Marvel - An old Friend

[Jessy753]

It was a sunny day and Natasha was seated in a park. She discreetly observed the people around her as she wore some sunglasses. Like most people, who had settled down in the park, she seemed to be sunbathing as she wore some shorts and a top. Actually she was just in disguise as Fury had told her to catch someone called 'K' and some sources had told her he would be here today. But she doubted that he would actually appear, today. She had been trying to get a hold on him for a few weeks now and she had done nothing else than hunt a ghost.


After a while something caught her eye and she casually sat up and acted to stretch herself from lying on the ground for too long. Natasha tried not to appear looking for too long at one spot but something like a dark shadow had appeared in the corner of her eye. Chances were high that she had actually spotted something instead of her mind playing a trick on her as she began to feel bored over being not able to do something productive for weeks. She had asked in favors everywhere from the CIA to KGB. But no one had been able to give her precise details on the mysterious person named 'K' but everyone told her the same that he had to be stopped.


The shadow was her only clue that something fishy was going on in the park and Natasha didn't want to wait any longer. Slowly she stood up and removed the lose grass from her backside before casually walking to the region where she had seen the shadow. Given her total lack of success lately, she doubted that she would actually find K.

 

[Kian Romanov]

Kian's eyes were locked on the target, the black shades did a particularly good job at hiding this. James Leon, CEO of multi-million dollar company was having a laugh with his family. Korav blended in with his surroundings in his summer attire as he subtly trailed the man, waiting for the family to head home. One glance over his shoulder had proved that this was a job that couldn't be done at a park. Leon's location was one he'd been tracking for a little over a week, he had to admit the man was good as hiding his trails. It was unusual, however, that the man didn't have any body guards around.


He sighed, blocking the voice of Leon's two young sons laughing. As soon as the man finally got up, seemingly to leave, his interests finally peaked. His finger twitch to pull the trigger as he watched the man board his car with his family. He memorized the man's license plate number, just in case he lost him in the traffic. Korav hopped into his own dark car as he trailed the man to his estate. He made sure to leave a gap between him and the target, no suspicions were raised.

 

[Jessy753]

Once she had walked over, she was only able to see a man entering his dark car. Instantly Natasha memorized the license plate and into what direction the man had taken off. She pulled out an device to identify the driver of the car as she typed in the number of the plate. A random pictured with the name 'Robert Smith' popped up on the screen. But something about that seemed fishy to her like it wasn't matching to the person, who she had seen the back of. Within a second, she decided to follow the stranger. It might be a dead end but at least it was better than waiting on someone, she might never be able to find within a huge crowd.


Natasha hurried to her own car. Shield had given her access to a low key vehicle. She headed off into the direction, in which the man had taken off earlier. But her hopes were low to actually catch up to the man. Taking up her phone, she called SHIELD as they should be able to track down the dark colored vehicle and give her the coordinations or an address for her to drive up to. Once her call was answered, she simply ordered "Here's Agent Romanoff. I want you to find the vehicle of Robert Smith. The license plate is 565 AGZ. I need you to track the car down and give me the coordinations!". She stopped at a red light, searching for the dark car while the agent of SHIELD looked tracked down the car.


A few minutes later, she received the needed information and she drove into the better looking part of the city. Natasha drove slowly as she didn't intended to make a scene. She passed by the dark car and parked her own vehicle a few houses down the road as she didn't attempt to make her possible suspect suspicious of her. Staying in the vehicle, she turned around and tried to see the person inside the car. Something about the man was familiar to her but she wasn't able to tell what yet.

 

[Kian Romanov]

Karov leaned back in his leather seat, adopting a more casual position. His eyes were still strained on the Leon's car. The traffic made it impossible for the man to disappear, but the slow pace was making his exhaustion catch up on him. He hadn't slept in 30 hours, which usually wouldn't be a big deal if he hadn't spent those entire 30 hours on his feet. His client's instructions were very clear; he needed to deal with this mess of a CEO as soon as possible. A quick and clean kill. Why was he supposed to be killed? He didn't know. In fact, he preferred to not know.


