Natasha was bored. Like so bored she was contemplating throwing little wads of paper at Clint and pretending she didn’t do it just to entertain herself bored. Meetings where Fury let Steve take the lead always ended up like this though. Steve Rogers was a boring person in Nat’s opinion, he was still hung up on Peggy, and he was way too all for one and one for all for her liking, however he had a good heart. Though public speaking was NOT his forte. He dragged these meetings out longer and longer each time it seemed, going through each mission step by step and talking about how things could have been done better or could have been done a different way.
Clint, like always, had fallen asleep by the second sentence out of Steve’s mouth. Wanda was staring at a wall, probably reading people’s thoughts to entertain herself. Peter was doodling designs for what looked like new web-shooters on a piece of paper. Bruce seemed to be the only one listening to Steve and giving him active feedback. Thor looked bored and was currently on his way through his second package of Poptarts. Tony looked half a second away from just leaving the room or falling asleep whichever came first, Nat thought. Natasha looked down at her phone as it vibrated, signaling a text message. A small smile played on her lips as she saw Laura had sent her a picture of Nate sleeping in the ridiculous onesie Clint had bought that read ‘Don’t mess with me, my aunt is the Black Widow’ a little black widow spider hung on a line of silk off the last w in widow.
Clint’s own phone buzzing woke him from his nap as he too looked at the photo his wife had sent in the group chat. He looked up at Nat and grinned before quickly putting his phone to sleep and turning back to Steve. Nat took notice of the way Peter leaned forward to whisper to Clint but paid it no mind as she assumed the boy was asking a question about the technology used in his hearing aids. Peter had become fascinated by the enhanced hearing aids ever since he found out that Clint was hard of hearing during a mission in which Clint lost one hearing aid and managed to smash the other one. Nat still didn’t know how her and Clint had walked away from that mission relatively unscathed, then again it was a miracle they came home at all during any of the missions the two of them were sent on. The two of them were the best agents S.H.I.E.L.D had though that didn’t mean they made smart decisions on missions, especially when in the heat of fire. Nat watched as Clint nodded in answer to whatever Peter had said, looking over at the teen with a grin for a second before turning to his phone, fingers flying on the screen as he tapped out a text.
When Nat’s phone didn’t buzz she grew even more curious but bit her tongue, now wasn’t the time to press for answers. She could always weasel them out of him later when they sparred. There was a pause in the meeting as Steve shuffled his papers around before finding the one he was looking for and handed it over to Bruce to let him look it over. While Bruce looked the information over, Steve picked up from where he had left off. “It’s come to my attention that-” He trailed off as a phone rang.
“There's one thing you can expect from me and that's the unexpected, Cause I'm an international super spy.” Nat looked around as the other Avengers in the room all turned to stare at her. It took her a minute to understand why they were all staring at her as she realized that it was her phone ringing. She flushed slightly with embarrassment as she fumbled for the offending device to shut off the song. Making a mental note to call Laura back later, she finally turned the song off sinking further down in her chair to try and escape the amused eyes of her friends and co-workers, the embarrassment that showed on her face just a few seconds before swiftly morphed into her well known Widow’s glare as she focused her attention on Clint who had been unable to keep his laughter to himself any longer. Peter followed not long after.
Nat glared at them both, however she found her glare softening as she watched Peter laugh at the joke he and Clint had obviously played on her. As much as she wanted to be, she couldn’t find it in her to be angry at the teen. He, like Clint’s kids and Wanda, had wormed his way into her heart. It had been a few weeks since she had seen him laugh like this, so carefree and she found she liked seeing him this way. Turning her attention back to Clint she stood from her seat trying to look threatening, she knew she had succeeded when Clint’s laughter trailed off just a bit. “Clinton Barton, you’re dead. Training room in five.” Natasha told him, her voice giving away nothing but was inflicted with just enough of venom to make even her best friend of almost fifteen years flinch. As she spun on her heels and stormed out of the conference room she smirked looking down at her phone and shooting Laura a text letting her know that she knew the other woman had been part of the prank and that there would be payback. Laura didn’t respond but the read notification showed next to the message making Nat smile more, picturing the brunette laughing as she read Natasha’s text. Nat locked her phone and made her way to the training room.
Watching Nat leave the room Wanda turned to Peter who was still giggling. “The Backyardigans? Really?” She asked, amused.
Peter started laughing again as he nodded and said. “It’s such a fitting song though because she IS an international super spy!”
“Yeah well now I’m in trouble kid, next time you wanna change Nat’s ringtone you’re stealing her phone yourself. God, I’m gonna hurt for weeks after she’s done with me. She might just kill me this time. That’ll be a fun conversation to have with Laura. What’d you do this time, Clint? Oh well Laura, I just pissed off Nat you know how it is.” His voice faded as he walked out of the conference room and down the hall to the elevators.
Steve stared after him in confusion. Sensing that the meeting was now over everyone began to gather their things all trying to pack up and make it down to the training room to watch Nat kick Clint’s ass. “What just happened? What is a Backyardigan and what does it have to do with Nat?” Steve called after them hopelessly confused as he watched the team make their way to the elevator. Steve sighed, and made a note to himself to google it later and set about cleaning up the mess the team had left behind in the conference room.