Tell me every terrible thing you ever did and let me love you anyway// Blackhill

chapter 2

It's had been two weeks since the altercation between Maria and Natasha. Natasha was cleared for training two days ago. She had wanted it to be a week ago, hell, she had wanted it to be the second she had woke up from the damn med bay. And it still sucks that she still wasn't cleared for duty, but the good news is that she can at least move. And she definitely wasn't thinking about what had happened with Maria.

If you asked Maria, she'd say she had been busy with piles of paperwork and all different kinds of PR work to cover up the Avengers asses. Which, while that was partially true, wasn't the entire truth. Maria hadn't stopped thinking about what happened since the moment she had shut that door. Everytine she thought she had finally gotten her mind off of it, it would magically pop up again and she'd forget what she was doing.

It was annoying, really. It's not like it even mattered. Natasha wasn't her type and she certainly wasn't Natasha's type. Even if they had decided to be 'co-workers with benefits' it would've been way too risky to hide it. Not that Maria had no doubts that they could hide it. She doubted that someone wouldn't catch on. As much as she hated to admit it, the Avengers were actually observant at some times and not oblivious dolt 24/7.

"Hill," Fury's voice rang out, surprising her. She says 'surprising' because she'd never admit that she was actually scared because she wasn't paying attention.

"Yes, sir?" Hill questions, wondering was the sudden intrusion was about.

"How did it go with Romanoff? I'd thought you'd report to me, considering I tasked you with looking after her."

Maria blew out a puff of air. She was hoping that Fury wouldn't ask, considering she didn't need any more reminders about that day.

"It went fine, sir. As fine as what you could expect from trying to tell Romanoff what to do."

Fury 'hm'd' at that. A sound that was in between a huff and a chuckle.

"Well, considering she didn't rip your head off, how do you feel about training with her, just till she's back to one hundred percent?"

"Excuse me, sir?" Maria was taken aback. Sure, she had sparred with Natasha before and "helped" in training when she had defected, but on a regular basis? No. No one trained with Natasha unless they wanted to get their asses beat, which apparently is a common thing with Barton.

"You heard me. I want you to train with Natasha. And I do mean train with not train. I think we both know that you can't teach her anything when it comes to fighting."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, sir," Maria deadpanned. It was true, of course, Fury just had a very not-so-sutble way of telling people things.

"You're welcome. Now, Romanoff should be in the gym right now, so I think that's where you should be heading."

"Sir, what about my paperwork? What about the-"

"I think you should get going now, Deputy Hill."

Maria sighed, realizing there was no way she'd get out of this one. "Yes, sir."

~

Natasha had been in the gym pretty much all day. If she wasn't allowed to go on missions, well then she'd train like she was ready for one at a second's notice. Sure, some of it was also because of the pure boredom she had experienced being holed up in her room. Some of it was because she was sleep deprived and didn't know what else to do when she couldn't sleep. No one will know about that part, though. Well, mostly no one.

Clint had been the first to know, of course. He had caught her in the gym late at night one time, admitting that he couldn't sleep, and wouldn't stop bugging her about it until she told him. To be fair, he had only asked about three times before Natasha had told him. She trusted him, and trust is a hard concept for Natasha to grasp at times. She knew it was from her training.