Who: Maria Hill and Peter Hale (guest starring Derek Hale and Natasha Romanoff) What: And in this corner… When: Tuesday 2/21 (backdated) Where: Out Warnings: Peter Hale, bullying, fighty Status: Closed/gdoc...tbc in comments
Madison Valley had messed with everyone. Again. This time it was a nice shot to the heart strings. Maria and Peter had been broken up long enough for her to be involved with Thor. Now that everything was back to normal Maria didn’t know where she stood with either man. She remembered harsh words between herself and Peter, as well as good times with Thor, but neither were real. Right? Ugh. This was why she didn’t do relationships!
Thor had gone his way, asking to come back later to pick up his stuff. Maria had vacated her house today to allow him that time and space. She was out wandering aimlessly, lost in thought and a large mocha when she spotted Peter. Her eyes narrowed immediately then she changed course to head him off.
“Hey. Peter,” she called out. If he ran, well that was an answer anyway.
***
Peter had been planning to keep avoiding Maria. Despite knowing that it was Madison Valley craziness he was still simmering with anger over the whole affair. Things had been very ugly between he and Maria. They’d even come to blows.
Or they hadn’t. But it still felt like it even if it was false memories and as a werewolf it was harder to let the anger go.
“What?” He stopped and the answer was pretty much snapped out at her.
***
That tone of voice pinged against false memories making Maria scowl immediately, but she grabbed hold of her anger. There was nothing to be angry about. Not really. “None of that was real. You know that, right?”
She stopped outside of arm’s distance, but refused to cross her arms. No weakness. She would not show emotion.
***
"Yes, I know that." Peter tilted his head to the side studying her. "But I also know it was just exactly how it would go down. Do you think it made us any different than we are?" There had only been a change of time not of personalities over all.
***
“No, but that doesn’t mean it applies.” Maria knew what he was doing and kind of resented it, even if she was doing the same thing: judging the situation on his body language, etc. His excuse annoyed her enough that she gave him something to see by opening her stance enough to appear confidant and stubborn.
“I refuse to let this place dictate my life, Peter.” Translation: but you are apparently content to do so.
***
"Oh no, you'd never let anything dictate your life. Not your career, your friends...your childhood." He didn't know that much about her childhood, she hadn't volunteered and he hadn't asked but you could tell there was more going on than just being a spy slash agent for the government.
"So she who won't let things dictate your life. Tell me honestly you don't look at me and immediately think of the fight we had. The time we remember you kicking me in the chest because you were pissed off...and I'm the monster and I didn't even start the punching."
***
There was an immediate flash of anger when he mentioned her childhood. It disappeared just as quickly into that cold mask she usually wore. The Agent Hill look. “I never called you a monster. I called you an asshole, and before you twist that around to make yourself feel better as a man you’re an asshole not because you slept with someone else but because you used that as something to throw in my face.”
It hadn’t even happened, but somehow here they were in that argument. It was frustrating and made Maria’s jaw clench. “What the hell is wrong with you? This is ridiculous!”
***
"I didn't say you called me a monster. I know what the popular opinion is Maria, I'm just bowing to common knowledge." There were times Peter thought maybe, just maybe, he might not be the monster everyone thought he was. But then good sense would come back.
"Do you think I'm going to change? Or will you always be waiting for me to fuck around?" She could keep her expression as icy as she wanted but he could hear her heartbeat and taste her scent on the back of his tongue. Peter would know if she was lying about trusting him in the future after all of this.
***
“Since when do you bow to anything?” Now she outright frowned as she planted her hands on her hips. “I was the one who never pushed or asked for anything more than you were willing to give. Never made demands.”
Then he went and threw that out there. “I don’t know. Are you? You haven’t yet,” that she knew about. “Logically I have to ask why you should start now.”
***
"Yet it wasn't just that I used it in a fight, you weren't any happier with what I did." Peter was ignoring the question about if he'd start now. She was avoiding answering it directly, question with a question. "You weren't pushing because you were afraid of the answer if you did. Don't make it out that you were being generous."
***
“That’s because we never talked about it. Communication, Peter. Look it up!”
Then he accused her of being afraid. Maria’s brows shot up. “Really?” She huffed. “Obviously, I can do way better than you considering where I ended up.”
