"It's not messy. It's necessary work," he said, recalling maps and hunting plans from his childhood and how his parents would pour over them. Of course, construction work was entirely different - he could read a map, he couldn't even pretend he knew how to read blueprints of anything.

Ilya sat down, still tense, unsure of what to expect. SHIELD tended to be very matter of fact and blunt with him, if only because they had a tinge of that with everyone they interacted with. The Headmistress didn't strike him as that distant, but she commanded authority, and for lack of anything to say, he simply said, "Ilya is fine. I mean, if you want." Russian teachers rarely called someone by their last name unless they were in trouble. Was he in trouble already? Even he wasn't paranoid enough to think so, but he supposed anything was possible.