Alexandria sighed with annoyance as she pulled out the first aid kit and looked over to Natasha. While the two of them had made some progress in making their marriage work, for the past two weeks since their intial waking up hitched they'd made some progress in getting to know each other in the capacity of being friendly acquaintances, she couldn't help feeling like the redhead was keeping secrets from her. Granted she had no room to talk about keeping secrets, she had her own she wasn't sharing yet either with the redhead. Shakng the thoughts away she watched the other woman flow through the motions for what was one of the many martial forms she had learned from somewhere. "So when are you going to start teaching me that kind of stuff" she asked between hisses as she cleaned some of the cuts and scrapes with rubbing alcohol so they wouldn't get infected.
"I already am but someones been an inattentive raven or you haven't realized it quite yet these spars are to help condition your body" Natasha said looking over amused. Where had the thought to call Alex a bird come from? For a moment she pondered just that thought before seeming to come to a satisfying answer that the others mannerisms reminded her of a raven, eyes keen to observe everything within her field of vision but wary enough of everything to know how to approach everything without putting too much at risk. 'Except alcohol and our marriage that is' she thought shaking her head. Like Alex had been doing she made the conscious effort to get to know her wife but found that there was far too much she didn't understand. Too much in terms of trying to understand magical English culture anyway and it was often that more than half the time Alex didn't either so they had to defer to Sirius. God it was so..annoying having to go to a man for answers some times, especially when it gave said man an ego trip that it was comparable to the dunder head Tony Stark at the least. She could say honestly though that the grey eyed wizard, two weeks with the pair in the property owned by the Ancient and Noble House of Black- another thing she had been meaning to ask about but kept getting sidetracked- and she still was wrapping her mind around magic being real despite seeing it being done by the man, was a lot better than Tony in the ego department but much more childish it actually hurt sometimes.
Alexandria blushed slightly and looked away finding the words to have a strange affect on her. She had heard of couples having pet names for each other but she and Natasha weren't a couple, not really anyway. Yes they were by all legal means married and by that definition a couple but the feelings weren't there to have a base for what she idealized as a couple. Muttering something under her breath one eye cast back over to Natasha as she made a motion like she was intercepting an attacker who was rushing her and flipping them over her shoulder.
"What was that about comparing me to a spider?" Natasha asked freezing mid-motion. Sometimes she really hated what was done to her in the Red Room. While her intelligence being boosted to astronomical levels thanks to the biotech used on all Black Widow trainees she hated the side effect that it also enhanced her other senses too; it was as much a blessing as it was a curse sometimes.
"Well... If I'm a raven then you have to truly live up to what your colleagues call you. In the wild, from what I read anyway, black widow spiders are supposed to be as deadly as they are an entrancing sight. You aren't lacking for looks and if you're this fluid... What did you call this..." she motioned to the redhead who was making like assailants were coming at her.
"Shadow boxing or close enough to it. Boxers use it as a method to get a lot of their combos down to muscle memory" Natasha said supplying the answer before dropping to a chair nearby to Alexandria.
"Right, if you're this fluid and practiced shadow boxing I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of you in a real fighting situation" Alexandria said.
"You know Alex" Natasha leaned forward a little smirking mysteriously as she stole the towel off the table before wiping the sweat from her face "a girl might take that as flirting. Are you trying to flirt with me?" she asked with a coy tone. "Because last I checked my little raven, we were already married and you didn't have to try winning me over. You already got me." Seeing the raven haired girl go dark red and drop her head suddenly finding her lap so interesting made the redhead laugh softly. "Alex, you don't need to be embarrassed about saying something like that. Its rather sweet of you to think about me that way and sweeter to hear you say it out loud" she said moving her hand so that she raised the younger girls head to make their eyes meet.
