the dinner.. again
Dinner with May and Phil was nice, awkward, but nice.
“So Natasha, obviously you know me from school, this is my husband Phil.”
“Hi, i’m Phil.”
“Hello”
That about summed dinner up the fun part was when dinner was over. Maria took Natasha back to her room and they piled onto Maria’s bed.
It was becoming a common activity between the two, laying in Maria’s bed, kissing some, discussing their relationship, and then kissing some more.
“So you’re my girlfriend.” Maria looked stunned at the fact.
“Yeah.” Natasha was a little breathless as she agreed.
“Wow.”
Natasha giggled, “So when are you going to tell Fury and them?”
“Probably after Phil and May leave, Do you want to be there or no?”
“I don’t know, I feel like it would be awkward with me there, i don’t really know your family that well.”
Maria wanted to argue with that but she also didn’t want to force Natasha to change her mind so she just nodded.
“Are you going to tell Clint?”
“maybe, after a little bit, I don’t want him to know right away.”
“What about the other girls?”
Natasha shrugged, “We don’t talk much about that stuff.”
“Sofia seemed like she liked talking about that stuff.”
Natasha nodded to cover her brief panic, “Yeah but Sofia is different from everyone else.”
“Oh yeah? How?”
“She like actually shows her emotions and that she cares and stuff.”
“The girl in the bathroom seemed like she was showing her emotions.”
Natasha shook her head, “Don’t worry she bottles them up enough she just has outburst every once in awhile.”
“oh, sorry, i shouldn’t have said that.”
“Maria it’s fine, do you want to go back out?”
Maria agreed and they came out in time for Monopoly to be finished setting up. Natasha took a seat next to Maria and Carol.
Nick appeared from his office, “Melinda, can I borrow you for a second?”
Melinda got up and followed Nick into his office, Carol watched with a seemingly satisfied look.
Natasha soon learned the rules of Monopoly and how competitive it could be. (How competitive Maria (H) and Carol were).
That night Maria drove Natasha back to the house with Carol in the back seats. Maria walked Natasha to her door. When to door swung open it was not Mrs Beivel but the one girl Maria had made eye contact with before.
They made eye contact again as Natasha said goodbye. The girl blinked three times very quick before blinking three times slower, she blink fast three more times and then slamming the door shut.
Maria stood there stunned. Before she could move a series of clicking came from the door. The girl was messing with the lock. Three quick twists to the deadbolt followed by three slowly twists and ending with three fast twists again.
Maria through the interaction over the whole walk back to the car. She quickly found Carol sitting in the passengers seat this time.
“I have an odd question.”
“I have an odd answer.”
“If someone stared at you like this and then started blinking weird what would you do.”
“Show me.”
Maria turned to Carol and did the three sets of three blinking.
“Well you know that’s morse code?”
“What?”
“S.O.S a distress signal.”
“I know what SOS is, Carol, I’m just- The girl that answered the door did that.”
“Oh.”
“And then she closed the door and did the same thing with the lock.”
Carol sat, “I’ll tell Fury, It could just be OCD or something, I would say ask Natasha but if it’s something else..”
“You think she would hurt her?”
“No! It’s just, you would do anything to keep a secret like that wouldn’t you?”
Maria nodded and pulled out of the driveway.
“So um Carol… Never mind.”
“What is it?”
“I said never mind.”
“Too bad, speak.”
Maria rolled her eyes, “So uhm Natasha, and me. Me and Natasha-”
“Natasha and I” Carol corrected.
“Stop! Natasha and I are maybe sorta kinda possibly dating?” Maria whispered the last word.
“AWH! My little sister is all grown up! Oh my god I can’t believe this, I mean I can because you look at her like an idiot all the time but AWH! Tell me about it.”
“Okay so-“
“Spare no detail!”
“Would you shut up and let me talk!”
Carol nodded and Maria continued.
“So it just kinda happened today, before you brought Monica.”
“It just happened? what about last week.”
“Well we didn’t make anything official then but we talked about it today.”
“So she’s a good kisser?”
Maria blushed and refused to look at Carol, “Yeah.”
—
“Check it out! I can hear now!”
Steve gave Clint a high-five, “Nice!”
“Barney’s making me take sign language lessons with him though.”
“Why? you can hear fine with those things, Can’t you?” Bucky asked from beside Steve.
“Yeah, I think Barney just wanted to leave it anyways and now he has an excuse, It’s kinda cool though, learning another language.”
“Haven’t you taken three years of Spanish.”
Clint waved off Natasha’s comment, “Doesn’t count, i’m not gonna use that. Watch what I’ve learned so far.”
Clint started signing his name and saying nice to
meet you, then he signed how he hated school and most of his teachers and how he needs help learning math.
Wait a minute.
Maria was only half paying attention to Clint but when she saw one of the signs something clicked.
‘she places a hand holding a thumbs up on top of her other palm and slowly raises the thumb into the air’
“Clint! What was that sign?” Maria actually moved to the edge of her seat.
Clint signed ‘math’ again.
“No before that.”
Clint signed ‘need’
“Just do everything’s again!”
When Clint got to the part the raises a thumb in the air Maria pointed, “Yes that one! What does that mean?!”
“Help?”
“It means ‘help’?”
Clint nodded, “Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“What did you think it meant?”
“I didn’t know that’s why I asked.”
Maria fell silent and that twisting feeling returned to her stomach. The pained girl she had made eye contact signed ‘help’ to her.