agreement.

"Now, since you've proven your proficiency with computers, we can continue the show around." Skye stood from the chair, only to be pushed back into it by a hand in her shoulder, "Right after you put JARVIS back the way you found him."

He even had the gall to fix Skye with a disappointed look. It was surprisingly effective. Skye diligently went back through the code and made JARVIS British again, even if Skye thought it was cliche and boring.

"Where to next?" Skye asked, slinging an arm around Natasha's shoulders as they walked down the hallway. Scanning her surroundings, Skye spotted Maria Hill in one of the glass walled offices and veered off in her direction, basically ignoring her own question.

The brunette rapped her knuckles on the glass door and ducked her head in the door. Hill looked up from her computer tiredly but she immediately tensed when she saw who it was, her eyes wide with uncertainty.

"Yes?" She asked. Why the hell was the world's deadliest woman knocking at her office door?

"I just wanted to say that I don't plan on killing anyone." Skye smiled brightly then pursed her lips in thought and tacked on: "Unless they deserve it. So you don't have to worry about me, Ms. Hill."

Hill gave Skye a slightly uncertain and wonky smile, obviously still in shock, and nodded at the other woman.

"Good to know."

Suddenly Skye fully opened the door and came striding up to Maria's desk. Before Hill could get anything to defend herself with, Skye stuck her hand out for Maria to shake.

"I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself, admittedly I haven't had to do it for over a decade, but still." Skye shook out of her sudden reverie and focussed back on the seated woman with an almost unsettling intensity, "It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Skye. You probably already know my field designation."

Maria nodded and took Skye hand in a firm shake.

"Quake." She breathed out, probably by mistake, because she quickly coughed to try and cover it up, "It's good to meet you too. Glad to know you have no nefarious intentions towards my people."

Skye gave Maria a smile that bordered on a smirk.

"Quite the opposite, Ms. Hill."

Maria glanced past Skye, out into the hallway, when Skye turned in that direction. Natasha and Tony were standing in the corridor, arms crossed over their chests and studying the scene in the office with interest.

Tony just looked amused with a hint of, was that pride? Well that was odd, Maria noted. Natasha looked mildly exasperated, the teasing kind where it was obvious Natasha was absolutely smitten for the human equivalent of a golden retriever that was currently in her office.

Maria had to say, love looked good on the red head, and without knowing any of their story, she could tell Skye felt exactly the same way, if the love sick grin she was sporting was any indication. If Maria wasn't aware that either could easily incapacitate her in seconds, she would call them adorable.

Wow. That was definitely not a word she ever thought she would associate with the infamous Black Widow. Then again, she never thought she would meet Quake and live to tell the tale.

This week was just full of surprises.

Natasha poked her head through the door with an apologetic smile.

"We were giving Skye the grand tour. Seems she got side-tracked."

"No problem. Skye merely came to tell me there were no murder plots in her immediate future."

Natasha chuckled, "Always good to hear, dorogoya."

Skye shrugged and spread her hands slightly, in a “what harm could it do?” kind of way. Then turned back to Maria.

"We best be off, leave you to your work and all. Nice to meet you!" Skye waved as she left the office.

Maria settled back into desk chair with a long sigh. Never had she thought she would work for Tony Stark and face the deadliest people on earth on a day to day basis. What a life she led.

Part two of the tour, since Stark determined Skye needed no more assistance getting up to speed in the computer department, took place immediately.

Tony had taken them down to start and planned to work his way back up again, which meant the next destination was the Hulk room. It was really the whole floor, to be exact, but it was designed to withhold Banner if his control ever started to slip.

Theoretically, it would prevent the Hulk from causing any damage to the tower or surrounding buildings, but they had never had cause to test it out. Tony was praying they never did.

When the elevator doors opened the engineer splayed his arms out in a dramatic gesture, to present his little creation.

The floor itself had no windows and was covered -walls, floor and ceiling- in a weird dark grey metal. The metal indented into little hexagons all over, the purpose of which Skye was unaware of, if there was one at all.

"The room itself is unremarkable, just a large open plan floor. It is the plating I thought you would appreciate." Tony rambled to Skye as he wondered around, "It's a synthesized vibranium alloy, it's almost as strong as pure vibranium, but that's very hard to acquire."

Experimentally, Skye focused on a loose piece of the metal, probably a spare slab that was unneeded but no one knew what to do with. Ever so slowly, the chunk of metal began to vibrate against the floor, creating a low hum. As the vibrations increased in intensity the quiet hum turned into a loud clanging, drawing Tony's attention away from whatever wall he was studying.