He cursed under his breath as the car took an unexpected turn to the left. There were 2 lanes of traffic separating him from that exit, he knew going for it would only bring attention his way. He pushed his hair back in frustration as he monitored Leon's coordinates on the panel in his car. He wasn't too far off, the next exit would lead him towards him. He just hoped the target's car wouldn't be too far off for his monitor to loss ability to track. He pushed his black tinted shades further up the bridge of his nose as he turned on his blinker to the left.


He gradually made his way to the lane of choice, the next exit only being 4 minutes away. He'd occasionally check his mirrors, just to double check there weren't any unexpected guards. He also measured the possibility of Leon leaving the traffic to avoid him but quickly ruled it out since he had done absolutely nothing to raise suspicion. The job was supposed to be much easier, yet here he was, exhausted and struck in a sea of cars.

 

[Jessy753]

She checked the license plate once more and continued her research on the man for a moment. Both google and the SHIELD database offered her more than one Robert Smith. After a brief moment, she watched her suspect get out of the car and walk up to one of the expensive houses. He entered the house without any problems. Coursing under her breath, she watched the suspect retrieve keys and open the door to one of the houses aligned at the street. "Another supposedly dead end...", she mumbled to herself and got out of the car. Stretching herself for a moment, she walked to the trunk of her car. Natasha wanted to check the doorbell nameplate. Just to make sure that the man really was Robert Smith and not her mission. But her experience told her that her suspect didn't live in such an open and expensive area. It would only raise suspicion.


Natasha retrieved something that looked like junk mail from the trunk of her car. Preferably, Natasha would have rang the doorbell and introduced herself as a rep of a random product. It would have helped her to talk to the man and maybe manipulate him into telling her some information about himself. But her clothes, which she had chosen to wear for her day in the park, were too casual for that task. Wearing shorts and a top didn't imply the needed integrity. With a sigh, she made her way to the house and stopped at the door and shortly checked the nameplate, on which 'Smith' was written. Feeling confirmed in her suspicion that this man wasn't 'K'. In case that someone watched her, she pushed the junk mail into the mailbox and walked back to her car.


Trying to make up her mind of what to do now, she slid into the car. For a brief moment, she considered going back to the park. But the probability that 'K' was still there was very small in case he had ever been there. She sighed to herself and considered going back to the Helicarrier for the day. Natasha needed sleep as she hadn't slept in a few days. She had hunted a ghost, who definitely didn't want to be caught very successfully. Running a hand through her short, red curls, Natasha checked her phone for any news regarding her suspect. The last few days K had been very silent, leaving no trails. She assumed that 'K' was on a mission as well because as effect of not leaving trails as he had been in the past, Natasha had recognized a small but constant trail. But a few days ago it had stopped.

 

[Kian Romanov]

After finally escaping the frustrating traffic, it took 6 minutes to be tailing the business man once again. As the roads got emptier, he made sure to keep a large distance between them. He could almost predict where the man was heading by now since a fancy neighborhood was pretty near. After another 15 minutes of idle driving, Leon's car halted and he knew better then to stop and wait for him. He made the decision to slowly surpass the car now parked at the side of the road. As long as his car was being tracked, driving in front of him wasn't an issue.


He tried to keep his speed moderately slow as he noticed another car pullup beside Leon's. A switch job? Korav scoffed as he spotted the weak trick. A split second later is when he noticed the real trick. Not all the family members had switched to the other car, each car was probably heading to a different location to ensure the family's safety. He couldn't tell which car Leon switched to, he cursed under his breath before he decided to go with his instinct and follow the first car. As he drove in front of the now moving car, he wondered what this guy could have possibly done to make him that big of a target. He shrugged it off, noticing the car behind him was slowing down and going into the gate of a big house. When he was sure, he waited until the car was completely out of site as he parked half a mile away from the gate.


He rested his head on the steering wheel for a few seconds, which was his way of saying "I'm tired but lets do this". He walked out of the car, yanking a gym bag from his back seat. With his shorts and T-shirt, it looked like he was walking back home from a gym session. His hopes were high for Leon being inside, otherwise he might as well use the sniper on himself. He tried his best to make a scene of looking for his keys in his pockets before deciding to jump the fence, as if it was where he resides. The premises was relatively empty. No pesky gardeners or any guard dogs. The heat detector in his hand revealed there were only two people inside. He decided to settle down in an area facing the glass surface of the house, but cannot be spotted from anyone in the inside.

