What Did You Expect?
Prologue
Since the end of The Shadows on the Wall, the events of the following films have occurred: Age of Ultron, and Captain America Civil War.
Natasha and Maria continued their on and off again situationship with no clear defined boundaries and work consumed both of them. Eventually, the two of them gave very little thought to their personal lives. Maria left Stark and returned to working with Fury but Fury and Maria were no where to be found during the events of Civil War. They weren’t particularly fans of Thaddeus Ross but they didn’t want to make enemies with him either.
Natasha has fled to Europe after ‘betraying’ Tony Stark and the other Avengers by allowing Steve Rogers to escape with Bucky Barnes. Thaddeus Ross is after her for her betrayal and she has not contacted anyone but Rick Mason. Natasha has been chased down and ambushed by Taskmaster, she believed this was an agent of Ross’s at first but then learned she was chasing down Natasha ad Yelena. Natasha went to Hungary and a safe apartment where she stored some weapons and found Yelena. The two of them battled and then reunited with a mission to take down Dreykov and the Red Room.
Maria and Fury struggled with the division of the Avengers and the mess that has been going on between them. Maria and Fury also found themselves on the opposite sides of each other, Fury aligning himself with Stark surprisingly and Maria with Rogers (less surprising but she saw the merits on both sides) and didn’t need to hurt anyone to discuss it. Maria was devastated to learn about the injury to Rhodey and eager for the fighting to stop. She heard from the gossip chain that Natasha was the one who helped Steve escape and then escaped Ross’s attempt to capture her. Maria had tried multiple encrypted ways to try and reach Natasha as she had gone into the wind and no one could find her and no one had heard from her.
In a very bizarre and brief encounter that Maria and Fury had with Rick Mason, Mason mentioned something vaguely about his recent ventures, also he was requesting a trade for some very specific things that made Maria raise her brows. Maria had a suspicion about where Natasha might be hiding out. She knew she couldn’t leave a trail when looking for her, but her silence and no clear answer on her well being was just killing Maria. She figured Natasha was hiding out to avoid Ross until things cooled down. Maria and Natasha had kept their relationship so secret she knew no one would really suspect anything but still she did everything in dark shadowy conditions as she went to find to Natasha.
—————————————————————
Moscow - 2016
Maria was lurking around the dark Russian streets, illuminated only by partially lit street lights, only every two three in a row of ten worked. She was wearing a black baseball cap with the logo of the most famous Russian soccer team, FC Spartak. These hats were very common, allover Moscow and it helped her blend in with the public. Maria was wearing jeans and black combat boots, she had a gray v-neck t-shirt on with a very worn deep brown leather jacket. The jacket was very worn out, creased and worn leather went up an down the sleeves and sides. She had pulled her hair back in a small pony tail out of the way. Maria had observed a familiar swagger— a walk she would recognize almost anywhere, but the 5’4 woman whose face and hair she did not see had practically vanished into underground pedestrian tunnel.
Moscow had a number of underground pedestrian tunnels that had been constructed in the 60s and 70s but they later turned into places for the impoverished to live or for drug users to buy and use drugs, most of them were marked as closed, and they housed rats, people hiding, and were quite dangerous areas. This tunnel lead to an abandoned subway project from decades again. It was extremely dangerous, there had been live wires and construction equipment abandoned down there. This tunnel had an ancient faded sign that read in Russian, ‘DO NOT ENTER - CONSTRUCTION ZONE - DANGER - DEADLY’ there were red skull spray painted over half broken wooden door that enclosed the tunnel. Maria could tell that someone had recently entered through there, but following a stranger down a dark tunnel in Moscow seemed questionable, but Maria knew she was one Natasha’s trail. She found her safe house in Hungary, she was just behind her.
Maria squeezed her tall but lean body through slim opening after checking to make sure no one was following her. She waded quietly through the dust and awkward stairs as she caught barely the image of a shadowy figure up ahead. The tunnel was so quiet, and Maria had to take light foot steps as she made her way through it, but she had to pick up her speed. Suddenly, she heard the steps of those ahead of her start to pick up, and Maria echoing their speed. Maria’s boots splashed through shallow murky puddles that were still rippling from the steps of those who were before her. The recent events between the Avengers had turned one of the world’s most formidable heroes into a fugitive and Maria knew she had to get to Natasha before Ross’s people did.
