Marvel - An old Friend

He felt a sort of self-satisfaction when the video footage was ordered, at least that would prove he hadn't been escaping. However, the victory was extremely short lived when she mentioned moving him to another room. He was baffled by how extreme she was being, seeming to be completely set on crushing him. He pursed his lips as she went on to warn him about how close he was to being thrown out.


He resisted the urge to yell back that he didn't even want her to sympathize with him, after all this, he didn't even want anything to do with her. He felt anger surge through his veins at her implying that this was all a scam to ruin her. This made it clear that she never trusted him. He felt another spike of panic at the prospect of them no longer willing to give him a chance, but he would not allow himself to beg, so once again he remained quiet.


"Steve" escorted Korav back into the room Natasha claimed will later no longer be his. He shoved him in and locked the door behind him. He stood in the silence for a solid 3 seconds before slamming his fist into the wall right beside him, stuck between loathing Natasha and loathing himself.

Natasha waited for the Captain as she watched Korav being dragged back to his room. She calmed herself with the thought of talking to Korav about this later. First of all she would need to know what actually happened. In her head were already a thousand scenarios of what might have happened. She tried to push her anger away as she felt betrayed by Kian's little stunt. It had been the worst timing after her asking Fury to consider him. She heard a dull noise from the room after


Rogers and Natasha went to watch the footage. Steve had remained silent during the whole incounter but once Natasha started playing the video, he turned to her "You're really hard on him. If you do want him to cooperate, you need to consider the prospect that he wasn't lying. After all he does have a point. He stood outside his room and tried to calm things down by trying to gain attention." Natasha stayed quiet and just stared at the video and Kian's back as he walked after the SHIELD agent, trying to stop him before hell break lose. "I'm not hard at him.", was all she replied to Cap but she knew that she might've gone too far. She replayed the video over and over again until she allowed herself to believe that this was nothing else than some sort of call for attention after she had left to talk to Korav. Eventually Rogers left the room, leaving her alone with the constant replaying of the video.


It dawned to her that she had been too hard on this stunt. Perhaps she would've reacted differently, if this had been to a stranger.Natasha had tried to establish to SHIELD once and for all that she wasn't favoring Korav. But it seemed like she had gone too far. It felt to her that she might need to apologize to Korav and for a brief second she even considered doing to. Her pride told her not to even voice something like that though. She would deal with this differently.


On her way back to Korav the agent, who she had sent to Fury, caught up to her. He told her that Korav wouldn't be moved to another cell. But other guards would be set in front of his door. Romanoff nodded and dismissed him and waited for the agent to move away. She looked after him and unlocked the still unguarded door to Korav's room. "You want to leave? There you go! I won't go after you. In fact right now, a few jets are getting ready for take off. It should be an easy move for you to steal once and departure from here.", she said holding the door open for him and even stepped out of the door way. Natasha waited for Kian to move as she looked at him. It was her way of testing that he indeed hadn't tried to escape. In the video it might look like a childish prank.

Korav didn't bother looking up at the sound of the door unlocking, nor did he when the familiar steps echoed through the small room. He distracted himself by sitting down on his bed, inspecting his knuckles. He only looked up when she opened the door, a silent glare was plastered on his face as he followed her gaze to the open door. He sighed, restraining himself at what she was saying, "I said it once, I'll say it again for you, I don't want to escape." he said coldly.


"I'm not a child, I wouldn't have willingly come with you if I didn't see potential in this. I just hate how you're waiting for me to fail. I fuck things up, Romanoff, I fucked my life, I fuck up the lives of everyone I target, and limits are a completely foreign concept for me. That prank was purely for entertainment purposes, and I don't ever think things through because for the past 6 years I've lived alone and with no one else to cater for. So yes, I fuck up, but you don't have to prosecute me for one tiny slip-up."


He paused, looking down and taking a breath, "I didn't come here to be your punching bag. I'm not here for you to prove yourself to the assholes of SHIELD. I am here to for myself. I plan to stay here, not to escape. I'm trying play by your rules, but bending them shouldn't have earned me what happened outside." anger was still seething through his words as he glared, he wouldn't allow Natasha's attitude to affect his new found path.

"Just checking because despite of how you feel right now even you have to agree with me that this little game was stupid.", she said, stepping inside and closing the door after her while casually slipping her hand into he pocket turning on the recording device. Natasha listened to what he said and quietly made her way over to his bed, taking a seat next to him. "I'm not waiting for you to fail.", she began and sighed as she glanced at him. There was a moment of silence before she continued to explain "I don't see you as my personal punching bag. If I want to release some anger, I'd go to the gym and use one of those punching bags. It's just that not even 5 minutes before your little stunt, I had talked to Fury about your potential employment and the gym. Oh, and those few requests that you had. I promised him that nothing stupid would happen and he wouldn't regret giving you a chance. But what happens when I'm on my way to my own quarters? The fucking alarm goes off and hell breaks lose because one of the best trained assassins seems to have broken out."


Without the viewers, she was way more herself and most of the anger from before had seeped away. It made her see the whole situation clearer. "Yes, I could've reacted differently. It might have been too much. My apologies for that. I'm giving you that much and don't expect more from me. But it will please you that Fury agreed on keeping you inside of this room and that hour in the gym is still on. I'm not so sure of your requests because you have to understand that this incident will have consequences of some sort. Just resort to meditation or yoga, the next time you feel bored.", she said and glanced at the wall facing them instead of him.


