Her gaze, steady and searching, met his. "Am I your moon?" she asked, her voice a low murmur that barely disturbed the quiet air of the lawn. "Or am I the trickster that posed as the moon for you?"
"I don't know now." he admitted, his own voice softer than usual. "But I do feel like Kuekuatsu, still howling to the sky. For a glimpse. For a little while longer."
"You talk like a trickster pretending to love the moon, do you not?" Her eyes lifted her profile etched against the dusky sky. "Tricking himself and everyone you can. Everyone you shouldn't."
"Tricksters." He snapped his fingers, and the familiar blue of the early evening sky deepened, surrendering to an instant, velvety night. A full, luminous moon bloomed above them, casting long, gentle shadows. "Are we not all tricksters, Natasha? Pretending to be what we ache to become. Wearing the shape of what we lost. Hoping no one notices the seams."
The sudden nightfall brought a stillness. She tilted her head, the conjured moonlight catching the sharp line of her jaw, casting the hollows of her cheeks into soft shadow. It silvered the fiery strands of her hair, lending them an ethereal glow.
"Yet within the darkness after the sunset." her gaze fixed on the brilliant orb he had made, "you say you howl at the moon. Do you really do that? Or are you the moon, waiting for Kuekuatsu to howl at you?" Her eyes, when they slowly drifted from the celestial illusion to settle on him, were luminous, reflecting the borrowed light with an intensity that seemed to pierce the quiet between them.
"Or have you grown tired of the silence? Grown a tad indifferent to the darkness you claimed to live in."
"I don't... know, Natasha." His admission was quiet, almost lost in the hum of the distant town. "I believed that I knew a lot. I still do. Yet I don't. My heart tells me darkness is a place where you thrive, yet it's not the place you will be at the end. My brain tells me to prepare for it. My soul says to leave you a home, even if I could never be there."
The moonlight, though bright, seemed to selectively illuminate only her, her form a study in contrasts against the darkened lawn.
"I have promised you after all, Natasha." His voice was a thread of unwavering certainty in the stillness. "That I would be just far enough to give you space, just close enough to make sure you are not alone. Never alone. And I tend to keep them..."
'Especially to you, Natasha.' The unspoken words hung heavy, a silent echo of his spoken ones.
Her eyes, for a long moment, seemed to hold a universe of unspoken replies. Then, her hand rose, a fluid, economical motion. There was no hesitation, no theatricality, just the decisive action of a woman severing a thread. A single shot, and the brilliant lunar illusion fractured, dissolving into the true twilight. She walked past him then, her steps measured on the quiet lawn.
She paused a few feet beyond him, her back still mostly to him, but her head turned just enough that he could see the curve of her cheek, the intensity in her half-seen eye. Her voice, when it came, was softer than the evening breeze, yet it carried the weight of a truth sought.
"Will you still howl back if I asked?"
"If it's your voice in the night… always."
--------------------
"Enjoying yourself in this town, Ranger?" Natasha asked, her voice carrying a hint of amusement as she observed the quiet suburban street. "Settling in? It certainly looks like you've cultivated quite a nice fanbase of admiring young women already."
"Jealous, are we, Natasha?" he countered, a slight, knowing smirk playing on his lips. "Or perhaps just observant of my undeniable charm?"
"Perhaps just wondering if I need to update my threat assessment to include hormonal teenagers."
---
"Fury asked me to bring you back to SHIELD." Natasha began, her tone shifting to something more official, her gaze steady. "He has a list of… concerns. And a debriefing he insists is urgent."
"Work can wait." Ranger interrupted smoothly, dismissing the urgency with a wave of his hand. "Fury can wait. He's always had a flair for the dramatic, hasn't he? Everything is world-ending until it isn't."
"This time, he might actually have a point about the world ending part."
---
"This base." Natasha questioned, her brow furrowing slightly as she took in their surroundings, "you got this from Ultron? He's still alive? I was under the distinct impression Vision erased him completely."
"Vision tried, and succeeded with that particular iteration." Ranger explained. "But Ultron, as a concept, a lingering echo in the machine… he's rather persistent. Someone else, it seems, decided to breathe life back into the old code."
"Will you tell me who, Ranger? Who would be reckless enough, or powerful enough, to do that?"
"No, Natasha, I will not. Even if you ask with that particular glint in your eye that usually gets you whatever you desire. Even if I were to give you the name, neither Fury nor anyone else in your chain of command would, or could, do anything truly effective against him. He's far too… important… to the war effort, you see. A necessary evil, perhaps. And more to the point, if I gave you his name, he would undoubtedly consider you a loose end. That's a complication I'd prefer you didn't face."
"So we just let a resurrected Ultron and his new benefactor roam free?"
"For now." Ranger said. "We pick our battles."
