STRIKE Team Delta: 26 missions

The mission was simple. Infiltrate undercover, gather intel, get out. The mark was some politician’s wife, and she’d gone to a ladies’ resort - the only time she was away from her bodyguards - so Natasha was set to go in with Masha. Just the two of them.

Unfortunately, Clint had tattled to Fury that her and Masha were… getting closer, and he had requested to go in with them. As back up, or as supervision. That meant that Clint had to dress up as a girl.

It wasn’t the weirdest thing either of them had ever done - nor was it the first time either of them had had to pass as the other gender for a mission. Clint was actually excited, the little rat, and he had been busy working up his cover story.

It was with giggles and sighs that Fran exited the changing room, giving Nat and Masha a little twirl. Clint had put on leggings with short shorts over the top, a crop top, had worn earrings - Nat hadn’t even known his ears were pierced - and he’d done his makeup so skillfully Nat barely recognised him. Masha whistled, and Nat ignored the tight feeling in her stomach.

“Well, Fran, you clean up nice,” Masha joked, and Nat forced a smile.

“Yeah, what’s your secret?” At Nat’s words, Masha slipped an arm around her waist, and she leaned into her, her stomach loosening. Clint snickered and planted his hands on his hips.

“I never skip leg day, girls.” He ducked under their identical slaps and ran for his makeup kit, returning with it open in front of him. “But you two need a little sprucing up if we’re to pass as businesswomen. Seriously, I never go out without a little powder. Gotta look good for the SHIELD security cams. How do you function?”

Nat and Masha both flushed. Masha was first to cave, allowing Clint to fix her up. They spent the next couple of hours dolling each other up as best they could - Masha turned out to be a whiz at painting nails and did Clint’s in his signature purple, Nat’s in crimson red, and Clint and Nat teamed up to do hers in dark blue with silver glitter.

Once Clint deemed them to be up to the standard rich women set, he disappeared again and returned with a box of earrings.

“Okay kids. So, these used to belong to the first liontamer we had - she was pretty awesome - and she gave ‘em to me before she left. Pick out your favourites.” He cracked open the lid, and Nat and Masha peered inside like it was a treasure chest.

The box was filled with earrings - not the cheap, silver-plated kind, but handcrafted - some dripping with jewels, some simplistic. Nat whistled, picking out a pair of earrings with gorgeous black feathers attached.

“Do these go with my outfit, Fran?” she teased, standing up to do a quick twirl, showing off her red dress and leather jacket. The dress had a full skirt but only came up to mid-thigh, but her nails matched her dress and now her earrings matched her jacket.

Masha had selected a tiny pair of silver hoops, and Clint sighed.

“Natty, your sense of style is impeccable. But Maria-” he huffed, “-we have so far to go.”

Disappearing again only to return with the skinniest black jeans Nat had seen, a floaty silver top and a denim jacket, Clint was grinning. Nat bit her lip, her heart racing, and distracted herself by picking a pair of earrings while Masha got changed.

When Masha came back into the main room and gave them a little twirl, Nat found her mouth incredibly dry and blinked, her eyes blown wide.

“Uh - I picked these for you.” She thrust the silver stars into Masha’s hand, a flush creeping high up her neck. “Thought they’d go with the top and the nails.”

Masha thanked her quietly, and Clint had to shove a fist in his mouth to stop himself from snickering.

The resort accepted them with open arms once they flashed their tickets, and Nat could see people checking Clint out, which was hilarious. Weird, though - she had thought the resort was for women who wanted to have some girl time away from their husbands.

The slow realisation that most of the women here were lesbians was both incredibly distracting, and somewhat… exciting. Nat had never considered having a relationship with someone, ever, but she was pretty sure some of the feelings she was having for Masha weren’t entirely platonic. And, maybe if they escaped Clint for a few minutes, she could… ask her about that?

They were shown to the cabin they would be staying in - the three of them with the mark. Phil had clearly pulled some strings in the booking to get them all together. The four-person cabins were dotted about the estate, and there were dozens of women there - mostly just milling around in the sunlight, but there were some clearly on their way to the spa, or the pool, or the restaurants or cafes.

Nat located a map of the resort, and snapped her head up, pulling on Clint’s arm.

“Fran, Fran, there’s a beach! Can we go?” She hoped her pleading face was enough to convince him, and sure enough, he laughed and squeezed her shoulder.

“After we sort our luggage, get settled in, and have lunch, Tash.” Masha and Nat shared an excited look, and Nat grabbed a hand of each of her fellow agents, pulling them towards their luggage that had been brought to the back of the cabin.