***
Peter rolled his eyes for the accusation of Thor being better. "Oh yeah. You traded up. Had to get someone from a different dimension to overlook the whole cold bitch automaton thing. Party God and his magic drinks were good for that I'm sure."
***
“You never complained about me being cold,” she tossed back. “Even kept coming back for more. Over. And over again.” This time Maria took a step forward.
***
"Who else was going to give me the time of day?" Peter was cutting his future losses ruthlessly like he always did. He really did like to burn bridges. "You going to hit me again Agent Hill?" He had a dark grin on his face pretty much daring her to do it.
***
“And ruin a perfectly good manicure against your thick skull?” Maria huffed again. “You’re an idiot, Peter. It’s a good thing Malia’s coming around or you’d be alone. You two deserve each other.”
***
"So now you're insulting my daughter on top of it?" The deserving each other crack pissed him off and it showed in the glow his blue eyes took on. He wasn't backing off, she was the one that pushed it by stepping forward. "Well unless you're going in for a kiss there's not much reason for you to be in my dance space if you're not hitting me."
***
It was kind of satisfying to see that she scored on him. Maria smirked. “Sorry. This is what you can’t have anymore and you only have yourself to blame.” She knew how this went. If she backed away she was giving ground. It might be petty, but she really didn’t want to give ground to Peter.
***
"If you don't want it then you should leave." She wasn't backing down. Peter might not be an alpha anymore but he didn't back away from this kind of fight. Sure he'd run from sure death situations but this wasn't one of those. So this time he stepped forward to get right in her face.
***
She sure as hell wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction so Maria held her ground, staring him dead in the eyes. “What’s the matter, Peter? Realized that only with the town fucking with everyone will you ever get anyone else? You leave.”
***
Direct eye contact was a challenge. The challenge put a smirk on Peter's face. "Better that than running away from my childhood. What happened? Mommy and Daddy didn't love you enough?"
***
That was enough to push Maria past control. Very few people knew Maria’s history pre-SHIELD. Those that did knew not to even bring it up. Saying something like Peter just did? Her fist was flying before she even realized it.
***
The fist hit his face solidly and despite being a werewolf it hurt but the pain faded almost immediately as it healed. There was still a smear of blood on his face from where the lip had split when she hit Peter.
"That's better." He laughed and rubbed his jaw. "Go ahead, get violent I know you want to." Peter's eyes were glowing solidly blue now.
***
“Fuck you!” Maria shoved at Peter hard. She wanted him to fight back. The fact that he wasn’t was adding to the anger he brought out in her…along with the hurt of their split and knowing how much she’d hurt Thor by breaking up with him. Maria needed a good knock down, drag out brawl.
***
Oh he planned to fight back he just wanted to wind her up a little first. Peter wanted her as angry as he was after all of that and he held his ground under the shove before snapping out a hand to catch her wrist.
"I thought you weren't going to play with me anymore?" His grip was painfully hard on her wrist.
***
Maria groaned for the pain in her wrist, bending with the grip but immediately swept at Peter’s legs. Oh, she was pissed all right, but that just flipped a switch in her head, threw her into Agent Hill, former Assistant Director of SHIELD, personal assistant to the Avengers. Peter called her a cold bitch. That was where she went now.
***
Peter snarled when she swept his legs and he stumbled. He hadn't let go of her wrist so as he went down on one knee he yanked her arm to throw her away from him. Of course he landed awkwardly on his knee and had to take a few seconds to recover.
***
Derek was on his way home from work when his ears picked up the sound of a fight nearby. Luckily, the weather was nice enough that he had his windows down and he also caught some familiar scents on the wind. It was enough to make him uneasy, so he changed direction and followed the sounds until he came upon Peter and Maria just in time to see her shove his uncle. Oh boy, this wasn’t going to end well.
Quickly pulling his car over to the side of the road, he threw it in park and jumped out, racing over to them as Peter basically threw Maria away from him. He managed to catch the woman and stop her from hitting the ground, making sure she was stable on her feet as he put himself between them. “What the fuck?” he demanded.
