There weren't many reasons for Maria to be staring at Natasha. Let alone when the woman is covered in the blood of her enemies after storming the warehouse. Yet here Maria was, half delirious from pain, and staring at the redheaded goddess who looked really concerned for Maria. Which made sense considering that Maria had been tortured for God knows how long. So really it was the concussion that was staring not Maria because Maria was far more subtle than this. Also Natasha was talking, what was she saying? Her eyes look pretty though like a forest lit up by sunlight.
"Maria, can you hear me?" Natasha said, with increasing worry as she watched Maria's eyes glaze over.
Maria blinked twice before focusing on what Natasha was saying,"yeah, yeah."
Natasha eyebrows furrowed and her face tilted,"you okay there?"
"Pretty..." Maria murmured as she stared at Natasha.
Natasha mouth pursed as she started to cut the ropes keeping Maria in place on the chair. As she cut the ropes she checked on the cuts littering Maria’s body as it slumped on the chair. It was obvious that the Deputy Director was completely out of it, if her pupil dilation was anything to go by. As soon as all of Maria’s limbs were free, Natasha carefully leaned the other woman against her body as Maria whimpered from the pain as she moved her freed limbs.
Maria wasn't really aware of much aside from the warmth of Natasha’s body against hers. She followed Natasha’s lead as the other woman gently shifted her onto her feet. The stinging pain from re-opened wounds brought clarity to Maria’s head, enough so that she was able to look around. And that's when she noticed, the bodies that the Black Widow left in her wake to rescue Maria.
While Maria certainly didn't feel sympathy for the men keeping her captive, she was surprise by the bloodshed that was left. Maria knew that Natasha always preferred the stealthier method when possible, so the amount of violence wasn't a trademark for the Balck Widow, especially since her deflection from the Red Room. Slowly the two woman walked out of the deadly silent warehouse. Maria limping with most of her weight on Natasha while Natasha carefully holding Maria up making sure to not touch any of the visible wounds on Maria’s body.
It was a slow process, and Clint met them at the doors of the warehouse, bow out and ready to hit anyone who came at them, but it was clear no one was coming. Clint didn't say anything as he scanned the room, he knew this wasn't the time for jokes when he saw the state Maria was in. The woman was covered in blood, and it was obviously all hers, she had actively bleeding cuts all over her body, a clear black eye, and a clear limp. Maria looked like she was moments from falling unconscious, and Clint walked behind them, ready to catch Maria if she did pass out. Luckily enough, Maria made it to the quinjet before she lost consciousness in one of the seats.
"Fuck Nat, what happened?" Clint glanced towards her as he took off the jet.
"What do you mean?" Natasha asked, not sure what Clint was referring to.
"I mean what did you do in there?" Clint asked, this time not glancing towards Natasha.
"I did what had to be done Clint," Natasha said, not really telling him what she'd done, but the bodies she left behind said a lot.
"Nat..." Clint hesitated before vaguely saying,"you did a lot."
Natasha didn't answer but she turned to glance at Maria who was peacefully asleep. To the woman who meant so much to Natasha, enough for the usually restraint assassin to leave a warehouse full of bodies behind her. Clint sighed and didn't bring it up again, just tried to get them back to the Helicarrier to get Maria medical help.
The Helicarrier met them halfway from where Maria was kept. As soon as the quinjet landed and the hatch door opened, a medical team rushed in and towards Maria.
They checked her cuts before waking her up properly and checking her reflexes. It was obvious that Maria's reactions were slow, though if it was from being asleep or from the possible concussion, no one was completely sure. But Maria got strapped onto the gurney and taken immediately to the medical bay where she would remain for the next couple of days.
///////////////////////////
Natasha visited only when Maria was asleep, not ready for the questions that would come from the woman. Because Natasha knew, even concussed, Maria had a sharp mind and there was no way she had missed the carnage that Natasha left behind in that warehouse. So Natasha avoided Maria when she was awake, but Maria started to suspect as much when Coulson had let it slide that Natasha was often found in her room during the witching hour. So Maria came up with a plan to catch the Black Widow in her room.
