Sharon Carter is one of those people that everyone knows. She’s the class president, top student, and does so much for the school it’s a miracle that she always looks so polished and put-together.
Maria Hill is decidedly...not that. One of the best basketball players on the team, she’s known for the fact that she’s ruthless on the court and usually has gazes that could melt glaciers.
But Maria is still a person, a person who has feelings and thinks things and sometimes doesn’t gaze at people like she could melt a glacier.
Sometimes she looks at Sharon, and her gaze turns a little softer. And Sharon smiles at her and Maria has to turn away because her smile is a bit off, she doesn’t use it often.
She also doesn’t know how to talk to Sharon. Because Maria has never really talked with other girls like that before.
“You’re totally gone,” Nakia says, passing a ball to Maria for a lay-up. “This is going to be your fourth basket missed.”
“I won’t miss it.”
She misses it. Nakia shrugs her shoulders.
“Get it together, Maria. Just tell her.”
“Sure, I’ll tell the class president that I have a wild crush on her and that I want to take her on a date even though everyone knows that once when Tony was talking about how hard it is to deal with a crush I told him to watch The Office to get over it like the rest of us,” Maria says.
“That is simply because you are an idiot,” Nakia answers. “Stop lay-ups, let’s practice passing.”
Silence resumes as they focus more on the skill of it itself, although a piercing whistle blows and practice is changed up for the game on Friday.
Their coach gives them a pep-talk, tells them not to freak out, and then it’s to the locker room.
Maria is brushing her hair back into a proper ponytail when Nakia sidles up beside her.
“But seriously, at least try to become friends with her. Even if she doesn’t return your feelings, at least you get a great friend out of it.”
Maria nods.
“After the game, I guess.”
Sharon Carter goes to every basketball game she can for the girls. She cheers and talks with the audience, often attending with Natasha. Hope grins at Maria as she spots the blonde.
“Aw, Sharon’s here.”
“Not a gigantic surprise,” Maria deadpans. “Come on, it’s a game against the Hydras. If we don’t win this one, I’ll be pissed.”
Her head is in the game, entirely focused on making sure their offense was top notch and their defense was ironclad. She wasn’t about to let any of the other team get through to score an easy basket.
Even if that means she leaps after a ball to try to ensure it stays within the court lines and crash-lands right in front of the Shield High stands.
A delicate hand helps her up, and Maria gets the faintest scent of roses.
“You’re playing well,” Sharon says with a grin. “Good luck!”
Maria smiles. A brilliant, mega-watt smile that not many have seen before. She waves to Sharon before rushing back onto the court, barreling towards the basket to try and block a basket.
Natasha leans over to Sharon, who’s cheeks have gotten suspiciously redder.
“You should ask her out,” Natasha nudges. “God knows you’ve gone to every game to see her.”
“And the team!” Sharon reminds her.
“Yeah,” Natasha snickers. “Because you look at every member of the team like you want to kiss the hell out of them.”
@tcnystcnks was kind enough to write a prompt from me for maria/sharon, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it!
Maria Hill and Sharon Carter enter SHIELD at about the same time, although they go into different departments. Agent Thirteen enters the field agent side of business, and Agent Hill enters into administrative.
You’d be surprised at how much they overlap.
Or how much Hill has to come out and save someone’s ass.
Agent Thirteen looks on with curiosity and more than a little bit interest. Her type always has been people who look more than capable of taking charge, taller than her, and have pretty eyes. When Sharon sees Maria’s flashing blue eyes, she’s hooked.
At least, for interest. She won’t say that she’s gotten any sort of feelings, because that would frankly be ridiculous.
(Even if she stays up at night and wonders what restaurants they would go to if it was...well. If it was a thing.)
But they keep a professional distance apart, mainly due to both being very skilled and very stubborn. Maria’s currently pissing off all the older agents by being Fury’s hand-picked choice for a right-hand agent. Deputy Director Hill, in charge of making sure things go right the way they’re supposed to and when they don’t? Making sure the wide world doesn’t find out too much about it.
Agent Thirteen is one of SHIELD’s best, arguably the best. Black Widow earns a certain notoriety. When she’s after you, you know. You make plans. And sometimes--a little bit of the time--SHIELD has to adjust to that.
No one knows Agent Thirteen. She smiles at you across the bar. You think she looks nice. Seems like she might have a joke or two to tell you. Her eyes are pretty. You walk over.
