"...and how is the economy in Wakanda faring?" Natasha asked on one of her daily calls with Okoye.
"Better but people are still reeling from the sudden leadership problems. The rebels are still spring up but what's left of my Dora are handling that. And in the states?"
"Few minor problems that Rhodey can handle. Nothing major. Danvers and Rocket are handling intergalactic stuff well. Danvers hasn't called for help or anything."
"When has she ever?"
They both laugh and suddenly they both hear the doorbell ring. She looks through the camera and sees Jamie standing outside with a bag of groceries in his hands. He waves at the camera and she smiles slightly.
She turns back towards Okoye, "Um...well ok, keep me posted. I gotta go."
Okoye's eyebrows shoot up, "Where?"
She shakes her head, "I have a thing. I will talk to you tomorrow. Bye."
She quickly ends her call and rushes towards the door. She opens it to find Jamie smiling.
"How was your week?" he asks as he steps across the threshold.
"The same. You?"
He shrugs, "I spent most of the week trying to figure out what I was going to cook tonight."
"Really?"
He laughs, "No but I did spend some time. I had to prep earlier."
"You had to prepare earlier? What could we possibly be eating?"
"Drumroll please."
She stared at him like he was crazy and he stared right back.
"I'm not telling you until I get a drumroll."
She rolled her eyes and lightly tapping her fingers on the counter.
"Thank you. We are having homemade deep dish pizza Chicago style. Fun fact, I grew up there."
"I've never had the pizza there but I've been a few times."
He stopped and looked at her, "How?"
She shrugged, "I was working. Didn't have time."
"Well luckily I'm here to broaden your horizons."
"Luckily."
Natasha watched as he began to construct the pizza. It looked like he had done it many times before.
"So," Jamie started to break their comfortable silence, "where are you from?"
"Russia."
"Do you have a favorite food from Russia that isn't cereal?"
She laughs, "Does Vodka count?"
He laughs, "Nope."
She sighs, "Then Blini."
He shakes his head, "Who knew that the Black Widow had a sweet tooth?"
"Not very many. Clint loves to tease me for it," she said without realizing what she was saying.
"Clint?"
"Yeah. A friend. Did any of your friends survive?"
He pours the tomatoes on top of the dough that already had the cheese and butter on it.
"I didn't have that many and out of the ones I did have most disappeared. I have a few that survived but they don't live near here."
She nods, "What about your family?"
He hesitates before he answers, "Didn't know my parents beforehand and my wife had died the year before."
"You were married?"
He nods, "She gave me a little boy. He survived. He's almost three now."
She looks at him surprised, "I've never seen you with a son."
"He stays with a babysitter most of the time I'm at work."
"You never mentioned him."
He shrugs as he slides the pizza in the oven and grabs two wine glasses and sits next to her.
"It just felt like the time to be honest."
She hesitates and he elaborates, "You don't have to tell me everything about you and frankly I don't need to know but before you continue I enjoy being friends and I don't lie to my friends. I also want to tell you that before I worked with SHIELD occasionally."
"How come I've never seen you?"
"I only consulted on special cases. That's actually where Steve and I first met."
"That makes a lot more sense. So you know stuff about me?"
He shakes his head, "Honestly no. I like to form my own opinions of people and let them choose what they tell me. Is that okay with you?"
She nods.
He smiles, "Good. Now that everything is in the air let's start again. Hi, I'm Dr. Jamie Wilde. A father who use too do some consulting work for government agencies."
She shakes his hand, "Natasha Romanoff. An assassin that worked for SHIELD and is currently an Avengers. It's nice to meet you Wilde."
"I prefer being called by my first name."
They both laugh.
She sips her wine and asks, "What's your son's name?"
"Cameron."
"That's a good name."
"I thought so. He seems to like it. Did you have any family?"
She pauses. The technical answer to that question was no but she also considered her teammates to be her family. Plus the Barton kids were her nieces and nephews.
"The Avengers are my family.I had a few nephews and a niece disappear."
He smiled sadly, "I'm sorry for your lost."
"Thanks."
They both take a moment in silence before Natasha decides to continue the conversation, "So how did you in Steve meet exactly?"
The rest of the evening the two of them spent talking and enjoying each others company. Natasha hadn't felt this comfortable in anyone's presence in a long time.
