Bird Set Free | Natasha Romanoff ✓

Chapter Nine

Aquila Cadman's fists pounded against the punching bag, beads of sweat slowly making their way down the sides of her face. After the discovery of her still maintained strength and fighting technique during the Battle of New York, Aquila had tried not to rely on her ability to shift into her eagle form as much preferring to continue to work on her new found skills. The training was like second nature to the woman who had already spent a large portion of her childhood, training in a similar way. 

Sonia's Ultimate Fitness 24/7 Gym had quickly become an almost second home to Aquila. Her go-to spot when the memories in the middle of the night became too much for the eagle. 

The horrors of the Battle of New York had both left physical and mental scars. Some were more noticeable such as the destruction the alien invasion had caused across New York City but the mental scars were harder to see.

Aquila's teammates had dealt with the aftermath in their own way, in fact, it had been quite a while since she had ever seen her teammates.  Besides her rare communications with Natasha Romanoff in case S. H. I. E. L. D. ever needed her, Aquila had kept to herself and for once had finally stopped running away from her past. 

"So you've found me," Aquila said, her attention still on the punching bag. She had heard Natasha's arrival out of her enhanced hearing thanks to her eagle form but had chosen not to say anything, preferring to continue her training, when in reality she was putting off the inevitable. 

"Well, it's not like you were entirely hiding this time, Quila."

"What was that?" Aquila asked spinning around, her eyes slightly narrowing. 

"You don't have a nickname, Aquila."

"Who said I needed one, Nat?"

"Quila, it is."

"So, what's the mission?" Aquila asked the agent beside her. 

"Hostages on a boat, the STRIKE team is going to help us retrieve them. But that's Steve's mission, I need some help with something else."

"What is it?"

"Retrieving files that S. H. I. E. L. D. wants."

"Ah." 

Silence fell between the two women once again, as Natasha focused on driving while Aquila examined the extremely chipped red nail polish that was dotted across her nails. 

She had made the mistake of letting one of her new 'friends' that she had made from seemingly endless hours at the gym, Kayla paint her nails on what was supposed to be a 'girl's night', she even had matching toenails. But with Aquila's highly active lifestyle, it didn't leave a lot of room for something as trivial as nail polish. 

Scenery rushed past the window, monuments occasionally poking up from between the trees. Washington D.C had been another one of Aquila's rather temporary homes only a few years ago, she was quite glad to see nothing had changed drastically since her brisk departure. 

It had brought a weird sense of relief to the woman when after the Battle of New York, she didn't find a reason to run away anymore, a few years had passed since and she had never been happier. 

She now had a new chance at actually living since the incident that had destroyed her last shred of innocence and Aquila wasn't going to throw that away for anything. 

"So where are we picking up, Steve?" Aquila asked breaking the silence once more.

"You'll see soon enough," Natasha responded a grin dotted across her face. 

And of course, Natasha was right, only moments later did the car pull to a stop and the window to Aquila's right roll down, revealing Steve dressed in his running gear, standing above what appeared to be another jogger leaning against the tree for dear life. 

Natasha gave to two men a flirtatious grin and Aquila quickly followed suit. "Hey fellas. Either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? We're here to pick up a fossil."

"What type of fossil?" The dark-skinned man leaned against the tree, asked.

"Iceman," Aquila responded with a small shrug. 

"Oh, you think you're both so hilarious," Steve said, walking over to the car and hopped in the backseat much to his displeasure. 

After a final few words to the dark-skinned man, Natasha pulled away from the curb and drove off. 

"So, I didn't realize you'd be joining us, Aquila." Steve began. 

"It's Quila now," Natasha said, a smirk dancing across her face as she observed the woman beside her's expression. 

"Ugh, you just had to say it didn't you," Aquila replied, throwing her hands around like a mad woman. 

"Quila?" Steve asked. 

"It's A-Quila's new nickname," Natasha said, taking great effort to properly pronunciate every syllable in Aquila's name.

"Quila," Steve said, almost like testing the name on his tongue. "Quila, I like it, it has a nice ring to it."

"Oh god, not you too!" Aquila groaned.