"You have to feel your own weight," Natasha said, trying to find a way to impart without abusing the way she'd been. "You have to be able to find the center of your balance and the motion in your fingertips and you need to hold them both in your head at one time."

"This is," Skye said balancing on one set of toes in the chill of the evening air, "surprisingly exhausting."

"Good awareness," Natasha said, smirking. She would've been scolded for a comment like that, but she didn't feel like that was right. You had to understand your own experience in order to be able to act. "Remember that your body is always informing to you and on you, you have to listen to it but not obey it."

"So, uh, you and Bruce, you getting it on tonight?"

That's not an appropriate question for an instructor, Natasha wanted to spit. It hadn't been that long ago that she'd been training in the Red Room. "We're together." The patio's position gave her a view out into the Nepalese city, where life thrummed with activity. The air was cleaner here than it had been the last time she had come - Electric vehicles were coming to predominate and coal, oil, and gas were on the decline.

"You uh, ever do-ugh-ne it with the big guy?"

"What?" Natasha said, caught off guard. "Eww. No."

"I think it might be int-"

"That's not funny," Natasha said, annoyed. "The big guy has the emotional maturity of a five year old at best. Bruce… is secretly eighty."

"Sorry." Skye was starting to look really strained now by the exercise. "You're right, that would be messed up."

"It would be," Natasha said, by way of forgiveness. Most people just hadn't thought about the implications at all. "Put your foot down." Skye sank onto one foot with a visible relief in her face, "Now the other one." And Skye was back to standing on both her feet. "Good."

Skye smiled at the meager praise, "Praise, am I defrosting the ice queen?"

Natasha was working really hard at this and Skye didn't seem to be taking it seriously at all. "You know this is important."

"It is?" Skye asked, wiping the sweat from her brow and grabbing a water bottle.

Natasha was finding that her pupil was not very serious as a person. There wasn't anything wrong with that. It was good to have a sense of humor. It clearly helped Skye cope with her childhood issues. If Natasha told herself that enough, she might start to feel it and not just think it. "You're taking the exercise regime I prescribed seriously."

"And it kicks my butt every evening," Skye said. She walked out to the edge of the patio and looked out over the city. "It's really beautiful, you know."

"You excited to leave it and go camping?" Natasha asked, keeping a smirk off her face.

"Was that a joke? From the Black Widow?" Skye said, leaning over and giving her a shoulder tap. "We're besties now."

"Don't let Clint hear you say that." Natasha knew that Skye was kidding.

"Oh no," Skye said, laughing. "What's he going to do? Shoot me with an arrow? He knows it's the twenty first century right, we have guns now."

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"Well, he'll look sad for a few days."

"Kinda prefer the arrow to be honest."

"Oh boy does he ever know. A man in touch with his feelings, its own special super power." It had saved Natasha, after all.

"You guys are really tight," Skye said after a pause. "I wish I had that with somebody."

Natasha looked out over the city and thought about it. It was strange. Skye was smart, friendly enough, and she was certainly pretty. She could've been anybody's arm candy. There had to be some nerd boy out there who'd lose it to be with her. Natasha liked her, so did Bruce, so did Clint when he managed to come around for extracurriculars. Natasha had been a lot less than Skye was now when Clint had found her, barely more than a teenager, already a murderer. But Clint had found her and made her part of his family in spite of it. "You'll find it," she said. "Trust me, if I can find a friend like Clint and a man like Bruce, you can too." After a moment, Natasha realized this was not quite what she was supposed to say. It was also not everything she wanted to say. "And you've got me and Bruce."

"Aww," Skye said. "Like a cool older stepsister and a stepdad!"

Natasha rolled her eyes at the joke about her age gap with Bruce. "We'll get you one of those little propeller hats you kids like," she said after a moment. Skye froze up for a second and Natasha worried she had hurt her feelings with the jab.

But then Skye started pointing a finger at her and Natasha knew everything was alright, "That was definitely a joke! A quip! I got you!"

A door opened onto the patio and Natasha spun so fast she knocked Skye into the railing, but Skye grabbed the railing gamely. Her guns halfway out of their holsters.

It was Bruce. The dork was not displaying proper entrance protocol while visiting an undercover site. He knew it. She had explained it to him. He had multiple PhDs. But he wasn't a spy. Natasha took a breath and lowered the pistols back into their holsters.

"Don't worry, doc, she's happy to see you," Skye said, as Bruce looked momentarily worried.

"You're supposed to knock."

"You're right, I'm sorry. I should've remembered." God Natasha loved that man. "I'm basically ready to go on this little grail quest. Are you sure you don't want to come Nat?"

"A big hulking SHIELD super soldier doesn't match what that intercepted data we got suggests is their response to outsiders."

"So you're sending me instead?"

"If anybody can understand being feared for their powers, it's you."

"People are afraid of me for good reason."

Natasha smiled and walked up to him and kissed him, "No. They're afraid of you for understandable reasons. Not the same thing."

Skye walked past them, saying, "Well, I'm going to go get freshened up and enjoy as much time as possible in a real bed."

But she held up two thumbs and mouthed, 'go for it,' once Bruce had turned around.

Dork.