Chapter 4
Fury didnt realise Hill was crying when he first walked in, in fact he couldn’t even recognize it because never had he ever seen her cry. He’d seen grown men, assassins and mercenaries break down in tears and yet never did his trusty second, ever. Which is why he was surprised when she looked up and he noticed her tear stained cheeks and red eyes.
Maria Hill was by no means a loud crier or an ugly crier, she didnt sob with loud anger or weep with depressed sadness she just let the tears roll down her cheeks, staring blankly down at a random mission report, watching the ink bleed slightly as her tears hit the paper and soak in slowly.
‘Hill?’ he asks in disbelief ‘are you, are you crying?’
‘No’ she sniff and he rolls his eyes
‘Yes you are, did something happen?’ his gut drops slightly, knowing hill would never cry but for a good reason ‘is it nat? Is natasha okay?’
‘Yes’
‘Good, good’ he repeats, then almost leaves, feeling he is intruding but hill calls him back
‘Has natasha changed?’ she asks, wiping her eyes roughly with the back of her shirt and sitting up straight
‘What d you mean?’
‘Changed’ hill repeats ‘since she came to shield… since she urm’ she clears her throat awkwardly ‘met me?’
‘Yes’ there no hesitation in his answer and he sits down slowly
‘Ive done a lot in my life, seen a lot of things, ive seen a woman shoot energy blasts from her hands, seen an alien invasion, been at the forefront of protecting the whole earth and all the galaxies and yet the most beautiful and incredible thing I have seen is the Black Widow learn to be a person. When Romanoff came to us she wasnt… wasnt a real human, she wasnt her own person and here-with you she is. She lights up a room when she walks into it and when she looks at you everyone feels slightly like being sick because its kind of gross how much you guys are in love’ he laughs and maria joins in softly, wiping the last of her tears away
‘Why?’
‘Nothing, just something someone said’ maria replies quickly and fury raises his eyebrows
‘I saw belova coming out of here a while ago, you sure it isnt something to do with that?’
‘No, it was my fault, i… i let something go a bit too far’
‘Allright’ fury nods ‘and maria?’
‘Yes sir?’
‘Come out to the helicarrier soon, Hawkwidow betting pools have reached their max capacity and i’d hate to see agent Mackenzie loose his house… again…’
‘Well he shouldnt have bet against my tattoos, the man brought it upon himself’ maria says slowly
‘I suppose’ then hes about to leave when the door flies open and Natasha sprits in
‘I was at the tower’ she gasps, struggling for breath ‘and FRIDAY told me you were crying, so i ran here…. And… and you aren’t crying’ she looks up at maria and inspects her, then glares at fury, getting a knife out of her boot as she goes
‘Did you do something? Did you make her cry’ she ask in a low voice her eyes glinting dangerously
‘No nat’ maria shouts, sanding up and grabbing Natasha’s arm from behind, making her drop the knife
‘Sorry Fury’ she says then turns to the red head ‘im fine tasha, it wasnt Fury’
‘Okay… fine… but if it was theyll find each of his body parts in different continents’
‘Nat!’
‘Im not kidding, arms can stay here, leg in Europe, liver and kidney in Asia, heart in Australia’ she raises an eyebrow and fury backs into the door
‘Okay, im just going to go now’ he says quickly ‘stay scary Romanoff!’ and with that he practically runs out of the room, the instant he leaves Natasha is at hills side
‘What happened, whats the matter masha? She asks quickly, trying to read her wife’s face
‘Im fine nat’ maria tries
‘No your not, i can tell you’re not, you never cry expect at the tower around my and Anya’
‘Not true!’
‘No seriously, you havent cried this much since we watched Happiest Season for the first time-real humans never make you cry, only characters, so who can i physically murder for you?’
‘Murder them? Nat you dont have to’
‘No I want to’ natasha smiles gracefully ‘trust me if they’ve done enough to make you cry theyve done enough to warrant being killed’
‘Really? You’d kill your own sister for me’
‘If it came to it’ Natasha says off handedly and then the comment seems to actually be processed in her brain
‘What this was Yelena? What did she do? Did she say something about me or Anya, or the Red Room or something, ive told you everything’ Natasha narrows her eyes ‘where is she now, ill go talk to her’
‘I dont need you to do that nat, i can sort it out myself’
‘I know you can my love, but you dont have to, ill go and find her and fix this’
‘Okay Natasha’ Maria considers, releasing it would probably be best for all parties involved if natasha just got her way.
***
Maria comes home at 2am. SHEILD kept her after a mission resulted in an emergency extraction and the identities of 3 under over agents were compromised. Really, all she wants to do is collapse into bed and sleep for 4 hours, until she’ll return to the Triskelion, but as soon as she enters floor 79’s living room the light clicks on and Yelena comes into focus.
‘You always back this late?’ she grunts, sitting up from where shed been dozing, waiting for her sister-in-law
‘No’ maria replies quickly, dumping her laptop bag ono the floor and pouring herself some water (she considered vodka when she first saw Yelena sitting there but needed to be sharp tomorrow)
‘Oh’ Yelena seemed unhappy with this (if shed been at work constantly and avoiding her family that justified her dislike)
‘You always up this late?’ Maria asks
‘No’
‘Oh’ maria mimics, knowing its petty, but not really caring
‘Natasha said I need to talk to you’
‘Well I didn’t think you were here by choice’ maria replies quickly, sitting down on the sofa opposite Yelena
‘She said shed kick me out and never speak to me again unless I apologised and made things right’ yelena quotes and maria smirks
‘So?’
‘That means she really cares about you.’ Yelena shrugs ‘and I guess I was…. I was… wrong…’ she finds that very difficult to admit and Maria can tell
‘Thank you’ she grins
‘But not about everything’ yelena adds quickly, not wanting to give hill the satisfaction
‘About what then?’
‘I wrong wrong about you and Natasha. She needs you, and she really cares about you. I’ve never known her love someone like she loves you. She was fully prepared to cut me out for you and lets face it-im pretty awesome’ maria rolls her eyes and yelena snorts
‘But I was right about her changing. I was right that shes different ,a different person. But she talked to me-well she yelled at me and beat my ass on the mat from here to Timbuktu, and made me realise it was for the better. We used to get told love is for children, but its not. Natasha is in love with you in the gross yucky grown up way that i really dont want to think about because I dont know this Natasha. I only know my Natasha and I guess it…. It scared me to see my sister be a stranger i didn’t know’
‘Natasha is still the same person, shes still the person who you loved and shes the person who I love, shes changed, i know, but for the better’
‘I know that really’
‘good, then im sure you’d like to know that I have something for you’ Maria reaches into her pocket and Yelena sits up
‘ohhh gimme’ she grins
‘nope’ maria teases ‘not until I hear you say it one more time’
‘you’re kididng’ lena groans but maria shakes her head
‘fine. You were right, I was wrong’ she says and snatches the small card form marias hand
‘FRIDAY?’
‘I was recording Mrs Romanoff-Hill, the footage is being sent to you now’
‘you… bitch’ Yelena yells ‘dammit’
‘but?’ maria says slowly, gauging her reaction to the gift
‘oh it’s a….’ Yelena is almost at a loss for word when she open up the brand new Shield badge, it perfect, embossed with her name and status the logo on the front glowing nicely
‘wow’
‘you did it Yelena Belova, you’re an Agents of SHEILD’