Hello, hello, hello! This is Bonnie with a newwww story coming out! I've got a few other Avenger stories out there and what I've got in mind is to play out those plots and then tie them all together in one final piece. Of course, gotta finish each individual story first. Womp womp.
So yeah! This is an OC/Captain America shindig. Only the plot and my lovely Marcella Stanton. (pronounced marchella, with tha CH yo)
Uhh, yeah, I don't really have much else to say. Leave reviews, I love to hear what you guys have to say! On to the story!
I'm a hurricane
I'm a freight train
Ain't the right way,
But it's the only way I know
Shelter by DOROTHY
Even when they dug that time capsule of a man out of the ice, Natasha never thought her job would entail babysitting. For God's sake she was an spy. Of the highest caliber. Watching after some icy, old grandpa was not in her job description.
It's not like Natasha was bitter.
Okay, maybe a little.
Clint got to go off on some mission or other in Austria, and Natasha was here. In New York. Walking around with a kid in a massive candy store.
It wasn't that she was mad at him – he couldn't help the fact that he was found on ice nearly seventy years later. But SHIELD honestly couldn't find any other agent to watch him? No one had that kind of clearance? What is this world coming to?
It had been a week since Cap's re-integration into society. Nat had kept him inside most of that week – minimal exposure to the outside world, mostly catching up on news, important movies, and training when they both got restless. Today was going to be a special day, though. Today Natasha was taking him out into the real world. Or close enough to it, anyway.
"I ought to warn you, the language might be a bit… Much." Natasha warned Steve. He was going to ask what she meant by that, but he had no time as the two had just walked up to the door to the place.
He followed Natasha into a small hole-in-the-wall establishment off of the main street. The décor from the front window made Steve think of Alice in Wonderland – had that literature survived over the decades? A bell tinkled from inside as Natasha opened the door. The room was warm and cozy, the style reminded Steve of home. Bittersweet thoughts rushed to his head as he remembered Peggy Carter, Bucky Barnes, the Howling Commandos, all of them. He suspected Natasha brought him here to try to give him a taste of the older times he emerged from, a sweet gesture, but the pain was still so fresh. Discomfort was written all over Steve's face, and he almost asked Natasha to leave, until a little bundle of a woman came barreling towards them.
"Nat, you whore!" The petite woman squealed excitedly and wrapped Natasha in a hug. Natasha gave the woman a rare smile, and absolutely did not miss the appalled look on Steve's face. Is this how everyone greeted each other in this day and age? Steve did not want to be a part of this.
"Steve, meet Marcella. She runs the place." Natasha introduced the two. Steve looked down to the small girl. Her green eyes smiled back up at him.
"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am." Steve greeted politely.
"Ooh, a dapper one! Nice to meet you, Steve-O! Are you the reason Nat isn't coming around here anymore?" The woman, Marcella, wriggled her eyebrows suggestively. Steve's face flushed a bright red as he stammered out a denial to her comment. A sly grin played on Nat's face as she watched him struggle, and Marcella was just bent over laughing. "I'm only kidding! Don't take it so rough, jeez. Don't act like you wouldn't wanna take her home anyway." She snorted. Before Steve could issue more protests, Marcella guided the two over to a table and laid a simple menu in front of Steve.
"Usual Jasmine Oolong for you, love?" Marcella asked. Steve looked over to Natasha confused, until she nodded an affirmative to Marcella. In turn, the small woman set off behind the counter and began working.
Tea.
It was a tea room. No wonder the whole place had that older Alice in Wonderland feel.
"And for you, dear?" Steve felt eyes fall on him. He opened his mouth to respond, but when he saw the options on the menu he was sorely confused. This was much more tea than he was used to. What even was Tuo-cha Pu-erh tea? This must be made up.
"Surprise me." He finally managed to spit out some words. Marcella simply nodded and began humming as she set about her task.
"So, you like it?" Natasha asked quietly. Steve was looking around at it all. It felt so surreal.
"It, uh… Reminds me of home." He told her lamely.
"Marcella loves everything vintage and old. Though it's all only aesthetics, I figured you might enjoy this place. It takes a bit to warm up to Chel's mouth, but you get used to her soon enough." There was only the slightest tinge of concern in Natasha's voice, so small Steve was sure he imagined it. Stoic, poker-faced Natasha Romanoff did not feel sorry for anyone.
"How did you find this place? Doesn't seem like your usual… hang out." Another smirk graced Natasha's face.
