They started slowly.

First, she carried a third coffee cup in the morning labeled "Maria" along side the one for him and herself. Stolen glances and winks across the room. When she started to feel just a touch more brave, under the table hand-holding at meetings. After a couple weeks, she took Maria's hand above the table for the first time. He saw Tony's mouth quirk, the glance exchanged with Steve. But she just met their gazes evenly until they smiled, shrugged, and returned to work. He saw Maria pulse their hands together, their own silent communication, and she lit up with a brilliant smile. Later, they started showing up to work together, just as she and he had, using each other's lingo. Maria transformed her tiny apartment into something pleasant and welcoming (much to her outward display when she showed him around, he knew she felt like home in that place once again). They threw house parties, went to others with matching color palettes, claimed to have gotten a dog (no one believed that the Black Widow was even capable of caring for such a creature. He just thought it could use a haircut). Sometimes, they even kissed at work, much to Tony's childish delight.

But above all, they were in love.

Everyone could see it.

And they laughed, and laughed and laughed.