'I don't have a home.'
Natasha flicked her lighter, the dim fire illuminating the dark and empty streets as she waited. She took a puff of her cigarette, looking to any normal person like a tired housewife who was taking a stroll to the store with her long black wig.
But the Black Widow was anything but a normal person.
'A home is a distraction.' Natasha thought to herself, face deprived of emotion as she lit the cigarette that was in her mouth.
'In my line of work, one can't afford distractions.'
She was undercover, disguised in a long black wig, a white pleated skirt, and black tank-top with a green overcoat. She'd been walking for twenty two minutes now, just to play it safe. Her target had been trailing her for the past few blocks now, and Natasha was ready to turn in the alley way so she and her target could have a little alone time, and the criminal man seemed to have the same idea because he was quickening his pace, hoping to take advantage of the woman in a dark corner.
Natasha nearly spit her cigarette out in shock when she felt someone throw a friendly arm around her shoulder, greeting her loudly with a name she didn't know.
"Lucy! Hey, where've ya been?"
A young, seemingly harmless woman threw her arm around Natasha's shoulder, acting as if the two were old friends. Natasha's eyebrows rose in confusion, turning her head so she could look at the girl who was currently holding her as if they'd been friends since childhood.
"I think you're mistaking me for someone else." Natasha said dryly, not breaking a sweat at the random events the universe threw at her.
"Why didn't you answer your phone? I've been waiting for you for the past twenty minutes!" The woman said, perhaps a little too loudly, before ducking her head down to Natasha's ear and whispering.
"Listen, there's a man behind you who's been following you down the block for a while now."
Natasha's eyebrows rose in curiosity, keeping silent about the fact that she knew the man was following her, and that was the whole point. The woman didn't give Natasha a chance to respond anyways, because she was already speaking in a quiet whisper.
"But don't be scared, okay? I'm right here, and I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Not if I can help it."
'I wouldn't even know what 'home' is, if I had one.'
"Alright, Lucy?" The woman said loudly, wanting to let the criminal know she wasn't afraid to raise her voice if he approached. Natasha remained silent, not sure how to assess the problem, because no one has ever tried to swoop in and save her before. And she definitely didn't need saving.
She needed to take down her target, but now there was a civilian in the mix.
Natasha's newly founded friend checked over her shoulder to see if they were still being followed. Judging by the way the stranger tightened her grip on Natasha's arm, the man was getting closer.
"What's your name?" Natasha asked in a casual tone.
"Darcy. But don't worry. There's two of us and one of him." She sounded determined, but Natasha didn't miss the shake in her voice. "And I've got my tazer."
"Darcy.." Natasha repeated, sounding the name out loud. She was scared, and yet this scared, brave woman threw herself right in the heat of things so she could protect someone else.
The Black Widow broke from Darcy's grip once the HYDRA supporting scum she'd been tailing finally reached the two women. The brunette let out a startled noise when she saw the woman confront the man who'd been following them.
Darcy dug into her bag with shaky hands, ready to use her tazer if need it be. It wasn't that she was scared, she's tazed a Norse God for crying out loud. The adrenaline is what caused her heart to pound, the anger that this slimy, disgusting, creepy man was trying to-
-..well, he wasn't trying to do anything anymore.
Darcy watched, jaw slacked open as the black haired woman abruptly flipped the man over her shoulder, slamming him into the pavement and knocking him unconscious.
"I uh.." Darcy's jaw was still on the floor as Natasha stepped on the unconscious man, digging her muddy black combat boots into his chest. "I,...uh?" Darcy was still stumbling over her words, unsure of what just happened. "Wow."
Natasha gave her a mysterious, knowing smirk before bring her wrist to her mouth, and speaking some orders into her fashionably cute watch.
"I want to thank you, Darcy. It's good to know that I have someone watching my back." Natasha said, her voice monotonous with a hint of affection.
Darcy watched, speechless as the woman bent down and literally picked him off the ground and heaved him over her shoulder as if he were a sack of potatoes.
She was gaping like a fish, searching for the right words. "Uh.. well.. you know? Us girls have to stick together, right?" She finished lamely.
Natasha let out a sudden laugh that nearly startled her, because she found that it was genuine.
"Yeah. I have heard that one before."
She's heard it tons of times when she was being trained, whether it was spoken sarcastically or manipulatively. Natasha realized this was the first time someone's spoken it without any mirth; us girls gotta stick together.
"Who are you?" Darcy asked, a little helpless now that she realized that she had been completely unneeded. She felt like an idiot for intervening.
Natasha raised her hand in the air, and Darcy's eyes widened once she realized there was a helicopter hovering right freaking above them. A ladder came tumbling down, and she adjusted the unconscious man on her shoulder as she stepped on it.
"Natasha." She answered in a simple voice. "Nice meeting you, Darcy. Don't make a habit of wandering the streets at night." Natasha couldn't help the sly, teasing smile that crossed her lips. "Its dangerous, you know."
Darcy nodded her head silently, but Natasha wasn't able to tell as she had already started climbing up the ladder, before the helicopter took off in the direction of where she'd just left, Avenger Tower.
The intern waited until the STARK helicopter was out of view before fishing into her bag and pulling out her phone. Her boss answered on the fifth ring, and Darcy impatiently spoke over Jane's groggy greeting.
"Darcy? Did you forget something again?"
"Okay, okay, Jane listen!" Darcy said excitedly. "I think I might of just met the Black Widow."
Darcy spent the rest of her five minute walk to the train on the phone with Jane, retelling how she humiliatingly tried to protect the most dangerous woman alive.
. . .
Steve sat alone in the cafeteria, picking at his plate as his gaze kept drifting towards the table where Thor sat with two women next to him. They were eating muffins and poptarts, and Thor threw his head back as he laughed at something the brunette with a pink beanie had said.
Thor looked like he was having the time of his life, his arm draped around the scientist Jane, while her intern sat next to her. The young woman seemed to be telling a story between bites of her muffins, waving her arms around animatedly.
He didn't realize he was staring, though he was aware of how he did it often. There was something about her that always caught Steve's eye, it was as if she were a candle in a room of darkness, brightening it with her charm and her endless energy.
He must of been staring longer than usual this time, because Natasha bumped the back of his chair with her hip as she bit into an apple, smirking down at him as she did so.
"Her name's Darcy. She's interesting. Maybe I'll introduce you to her."
Steve looked up to Natasha, startled that she'd figured out what he was thinking so quickly. "I-I didn't ask you to-"
"You didn't have to." She cut Steve off, smirking as she crunched into her apple, walking off before he could try and object.
Steve threw his empty tray away, leaving the cafeteria and deciding he'll join Clint in the gym today. He wasn't sure what Natasha had planned, but he was sure he wouldn't like it.
Unwanted meddling aside, Steve admitted to himself that it was nice to have a name.
Darcy.