On her final day at the medical bay, Maria started her routine earlier than usual, even going so far as kicking Bobbi and Sharon out of her room, knowing that the news of her early night would be spread all the way to Natasha. As soon as Maria was settled and ready for bed, she closed her eyes and evened out her breath and started to wait for Natasha to come in.
An hour later, she heard the door slide open, and didn't hear any steps, but she did hear the rustling of clothes. She knew it was Natasha, because no one else was that silent while walking in heavy duty boots. Maria waited ten more minutes to see if Natasha would do something, but nothing happened. Instead Maria slowly faked her awakening and turned to look at Natasha.
"Hey," Maria murmured, voice hoarse from disuse.
Natasha instantly looked at Maria's face from where she leaned against the wall opposite of the only bed in the room.
"Hey," Natasha murmured out and strode silently towards the chair next to Maria’s bed.
"You've been avoiding me," Maria sat up in her bed, making sure not to look Natasha in her eyes as she commented.
"Yes," Natasha confirmed knowing better than to lie to Maria when she stated something.
"Why?" Maria asked simply looking straight at Natasha.
"You saw them," Natasha said vaguely, not really looking at Maria and instead staring at the wall behind her.
"The bodies of the mercenaries that kidnapped and tortured me?" Maria asked bluntly.
Natasha blinked, but nodded her agreement.
"Natasha..." Maria sighed as she looked at the SHIELD agent.
"You don't usually choose the violent methods, if anything you choose the method that is the least savage," Maria finished after a moment's pause.
"I know Maria," Natasha muttered into the silent room.
"Then why did you?" Maria gently inquires, making sure not to accuse Natasha of anything.
Natasha’s jaw clenched and she looked away, before answering simply,"they took you and they tortured you for a week."
Maria's eyebrows furrowed as she thought about the response, because it didn't really make too much sense. If Maria's count was right, she's been kidnapped, or attempted kidnapping about 15 times since her promotion to Deputy Director three years. While it was annoying having to foil most of the kidnapping attempts, very few have succeeded in actually capturing her. Though she does suppose this time had also been the longest she's been held hostage for, so there was that, and she didn't appreciate the torture, but that's standard for someone who is Fury's left eye.
"That tends to be the case when someone is the second in command of a spy organization," Maria gently reminded Natasha who glared at the floor.
"Whatever," Natasha murmured and went to leave the room.
"Wait! Natasha!" Maria called out, throwing the blankets off of her and getting out of bed to follow the assassin.
Natasha listened and stopped her walk towards the door, but she didn't turn around to look at Maria who now stood behind her heavily relying on her left leg.
"Look, stuff like this will happen, I'm a good fighter but even I can't win a fight if I'm outnumbered and outgunned," Maria started, still speaking towards Natasha’s tense back.
Natasha didn't respond so Maria continued,"but I swear on the mountain of paperwork that's waiting for me in my office, that I will always try my hardest to stop it from happening."
Natasha spun around and glared straight into Maria’s sky blue eyes, her own green eye darker than Maria has ever seen them before.
"But you'll still get taken, it doesn't even matter how hard you fight cause you won't always win!" Natasha spit out, breathing heavily as her emotions overwhelmed her.
"I can say the same thing about you when you go out on missions," Maria calmly stated, knowing it was better for one of them to remain calm.
"Not the same thing! The Red Room made sure all their precious widows were able to withstand high levels of torture and able to heal just as quickly so the torture could continue. So no, it's not the same thing," Natasha shook her head and turned around to walk away.
Maria instantly grabbed Natasha hand. The soldier's grip was strong enough to stop Natasha momentarily, but not tight enough that Natasha couldn't just shake it off.