Alexandria cursed within her mind finding her blush and shyness grow finding Natashas gaze making her squirm a little. From all she knew about relationships feelings took time to foster and truly develop but ever since they woke up and decided to make the effort to make the marriage work, not even counting their desire to live, she had caught herself sometimes taking second looks back at the redhead when her attention was elsewhere. The looks were almost perfectly innocent since it was mainly to observe the woman to whom she had bound her life to and found that aside from a few ticks and small minor flaws Natasha was seemingly perfect as far as she was concerned. Intelligent, beautiful physically and otherwise, smart-there was a difference in what entailed being smart and intelligent, that she could thank Luna for opening her eyes to that little detail-, sarcastically funny when she wanted to be and moments like this when she let down a fraction of her guard to show a softness- it all made her feel unworthy of such a person. It was all the conditioning from the Dursleys rearing its ugly head despite her near weekly visits to the mind healers to help her over the shit done to her. A part of her suspsected that Natasha knew there was a reason that her shyness at moments was not natural, why else would she be so gentle and understanding in her actions & words, and it made her appreciate it as much as.. The dominant part of her that surfaced during the ordeal of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, metaphorically speaking, beat her over the head with a stick before wrestling control. "Just being honest. Beautiful and dangerous, you do your title justice" she said.
Natasha nodded her head as hints of a smile, not her usual coy or playful smirk but an actual smile, pulled at her lips. "Just as you do it justice for me to call you a raven. After all, you have shown me you have a keen observing eye yet possessing the smarts to ere on the side of caution" she said tapping Alexandrias cheek lightly with a slender finger.
A dry laugh escaped her lips as emerald orbs closed. "Some of my so called friends would take issue with that" she said letting her cheek rest comfortably against the redheads hand. "You remember what I told you about Hogwarts right?"
"Your little magic school right?" Natasha asked screwing her nose up in thought for a moment
"Not so little considering the school is a massive castle but yes. Remember how I told you about the students are split up into four different houses? Theres a house called Ravenclaw whose mascot is a raven." One emerald eye opened to look at the redhead before continuing. "The others are Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin represented by a badger, lion & snake respectively. Without delving too deeply into ideology of each house Ravenclaw is a bunch of overachieving academics. Some of them are nice but a lot of them are snooty bitches and gits. Me on the other hand, I'm a Gryffindor. Almost everyone makes fun of us for being stupid and charging headfirst into a situation" she said thoughtfully.
Natasha didn't interrupt sensing that doing so was not a good idea. Whatever it was Alex was about to unload obviously had been a heavy weight on her for quite a while.
"And most times they would be right. Especially when it comes to everything I do while the academic year is around. To date every year has been one life or death struggle for me. First was the possessed teacher. Then it was the giant basilisk that nearly killed me. Third year I nearly had my soul sucked out by literal demons. This year I nearly died on three separate occasions in a tournament fit for ancient Rome style gladitorial blood games" Alexandria continued closing her eye once more. "I'm not the smartest girl out there nor will I ever be and I will never claim to be otherwise. Hell, I heard some of my so called friends call me dense as brick and sometimes thats true but.." Emerald eyes opened finding a finger pressed to her lips silencing her.
"Alex... Shut up for a minute" Natasha ordered in a soft but gentle tone. She had heard this type of talk before and she wouldn't have it from her raven. If she had been truly paying close attention to her thoughts she might've questioned why the words her raven resonanted so well and almost sparked a longing inside her soul but her attention was far too focused on Alexandria. "I don't know who has hurt you to make you believe for even one moment that your intelligence is something in question. So what if you aren't smart up to some pretensious bitches standard of being a damn know it all that lords some not known scrap of insignificant something or other over other people? Being brave, being strong enough to be willing to help others at the risk of your own self- thats a whole different kind of smart. Thats a smart you can't learn from any book no matter what anyone says."
For a moment as Natasha ripped the construct for Ravenclaw apart a mental image of Hermoine appeared in Alexandrias mind before that too was ripped asunder. Had she given the witch far too much leeway over the years? Had she openly and obviously displayed a weakness so stupidly for so long and badly that it had been played a factor into everything that went wrong at Hogwarts every year?
"Focus on me Alex." Natasha snapped her fingers to make the girls eyes refocus before continuing. "Being of the mindset that people matter, it makes you a lot like me- people smart. Its not a perfect intelligence or way of smarts by any means whatsoever but being people smart trumps book smarts like you're describing these Ravenclaw pin heads to sound like. Books can lie to you if the author is purposefully not printing the truth but if you're people smart and you can tell how a person is than you have a leg up to dealing with a situation when they're standing face-to-face with you" she said ignoring the door opening to the room they had been using.