When the noise reached a cacophonous level, Natasha gently laid her hand on Skye's forearm and opened her mouth to ask her to stop. However, before she could the sound just stopped. Tony and Natasha watched in amazement as the metal suddenly puffed into fine particles of dust and settled on the floor in a small pile.

"You're right, it is very strong. Possibly the strongest material, apart from vibranium I have ever come across. Impressive." Skye nodded at Tony.

Tony, however, looked like a kid on Christmas morning, he practically skipped over to the couple.

"How do you do that?" He asked both excitedly and curiously, "Like, what does it feel like when you do it?"

Skye glanced at Natasha in amusement, then back to Stark.

"I can sense the resonant frequency of all objects," Tony nodded in encouragement but Natasha didn't seem to fully understand her statement, so she explained, "every animate or inanimate object vibrates constantly, but the vibrations all have slightly different base frequencies -resonant frequency. Anyway, I can manipulate their resonant frequencies for different purposes, such as disintegrated metal on an atomic level," here she gestured to the pile of dust behind her, "or I can send a pulse wave through the air, knocking everything back."

"Seriously, that's so cool." Tony praised in awe.

Skye chuckled and looped her arm around Natasha's waist while nodding towards the elevator.

"Shall we continue?" Skye asked, Tony nodded.

When Skye and Natasha settled at the back of the elevator, the red head leaned up slightly to whisper in Skye's ear, so Stark couldn't hear.

"Have to say, hearing you science talk is kinda hot."

Natasha lowered back onto her heels with a grin and Skye turned her head to look at her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"Oh really, now?" Skye whispered back.

Natasha nodded, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. Skye's eyes lit up and were automatically drawn to Natasha's lips, suddenly the taller girl leaned down to sooth Natasha's abused lip with her own.

Skye moaned in pleasure, against Natasha’s lips, just as the elevator opened up again and they pulled apart when they heard sputtered coughing. Looking out, they were faced with a gym full of superheroes, one particular icon of freedom and justice was red in the face and staring at the floor with a deep awkwardness.

Natasha just laughed and guided Skye into the large, decked out gym.

Chapter Text

No one really should have been surprised, it being a gym and the two women being the deadliest assassins in the world, that Skye and Natasha ended up sparring. And, boy, was it a sight to behold. It looked more like an intricate dance choreographed to perfection over hundreds of years, than fighting. It would have definitely been a lot more majestic if it weren’t for the commentary from both spectators and competitors alike.

“Come on now, I know you can do better. Or have you really gone soft babysitting these buffons?” Skye jibed, easily summersaulting over her girlfriend and tugging lightly on her ponytail.

“Oh, that was just mean, darling.” Natasha retorted with an exaggerated smile.

Meanwhile, every other member of the Avengers were sitting cross legged along the wall closest to the sparring mat, watching in rapt attention. They kind of resembled children crowding around their teacher at story time, not a team of highly trained superheroes and a god.

“That’s hot.” Breathed Tony to a suitably impressed looking Steve who sat next to him.

The blond man turned his head to shoot a glare at his teammate, “You do realise you’re watching the most highly skilled assassins in history, who could easily kill or maim you in innumerable ways, and you called them hot?” He asked the engineer, unimpressed.

Stark simply shrugged, having never diverted his attention from the fight occurring in front of him.

“It’s true.”

Steve groaned.

Suddenly, there was a muted thump and Skye had Natasha pinned to the mat with their faces inches from each other and their breathing heavy. Tony was grinning like a mad man, but all that Skye did was place a small kiss to the tip of the red head’s nose then jump up and offer her hand to the fallen woman.

“I haven’t had a challenge like that in years.” Skye grinned, slinging her arm around Natasha’s shoulders once more.

Natasha just looked grumpy, a look not even Clint thought would ever adorn her face, a jokingly glared up at the victor.

“Stupid superpowers. You cheated, somehow.” Natasha grumped. She really was a sore loser.

“I guess it will forever be a mystery of the universe. And even if I did, which I will never admit to, you still love me.”

Natasha just grunted, trying her hardest to keep the disgruntled look on her face, but alas, she started grinning. Apparently, being highly trained in espionage meant nothing when she was around this girl. Romanoff was still on the fence whether that was a good or bad thing.

“That was quite an impressive feat Lady Skye. You are a valiant warrior and I would be honoured to battle by your side, if it were ever necessary.” Thor boomed and clapped the significantly smaller woman on the shoulder with a large smile.