After finishing the pizza the two sat on the couch drinking their wine in a comfortable silence.
Jamie glanced at the dishes he left, "Sorry for leaving you with such a mess."
She shakes her head, "Don't be. You cooked. I'll clean."
"Do you want some help?"
She nods and they head over to the kitchen.
He points to her, "You dry, I'll wash?"
She nods and they began to clean. Jamie watched her move. She was gorgeous and smooth. She caught his eye.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just…"
Jamie splashed her with water.
Natasha jumped back in surprise.
"Did you just splash me?"
He shrugged and a mischievous grin spread across his face, "Maybe."
"Did," she said as she started to close the distance between them. She was inches from his face and she could hear his breathing
"...you just splash..." the distance between their lips was closing and she could see Jamie was fully concentrated on her.
"...me?" she finished as she took the spray hose from the sink and sprayed him.
"Aggh!" Jamie screamed and she burst out laughing.
He shakes the water out of his eyes and she could see the goofiness in them. He grabs the hose and tries to spray her back. She quickly ducks and starts to run out of the kitchen into the rest of the compound.
She can hear Jamie running after her and surprisingly keeping up. She had just managed to escape into the back fields when she didn't hear him behind her. Her senses kicked into overdrive as she cautiously looked around her. The grass was pretty long since she hadn't thought to cut it in a while.
She was just about to let her guard down when she heard Jamie coming from behind her. If he had really wanted to sneak up on her he would have come in from the side. She knew she could escape but she also wanted him to catch her.
She felt his arms wrap around her torso.
She felt him smirk, "I did splash water on you and I caught you."
"I let you. You can't surprise me."
"Oh really? Friday now."
Suddenly there were sprinklers going everywhere. They were both being completely soaked and surprisingly neither one cared. Jamie twirled Natasha around so he was now facing her.
He smiled and leaned down towards her, "Surprise."
He closed the gap and kissed her softly on the lips. Natasha had been kissed at least a million times. On jobs and a few boyfriends sprinkled sporadically over her life. But this kiss was different. There was something special about it. Maybe it was because they were too lost and broken people who were looking for company. Who knows but all she knew was that she had never been kissed like this.
They pulled apart and he whispered, "It think I've successfully surprised you twice."
She shrugged, "Maybe. Or maybe this was my plan all along?"
"Really?" he asked as they began walking back towards the house.
"I'll never tell."
When Jamie walked back into the room Natasha was surprised how good he looked in one of Steve's old shirts.
He was grinning as he walked back in, "I totally feel like Captain America."
She rolled her eyes, "Don't let it go to our head."
"One hundred percent too late," he said as he completely entered the room.
Natasha cleared her throat nervously, "If you want, we could watch a movie while your clothes dry?" She hadn't really asked a guy to continue their date before. At least not a guy she really liked.
He smiled, "Sure. Just let me text the babysitter that she'll be staying the night since I won't be back until later."
They wandered into the living room and Natasha asked, "What types of movies do you like to watch?"
"Pretty much anything."
"Anything?" she asked again as she felt the beginnings of a smirk tug on her lips.
He nodded, "Anything."
"Ok," she said as she took the remote and scrolled through the movies to find the one she was looking for. Awhile ago, before the fight between Tony and Steve, Tony had insisted on team bonding which included movie night. One of the movies Clint forced them to watch was Frozen because he had the songs stuck in his head from hearing Lila sing them. She selected that movie now and watched Jamie's reaction.
"Did not peg you for the Frozen type but I'm down for it."
The smile on her face grew wider as she hit place. She burst out laughing when she heard him humming the opening chorus.
"Hey, I had to watch my friends kids a lot and they loved this movie. I think it's much more enjoyable when kids aren't around."
"I agree."
About half way through the movie Natasha fell asleep. Jamie didn't notice at first but then she started to move around. He glanced over and realized she was having a nightmare. He quickly paused the movie and tried to gently shake her awake. That somehow only made things worse.
"Friday! Can you somehow wake up Nat?"
"Yes. Stand by."
Jamie's ears were filled with a loud sound and Natasha quickly shot up. Friday shut the alarm off.
It took Natasha a moment to get her bearings before she realized where she was. She blushed and looked down.
"Get out," she said as she left the living room and presumably went to her room.
Jamie was left alone.
*This is not how Jamie and Nat's story ends. Reviews are appreciated