RIGBY CAME INTO WORK TO FIND LEO ON HIS DESK. The man rolled his eyes as he stood over the smaller man who was fast asleep, one leg curled up towards his arms which were tucked under his head. He debated on whether he should wake him up so they could be productive or if he could use this as an excuse to get a paid day off; after all, no one wanted to upset the kid who had an in with ex-Director Fury.

But one look from Maria told him that just because there was an obstruction didn't mean he was going to get to use it as an excuse.

Sighing, he nudged Leo awake, shaking him when the redhead only grumbled, hiding his face from the harsh lights that he could now register through his closed eyes. It was only when he pushed him off the desk and onto the floor that the redhead finally woke.

"What the heck...?" he whined, because at the core of it all, he was a child.

"I have to get work done, kid, whether you wanna sleep or not," Rigby said, looking so disgusted at himself for having to say it, turning to start up his computer, "What're you even doing here, aren't you supposed to be buttering up one of the twins?"

"Steve dropped by this morning and told me it wasn't a good idea to see him today since he's in a really bad mood, so I dropped by here to see you," Leo said, crawling over so he could rest his head in Rigby's lap, the man rolling his eyes and reaching over to lower his chair even further than it already was so Leo had an easier time adjusting himself.

"So I'm your last resort?" he snorted, and Leo raised his head to frown up at him, not even bothering to try and argue.

"How's the work going anyways?" he asked, typing in his log-in, sighing as he caught sight of his itinerary for the day, leaning back as he examined it.

"It's not going so great," Leo mumbled, shifting so his other cheek was resting on his pants, "Pietro doesn't want anything to do with me, though he did buy me a new pack of mints a couple days ago."

"Wow, love," Rigby snarked, and Leo frowned, smacking his calf, and he hissed, "Jeez, it was a joke. I'm sorry, Leo, that sounds really rough, but you know, that's what happens when people are struggling, they close off and don't want to talk about it."

"I don't think that's it," Leo pressed, "Because he's not closed off to everyone, he's open to Arabella and Wanda, I don't even know why they want me here."

He had mulled over Arabella's words endlessly since she had told him. She and Pietro were close, she just wasn't equipped to get him to open up the way they needed him to, which meant that Leo had the ability to, but he didn't see how being pushed away at every moment was going to get Pietro to open up.

Unless he was meant to wear him down until he opened up to someone else so Leo could finally leave.

He felt himself sag at the thought, his eyes fluttering shut as he felt exhaustion overtake him, wanting nothing more than to sleep despite not having done anything to warrant how tired he was.

"You need to stay awake," Rigby said, and Leo raised his head at his tone, tilting his head.

He didn't know Rigby very well, and while the two were pretty good friends, they were on a need-to-know basis when it came to their respective backgrounds, what with Leo trying to keep his parents as much of a secret from him as possible—though he was failing miserably with that.

He did, however, notice the picture that Rigby kept on his desk. It had been the last thing he had seen before he had fallen asleep while waiting for him, and he had an itch to ask him who the girl he was posing with was.

It was a fairly younger looking Rigby who was standing behind a girl that looked fairly similar to him, the two grinning at the camera with party hats, the girl with her hands on her hips leaned to one side, him leaning towards the other with two thumbs up.

They looked happy, and he wondered who she was and why Rigby always looked ready to cry whenever he looked at it.

He knew better than to ask, because he didn't need to upset Rigby in front of the rest of his co-workers, but the man was clearly staring at it rather than his work, and it wasn't as if any of his co-workers paid any attention anyways.

"Who's that?" he asked softly, raising his head so his nose was just above the desk, eyes darting between the picture and Rigby.

The older man swallowed thickly, reaching out to pull the picture towards them, pointing towards himself, "Well, that's me..."

"I'm serious," Leo scoffed, and Rigby smiled, though it was closed lipped and didn't reach his eyes.

"That's my twin sister Eleanor," he explained, pointing towards the girl, "This was taken on our twenty-ninth birthday. She's one of my favorite people and, uh, I haven't seen her in a while..."

"I'm sorry," he said softly, wishing he felt more regretful for asking, "Have you seen the rest of your family?"

"No," Rigby coughed, rubbing the back of his neck, "No, it's been a while since I've seen them too. Longer than I've seen her, it's only been about a year..."

Leo knew he was treading on thin ice, so he simply reached out and took his hand, and Rigby laughed softly, threading their fingers and squeezing it, letting him know that he was okay, his other hand moving towards his mouse to continue working, and maybe that was what everyone meant when they said that Leo could get through to people the way others couldn't.