Natasha and Yelena moved stealthy through the tunnel, Yelena followed Natasha like her perfect shadow. Yelena and Natasha had instincts that were honed to perfection, they moved in sync without thinking. As they moved through the tunnel, both Natasha and Yelena gave each other a quick glance as they could tell they were being followed — and by someone skilled who was trying to match their pace and movements. The two of them sped up to see if they could get their pursuer off guard for a moment and asses their movement. Was it one person, or more? Maybe Ross’s people had recognized her and found them, or maybe it was Taskmaster back for more. Either way, they were going to be the only two people who left this tunnel. Natasha and and Yelena nodded at one another as they both gripped their guns and looked over their shoulders in unison.
“Ready?” Natasha raised a brow as she whispered. Yelena gripped her gun and nodded.
“Always.” She assured. The two raised their weapons and fired into the darkness, warning shots to get their follower off their trail.
Maria ducked behind a sharp corner as a bullet almost grazed her face. She tried to remain silent as she watched the bullets that missed her ricochet off the damp and broken bricks, sending chips of clay flying wildly like deadly confetti. One chip hit Maria’s face, she closed her eyes to protect the and another chips scraped and embed into her hands. Maria remained silent despite how much it hurt. Who the hell was she following and what did they want with Natasha? Maria was going to find out.
Natasha and Yelena listened for any moment or cries, they heard nothing. Yelena wanted to move and Natasha shook her head no. Natasha raised her gun again and Yelena followed, and they both aimed high up toward the old light fixtures and wood beams in the distance and they fired repeatedly into the darkness again, in case this intruder missed the warning signals they just sent.
Maria gripped her gun and removed it from its holster as she just started to inch out from the brick wall pillar and corner she used to protect herself, as she heard the shots from ahead again, this time coming from above her, and knocking the old wooden beams out from above her, the rotting wood and decaying bricks started to crumble from above and fall onto Maria as she ran from her corner of protection. Fuck, these people were good, Maira thought to herself as she couldn’t look above her in the dark to see what else might be coming down, as the wood rotting beam came crashing down Maria grunted and pulled forward out into the open, getting knocked off balance forward, her hand falling into a shallow dirty puddle. Maria moved toward the the wall quickly trying to hold her breath and not scream as a hoard of rats came running, terrorized by the destruction. It was a stampede of rats that ran right by her and forward into the dark tunnel and Maria launched herself up off the ground with such speed to avoid any of them climbing on her.
Natasha and Yelena listened the chaos, they had no idea what the rushing scurrying sound was that was coming, it had loud crying, whimpering, it sounded not human, and then they both saw the giant swarm of rats running away from the destruction that they had released on the corner of the tunnel. Yelena and Natasha made a disgusted face as they let them all pass, but instead of letting the rats pass Natasha and Yelena decided to use the distraction to move backward. Yelena had the red dust in hand, and Natasha grabbed her knife from her pocket.
After the rubble set, and the rats and ran off Maria took some deep breaths, she had never seen so many rats in her life—and she worked SHIELD during the HYDRA infiltration so this was saying a lot. Natasha and Yelena could hear someone was there and they fired again into the open air to signal to this follower to back off. Maria couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from, so she fired back. Yelena and Natasha ducked into the damp soggy brick walls. The stale musky scent of the tunnel, mixed with the dust and the rats was consuming all of them. There was an exchange of fire, a mix of a deadly dance and warning shots coming from both sides, telling the other not to approach. Yelena and Natasha decide to split, Yelena kept firing the warnings to keep the followers attention, and Natasha slide in the dark corners of the wall as she closed the distance between herself and this person after them. Yelena kept the attacker occupied and Natasha then stealthily moved to the side of the person.
As Maria realized someone was inching closer to her from the other side, she turned quickly and aimed her gun but Natasha lunged Maria, seizing her moment, knife in hand as she went to threatening press into into Maria’s skin. As Maria realized she was about to finished, she then saw the eyes of her attacker.
“Romanoff!” Maria yelled and Natasha halted instantly and she dropped her knife in shock as she realized the person following her was Maria.
“Hill?!” Natasha asked in complete surprise, no wonder this person tracking her could hold her own, it was Maria! Oh, she must’ve hated the rats though. They could laugh about that later… hopefully.
“What is wrong with you!” Maria huffed loudly and Natasha eyes widened. Yelena ran up to them and still had her gun aimed at Maria.
“You fired too!” Nat rolled her eyes, still holding Maria against the wall, although not with the brute force she had pushed her up against it.