Sirius noticed the way the two were leaned in close and pondered just what to do. He could break up the moment and tell them that lunch was ready like he had planned to but something about the way Alexandrias were glimmering while looking up at Natasha told him to leave the pair be. Slipping out he let his mind wander before he chuckled softly. "Those two don't need ministry rings to help the love along" he said to himself. Their actions toward each other, obvious and the stolen looks when the other wasn't looking, were chipping away at the divide itself and soon the charm itself would die out. "Then again the charm only helps along positive interaction to help spouses not already head over heels for each other to begin with find common ground to really find that love and get there on their own."(1)
"More importantly, it means you're survivor smart. Thats worth far more than any fact your could learn in a book. You've faced death half a dozen times by your own admission and you have come out on the other side alive. That is something to hold your head up high about. Something you should take no small measure of pride in Alex" Natasha said letting her hand drop.
Alexandrias lips pulled into a small shy smile at the praise being lavished onto her. She had pondered such thoughts once upon a time after the episode with the basilisk but she had let them slip by. Such thoughts of hubris didn't fit with her own mental image of herself, personable kind empathetic sure but letting praise get to her head? Never in a million years. "Maybe if you say it like that a little more often I'll start to believe it" she said quietly. "And if you're trying to make a girl fall in love, really fall in love I mean, you're succeeding Nat." She closed the gap between them and pressed a soft peck to the redheads lips for the briefest of moments before pulling back. "Just means I have to try a little harder doesn't it?" she asked with a soft twinkle shining in her eyes. "Now go wash up and change for lunch. I saw this place looked like the food was pretty good when we went out and bought all those books you said you needed. You may be gorgeous as all hell but a lady does not show herself sweating." She tried to hold a snooty tone but couldn't and broke into quiet laughter.
There was a look of shock registered on her face as she felt the briefest of contacts of Alexandrias lips. Even with the peck lasting barely a split second she could taste the sweetness of the lipgloss the had used that morning, her mind extracted something almost like the combination taste of apple and cinnamon. Natasha snorted at the last comment but found the quiet laughter enchanting. It was so light and breezy yet it held an innocence all its own despite the many hardships Alexandria had endured in her life so far. "Communist Russia would disagree with you. Man or woman, if you work for everything that is yours- be it skills in your job, hoby or whaever you do- then damn sentiment about the sweat on your brow. To paraphrase a man I once meant 'the government will tell you the sweat off your brow belongs to the government, the vatican and other religious equivalents will say it belongs to God but I say the sweat off my brow belongs me so I choose Rapture!' Of course Andrew was always a bit of a wack job dreaming about building a city under the ocean away from any continental government where his ideals would rain free" she said shrugging.
Alexandria nodded her head and stood from her chair to turn & leave the room when a hand lightly gripped her arm. Bright emerald eyes swept over and looked questioningly at Natasha.
"And just so you know, I wasn't trying before. Given how we've been feeling out each other I've let it lie to get the mundane facts down first" Natasha said tugging Alexandria over and onto her lap bringing an 'eep!' of surrpise from the raven haired girls lips as well as a cute shy blush. "But now, now all bets are off and I will be. Starting with this." Before the other could ask what 'this' would entail the redhead leaned in stealing a proper kiss off Alexandrias lips. There was moment of struggle before she felt the raven haired girl relax and surrender control of the kiss to her. After nearly a minute she broke the kiss, as sloppy as it was and mentally made a note to teach Alex how to kiss, looking down at the dazed girl with a tiny smirk. "That is a proper kiss I expect from now on" she teased resting her forehead against the younger girls who nodded still in her daze.
Alexandria almost pouted when Natasha shooed her off her lap. Morgana above she meant the peck, comment and question to be taken at innocent face value. Still, she wasn't complaining one bit and hell would freeze over before she did. If she got more kisses like that, more soft looks like she was the most important thing in the universe to the redhead and got to hear Natasha say such borderline loving things about her even if they were truths based off her history & what the redhead had experienced in her own life it was still a touching sentiment to hear. "You got ten minutes, don't keep me waiting" she said poking the older womans chest once.
"If most people saw this they'd be laughing and say this situation should be the other way around" Natasha said with a chuckle.
"Just because you're older than me.. Wait a second, I just realized in the last two weeks we've been talking I have never asked you how you old you are" Alexandria said smacking her palm to her forehead.