Afterwards, you’re either passed out in an alley and you think you drank too much the night before, or you’re facing a man with an eye-patch that your boss told you never to meet.
Natasha Romanoff is a factor here. Getting to SHIELD, making friends with people.
“I’m not the type to make friends,” Natasha murmurs.
“Well you told me I should show up to a bar, and I’m assuming that you want friendship,” Thirteen announces. “So, I’m here to show you the best drinks here. Which are approximately three of them.”
“If you give me anything fruity I’m going to kill you.”
“Then approximately none!” Sharon cheers. “I’m making myself a fruit punch concoction.”
Maria also shows up. She’s not one for social outings, mainly just because she never really knows what to do with her hands and she hasn’t made a lot of friends while she’s in town. The occasional coffee with an old college friend, but that’s about it. It’s how she prefers it.
But she’s sitting next to Natasha, watching Sharon very nicely turn down a man and then threaten to step on his foot with her heels if he won’t leave her alone. She turns back to the table, sitting at one of the stools.
“Men are stupid.”
“Yes,” Natasha says. “I think you should’ve lifted his credit card.”
“Nah,” Sharon says. “Rent isn’t due until three weeks from now. No point.” Maria laughs, taking another sip of her drink.
They’re talking amicably. Maria’s surprised when she has things to add to the conversation, which flows about coworkers and politics and whether or not they think some of the outfits they see are cute or not.
It’s interrupted when Natasha frowns at a text on her phone.
“I’m on call. Shit.” She gathers her purse, eyes flashing to Sharon and Maria. “We should...do this again. But I have to go right now.”
“Which probably means all three of us have to go,” Maria sighs wearily. “I was really hoping to get more than three hours of sleep.”
“I can hide you under my desk,” Sharon says. “I think there might be a bag of crackers.”
“Why?”
“This exact event.”
Maria does end up hiding out in a conference room with Sharon. They are on call, but don’t need to do anything.
“I would recommend starting on your paperwork in advance,” Coulson says. “Makes things easier later.”
Maria brings her, while Sharon scoffs and doesn’t.
“It gets done on time, and I was having fun drinking my Manhattan.”
They talk more.
Sharon finds out a lot more about Maria, and is even getting to like her more than before. She likes her blue eyes and the way her mouth twitches up one corner when she laughs. Her laugh is nice. Her whole body moves.
“I don’t do office romances,” Maria says, after they talk about how gross some of the people are. “Too much, and they all end anyway.”
“Mhm,” Sharon says, stuffing crackers in her mouth to avoid detection of her actual reaction.
Besides. At least Maria does friendship.
Thirteen gets called away for an emergency recall from Turkey.
“Agent Dolphus got stuck,” Fury says darkly. “Nearly cost us our cover house there too.”
“I’ll be sure to reprimand him and send him away with no dinner,” Sharon states cheekily.
“No funny business,” Fury says, anger apparent on his face. “I need my best agents on this one, and you’re next besides Black Widow.”
Everyone is. But usually, they try not to mention it. But Thirteen knows that Fury’s trying to make her angry, and it won’t work. Not when she’s doing her job damn well.
"I am one of your best, thanks for that,” Sharon says. “I’ll bring him back. Try not to piss anyone else off, Fury.”
“Will do.”
Fury turns to Maria, who has crossed arms and is leveling him with a stare.
“You really know how to talk to people, don’t you Nick?”
“Comes and goes.”
Maria surveys the missions, checking video feed. She finds her eyes drifting more to Sharon’s screens and tells herself it’s just because Natasha doesn’t need as much surveillance.
(It’s not that.)
Thirteen comes back tired, dirt on her suit, and ready for a nap. She brings Dolphus directly to Fury, who has been waiting for a bit now but at least he got his eight hours or whatever the hell someone like him needs.
Maria lets Sharon sleep on the couch in her office.
“How were you even allowed a couch? How?”
“Because Coulson also takes naps on it and he’s the rule-follower,” Maria says with a smirk. “Now sleep.”
She’s cute, Maria notices. Not just at that moment. As time goes on.
Sharon asks her if she wants to get coffee since they both have a day off on Thursday.
They stay at the shop from nine until eleven-thirty, and they both nearly asked the other to just say “to hell with it” and get lunch as well.
But they don’t.
