can't carve a whistle by irnan

[turnonmyheels.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE AVENGERS
Pairing: Maria Hill and Natasha Romanov, Maria Hill/Steve Rogers
Length: 3564
Author on LJ: irnan
Author Website: At AO3
Why this must be read: This is a *fantastic* Maria Hill character study. It was posted at a time when I was reading a comic that had left a very nasty taste in my mouth regarding Maria. [No one bad mouths Pepper Potts when I'm around, just saying] I actually hated her for about a week. Then this fic saved her character for me. Yes, it is that strong.

So is Maria.

Excerpt

"I don't like Saviours - I don't trust them," she tries explaining.

Cap looks astonished and amused and thoughtful all at once. "Why not? Why would anyone not?"

Maria waves her hands. The bridge elevator's stuck again, Stark and Banner set something off and jammed half the non-essential electronics systems on the carrier, thank God they're already in the water and won't be crashing out of the sky. She and Cap are sitting opposite each other on the floor in dull, dim red emergency lighting. He's wearing civvies; she isn't. She's armed; he isn't. There's a trap door above them in the elevator roof they could get out of if they had to.

"Because," she says, "once you need a Saviour - that's giving up your autonomy, that's - giving up responsibility. People should make their own choices, and people should defend themselves."

Cap drums his fingers on his knee, drawn up in an easy, casual stance he hadn't had seven months ago. "I see – as if that's liberty - that people should get to choose to destroy themselves if they want. I mean, I think that's awful, it's so - so uncaring."

"It's not," says Maria, "it's respect - respect for their choices, for their ability to make choices. You don't get to decide what's best for others."

"Well, of course not," says Cap. "But neither do other people - people like Loki - bullies, you know."

"The point is that we ought to be able to find a way to deal with bullies that doesn't rely on you or Stark or Thor or anyone else, anyone bigger or stronger than we are ourselves," says Maria, and Cap's blue eyes flash with understanding - she thinks there's pain there too, old pain, scabbed over but still aching.

"Yeah," he says. "That. I used to think that."

Maria's eyebrows climb. "What happened?"

He grins. "I got beat up a lot."

can't carve a whistle