The rain was always Maria’s favorite. Ever since she was a little girl she’d find a way to make her way outside during a storm. It felt freeing to her, cleansing Maria from her past and allowing her to just be.
Through her rocky high school experience, her time in the Marines, and now at the SHIELD base, the rain continued to ground her. The pleasure she got from her early morning runs increased exponentially when she could feel the cool drops on her skin, running down her face and reminding her of easier times. The rain was constant.
But now Maria supposed she had another constant in her life. One with an everlasting, teasing smirk. One with the skill to bring down three enemies twice her size while wearing heels in five seconds. One with fiery red hair and a soul that was equally aflame.
Not exactly who one might match up with a woman in love with the rain, but the two made a team that was unmatchable. Agent Romanoff’s performance and precision in the field coupled with Agent Hill’s intense and calculating focus behind the scenes made for some of the best and most successful ops Fury had ever seen.
And so Agent Romanoff— Natasha—became a constant for Maria similar to, but at the same time so wildly different than the rain. She is sarcastic wit with a bright twinkle that rivals the sun in her green eyes. She is warm hands stitching and bandaging a gunshot wound on Maria’s thigh. She is comforting arms and soft words pulling Maria out of nightmares. She is passionate kisses burning with desire and heated skin while tangled up in bed.
It isn’t a surprise, then, when Maria drags Natasha out in the rain to dance on the one day they were both free. Arms are wrapped around waists and necks and they stand so close she can feel Natasha’s warm breath on her neck.
Then it’s her scorching kiss that never fails to take Maria by surprise. Then Maria is on one knee, her tears mixing with the rain streaming down her face as she looks at Natasha with all the love in the world. And then Natasha is saying yes and Maria is sliding the ring on her finger and then they’re hugging so fiercely like the other will slip away, because really, nothing is constant.
And finally they are kissing again and Maria smiles when she notices Natasha’s lips are colder now, because she knew she needed a storm like this one to calm the forest fire that is her Natasha Romanoff.