Natasha watches from the side of the room as her girlfriend gestures and speaks with intense authority at all the agents aboard the command center of the helicarrier. Her eyes trace the catsuit that clings to Maria’s curves perfectly. She notices the scrapes on the side of her face and frowns with worry. It had been nearly a month since they’ve seen each other, issues with Tony Stark and SHIELD threats keeping them apart. Yet now, under the unfortunate circumstances of a certain Asgardian god who stole Natasha’s partner and was looking to dominate Earth, they were finally together again.
As Maria looks at the computers over the shoulders of the agents scanning for evidence of Loki’s base, a flash of red hair catches her eye. She smirks slyly and turns to see Natasha staring at her. Maria’s eyes scan the room to make sure no one else was watching her and then gives Natasha a wink. Then she turns back to the monitors as if nothing had happened.
Natasha allows herself to blush (yes she could control that) and smile slightly, thinking no one would see her. Of course, she knows she is wrong when she hears the heavy thud of Fury’s boots approach her.
“Careful, Romanoff,” he says quietly, stepping beside her. “I’ve always got my eye on you.”
The redhead steels herself and smirks at him. “What do you need, Fury?”
“Steve Rogers is landing soon, I want you to go meet him, show him around.”
“And why can’t you do it?” Natasha asks jokingly.
“Because I can have people do it for me.” Fury smiles and turns away toward Maria as Natasha rolls her eyes and walks in the opposite direction to meet the super solider.
—————
Soon the whole team that Fury had branded the “Avengers” is gathered around the table at the back of the command room. Natasha is sitting looking through files about Loki’s victims, internally rolling her eyes at the egos of her supposed teammates. She looks up when she hears Fury’s heavy boots again, and sees him and Maria standing in front of her. Natasha catches Maria’s gaze for a second and she nods.
“Commander Hill,” Natasha says, her voice cool and calm. “Good to see you again.”
“You as well, Agent Romanoff,” the brunette responds equally as calm, holding Natasha’s gaze. While the rest of the team pays no attention to the greeting, Fury glances between them and knowingly sighed. He’d have to keep it quick for these two.
Natasha and Maria had known each other since Natasha had joined SHIELD. They hadn’t always seen eye to eye and they argued frequently about how to carry out missions. Despite that, they made a fantastic team, the best that Fury had seen in a while.
It was really cliché, but Maria had confessed her feelings after Natasha returned severely injured after a mission. While Natasha was “asleep” in her hospital bed, Maria told her how much she cared for Natasha, how strong and smart and goddamn hot she was. Natasha had chuckled in response, scaring Maria, and told her “I like you too, you dork.” Natasha had allowed Maria to hug her despite her injuries before she put her hand behind Maria’s neck and pulled her in for a kiss.
Now, Maria longs to have her lips on Natasha’s once again. She clears her throat and launched into the details of Loki’s plan and where he was operating. Natasha doesn’t take her eyes off her and Maria meets her gaze only occasionally. Fury finishes by saying they had a few hours until they would reach Loki’s base. Natasha exhales slightly in relief; some time to spend with Maria.
“Agent Romanoff,” Maria says. “If you could come with me, please.”
“Of course,” Natasha replies. She pushes herself up from the table and follows Maria out of the room. They walk about thirty feet down the hall with Maria a few steps ahead. Suddenly the brunette stops, grabs Natasha’s hand and pulls her into a doorway, shutting it softly behind them.
“Hello—“ Natasha is cut off when Maria crashes her lips into Natasha’s and pushes her against the closed door, cupping her face. Natasha slips one hand behind Maria’s neck and the other around her waist. Her tongue begs for entrance to which Maria complies. They kiss long and hard, relishing in each other’s sweet taste and the happiness of finally being together again. Natasha pulls herself closer and then suddenly jumps up and wraps her legs around Maria’s waist, trusting the brunette to catch her. She does, grunting just a little bit at the weight but she steadies herself to look up to see soft green eyes and she smiles.
“Hi,” she huffs, slightly out of breath.
“Hi.” Natasha beams back at her. She runs her fingers lightly across the red scrapes on Maria’s temple and presses a soft kiss to them. “Are you ok?”
“Better now that you’re here,” Maria replies, smirking. Natasha drops from her arms and grabs at Maria’s shirt collar, tip toeing and bringing her in for another kiss. Maria wraps her arms around the red head, smiling at the height difference because it never failed to make her laugh. How someone who looked so short and slight could be so deadly seemed impossible, but Maria knew firsthand it was true.
“I missed you,” Natasha whispers, hugging Maria fiercely.
“I missed you too.” Maria plants another kiss on the top of Natasha’s head. She grabs Natasha’s hand and pulls her over to a cot that is situated on the side of the room.
“So, how long do I have with you?” Natasha asks, falling into the brunette’s lap. Maria’s arms settle around her waist and Natasha finds that she doesn’t want to know the answer to her question.
“Probably only half an hour, unfortunately,” Maria sighs. “We need you to interrogate Loki, and I need to get back to Command.”
Natasha huffs and frowns dramatically, wrapping her arms around Maria’s neck in a warm hug. They sit together contentedly for a little while talking about nothing and everything, almost purposefully not talking about Barton, just so they didn’t feel like he was gone forever (“I’m going to kick his ass when he gets back,” Natasha had briefly commented). Finally, they landed on the subject of the Avengers initiative.
“They’re just such stupid boys sometimes,” Natasha groans. “Steve and Tony... I can already tell they’re gonna be a problem. Bruce isn’t so bad though, but he’s obviously a little unpredictable.”
Maria reaches up and tucks some hair behind her ear. “Well, all you have to do is save the world and you won’t have to see them again. Unless there’s another disaster, but we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”
Natasha rolls her eyes and brings Maria in for another kiss. “Wow, sounds easy.”
“Yep,” Maria laughs. She then pushes Natasha off her lap and stands up. “Alright, Agent Romanoff, time to go.”
“Yes ma’am,” Natasha responds, her green eyes twinkling. Maria follows closely behind Natasha towards the door and smacks her ass on the way out.
Natasha can’t help but smile. “That’s not very professional, Commander.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maria says cooly. “Loki is on level 7.” Natasha starts to turn away when she feels Maria’s hands on arm and suddenly their lips are connected once again. “Be careful,” Maria sighs into the kiss.
“You too.” Then the two women walk away from each other and don’t look back.
——————
When they see each other again, Phil Coulson is dead, Loki is gone, and the Hulk has done significant damage to the helicarrier. Both Natasha and Maria stare at the bloodied Captain America cards on the table and grieve without tears, longing to hold and comfort one another. But their duty to save the world keeps them apart again and soon Natasha finds herself on the back of an alien flying through New York City. Then she’s closing a portal with a scepter. Then she’s watching as Thor leaves for Asgard with Loki.
Then finally, she’s with Maria again. This time, they embrace without caring who sees them and kiss as if they are the only two who exist in the world.
When they are finally alone in Maria’s bedroom, they hug each other tightly again.
“Thanks for saving the world,” Maria chuckles.
“Ah yeah, don’t worry about it,” Natasha replies. “It was fun.”
“I know what else is fun.” Maria says as she drags Natasha to the bed, her mouth already on Natasha’s.
Natasha smiles. “I like where your head is at, Commander.”