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

Chapter 4

"You're WHAT?!" Clint yelled, sitting up from where he was laying down on the couch.

"I am going to be your main supervisor from now," Maria said, looking at all of the Avengers to gauge their reactions.

Clint was looking at her like she had two heads, Tony scoffed as he was adjusting one of his lasers, Steve just nodded, Bruce barely acknowledged her existence, Thor was playing with his hammer, and Natasha was avoiding her gaze, no doubt remembering was happened the last time the spoke.

The team had just come back from another mission, the third one without Natasha. Fury wanted to break the news during debriefing, but Maria thought that might be too much right after a near death mission. So, she decided to gather the Avengers in the living area of the Helicarrier and break the news to them there.

Bruce warily raised his hand, as if he was debating on whether he should ask whatever he's going to ask. "Yeah, so, what exactly is changing? I thought you were already are main supervisor, save for Fury."

Maria shrugged slightly. "Yeah, that's what I thought too, but apparently Fury thinks you all need tighter supervison."

"Why would he think that?" Tony asked, still fiddling with his laser.

It was at this moment that the laser in Tony's hand decided to randomly go off, right in the direction of Maria. Thankfully, it missed her, but she could feel the heat brush against her face, and she was pretty sure a strand of her hair had caught fire. She reached for the stray hair, hearing the familiar hiss of a flame being extinguished. Maria took a deep breath and closed her eyes for three seconds before reopening them.

"This," she gestured to the burned wall "is why."

Each one of the Avengers took a sudden interest in the ground, no one daring to look Maria in the eye.

"So," Natasha piped up tentatively, and Maria hoped she wouldn't say something that would piss her off further. "What exactly does this mean? Will anything change about your supervision, or will it be the same?"

Maria was grateful that Natasha was asking questions that actually mattered, no matter is she still couldn't look her in the eye.

"Well, as far as I know, not much will be changing other than you all will be seeing me more often. Fury had moved me to the Avengers quarters of the helicarrier and he wants me in the Avengers tower as much as possible. Your lives are still your own, I will respect your privacy, but as far as groups go, I'll be with you guy's almost all the time."

"So what I'm hearing is that you're babysitting us," Natasha said with the raise of her brow.

Maria turned to look at Natasha directly. "Aren't I already doing that with you? What's five more?"

Maria matched Natasha's raised eyebrow, returning one of her own. She could tell Natasha wanted to look away from her, but she didn't.

"I think it could be good," Steve said, breaking the silence.

Everyone turned to look at the super soldier, who was currently buttering his toast like he hadn't said anything at all.

Tony scoffed, still fiddling with his lazer. "Maybe on missions, sure, but in the helicarrier and the Avengers tower? Why can't we have our downtime to ourselves?"

"Thought this would be the last thing I would ever say, but I agree with Tony," Clint said, pointing at Tony.

"As much as I don't like this arrangement," Natasha started, and Maria gave her a weird look. "It's not like we can do anything about it. If Fury ordered her, then she'll be here."