Natashas chuckle grew slightly louder at the statmemt and action. "I'd tell you but you wouldn't believe me. Now shoo, I have to shower unless you plan to join me" she said with a rather suggestive wink. When Alexandria hightailed it out with a squeak her chuckle went into full blown laughter. If she had been fully convinced there was no God before, now she was open to at least the idea there might actually be one. Two weeks of talking, joking around and getting to know Alexandria had found her little by little finding herself enamoured with the girl. Her smile, her quiet laugh, tbe way she would unconsciously play wither bangs when deep in thought and a millon other small things- all minor things that separately might be called cute but taken altogether with her quite humble and gentle but outgoing spirit made for a beautiful soul. At least sbe thought so as she traipsed back to her room. "Good thing The Avengers or S.H. .D. aren't around to hear me like this. I'd never hear the end of it" she said to herself after stripping down and climbing into a shower. "Especially not from Stark."
Down in the dining room Sirius looked up to see Alexandria plop down into a chair. "Hungry pup? Kreacher made your favorite" he said motioning to a plate of fresh pasta, home made sauce and garlic bread.
"Huh? I uh... Kinda made lunch plans for Natasha and myself dad. Sorry to make you do all this for nothing Kreacher" Alexandria said looking over to the house elf apologetically. While the elf didn't seem to like Sirius, nor did his mothers portait much to her confusion, the pair seemed to like her which seemed to baffle her as much as it did Sirius. Even moments like this where it was something small to her but was often to something major to other house elves, based solely off her Hogwarts memories, the older elf took it in stride. "Instead of letting it go to waste why don't you have it? I'm sure you could use a few minutes off your feet from helping us maintain the property while we're here."
Kreacher blinked his eyes before looking over to the young mistress of the House. "Young Mistress is too kind to Kreacher"he said slowly sliding his gaze over to Sirius. "Unlike Bastard Mutt Master."
"Kreacher..." Alexandria said sighing and adjusted her position in her chair so she faced the elf. "We've talked about this. I understand Grandmother Walburga was the one who taught you almost everything you know about how our society works but the times have changed and I am asking you again to try and adjust. Dad may have been what grandmother would see as a stain with their conflicting views but he does have the best interest at heart for the continuation for the proud House of Black."
Sirius was pleased at Alexandria coming to his defence. If anyone could get the elf to listen it would be her.
"Even if he can be a bit of a big puppy at times. Be sure to leave out the newspaper in case of an accident."
Except when said girl purposefully made fun of him, in good nature naturally, and winked conspiratorily at the elf making the aged creature cackle in laughter
"What happened? What did I miss that was so funny?"
Alexandrias eyes turned to towards Natasha voice and shivered at the sight. Even dressed casually in jeans that were easily accussable of being painted on, a snug but not too snug navy blue blouse, a half zipped up Guns N Roses hoody with the hood down and leather cowboy boots she was damn gorgeous. 'Should be illegal to look that good' she thought shaking her head. 'And why oh why should it be illegal when the subject of what should be illegal is yours? Why should it be illegal for our wife to be so damn attractive hmm?' another part of her mind fired back. Deciding that arguing with herself was not a smart move for the moment she focused her attention on the table where Natasha was shooting bemused looks at Sirius' obvious displeasure.
"Thats my girl, right little spitfire when she wants to be." Amused green eyes glowed looking over to Alexandria who smiled a tiny bit and looked to the side. Her shyness was cute for the moment but they wouls need to word on her confidence and soon. If they were to face the world together she needed to be able count on Alex being able to take care of herself in every capacity, her confindence being priority number one. "You said something about taking me on a date upstairs and I'm so lets go."
"I di-didn't say date exactly."
"No but it was implied. You didn't show being against kissing me either so two plus two must equal four here."
Sirius raised an eyebrow at how quickly Alexandria was out of the house pulling Natasha behind her. "Kissing her? They've only been talk..ing.. Oh..."
"Bastard Mutt Master is slow" Kreacher said contemptuously with a sniff before digging into the food so generously offered of the young heiress.
"Did you have to tell my dad that we kissed?" Alexandria asked with a pout and whine once they were away from the house. "Not that I'm regretting it, hell no I'm not regretting it by any measure, but you've seen my dad and how he is these last two weeks. Theres a reason that the dog jokes are made about him."
"You know, some women might take you whining like this as being embarrassed about being known about. Are you trying to tell me that you're embarraased about your dad finding out we're getting closer?" Natasha asked with a mock hurt expression.
