A/N: This is set when Natasha's new to the agency and is still working out some of the more human emotions she hadn't been allowed to have in her previous life.
Jealousy is for children. Natasha doesn't get jealous. That would imply needing things that you could not obtain and she doesn't need things and she certainly does not want things she cannot have.
Natasha tightens the grip around her coffee cup. The heat burns her fingers, but maybe if she focuses on that she won't notice just how aware Clint is of Maria Hill's presence. Not that it matters. She certainly doesn't care who Barton sleeps with.
She's watching the pair stand at the coffee table in the breakroom. Hill is pouring herself a cup, strong and black—but then she adds hazelnut creamer, entirely too much if you ask Natasha. How can you even taste the coffee? After standing just out of arms' reach and shooting sideways glances at her for the past several minutes, Barton has now come up beside her and says something that makes her smile. She tilts her head up to look him in the eyes as she throws back a reply to him. (They're standing too close; you can't respond to a threat when someone's so close.)
Natasha knows they went out last night. Maybe they meant it to be a secret, but if you work with spies, you should learn to lie better. And if she listened very carefully now, she could probably make out what they're saying, but she doesn't. She does watch Clint's hand slide easily around Agent Hill's waist and his fingers tickle the inward curve of her waist. She watches Maria's not-here nudge that whispers of sex and wonders why the idea turns her stomach.
This emotion she is feeling is new and confusing.
She doesn't like it.
There's a soft foot fall to her left and Coulson appears in her line of vision. He gives a soft hmph and Hill and Barton spring apart like guilty children.
"Debrief in five."
She turns and follows Coulson out quickly, so she doesn't have to watch Barton acting like a love-struck puppy for a second longer.
The mission assignment is fairly standard. Easy, even. This she knows. This she understands.
Obtain Target. Interrogate. Eliminate threat.
For this particular covert mission, she's been partnered with Clint. And it's unnatural how glad it makes her that this mission is her's and his' alone.
"Do your homework, kids." Fury taps the table as he stands. "You leave at 2000."
Clint nods in response and she replies, "Yes, Sir."
He leaves without further command and Hill follows behind him. If Clint's eyes linger on her, Natasha doesn't notice.
Natasha gathers up the files on the table—light reading for the plane flight—and heads for the supply room. Clint follows her out. Once in the hall, he falls into step with her.
"Well, looks like it's just you and me, Nat." He swings a friendly arm around her shoulders.
There's nothing about his touch that whispers sex.
Still, she doesn't know why it feels like it belongs there.