First Met
Natasha wasn't sure where the mission went wrong. Everything had been going smoothly, their plan had been steel proof, or as steel proof as an assassination mission could get, yet somehow here they were running for their lives, bullets flying past them as they made for their Evac point. By the time they reached the Quinjet, Clint was over her shoulder, four agents were dead and another five more were seriously injured. By the time they were in the air, another agent had died and Clint had turned an alarming shade of grey, the bullet wounds piercing his body staining his clothes a vicious red. All Natasha could do was watch as medics surrounded the agent, and she backed up to the front of the jet as they attempted to stop the bleeding.
When they landed, the remaining agents – Clint included – were rushed to surgery, and one particularly gutsy medic tried to get Natasha to go too, eyeing the bullet graze in her side warily, but the Russian simply glared and he ran for his life. A panicking agent caught her eye, and she quickly placed him as the pilot of the Quinjet they'd just evacuated. She barely caught the words 'engine' and 'explode' before Fury was beside her, his one eye taking in the damage before turning sharply to her.
"Romanoff, go get Ari from the workshop, I want to know if this thing's a danger to everyone on board." Natasha moved to go, but was stopped by a quick, "And Romanoff," She turned, "if you see a dog down there for God's sake don't touch a hair on its head, or we'll all be dead before this piece of shit can even think about exploding." The assassin could only nod, masking her confusion, before making her way off of the dock and to the lower levels.
Natasha knew of Agent Ari from Barton. In the months she'd been here since Barton had brought her in, the man had mentioned this Agent Ari several times in conversation, and Natasha knew that they had to be good friends. Yet she'd never met the Agent, Barton never mentioning going to visit them when they hung out – which was most of the time, what with him being the only person to actually trust or talk to her out of missions. Naturally, she was interested in what the Agent was actually like, as Natasha got the impression Clint didn't really get along with people easily.
She wasn't sure what she expected when she got to the workshop, but she knew that she wasn't expecting 'Highway To Hell' to be blasting from speakers on a workbench, or for a five foot, bare-footed goddess to be bouncing around the workshop dancing, a dog almost the same size as her following in her footsteps, dancing with her. She came to an abrupt stop as she turned and locked eyes with Natasha, the dog stopping almost simultaneously with her, both shooting the assassin sheepish grins as the woman grabbed a remote from a nearby bench and turned the music off, a small blush creeping up her neck that Natasha did not miss.
"Ah, hi, sorry…" The woman paused, not sure what to say before seeming to shake herself out of it and waving at the woman, the grin ever present on her face. "I'm Ari, what can I do for you, miss?" And Natasha was done for.