---
"Extremis?" Natasha's voice held a sharp note of concern. "I saw the data streams. You're not seriously planning on making another Extremis epidemic, are you? Stark nearly burned the world down with that."
"Would you want me to?" Ranger asked, a challenging, almost dangerous glint in his eye. "Just say the word, Natasha. I could ensure a rather… dramatic… upgrade for a significant portion of the population. Imagine the possibilities."
"Be serious, Ranger." she chided, though there was an undeniable tension in her voice now. "This isn't a game. What are you really going to do with something that volatile?"
His expression softened, the challenge receding. "A safety precaution, Natasha. A last resort. For those under my care who might need an edge to survive what's coming. And for those I care about."
Her eyes searched his. "That family you've taken in?"
"And you." he added, his voice quiet but firm, meeting her gaze directly.
"Me?" she repeated softly.
"You." he confirmed.
---
"This base… the architecture, some of the residual tech signatures… it feels like HYDRA." Natasha mused, her operative mind piecing things together. "This was a joint HYDRA and Ultron facility, wasn't it? So HYDRA isn't truly dead then? Still crawling in the shadows."
"Of course not." Ranger replied, a hint of dry amusement in his voice. "Did you truly believe that simply dismantling SHIELD from the inside and killing Alexander Pierce, as satisfying as that might have been, would be enough to eradicate an organization that's been weaving itself into the fabric of global power for generations? They are a hydra, Natasha. Cut off one head, and two more tend to sprout in even more inconvenient, and often unexpected, locations."
"I need to report this to Fury immediately." she stated, her ingrained SHIELD instincts kicking in. "This changes the strategic landscape significantly."
"Relax, Natasha. No need to rush off and file your intelligence reports just yet." He waved a dismissive hand. "HYDRA isn't going anywhere. They're patient. They bide their time. They always have."
"Still." she insisted, "the fact that they're active, that they had a hand in this facility, means HYDRA has a direct stake in this upcoming war. A major one."
"Of course, Natasha, they have a hand in it." Ranger's tone was almost patronizingly patient. "They always do. It's in their very nature to stir the pot, to profit from chaos, to nudge empires into ruin. It's just that, in this particular instance, their hand was perhaps the smallest, the least significant in accelerating the current global unpleasantness. Our new, esteemed Captain America, on the other hand, seems to have had a far more… enthusiastic… and direct role in pushing us all closer to the brink, after all."
---
"Anymore important things you have yet to tell me?" Natasha asked.
"Of course, my dear Natasha. I have tons of them." he said, a playful gleam in his eye. "A veritable treasure trove of classified information and existential musings. But a man's got to have some secrets, wouldn't you agree? Otherwise, the girl won't care for him after she unravels everything. The mystery is half the allure."
"And what can I say?" he continued, leaning back slightly. "I am a mysterious guy. Just the kind girls like, apparently."
"Like the girls in the house?" she countered, her voice deceptively casual. "Maya, Mia… they seem quite taken."
"Jealous, are we, Natasha?"
"What would you do if I said I was?" she asked, her lips curving into a slow smile.
"I would jump in joy." he replied, his own smile widening.
"I am jealous," she stated, her eyes locking with his. "Now let's see the mysterious guy jump in joy."
He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "It was figuratively, of course. Wouldn't want to startle the neighbors."
---
"What's the deadline Fury actually gave you to bring me back?" Ranger asked, breaking a comfortable silence. "Knowing him, it's probably unreasonable."
"Three days." Natasha replied. "And he wasn't pleased about having to extend any courtesy at all."
"Perfect." Ranger declared. "We still have two days and, by my calculations, approximately eighteen hours left. Ample time for… continued discussion."
"And Fury?"
"Fury can wait. And if he starts to cry like a particularly disgruntled bitch, send him a bit of the intel I shared with you. The HYDRA confirmation, perhaps. It'll be like Christmas morning for him. He loves unwrapping new conspiracies. Besides." Ranger added, a mischievous glint in his eye, "it will score you some significant brownie points with him, and by extension, the country. You'll be the agent who brought in the big fish and the intel."
---
"You have changed, Ranger." Natasha observed quietly, her gaze analytical but soft. "The man I met in that canyon villa… he was more guarded. Sharper edges."
"Do you like the change?" he asked, his voice genuine.
"Should I?" she countered. "Is this a softer, more domesticated Ranger I'm seeing?"
"Depends." he said, a playful light dancing in his eyes. "Do you like cuddling?"
"And what if my answer is no?" she challenged, though a faint smile played on her lips.
"Then I have to be a bad guy." he leaned in, his voice a teasing whisper, "and force you to cuddle with me. Relentlessly. Until you admit you secretly enjoy it."
He winked. "None can escape the cuddle monster."