"N-no I'm not I swear" Alexandria said in a rushed tone trying to placate the redhead. "Hes already seen us getting closer the last two weeks with all the time we spend together talking." She paused before deciding to be bold and wrapped her arms around one of Natashas & pressed close to her side. "I just want to be able to say that by either dumb luck I did something to sweep you off your feet or you did something to sweep me off mine before it came out. Hes like a bloodhound when it comes to secrets and peoples romantic lives. I mean after he adopted last year I remember this one night me and him were sitting around the fireplace back home. He was telling me stories about his time at Hogwarts when he, my parents and their friend Remus were in."
Natasha was far from sure where this little recollection was going but said nothing as she grasped Aelxandrias hand and squeezed it gently after interlacing their fingers. "Ok, quick interruption but if hes as much a bloodhound like that then he would learn about it either way before you wanted him too. Its better to just put out there now. Its not like you dropped to one knee and asked to see me naked. It was oonly kissing so whats the big deal?" she asked.
"The big deal is I'm a private person after all I've been through. When I want people to know something I let them know and those closest to me understand that. They could already suspect and be ninety nine percent sure they were right but they know to act surprised when I tell them." Alexandria pouted a little and glared at an older man looking at them in disgust. "Piss off bible thumper" she spat harshly at him shocking the man who scurried.
"I might make an American out of you yet" Natasha said with a soft chuckle at Alexandrias reaction to the man. Focusing back on the raven haired girl she pulled so that the pair of them were against a wall. "I'll ask next time, promise. I have the very opposite position that you do. Most of my life and thoughts are an open book. The things that aren't are really personal and when I'm ready to tell you about those things I promise I will, just like I know you're holding back things from me that you aren't ready to talk abou-"
Screams erupted from the crowd as the sound of gun fire filled the air. "Spread out and find the red haired bitch! Hydra high council wants her dead yesterday!"
Alexandrias eyes widened as she shrunk into Natasha. Who were they looking for? The crowd, as full as it was from the people running for their lives, was full of redheads, blondes and brunettes. "Does that happen to be one of them?" she asked pointing a shaky finger toward the armed men with what appeared to be an evil octopus imprinted on their body armor.
Natasha cursed under her breath. "Not quite but part of one. I uh... I hapen to be a superhero?" she said trying to herd Alexandria to safety.
"There she is! Kill her!"
Natasha cursed as she threw the younger girl out of the way and bullets rained down on their positio. The last thing she remembered before her world went dark was the feeling of bullets piercing back, hacking up blood and collapsing against the wall as she told Alexandria to run.
Around Alexandria the world stopped seeing the redhead collapse against the stonewall. Just like that the world around her became chaos. Stone fists shot up and crushed the men to death as she fell to her knees pulling Natashsa body close pleading with her to open her eyes as tears fell. The screams of the dying men didn't faze her as the magic of their rings linked surrounding the pair in a shell of dark red magic.
By the time Sirius found them minutess later, much faster than muggle authorities or American Aurors, got them back to the Black property both were unconscious. Natasha had seemingly lost blood and Alexandrias magic sensing the danger her wifes life was in kicked. Even with no visible wounds he could guess that there was a lot lof magic converted to healing magic to save Natashas life. Setting tbe pair in a bed with the air of a leviation charm he wasn't surprised to see Alex try to curl up as close to the redhead as possible and for said woman to wrap her arms around the girl like she was unconsciously trying to reassure the other she was ok. "Rest up and worry not. You two have proven my concerns to baseless. Just... Keep my pup safe and guard her heart" he said quietly before leaving the room and closed the door silently.
A/N: cut and print. Chapter done and before I get the inevitable "OH MY GURSH THAT IS NOT IN CHARACTER FOR BLACK WIDOWS PERSONALITY! GOSH YOU'RE DUMB!" I know but considering How canon Harry made friends so easily when he wasn't public enemy number one I can see Black Widow letting down some of her guards around Alexandria.
In regard to the ministry rings associated charm(1)- its like a love spell but not a love spell. The rings are created by the magic of those gdtting married before a ministry official carves tiny runes for a spell that measures the love between soon to be spouses. If they already are head over heels the charm burns out but if they aren't head over heels already it helps to promote the growth of love as naturally as possible while subtly feeding ideas to the mind to help find common ground to make the love grow between spouses quicker.