Instead of flinching away from the large man, like she had the previous day, Skye positively beamed at him and patted his well-formed bicep in return. Seriously, the man had firm arms. Skye supposed it added to his godliness.

She was snapped from her reverie by Barton groaning.

“Great.” He said, struggling to get up with one hand while the other clutched his side, so naturally Skye bounded over to help him to his feet with a firm grasp under both arms, “We have two puppies on the team now.”

Everyone except Thor and Skye laughed, Thor just looked perturbed, obviously it was a long running joke. Skye, however, just frowned in confusion. She surveyed the team carefully, in her interactions with them Thor had seemed to be the only one with the overly excited, perpetually happy mannerisms that one usually relate to a puppy.

“Who are these ‘puppies’?”

Stark rolled his eyes but answered nonetheless, “Come on, he’s half-god, half-golden retriever.” He said pointing to Thor and Skye nodded, the man in question looked affronted, “And you literally haven’t stopped smiling and bouncing around since you got here, plus there’s the whole extremely loyal thing you’ve got going on.”

The explanation didn’t seem to alleviate any of the brunette’s confusion, she even tilted her head and pursed her lips.

“But I’m not on the team.”

“Oh, ho, ho, you so are.” Stark assured her with a grin bordering on manic, “I’m speaking personally here, but you’re awesome and I would definitely prefer you on our side than against us, I think the others would agree on that last one.” As he spoke, he had pulled Skye in for a half hug and spanned his free arm to gesture to the team.

Skye looked at each member of the team (except Banner, he was still in the lab), finally ending with her eyes locked with Natasha, a tentative smile on her face. She was horrified to realise her eyes misting up.

“Really?” She let out a watery chuckle self-deprecatingly and leaned into the touch when Natasha strode over and held Skye’s face in between her hands, “I’m not exactly a team player.”

“Absolutely.” Natasha said it with such surety that Skye couldn’t help but tug her in for a tight hug.

<<I love you.>> The taller girl whispered into Natasha’s hair, trying desperately to keep in the tears that seemed determined to get out.

The red head smiled into Skye’s neck and hugged her girlfriend closer, feeling complete contentedness settle in her chest. It felt amazing.

<<I love you, too. More than you know.>>

Skye huffed out a laugh, “Oh, I think I can take a guess.”

Unbeknownst to the couple, Tony swung to Clint with a panicked look, sticking his thumbs up questioningly. Clint smiled at the scene and replied to Stark by pressing his thumb to his index finger and mouthing “perfect”. Tony grinned and clapped his hands together excitedly.

“Whoo! New team member! This is cause for celebration. Jarvis?”

“Yes, sir?” The omnipresent AI responded as Skye and Natasha looked up from their hug.

“Can you get someone to take some champagne to the entertainment floor?”

“Of course, sir. And congratulations Miss Skye, I look forward to spending more time with you.”

Skye grinned and surreptitiously wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“Right back at you, J.”

“I am titanium. I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose. Fire away, fire away. You shoot me down…” Skye belted out, surprisingly in tune for her level of intoxication.

As part of their celebration, Tony had suggested a movie marathon of some of the largest grossing movies since 2000, it would benefit Skye, Steve and Thor so the whole group had agreed. Even Banner came down for around ten minutes in the middle of the second Pirates of the Caribbean film, but then mumbled something about leaving a volatile experiment alone and leaving. No one noticed the correlation between him leaving and Skye and Natasha start to heavily make out as the shorter girl straddled the brunette.

But after making their way through five bottles of champagne then three bottles of Russian Standard vodka, collectively, they had made their way to Pitch Perfect. Hence the impromptu and loud karaoke from Skye and Thor, both of whom were actually really good signers, so no one tried to stop them. Skye actually hit all of the high notes perfectly.

If she ever wanted to get out of the assassin game, Tony thought, she could easily make it as a singer. Or an actor. Or pretty much anything, because, let’s face it, the girl was outstanding. How could anyone not like her? She was bubbly, high skilled, beautiful, clever and talented, if a human could be perfect, Skye was as about as close as they would come.

Actually, that was a good point, was Skye human? Sure her second superpower had come from experimentation, but her first one, the quaking, had naturally manifested. The only other person he knew that was naturally enhanced, not the product of a science experiment, was definitely not human, he was a god to humans. Literally. Thor had different DNA, maybe Skye did too.

