Thanks for the review :)
2
It was common knowledge that Bobbi Morse knew how to throw a party. That they bore the hell out of Natasha was not. The first times she had been blinded by fascination –she had never gone out to attend a party, her parents wouldn't let her. The more she went thought, the more the magic faded. For the past hour, she had been sitting in a couch, playing doll for James while he made pointless talk with his so-called friends and drank beer after beer. Sometimes she managed to have fun when she found a couple of people who had more than two neurons in their brains –like Jane Foster or Jasper Sitwell. Not tonight.
"Hey Nat, wanna get out?"
It took her a couple of seconds to realize that her boyfriend was actually talking to her. Overly eager to leave this place, she nodded and followed him. She knew what to expect when he headed to a guest room. For starters, he was drunk and while she was in no hurry to cross that line and James seemed to respect that, she knew he got incredibly horny after a couple of beers. And when he was horny, he got also angry very fast. Still, when he closed the door behind them, she let him embrace and kiss her. That was one of the things she disliked with him; his urge to show he owned her. Not everything was bad; his touches were enjoyable but only when sober. She figured she might let him feel her up a bit then push him away. He was usually satisfied after a bit of groping.
This time though, his hands were much more insistent as he pushed her against the wall and slipped one under her shirt, the other one unbuttoning her jeans.
"James, stop it" she hissed, slapping his wandering hands away. Her boyfriend didn't seem to listen either. He nuzzled her neck and whispered huskily:
"C'mon darling, you must be the only one in the whole high school who hasn't gotten any." His hands groped her butt rather forcefully and pulled her against his front, but that was the last drop. Natasha pushed him off –which wasn't a hard task since he was halfway drunk and she was stronger than her small frame led to believe. He fell on his butt and stared up at her with a lost look. She glared at him in return.
"Sober up first darling. I'm leaving now."
The young man blinked at her dizzily but she didn't wait for an answer. She walked out of the room, picked up her jacket and left the house without saying goodbye.
Maybe she shouldn't have left so abruptly, Natasha thought a while after. Walking to her house didn't take over an hour and it wouldn't be the first time she'd do it on her own, but night was radically different than plain daylight. She'd see details she usually never paid attention to, hear sounds that put her on edge. And the two guys walking up the street in front of her did not look very welcoming. Both looked bulky and strong and while she could take care of herself, Natasha wasn't sure she'd manage a face-to-face with two brainless thugs. Now, she truly wished she had called a cab to bring her home. She hoped till the last second they were going to just bypass her, ignore her and be on their merry way. She had no such luck.
"Hey gorgeous, whatch'a doin' on your own so lat'at night?"
Natasha ignored them and kept walking. Unfortunately, they weren't discouraged so easily. One grabbed her shoulder and pulled her backwards.
"Let me go!" she hissed, planting her fingernails in his hand to make him release her. He narrowed his eyes in return, clearly displeased.
"C'mon, we just wanna hav' a bit o'fun…"
"Hey Nat!"
While she was focusing on the two thuds, a car had showed up in the street and stopped at their level. Natasha never felt so grateful to see Barton's face in passenger seat. The two guys glared at the teenager.
"Get 'way kid, we're dealin' with s'me bus'ness 'ere." Barton, of course, ignored them.
"Hurry and jump in Nat, we're gonna be late at the Heli'." He added, motioning for her to come forwards. She didn't miss a beat and hurried to the back door, opened and slipped in. Two boys were already sitting there, a black guy dressed in baggy pants and dark green shirt and a dark-haired teenager wearing large glasses and light brown shirt–she recognized them belonging to the group Barton hung around with. A young woman was behind the wheel. Natasha didn't have time to open her mouth to greet or thank them that the car started with a high-pitch screeching sound and bolted down the empty streets. They had barely made a tight turn that Barton twisted on his seat to face her with a reproachful frown.
"What the hell were you thinkin'! walkin' all 'lone at night?"
