1: The New Red Room Assassin

Chapter 14

Ana's POV

I sat as far away from Natalia as I could, I saw Captain Roger's confused look to her and rolled my eyes. It was pathetic, just because I don't sit next to her they cause a scene. I'm not tied to her. To be honest I didn't listen to much he was saying, not until I heard him mention pairing up the Avengers, so we can work out together. Fuck.

I'm not stupid, Bucky is going to be with Captain Rogers, Wanda with Vision, Sam with Clint, which leaves Natalia and myself... he starts to list of the names...I was right.

"Natasha and Anastasia" he said loudly, I felt Natalia's eyes on me from the side. I ignore her.

"I'd like a new partner" I spoke up confidently, and at this everyone's eyes were on me. I didn't care.

"Why Lenkov? You and Natasha have matching skill sets, it makes sense to partner you up together" Captain Rogers said confusion written all over his face, his eyes were dancing between myself and Natalia.

"Yes we have similar skill sets, but isn't that more reason to divide us up? We'll learn more from people with different abilities" I said quickly, thinking on my feet was a piece of cake for me.

"Lenkov this is a fitness exercise, by all means if we were doing training on fighting, maybe it would make sense to split you up. But you and Natasha are pretty much the exact same in terms of cardiovascular endurance. So you will be paired together, end of discussion" Captain Roger's said sternly. I shut my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. I tried. I was aware at this point most people had gotten up and gone to their partner, I was also aware that Natalia's eyes were firmly fixed on me.

"You just going to stare Romanova, or we actually going to work out?" I huffed, standing up. Fuck fitness, I wanted to punch something. But orders are orders.

I didn't wait for her to stand up, instead I followed the others to where there were yoga mats and grabbed one. By this point she was up and walking towards the mats and I, to be honest, it was anybody's guess at who the target was.

She grabbed a mat in one hand, and my wrist in the other and pulled me to the far side of the gym. I guess we were both the target.

"What the hell is your problem?" she said. She was trying to sound angry, but I could detect some hurt in her voice? Why does she give a shit?

"I don't have a problem Natalia. I just would rather not be continuously lumped with you" I said placing the mat down on the floor.

"What?" She said, again trying to sound angry, but this came across more as stunned.

"Just because I don't want you be partnered with you for fitness doesn't mean there is something wrong with me" I said bluntly.

"I thought we were passed this" she muttered, rolling her eyes, but not even bothering to hide the hurt this time.

"Past what exactly?" I replied. I was getting pretty pissed off at this point. I wanted to punch things, and here I was expected to do sit ups...but if she wanted a fight I wouldn't say no.

"This" she said, moving her hands up and down, signalling to my body language. "The hating me" she finished quietly.

"You seriously...? You seriously thought?" I started laughing. Natalia, no one had ever seen me laugh before, she looked taken aback. Everyone was trying to act like they weren't listening in. But it was obvious they were. "You thought after yesterday all was forgiven? You thought after yesterday I didn't despise you anymore? You thought I'd just roll over like a good little assassin and be shields toy now?" I said, my voice laced with poison.