"True. I was on a mission, pretty sure I was being tracked. Come to find, Marcella has the only property in New York that's totally off the wireless grid. Nothing works in here, save for the main lines to the building. Easy to lose any WiFi tail in a place like this." As Nat explained the location, Steve looked as his new cell phone – sure enough it was off. He furrowed his brows.
"How does that work? How did she get this place?" Natasha shrugged nonchalantly.
"Chel said she bought the place because of it. She hates how people are constantly on their cell phones and messing around with technology, and she didn't want it here. It kinda goes with her theme." Natasha pointed out. Steve nodded, not knowing how such a thing could be possible, but not voicing that.
"So, is she…?" Steve didn't audibly voice the question he had, just hoped that Natasha could mentally pick up what he was putting down.
"No, she's a civilian. Chel has no idea." Steve was relieved. After seeing nothing but SHIELD agents day in and day out, it was nice to have someone to be around with no ulterior motive. Though he couldn't help but notice the warning tone that was in Natasha's voice. Chel was someone to be kept in the dark. This was only a surface deep relationship.
"Here we are!" A chipper voice came from behind his left shoulder. Two small pots of tea and tea cups were placed in front of the pair. "Your usual, with honey, Nat. And you remind me of an old simple soul, Steve-O, so I just got you some Earl Grey, hope you don't mind. I'll brew a new one up if you want something more exotic." She wiggled her fingers, accentuating the last word. A small smile broke out on Steve's face.
"Thank you, this is perfect." He responded. Marcella beamed at him and pulled up a seat next to the pair.
"Been awhile, Nat, I thought you left me." Natasha gave the woman a reserved smile and the two began chatting. Steve tuned them out as he finally took in the woman before him. Marcella was small, especially compared to his frame. 5'4" at her best, though he noticed she took to wearing heels. Her vibrant red hair was styled up, much like something Peggy wears – used to wear, rather. Her clothes and makeup were rather similar, too. Save for the small jewel on her nose and sleeve of tattoos on her right arm, Marcella would've fit in perfectly in his time period. Well, except her mouth, too. In the short time Steve had known her, he noticed that Marcella was very uncouth.
"Oh, now that is some baby-back-bullshit!" Marcella's voice rang through the empty shop, snapping Steve out of his reverie. A smile was decorating her features, despite her foul words. "Gone on a job my white ass. It's been months! Plus, where did you pick this guy up if you were gone the whole time, huh? Just some random hobo off the street?" Marcella snorted. Natasha rolled her eyes at Marcella's dramatic antics.
"What, are you keeping tabs on me now, Marcy?" Natasha asked sarcastically, though Steve noticed the pleased lilt in her voice. She liked being around someone who wouldn't take any of the venom she spat seriously. It was strange to watch.
"Oh please, hun, if I wanted to watch you, you would know it." Marcella gave a suggestive wink to Nat, which elicited a small laugh out of her. Steve flushed again, not used to anything near this amount of innuendo in one conversation. He stuck to quietly drinking his tea, and not adding anything to the conversation. After a few more minutes of inappropriate chatter, the two were finished with their tea, and wrapping everything up to leave.
"Stimulating conversation, as always Marcella." Natasha thanked the woman as they walked to the counter.
"You're the blessing of my existence, Nat, any time." Marcella grinned. She waved the woman off as she tried to pay for their drinks. "I've got you this time, just no more month long dry spouts! I can't stand not talking shit to customers." Natasha nodded with a small smile.
"No promises."
"And nice to meet you too, Steve! Hope you come back around – I'm always here."
"Thank you, Marcella. You'll probably see me again." He thanked her, and with that the two left.
It was a normal job for RED. As normal as finding a job on the dark web because you're a master hacker is, anyway. Simple for someone of her caliber – just had to hack into some super secret government organization's database, find some information on some super secret people, and that was it! Piece of cake, easy payday.
RED click clacked on their keyboard, intently staring at the illuminated screen before them. Black Widow, that's what they were on the look out for. All known aliases, the usual rundown.
As RED searched through folders and records, the golden egg showed itself before their eyes.
"Perfect!" RED grinned and opened the files, curious as to who the mark was this time. RED clicked open the last known photo of this 'Black Widow,' for the sheer curiosity factor RED couldn't knock. It took a moment, but the photo loaded.
RED knew exactly who it was.
"Oh. My. God."
Next chapter will be longer, I promise! Had to leave you guys with some mystery so you come back! :P Leave comments and love, and see you guys next chapter!