"Jemma Simmons x Natasha Romanov"

"Nice," Natasha said, looking over her new SHIELD uniform. It wasn't as form-fitting as the last one; whatever material they'd come up with, it was breathable, moveable, but didn't cling like spandex, nor was the outfit designed to show off her… assets.

"I have a vested interest," Jemma said, tugging at the fabric an unnecessary amount, but Natasha permitted it, smiling.

"In what?" she asked.

"In keeping my beautiful soulmate covered up," the scientist replied, returning to stand in front of Natasha. "SHIELD is smaller now. No seducing targets anymore; it's all about going in and taking out the enemy. Besides. Lovely as your breasts are—"

"Thank you."

"They're mine to look at now. And your face is beautiful enough to catch anyone's attention." She cupped Natasha's cheeks gently. "I'm terribly lucky. And… I wish I could introduce you to my parents, but they…"

"Think you're dead."

"They probably don't, but it's too dangerous to let them know that I'm alive."

"I'm sorry, baby."

Jemma smiled sadly. "I wasn't sure I would ever find you. And instead… you found me."

"Only after I followed the bread crumbs left for me," Natasha admitted, playing with the ends of her soulmate's hair. "You're gorgeous and smart. I'm incredibly lucky, too."

"Most people would mention my intelligence first."

"Hey." Natasha brushed her lips over Jemma's. "Sometimes a girl wants to feel pretty more than she wants to feel clever."

"You're right," Jemma breathed.

"Speaking of breasts…"

"Y-yes?"

"Now that we know this fits me, why don't we remove it, and my lipstick, and then…"

"You want to bond with me? Really?"

"We could be separated any day," Natasha said, moving her lips to Jemma's jaw-line. "I need to know that I can find you again."

"And that I can find you."

"Oh, baby." Natasha nudged Jemma's head to tilt as she pressed small kisses down her neck. "If we led normal lives, or even just had the time, I'd take you on real dates for the proper length of time, then pledge to you, and then we could bond. But—"

"We could die at any moment," Jemma finished. "I know. Natasha." She hummed against Jemma's skin. "Shall I get the makeup remover while you undress?"

Natasha grumbled as she raised her head and met her soulmate's eyes. "I was hoping you could help me strip. Since you made these clothes yourself."

Jemma blushed.

"You know, I think she's lying," Steve said, going over the handwritten note the Black Widow had sent them after she disappeared with the essentials from her bedroom in Stark Tower. "Why wouldn't she tell us what she's doing?"

"Uh, because she's a spy?" Sam suggested.

"All she says is that she's met her soulmate, can be contacted during emergencies, and she'll let us know if she needs help, but that she's fighting HYDRA from another angle."

"Maybe she is?"

"No, no. If she'd really met her soulmate, she'd introduce us. What if… what if her soulmate is HYDRA, and Natasha's working from the inside under the guise of being on her soulmate's side?"

"It wouldn't be the first time someone's done that."

"Yeah, but it was used against us before," Steve muttered.

"So we have to hope that it's gonna be used in our favour this time. Now sit down, and stop going over that letter before the paper wears through and the ink fades."

"They sure don't make paper and ink the way they used to."

"No," Sam said. "Now they make both in pretty colours."

Steve collapsed into the armchair opposite his friend.

"It's been weeks," he said.

"Three weeks. That's not even a month."

"It's under one-seventeenth of a year."

"Steve."

"But weeks!"

"Have you ever met your soulmate before?"

"Well… no…"

"So you don't know how powerful the pull might be. Hell, we were lucky she left a note and didn't just drop off the radar."

"This must be why we're friends," Steve said, staring at the ceiling as the letter fell from his hand. "You keep things in perspective for me."

"Now if you don't mind, I've got a meeting to get to. You gonna stop obsessing and try to accept the truth?"

"…I guess."