 

[Jessy753]

Just as she wanted to start driving, she checked her back view mirror and witnessed something strange. She frowned as a car pulled up to another one and watched some people getting out of one car and getting back inside the other. One car started to drive into one direction while the other one took of to the opposite direction. She watched the whole scene, wondering what was going on. As soon as one of the car passed her own, she acted to apply some lipstick on her lips as an explanation while someone was seated in a supposedly parked car. Just as she was about to start driving another car passed her own, which made the whole scene even more ominous to her.


Natasha needed a moment as she took the whole scene in, before she started to pull out of her parking space and drove slowly. Without even realizing it she followed both cars into another part of this area. First as the second car pulled into a gate, she noticed that she had subconsciously followed them. With a shrug, she continued driving but noticed the first car, parking somewhere supposedly near. Continuing her ride, she watched a man getting out of his own car and retrieve a bag. Natasha slowed down as soon as she realized he was walking back to the gate. She pulled into a parking pot as well and retrieved her sun glasses from the glovebox.


Whatever was going on here, Natasha was sure it needed some interrogation. Even if this might not be K, it could be worth taking a closer look on. She started to casually walk back towards the previous gate. She shortly checked the license plate of the stranger in the SHIELD database. Unfortunately, there was no hits within the database. She frowned a little and spotted the driver again as he rummaged in his back. Natasha casually switched the sides of the street. So, hopefully the stranger wouldn't spot her and get suspicious of her. With a frown she watched him hop over the fence.


"What is going on here?", she mumbled silently to herself and hurried back to the other side of the road. Natasha was sure that whatever was going on, it wouldn't end good. With some luck, she had found the mysterious 'K', which she doubted after all the bad luck. She jumped over the fence without making any noises. The man, who she had followed, hadn't recognized her yet. But he was occupied with some sort of device. Cautiously she tiptoed over to him.

 

[Kian Romanov]

He was on autopilot by now, putting on his black leather gloves, connecting all the pieces of his sniper and setting up the stand. His mind was going over the plan and the back up plan. As soon as he spots the man through the glass front, he'd shoot. The shattering glass would cause a bit more commotion than he'd prefer, but in an instance like this, anywhere closer than where he was seated would make him exposed to the security cameras. Worst comes to worst, he'd have followed the wrong car. He concluded if that's the case, he'd just have to wait until the family members leave the house and visit or see the father, then the chase would happen all over again. Another unlikely scenario would be missing his shot, he almost laughed out loud at the unlikelihood of that.


He brought his eye closer to the lens, immediately spotting what looked like a maid passing by. The head detector showed that the second occupant wasn't too far off, he wasn't moving though, which meant he was probably just sitting down, hopefully not taking a nap. In a split second the red blur on his monitor had moved, and he could finally see him through the glass of the mansion. It was James, he could almost do a backflip from joy. He perfected the angle of his gun, aiming right at his head, fingers tingling to pull the trigger.

 

[Jessy753]

Natasha first recognized the device than the gun. She had been correct of following the stranger. Here she was in a foreign garden with someone with a gun. She could kick her butt for leaving her own gun back in the car, which left her unarmed in such a situation. Those dead ends must have made her lazy because normally, she would never go unarmed into such a situation. Fortunately, she could still easily stand her ground in case it would come to a combat. She moved quietly towards the man with the gun as a person appeared at the window. Perhaps it was the man from one of the cars. But Natasha didn't care as the man in front of her was the current threat.


Without a second thought on what to do, she told him: "I wouldn't do that, if I were you!". Before the man could react, she kicked the gun out of his hand and punched him. With any luck, the surprise attack was bringing him out of concept, which would gain her valuable seconds to reach for the gun to arm herself. Natasha didn't wait for the man to realize what was happening but jumped for the gun, trying to arm herself against him. Her fingers moved around the handle of the gun and she pointed it at him, as she got back on her feet. Natasha expected him to attack her any moment. "Who are you?", she demanded to know.

 

[Kian Romanov]

He was so close. So. Close. A familiar voice pierced the silence as a fist collided with his jaw, forcing him to take a few unsteady steps back as his gun was snatched. He was taken off-guard, but he had to react as quickly as she acted. He ignored her curious question, pouncing at once to grab the gun's shaft, pointing it away from him as he attempted to trip her by sweeping his leg under her. It didn't go as planned since her grip on him forced him down with her. The power struggle for the gun was now on the ground as it went back and forth between them.


