The amount of time you spent at your apartment wasn’t worth the rent you paid to ‘live’ there. Any working day was spent on missions, where they weren’t you were training at the compound. From the earliest hours of the day to the latest, you were always working on your fighting techniques or expanding your skill set. So, when you received a text from your landlord informing you of a rent increase, your reaction wasn’t exactly quiet. It also didn’t go as unnoticed as you thought it did.
As you were leaving the compound for the night, you were approached by Tony Stark, and, behind him, Steve Rogers keeping his distance by leaning on a wall further down the hallway. For how long he’s been doing his job, the super soldier wasn’t very good at looking inconspicuous. In a very ‘Tony’ way, you were offered living quarters in the compound, ‘free-of-charge, no expense to you’. After the number you’d received from you landlord hours ago, you weren’t going to turn this down.
So here you are now. Boxes of your belongings finally all in one place, your, arguably, oversized bedroom at the Avengers Compound. Well, it’s more of a mini studio apartment due to the area between the bed and the door. In other rooms that you’ve seen—Tony, for some reason, decided that you’d need guidance on setting up your space—most people had some form of entertainment and seating situation. The best you could do to recreate that was your two-seater sofa and the tv you’ve had since you first moved into your own place. In any other space, that would be a great set up, however, in the size of the space, it looked pathetic. There wasn’t much to be done about though, and it was good enough for the one body that would be occupying the space. Plus, it left you enough room to neglect unpacking your boxes for a while. Carrying them in one by one, with the cold weather outside, had left you exhausted and, quite frankly, your fingers were struggling to thaw themselves out.
That’s how you ended up in the kitchen. Your container of instant hot chocolate, thank God, had been in the easiest box to access. Finding a mug, however, was proving impossible. It had almost been half an hour of you searching through every cupboard in there and all you gained was the knowledge of where to find baking trays, pots, pans and every item of dishware that wasn’t a drinking receptacle. Eventually, you registered, at the edge of your vision, someone enter the space, reach up high and place a mug down onto the counter, pour themselves a coffee and leave again. So that’s where they are.
Approaching the counter, you assess the best way to access that cupboard. You know that you’re not even going to reach it on your tiptoes. You huff, knowing that you’re about to gymnast this shit. You check for anyone else entering before you embarrass yourself in front of anyone important.
“Okay, lets do this. Before anyone can witness it.”
You place your hands onto the counter surface and lean onto them, hopping up high enough to get you foot up next to them. You swing around and raise onto your knees, shuffling down to be in front of the right door. You were almost there when a voice from behind stops you dead.
“What are you doing?” Natasha.
You can tell from her voice that this is entertaining to her. She leaves you no time to respond, though, as you’re gently pulled backwards, off the counter and feet flat on the floor.
“I just wanted a hot chocolate.” You reason, acceptance of defeat present in your tone.
“And you were going to make it with that?”
You scrunch your eyebrows confused at her disgust until you follow her point at your instant mix. You roll your eyes.
“It’s easy and quick, and I’m frozen and tired!”
“It’s not even worth the water, move.”
There’s no way you’re going to let her boss you around the space after those insults. You tense slightly and cross your arms, staring the widow down.
“No.”
It’s her turn to roll her eyes now as she effortlessly sweeps you off your feet and seats you on the island opposite the surface she needs to work. You watch her silently as she pulls down two mugs, glides around to pull a pan out of one of the cupboards you practically climbed into earlier and retrieves both milk and chocolate out of the fridge.
“I can’t believe you.” She begins talking as she stirs the chocolate into the milk.
“What?”
“You work with the Avengers, and you don’t even respect yourself enough to make a good hot chocolate.”
“You’re mean.” You pout in response, even if she can’t see it from where she’s standing.
A clinking of mugs distracts you from your eyeline into the back of Nat’s head. A turn of your head lets you identify Tony carrying, what must be, a whole shelf’s worth of mugs. In his journey to the kitchen though, one must slip from his grasp because not even seconds later, you’re left flinching from your spot on the island, closing your eyes in a wince.