Maybe he did actually have something.

"What about you, Legacy?" Rigby asked, and Leo found that he didn't wince as much at the nickname when it came from someone that he actually liked, "What about your family?"

Leo scoffed softly, shrugging as he rested his head back on Rigby's lap, letting the man get to work as he traced patterns into his thigh. "My dad's dead and my mom should be retired, but she's not yet."

He knew it wasn't fair, but that was all he was going to tell him. He wasn't going to mention anyone else, not if he wanted everyone to know everything. He was finally at a place where hardly anyone knew the full truth of who he was, because he made sure of it. He didn't need a repeat.

"That's really rough," Rigby said, and Leo wondered just how much he had been through to warrant such a tone, "I'm sorry, Leo."

"It's alright," he mumbled, because the last thing he needed was to make Rigby upset on his behalf, "I've got Uncle Nick, and he's pretty great."

"Yeah, I am."

Leo shrieked as he threw himself off of Rigby, falling on his bottom as he stared up at Fury who was silhouetted by the fluorescent lights, his hands on his hips as he glared down at him, one judgement eyebrow raised.

"If you're gonna do it, at least hide under the desk, my God, it's like I taught you nothing," Fury grumbled, crossing his arms, and Leo frowned for a moment, before freezing, his eyes widening as he realized what the man meant.

"Ew, that's disgusting, what the hell!" he shouted, taking off his shoe and chucking it at the man's general direction, Fury catching it easily, not even blinking.

He took a deep breath. "Boy, you did not just throw your shoe at me."

Leo took off his other one, throwing it at him as well, Fury catching it in his other hand. "I threw both at you, now go away, we were bonding."

Fury snorted. "Clearly. And we did not hire you to bond with Sergeant, we hired you to bond with Maximoff."

"I've tried, but he doesn't like me!" Leo cried, catching the attention of all those who weren't already glancing over, confused as to why Rigby's redhead had his face in his lap, "It's frustrating, that's why I'm hiding out here."

"I knew you were just using me," Rigby muttered, shaking his head at him, but immediately clammed up after a pointed look from Fury.

"You're better than this," Fury said, crossing his arms, "I know it's hard, but we all have to do our jobs, look at Sergeant, you're stopping him from doing his."

"Ah, yes, my super meaningful job where I sit at a desk and sift through old files destroyed by Nazis, occasionally sending files between various branches due to the security breach set by Nazis, and running the occasional background check on S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Stark Industries applicants to make sure we don't get, once again, infiltrated by Nazis. Or a communist, which happened a year before we discovered all the Nazis," Rigby snarked, fiddling with a pen as he leaned back in his seat, smiling up at Fury who's eye twitched.

"Get back to work, Sergeant," he said lowly, narrowing his eye, and Rigby simply tilted his head, holding his gaze for a beat longer, then turning away.

"My hero," Leo whispered softly, wondering just how ready Rigby was for death to warrant such a brazen response to a superior.

"Leo—" Fury began, but Leo held up a hand.

"I know, you don't have to tell me, I know that it's gonna be difficult, I know that it's my job so I have to go through with it, and I know that because it's my job, I can't just give up or half-ass it, because I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not, I just came here to regroup and figure out a new tactic, and just because it doesn't look like it doesn't mean that I'm not," he rambled, speaking faster and faster because he needed to make sure he got everything out before he was interrupted, because ever since he was young, he knew what it was like to be talked over, and he would be damned if he wasn't going to be allowed to plead his case.

Fury stared at him for a moment, all the silence sucked out of the room. Then, "Wilson told me he had a feeling you weren't going to be asking anyone for help, and I wanted to tell you to get your parents out of your head and ask for help if you need it."

Then, "And I'm not your mom, Leo. I'm not gonna talk over you."

Leo shifted from where he was sitting, making a 'W' with his legs in the modified hero pose that everyone used to yell at him about because they always said it would ruin his knees. "Okay."

He yelped as his shoes were tossed in front of him, landing right in front of his lap. Raising his head, he found Fury looking down at him with a soft smile, one that he would never be caught dead giving to anyone but Leo, and maybe one other person in his family.

"Put your shoes on and get to work, Agent. You have a job to do."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 10.11.18 )

Sorry this was so dialogue heavy, I checked my vague chapter plan for this and all I saw was "Leo talks to Rigby and they have a conversation about work and family," so I had to work with what I was given and what I knew would be coming next.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, so I'll mention it here, Eleanor is the OC in my Peter Quill fic, and is also the twin sister of Rigby who, as you all know, is the OC in my Maria Hill fic

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!