{ based on the song Another Love by Tom Odell }
It is said that every year, a person cries 2164 ounces or 135 pounds. But in the five years I've known Maria Hill, I haven't once seen her cry. I'll need to ask her about that. People shouldn't cry that much, Maria and I alike. The only times, on record, I've cried were at my parents' funerals, when Glenn died on The Walking Dead and the times Maria has risked her life in the field. It's been one too many times.
"Maria, love?" I said, slowly entering the room. She picked her tired and overworked head from the pile of paperwork next to it. "Let's go home." Before the woman in my eyes could utter a word of protest, my hand was dragging her to the car. Along the way, the woman who had my heart let out ramblings similar to that of a whining child.
The Maria Hill I know would normally being messing with the steering wheel and threatening to stop the music but now, she was clearly too tired and still out of it. Her head lolled to the side, her eyes heavily lidded. "I'm gonna get real mad at you tomorrow." I mumbled, reaching over her exhausted body to buckle her in.
"I know..." She trailed off, adjusting her body in a better position for sleeping.
———
"Y/N..." Maria rolled over in our shared bed, noticing that I was not yet up. She took the peaceful moment to bore into my features, really stare into them like she absolutely had to memorize me. It wasn't that, over the years, she'd studied my face like an archaeologist studies bones, it was the fact she'd never taken the time to study it this closely.
She noticed my freckles, hundreds of them. A grin snuck its way onto her cheeks, counting the freckles that had no real pattern, just thrown anywhere. Maria had made it to about 98 before my eyes stuttered to open. They hesitated, looking at her and jumping slightly. "Have you been," I yawned, covering my mouth. "staring at me this whole time?" She gave a small chuckle, leaning over to give my tired lips a good morning kiss.
In fact, there were no fireworks. It was... better than that. The feeling I got every time her lips came into contact with mine, a flood of warmth surged through my body, igniting every blood cell, warming the water. She was the half that made me whole. "I've... been studying you, so yes and no, love." She fell into the mattress, sighing as my hand felt around for hers.
"Maria, stay home today. You're not going to work like this. I'll cover for you." There was no protest from the girl of many words, only one single whine and rolled over into the duvet. She wished me off to work, out in seconds.
———
"Y/N, where's Maria?" Piper questioned as she sauntered into the woman in questions office that doubled as my office. Her foot tapped at a constant rate of nervousness, prompting me to stand.
"Where? Where is it this time?" Referring to the mission Maria was required to be on but because of work related insomnia, I was to go for her.
Piper sighed, white knuckling the door frame so hard her knuckles looked like pure, untouched snow. "Musaka. Now, where-where's Maria, Y/N?" She licked her lips and pursed them as a second act of discomfort in my presence.
"Sleeping, in our bed. I, um, I'll have to do."
———
I, in fact, did do. I was perfect, everything was. The agents, the recruits, the ambush. Our side of it was perfect to the T. Up until agents rushed us, separating everyone. For fear of not making it home to those who appreciated us, we went to where we'd be taken. "Y/N. Y/L/N. In the flesh. Spectacular." The man marveled me, grasping my chin in his first three fingers to examine me, his beer gut bulging over his jeans and brewery smell bombarding my nose.
