So I was watching The Winter Soldier again and I realized something in this scene:
Steve’s response shows that he thinks Natasha was being vain, he’s thinking ‘aww poor Black Widow can’t wear a bikini because she has an imperfection like the rest of the planet’. Which is what I always thought as well (autistic literal thinking).
However I think Natasha had a two fold plan, 1, obviously to fluster Steve by both showing her bare stomach and then mentioning herself in less clothing (Steve is an artist, I’d bet he has a very visual imagination) which would hopefully make him back off a bit.
2, I think she’s really saying that her usual spy tactics had to change after getting shot. We see in all of her movies that seduction or even the illusion of it is key to her spy skills, however if she were to show up in a bikini, or a long undercover assignment where she had to get physically close to a mark, the people she is spying on would recognize a gun shot scar immediately and her cover would be blown.