“Sorry! I’ve ran out of thinking space.”
“You’re going to have to get used to that.” Natasha quips, now holding a mug in front of you.
“What, Iron Man smashes a mug every month?” You carefully wrap your hands around the mug, letting her slip her hands away. Nat chuckles and Tony rolls his eyes as he deposits the remaining mugs onto the counter space.
“No. But he does hoard his mugs and then dumps them all in the shared kitchen space!”
She’s projecting in his direction as he slowly makes his way back to his lab.
“Oh, and Tony?”
He stops and turns to look back at the two of you.
“Yes, Spider Lady?”
“We need to become more accessible for the shorter population.”
Summary: You and Natasha turned your regular date night into a night out with Steve and Bucky.
Warnings: fluff, slight angst towards the end, but it turns back into fluff, some making out and PDA (if this is a warning)
Author’s note: This is my entry for the Fandom Writing Challenge! The theme was Date Night and my prompt was Dancing. I feel like there aren’t enough Natasha and Reader fics, so I gave this a shot. I hope you have fun reading it!
"You ready yet, babe?", you asked over your shoulder, while you stood in front of your mirror, putting on your favorite pair of earrings.
It was the third Friday evening in the month, the night that belonged to Natasha and you and which you never spent apart. At least until now there hadn't been any missions to keep you apart.
You had been part of administrative section of the Avengers initiative when you first met her. Of course you had known her before, who hadn't heard of the infamous Black Widow in your line of work? But you'd never actually met her until you'd been assigned as her personal assistant. You and her had hit it off right away.
Not only were you mesmerized by her beauty, you were intrigued by her sense of humor and her intelligence. You had fallen for her quickly and much harder than you'd ever expected to fall for anybody.
"Almost", she answered you, as she stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a beautiful black dress that ended shortly over her knees.
Your breath caught in your throat as you took in her appearance and you bit down on your lower lip, smiling.
"Damn", you breathed letting your gaze wander over her once more.
She smiled at you, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, as she made her way over to you.
"I could say the same about you, sweetheart."
Natasha leaned closer to you, moving her fingers through your hair as she pressed her lips against yours in a soft kiss. You melted against her and sighed softly, wrapping your arms around her. It never failed to amaze you just how soft her lips were; how soft she was in every way. She fought and killed for a living, she survived explosions and crawled through dirt, but still her skin was one of the softest things you'd ever touched and you hoped that you would never have to stop touching her.
As her tongue run over your bottom lip you slowly pulled away, smiling at her a little breathlessly.
"If we don't stop this now, we won't make it out of here. And as much as I love spending our limited free time in bed together, we agreed to go out with Steve and Bucky tonight."
She sighed and hesitantly let go of you.
"Remind me, why we did we do that again?", she asked and managed to sound exasperated.
"Because we both agree that our popsicles need to get back to the life. And we want them to finally open up about their feelings for each other", you replied, a devilish smirk on your lips which made Natasha laugh in agreement.
You and Natasha finished getting ready, before your threw on your jackets, grabbed your purses and took a cab to the restaurant where you'd meet Steve and Bucky. There wasn't much room between you and her in the cab. Your intertwined hands rested in her lap, while your free hand moved gently up and down her thigh. She smiled the whole time, her head resting against the side of yours and from time to time she pressed short, loving kisses to your lips or on your cheek.
When the car stopped in front of the restaurant she cupped your face in her hands and engaged you in a passion filled kiss, before she paid the cab driver and got out. You sighed, closing your eyes for a second before you followed your girlfriend out into the night.
Every time you and Natasha decided to have a night out she always put space between you and her. There wouldn't be any touching that could have been interpreted as you and her being more than just girl friends having a fun night out.