"Contrary to popular belief, it's not safe around here." The woman behind the wheel added. "Especially if you are a girl."
"Yeah, and with those creeps hangin' 'round since those fuckers from Hydra d'cided to jump back in th' Street." She was about to ask what was Hydra when he went on: "you would've been in deep shit sweetheart."
She glared back.
"It's Romanoff, Barton."
Natasha didn't expect earning the sudden attention of the whole car. Binocular, Black Guy and Behind-the-Wheel (nicknames by default) stared at her –thought the review in the case of the woman- with wide or surprised eyes.
"You're the Natasha Romanoff?" Binocular asked. "The chick Clint got detention for?"
"I didn' get detention for her" Barton protested. "I just pissed off Pietrovitch 'cause he was bein' a bitch."
"Still, in the hopes of rescuing a damsel from a dreadful fate you spent some quality time with the biggest molester of our high school. Brave Clint, brave." Behind-the-Wheel said, a smirk growing over her face. The two other boys sniggered. Barton grimaced and turned back to face the road. "Anyway, miss Romanoff" the woman added, insisting with sarcasm on the 'miss'. "I'm driving these idiots to the club then I'll drop you off at your place. Good with that?"
Natasha wanted to say it wasn't necessary to drive her back home, but she had no idea where they were going and had no desire to meet other odd guys again.
"All good. Thank you for helping me out."
"Anytime sweetheart." Barton replied for everyone. "An' by the way, the rude idiots who didn' introduced th'mselves yet are Bruce, Rhodey an' Maria."
Bruce Banner and Maria Hill, she suspected immediately. The third name didn't ring a bell though, so Bobbi mustn't have gathered anything scandalous on him.
"Nice to meet you" she replied automatically. Bruce and Rhodey grunted and nodded in reply and Maria kept her eyes on the road. Barton turned the radio station on and turned the tune up. A blasting R&B song echoed through the car, the basses resonating in loud 'boom, boom, boom'. It was nothing like the stuff Natasha listened –she was more into jazz and blues with some pop rock at times- but she realized she didn't mind much. Although she couldn't make out the lyrics, she surprised himself nodding to the beat at times and trying to catch the melody. The boys started to talk, something about the street and singing, but she didn't pay a great deal of attention, too busy staring out of the window.
She didn't recognize that part of downtown; the streets were halfway deserted -aside for a couple of people standing in front of opened doors taking a smoke. Given the blue neon at the entrance, Natasha assumed it must have been a nightclub or something. She was right. And that was their destination. Maria pulled over with a loud screech and braked harshly, nearly shoving all passengers in their fron seat –or in Clint's case, the windshield.
"Out of the car guys!" she barked. "I got a girl to drive back home."
Bruce and Rhodey complied without protest. Barton however, glanced at her through the review mirror and asked.
"By the way sweetheart, wanna come with us?"
"She's dressed like a fucking princess." Maria said with a snort before Natasha even think of a reply. "They are going to eat her raw down there."
Dressed like a princess was actually a nice pair of jeans she had paid over fifty bucks for and a brown jacket covering a white and red T-shirt. Nothing extremely smart and noticeable, but maybe a tidbit too nice for this place. Considering the clothes the others were wearing, Natasha corrected herself mentally, definitively too nice.
"Don' you have some change of clothes in your trunk?" Barton went on, ignoring her narrowing eyes. "I mean, I s'ppose you got your stage stuff stuck back there."
"My 'stage stuff' is home." Maria replied dryly, but something in her eyes told Natasha she was considering the option. "Anyway, that's still if the girl wants to crash the party."
The two turned towards the redhead. Natasha evaluated her options: go back home and fume on her own, or get herself involved into something that clearly wasn't her world? She slipped out of her jacket, grabbed the sleeves of her shirt and tore them. Then, she untied her hair and let it loose over her shoulders.
"That'll be good enough?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge.
