🎁 - for your muse to give mine a present
It sat between them like something between a peace offering and a bomb; not entirely harmless, but certainly not completely destructive, either.
Sadie eyed the box suspiciously for a moment before glancing up to Ward with a raised brow. He held his hands up in the universal symbol of surrender, smiling in the sort of way that always had Sadie torn between smiling back and punching him in the face.
“It’s nothing bad,” he assured her. Her brow rose impossibly higher.
“Oh, of course not,” she agreed, nudging the box cautiously. “You’re as harmless as a kitten, aren’t you, Ward?”
That calmed her nerves, if only for a moment. As long as he wasn’t claiming to be something he wasn’t, there was still the possibility of trust there. And, if anything else, Sadie could be sure that whatever was in the box wouldn’t kill her right away; not with him sitting so close, just as vulnerable to the contents as she was. After a moment’s thought, she removed the paper and opened the box to reveal... a book?
Perhaps book wasn’t the right word for it. It was leather-bound, expensive looking, with a small keyhole on front. Tied to the ribbon bookmark was a key, and Sadie inserted it carefully before opening the book to reveal hundreds of thick, lined paper, void of any writing. She looked at Ward, distrust replaced with curiosity and confusion.
“A diary,” he clarified. “You said you liked secrets. Now you have somewhere to put yours.”
“And what’s in it for you?” Because there was, in her experience, no such thing as a kind gesture, no such thing as “no strings attached.” Not with Ward, not with anyone.
“Maybe you’ll let me read them someday,” he said offhandedly. “I like secrets, too.”
“Maybe we can trade,” she murmured, running fingers over one of the pages absent mindedly before looking back to him. “You didn’t have to... I mean, I didn’t get you anything.”
“I figured,” he snorted. “This isn’t that kind of gift. I mean it, Watkins. We’d both be better off if we shared intel. I know you’ve got no real loyalties to HYDRA. They know it, too, I bet, and HYDRA? Doesn’t like loose ends.”
“And yet they haven’t killed you,” she pointed out. He nodded.
“I’m too good. They can’t touch what they can’t see. But if I had someone on the inside? Well, then I’d really be untouchable.”
“Mmm, great plan for you, maybe, but when HYDRA finds out I’m helping you out? I like my head attached to my body, Ward.”
He stood, that stupid smile ever present on his face. “If that time came, Watkins, I’d come through for you. I’d have your back.”
“Like you had your SHIELD buddies’?” If the comment bothered him, he didn’t show it. Ward was good at hiding his emotions. So was Sadie. It was the first thing HYDRA taught you, she thought, even if there were no outright lessons on it. It was a lesson you learned when you read between the lines.
“Think about it,” he said, and then he was gone, back into the streets. Sadie looked at the journal again, standing up and making her way across the room. She hovered over the garbage can for a moment, eyes on the thick, blank pages before sighing.
She put the journal in her desk. She wouldn’t use it, she told herself. But there was nothing wrong with a little insurance.
