Sorry this chapter is kind of short but I hope you like it anyways. It sort of picks up right where we left off the last time. Enjoy!
Tony watched with wide eyes as he watched the scene unfold in front of him on the tablet. He watched as Clint was sent flying backwards from the impact of the bullet and the tablet went clattering to the ground. Clint moaned out of discomfort as a pair of heels walking across the stone floor echoed throughout the vast room. It wasn't much longer until the video call was disconnected.
Both Pepper and Tony sat and stared at the tablet in shock over what they had just witnessed. Whoever Yelena Belova was, she was clearly more lethal than Tony had thought. If Clint was telling him to warn Natasha about her, she had some sort of connection with the red-headed agent and it definitely wasn't a good one.
After several minutes of staring at the tablet in shock, Tony stood up from his perch on his stool and walked to the other end of the room to grab his phone. He started scrolling through his contacts to find the people who were most needed in a situation such as this one.
"Tony, what are you doing?" Pepper asked quietly.
Tony focused on scrolling through his contacts before finding the first one he needed to call. He tapped the screen to call the number and then pressed the phone up against his ear.
"Calling the Avengers," Tony stated bluntly. "Romanoff can't handle this alone."
As soon as Natasha left her hotel, she couldn't bring herself to go back to the Catacombs of Callixtus. There was no way she could get back in there without being asked to pay for a tour and she certainly wasn't going to pay for another one when she'd already been there and got what she needed. Besides, she couldn't do much without any sort of information or maps on the catacombs. She couldn't go in there blind because that was a disaster waiting to happen.
So, to bide her time until Tony got back to her, Natasha wandered the streets of Rome. She couldn't stay in her hotel room because she was sure she was going to go stir crazy if she did. She knew she would sit on top of her bed and stare at the documents on her phone about Clint's mission, thinking she missed something. Keeping herself occupied is what she needed to do to keep herself from going crazy.
Every so often Natasha would peek into a couple shops and roam around to look for clothing for herself. Sometimes she would pick up a shirt or a dress and gaze at it before returning it to its rack, but she never bought a thing.
When she grew tired of shopping around, she walked down the street and occupied a small table outside of a quaint café. When the waitress came up to her and asked for her order, Natasha smiled back at her and ordered a cappuccino. It wasn't long before the waitress had returned to the table and delivered Natasha's cappuccino to her. The waitress asked if Natasha wanted anything else, and Natasha politely shook her head no and thanked the waitress for her cappuccino.
As Natasha quietly sipped on her cappuccino, she casually skimmed through the apps on her phone to find something to entertain herself and pass the time. Conveniently, Tony had loaded Angry Birds on the phone so Natasha tapped on the app and began to attack some pigs.
As the time wore on, Natasha found herself growing bored of the game and decided to put her phone away and people watch. It was interesting to see the different people that passed by the café as they enjoyed the sights and sounds of Rome. There were Rome high school students who were walking home from school for the day. There were American college students who were studying in the city for the summer. There were businessmen who were heading home to their families for the day.
It was a couple minutes later when Natasha spotted a man standing suspiciously across the street. He was a burly man whose trench coat was half unbuttoned and the belt was sloppily tied. His hair was frizzy and disheveled and he looked like he hadn't shaved in two weeks. Every so often, he would look up and down the street frantically, as if he were looking out for cops.
There was something about this man that Natasha found very suspicious. His body language was incredibly strange and he was just standing on the sidewalk with no purpose. Finishing off her cappuccino, Natasha placed a few Euros on the table to cover both her drink and a tip for the waitress before gathering her belongings and heading down the sidewalk to the nearest crosswalk.
Though Natasha was out of the man's line of vision, she never took her eyes off of him herself. Even as she waited for there to be no cars in the street so she could cross, she kept her gaze focused on the man in the trench coat. When the road was clear, Natasha cautiously crossed the street and walked up the opposite sidewalk towards the suspicious man.
Natasha was several feet away from the man in the trench coat when another man joined him. Natasha inconspicuously stopped to glance at a small fruit stand while still watching the two men out of the corner of her eye. From her peripheral vision, she could see the two men conversing privately with their heads bowed closely to one another. Clearly what they were talking about was private but there had to be something more to it.
Putting on an act, Natasha walked away from the fruit stand but kept her eyes trained on it. She walked with determination until her body purposely collided with the man in the black trench coat.
"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry," Natasha apologized fraudulently.
"It's, uh, q-quite alright, miss," the man in the black trench coat stuttered.
"I'm just so clumsy," Natasha said with a giggle.
"It's alright," the man in the black trench coat reiterated.
"We should get going," the second man stated firmly.
"Yes," the man in the black trench coat nodded before turning back to Natasha. "Have a lovely evening, signorina." He flashed a faint smile and Natasha reciprocated the gesture. Natasha stood her ground as she watched the two men's retreating backs as they walked down the sidewalk before disappearing around the corner.
When the men had disappeared, Natasha carefully slipped the wallet belonging to the man with the black trench coat out of her coat sleeve where she stowed it after she had pick-pocketed the man. She flipped it open and was met with a stoic identification card photo of the man. She pulled the ID card out of its pocket to get a closer look and search it for any other information.
When Natasha's eyes skimmed over the name, she froze before feeling a smile spread across her face. She brushed her thumb over the name and then the address before muttering to herself, "Gotcha Bosco."
Like I said, I'm sorry it's short, but I think you'll like what I have planned next. What do you think Natasha's going to do? What do you think Tony and the rest of the Avengers are going to do now that they know about Yelena?
Also, I mentioned in my last update about my The Town/Jem fic. The prologue has been posted and it's titled Born To Die. Check it out if you'd like. No pressure.
As always, thank you for adding this to your favorites, signing up for alerts, and reviewing. Reviews are very much appreciated and they motivate me to write so please leave me a lovely review to let me know what you think!