"Trousers' still too much" Maria commented, but there weren't any sarcasm in her tone, just a stated evaluation. "What size are you? I might have something that'll fit you."
She dug up a leggings and a pair of short jeans that would do. The torn tee showed enough of her busty bosom and the bottoms clung to her curves nicely. But when she came out changing of the backseat of the car, Natasha actually felt comfortable. Although, if Bobbi caught her wearing that, she'd earn a three hours lecture on decency and how tops, bottoms and shoes were supposed to match. On the boys' end, Rhodey whistled in appreciation, Bruce's glasses fell lower on his nose as his eyebrows shot upwards and Barton checked her out shamelessly.
"With that outfit, Sif's gonna want to battle her if she's down tonight." Maria muttered. It was probably not meant for Natasha to hear, but she still did and it made her wonder what exactly she was getting into. "Now that we're right in time to show up fashionably late, what we're waiting for guys?"
The club was packed and filled with people dancing to the beat of a mix of techno and R&B. With Bruce, Rhodey and Barton melting in the crowd as soon as they arrived, Maria pulled her by the hands, cutting though the crowd to reach the bar. A few waiters were running behind, but as soon as they approached, a strawberry redhead waved at them.
"Pepper" Maria greeted with a nod.
"Hey" 'Pepper' greeted back with a tired smile. "I thought you were never going to make it. Tony has been bitching all night because his favorite reactor crashed and he wanted Bruce to take a look at it."
"Sorry 'bout that, we had to make a stop." Maria replied with a shrug. "A girl Clint knows was being bullied."
The bartender glanced at Natasha for the first time and raised an eyebrow. Natasha smiled shyly in return.
"Want something to drink?" Pepper offered.
"You should probably go on the dance floor for now" Maria cut in, nodding towards the crowd. "I have a feeling Clint's going to want to drown you with booze later. And it's not too crowded right now, so you better take advantage of that."
Natasha opened her mouth to protest, but the look the older woman shot her made her rethink her course of action. The rise of an eyebrow was enough to shoo her away and she mixed with the other dancers. She started moving, swinging her hips, shaking her shoulders on the beat of the music. She felt self-conscious at first, meddling with people she didn't know and dancing alone. Soon enough she realized no-one was paying particularly attention to her and only then managed to get loose. Her short heels held their ground on the floor as she moved smoothly; forgetting everything her teachers had taught her in ballet. No rules to follow, no expectations, just get loose and enjoy herself.
"Oh I think things are getting warm over here!" the DJ suddenly roared in his mike. The dancers shouted their agreement. "And did I see right? Did I see right? Yes I did! Battle's on!"
The crowd cheered enthusiastically as it parted into a circle in a far corner. All around her, dancers had stopped and were gathering in attempt to catch a glimpse of the 'battle'.
"C'mooooon guys I can't hear you! This is Loki and Hawkeye!" the DJ taunted.
Loki? Hawkeye? What was with these names? The crowd seemed to go wild though, acclaiming the two with shouts of encouragement. The DJ put a rather extremely loud R&B kind of song and started mixing with an impressive talent.
Curiosity won over and she made her way through the pack of people. What she saw made her drop her jaw. In the center of the improvised ring, a tall, dark-haired teenager was dancing with a surprising mixture of roughness and grace. He made an odd –but impressive- undulation of his body before throwing himself on the ground and executing gymnastic and hip-hop figures after figures. When he was done, he jumped back on his feet, crossed his arms and nodded with a smirk to someone standing ahead of him. Natasha twisted her neck to catch a glimpse of whoever was the guy's opponent and…stood speechless.
On the other side of the circle, Barton was making a nice demonstration of robot dancing, his body moving in odd angles effortlessly. He jumped forwards, landed on one hand, legs balancing back and forth, before landing on his feet in a perfect reversed leap. His arms waved first, followed by his entire body before he spun on himself thrice. Before she realized what she was doing, Natasha had started cheering with the others, jumping and moving to the rhythm of the music…