Daisy Stark

She came to a halt. Unbelievable. Daisy and Nat had decided on meeting each other in the park opposed to the restaurant, and apparently they had both decided to wait until the exact time they had agreed on, to move from their respective hiding places and walk towards the meeting spot. Both wanting to see the other first. So now they were just staring at each other, looking at the dresses that the other was wearing. It was too warm to put a jacket over their outfits, so Daisy could see every inch of that dress.

That goddamn dress. Nat had chosen a dark green dress, it looked incredibly elegant and was hugging her body. The dress wasn’t at all what Daisy had expected from the Black Widow. Not that Daisy knew what she’d expected. The former assassin kept her own personality deep under wraps. But where the media saw her profession, dangerous, scornful. Daisy had learned that Nat was something different. Nat was the woman who would comfort you from a nightmare. Who might be hunted by her own demons but would always stand up for others. Daisy had expected the dress to find some midway between both sides. Or to lean more towards the latter side. However, it seemed like Nat either wanted to shield that side from public eye, not wanting to attract attention, or she was ready for Daisy to find a new aspect.

When they walked closer to each other, the brunette noticed that Nat had also done something to her hair. It had been dyed slightly more red, and it was put into a high-updo that looked incredibly complicated. Daisy saw that her… date? was looking at her dress as well. Daisy had gone shopping, and only after at least a hundred shops, she had found the one she loved. The dress was red, and if fell just below the knees. Nothing much had been done to her own hair, but she’d applied some lipstick. Daisy really hoped Nat liked the look. But also that she didn’t look to desperate. tens, no hundreds, no thousands of insecurities clouded her mind. What if...

‘You look amazing.’ Nat smiled to her.

‘Thanks, you clean up nice yourself.’ Daisy responded, her voice maybe a pitch higher than was normal.

‘I really hope you’ll enjoy the food at this date.’ Then Nat seemed to realize what she said. ‘As friends of course.’ Daisy’s heart sunk. Did Nat only like her as a friend?

‘Yeah… of course, as friends. I trust your judgement, I have no doubt the location will be amazing.’ Daisy really hoped she didn’t look to nervous.

Natasha offered her arm and soon both the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were walking inside of the diner. The location didn’t look too expensive, but also not too casual. They fit right in. They did get some glances from other couples. No doubt wondering whether the two women walking in were dating or just friends. Daisy felt some blood rush to her face.

One of the waitresses came to them. ‘Do you have a reservation?’

‘Yes, it should be on the name of Rushman?’ Daisy looked surprised by this last name. But it was clear that this was a fake name. Daisy wondered why the last name sounded familiar, until she remembered. It had been Nat’s fake last name when she’d gone undercover at Stark Industries.

‘Ahh, yes, I see you have a table in that corner over there.’ The waitress accompanied them to a table in the farthest away corner from the door. Both Daisy and Nat took seats on the wall side, instead of sitting opposite to each other. That way they could oversee the entire diner and the windows. It had become a second nature to both of them.

‘So, is this a first date or?’

‘We’re just friends, thanks.’ Daisy replied. That was what Nat had clearly meant with the date. Even if Daisy wanted it to be more. Apparently, Nat didn’t.

‘Oh, alright.’ It was clear that the waitress didn’t believe them. Daisy couldn’t blame her. The waitress then left to give the woman a chance to look over their options for food.

After they had ordered, the woman found themselves talking. First light, but after a while Daisy decided to tell Nat about Lincoln. She trusted Nat with those feelings. Daisy trusted Nat enough to tell her about Ward too, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk about that. The Russian held Daisy’s hand while she was talking.

Nat in her turn, told Daisy some things about the red room. It was clear that Natasha was holding some of the more gruesome things back. But Daisy didn’t blame her. She got the picture as to how horrible the redheads life had been up to this point.

Then their food came and the topics became more pleasant.

After a while, Daisy was so enthusiastically telling a story that she nearly pushed over a glass.

‘try not to kill us пульсация.’ Nat muttered, but her voice sounded warm.

It took Daisy a second before realizing that Natasha had spoken in Russian. A language she happened to have picked up when she had gotten bored. It took her slightly longer to process the fact that Nat had a nickname for her. And that that nickname was ripple.

‘cute nickname, and don’t worry, I won’t. At least not in such a boring way.’ She responded.

‘Wait, you speak Russian???’ The look on Nat’s face was absolutely priceless.

‘Yes, I taught myself when I got bored.’

‘I should’ve known, seeing whose daughter you are. Let me guess, you studied on MIT under some random name? How many PhD’s do you have?’

‘Well, I studied at multiple universities, so I wouldn’t attract too much attention, but I have got 9 PhD’s, though I haven’t even told my father about three of them.’ Daisy shrugged.

Natasha’s mouth nearly fell over.

‘Try not to spill the food on your fork.’ Daisy teased.

‘Which area’s have you studied then?’ Nat sounded both completely flabbergasted and curious.

‘I have studied;  Software engineering, Nanotechnology, Biochemistry, Applied Physics, Nuclear Physics, Data Analysis, Computer Science, Business & Management and Marketing.’ Daisy said, counting them on her fingers to make sure she’d said them all. ‘I haven’t told my father about Nanotechnology, Biochemistry and Nuclear Physics.’

‘Why not?’

‘It just never came up I guess? There was a period of time in which we were both pretty busy, me with traveling the world, him with almost being murdered, multiple times, and then joining the Avengers to defeat Loki.’

Nat was speechless for a second. ‘Well, that does make me feel less bad for being less good at hacking then you are. Though it does make me feel more stupid overall.’ She then joked.

Daisy really hoped that she meant that as a joke, and that she hadn’t just made the former assassin feel insecure.

Luckily they quickly changed subjects. Especially considering the fact that Russian was only one of Daisy’s spoken languages.

They continued talking for the entire evening. Sometimes it seemed like Nat wanted to say something but decided against it. Daisy wondered what it was, but she wasn’t going to pressure her. If Natasha felt ready to say what she wanted to say, she would.

The evening was uneventful and all things considered it was a great evening. Especially when they went home and continued to talk for another couple of hours before calling it a night.

Daisy fell asleep with a smile on her face.