A/N: This is based between Black Widow #1 and #2 (after the graveyard, before the theft). I like them as a pairing. Please feel free to comment + constructive critism. Not sure if this will turn into something that is ongoing as issues are released so I am posting as a single story for now.

Chapter One: Prelude

It was a hard realization to come to, as the morning light fell on the soft skin of Maria's pale back. Of course, it wasn't something that she hadn't considered before. But before, well before she thought every last shred of her sordid past had been disposed of. Before it wasn't immanent, before it was all theoretical.

"They won't be aware. I can cut her cold if I have to. An off-book operation."

Maria Hill would choose SHEILD over her and Natasha wouldn't blame her for it.

Their relationship was a complicated one. One that they had tried to keep from the scrutinizing gaze of their employing agency. There had been no real discussions of exactly what this was, what it might become. Yet despite it lacking a depth most people seek to find in an arrangement like theirs, it was something that Natasha had come to rely on.

Her heart suddenly ached for the loss of it as she marveled at the fact that she was now in a place where she could ache at all over something as simple and normal as this. The ending of a relationship.

Platch Liev sets down a folder before her, and in that folder is the only thing that still has control over her. Proof of what she's done.

Maria Hill is a necessary sacrifice. Just like Black Widow will become a liability to SHIELD.

Maria groans, shifts and Natasha hears her mumble something about coffee and the time.

"Relax," Nat's voice came through, rough after a night hard pressed for sleep, a casual hand drifts over the body of her lover, "You don't have to get up yet, I'll start the coffee machine,"

It would start itself in half an hour, Maria Hill was a person of ritual but Natasha was restless and it was a good excuse as any to get up.

The smell of coffee eventually fills the kitchen and tempts Maria out of bed.

"You stayed," she observed plainly.

"Is that a problem?" Natasha asked, already having dressed.

It wasn't often that they stayed the night with each other, but they also haven't made a habit of pointing it out when it does happen.

"No," Hill answered simply as she poured her coffee, "Are you on duty today?"

"Yes,"

"Do you want a lift?"

"I need to stop by my place for some things," Natasha declines. Maria nods, taking a seat and already delving into her tablet for the day's reports and tasks. She works too much.

They both do.

Would they be able to come back to this, after everything was over? Would Natasha be able to come back to SHEILD someday, somehow?

They spent their morning after as they always did, with an air of professionality.