Author's Note:
Hello! FF's still being a bit weird with viewing reviews, but that doesn't stop me from posting another chapter!
This chapter is a little short than the others, but it happens to be my favourite so far!
Natasha bent down and ruffled the soft thick fur on the large dog. "Hey, Rusty. Let's play some catch." She suggested. In all honesty, she had no idea what this dog's name was- he was supplied to them by S.H.I.E.L.D so they could go for 'walks' and be around parks without looking too weird.
Clint was beside her, eyes scanning the nearby playground in a seemingly casual way. "I thought we'd agreed on 'Sensei'." He inputted distractedly. The golden retriever nudged Clint's pant leg. "See? He likes it."
"Does it matter?" Natasha asked, eyeing up a certain family, dangling the toy in front of the dog's face and throwing it straight over to the feet of said family. They watched as the dog raced straight over to get the toy and ran straight into the man's legs in the process. "There's our opening."
Clint nodded once and jogged to the man, who was regaining his balance, apologizing profusely. "I am so sorry! Rusty-Sensei can be so clumsy sometimes!" He grabbed the dog's collar and attached it to the leash they'd brought. "Are you alright?" He asked as Natasha went to his side, making it appear as though she was slower than him- as most women usually were or at least expected to be. As stereotypical and unassuming as possible.
The man, Mr. Rothman, nodded. "Yeah, it's fine."
The son, Ryan, looked at the dog in amazement. "Can I pet him?"
Clint smiled kindly. "Sure, buddy. He's as friendly as he is dumb."
The woman, who was, according the files, Mrs. Rothman, said, "Ryan, honey, don't pet him backwards!" She corrected her son's hand movements and continued to supervise him. "Sorry about that- we don't have any pets." She explained to Clint and Natasha. She eyed them up for a minute. "Are you new around here? I don't think I've ever seen you before, and I know most of the townspeople."
Natasha nodded while Clint knelt down and began showing Ryan the cool tricks the dog had been trained to do. "We just moved in a few blocks south of here." She said, pointing in the direction of their home- it was walking distance from the park, which was proving to be handy.
The other woman smiled as she stood up. "Well, we happen to live just a few blocks away from you, then. Nice to meet you, new neighbours!" She extended a hand for Natasha to shake.
"I'm Natasha, and this is my husband, Clint." Natasha introduced with a smile as she placed a hand on Clint's arm.
"I'm Mary, this is my husband, Jesse, and our son, Ryan." Mary introduced, ruffling the boy's hair and making him giggle. She returned her gaze to Clint and Natasha, subtly looking around them. Her husband shook their hands before bending down with their son and stroking the dog too. "Do you have any kids?"
Clint shook his head. "Unfortunately not." He answered with a sad smile.
Natasha sent a scolding look his way, placing a hand on his arm less affectionately before turning back and smiling at the couple. "No, we don't have any children. Just Rusty." She replied with a soft smile sent at the dog.
The look of understanding on Mary's face was so genuine that even a stranger could see that she had had firsthand experience with what they briefly described. "Well, Rusty is very sweet." She said, not pushing the topic of children or asking why they didn't have any.
Clint smiled kindly. "And your son seems like a wonderful young man." He replied, directing it partially at the boy himself. Ryan rocked on his heels shyly, a big smile on his face.
Jesse stood back up. "We should head back home- Ryan has soccer practice soon."
"Of course." Clint said. "It was great meeting you."
Mary nudged Ryan until he said, "Nice to meetchu." Then she offered them both her hand to shake one more time. "We'll have to meet up again soon- it's been a long time since I've had a neighbour to hang out with." She said cheerily.
"Yes, that would be great! I don't really know anybody around here, apart from some neighbours who live opposite us- what were their names again, hun?" Natasha asked Clint.
"Oh, Joelle and Peter? Yeah, they were nice." Clint inputted, sticking his hands in his pockets as Rusty-Sensei obediently sat beside him on the grass.
"Alright, well, we'll see you around." Jesse said politely before they walked off.
Natasha waved. "Come on, Rusty, want to play?" She asked.
"It's Sensei." Clint corrected, humour in his voice.
Dinner that night would be a team effort, as Clint and Natasha had gone food shopping the day before and now had the ingredients for a proper home-cooked meal. They'd decided on a vegetable stew, and since so many vegetables needed to be cut and prepped before being added, they each set up their cutting boards on their own stretches of counter, their backs to each other. Clint was making his way through the potatoes and had just finished washing and peeling them. "Knife." He called over his shoulder, arranging them to be cut.
