Marvel Oneshots

Lack of Awareness (Grant Ward)

Written for Fictober 2022 on Tumblr!

Prompt: "Who said this was a good idea?"

Summary: When a fellow agent is rude to Y/N, their boyfriend Grant is determined to get some revenge on his partner's behalf. Y/N managed to talk him out of a physical fight and into a ridiculous prank instead, but it might be more effective than either of them could've thought when another member of SHIELD accidentally gets involved.

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"Okay, I'm gonna go now- oh shit! Freeze!" I hissed, hoping the sound carried just far enough to reach Grant, my boyfriend, in the vent a few inches behind me and no one else. We were in the middle of one of the most ridiculous things I'd ever done at SHIELD, which was really saying something.

Last week in training, I'd been minding my own business when Agent Heary came up to me and started insulting my form, strength, intelligence, and everything in between. It honestly hadn't bothered me; the guy had been a dick since our academy days, mostly out of jealousy, and he was way too confident in himself for abilities he simply didn't have. I could've laid him out in two seconds, but it just wasn't worth my time. Grant, on the other hand, had been furious when I'd told him about it later. He'd insisted that we had to get some kind of revenge on Heary, and I'd barely managed to talk him down from a physical fight to a prank.

Hence our current situation. We were hiding in the vents above one of SHIELD's busier hallways, laying in wait to dump a vat of some weird shit we'd found in a SciTech lab on his head. He'd come into my line of sight and stopped walking in the perfect position for Grant and I to strike, but just as I'd been about to tip the bucket I held over onto his head, none other than Director Fury himself had walked into the line of fire as Heary engaged him in conversation.

"What's happening?" Grant hissed from behind me. He started moving forward to come shoulder to shoulder with me, but I held up a hand to stop him.

"You have to be deadly quiet right now," I whispered. "Fury's walking right under us. I don't think I have to tell you're we're completely fucked if we accidentally get him."

Grant sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Who said this was a good idea?"

"You, remember! I would've been perfectly fine ignoring Heary and his stupid nonsense, but no, we just had to get revenge."

Grant made a face at me, and I made one right back. Slowly, silently, he scooted forward in the vents until he was right next to me and we could both watch Fury and Heary. The noise of the hallway made it a little hard to hear their conversation, but after a second, I managed to tune in.

"-time for a promotion, sir." I barely held in a snort of disgust at the words. Heary was pitching Fury for a promotion, because of course he was. He absolutely did not deserve it, but obviously there was nothing Grant or I could do about that now. "I'm at a point in my training and experience where I know I'm ready to take on more. I could be a real asset to you at a higher level, sir. I just want to do my duty to the best of my ability."

Fury's expression was completely unreadable as he stared down Heary. After a few beats, Fury's gaze lifted up and away from Heary and, to my horror, landed on Grant and I in the vents. I froze, and I felt Grant stiffen beside me. Of course Fury had noticed us, despite our best efforts. He was the spy.

And now we were totally dead.

Fury made eye contact with me, then his eyes slid to Grant and held my boyfriend's stare for a few moments. Then, finally, his gaze drifted back down to Heary. I reached out in the dark of the vent and took Grant's hand, squeezing it tight. He squeezed right back, and I swear I was on the verge of a heart attack when Fury finally spoke again.

"Agent Heary, you think you're at a point in your training where you're ready to take on the next level of missions, challenges, secrets, and dangers SHIELD deals with?" he demanded. Heary nodded, snapping to attention.

"Yes sir!"

Fury snorted. "Then you have a dangerous misconception of your own skill set. You need to be a hell of a lot more aware of your environment before you get sent into high level espionage missions."

Heary looked shocked, but Fury didn't spare him another second as he moved past him to continue on his way. He spared one last glance up at me and Grant and gave us a nod before he disappeared out of sight.

I looked to Grant in shock, finding the same expression on his face. We held each other's stares for a few beats, then looked back down at where Heary still stood in the hallway, apparently just as shocked as we were.

"I mean... that feels like a green light, right?" I asked, keeping my voice down as I looked back at Grant. He took a deep breath in, and I swear I could see him rethinking every decision in his life that had led him to this exact moment. Finally, as he let the breath out, he looked back at me with an expression that told me he'd accepted his fate.

"I guess so. Let's do it."

I grinned as Grant popped the grate on the vent then helped me gradually tip over the vat of lab stuff. Heary still hadn't moved, and it didn't take us long to empty all the contents onto his head. He shrieked and jumped backwards, but it was too late. He was completely covered.

"You!" he shouted, practically shaking in rage as his eyes landed on Grant and I in our hiding spot. I grinned at him before moving to close the vent, but Grant leaned out of it and flipped Heary the bird before I could.

"That's what you get for being a dick to my- to Agent Y/L/N," he said. "If you weren't such a shitty agent, you would've seen us ten minutes ago."

With that, Grant ducked back into the vent with me, pulling it shut behind him. Everyone in the hallway stared between us and the scene that was Heary, shocked and often delighted expressions on their faces. Grant and I ignored them all as we moved back through the vents the way we'd come.

"That was awesome!" I cried, laughing as we army-crawled together. Grant tried to hide a grin, but I still saw it.

"I thought you didn't want to get revenge," he said. I shrugged.

"I mean, I don't think it was necessary, no. But that was an epic prank, and it's not like Heary didn't deserve it. We just got Director approval!"

Grant snorted a laugh at that, and I grinned. My normally straight-laced, uptight boyfriend had been getting more and more wild and crazy since he'd started dating me, and I had to admit, I absolutely loved it. After pulling off an insane stunt like this, it was time for us to celebrate. I knew Heary would probably be coming to settle the score with us later, but Grant and I would be more than ready to meet him when he came.

And until then, we were going to have some serious fun celebrating Heary getting what he deserved at the hands of SHIELD's unofficial power couple.