"Promise you won't forget me?" A quiet chuckle followed by a soft palm resting against blushing cheeks.
"How could I ever forget you? Years from now, we will meet again and it'll be perfect." A simple press of lips against lips before the two parted ways for an undetermined amount of time.
Sitting up in her bed, Natasha lifted a hand to her cheeks, feeling the dampness from tears. Again? Why do I keep dreaming that…then waking up crying… She sighed softly and brushed her fingers through her messy hair as she gathered her surroundings. Yes, still in her apartment, not back at the dreaded orphanage. The soft snore coming from her spare room reminded her that Clint had come to visit and had passed out not long after dinner. Natasha was starting to get frustrated with herself, why were dreams bothering her so much? She hadn't dreamed about that scenario since she was about 20 and she'd pushed it to the back of her mind with no further thought about it. Yet now, after five years, it happened again.
"Shit…" She sighed and pushed herself out of bed, padding through to the ensuite bathroom for a shower despite it being 5am.
Once she was cleaned and sufficiently pushed the dream out of her mind, she pulled on her clothes and went to wake Clint with a mug of coffee.
"Hey, sleeping beauty. We'll be late if you sleep much longer you know?" She sat on the edge of the bed, brushing her fingers through her friends hair as he groaned and tried to push her away with one of his feet. In front of everyone else, they were always in top form and professional – but alone they still acted like teenagers and let their guards down.
"C'mon Tash, it's only 6am…It won't take that long to get there…" He mumbled into the pillows before the smell of coffee had him lifting his head like a dog sniffing at the air. A smile worked over his lips as he sat up and accepted the coffee, sipping it and peering at her over the rim of the mug. "You okay? You look a little…off." Natasha waved one hand slightly and tucked her hair behind one ear.
"Dreams again, you know what it can be like." She gave a light smile at which Clint just nodded.
"What's your assignment for today then Tash?" Reaching into her jacket pocket, Natasha looked over the paper she'd been faxed over.
"They're sending me to Russia…some shady characters have been lurking around, import export disguise or something…." She shrugged a little, looking at him. "I have to go to a party and seduce some old guy for information." Clint chuckled, any other female agent and he would have worried about them but he knew Natasha could handle herself – that and he was pretty sure her thighs were made of reinforced steel. The fight that had ensued between them on their first meeting had left him struggling for breath when she'd managed to trap him.
"Well, have a drink for me, I'm guarding the Tesseract again. Selvig thinks he can harness it and Fury is worried about people coming after it." Natasha nodded and petted his shoulder before heading back to her room to grab the bag she'd packed ready to take.
Things were almost going her way when that damn phone call came and interrupted her. Now she found herself back on her plane, heading over to India to fetch one Bruce Banner back. Her head was still spinning from everything Coulson had told her over the phone. Clint was compromised, some guy had appeared, attacked and taken the Tesseract and now she was having to fly to some slum to fetch a man who had serious anger problems. Her main worry was her best friend, what was happening to him? Who would take the Tesseract? She needed the files from Coulson as soon as possible. At least after landing she'd have a few hours to read everything while the other agents fetched Steve, a.k.a. Captain America, and a certain Billionaire currently building his own home with his own name blazing across the front. Typical Stark, wanting his name where everyone would see it and know him.
When she finally landed, Natasha found an abandoned building outside of the main city – just in case something went wrong. She placed a spare gun under the table in a special strap before sitting down to read over everything she'd been e-mailed through. It all seemed crazy really… but who was she to say what was crazy, some of the missions she'd been on were just ridiculous really. Sighing heavily, Natasha brushed her hair back from her face and readjusted the shawl around her shoulders as she waited for the little girl to come back with Banner.
I hope you're okay Clint… She sighed a little, ducking back into the shadows as she heard the pitter-patter of the young girls' feet as she fled through the house, leading Bruce inside. Game face Tasha…
Once everyone was rounded up in the Hellicarrier, discussing what to do about getting this Loki person captured and dealing with him, Natasha couldn't help but feel weird without Clint sat across the table from her, idly fiddling with his bow as Director Fury would drone on about plans and missions. Once everyone split up, Natasha headed to the room allocated as hers and lay on the bed, Fury had told her that under no circumstances was she to try and contact Clint in case it compromised anything else. She felt restless, a frown creasing her brow as she tried to figure out what anyone would want with Clint when they had the Tesseract and Doctor Selvig… A knock at her door brought her back to the Hellicarrer with a crash, sitting up and grabbing the gun strapped to her thigh. Maria looked at her with wide-eyes as she held up her hands in surprise.
"Whoa, Natasha…I only came to tell you we might be on to something." Natasha nodded, muttering an apology before heading out to the main area to see what was happening when one of the people jumped around in their seat, claiming they found Loki in Stuttgart. Peering at the picture on the screen, something about the man on the cameras and pictures seemed eerily familiar but she just figured she probably saw his picture in the file or something. Shaking it off, she flew Steve out to Stuttgart with her. They flew in silence, tension about catching this person and Natasha hoping it meant Clint was close by and they could bring him back as well. However, after she'd dropped Steve off just a little out of the way and came in when she could hear him arguing with Loki over the headset – she realised they were a little too late and the man had almost turned a poor old man into dust. Even shouting at him through the planes speakers didn't seem to do a thing and she couldn't fire anything, too many civilians and a high risk of hitting Steve as well. Although as soon as she did manage to get her target locked, everything was disrupted and suddenly AC/DC was being pumped through the speakers like some cheesy concert introduction. Natasha just slumped back into her chair as a flash of gold and red flew past her window and she just settled for putting the aircraft on the ground to collect everyone once the fighting was over.
Natasha didn't even bother getting a look at the man they'd captured, the flight home was eventful as a certain God of Thunder appeared to snatch Loki away. She had to hover around the area to pick up those that couldn't fly while the men fought over God knows what. She just sighed to herself, part of her glad she was female and not pumped full of testosterone making her want to fight everything that posed even the tiniest threat. All she wanted now was Clint back and safe, hopefully Loki would eventually cough up the location of the Tesseract and they could shut this whole thing down. That was until they sat around discussing everything and Thor let slip that Loki was his adopted brother amongst other details they figured might help. Apart from the mention of an army and a plan to take over the world. Natasha managed to slip away though, her mind racing as she walked the corridors of the Hellicarrier. She had to bargain or offer a trade or something, just to ensure Clint was safe. If anything happened to him she'd never forgive herself for not being there to at least try and protect him.
As she walked into the room where Loki had been put – originally intended in case Banner lost his grip on the Hulk – the tall male had his back to her, the light making the gold on his outfit shine. She stared at the back of his head, waiting for him to realise she was there. After a few seconds he turned around, a smile playing over his lips as his unnaturally blue eyes turned towards her.
"There's not many who can sneak up on me…" It almost caught Natasha off-guard, that voice, the structure of his face and how he held himself….Now she knew why he seemed so familiar.