Watching Skye dance around slightly clumsily (she had consumed most of the vodka, citing not having a drink since being shipped off to Von Strucker’s castle) with Natasha and a very awkward looking Steve, blushing every time one of the girls moved their hips within a foot of his (which was all the time, he was constantly an amusing shade of red), Tony decided that he really didn’t care. The woman could be Chitauri for all he cared, she was fun to spend time with, was an amazing addition to the team and made Natasha the happiest he had ever seen her.

Judging by the pleased look on Clint’s face, he thought the same. Tony knew they had practically been inseparable since Natasha first joined SHIELD, so he probably had known a bit about Skye already, but seeing it in the flesh, Clint definitely approved. It made Stark feel better about accepting her so readily, he didn’t know what exactly, it was probably just a mix of everything that was Skye, but something just endeared the older, yet younger looking woman to him.

Despite the whole getting her drunk off her face thing, Tony was starting to think that he was beginning to have fatherly feelings for the girl. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time. It was ironic really. The girl was probably the most capable of taking care of herself on Earth, but Stark just wanted to wrap her in bubble wrap and hunt down anyone who had made her suffer, then return the favour. Yup, that was a strange and new sensation.

“Heeeey.” Skye slurred as she plopped down next to Tony on the couch and leaned into him, “Why’s your face all scrunched up?” She asked, crumpling her face together as tightly as possible, to show him what she meant. It was adorable.

Tony put an arm around the brunette and pulled her further into his side, into a more comfortable position. Then he smile warmly at Skye, who looked like she was about to fall asleep right then and there on his shoulder.

“Just thinking.” He hummed lightly.

“What ‘bout?” Skye yawned to punctuate her sentence.

He noticed everyone else had dropped onto the various couches they had rearranged in the home theatre to face each other, they were all looking a bit tired and a lot happy.

“How glad I am that we found you.” He smiled softly, again. He’d been doing that a lot recently, instead of his usual smirks.

“Awww.” Skye patted him on one cheek and then placed smacking kiss on the other, “Thanks, ya big softie.”

He had honestly thought he had said it quiet enough for only Skye to hear, but the chorus of “aww”s from everyone else had him blushing like he never had before.

“Don’t worry.” Natasha assured him while Skye crawled into her lap, “We’ll keep your secret.”

It was odd, the sight anyone off the street would see upon entering the room, the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes joking around in varying states of inebriation (Thor had given Steve a little Asgardian ale) and the infamous Black Widow snuggling up with her girlfriend, their libs all tangled. Yes, it was odd, but Natasha could honestly say she had never felt more at home.

“Come on you, we should get to bed.” Natasha muttered into Skye’s hair and received a yawning nod in return.

The red head heaved her girlfriend up from the couch and soon everyone else followed suit, stumbling after them to the elevator. They all said their goodbyes as they reached their floor, Tony, in complete disregard for his dislike of touching, departed with hug around both women. Thor left with a jolly wave and goofy grin, Steve bid them goodbye with a friendly pat on the back and a wish for them to have sweet dreams. Clint, however, shot them both a saucy wink.

“I’m sure Laura will be over the moon about this.” He opined, waving his phone over his shoulder as he left.

“You wouldn’t take away the pleasure of letting me tell her in person.” She said knowingly.

Barton turned and regarded the pair with a soft smile and nodded once, “You deserve this, Nat. You deserve this and so much more. You both do.” He implored to them and both women had to seriously restrain themselves from crying.

“Thank you.” Natasha whispered as the doors glided closed, she just caught the nod he aimed at her before all she could see was the brushed steel of the doors.

“I like your friends.” Skye smiled lopsidedly at her, and really, how was she supposed to resist that amount of adorableness?

Natasha leant down and gently brushed her lips against Skye’s. It was simple and loving, not demanding any more, but conveying everything they had wanted to say to each other for over ten years.

“I love you.” Skye whispered against Natasha’s lips later that night, when they were in bed, wearing light cotton pyjamas and their limbs tangled together with complete ease and comfort. Together they barely took up a third of the bed and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love you too.” Natasha grinned back, she’s pretty sure she’s going to sprain her cheeks with the amount of smiling she has been doing.

The brunette yawned widely, placed another caring kiss to her girlfriend’s lips then snuggled into the juncture between her neck and shoulder and sighed happily.

“I’ve been dreaming about doing this for fifteen years. It’s much better in real life.” She mumbled sleepily to Natasha. The shorter woman simply smiled and brushed a kiss to Skye’s crown then closed her eyes, welcomed the pleasant feeling of rightness and fell into a deep sleep filled with dreams of the girl cuddled against her. Natasha could confidently say her life was looking up.