In that second the face in front of him clicked. the figure with now disheveled red hair was no longer a stranger. He let go of the gun and took a measured step back. "Romanoff? was all he could ask, not entirely believing his eyes.

 

[Jessy753]

As soon as she had lost her balance, she snaked her leg behind his knees to pull him down with her. With a thud she landed on her back, which caused her to lose her breath for a moment. Natasha didn't allow her body to relax but she tried to gain the gun as she didn't plan on dying today. Especially if she was still on a mission and had just followed her instinct.


She quickly grabbed the gun and pointed it at the man, who had suddenly taken a step back. With a confused look on her face, she got onto her feet. Now, she was able to look at the man for the first time. Fast she hid her confusion and looked at the man calm and collected. Natasha was taken aback as he called her by her name. Somehow she expected an ambush as the sudden change of demeanor didn't make any sense to her. Taking a good look at his face and she realized who stood in front of her. "Kiav?", she replied sounding surprised as her usual guard trembled for a brief moment.


Despite of what she would've normally done, she lowered the gun a little but kept it pointing at him. "What are you doing here?", she asked him. Slowly shaking of the surprise as she looked stern at him.

 

[Kian Romanov]

"A job," he replied defensively, "and as much as I'd love to chit chat, Nat, I need to get this over with." he took a moment to eye her, it had been quite awhile. He assumed that now that she'd established who he is, she'd give him the gun back. But after she took a step back and tightened her grip on the gun when he reached for it, that's when he started doubting her loyalties. He knew that she had left the KGB (completely unannounced) but had no idea she had completely switched sides.


He was glaring daggers as all the possibilities flew through his mind. "Give me my gun back." he said in a hostile tone many would fear. Would he fight her for the gun? He had a dagger stuffed somewhere in his gym bag, but she had a gun pointed at his chest. Did he want to fight her? The familiarity of her presence was enough to suffocate him.

 

[Jessy753]

Natasha looked at him as her thoughts were running wild on whether or not he was a potential threat to her. The way he looked at her didn't imply an attack. She had always wondered what the KGB told about her after she had left to fight with the opposite side. As soon as she reached out for the gun, she stepped back and pulled up the gun pointing it at his chest. She wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger and she simply replied in a gentle voice as she tried to defuse the situation "Don't make me pull the trigger, Kian. But don't be silly: I won't allow you to kill this man."


She watched him carefully but appeared casual at this point of conversation. Her mind was running through the facts that she knew about him and something striked her. Some of the details sounded awfully familiar to the facts, which she had read about the mission. She looked at him and her stance shifted a little from casual to careful. "If I asked you to come with me, would you?", she asked him and continued "This garden isn't the best for a reunion." Natasha still sounded casual but she wasn't entirely sure if it tricked him. After all they had gone through, he should know her better than that.


Her gaze fell on his gym bag, she was sure that he had brought along more than just one weapon for this job. But the question was if she was still valuable enough to him that he would leave them in the bag. Natasha hated to expose herself that way but she pulled the gun down. "We can keep this on the good side, Kian. After all we went through together, we shouldn't start fighting each other."

 

[Kian Romanov]

Korav quirked an eyebrow at her, confused but still very much defensive. "You can't be serious." was all he could say, trying to keep his face neutral. "I have been tracking this man for over 5 days, Black Widow." he made sure to add emphasis to her code name, "You can't simply barge out of the shadows and expect me to follow an order." Perhaps she had abandoned her old ways, but they both knew she was a capable fighter, he had to make no sudden movement, after all she was the one with the gun. His gun.


He almost laughed at her suggestion, "I have a job, Romanoff. My French client will have my head if I don't get this done. I can't just leave." He then weighed the possibility of her luring him into a trap, some swat team waiting for her to weed him out. With two simple moves he could have her dead with a dagger piercing her heart, chances are she'd shoot him the second he moves. In this situation, there was no winning. To his surprise, she put the gun down. Why didn't he feel the urge to take advantage of that?


"There is no good side." He replied, hearing someone saying his name was a bit foreign to him. "We're not on the same team, remember?" he seethed, only now realizing how betrayed he felt. He'd assumed she might have quit the field all together, not worked for the opposite side. "You declared war on me as soon as you took that gun out of my hand. What are you doing?"

