An Unlikely Romance - The Avengers (Part 2)

Student Orientation

"Settling in nicely, I see. Irresponsibly, but nicely."

"You never said that I had to order things specifically from the catalogs if I was aware of other products - you let me buy the TV, what comes of that is your responsibility, Fury."

You said this while chest-deep in the biggest, softest bean bag chair you'd been able to find an advertisement for on late-night television. Partially to give you a place to nap and sleep that would keep Fury guessing, just in case he tried to send in one of his agents while you were asleep, and partially because fuck yeah, bean bag chair. Testing the limits of what you were allowed to purchase was just a secondary bonus.

"I also believe I told you to spend your money responsibly. I fail to see how this contributes anything to you long-term."

"I could get shot in the head at any time of any day; long-term planning isn't really a strong suit of mine right now."

"I thought we were past you thinking I was gonna kill you?"

"I was more thinking of HYDRA breaking in here and executing me," you taunted, raising an eyebrow only half-sarcastically. "Funny you jump to that conclusion immediately, though."

Fury sighed, that look coming across his face that you were all too familiar with. The annoyed glare, the taut jawline, the straightened spine... he was already done with your shit for the day, but he had something he wanted to say. The fact you were so familiar with that look was a little alarming to you, but you appreciated the subtleties in him you were noticing more and more as time passed.

"I can assure you that while this facility could have been compromised like the last one was, that's exactly why I chose it. This base is only an hour by car from Avengers Tower, which means you're no more than a few minutes from some seriously super-powered backup if things go south. Every floor below or above this one has a dozen or more security measures designed to prevent metahuman intrusion, including crowd control, automated turrets, and biometric scanners keyed to every elevator and door. Twenty-four seven security guards, and *that* isn't even including my two best agents being around. The only way they're gettin' through that glass in your little view-room or through one of these reinforced walls is with a dedicated assault using a lot of high-end weaponry that's hard to sneak around in downtown New York. If HYDRA comes knocking here, they're gonna draw a lot of attention, and they'll get intercepted long before they get to you."

"Sounds ominous," you noted, lacing your fingers by your head and leaning back in the cushiony chair. "So what's the deal, Fury? You usually send Clint and Natasha to check in on me, you don't show up for conjugal visits yourself."

"You may recall," Fury said, narrowing his eyes but otherwise blatantly ignoring your remarks, "that I told you a position within SHIELD was in the cards if you proved yourself trustworthy. Despite your personal flaws, both because of and in spite of HYDRA's experiments, you're a valuable asset. I still don't know that I can trust you fully, but you've done enough that I feel comfortable letting Agent Romanov and Agent Barton work with you more closely."

"How closely? I wasn't serious about the conjugal visits, but Clint is pretty damn sexy," you said, grinning wolfishly.

"Don't make me regret a decision I haven't even committed to," Fury said dryly. "There's plenty of time for me to throw your ass out on the street. You may not remember how our government works, but trust me - people with no birth records, no identification, and pretending to have no memories don't do well on the streets."

"Alright, alright, stow the threats," you sighed, holding up your hands. "Look, if you want me to start having therapy sessions or something I'm not interested."

"I was thinking more along the lines of combat training," Fury said, growing suddenly stoic. He had that mood around him again, the strange calm that seemed to come over him when he wanted to keep you from reading too much into his actions. It was like the ultimate poker face, something you weren't all that surprised by considering what you knew of him.

"Wait, you want me to fight my guards? And I won't get shot if I win?"

"If you win, I'll be damn impressed," Fury said, letting a forced half-laugh escape him. "There's a lot of people in this world, and I don't know one that could take my best men down without remembering how to fight, no matter how strong they were. But yeah, I'm alright with you taking a swing at them. Just remember they're going to be swinging back, when they think you can handle it."

"Y'know... Strategic Homeland Intelligence and Enforcement Divison... doesn't really sound too much like a military unit," you mused as Fury began to turn away. "Honestly, it sounds like someone just really wanted their initials to spell SHIELD, but more than that, it sounds a mixture of a lot of things that you wouldn't normally group together, at least not in one unit. Intelligence gathering, homeland security, law enforcement, high-level spec ops... I haven't just been watching infomercials for beanbags, Fury. I know Law Enforcement, federal intelligence agencies, and the government itself all have given people plenty of reasons not to trust them. Why exactly is SHIELD different? The very first thing you want to teach me is how to fight."

"..."

Fury paused for a long moment, glancing back at you with something that shocked you - a new look, one that you hadn't seen before.

"Ten years ago, I'd have taught you how to go undercover. Taught you how to pretend to be someone you never even imagined until that very moment, and to do it as smoothly as if you were born in that identity, and then I'd have shown you how to cover up every inconsistency in the story you told. I'd teach you how to be every politician's best friend, every mercenary's most reliable contact, and every warlord's favorite hitman. You'd work in a dozen countries under a hundred pseudonyms, and you'd slip between them flawlessly, because if you couldn't, you wouldn't have a place in my agency.

"Today? Today I don't need spies, I need soldiers. New York is still repairing the damage done by an invasion of alien forces that killed thousands of people. We couldn't even begin to predict the scope or size of the attack, much less prepare for it. A rogue AI nearly caused an extinction-level event that could have wiped out humanity in its entirety, and that happened so recently I still send my condolences to funerals by the month. Top that all off with the fact that I have less than a dozen operatives I trust to stop these things from happening, and earlier this year half of them underwent what could be generously described as a 'conscious uncoupling' from the other half... things aren't looking good. I need men and women who can fight things that twenty years ago would have gotten you locked up in an asylum just for talking about on the street."

"What the fuck is going on out there?" You asked, genuinely caught off-guard by Fury's severity and the things he was implying. "AI? Rogue forces? You had *maybe a dozen* agents to stop it, not thousands of soldiers? What the fuck-"

"The things I deal with on a daily basis are so far beyond the concerns you have sitting in this air-conditioned and paid-for apartment," Fury said harshly to interrupt your concerned questions, "that it goes without saying you still haven't made the top ten section of my priority list. If you want to make yourself useful I'm not going to deny you the chance. Otherwise, you can sit here until you or that chair finally win the battle it looks like you're fighting with each other."

"How badly are they gonna kick my ass?" You realized as the question left your lips that it was only half-sarcastic.

"Depends on how fast you wanna learn," Fury said, a similar note of humor entering his own voice.

"Alright, I'll do it. Tell them I'll wear the bruises like badges of honor. Are they going to fight dirty, though?"

Fury just laughed. The lack of even a sarcastic response to that one was... surprisingly scary. Even after everything you had been through.