Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Next morning

Natasha woke up to Skye rummaging around the room. She slowly opened her eyes and watched the younger woman for a couple of minutes letting her body wake up.
"What are you doing?" she asks after a few moments, sitting up.
"Packing" Skye replied.
"Why?"
"Because I'm leaving"
"And where exactly do you think you are going?"
"Home" the hacker answered shortly. When Skye started calling their apartment in the tower home Nat had been terrified at first. Terrified of the commitment and that she would ruin their relationship but after a long talk with Clint it now it brought a smile to her face every time.
"Why?" she asks again.
"I can't stay here Nat. And I know I'm supposed to be good at undercover stuff but I can't take this. I know Felicity has this whole thing with Deathstroke and I can't be there to help her. Because I'm stuck here. I mean half of the stuff this team does I could do alone. This whole thing is pointless. They are bigger things going on right now, you know that"
"I know honey. But you can still help Felicity from here and.."
"Why do you want me to stay here? You yourself said they you want me to come back to the tower."
"With what this team does it is too easy for them to come across something they aren't supposed to. Especially Thaiti. Hydra can't know anything else we've worked so hard to keep everything quiet, to be ahead of them... " she drifts off.
"Ward hasn't brought us useful intel in two weeks"
"Do you really want to take that chance?" Skye sighed, of course, she didn't.
"I feel so useless around here," she said while sitting down on the bed.
"I know. But just because you can't use your fighting abilities to the fullest you can still work. They won't notice if you aren't hacking something that doesn't contribute to the current mission. And you can do some other work right here in your bunk. If you started gradually spending more time in here none of them would notice" Natasha tells her.
"Except for May"
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to make her suspicious of you. I just... I don't know"
" You do know, " Skye says calmly looking into her girlfriend's eyes. Natasha looked away. She wasn't the type of person to talk about her feelings openly. Neither was Skye but they coaxed it out of each other every now and then.
"I couldn't take the way she looked at you. How they all looked at you. You don't deserve the coldness they direct towards you." Natasha tells her making Skye smile.
"Thanks" Skye whispers hugging her. Natasha looked at her confused. "For caring" the brunette explains. Sometimes Natasha forgets that the two of them didn't grow up that differently and that Skye was a lot better at hiding that part of herself. Skye had been picked up by Fury when she was 6 years old after being discovered by agents in a trafficking ring. Apparently, Fury had felt bad about the outcome since he was the one to give the order to put the little girl in the system. The thing was, that Fury didn't really know anything about raising a child and was working full-time as the Director of Shield. So instead of going to piano or soccer lessons after school, Skye was homeschooled and basically trained to be an agent starting her 7 birthday. One of the best-kept secrets within Shield. Only Fury, Hill, one doctor, and the Avengers were in the know.
"Of course, I care. You've been through a lot. And your mental health is important to me" Skye smiled and leaned over to kiss her girlfriend. It was hard for them to admit feelings even if it was to each other and Skye never took something like that lightly.
"Thank you," Skye said again.
"So you staying?"
"For a little while"
"Good. Now go get changed before Ward comes up here looking for you"
" Training with him is so boring. He is so repetitive in his attacks"
"If we are right and he is HYDRA it is good if you know everything about him. Especially his fighting style."
"If everyone at HYDRA is trained like him then it is going to be a lot easier to beat them than we anticipated"
"Let's hope for it"

15 Minuets later

When Natasha was making herself breakfast she could feel May's eyes on her.
"Did you sleep well?" May asked her.
"I didn't sleep" Natasha lied already knowing what May was hinting at.
"Oh, where were you this morning then? I couldn't find you"
"I found a spot on the plane where no one would ever disturb me," Natasha tells her while pouring milk into her cereal.
"And where would that be?" Natasha turned around to face her and smiled. She put a spoon full of cereal in her mouth and shrugged before walking away toward the cargo bay. May looked after her and sighed. Natasha had slept in Skye's bunk. She was sure of it. She just needed to find out why. And where the two knew each other from. But considering how both of them were acting around the team that wasn't going to be easy. Another thing that spoke volumes, Nat didn't like Ward or FitzSimmons.