It wasn't that you weren't official or that either of you hadn't been out to the other Avengers or your friends. Natasha was simply afraid to put your in the spotlight. She was afraid that the press would take notice of your relationship and exploit it in every way possible, especially because she knew that you could be sensitive. The other reason she was afraid was because of her enemies. She feared that she'd put you on the line and that they would try to hurt you just so that they could get to her. And she wasn't going to let anything happen to you.
You knew all of that, you knew that she was right and that this was the most logical solution, even though you were more than capable of defending yourself. But you also wanted to be able to hold her hand when you spent time outside of your apartment. You wanted to hug her from behind while you went grocery shopping, to kiss her whenever she did that stupid and cute little curved smile. You never mentioned it to her, though, she already was under enough pressure and you didn't need to add to it by making her worry about you.
Steve and Bucky already sat at the table when you and Nat entered the restaurant. Both of them smiled widely as they got up and hugged you as a greeting.
It was a nice dinner. The food was exceptional and the four of you enjoyed talking with each other, for once being able to ignore the work you did for a living. Every time Steve or Bucky reached out to touch the other, to get bread crumbs from their shirts or just because either of them wanted to talk first or needed to add something to a story, you and Nat threw each other knowing smirks. They were both so deeply in love with each other, you couldn't comprehend how they didn't see it.
"So... What do you guys say to turning our almost double date into something more fun than just dinner?", Nat asked when dinner was finished, a small smile on her lips.
You noticed Steve crooking an eyebrow at her choice of words, but he still motioned for her to move on.
"You know... It's been literal ages, with all the shit going down constantly, since we've been to a night club. And I could really go for a real night out again."
Her eyes skipped over Steve and Bucky before they rested on you, silently asking if you were okay with her idea.
A smile spread on your lips. You hadn't been out like that for quite a while now and this was bound to be fun.
"I'm game", you replied, still smiling, before you turned to the boys, looking at them expectantly.
Steve looked at Bucky, who shrugged before he smiled as well.
"I'm pretty sure the last time I had a night out was in the 40s, so of course I'm in. And I won't let you stay in either, pal", he replied and put his hand on Steve's shoulder.
Grinning you made your way out of the restaurant and toward one of the many night clubs, Nat on your right side and Steve and Bucky on your left. You didn't have to walk very far until you stood in line and waited to get in. It always filled you with wonder that people didn't notice either of the Avengers when they were dressed like civilians. Or maybe it had just to do with the absence of light and the presence of booze.
When you got closer to the door you could already hear the techno music that was played at the location and whenever the door was opened you felt the beats in your chest. You leaned closer to Natasha and whispered into her ear.
"You know, I'm afraid that they'll be in sensory overload after five minutes."
She chuckled and leaned slightly against you.
"Cut them some slack, Y/N. I'll give them fifteen", she replied and winked at you.
You laughed loudly at that and Bucky turned around shooting you a questioning glance which you waved away.
Not even the bouncer recognized either of them as he cashed you and opened the door. You were met with the smell of alcohol and sweating bodies as soon as you entered the club. The blue, pink and green lights flashed in your vision, over the faces of the other people and were caught in Natasha's dark red hair.
The four of you silently agreed to go to the bar first and order drinks, before you looked for a free table at which you sat down. Natasha sat closer to you than you were used to. Her upper arm brushed against yours whenever she moved and her hand rested on your thigh under the table, drawing slow circles on your dress. Although it was unusual, you appreciated it and returned the soft and discreet touches as you placed your own hand over hers.
The music was too loud for an actual conversation, so you sat there, drinking and communicated solely through gestures and facial expressions. You were surprised at how well you guys understood each other and made a mental note to plan a charade night in the near future.
Nat startled you out of your silent conversation with Steve as she suddenly stood up and pulled you alongside her to the dance floor. You looked at her surprised when she let go of your hand and started to move her hips to the music. Nat bit her lower lip and winked at you, motioning for you to join her. You hesitated for a second and looked at the people surrounding you, but nobody seemed to notice either your or her.
