A Different Call

Up in the Air

A.N. This chapter went in a different way than I originally intended it too, and got a lot more dialogue heavy than originally intended. I hope that you like it though, and as always feel free to comment if there are parts you like and want to see more of. I also promise to add in more descriptive elements as we go.

Natasha's P.O.V.

I woke up with a knife to Coulson's neck and based on his facial expression he wasn't really expecting it.

"I understand not being a morning person, neither is Clint, but this is a whole other level," Coulson said, taking a step back.

"Sorry sir, but word of warning, don't ever try to physically wake me up."

"Duely noted, by the way, how are you not rocking a killer hangover? I'm pretty sure you drank almost seventy-five present of that bottle that I brought."

"First, I'm Russian. Second, I've been working on building up my alcohol since I was twelve, it takes a lot to shake me." I informed him, unlocking myself from the bed frame. I stood up and started to stretch, going on demi-pointe. Stretching was always my favorite part of the morning, the stretch in my muscles straddling the line between pain and pleasure and the satisfying sound of bones cracking that accompanied it was one of the few things outside of exercise that centered me. I made my way over to the chest that was stationed at the foot of the bed. I had taken to squirreling away a granola bar or two each week and keep them in my room for just in case situations. "Are you hungry?"

"Nah, I went to the cafeteria earlier. I figured that you'd still want to keep away from the others, so I brought you back some oatmeal," he gestured to a white styrofoam bowl that sat on the desk in the far-right corner of the room. The stark white stood in contrast to the black and gray color scheme that screamed standard issue SHIELD. Maybe if I don't get fired I should actually decorate.

I thanked him as I made my way over to bowl. "I'm not sure that I want to leave the room. I'm sure that by now the news has made it through all the ranks." I mixed in the brown sugar that was sitting on top of the beige mush. "You know it's funny even three months ago I would have been proud to see the fear in the other agents' eyes. I'm sure you know how screwed up I am, 'm sure that Barton showed you my psych eval. I never really got like actual compliments, so I always measured how well I was doing by how much fear I could instill in others at by my presence, but now it feels like everything has changed. For example, I'm spilling my tragic backstory to you."

"I've always heard that I'm a very trustworthy person."

I chuckle, "Blowing your own horn there Coulson. The trustworthiness isn't that big of a surprise though. If you really wanted to you could be a great spy, looks wise you're fairly average and personality wise you're a dad."

"Wow, I think you just managed to both compliment and insult me at in the exact same sentence. And I couldn't be a spy, I don't like keeping secrets."

"Interesting coming for the man who works for possibly the biggest spy organization in the world."

"I mainly just do paperwork and make sure that Barton doesn't get killed on a mission."

"By enemies or his own stupidity?"

"Sometimes both, we almost had a mission go south due to Barton getting a bad case of food poisoning during a mission in Taiwan."

I grabbed my bowl and threw it away before grabbing some sweats and a t-shirt to change into and moving into the bathroom, "What's with you and Barton anyway? How did a communications agent end up being a SO to an ops agents?"