Forever and Always

My love

Ashton's P.O.V

           I'm running through the woods. I know it's a dream cause I'm running slowly. But I also get the feeling that I'm running from something. I exit the woods and enter a house. The place is a mess. The furniture is turned over and there is trash everywhere. The walls are littered with bullet holes. I turn to try to go back the way I came, but there's a wall stopping me. I turn and find a door way. I walk through it and find three dead bodies. There is a woman, a small boy, and a man. My family. I stop moving because I know where this is going. Then I feel hands grab me and drag me back. The woman looks at me with her dsad eyes and says "This is all your fault." with a raspy voice. I fight the hands dragging me, but there's nothing there. Then I feel the pain. The fire courses through my veins. It feels like I'm being ripped open from the inside out. The scenes before me are all the I have killed. They laugh at me. And I know I deserve it. I scream out in pain.                            

               Natalia comes into view. She smiles sadly. Suddenly, her face gets serious. "Ashton wake up." She says. I look at her confused. "Ashton, you have to wake up." She says. The images start to blur around me. I feel a different hand on my arm, shaking it. I am shocked out of sleep and feel someone straddling me. I immediately flip so that they are pinned underneath me. Their wrists pinned above their head. "Ashton, it's Natalia." I hear in Russian. I stop and focus on their face.  When I see that it's her, I leap of the bed and back into a wall. "Natalia, I am so sorry." I say, shaking my head. She gets up to come to me. "Don't. I don't want to hurt you." I say. "I trust you." She says. I look at her in the eyes. Darkness meets the forest. Her face is vulnerable. Letting me see passed her walls. I see confusion, pain, and hope. I drop my defenses in return. My shoulders sag and she moves forward to embrace me. I wrap my arms around her pull her tight against me. We stay like that for a bit, just listening to each other's hearts. We let go of each other. I cup her face. "If I ever hurt you or lose control with you, I want you to put a bullet between my eyes." I tell her, seriously.  She looks at me and smiles sadly. She places her hands on top of mine. "I trust you enough to believe that you would never hurt me, my love." She says. I look at her shocked. "So, does that mean that we'll try?" I ask her. She nods. "We'll take it slow. Rediscover each other, catch up on the things we missed." She says. I smile. "That sounds wonderful." I say. My stomach growls, ruining the moment. She laughs. "Breakfast?" She asks me. "Please." I tell her.
            
              We head to the kitchen, and Natalia makes pancakes. When she hands me a plate of them, I take a bite of one and almost moan.  "Where did you learn to make these?" I ask her. She smiles at from the stove. " I spent some time in Greece. There was an elderly lady in the apartment next to me. one day she invited me over and she teaching me how to make them." She says. "Well, she taught you well. These are the best damn things I have ever eaten." I say. She laughs. Her laugh makes me smile. I hear a buzz that makes me jump. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a device similar to what Clint had yesterday. She looks at its screen. She huffs a sigh and looks at me. "Hurry up and finish those. We have to head to the training facility. Fury wants to evaluate your abilities." She says. I finish shoveling in my food and go to my room to get dressed. Then we head to the elevator down the hall from our apartments. As we stand there waiting for the elevator, Natasha grabs my hand. I look down at our hands, then to her face with a smile. "I thought I'd give it a try." She says with a smirk. I chuckle as the elevator arrives

               When we get to the taining facility, Fury and Clint are waiting for us with another woman. "About time. I thought you guys were never going to show up." Clint says jokingly. I laugh. "Yeah, well, I had to feed her before the beast showed up." Natasha says. I frown at that. She doesn't know about my alternate form. No one outside of HYDRA does. I never used it on a mission. "How do you know about that?" I ask her. It's her turn to look at me confused. "I was refering to how hangry you would get when we were kids." She says. Oh, yeah. I do get hangry. But so does she. "Are you insuating that you have another form?" Fury asks me. I look to Him and nod. "Oh shit." says the woman behind him. Fury looks at her. He turns back to me. "Ashton, this is commander Maria Hill. My right hand woman. If you can't get to me, report to her." He says. I nod and stick out my hand for her to shake. She hesitantly steps forward to take it. I gently shake our hands. She releases my hand and steps back to her original possition.

               "Show me." Fury says. I look at him with an eyebrow raised. " Are you sure you want to see it? It's not pretty." I say. " Is it like the hulk?" He asks me. I chuckle. He would ask me that. I shake my head. " It's a chymera." I tell him. "I still want to see it. Then we can move on to your other abilities." He says. I nod. I take off my jacket and hand it to Natalia. I walk to the other side of the room. I turn to face them. I take a deep breath. I run a few steps and jump. I feel my body shift and I land on all four. My claws scrape the ground. They jump back in suprise. "Holy shit!" Clint exclaims loudly. I lay down on my stomach to put them at ease. I tower over them when I'm standing up. I look at Natalia and she is looking at me warily. I bow my head and she steps forward. She comes to stand in front of me. I prick my ears forward. She reaches to touch them hesitantly. I hum and lean into her touch. She then pets my head. "This is incredible." Fury says. He circles around me to look at me. He stops behind Natalia. "May I take a closer look at the quills?" He asks. I nod. He moves to my side to get a better look. He leans forward a little and I still. He reaches out to touch one and I move away. It startles him enough to pull back his hand. Natalia also steps back. I move to the other side of the room to shift back. I finish shifting and step to them.

              "I couldn't let you touch the quills. They are toxic." I inform Fury. He simply nods. "Where do your clothes go?" Hill asks. I shrug.
"I don't really know. I'm just glad that they Goand comeback because I'd hate shifting even more." I say. She nods like it makes perfect sense. "I also cannot use my other abilitites when I am in that form." I say. To this Fury nods. "Noted. Now show us your other abilities." He says. I snort. "Is this show and tell?" I ask him. He chuckles to this and presses a button on a tablet I didn't see he had. The room around us morphs. " This is a simulation. It will help us evaluate your abilities. When your ready simply say Begin. We will be up in the observasion room." He says. He turns to leave with the others following him. I look up and see a window. That must be the observation room. I look aroung unsure of what to do. "You can start now." I hear Fury say through the intercom. Not knowing what to do, I simply say "Begin." Then I'm blow back on my ass. "I thought this was a simulation." I yell standing up. "It is. It's just a real life simulation." I hear Hill say. "Thanks for the warning." I mutter. Then I prepare myself for another attack.