Chapter Text

“You’re clothes have arrived.” Is what Natasha says to a still half-asleep and bleary eyed Skye, currently battling against the bed sheets wrapped tightly around her.

“Wha-” Thud, “Oww.” Skye whines from her position on the floor, still cocooned in linen but decidedly more awake.

Natasha rolls her eyes, but goes over to help her girlfriend up nonetheless, even if the brunette still seems a little reluctant to leave her makeshift nest. When Skye is finally extricated from the sheets and being pulled into a standing position, Natasha explains whilst leading her into the main room, where a large, neatly packaged cardboard box is placed by the door.

“Remember the note that came with the sweats yesterday?” Skye nodded, not taking her eyes off the box wrapped suspiciously like a present, “Well, this is Stark making good on his promise.”

Nodding again, this time with a slight smile, Skye makes her way over to the box with Natasha at her side. There is another note stuck to the top of the box and she plucks it from the top whilst, via silent understanding, Natasha fetches a small knife from where it is strapped to the underside of the nearby coffee table and starts opening the box.

“Skye,

As promised, I got you some clothes. I don’t know if they’re your style, but I conferred with Maria and Natasha a bit, so hopefully they won’t be atrocious.

I hope you don’t mind that I got Jarvis to scan you to see what size you were, but he is very accurate.

It’s just basic stuff, jeans, shirts and jumpers, but at the bottom is some formal wear to choose from for tonight’s party.

Enjoy

-Stark”

“He’s really taken a shine to you.” Natasha comments, opening the final flap on the box, revealing a tightly packed plethora of clothing. “It’s sweet in a completely un-Tony way.”

Skye, however, is still stuck on the last line of the note.

“Party?”

“Oh, yeah,” The red head mumbles, rising from her elegant crouch to stand shoulder to shoulder with Skye, averting her eyes from the box of goodies to face Skye, “I forgot about that. Tony is holding a party to celebrate finally getting the sceptre.”

The brunette’s eyes flit from the note in her hands, to the box and then back to Natasha. She looks slightly sceptical.

“I’ve heard stories about Stark’s parties. Especially the one you attended that resulted in half his house being destroyed.”

The red head chuckled quietly and rested a comforting hand on the small of Skye’s back. The taller woman leaned into her touch.

“Don’t worry, they have calmed down quite a bit since then.”

Skye turns to grin at Natasha before diving into the clothes, “Well, if you’re going I’m sure it will be great.”

Natasha smiles down at the excited woman for a moment, then joins her in seeking out the formal wear at the bottom.

It turns out the selection is really quite varied and Natasha can see where her input was valued, as well as Maria’s influences. There is a tight red and white wrapped dress, a strapless dress that is the epitome of ‘little black dress’, barely covering her ass, then there is a tasteful black suit jacket along with denim jeans of the same colour and an assortment of different shirts as well as some ties and pocket squares. The shoes are a whole different matter and Skye is pretty sure that you could buy a small apartment with their accumulative cost.

Annoyingly, Skye refuses to tell Natasha what she will be wearing, and in retaliation, doesn’t tell the brunette what she will be wearing herself. Though Skye just gives her one of those irritatingly adorable lopsided grins that she is pretty sure could make her do anything, and tells her that “No matter what you wear, you always take my breath away.” And really, how else is she supposed to respond to that than by dragging Skye back into the bedroom and taking her breath away in a whole different way.

Damn Skye and her effortlessly charming ways.

When the grumblings of their stomachs become too loud for them to ignore, Skye and Natasha finally get dressed in casual jeans and t-shirts, and head up to the common floor for a late breakfast, bordering on brunch.

Clint greets both women with a loose hug, one that Skye momentarily tenses into before reminding herself that none of these people mean her harm, and wraps an arm around his back in return. He ushers them to the kitchen area where two plates of bacon and eggs were awaiting them, as well as the rest of the Avengers.

Tony gives them a “looking good” and Skye profusely thanks him for his generosity, but he waves it off with a warm smile.

“So,” The engineer starts, as the couple dig into their meals, “you looking forward to the party tonight?”

“Yeah! I haven’t been to a party in, uh,” Skye’s fork pauses on the way to her mouth and she looks up pensively, then at Natasha, “a couple of decades. I think. Rio, right?”

Natasha thinks for a second then blushes! Honest to god blushes and ducks her head to avoid everyone’s gaze. She awkwardly clears her throat before confirming.

“Yeah.” She squeaks out and Skye just grins and resumes her eating while all the other gawk.

“There is a story there.” Clint grins slyly at Natasha, who only just raised her head, her blush slowly receding.