 

[Jessy753]

"And I have been tracking someone called 'K' for weeks, now. Seems like we both are lucky today.", she answered and looked for every little movement, which indicated some kind of attack. She held the gun next to her but was ready to aim at him and pull the trigger at any time. If he decided to kill her, she would take him to hell with her. "Do you honestly think that your French client is the only person, who would want to see your head rolling on the ground? For heaven's sake, we wouldn't be good in our job, if not at least 10 people liked us dead.", she told him with a slight smile.


"There is indeed no good side.", she agreed with him before continuing "I can't be on the good side until I've erased the red in my ledger." She looked at him for a moment as she estimated her next steps. "What I meant was that we don't have to end this with anyone of us losing blood. We could just leave and catch up. How does it sound?", she told him with a gentle smile playing on her lips. "Just the two of us. Talking and maybe live through some parts of our past. Come on, go for it!" Somehow she knew that he wouldn't kill her and as long as he wouldn't attack her, she would remain friendly and casual towards him.


"We could be on the same team again, Kian. I never meant to leave you behind. But there was no going back to Russia after... After I turned my back to the KGB.", she told him truthfully. Shortly Natasha looked regretful at the memory. To her he still was some kind of friend despite of what had happened. As soon as she changed her stance a little, her mask was back on and she looked as casual and calm as ever. She took a step forward towards him but made sure the gun was out of his reach. "I never declared war on you. I simply prevented you from killing someone. Look at that man, he could have children and a wife! You would bring hell to his family and the ones he loves!", she told him as she counted on his humanity.

 

[Kian Romanov]

It made sense now. She was asked to find him; it wasn't some odd coincidence that she just so happened to run into him. "My job." he corrected, "Not our job." She seemed so relaxed, not in anyway suspicious. There is nothing he wanted more than to "catch up", and by catch up he meant figuring out what the hell she had been doing for the past few years. He let his guard down, but only slightly. That light smile and gentle tone was one she'd used before. Her gun was nothing compared to that manipulative smile. And yet, it was oddly comforting.


The reality of the matter was that the mission had been compromised. He couldn't go on to kill the man (even if he could), with a witness he could not dispose of. No, he had to wait for another time. She was coaxing him by using "just the two of us", "be on the same team again", "leaving you behind", and part of him felt even more betrayed that she was using his own almost nonexistent emotions against him. He did a good job of blocking out her attempt to appeal to his humanity, because in reality he wasn't sure he had much left. The single deadliest agent in the world was here telling him about love and family. Something was definitely off with her. He wasn't going to waste his breath to say he couldn't care less about the man. No one becomes that rich without breaking a few dozen laws.


"I won't kill him." he said, "But I need you to answer this question as honestly as you can. Is there sniper on top of one of these buildings waiting for your signal to wipe me out? Or are you planning on taking me down yourself?" he was being as blatantly honest as possible. She obviously worked for some heroic bullshit. She wouldn't let a man like him walk free, especially since she knows what he's capable of.

 

[Jessy753]

"Do you really think that my job now is so much different from the one we used to have in Russia?", she asked him and continued "The difference between your and my job is that no one tries to brainwash me and I am able to say 'no'. That's the big difference from my life now and the one back at the red room" She kept on smiling at him as she could see the way he looked at her that it worked.


Nothing on her outside let off how she felt deep down inside. She hated manipulating someone like Kian. He was the only person, who she had wanted to take along to her life at SHIELD. One of the few friends, who she had back at the KGB. As well as because Natasha knew that the man most likely had done something really bad to piss off the people, who had hired Korav. But most likely he deserved life more than she did. Here she was telling him things about love and all that jazz. But none of them knew anything about it.


"No, there isn't", she answered truthfully and looked at him. The question had hurt her as he had obviously expected her to do something like that. Natasha wasn't capable of locking all the hurt away. Her smile faltered a bit and her eyes told their own story about the pain, which his question had triggered inside of her. "I'm alone here and probably wouldn't stand a chance of taking you with me to my car as long as you don't follow me voluntarily. No one's going to kill you. But I'd bring you to a SHIELD base, where we can talk", she told him and managed to keep all emotions out of her voice.


