Unexpected

Busted

"That's a terrible idea." I said flatly, my hands moving defensively to my hips, though both sets of fingers were now drumming.

"I disagree." Nat smiled. "I'm very interested to see who would win."

"Steve would." I retorted, "He was World War 2! He fought Hydra agents and Nazis! He's a freaking wall of muscle! He's had years more training than I have, not to mention a crazy high dose of a certain super soldier serum!"

"And you can throw tables around like Frisbees." Steve said.

"What?" I spun my head to look at him in shock, "You're on their side?"

"Definitely not," Steve said, holding his hands up in front of his chest in a pacifying gesture, "I don't want to fight you, Penny, but I'm also not going to let you downplay yourself and your abilities. You've worked hard in your training; you've earned your way into being an agent." He shrugged, "I think you'd have a chance of outmatching me."

"Watch out Cap," Barton's voice had a dry humor to it, "You're edging on a sappy compliment."

"Thanks, Steve." I smiled at him, to let him know I appreciated his words. He really was such a sweetheart.

"Well then, either you're gonna spar with someone to use up this rush you're in or you're gonna have to do laps." Nat said, her hands on her hips now, mirroring my stance.

I knew somewhere in the back of my psyche that Nat was no longer truly my trainer, so I didn't necessarily have to follow her instructions here, but I also knew that she had seniority over me, that she could whip my butt if she wished, and that she was my friend, so I wanted to respect her. I shrugged my blazer off and kicked off my heels. I was prepared to start running in slacks, but there was no way I was running in heels. But just as I was about to set off, Barton made a small whining sound.

"Oh come on! Cap versus Copper! What's the harm?"

"Come on Barton, just-" Steve was cut off by Barton starting to chant "Fight, fight, fight, fight."

It was obviously all in good fun, but I couldn't help but feel annoyed. "That's childish, Clint, and you know it."

"Cop-per! Cap-tain!" Nat started, a mischievous smile growing on her face as she started chanting too.

These two chanting, to my dismay and embarrassment, started drawing a crowd. Of course we had not been alone in the training gym. Three female agents had been jogging around the track slowed down and started watching us, as well as a pair of men that had been practicing with knives over on one of the sparring mats. Then, of course, a group of three combat agents arrived in the elevator, and joined into the chant straight away.

Steve looked down at me and raised his eyebrow a bit, his face pensive, like he was asking if he should tell them off. I remembered him telling me about all the fights he had gotten himself into as a scrawny asthmatic punk when he felt he needed to stand up for someone or something. I sighed and shook my head, giving Nat and Barton fake death-glares.

"Come on; let's just give them what they want." I said, dragging the words out of my mouth when what I really wanted to say was, 'let me list all the reasons why I'm not going to do this: 1.I'm not dressed for a fight. 2. I'd just like to run my energy off, thank you very much-' and so on and so forth.

Steve hesitated then nodded and we moved over to a sparing mat. To make it more even, Steve took off his shoes so as not to have that advantage over me. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"Afraid you're gonna lose Cap?" I asked with a joking grin, trying to hide the fact that my heart was hammering in fear of getting punched. I knew I wouldn't hold anything against him if this match didn't go in my favor, but I really didn't want another bruise to my face to go along with the healing glass cuts in the back of my leg.