“I think I want to hear this.” Tony grins excitedly, leaning forward in his enthusiasm. Anything that can make the Black Widow blush has to be wilder than anything he has ever done.

Natasha levels him with a plaintive look, her eyes boring into his, though he can still see the slight rose tint to her cheeks.

“Trust me,” She deadpans, “you really, really don’t.”

And, like that, the potentially embarrassing topic is dropped and they turn back to normal breakfast conversation.

After breakfast, they all congregate around the couches, apart from Skye, who insisted on washing up, and Tony, who stayed behind with her under the pretence of drying up. He hasn’t even looked at the dish towel hung from the oven door, instead he props his hip against the counter next to the sink and regards her with is ever present slight smirk.

“So, you like the clothes? I didn’t know your style so there was a lot of educated guessing going on.”

Skye rinsed off another dish and set it on the drying board, then reached for another dirty one, letting out a slight snort as she did so.

“Given that for the entirety of my life, my style has been ‘tactical gear chic’, they aren’t quite in keeping, but I do like them, yes. Thank you.”

At the stark reminder of Skye’s sheltered past, Tony’s bravado slips for a moment, but luckily Skye was still focussed on washing up, so he gathered himself and slipped around the smaller woman and lifted the dish towel from the oven door handle, then started drying up.

The only visible reaction Skye had to the conversation was a fleeting look at her outfit and a pause in her scrubbing.

Skye and Steve were sitting next to each other in the entertainment room, named so because it held one massive TV, a poker table, couches and one hell of a sound system. As Steve was still catching up on all popular things since the forties and Skye had never really been allowed to actually experience much of the real world, no matter how much free reign she had, the two were watch what Clint and Natasha had described a “cult classic”.

As far as Skye could tell, it was just a lot of violence with a guy who looked like Fury but without the eyepatch and with an afro. It was entertaining, nonetheless, and had a lot of big name actors in, but she kept sneaking glances at the poker table where Nat, Clint and Tony had convinced Thor, Bruce and even Maria to join them in a game of Texas hold’em.

She realised that Stark was probably good at poker for a civilian, given the amount of time he spent in casinos prior to his emergence as Iron Man, but if he really thought he could beat three of the greatest spies at game of lying and mental manipulation, then he was in for a shocker.

“What is your favourite movie genre?” The brunette was brought out of her musings by the blond man sat next to her.

“Huh?” She questioned, very articulately.

Steve only gave her a warm smile and nodded his head to the movie playing on screen.

“I said: What is your favourite movie genre?”

“Oh, uh,” She tilted her head in thought. In her eighty plus years of living she had only watched five films, well, she went to the cinema five times, but she spent most of that time staring at Natasha, “I don’t really know. I mean, hypothetically, it has got to be comedy, right? I like to laugh.”

Steve waited her out with that same, soft smile and then turned back to the TV.

“I guess our next movie has gotta be a comedy then.”

Skye smiled briefly at the large man and too turned back to watch the film.

For the rest of the viewing, she watched with a furrowed brow and twiddled her fingers on her lap, Steve didn’t seem to notice her subdued behaviour and when the credits started rolling they were called over to join in the poker.

Thankfully, poker turned out to be very entertaining. Skye took great joy from hustling everyone’s money from them, especially when she would end up head to head with Natasha. Suffice it to say, her less than cheerful mood did not last long.

“A little to the left! No, the other left! There you go.” Stark exclaimed.

Skye rolled her eyes, but flew down to collect another bulb that Tony had apparently designed especially for parties. He said he normally replaced the bulbs himself but it involved his suit, and that was in final stage of repairs, so he had asked, nicely, if Skye would do it. She had accepted, not realising that the bulbs didn’t actually screw in anywhere and instead had to be placed along certain power lines and in certain places for optimal effect.

She had only done five out of the total thirty and was already sorely tempted to just lift him by the back of his pants and make him place them. She could see why he wasn’t team leader, too much of a scrambled brain. A brilliant brain, but it really was all over the place.

She gazed wistfully at Clint in the corner who hadn’t any part in party preparation, apparently it hadn’t ended well in the past when he helped, due to his mischievous nature, he was just fiddling with the bow and arrows. Skye had no clue what he was doing, but he was concentrating very hard, until:

“Fuck!”

“Language.” Skye chided as she went about affixing another ridiculously complicated light to the ceiling.

She was absolutely oblivious to the looks everyone sent Steve before realising it came from above. There were a few chuckles as Skye floated down to collect another bulb, then she realised everyone was looking at her with amused expressions.