Natasha pressed Jemma into the mattress. After living in the luxury of Stark Tower, she'd feared that it would be hard to get used to thin mattresses again, not to mention the low thread counts, but old habits die hard, and she'd adjusted rapidly. Despite the teasing from Phil.

"Oh!" Jemma squeaked as Natasha nipped the soft skin just above her navel.

"I'll make the wait worth it, Jemma, I promise," she said.

"I trust you."

Those words meant more to her than any gold, and she swore that their first time together – and subsequent times – would be better than anything else Jemma had ever felt. She cupped Jemma's breasts, carefully massaging the skin as she licked and kissed her way between them, across Jemma's collarbone, up to her jaw, and then captured her lips. Whenever they met, there was a tingle emanating from her soulmark. Without the makeup, it was even stronger. Natasha was private by nature and by choice, and wanted to keep her soulmark hidden the way Jemma was able to; but sometimes it was worth going bare just to see the way her soulmate's eyes darkened with a possessive gleam when she saw her words on Natasha's lips.

"M-more," Jemma mumbled when Natasha lifted her head away and smirked at her.

"In a minute, baby," she said, running a hand up Jemma's right thigh to the juncture where it met her hips, and then dipped between her legs. Jemma arched with a cracked gasp, her hands clutching Natasha's shoulders. "You like that?"

"Y-yes. Very much."

"Good. Can I taste?"

"Taste?" Jemma's eyes widened as Natasha raised her hand and sucked her slick fingers into her mouth. Jemma moaned at the sight, slumping back on the bed.

"Sweet, just like you," Natasha remarked.

"You… you just did that."

"Jemma… how much experience do you have?"

"With other people, or just myself? In either case, the answer is very little. I tried to experiment with boys, but it didn't really interest me. And sex seems so terribly unhygienic."

"Fitz mentioned something about a cat's liver?"

"Oh, that bloody cat. He'll never let it go!"

"The point is," Natasha said, looking over Jemma, "that sex is supposed to be beautiful and right between non-platonic soulmates. Assuming they want sex, that is. I've had to please men before, which hasn't been fun, and I've had sex for my own pleasure before, which was okay. But I know that it will be beautiful and right with you, because we're meant for each other. You were made for me, baby, and I won't let you down."

Jemma looked like she wanted to cry happy tears, and Natasha was content to let that happen. She crawled backwards and lowered her head between her soulmate's legs. Jemma whimpered as Natasha blew on her, the air in the room cool. She licked a stripe over Jemma's opening, prompting more sweet sounds and forcing her to hold the scientist's hips down.

"Oh please, Natasha!"

"I'll give you what you need. Just relax and enjoy. Or, if you can't relax, simply enjoy."

Jemma sounded like she was almost sobbing as Natasha licked and sucked and nibbled at her opening. A single finger slid in and probed, searching for the right spot until it was found. Jemma wound a leg around Natasha's lower back and she licked deeper, her nose occasionally bumping Jemma's clit as she kept up the pressure on that sensitive spot. There was a rush of liquid as Jemma came with a weak cry, her legs trembling either side of Natasha. She wiped her face, and dried her hand on the sheet. Then she crawled forward again and resumed stroking her soulmate's sides up to her breasts. Tearstains adorned Jemma's cheeks, and Natasha brushed a new tear away after it began to fall.

"Too much?" she asked. Jemma shook her head.

"Marvellous," she whispered. Then she pulled Natasha into a kiss, probably curious for a taste. Natasha grinded against her soulmate, pulling another musical moan from her.

"Let me know when you want to continue," she said.

"Can I… reciprocate?"

"Do you want to?"

"I want to make you happy."

"Giving oral isn't to everyone's taste."

"In a manner of speaking," Jemma replied. Natasha laughed.

"Yes," she said. "I'd like you to finger me while we bond, though."

"Don't I have to… while we…?"

"Sex isn't necessary to form a bond. It makes it stronger—"

"Which I want—"

"But we have hours in which to strengthen it through contact." She shrugged. "Sex is just the shortcut."