“You fired first!” Maria whined.
“Well, you were following me! What did you expect?”
“I fired because you fired.” Maria repeated.
“Because you were following me.” Nat also repeated and the two women glared at each other with serious intense stares but the Natasha finally unpinned Maria from the wall and she looked a little ashamed of herself. Maria stepped forward and put her gun in her holster.
“Who is this woman?” Yelena asked in a harsh skeptical tone but the way Natasha was acting made it seem like it was someone important. “What is she, your mommy?” Yelena snickered as Natasha let her guard down.
“No… she’s my girlfriend… …. I think.” Natasha said eyeing Hill, as she wasn’t quite sure where they had left things. Natasha couldn’t believe she was here right now, or that she followed her.
“Mmm, that doesn’t mean she’s not your mommy.” Yelena raised a brow jokingly.
“She’s not.”
“You know she kind of looks like a scary mom. She has that vibe.” Yelena said eyeing Maria.
“Please stop saying the word ‘mommy’” Nat looked at Yelena.
“Why? It’s funny.” Yelena smiled.
“Do you want me to set you straight?” Maria asked in scolding tone to Yelena and then glared at Natasha with a ‘wow’ look.
“I don’t think you’ve ever set a woman ‘straight’ in your whole life, lady.” Yelena said with a wink and Natasha suppressed a grin and Maria looked unamused and glared at Natasha for an explanation.
“This is my ….sister, Yelena.” Nat said giving Yelena a look and then Maria an apologetic face. Maria rolled her eyes.
“Mmm..” Maria mumbled glaring at Natasha who almost killed her or at least seriously injured her. Maria completely ignored Yelana.
“Nice to meet you too…” Yelena said under her breath to no one as Maria ignored the introduction. “Power move, I respect it.” Yelena muttered after Maria ignored her and Natasha elbowed Yelena hard.
“Will you shut up?” Natasha asked like annoyed older sister giving Yelena warning shot.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Maria asked Natasha irritated.
“What the hell are YOU doing here?” Natasha repeated.
“Looking for you!”
“Try calling.”
“I DID! Try answering!” Maria yelled at Natasha deservedly as Natasha knew she was ignoring everyone and no one could reach her.
“Oh yeah..” Natasha paused scratching her head. “Right. My bad, I forgot I cut off communication with everyone for a bit. You know, don’t want to go to jail or whatever.”
“Yeah, good time for you to go missing.” Maria huffed rudely.
“Jail isn’t really my vibe.”
“Are you serious.” Maria growled and glared at Natasha unimpressed.
“I don’t know, it sure does feel like the way it used to feel when we would get in trouble with mom.” Yelena muttered.
“We’re kind of working on something here, Hill.” Natasha said starting to give Maria the blow off.
“You call your might-be-girlfriend by her last name?” Yelena asked to no one.
Maria just stared down Natasha.
“How the hell did you even find me?” Natasha asked. She thought she had left a pretty untraceable trail.
“I was the second in command of the best spy agency in the world, so I’m pretty good at finding people.” Maria reminded in a sharp tone.
“Not the first though, right?” Nat winked at Maria and Maria rolled her eyes “and… I am the best assassin in the world, so in a ranking situation I would win and you shouldn’t be able to find me.” Natasha bragged and Maria looked unimpressed.
“You think a spy can’t find a widow?” Maria growled.
“Not usually.” Nat smirked.
“Then I guess you’re rusty.” Maria snarked
“Do you two like each other or hate each other?” Yelena asked confused by their dynamic and she was again ignored.
“What are you doing here?” Maria asked annoyed and Natasha crossed her arms and glared at her girlfriend or ex-girlfriend as neither of the were really clear on that.
“What am I doing is none of your business, and it is dangerous, you cannot help and you need to go back home and maybe go try and unify that little team you and Fury brought together and then abandoned in their time of crisis.” Nat snarked and Maria glared at her wide eyed.
“First of all, private and dangerous is literally my brand.” Maria huffed “and second, the team that I abandoned? You have been MIA! With everything going on, maybe not the best time to avoid me?”
“Uhm it is actually the best time for me to avoid you since associating with me could get you trouble, I don’t want to cause problems for you.”
“Yeah so just fuck off then with no explanation.” Maria growled.
