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Mack and Bobbi sparred in a way that was very similar to how Ward and Nina used to. The females of the pair were incredibly elegant in the way they moved but could exert damage that could kill, whereas the males focused on their brute strength. Unlike Ward, Mack didn't like to fight and although he was incredibly talented at it, that fact was made very clear as he sparred with Bobbi.

He focused more on defence than offence, which was why Bobbi wasn't surprised to see him block one of her blows and not immediately send his own.

"Finally, an actual partner," Bobbi said as they threw a few punches, she took out his legs and he landed heavily on the mat, "little tip, you could have avoided losing your footing if you would've flipped into it."

"A flip?" Mack questioned as he got back to his feet, "now you're just making fun of me."

"Maybe a little," Bobbi chuckled, "it's not like I can bench press a small hatchback."

"Yeah, we all have our talents," Mack shrugged as they circled each other, neither party throwing an attack but simply reading one another, "have you ever noticed how similar you and Nina fight?"

Bobbi was a little caught off guard by his question, as far as she knew, Mack and Nina had never trained together and it was very hard to understand Nina's fighting style without experiencing it yourself. Nina married too many different styles for an onlooker to pick up on.

"Yeah, I used to get brought in to spar with her when she was still a cadet," Bobbi said with a tight smile as she thought back to the unpleasant days where she was forced to beat up a 16-year-old kid, "she used to do ballet, and was she trained to translate some of it into the way she moves."

"Nina used to be a ballerina?" Mack asked, incredibly surprised. He couldn't picture Nina prancing around on a stage, let alone in a leotard and tutu.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that," Bobbi rolled her eyes, "Hunter said she took a couple of classes when she was a kid and that Agent Romanoff showed her how it could help her in a fight. But I've only ever heard it from Hunter, so I'm not sure how much of it is true."

"I feel like the more I hear about Nina's past, the more confused I get about how she ended up at SHIELD," Mack said as he pictured the agent, who had killed more people than he'd met but still managed to have the softest of touches and the most beautiful smile. The agent that he couldn't go a day without thinking about at least once, "she could've been an Olympic athlete by now, stayed a rich man's daughter or even become a thief-"

"Ah," Bobbi said with an amused look, "so you've heard about Elijah?"

"She mentioned him, the gentleman burglar," Mack said and Bobbi nodded. Before she got to say anything regarding his concerns, Mack spoke again, though this time his voice was soft and almost worried, "we should have tried to get her on our side instead of what Gonzalez did. Wasn't that the plan before she went through that mist?"

"The plan was to recruit everyone," Bobbi said, "no one knew it would go so sideways."

"I still think we should've at least tried," Mack continued, it was almost like he hadn't heard her at all, "Nina's loyalty shouldn't have been questioned. One of us should have told her first, gotten her to trust us."

"Just her?" Bobbi asked smugly.

She'd never really seen Mack dazed, the man was always on top of things and very little changed that, so seeing him get lost in his head while talking about Nina was a sight to see.

"Hmm?" He asked, clearly spaced out.

"Mack," Bobbi started, clicking her fingers to bring the large man out of his head, "do you have a thing for Nina?"

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