Taking a deep breath, she showed him his gun. "I will take you down, if you kill this man or attempt to kill me.", she told him and continued "We both know that I'm more than capable of fighting with you. If you decide on fighting me, I'll drag your unconscious self to the car and drive the SHIELD base, which I have mentioned before. Otherwise you are more than welcomed to join me voluntarily and you can ask me whatever you want to." Her face was stern as she told him the truth. Natasha waited for any kind of reaction. She knew that either she would be dead in a second or Kian would go with her.

 

[Kian Romanov]

Only now did he acknowledge that he was fucked. 30 minutes ago the worst case scenario was missing his target, now it was getting dragged to the "SHIELD" base where he was not guaranteed his freedom. He was yearning to ask what the hell it was but his mind was too occupied going through plans. Fighting would leave him with a bullet through his chest, because Natasha was definitely not going to be taken by surprise with that huge sniper in her hand. The second would be running, would she shoot him down like a deer? Maybe he could wait for a chance to run when they were reaching the car?


He didn't have much time to go over it before her stern look prompted an answer. He knew even if she decided against shooting him if he attacked her, the chances of him being victorious weren't very high. It wasn't just her ability to shoot straight that made her special. He hated this. He hated feeling vulnerable. He hated being forced to do something. "Lets go then." was all he could reply, with a glare that would make a serial killer whimper, he walked in front of her towards the fence. Many in his situation would call this the walk of shame, but with his head held high, he looked like he had succeeded in the mission. "I don't know what this SHIELD thing has done to you, but I don't like it at all."

 

[Jessy753]

The glare he gave her didn't even influence her. She followed him causal. "Would you have preferred me to kill you right here? Without even batting an eyelid?", she asked him back as that's what she would've probably done in her past. It had been her job as an assassin to shoot and torture people without asking why. Natasha had been great in doing so and that had been with what she had earned herself a reputation. As soon as they reached the fence, she hopped over it while holding the gun and looked at him. This was the moment of truth for both of them: Would he or wouldn't he come along?


"SHIELD is an organization, which tries to remain world peace and tries to keep things from the public eye for which people are not ready to see like aliens or people with special talents. In fact we try to help those people and help them to control their talents.", she explained and continued "And sometimes we have to take care of threats, who seem to kill various people. That's where I come into view. I have to catch those threats." Natasha gave him a pointed glare. She looked at his gym bag. "Do you mind me borrowing that?", she asked him as walking around with this gun in sight probably wasn't the best idea.

 

[Kian Romanov]

His eyes narrowed, not sure what to answer that question, he chose not to at all. Regardless whether she was an assassin or not, he knew she wouldn't have killed him. This was his life. Who was she to waltz back in demanding he should change it? He nodded along at her explaining what SHIELD was, but as soon as he approached the fence and was asked to hand over the bag, he paused. He hesitated, the daggers in the gym bag were his only hope of escape. He turned around, grabbing the gym bag and shoving one of the porcelain daggers into his waistband while his back was towards her and with a tree hopefully disrupting her view of him. He turned around, throwing the gym bag over to her as he climbed down the fence and into view.


He had no direct plans for the dagger but their porcelain nature made them invisible to metal detectors, he had no idea where he was heading and what might happen there. It was smart to be prepared. He watched her conceal the large weapon, his senses peaking.

 

[Jessy753]

She could see the hesitation in his movements as he turned around and handled on his gym bag. She could guess what he was doing there despite of not being able to see what he was doing as she would have done the same. It took a moment too long for him to toss the gym bag over to her. "Are you planning on killing me in my own car?", she asked him casually as she shuffed the weapon inside the bag and took a quick look inside the bag. The fact that there were no other weapons inside the bag only confirmed her earlier assumption.


"That way.", she nodded towards the direction, where she had parked her car. Natasha waited for him to start moving first and watched his movements closely. She wouldn't allow her own emotions into the mission. She had already done the mistake of not just knocking him out to drag him to the SHIELD base without any troubles. But deep down she knew that this wouldn't be as easy as she hoped it to go. She knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't voluntarily go to SHIELD even if she promised him no one would either kill or torture him. They were both trained not to spill secrets and preferably die before marching into the enemy's field.