“First of all, fucking off with no explanation is kind of my brand.” Natasha huffed echoing Maria’s tone “and second I don’t want to get you involved with the mess back home or my mess here and if you are with me, or talking to me you are putting yourself at risk and I don’t want you to be at risk, it’s very self explanatory.” Natasha shrugged.
“What is wrong with you.” Maria called out and Natasha sighed.
“You think there’s a snack cart around here? With all those rats you’d think a place to eat would be nearby.” Yelena muttered, wishing she had some popcorn or something to watch this lesbian drama unfold right in front of her.
“What would have happened if you stabbed or shot her?” Yelena asked, realizing how close Maria had been to getting a serious injury from herself or Natasha.
“Well… she’d chase us a little slower…” Nat said with a smirk and Maria looked unamused.
“Why would you think it was okay to follow me without announcing yourself, what is wrong with YOU?” Natasha asked back.
“I didn’t know I was following you, I thought I was following someone who had done something TO you.” Maria corrected.
“Well if someone did something to me then they definitely would be able to kill you.” Natasha remarked in an annoyed tone.
“Oh for the love of god, give it a rest.” Maria rattled off with frustration but then two more rats came running past the three of them quickly and unsuspectedly and they all jumped from the shock of it.
“Can we get out of here?” Yelena whined and Natasha and Maria nodded as there was finally something they all agreed on.
As Maria left with Yelena and Natasha, Natasha noticed the cuts on Maria’s hand and face.
“We got you, huh? Sorry.” Natasha apologized.
“The bricks got me.” Maria sighed.
“At least it wasn’t the rats.” Yelena smirked.
Maria joined Natasha and Yelena in a safe house nestled away in suburb in Moscow. They all took showers and got cleaned up from the dust of the mess in the tunnel.
“I could take one hundred showers and never feel clean after seeing all those rats.” Maria shivered at the thought of them.
“I saw more rats in New York City.” Nat laughed.
“You’ve been to New York City?” Yelena asked perking up.
“I lived there.” Nat replied and Natasha sat down next to Maria on the messy queen sized bed in the messy apartment they were occupying.
“Tell me the truth, I won’t be made, are you helping Ross?” Nat asked with a paranoid tone as Maria dried her hair with the towel.
“Are you insane?” Maria snapped at Nat, offended she even asked.
“Maybe he didn’t give you a choice, I don’t know, I just had to ask.” Nat sighed to herself and Maria squinted her eyes at Natasha for even daring to suggest that.
“Yeah, because between us, I’d take a bullet for you, but wouldn’t go to jail for you.” Maria scoffed she was clearly offended by the implication and Natasha felt bad but she didn’t know what lengths Ross would go to to get her back and make an example out of her.
“A little paranoid, huh?”
“You think so?” Nat asked surprised by Maria’s question and then she paused and rolled her eyes to herself. “Yeah, yeah, okay.” She nodded in agreement, she was.
“Then really what are you doing here? There’s no reason for you to be here unless you are trying to bring me in or something.”
Maria stared at Natasha intensely.
“I just had a feeling you were in even more trouble than already believed.” Maria and Nat did have that sense about each other, it’s like they just knew something was up with the other one.
“You can’t associate with me, I’m a fugitive, you don’t think Ross is foaming at the mouth to put you in jail too? What about Fury?.”
“Oh, for the love of god.” Maria was not afraid of Ross.
“You don’t work at Stark anymore and if you help me you never will again. Tony’s done with me. I can’t .. it’s all a mess.”
“I know. I know it’s bad.”
“I have to take care of something here.” Natasha said vaguely.
“Is someone chasing you? Did Ross send someone? You think you’re being followed. Clearly. Let me help you.” Maria asked.
“It’s not Ross. Well, not yet.”
“Who is it?”
Natasha shook her head no like she wasn’t going to answer.
“You really cannot be near me.” Natasha reiterated.
“Who is it.” Maria demanded instead of asked and Maria looked at Natasha skeptically, knowing she was up to something serious and deadly. This was not the time for her to be making waves.
“I can’t talk about it.” Natasha dismissed a bit emotionally and Maria sighed
“I’m here, I can help.” Maria added, she shouldn’t be doing whatever she was doing alone.
“Never. You can’t be associating with me, remember? And, what if something happens to you?”
“What if something happens to you?” Maria returned the question the same way Natasha did to her years ago when Maria wouldn’t let Natasha help her during her own crisis. Maria pushed Natasha way, refused to get her involved with her mess with Yuri, Natasha didn’t listen and she almost got killed. Both of the women knew they had reversed roles and stances on this issue.