"What I'm saying is that I know you're scared that one day I won't come back," Natasha's breath hitched,"but living in fear of that moment will only cause more suffering for both of us."
Natasha blinked rapidly, but didn't dare turn to face Maria, not yet.
"And I think we've both suffered enough for multiple lifetimes, so please Nat, trust that I'll always try to come back to you, just like I know you'll always try to come back to me," Maria finished gently tangling their fingers together as she hovered behind Natasha not letting their bodies meet until the redhead was ready.
They're stayed silent for moments before Natasha leaned back and sighed, relaxing her body against Maria’s injured one.
"I hate seeing you in pain," Natasha murmured softly, turning gently around.
"Same goes for me you know, I don't exactly relish seeing you limping off a quinjet after a mission," Maria wrapped her arms around Natasha and started swaying in place.
"Yeah, I know, you nag me to go to medical often enough," Natasha teased as she eased her face into the crook of Maria’s neck.
"Well I'm not the one who insist they're fine when they're clearly concussed," Maria teased back with a chuckled reverbrating through her body.
"That was one time, and honestly it was a low grade concussion too so nothing to worry about," Natasha smashed her face deeper inti Maria, but Maria could feel the smile the widow was trying to hide.
"Okay then what about when you purposely dislocated your thumb and then set it back in and didn't bother with a brace at all? Hmm?" Maria gently proded at Natasha ribs, feeling the redhead squirm away from her probing finger.
"Oh, right, I forgot I did that," Natasha murmured loud enough for Maria to hear.
"Yeah I figured as much,"Maria shook her head and chuckled.
She stopped trying to tickle Natasha and instead started to hug the smaller woman in her arms tighter. Reminding Natasha that despite being a little worse off then she had been before her kidnapping, Maria was still very much alive and breathing and loving Natasha.
"Let's go to bed, hmm?" Maria suggested as she carefully walked backwards towards the bed she was supposed to be in.
"Hmm," Was all Natasha let out as she followed Maria onto the bed, carefully of the bandages around Maria’s body.
Once they were both comfortable on the bed wrapped in each other's embrace, they slowly fell asleep. Natasha with her hand over Maria’s gently beating heart and Maria with her arm wrapped around Natasha’s back moving with the widow’s every breath. It was the best sleep either woman had had since the day before Maria’s kidnapping, and to both of them, it was also the safest place they slept in since they started falling asleep together.
“Mockingbird, is this Hunter’s doing?” Agent Hill asked before even looking at the request.
“Close enough, really it’s more for both of us, you know dating in SHIELD is not terribly romantic when one of us is nearly always on a long undercover mission,” Agent Mockingbird shrugged after she took a seat on one of the seats in front of Agent Hill’s desk, while maintaining visual of Natasha.
“Well no one told you to date Hunter of all people,” Hill rolled her eyes before actually looking through the request.
“But the accent Maria, c’mon, who in their right mind can say no to a British accent?” The moment Natasha heard Hill’s first name she glanced up from her book and started to actually pay attention to the interaction between both women.
“Hunter is annoying enough that the accent becomes negligible,” Hill commented as she raised an eyebrow as she read the report.
Chapters: 1/6
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov
Characters: Maria Hill, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton
Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, Maria Hill-centric, Maria Hill & Natasha Romanov Friendship, BAMF Maria Hill, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, BAMF Natasha Romanov (Marvel)
Series: Part 2 of We Know Each Other
Summary:
Five things Natasha has noticed about Maria Hill and the one thing Maria told her.
It's really fluffy and the muse escaped me, sorry not sorry.
btw you don't need to read the first part of the series if you don't want to but there are easter eggs if you want them. ;)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Maria Hill
Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, Fluff
Series: Part 1 of We Know Each Other
Summary:
Five things Maria Hill observes about Natasha Romanoff and the one time Natasha reveals something to Maria.
sugurugetos
stormborns
snowghoul
yousharknotpass