Natasha allowed this to settle in before adding "Believe it or not but I will help you in joining SHIELD. I'm better in pulling strings in the background than right in front of half of the crew. I need to find a balance between them thinking I won't favor you and doing what is appropriate.", she said and ran a hand through her red curles as she thought about what had happened.

He sighed, "It was dumb," he admit as he rubbed his neck, a glare still in place. "It was wreckless and I didn't think it through. Still doesn't justify what you said back there. But I don't care anyways.It doesn't matter." he said, sounding as indifferent as he could. "Again, at this point I'm not here just for you. I want to pull this off. This SHIELD thing seems promising. I'm too deep in to pull out." he said, still cold.


He was relieved the gym hour was still happening. He needed to let off steam and they both knew it. Even the prospect of not leaving the room was reassuring- he sure as hell didn't want a jail cell. The news made him cool off a bit, but he was still very pissed at being degraded like he was earlier. He cleared his throat, "I don't think I'll need you to pull strings. I have this covered. I'll prove myself on my own. I request no more favors from you." he said, acknowledging in his words that she did in fact help him out, but if she was going to remind him every time something went wrong, he'd rather not have her help him at all.

"I know that you aren't just here because I dragged you onto the Helicarrier. Believe it or not but I can tell the difference between someone willing to cooperate and someone not willing to.", she told him in a joking manner but her face remained neutral. But his reassurance calmed her down nevertheless and she leaned back and rested against the wall. Natasha sat casually next to him allowing things to settle between them and for him to release his frustration and anger about her earlier reaction to his prank.


Almost not recognizable, the ends of her lips lifted into a small amused smile as he acknowledged her help. "Well, you're welcome.", she told him simply to mock him and continued "You most certainly don't need anyone to 'help' you out." It was simply a reassurance for him but she knew that having someone from inside of SHIELD to eventually push certain decisions into the right direction. Perhaps she would need to be more subtle the next time something was happening. She hoped that helping him out with SHIELD would wipe her guilt of leaving him alone in Russia. So, even though he had requested otherwise she would still help. Just more quietly at least when it came to Kian without another outburst as soon as he'd pull such a stunt again. But she was 90 % sure that Kian had learned his lesson from what had happened not even an hour ago.


"So, you do like SHIELD so far?", she asked him sounding curiously and surprised in an attempt to get things back to normal and get some information from him about SHIELD without being too obvious about what she was doing.

He watched from the corner of his eye as she settled down next to him, the anger inside him inevitably simmered down, but he still wasn't exactly over it. He scrunched his nose at the question, "Do I like SHIELD so far?" he echoed in confusion, "Well, I've been confined in this small room for more than 95% of my time here with no interaction with anyone other than that glorified hero and the interrogator, so I can't exactly give you a straight answer. Unless, of course, you're asking if I have the urge to burn this place to the ground or tempted to strangle Captain America- then no, I don't."


He relaxed his shoulders onto the sturdy wall before saying, "I won't risk that. I have a future here- perhaps a questionable one, but a future nonetheless. As you may know, neither of us were guaranteed a future in the KGB. Work and death was the only future in our wake.". He quirked his head to the side, "I haven't held a gun for about 4 days. Feels weird." he noted, still not looking at her as the silence filled the room again.

She listened to him speak letting it sink in as well as thinking about what he had said. Natasha wasn't sure if he meant the agent or herself with interrogator. Natasha turned to Kian as he mentioned the gun. For a moment she looked at him without saying a word. "Well, guess you will need to get used to the feeling - at least for now. I doubt someone will give you a gun in the near future.", she stated the obvious while looking at him with a small frown. There was another moment of silent.


"What would be the first thing you'd do after Fury has agreed on hiring you?", she asked him out of the blue after the short lived silence had settled down. She looked at him curiously and tried to soothe the atmosphere into a more normal one. She knew that Kian was angry with her and she understood. "I mean of course you'll go on a mission. But I mean in the meantime... Anywhere you'd like to go?", she continued smiling friendly at him.

He frowned at the prospect of not holding a gun- he had grown accustomed to guns his entire life, it felt like an extension of his own hand. And yet he turned away, knowing fully well that handing him a gun would be a dumb idea regardless.


He considered the question, noting how she implied that Fury hiring him was guaranteed. "Well, seeing as how I've been almost everywhere, and well, showing my face in France or Russia would be a bit of an issue, and he'd probably want to keep an eye on me in fear of me running away so can't go anywhere obscure and uncharted like Yugoslavia ...I'd probably choose to go on deck and smoke a cigarette with acondescending glare at those pathetic guards." he answered with a smirk.

Natasha laughed at that thought. She could imagine that happen very well but she was surprised over his answer nevertheless. "Can I join you?", she asked him as she glanced over to him. and added "I'd love to see their faces." She offered him a gentle smile as she thought about his reply. "Actually I thought you would've liked to get down from the Carrier. I mean at that point you're free to go wherever you want. Perhaps with some exceptions... But apart from that you're free to do whatever you like. Perhaps it's only me but if I were you, the first thing I'd do is get down from here for a while.", she mentioned honestly and continued "Even if it's just to get some delicious ice cream or see something else."


"Would there be anything you'd miss?", she asked him and stayed quiet for a moment. "It's funny how the smallest things actually get actually back to you. To be honest, I'd do anything for a piece of the Shazka cake right now." She laughed lightly at the thought.