Two Sides of The Same Coin: Grumpy x Sunshine

Evermore

"We have half a mind to throw you on The Raft after what you did," the first old man on the council sneers down at you. You refuse to shrink to his glare, instead shifting forward so your elbows rest on the small desk. As they played it all back, highlighted the worst and best moments of the last year of your life, you just continued reminding yourself of what you were fighting for, who you were fighting to get back.

"It was an accident!" Sam fumes from beside you. He'd mostly managed to maintain his composure during this whole affair, but slowly but surely the whole thing was getting out of hand. You huffed, squirming in your chair as the heavy restraints tugged on your neck and wrists. "An accident that you could've prevented if you hadn't separated her from every single person that knows her."

"You shot a SHIELD agent. How is that an accident?"

"He's lucky I shot him in the leg. The situation was already diffused and under control. She was already calm."

"According to you," he man retorts, clearing not believing a word Sam is saying.

"It was unnecessary and excessive force. I did what I had to do."

This had already been going on for several hours, this weird semi-trial about what your future was going to look like. All while you were barely able to squeeze in a word. When you did, they spoke over you, berated you and Sam for the mistakes that were made. It wasn't pretty to watch.

The only consolation was Sam. It had been almost 8 hours and he was fighting for you with every fiber of his being. He'd given them snippets of his reports, reports you'd never even heard of let alone seen, and the way he spoke about you- it made it that much easier to believe him when he said he cared about you.

You were given only a few minutes to talk to Sam, and only Sam, before these 'proceedings' started. He told you to that he'd take care of it this time. You were to show them the best version of you, the side the won over Nick Fury and the Avengers. That was your only role to play- SHIELD's good little asset.

But for better or worse, that role was getting harder and harder to play. It was constricting like the metaphorical costume no longer fit you.

The men on this pseudo-council all sat on a platform, very literally talking down to you while you and Sam sat in front of them at a wooden table, listening as they all stated things that the two of you already knew, but phrased in a way that made it seem like you two were crazy.

And as you sat there, at least 10 pounds worth of chains around your wrists and ankles in tandem with the same collar used in your kidnapping to render you powerless, you felt a little crazy.

"You've made the asset completely reliant upon you," Man in Suit #2 pipes in. You didn't even bother learning their names, since they didn't bother to learn your's- they just kept referring to you as 'The Asset'. In the first few hours, you tried to reconcile it, at least it was a cool nickname, but now it was agitating you in a way you didn't completely understand. "That's not a good thing."

"I'm not an asset," you interject.

"Excuse me?" Man in Suit #5 scoffs.

"My name is not 'the asset'," you repeat, this time louder. "I'm a person- a real person."

"We understand that, Miss," the same man condescendingly sighs, rolling his eyes as if that information is completely useless to him.

"No, you don't. You don't understand. I don't want a new handler. I don't want to relocate. I want Sam. I want to live in New York," you state, making no attempt to hide your irritation and frustration at the whole situation.

Man #3 sighs at you like a petulant child, very clearly annoyed at having to explain anything to you, "We believe that Mr. Wilson's emotional attachment is clouding his judgment, which is proven by the numerous, very serious incidents which have occurred in recent time. He's made it very clear that he's not fit to handle such a valuable asset. It's for your own good."