***
Natasha didn’t have super hearing or an incredible sense of smell, for once it just happened to be that she was in the right place at the right time. She arrived just in time to see Maria being pushed away by Peter and then saved from hitting the ground by Derek, obviously the latest crazy Madison had thrown their way were going to have lasting repercussions.
Joining them Natasha said, “Yeah, exactly what I was going to say” looking pointedly between Maria and Peter as she took up position between them too. No way was he laying a hand on her friend again, no matter what he thought.
***
Experience had taught Maria how to go limp when thrown so Derek caught her easily. She had felt something grind in her wrist, but the dull pain told her sprained, not broken. With the other werewolf’s assistance she was back on her feet, but now Derek then Natasha?...were between her and Peter. It gave her the moment to get her anger under control.
Natasha, at least, would recognize Maria in fight mode, but there was pain in her eyes that had nothing to do with her wrist. She glared past the intruders at Peter to see if he was going to try to get around them. “Everyone was right. He’s an asshole.”
***
“No one asked you to butt in Derek.” Peter sneered at his nephew but the arrival of not only him but Maria’s red headed friend had his eyes back to their normal blue and his fangs were gone. It wasn’t like he actually wanted to kill Maria or anything and with witnesses goading her into a fight was pointless now.
***
“Better me than my mother,” Derek pointed out. Even though he was relieved to see that Peter’s fangs retracted and his eyes shifted back to blue, he didn’t move from in between them. “You know better than to hit a human. Especially a human woman.”
As much of an asshole as Peter could be, that was a line Derek hadn’t expected him to cross. He half-turned, not wanting to put his back to his uncle, but wanting to make sure Maria was okay. It was good that her friend showed up too.
“You okay, Maria?”
*** Natasha barely suppressed a roll of her eyes at the ‘woman’ comment, but she let it go. It wasn’t meant to be condescending and it seemed like Derek was genuinely concerned for Maria so she had to give him that.
She had no qualms about turning her back on Peter, trusting in her training and instincts to react should he try anything, she moved closer, “Did he hurt you?” Because to Natasha she obviously wasn’t okay but they needed to establish what needed a doctor and what needed alcohol to help.
***
“I’m fine,” Maria barked back, but keen eyes would pick out that her wrist was swelling already. She knew she had to back off, however, cool her temper, so after a final glare at Peter she turned to pace away. With Derek and Romanoff between her and Peter she felt confident with her own back turned.
”I need to get out of here,” she said in quiet and fluent Russian to Natasha. All it would take is another shot from Peter about her childhood and Maria knew she’d snap again.
***
“Oh please? Human woman? You never do learn that lesson about how deadly a human can be regardless of the gender do you Derek?” Kate Argent, Jennifer Blake, Allison Argent...his nephew would never learn. Peter turned to go since Maria was leaving and taking the red head with her. Sure he could start up the fight again but it wasn’t prudent as much as he’d like to.
Leaving before Derek decided to involve Talia was probably the best course of action right now.
***
Derek barely suppressed a growl of frustration as Peter left. He’d deal with his uncle later. For now, he wanted to make sure that Maria was okay. It was probably for the best that her friend was with her now though. He doubted she was interested in talking to him.
“If you’re okay, I’ll be on my way,” he said. “Let me know if you need anything.”
*** “Thanks” Natasha said with a nod, “I’ll take care of her”
Turning her attention back to Maria she wrapped an arm around her shoulder, she’d already moved them even further away from where Peter had been when Maria had spoken to her in Russian, understanding the need.
“We should get that checked out” Natasha said, indicating Maria’s swelling wrist, it didn’t look like anything was broken but it probably was bruised if not sprained.
***
Maria had at least managed to give Derek a tight nod. She owed him for this. And if his expression was anything to judge by Peter was in for it from his nephew. Maria might owe Derek for that, too. She just wished she could watch.
The arm around her shoulder made her stiffen more because while she was in full on Agent mode like this she wasn’t a very companionable person. It did serve to remind her that Agent Hill didn’t, or at least shouldn’t, exist here so she tried to relax.
“Just needs to be wrapped,” Maria growled. “It’s my strong hand, too. Bastard.” Which meant strength training again later after it had healed. And of course, Maria was avoiding talking about anything but her wrist.