“Dibs on the bed by the door-” Clint started, before Nat and Masha jumped in with “Window!”

Luckily the whole back wall was a tinted window, so the girls took the beds closest to the back while Clint took the bed by the door, leaving the bed by the bathroom for Lara Cioffi, their new friend - and mark.

By the time they had sorted out their luggage and fought over which fancy restaurant to go to for lunch, Lara had arrived. She seemed nice enough - Clint introduced himself right off the bat, engaging with their mark with “Francis, but call me Fran darling - how funny, I have a cousin called Laura - get settled right in, love: these are Tash and Mary, they’re lovely - though not as lovely as you.” He honest-to-god winked, and Nat nearly had a coronary trying not to laugh when she saw Lara checking out Clint’s ass when he turned around.

They invited Lara with them for lunch, and finally agreed on Italian. Nat, as usual, had some fancy pasta and enjoyed it immensely with a glass of red. Clint, on the other hand, ordered the biggest pizza Nat had ever seen - yet managed to eat it without making a pig of himself, which was unusual. Clint could generally be found snacking on a sandwich, pizza, or guzzling coffee when at SHIELD, yet somehow this was the most graceful Nat had ever seen him.

Masha ordered bolognese, which nearly sent Nat’s cultured heart into shock, but she managed to be elegant about it. Poor Lara seemed to have no idea about half of the inside jokes they were slinging about, but she made a valiant attempt to stay afloat in the conversation.

One of them was a master spy, one of them had pretty decent social skills and one of them was just really hot, so they got Lara talking in no time. By the time they’d finished lunch, they had all of their intel, plus the novel-length version of Lara’s whole entire life. It was lucky they finished lunch when they did so they could turn the conversation to other things, namely

“The beach, Fran. You promised.” Nat was delighted at the chance to go swimming again, especially in Lisbon, in August. It was the perfect time.

“Sure thing, Tash - let’s go get changed. Fair warning, though - I need to shave my legs first. And I’m not big on swimming.” Clint’s cover could be blown if they went swimming, so they elected to have him stay sunbathing instead.

“Um - Fran, if you need to shave your legs, how about a trip to the spa? We can’t go swimming straight away anyway, and they would wax your legs for you.” Lara seemed a little nervous to suggest it, but Maria clapped her hands in delight.

“Oh my God, that’s such a good idea! We can go get massages while Fran gets waxed! How about it, F?”

Nat was delighted, and even though Clint did not look amused, he raised a grin for Lara’s sake and agreed, wondering what he’d gotten himself into.

As soon as they got into the cabin, Clint disappeared into the bathroom to change, electing for a padded t-shirt and jeans, with shorts in his bag to put on once he got… waxed.

Nat and Masha both slipped into their swimming costumes and t-shirts and shorts on top. A little disappointed that Masha was out of the skinny jeans, Nat offered her her own bikini, and grinned when she saw that it fit Maria very well.

Linking arms, Nat leaned her head on Masha’s shoulder while they walked to the spa, their flip flops slapping the path with every step. Clint and Lara were a little ahead, and Nat figured it was the perfect time to talk to Maria.

“Hey, Masha,” she said quietly, lifting her head to look Maria in the eyes. “So. This is, um, a lesbian resort, right?”

“Yes. Well, mostly. I think it’s a place for women to come when they want to get away from their lives, but mostly that’s because they’re lesbian.”

“Well - I - I kind of like that.” Nat gulped, staring at Maria. “I think I like a girl.”

Masha raised an eyebrow, half-smiling. “Oh yeah? Me too.”

“Well, Masha, I think that I’d very much like to kiss the girl I like.”

“What a coincidence.” Masha’s eyes were twinkling. “Me too.”

After a quick glance to make sure Clint wasn’t watching, Nat gently took Maria’s face in her hand, a little hesitant. She kissed Masha, quickly at first, and pulled back as if to make sure that was okay.

“Nat - this is slightly awkward. I mean Sharon Carter.”

Nat recoiled as if she’d been slapped, eyes wide. “Oh my god!”

Maria giggled, shaking her head. “Relax. I’m kidding.” She kissed Nat, smiling a little as Nat melted slightly under her touch.

They spent the rest of the way to the spa holding hands, trading tiny kisses, and giggling behind Clint and Lara’s backs.

“I guess that’s why Clint was sent along, to babysit us,” Masha whispered into her ear, her breath hot on Nat’s skin.

When Clint got waxed, he shrieked so loud they could hear it in the massage room.