Coronation Of Flame (A Marvel Fanfic)

Flashback 17: The Last One

So there is only one more chapter and flashback after this one! Oh my god has this taken a while! I apologise for the whole cliffhanger, I was channeling by inner Riordan. :)

Enjoy!

LittlePond

Flashback 17: The Last One

"How are you?" Hunter asked, once they found an empty table and gathered their breakfast. Aurelia glanced up at him as if he was brain dead.

What a stupid question for a stupid day.

"Worried. Miserable. How do you think?" she shot back, but shaking off the cynicism. This was her last day here, she wasn't going to spend it suffocating on self pity. S.H.A.D.O had been through worse. The HYDRA agent grinned, playing the role she usually did, "Not good?" The assassin nodded, picking at her raisin toast, plucking at the furs of the hibernating bear that was her appetite.

"Correct," Aurelia nodded, forcing herself to swallow the bland fibre and sour fruit. Hunter shrugged, twirling a green apple on his pointer like a basketball, "At least the twins aren't going into the hands of a madman." She nodded in response. Things could be worse- she could be taken away to HYDRA's many prisons, she could be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Aurelia shuddered at the thought.

"Trust me, you don't want girls like Wanda spending time with guys like List," Hunter agreed, which made her stomach an iceberg. Any chance of her enjoying her final Sokovian meal flew down the drain. "Come on Hunter, I don't need that right now," Aurelia whined, taking another bite of her toast and eyeing off the mandarin pieces. "Right, sorry."

The swell of sound from the cafeteria contrasted against the soft murmur of the research base's hallways. As much as Aurelia hadn't appreciated the dull concrete that made the walls, floors and ceiling, she'd miss it; the halls back in America were a blinding white.

"Are you going to miss me?" Hunter asked, his accent leaking. Aurelia playfully punched his shoulder, "Am I a HYDRA agent?" The agent held up his hands in surrender, making dramatic facial expressions to accompany it, "Just making sure."

He turned to her, any sign of his joking side gone, "I'll miss you." Aurelia's head turned to the left, and she grinned in part exaggerated, part sincere mischief, "Awww, Hunter." He scoffed, and pouched her back in the shoulder, harder, but not too much that it hurt, "Shut up, Tempest."

"You know you love it," Aurelia giggled, rubbing the back of her neck, where Pietro's own hands had been yesterday. She quickly pulled her hands away. "How are you going to train them?" Thankfully, Hunter had an answer and he provided it quickly, "I was going to see what they can do and work off that."

Aurelia looked at him cynically, eyebrows raised, "When you have their previous trainer right here?"

"I'm a soldier, not an assassin."

"Yeah, but you're a good one."

"The biggest difference between a solider and an assassin is that soldiers follow orders."

Hunter eyes glazed over like a lovely, sugar filled, American doughnut. That, was perhaps, one of the only things she was looking forward to. American food. Now she realised why breakfast seemed so bland in comparison.

"Assassins do too," Aurelia answered, she was willing to bet her own eyes glazed over as she remembered that train wreck that was her 87th mission. "Not like soldiers do."

The assassin scoffed as they turned a right corner, one more corner closer to where Aurelia would say goodbye to him. "Quit your bragging."

On the way to the observation rooms, where they would go their separate ways, Aurelia discussed wit Hunter how she'd been training the twins. After all, it would be a disaster if he went in not knowing of Pietro's wit, or Wanda's intuition.