"A terribly pleasant shortcut."

Natasha narrowed her eyes. "If all I've got is 'marvellous' and 'terribly pleasant', clearly I need to step up my game."

"Wha—"

"If I do it right, especially while we bond, I expect to be able to leave you speechless."

Jemma swallowed, never breaking their eye contact. "What about you?"

"Making you happy will make me happy. I've been waiting your whole life for you; just the bonding itself will probably be more intense for me because of that. When you're born without a soulmark and have to wait, sometimes only a few years, sometimes much longer, it's… a magical experience. It means that someone has finally been sent out who'll be your perfect match." Jemma was still shedding the occasional tear, and she blinked rapidly. "I have terrible memories of most of my life, always having to cover my lips so that no one could exploit it, exploit this." Natasha gestured between them. "I will always worry about you, and I know you will worry about me."

"I will, I always will," Jemma said softly.

"But as long as we're both alive, we'll always have each other. And… just the fact that I received my soulmark while I was alive, and wasn't born with it? The process will be stronger. I'm only sorry that I've kissed so many other people when these lips are only for you."

"Please… can we bond now? I want to feel you come… come apart in my arms."

"Whatever you want, baby," she said, and she moved one of Jemma's hands between her legs. She rolled to the side, taking it with her, and guided her fingers inside. "Oh… that's it, Jemma. Just there. Slowly, now."

Of course, being a scientist and perfectionist made her soulmate a studious learner. They lay on their sides facing each other, Natasha keeping one foot on the bed so that her legs were cocked open. She moaned, thrusting her hips forward each time Jemma did something she found particularly enjoyable, until that ball of pleasure formed inside her and exploded. She shrieked, surprising both of them, and fell onto her back, panting for breath and damn glad she had such an intelligent woman in her bed.

"Wow," she said.

"I did well?"

"You… yeah. That was…" She was breathing heavily. "You're a natural, baby."

"Am I?" Jemma looked like the cat which had caught the cream. "Super."

"Let's bond now."

She pounced, and knelt above Jemma's hips. She propped herself up with her right hand, knowing her weight would be inclined that way, and trailed her left hand down.

"Not too sensitive?" she asked.

"No. I'm still tingling, but not as much."

"Good, although multiple orgasms are fun, so I've heard."

"I've heard that as well."

Natasha smiled down at her soulmate, and thrust her fingers inside the still-moist opening. Her smile turned sinful as Jemma's eyelashes fluttered. She felt less smug when two fingers entered her, and she nearly lost her balance. She locked her elbow in place, and then ducked her head down to suckle on Jemma's nipple. Their soulmarks met and grew warm. Both working towards making the other hit their climax first, Natasha and Jemma's arms flexed, and Jemma cried out as the bond formed, tearing through their bodies and intensifying the pleasure so much that both women came near simultaneously. Natasha felt herself clenching around what felt like three fingers, and continued to stroke Jemma's inner walls as they fluttered around her digits.

They stayed like that for a long time, Natasha silently thanking her excellent fighting stamina and arm muscles, because she held herself up without breaking. It was only when the lethargy of extreme satisfaction threatened to pull her under that she rolled to the side again and stared at the ceiling. She captured Jemma's left hand, which was dry, and they lay there with fingers entangled and heartbeats slowing to the same, safe rate.

"Well," Jemma said. "That was… a new experience."

"Get used to it, baby," Natasha said. "It's one we'll be repeating often."

"In which case we may need to find a way to muffle the sound. Not complete soundproofing, although I suppose we're safe together if we're… you know…"

"Sharing a room."

"Correct. Perhaps the walls are thick enough?"

"Do you want me to ask the others in the morning?"

"…Please do."

"And you're still talking. I really do need to step up my game."

It would detract from the Simanov (BlackJem?) if I returned to Steve's worries about Natasha's disappearance, so this is where I'm leaving it.

Wow. My first female/female smut scene. What did you think?

Please review!