“Language?” Clint chuckled, taking his bleeding finger out of his mouth long enough to speak, then put it back.

“Yeah,” She responded shyly, “I guess I don’t really like swear words? I dunno. Ignore me.” She shrugged self-consciously and returned to preparing the lighting, frowning as she did so.

Though next time she came back to the ground, Natasha brushed by with peck on the lips and a whispered “I love you” in her ear, and she forgot about anything but smiling and tedious light fixtures. She even laughed at a few of the mini capsicle jokes.

Natasha’s reaction to Skye in black jeans, suit jacket, navy shirt and a maroon skinny tie had been pretty much what Skye had suspected, which was why she got ready an hour early. She also decided to wear more ties, it made it a lot easier to be dragged over to the bed; Skye definitely approved of that.

The brunette also prided herself on not taking Natasha against a wall when, an hour and a quarter later, they were both dressed and heading to the elevator for the party. As promised, Natasha had left her breathless with her outfit, it was elegant and classy and really damn sexy. But Skye settled for a passionate kiss in the elevator before she was dragged off by Tony to be introduced to some of his friends and, therefore, separated from Natasha.

All of Stark’s friends seemed nice enough – Rhodey was practically bouncing when she laughed at his tank story – if not a little confused as to who, exactly she was. To be honest, Skye was starting to share that mind set as the evening went by. She really wasn’t prepared for all the strange people asking her questions about herself, even if they were polite small talk, because Skye just didn’t know. She didn’t know her favourite attraction in New York or about some political controversy going on, she didn’t know her surname.

When people asked what her job was they didn’t seem thrilled when Skye eventually stuttered out “killing people”.

They looked at her with pity when they talked about horrible bosses and she accidently blurted that hers used to chain her upside down and let her starve if she didn’t do as told.

They looked at her in surprise when she pointed to Natasha when they asked if she had a partner.

And it only got worse when Tony left her side when he was flagged down by another group.

Question after question was thrown at her and she just didn’t know. She didn’t know the answers, she didn’t know what they wanted to hear.

Then it all came crashing down on her: she did not know who she was. Suddenly everything seemed too loud, too open, the questions like spears instead of polite conversation.

So, for the first time in her long life, Skye turned and ran. She didn’t know where and she didn’t care, the brunette was not really aware of much beyond the blood pounding in her ears of blurring of her vision, but when she eventually found a quieter place, she slumped onto the floor, brought her legs to her chest then stuck her head between her knees and cradled her arms over her head, trying to block everything out.

After about an hour of conversing with distant acquaintances and Clint, until he decided to skulk around the edges of the party being mushy with his wife on the phone, she finally started seeking out her girlfriend.

The first place she looked was Stark, partly because he was always the easiest to spot and because he had been with Skye. But in the circle of people that surrounded the billionaire, Skye was not to be found, nor was she with any other group for that matter.

Spotting Maria and Rhodey on their own, Natasha decided that if anyone had seen Skye it would be the former second in command of a spy organisation and an army colonel.

“Hey.” She greeted with a small smile. Ever since Natasha had come back to New York, after her failed attempt at seeking out Skye following the fall of SHIELD, she had seen a lot more of Hill and would actually consider the taller woman a friend. Which was weird, and she was still kind of used to getting orders from the other woman, but ‘Hard Ass Hill’ was actually pretty fun once you got to know her.

“Hi.” Rhodey responded, but Maria cut him off from saying anything else.

“What’s got you looking so worried, Romanoff.” Natasha was honestly glad that she had people like Barton and Hill, and Skye now, because she wasn’t naturally the most emotive of people, but they could always read her micro-expressions. It made conversation and being comfortable a lot easier.

“I was wondering if either of you had seen where Skye went?” She asked, shifting her weight from foot to foot slightly.

Hill and James gave her knowing smiles and pointed her in the direction of the unmanned, uncrowded bar. She couldn’t see anyone from her place across the room, but gave them both a grateful nod and approached the bar anyway.

As she got closer, she still couldn’t see anyone, even reaching the countertop, there was no one in view, however, as she was about to leave and search elsewhere, she heard heavy breathing coming from the other side of the bar. With a cocked brow, she elegantly lifted herself so that her torso was above the counter and she could see the other side. The sight that beheld her was enough to make her heart break.

A small figure that was distinctly Skye was curled up with her back against the bar counter, rocking back and forth rhythmically, her head squeezed between her knees. Natasha quickly lowered herself and walked around to the side of the bar and lifted up the partition so she could get behind the bar.

