A/N: As promised, the prequel to K.I.S.S.I.N.G! Now, if haven't read that, you don't have to run away; this works as a stand-alone. :) Very, very vague spoilers/speculation for Captain America 2. Anyway, have some maybe-it's-real-maybe-it's-undercover Steve/Tasha and a side of Jealous!Clint. Hope you enjoy!
From his perch in the ventilation shaft (where he was not supposed to be, but he figured he had another thirty seconds before someone alerted Fury), Clint watched Agent Hill disappear around the corner.
Good. That means he has three minutes tops, which is plenty.
He dashes silently across the hall and into her office. He hesitates at the doorway to verify that she hadn't doubled back for some reason. She had, just this morning, warned him off of spying, and she would be none too happy to catch him doing something that looked an awful lot like spying. It's three steps to the desk and he grins as he sees what he's looking for. It's not spying when what you were looking for was out in the open where anyone could see it. The fact that it had been left out in the open because he might have emergency-paged Hill was a technicality.
And, you know, no reasonable person could blame him for his not-spying. After all, it was only natural to be concerned about the welfare of your coworkers when the job necessitated nearly dieing on a frighteningly regular basis. Furthermore, if they'd just read him in or showed him the photos, he wouldn't have had to resort to this. All talking points settled, just on the off chance that he gets caught, he reaches quickly for the surveillance photos that show a record of Steve's and Natasha's whereabouts and activities while they're off on their mission.
Huh.
It would appear they were using the couple undercover strategy. It's a fairly standard distraction technique, but still Steve and Natasha? He would have pegged them more as undercover siblings. (He and Tasha had tried that once and it had left Fury mumbling something about chemistry and incest.)
He skims through the rest of the photos quickly. The first thing he noticed was that there was a lot of…kissing in these photos. There was a lot of kissing in these pictures.
Cap and Tasha, really? Well, there was nothing All-American about how he was kissing her, that was for sure.
He starts back at the beginning again, flipping more carefully through the pictures this time.
Steve and Tasha nuzzling on a park bench.
Steve and Tasha kissing on an escalator.
Steve and Tasha shooting an identity shot—a picture designed to look like a happy couple snapping a vacation pic, that is if your vacation pics also had people on SHIELD's Most Wanted list in it.
Steve carrying Tasha into—that had better not be a Honeymoon Suite, that was so in his playbook, and so two missions ago.
He lays the last photo down. There sure were a lot of kissing in those photos. (Didn't the surveillance team ever pick up anything else, say Steve picking his nose?)
Two minutes, twenty seconds. He had to get out of here. He had found what he came for: evidence that Steve and Tasha were ok, away on their completely-classified-no-really-Barton-I-will-put- you-on-desk-duty-for-a-month-if-you-don't-stop-ask ing mission. And, well if he had also happened to get some dirt to share with the guys, so be it.
He gently lays the photos back on the desk, exactly as Hill had left them, and makes a beeline for the door.
He couldn't wait to share over dinner tonight.
-End.-
A/N: You guys, I seriously had so much fun writing that, and I hope you all enjoyed it, too.