A Different Call

Girl Talk

A.N. Sorry for the leave of absence for the past couple weeks, but school just hit me like a hurricane so I'll try to get back on a normal schedule again and maybe while I'm out on winter break I'll be able to publish a few more chapters. Also, I chose to have Serbian as the language spoken in Sokovia purely because that's what was used for the written language in many shots of Age of Ultron.

Natasha's P.O.V.

            I was woken up at what looked like zero-dark thirty by a knock on the door. While I wasn't so eager about the interruption I was grateful as it kept me from spending the night using my desk as a pillow. I had been video chatting with Clint and I guess I fell asleep at some point in him telling me how pissed Laura was about me telling the kids about some Russian folktales, and by the kids I mean I told Cooper who had gotten assigned Russia for his social studies class and I helped him out and then the traitor told his sister -who got over her fear of wolves by now being scarred of an old woman running around in a house with chicken legs.

I stood up and felt the bones in my spine crack back into place before shuffling to the door while trying to semi-tame my hair.

"Wanda? Is everything okay?" I had begun to become closer to the young avenger over the past few weeks, but she still preferred to turn to Rogers when she needed help.

"Yes, um I just needed to talk with you?" I looked the girl up and down and noticed that she was dressed in jeans and the red jacket that she had taken from me, not that I wore it that often anyway. Apparently, my training was rubbing off on her because she added, "Maybe somewhere not here?"

I nodded and moved so that Wanda could come into the room. "Take a seat. I just have to change really quick and then we can go."

Wanda apprehensively stepped into the room and maneuvered the chair in front of my desk so that it wasn't facing the odd angle that it had been in, "Um, I don't think that whoever you were talking to is awake anymore...actually is that Agent Barton?"

I swooped in and shut the laptop, "Yeah he was just complaining about having to deal with the rugrats."

Wanda looked skeptical but didn't make any sort of comment as I finished changing.

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"So, is this café is the reason that we just say in a car for almost three hours?" Wanda asked and I parked in front of the restaurant in the heart of little Ukraine.

"I figured that a little slice of home while we talked might be a good thing, and besides there wasn't much elsewhere to go at four in the morning," I said getting out of the car and walking toward the café, one of the few shops on the street that was open.

We each got a few pastries as well as a breakfast sandwich with a Slavic twist for each of us.

"How did you find this place?" Wanda asked a few bites of food. "This reminds of what my mother would make during the holidays."

"I didn't Barton brought me here after our annual winter musical." The location and memories along with the company put in me in such a state of ease that I forgot what I was saying.

"What exactly is the relationship between you and Barton like?" Maximoff asked, a gleam in her eyes.

"Complicated," I responded, switching my language to Serbian – not that it would really stand out since the conversations in the restaurant seemed to be a patchwork quilt of Slavic languages. "Why do you want to know? This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain android that you seem to have taken a liking too?"

The girl looked down and blushed, hair falling in her face making her look every bit the seventeen-year-old that she was. "You've noticed?"

I nodded, "Don't worry I think I'm the only one who has lord knows the guys are still busy trying to figure out who should be at the top of the food chain. That's what makes my fieldwork so easy."

"You don't have to say that you and Barton are connected but if you were how could you handle it?"

"Well while still at SHIELD I was known as a cold-hearted bitch, but given how Rogers doesn't really care about what we do in our free time as long as we do what's needed of us when the time comes I don't think that's what you're really worried about." Wanda shook her head. "Clint and I do the same thing that you and your brother used to do when working for Strucker, we trusted each other. We trusted that the other would know what to do when alone in the field and when we worked together, we trusted that the other would have our backs. It's not fun but it's the only way to not go crazy."

The Maximoff girl nodded, "How old were you?"

"When?" I asked cocking my head.

"When you get experimented on... I mean I figured something's happened to you. You're the only person who can take a hit from Rogers without armor on and barley even stumble."

"Maybe I've trained you too well, but the answer is fifteen. Let's just say that nuclear weapons and getting to the moon weren't the only categories that the USSR and US were competing in during the Cold War. It's not as good as Cap's but it's better than anything the Americans had come up with."

"That's around how old Pietro and I were when we agreed to the experiments. Sometimes I regret talking him into going through with the trials."

I lay a hand on top of Wanda's, "Don't blame yourself, you and your brother did what you needed to in order to survive I respect that. Alec and I had to do the same thing." I knew the girl wouldn't tell my secrets to the rest of the team, but I knew that she was still apprehensive about joining us and connecting on a personal level is just the final push that she would need to feel comfortable. "My brother, we both joined the Red Room after our parents died but he didn't fit in as well as I did." I looked up at Wanda and knew that the connection was finally established.

Wanda went to say something, but was stopped as one of the waitresses came by with our coffees.

I grabbed my cup and raised it up a little, "Before we drink, I want to teach you a little toast that my SO taught me, and his SO taught him and now I'm teaching it to you. To us, who's like us? Damn few."

The young girl touched her cup to mine, and we drank.