As she made her way over, Skye never lifted her head, which was a bad enough sign already, and she was breathing heavily and unevenly. Silently, the red head sat down next to Skye and leant back against the counter, she shifted until their sides were lightly pressed together and fought back the sob when Skye sharply flinched away, instead realigning them and rubbing soothing circles on Skye’s back.

After a few, painstaking, minutes, the brunette’s breathing finally calmed and she lifted her head from the cradle of her legs. She shot Natasha a sad smile, which the red head reciprocated, and they both ignored the tear tracks on her cheeks. The taller woman averted her eyes to the shelves of bottles and glasses opposite them and sighed.

“I don’t know who I am, Talia.” Came the pained whisper after another few minutes of mutual silence, “I had thought, for so long, that if I just got out of there, if I finally got them out of my head, that they couldn’t control me anymore.” Skye let out a humourless chuckle, “I guess I was wrong. Even now they’re messing it all up, my happy ending.”

Natasha ceased her ministrations on Skye’s back in order to lay an anchoring hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder, knowing that the best way to heal was to break.

“Over eighty years on this earth to figure out who I am and I don’t even know what my favourite colour is. Pathetic.”

At that, the shorter woman tugged Skye a little closer and placed a kiss to her temple when she came closer.

“I just… everyone asking my questions about who I am, making small talk, I was trying to be me instead of some alias, it made me realise I had no clue who I was and it scared me, Nat.” Her breath hitched in a silent sob, “It really scared me.” She finished in a soft, broken tone that pierced Natasha right in the heart.

“I’ve only ever been sure about two things in my life: I worked for the bad guys and I loved you. Now one of those isn’t true and it’s freaking me out. I can’t even have polite conversation without having a panic attack.”

“You know what, moya dusha?” Skye shook her head against Natasha’s shoulder, where it had dropped, “That’s perfectly fine. It’s okay not to know who you are when you have never been allowed to be someone. It’s normal to have panic attacks when someone questions an identity you don’t have. It’s understandable to be scared when everything you know changes and shifts around you. No one expects you to know exactly who you are after one day of figuring it out, normally it takes people twenty years to realise who they are and what role they play in the world, it’s called childhood and neither of us had it. It took me years after joining SHIELD to work out who Natasha Romanoff was and be comfortable that she was me and to not wear a mask, even now I question who I am, what I’ve done and what was done to me. But people cared about me, for a reason that still eludes me to this day, and that helped. We’re all here for you, Skye. Just remember that.”

Skye sniffled against Natasha’s collar bone and whispered so quietly that Natasha had to strain to hear it.

“Where do I start?”

Natasha blew out a long breath and placed another kiss into the brunette locks, “I could tell you that you’re strong and kind, compassionate and clever, sassy and adorable and so full of love that it pains me to think about what those pieces of scum did to you, but, even though it’s true, none of that matters. It is a matter of trial and error and, to be honest, you were doing pretty well before, you just didn’t realise exactly what you were doing. Now that you do, well, you’re going to be amazing because I know you, even if you don’t and you’re amazing.”

Skye let out a choked “Thank you” before she fully breaks down and cries into Natasha’s neck while the smaller woman holds her and strokes her fingers gently through her soft, brown hair and humming soothingly in Skye’s ear.

It takes a while, but Skye finally calms down and pulls away just enough to wipe at her eyes, and shoot a sniffly grin at Natasha who tries to surreptitiously wipe at the few scraggly tears on her own cheeks.

Placing her head back on Natasha’s shoulder and wrapping an arm around her waist, Skye settles back against the counter.

“I’m sorry.” She sighs and Nat rests her cheek on the top of the taller woman’s head.

“For what?”

“All I seem to have done in the past few days is lean on you.”

Natasha smiled lovingly into Skye’s hair, this is exactly what she meant by loving, kind and compassionate.

“I certainly don’t mind, if you’re leaning on me it means you’re here and I can help you and love you, it’s a far better outcome than I was beginning to resign myself to.”

She felt a breathy chuckle against her chest and a small, chaste kiss placed between her collarbones, an affirmation of presence more than anything.

“Look at you, all well-adjusted.”

“Oh,” Natasha grinned, feeling her Skye come back, “I definitely wouldn’t go that far.”

“I love you.”

And it really didn't matter who said it, because the answer would always be: “I love you too.”

And they sat like that, curled against each other, in harmonious silence for what felt like an eternity. Ignoring the party and its occupants in favour of revelling in the other’s company which, for so long, seemed an abstract concept.