You let the music take you over and closed your eyes, feeling the beats in your whole body. Traveling from your feet through your legs, shortly resting in your hips, making you move them in circles, before they travelled even further up, spreading through your whole body.
When you opened your eyes again, you noticed Natasha smiling at you, love and adoration twinkled in her beautiful hazel eyes. Her hands reached again for yours and she pulled you against her, pressing her slender frame against yours. You shot her a questioning glance, but she ignored it and put her hands on your hips, effectively destroying every kind of distance there had still been between your bodies. She moved against you to the rhythm of the beat and you got out of your rigor.
You travelled your hands over her arms, toward her shoulders, resting one of your hands there while the other one moved up to cup her cheek.
It was as if nothing and nobody else existed in this moment, it was only you and Natasha in the whole word. Warmth spread through your whole body, followed by a pleasant tingling and you softly rubbed your thumb over her cheekbone, smiling back at her when her smile turned into a smirk. The next thing you knew was that she was kissing you. Your eyes widened in shock and you felt your heart beating in your chest. She had never done anything like that in public.
Overcoming your initial shock, you melted against her, your eyes fluttered shut and you rested your hand on her neck, while your other hand moved to lay on the small of her back. You pressed her even harder against you, until you were so intertwined in each other's embraces that neither of you could move.
Her lips moved passionately against yours and she nibbled at your lower lip, making you inhale sharply. You moved your head a little, changing the angle, your noses bumped into each other and you felt her silently laugh against you, before you silenced her with another kiss.
Natasha's hand fisted in your hair and she slightly tugged on it, to which you let out a silent groan against her lips. Immediately she licked over your lower lip, before her tongue slipped into your mouth to meet yours.
The next thing you knew was that you were pulled away from her, the warmth suddenly leaving your whole body as cold spread through you in the overheated club and some guy stood in front of you, grinning. He raked of booze and sweat.
"So you're fucking the Black Widow? That’s fucking hot! Is it as good as everybody believes it to be?", he asked and moved even closer towards you, invading your personal space.
You were so taken aback, you didn't even know how to react. And you didn't have to. Natasha ripped the guy away from you with such force that he landed with his ass on the dance floor, the crowd of dancing people parting and looking shocked at the unfolding scene.
"Are you okay, Y/N?", she asked you, shooting you a worried glance.
You nodded and she focused her gaze back on the guy on the ground.
"What the fuck?!", he exclaimed angrily, rubbing his lower back as he got up again.
"My friends and I got this all on camera, you stupid bitch! This is going viral, just so you know!"
He screamed at her, apparently forgetting that he talked to one of the most deadly assassins in the world, and moved closer again, until he stood nose to nose with her.
Your heartbeat caught in your throat and you looked worriedly at Natasha. This was going to ruin everything.
"Do I look like I care?", she asked, a deathly calm undertone in her voice.
"Sure, go ahead. But tell your friends to keep filming, while I'm beating you black and blue for daring to touch me and my girlfriend."
Her body was rigid, every muscle was ready to pounce at the guy in front of her and her hazel eyes were hard and unrelenting.
The guy turned white as a sheet, seemingly sobering up rather quickly as he realized with whom he actually dealt.
She moved closer, grabbing his shirt with one hand and even though she was way shorter than him, it felt as if she was towering above him.
"If you want to get out of this unharmed, you may get lucky. You and your friends hand me your phones and get out of here as fast as you can. Should I find any part of this evening on the internet or on the media, if I ever see as much of you as the back of your head again, I'm going to find you and I'm going to make your life a living hell, is that understood?", she asked calmly.
The guy gulped noticeably and nodded, handing her his phone and motioned for his two friends who just dropped their phones where they stood, before they made their way out of the night club. Natasha let go of the guy, pushing him and he scrambled to get away as fast as possible.
