Chapter 1_Classified
Steve walked into the common room that was empty but for Natasha who was propped up on the couch with her laptop. For a second, Steve thought he saw a full page of writing, but then the screen was only half full, with the blinking cursor leading a line of text across the page as Natasha typed up a report. Her eyes flickered up to him and she nodded in greeting. Steve joined her on the couch and turned the TV on to some kids cartoons. He needed a break from the stress (and it didn't hurt that he could recognise some of the cartoons from before the ice). Natasha continued typing, then twisted around so Steve couldn't see the screen and continued tapping on the keys. Steve shrugged and didn't take any more notice.
When Clint came into the kitchen, Natasha was sat on the counter, scrolling through something on her phone. She looked up at him and muttered a greeting.
"You reading that e-mail from Coulson?"
Natasha mumbled something that wasn't really an answer and Clint frowned.
"You have seen that e-mail, right? Coulson will blow his top if you're not at the meeting."
This time Natasha looked up in scorn.
"Please, of course I've seen the e-mail. It's you who doesn't turn up half the time, you and Stark. I'm Phil's favourite."
Clint didn't disagree. It was common knowledge that Natasha was Agent Coulson's favourite; she did all her paperwork, never did anything that meant more paper work, didn't get into trouble with the public, press or VIPs, cleaned up all her jobs and got work done. Unlike the others. Steve had a habit of cutting down anyone who didn't respect others, Tony never did paperwork, Bruce was reluctant to get into anything that could provoke the big guy, Thor was constantly disappearing to deal with things in Asgard and Clint himself always ended up breaking or losing equipment which meant more paperwork for Coulson. Yes, Natasha was definitely Coulson's favourite, and with good reason.
Clint shrugged and threw Natasha a fruit bar as a sort of apology, and told her he'd see her at the meeting later. Natasha caught the bar with a thanks and immediately turned back to whatever was on her screen as Clint left the room.
Bruce joined Natasha in the elevator on his way up to his floor. She was leant against the corner of the metal cuboid, typing on her phone.
"Reports?" He asked, sympathy lining his voice. Natasha looked up at him, his arms full of written reports and slipped her phone into her back pocket.
"Something like that. Do you need help with that lot?"
"Could you?" Natasha lifted half of the stack into her own arms and they both exited the lift on Bruce's floor and Bruce dropped his pile onto the desk in his office. Natasha copied his example, lowering her armful onto the desk next to the first pile.
"Are you planning to do all of this by the meeting tonight?" Natasha asked and Bruce shuffled his feet.
"I've been in the lab with Tony working on a project that has taken quite a while. I've been meaning to get it done but I haven't got around to it and…" Bruce trailed of as Natasha pulled up a chair and sat down to writing the reports without a word. He stayed there in shock for a minute, before shaking himself out of it and sitting in the chair that was already there to join her.
Natasha left Bruce with only about three more reports to finish and made her way down to the lab. She didn't bother knocking before using her passcode to enter, knowing that J.A.R.V.I.S. would have already warned him as soon as the elevator doors opened on the lab floor. Tony called a welcome from somewhere amongst the metal and wires and Natasha picked her way across the littered floor to find him. He was tinkering with something in a pile of oil deep in the mechanical jungle.
"Have you done your reports?"
And so maybe this was another reason Coulson loved her so much. She pestered the others and helped them to write their reports so he had less work to do himself.
"Reports…remind me what reports we had to do."
Natasha sighed.
"The battle report from that thing with the ovianatrax."
"That the freaky alien thing last week?" Natasha rolled her eyes but nodded. "Oh…no."
Natasha wondered why she had bothered asking when she already knew the answer. She tugged a bolt out of Tony's hands and coaxed him up and away from the lab to her office, as Tony didn't have his own (Natasha suspected this was partially so he had an excuse for not having done his paperwork) and sat down with him to go through his reports. Tony noticed that while they wrote up his reports, Natasha flicked from the official forms to a small red notebook every so often and scribbled something in there for a minute or two. She didn't offer any explanation, however, and Tony didn't ask. He knew what the consequences of asking Natasha dangerous questions could be.
Thor appeared on the common floor with a crack, but Natasha didn't even flinch. She was sat at the table with a bowl of ice cream and her laptop, alternately typing and scrolling. Thor strode over to her and Natasha smiled up at him.
"How are things going in Asgard?"
"Good, good," Thor boomed. "Loki's been behaving himself so far and we haven't had any foreign hostilities."
"Are you here for the meeting? I think Coulson's calling it in an hour or so."
"Thank you, Natasha. Have you seen the good Captain?"
Natasha suggested looking for Steve on his floor and turned back to her laptop. Thor thanked her for the help and left her to whatever she was doing.
Natasha was already sat in the meeting room when Coulson came in. She smiled at him and he came and sat next to where she was on her phone again.
"How are you doing?"
"I'm doing well, it's getting really good now."
Coulson smiled and stood up just as Steve, Thor, Bruce and Clint piled in. Natasha glanced up and sighed.
"Is Stark coming or do I have to go drag him in again?"
No one volunteered details of Tony's whereabouts so Natasha got up, and returned - dragging Tony by the ear.
"Ow! Ow! Nat! Jeez, I get it, let go! I'm forty-four, not four!"
Natasha didn't let go until she dumped Tony onto his seat and then she stalked back around to her seat so Coulson could address everyone. She already knew what Coulson wanted to say, so she unlocked her phone again and started typing on it.
"Hey, hey! So I'm not allowed do my stuff but she's allowed work on her phone?" Tony sounded very affronted and Natasha raised her head to see him looking extremely offended. Coulson paused in his speech for a moment.
"Yes, because I've already spoken to Tasha about most of this and because I know what she's doing and know that it's not going to start another World War."
"So what is she doing? She's been like this for over a month and she won't tell anyone what she's doing."
"She's working on a project that I have given her permission for. That's all either of us are going to say on the matter."
Tony sat but back Natasha could see he was sulking.
"Would you prefer for me to stop?"
"No, no go ahead."
Natasha rolled her eyes and placed her phone faced down on the table and turned to Coulson.
"Go on, I think you were up to the bit about equipment."
"Yeah, I was just getting up to that. Okay so I've been going over things with some of the team…"