Because it seems like you want too much, really. They do want too much, they think. Sharon wants to find out what Maria’s hair looks like really messy. Maria wants to know if Sharon is really good at cooking breakfast as she says she is.
But there’s no “work romance.” It’s messy. People end it. And at SHIELD, your ex usually doesn’t go to a different job.
So they’re friends. Friends who look at each other a bit too much to just feel like friends, friends who agree enthusiastically that your last date was “definitely not it, gross.”
(And they feel bad, but they smile after the other agrees to not date the person. It is for their own good, but...they’re selfish.)
Maria ends up falling. For Sharon’s smile, the way she almost never wears her hair up unless she’s cooking or it’s a very important mission. When Sharon orders a fancy drink and she dances like she couldn’t care less about the other people in the room. The way she sings to herself when she’s tired.
Sharon loves the way that Maria talks when she’s sleepy, the way her voice lowers almost. Maria’s personal sense of style is actually very nice, and fits her very well.
Maria can’t take it anymore.
She tells her over dinner.
“I...I like you,” Maria says. “And I know we always make fun of romances in the office and shit, but I can’t imagine just. Not telling you. So here it is.”
Sharon smiles, positively radiant.
“I’m taking you to breakfast on Sunday morning. Brunch, really. A date. You up for that?”
“Always,” Maria says, grinning. “I just can’t believe you like me back.”
“I’d have to be insane not to,” Sharon says.
Their first date doesn’t end up being a very nice brunch, mainly because Steve calls about some mess he and some of the other Avengers have cleaned up, so their day is spent trying to chase others’ down and make sure that things remain as they’re supposed to be.
But they get to Sharon’s apartment and nap together on her couch, so it’s not too bad.
For the 101 fluffy prompts, maria hill with whoever you want maybe 032: "Who changed the thermostat settings? I’m freezing to death." or 033: "Can we just watch a movie and fall asleep on the couch?" or 062: "I beat you at Mario Kart and now you're banishing me to the couch for the night?” Pleeeeeeeaseeeee (and thank you!)
When you move in with the person you love, it holds many fun adventures for you. You find out more grocery shopping habits, you settle into new routines, and the most important thing: the thermostat either changes or you’re incredibly stubborn.
Maria is the latter. When Sharon moves in, one of the first things that changes is the temperature.
She comes home to cold floors and the need to put on a sweater.
“Sharon, why did you change the settings? It’s freezing!”
“It is not, you’re just a baby,” Sharon says. “I’m roasting. How do you stay comfortable in a near-eighty-degree apartment?”
“Because it’s good!” Maria says. “I never need to wear a jacket unless I want to!”
Sharon rolls her eyes, but smiles. “I’ll change it up two degrees.”
“To only seventy-four? No, I think not. Seventy-six.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Maria resigns herself to the fact that she will let her girlfriend keep the apartment at about seventy, and that’s cold, okay?
On the bright side, she’s successfully stolen about three out of the eight known sweatshirts that Sharon has, which is amusing to no end.
“Give me my red one back!” Sharon says. “I like the face on that!”
“Not until you change the thermostat,” Maria announces automatically, eyes glued to the TV. Her cooking show is on, and she cannot be bothered to care. “I’m still taking it.”
“I’m going to steal all of your socks.”
“I know all of your hiding places.”
Sharon rolls her eyes, but sits down on the couch and rests her head on her girlfriend’s thigh. “Who’s winning?”
“The Russian one, but I don’t think he’ll win the whole thing.”
“He could. His dessert looks good.”
“He wants to put ice cream on top. Everyone knows if you try to use the ice cream machine you get disqualified.”
“Very wise.”
Maria nods, snuggling back into the sweatshirt. Sharon gives her a raised eyebrow.
“I will be getting my stuff back. I don’t care how good you look in it.”
“Sure you will,” Maria says, smirking. “You forget I’m the one who coordinates all of your mission strategy and helps with cleanup, right?”
Sharon shrugs.
“You don’t know all my secrets.”
“Nearly, though.”
“Very nearly. But now, back to cooking.”
They lay together, occasionally making comments about the host or whether or not they would’ve chosen the desserts the contestants did. Sharon thinks the sugar-frosted idea for the raspberries for the garnish is a bit much for the cheesecake, but Maria likes it.
Plus, Sharon isn’t too mad at Maria taking all of her sweatshirts. At least she looks beautiful in them.