Your stomach was in knots. You had never seen Nat like this. You had seen her angry, you had listened to her reports of different missions, but you had never seen her this calm and in control. It scared the shit out you. You weren't afraid that she'd ever turn this calm, concentrated anger towards you, but you were afraid what this evening might entail.
She turned towards you, the three phones in her hand and only then you noticed Steve and Bucky standing behind you. Steve's big and warm hand landed softly on your shoulder and he looked at you with concern in his blue eyes.
"Are you alright?", he asked, his gaze not leaving yours.
"Yeah", you nodded and forced a smile on your face, even though you knew it must have looked shaky.
Natasha stopped next to you and reached for your hand, intertwining her fingers with yours.
"Are you fine with going home for tonight?", she asked softly and you nodded again, but keept your eyes away from her.
"We'll see you guys on Monday", you said softly and waved at Bucky and Steve, before you and Natasha made your way out and got onto a cab.
The ride was silent between the two of you. There was nothing left of the former joy and warmth, even though she still kept you physically close, her head resting on your shoulder and her arm slung around your lower back.
When you closed the door to your apartment, you sighed and rested your forehead against it for a second before you turned around and got rid of your heels.
Nat waited for you in the living room, leaning against the back of your sofa.
"Y/N/N, we need to talk", she stated softly, her hands resting beside her.
You felt like you were going to be sick. You wanted nothing more than to just run away. But you knew that there was no sense in postponing the inevitable and so you nodded, standing in front of her.
"I know. Don't worry. I'll be out of here tomorrow morning as soon as I can. And I'll talk to Fury, he'll get you a different PA, I'm sure about that."
Her eyes shot up and widened in shock, before she crossed the small distance between you and her, grabbing you by your upper arms.
"What? No, why? What are you even talking about?", she asked confused, fear flashing in her eyes.
You felt your own confusion and fear rise with her reaction. It always scared you when the usually calm and collected Natasha appeared to be afraid.
"Isn't that what you were going to say? That you love me and that you enjoyed our time together, but that we can't keep doing this? Because it puts both of us in danger and because you think I can't handle either the press or your enemies? I'm just making it easier for the both of us, by skipping the whole talking part."
Her grip on your arms tightened and she shook her head at you.
"No. This is not what I was going to say, Y/N. Let me talk. And listen."
You nodded hesitantly, confused by the whole situation.
Nat took a deep breath before she started talking again.
"I'm sorry about how this evening turned out in the end. I'm sorry that initiated this whole PDA thing without asking, if you're okay with it. And I'm sorry for this asshole ruining the best kiss I've ever had."
You opened your mouth to interrupt her, but she silenced you with a finger on your lips.
"I want to be able to do this again. I want to hold your hand when we go out. And I want to kiss you without always having to check if anybody is around taking pictures of us. I don't want to keep having to put space between us, just because I'm afraid that anybody is going to notice that we're a couple. I know that you're strong and I know that you can defend yourself if it should ever come to that. And I'm sorry that I put you in the situation of being my kind of secret-girlfriend in the first case. If you're okay with it, I'd like to talk to Tony and Pepper tomorrow and ask them to formulate a media statement in which we make it official that we're a couple so that we don't have to hide any longer."
Your breath had caught in your throat and you felt yourself slightly tear up at her words. She looked at you expectantly, but you didn't trust your voice just yet, so you nodded, a wide smile on your face and hugged her close against you, burying your face in the crook of her neck.
"I love you, Nat", you whispered, slightly choked and she hugged you even tighter.
"I love you, too, Y/N/N. I love you so damn much."
You stood like that in your living room for god knows how long until you slowly let go of each other.
"So... What do you say to turning the rest of the night into a real date night?", you asked her, playing with her fingers and a wicked smile on your lips.
She returned your smile and kissed you hard and lovingly, before she grabbed both your hands and led you backwards towards your bedroom.
"I'll make sure you won't forget this date any time soon, sweetheart."