"Yep." She replied succinctly, deftly grabbing one of the larger knives from the block and throwing it back and over her head. Clint caught it easily, eyes never leaving the potatoes, and began to chop them. Slowly the pot began to fill with varied ingredients. Clint was slicing some onions when Natasha called, "Plate." Clint opened the cabinet by his head and grabbed a plate, tossing it to her like a frisbee.
"Comin' atcha." Natasha didn't have to look to catch the projectile, and she did so almost casually. She transferred the unusable remains of the vegetables onto the plate, then dumped them into the trash. "Trash." Clint said, tossing her a rotten potato he'd found at the bottom of the bag. She caught it, frowned at it, and threw it away before returning to her station.
A few minutes later, she held her hand out expectantly behind her. "Peeler." It landed in her hand moments later, and she proceeded to peel the carrots.
They both filled the pot with everything before turning around simultaneously, both mildly surprised at how close they were before stepping in opposite directions. Natasha turned on the stove seconds before Clint filled the pot with hot water. "Paris." Natasha stated.
Clint raised an eyebrow. "Paris?" He asked, beginning to fill the sink with soapy water.
"I'd like to go to Paris." Natasha expanded and then elaborated. "When I'm not there for a mission."
"Ah. I've always wanted to visit Madrid." Clint replied, scrubbing a cutting board. "We gonna be travelling?"
Natasha slid up onto the counter beside him, picking up a towel. "There's nothing better to do."
Clint again raised an eyebrow, snorting a little. "You mean besides gathering intel to help stop illegal adoption and subsequently stop a rash of kidnappings?"
"Exactly- apart from that, what are we doing?" Natasha asked before answering her own question. "Nothing. Or maybe after we leave here… or I could head out by myself."
"Now where's the fun in that?" Clint asked, humour in his voice. "Maybe we could go to Paris for our wedding anniversary."
Natasha laughed, shaking her head slightly in amusement. "Paris is the place for love."
"And for miles of catacombs full of skeletons. How awesome would it be if we explored those?" Clint said enthusiastically. "I wonder if it would be possible for us to get lost in there."
"That's very romantic, Clint." Natasha muttered sarcastically.
He laughed. "I'm a hopeless romantic."
"You wish. I've met dogs more romantic than you." She teased.
"Really? I bet I can make you wet," he winked suggestively at her. At her challenging look, an arm swept around her waist and pulled her into the sink.
Natasha instantly grabbed a knife, almost slitting his throat- and would have, too, if he hadn't jumped quick enough.
"Honey, let's not do this now- we can still make the marriage work!" Clint implored dramatically.
She smirked at him. "After we adopt a kid, I want a divorce." She replied teasingly as she placed the knife on the counter.
Clint smirked right back. "You can have that kid- I've already got two."
"How heartless." Natasha commented, jumping out of the sink and staring at him. "Next time you make me wet, I'll make sure you can't have any more children- like you said, you already have three." She smirked as she walked away.
Clint muttered several expletives under his breath, sidestepping around her as she passed with his hand discreetly guarding the threatened areas, gaze suspicious. After she was gone, he sighed in relief and returned to washing the dishes and mopping up the huge mess they'd made.
Natasha opened her laptop, staring at the time intently, ready for the prearranged mission update with Coulson. Three seconds, two… one… Ring, ring. Right on time- Coulson always was. She clicked 'answer' on the video call and greeted him with a nod. "Coulson." She acknowledged.
"Ah, yes, Romanoff. How are things going?" He asked professionally.
"We made contact with the target twenty hours ago." Natasha answered shortly, keeping to his questions. She knew that it was sometimes more helpful for her to give a long-winded minute-by-minute report about the mission, but she had been known to go into too much detail when trying that. Therefore, short and to-the-point answers suited both her and Coulson- especially if she didn't follow the book.
Coulson nodded. "And it went well, I presume? No suspicions have been raised?" He leaned back in his large leather chair, folding his hands on his stomach.
"It went according to plan." Natasha answered. "What is our deadline to get the information out of the targets?"
"No deadline, per se." Coulson replied. "Take your time to get to know the targets, to become comfortable. We want the adoption discussion to come naturally and avoid hinting at your true motives."
Natasha blinked. Natural? How does one naturally bring up adoption? "What time frame are we talking about, Sir?"
Coulson sighed. "This is classified as a long-term mission. Maximum time allotted is one year from the first briefing, since everything is monitored and we can't burn this lead. Of course, we don't expect it to take that long."
She gave a confirming tilt of the head. "Understood."
"Good. Now get back out there." Coulson instructed, though a small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. "Give your husband my regards."
Natasha chuckled. "Will do, Grandpa!" She teased, enjoying the surprise on his face before she ended the call.
Thank you for reading!
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