“This is my thing, it’s my mess, my thing to resolve, when you had a problem you didn’t let me help.” Natasha reminded.
“I… I didn’t let you help?! You shot him in the fucking face!” Maria almost shouted at Natasha and Natasha paused as she thought about it.
“Huh?” Yelena perked up from the corner of the room listening to their conversation that just got way more interesting.
“Oh, yeah…” she recalled “but you didn’t let me help the first time.” Nat clarified.
“Let you help? I was trapped in a hydra laboratory!”
Yelena made a dramatic face, ‘what on earth?’ She thought to herself.
“No the time in-between those times, don’t you dare pretend like you don’t remember.” Natasha and Maria exchanged a sharp glance.
“You mean when you showed up after I told you to leave and you almost got shot?” Maria snarled.
“That’s the one! Yeah! I came to help you and you told me to get lost.”
“and what did you do?” Maria pointed out smugly.
“Well, don’t follow my example.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have any bullet proof fabric to take a bullet for you.” Nat snarked.
“Oh, is that the only time you’d take a bullet for me?”
“That’s the only way you’d let me.” Nat shot back quickly.
“You are absolutely ridiculous.” Maria threw her hands in the air.
“I am protecting you.” Nat’s voice was getting irritated again.
“And not your sister!?” Maria’s frustration was clear in her voice.
“She’s a widow…”
“I’m a spy!” Maria reminded.
“It’s not the same.”
“We worked in the same agency, I was your boss!”
“Whhhahhhh! Wait, what now?” Yelena asked under her breath as she listened to the arguing. This was better than anything she was going to get on tv. oh wait there wasn’t a tv, so this was all she was going to get but it was intense. It just kept getting more and more interesting, she grabbed a cookie from the Oreo sleeve that were in an open Oreo container the on the end table next to where she was sitting but after she took a bite she spit it out into her hand because it was beyond stale, “bleh” she said to herself.
“Wellll…” Natasha hesitated.
“I was in the marines!”
“Oh, what like one hundred years ago?” Nat laughed and Maria looked offended.
“Whew.” Yelena said to herself shaking her head. Wow, Nat was really going for it.
“Are you serious right now?” Maria scowled at Natasha.
“Am I serious? You’re the one trying to sell yourself to me for a suicide mission.”
“If it’s a suicide mission why are you doing it!?” Maria asked in a huff.
“I am trying to do this with the least amount of people getting killed.” Natasha remarked quoting Maria from years ago when Maria refused to let Natasha help her.
“What if you get killed?” Maria asked.
“If I die it’s fine!”
“Uh…it is?” Yelena tried to interject but was ignored again
“It’s better than if you die!” Nat huffed at Maria.
“Why?”
“It just is!” Nat shrugged and Maria glared at her.
“WHY?” Maria repeated, the two the completely reversing their roles from a few years ago.
“I don’t know, but it is.” Natasha sighed.
“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.” Maria rolled her eyes.
“Well, I am quoting you.” Natasha snarked. Maria was the one who told Natasha that she couldn’t get killed because people needed her, but as Natasha viewed it, especially with the fractured Avengers, Maria was the one who could try to bring people together again. What could she do? Natasha had damaged her relationships on both sides.
“Maria, please, please, go home, and pretend you never saw me. If you want to help me? Leave.”
“You know that isn’t happening.”
“Where’s Fury, he could probably use you to help … open a jar … or something….I don’t know what you do for him anymore.” Natasha’s sarcasm dripped from her voice.
“I don’t know what this but you are not doing this alone.” Maria growled under her breath and the two women stared at each other.
“I absolutely am and you are not part of it.”
Maria and Natasha stared at each other. Yelena thought she could cut the tension with a knife.
“You would slow me down.” Natasha tried a new tactic.
“Slow you down!! I run faster than you.” Maria growled.
“I don’t have time to explain everything to you and I can’t be worried about you, and Yelena, too.”
“Give me a fucking break.” Maria muttered to herself.
“So is it safe to say that you two are ex-girlfriends?” Yelena interjected loudly to make sure they heard her.
“Yes.” Maria and Natasha answered together giving Yelena a look and then glaring back at each other as they both answered the same thing.
“Great, glad we cleared that up. Can we get something to eat now, please?” Yelena asked, with he half eaten and spit out cookie still in her palm and as Maria looked at it she made a face as if she was looking at one of the rats that ran by them.