Never in a Million Years |N.R|

|41| Betrayal has a bitter taste.

A while later we had no choice but to meet the ground. Yelena and I managed to control the landing as much as was possible on an empty tank, but it still meant that we came down hard. Really hard.

Everyone bar Alexei braced themselves for the collision, since he thought he was so tough, and still believed that we had enough fuel to make it even when we were practically nose diving. I couldn't hold in my laugh when I moved to climb out of the crashed helicopter and saw him groaning in the back with a hand on his head and another bracing his ribs.

"Nice one, asshole" I spat under my breath, proud that my voice didn't waver when speaking to him despite his earlier remarks. All I got in return was a glare.

Everyone stood quietly outside as we took a minute or two to regain our composures. Nat crouched to the ground beside me so I placed a somewhat firm hand on her shoulder to both brace myself and her.

Just when I thought nothing could piss me off more, he decided to speak up once more. "You should've brought the Avengers super jet."

"And we should've thrown you out of that thing when we had the chance, so I suppose we'd all do things a little differently in hindsight." My tone was sharp, as well as my stare.

He glared at me once again, but that time I didn't break eye contact. Not until Nat rose to her feet and stormed off, both Yelena and I quickly following after.

The younger Russian scoffed, "I swear, if I hear one more word from him, I will kick him in the face."

"He's the worst" Nat agreed.

Alexei then began stumbling along behind us, his feet dragging as he kicked at stones.

"Natasha" I heard it whispered over my shoulder. When Nat made no effort to give the tall grungy man any attention, he resorted to jogging to catch up. "Natasha. Natasha. Come here, I want to ask you something. Come, it's important."

As she finally slowed down we were walking side by side for a moment, long enough for me to check on her. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

She offered me a soft smile, "no I'll be okay love, thank you though. I'll catch up with you two in a minute."

I then planted a chaste kiss against her cheek before continuing on so slowly catch up with Yelena. I couldn't hear what Nat and Alexei were talking about until she raised her voice a little while later.

"Wait. You haven't seen either of us in 20 years and you're gonna ask me about you?"

Yelena and I both stopped in our tracks to turn around and watch, to make sure Nat wasn't going to kill him. Not that I'd be quick to stop her if she tried.

But he was as clueless as ever. "What is with this tension? Did I do something wrong?"

"Is that a serious question?" Yelena interjected from beside me.

Alexei's furrowed face skipped to her. "I only ever loved you girls. I did my best to make sure you would succeed to achieve your fullest potential, and everything worked out."

"Everything worked out?" Nat was the one to question him that time, not that Yelena wasn't equally as interested in what he had to say for himself.

"Yes. For you, yes. We accomplished our mission in Ohio." He then wandered towards the younger Russian stood beside me. "Yelena, you went on to become the greatest child assassin the world has ever known. No one can match your efficiency, your ruthlessness."

Was he really complimenting her fashion of murder?

Before I could ponder that any longer, he set his sights on Nat and stepped towards her. "And Natasha, not just a spy, not just toppling regimes, destroying empires from within, but an Avenger."