Shaking her head lightly, she tried to keep everything emotional about this case out of her head to keep her straight thoughts. She wouldn't allow him to creep onto her. Patiently she waited for him to make a move and deciding over whether to fight or to go to SHIELD as the weapon was inside the gym bag, now, which left her more or less defenseless against him. If someone didn't count her fighting skills in.

 

[Kian Romanov]

He found himself smirking, of course she knew. She wouldn't be herself if she hadn't known. "No," he replied just as casually, "Too messy. You'd be expecting it so chances are I'd be too injured to really make a run for it. And I'm sure whoever sent you will send someone else to deal with me. Then we'd both be dead." He halted, crossing his arms. He could run now, since the gun was concealed. She'd run after him, doing her best not cause a scene while doing so. But what then? Tackling him to the ground with the possibility of someone seeing? He wanted to talk, not be interrogated. This SHIELD thing did not sit well for him at all.


"I have an alternative idea." he mused, and even though he stood quite a few inches taller than Natasha, he knew the advantage wasn't necessarily his. "The reality of the matter is that I won't be going to the base with you. Not willingly, at least. I'm wanted in at least 82 countries, walking into an a place with the acronym SHIELD doesn't feel like a good idea. I could run and I could fight you, but then both our covers will be compromised. Therefore my proposition is to either head to a more private place to discuss matters or even better, you turning around and telling them it was a false lead. I'll be good and pretend this never happened and I won't lay a finger on James Leon."

 

[Jessy753]

Natasha looked at him and laughed a little. "How kind of you. What a reason to not kill someone", she answered as she sounded amused and added sarcastically "I'm sorry if my blood is too messy for you to clean up!". She looked at him and arched her eyebrow as she watched him decide what his next steps were. For her it was easy, she'd either chase him or unpacking the weapon and a simple shot into his knee would do the rest. It might not be the most elegant way but way more efficient that chasing and tackling him.


He should know better than intimidate me with his height, she thought to herself as she looked up to him. She had tackled enough people way bigger and stronger than herself than showing any effect by him towering her lightly. "Do you honestly expect me to turn my back on you and simply shrug this off?", she asked him and continued and gestured towards the man inside that house "We both know I couldn't care less about that man. But it's not up to us to decide about someone's life", she told him with a stern look on her face as she thought about his offer.


"Let's say I was interested in a private place discussion. Who says I'd get out of there alive?", she asked him and crossed her arms. She continued to speak "You won't run away from me. There are more likely scenarios that I get out as a winner based on the fact that I'm still the one with your weapon than you will get out of here alive. Especially because I would continue on searching for you and that time I wouldn't come without a team to help me."

 

[Kian Romanov]

He rolled his eyes, he hated when she didn't sound like what he remembered her to be. It made him feel uneasy. "I do, yes." he replied with a shrug, "You could easily do an old friend a favor by walking away. Tell SHIELD I got away." he knew there was no way she would, but it was worth a shot. Her concern made sense, she obviously didn't want to blindly walk into a trap. And it just occurred to him how taking her to his headquarters, even with no ulterior motive, is a dumb move.


"How about this, we go to one of the cafes in this block. Find ourselves one not particularly crowded, have a coffee and talk. I can't ambush you in public; you'd be 100% safe. No weapons, no combat, just words." He threw his arms up defensively. "I can't try anything. But God knows I'd try everything to avoid that base."

 

[Jessy753]

"Without me looking hurt. Come on. Even the dumbest person would know that I got sentimental and allowed you to leave.", she told him and looked bugged for the first time as she slipped her guard a little. Either Korav had gone lazy since the last time she had seen him or he did underestimate her. Either way it annoyed her and she wouldn't allow him to slip that easy away. If both of them liked it or not, he was still her mission and she didn't attempt on searching for him once again.


She stepped closer to him as a random thought stroke her. "How about this? We go and find a hotel room like in old times.", she began to talk sounding gently and daring as a the same smile from before crept on her lips. "You can choose the hotel. So, you can be sure that I didn't ambush you and I can be sure there's no one around to start ears dropping on us. Then we can see where things lead us. I mean just two people re-living their past.", she drew out her suggestion. It would be easier for both of them to talk and in any case to fight for what they wanted. In any case it would be easier to maneuver him to a SHIELD base in the end than to start putting up with him in a coffee shop with people inside.