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It was supposed to be a bonding day, a little godmother/godson time out together, getting to know each other, and not incidentally giving the frazzled parents a day of peace. Nathaniel’s older siblings were with their respective godparents and Clint and Laura were locked away in a hotel room somewhere, probably napping if their state of exhaustion had been anything to go by, though Natasha hoped they’d recover enough to take advantage of the alone time, or at least the giant hot tub in their room.
Nathaniel, however, was not terribly inclined towards being quiet, or peaceable. He seemed to derive a great deal of enjoyment out of being as fussy as possible, especially since he seemed to have a sense of environment and knew they were in a restaurant.
“Apt that they named him after you,” Maria observed, as she dodged the spoonful of mushed peas that had just been flung across the table. She had chosen to let Natasha handle the attempt at feeding, though she had been very helpful earlier when a diaper change had gone awry, but for feedings she seemed to prefer to keep out of the way and let Natasha get covered in goop.
Natasha attempted to glare at her while continuing to coax the toddler to eat, “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh nothing,” Maria was clearly amused and teasing. “Just that if any of their children had to be high strung, fussy, and difficult to work with, it would be the one they named after you.”
Natasha gave up her attempts at getting the green goo into her godson’s mouth and sat back with a sigh, not even attempting to glare at Maria. “Maybe if we take him to the park. He can at least play in the--” She stopped, her body tensing, even though she didn’t move in any way that would give away that she’d just gone on alert.
Maria felt her body tensing in response and she carefully did not look around to see what had caught Natasha’s attention. Instead she reached for a napkin and leaned forward to clean up some of the food that was splattered everywhere and then, as casually as she could leaned over to grab the diaper bag and appeared to be trying to find something in it. While she did that, she risked looking out of the corner of her eye towards where Natasha had been looking when she tensed.
She understood in an instant and though her hands and voice were steady as she pulled the wipes from the diaper bag and handed them to Natasha, who began cleaning up Nathaniel and the area around him, she felt like she should be shaking.
“Nat,” she said as casually as she could, “take the baby and run, I’ll hold them off.”
“Are you crazy?” Natasha sounded insulted. “They’re after me. You should take the baby while I hold them off.”
“I’m glad we’re at least in agreement that the baby should leave, but I really don’t think now is--”
It was too late to keep arguing as the group of men who had just exited the kitchen began moving towards them with deliberate menace.
“Damn,” was all Maria got out as she and Natasha moved into motion, working in tandem to grab Nathaniel, the diaper bag, move towards the door, and fling enough items in their wake to slow the men down. They got to the door before the gunfire began to ring out and Maria blessed whoever there was to bless that they’d been having a late lunch and the restaurant was nearly empty.
“This is going to be fun to explain to Clint later,” Natasha quipped as they ran a short ways down the street then ducked into a side alley for cover while they restrategized and tried to reach the next street over. “Baby’s first gun fight. At least this way I won’t have as much argument about giving him a pair of matching glocks for his fifth birthday.”
“You wouldn’t?!” Maria was appalled enough by the idea that she was momentarily distracted from her most immediate panic.
“No, of course not!” Maria had reached the next street and put her arm out to stop Maria so they could both assess this street for danger before walking out onto it. Seeing nothing of immediate concern, they walked briskly out and joined the foot traffic, blending in, and keeping their heads down.
“I was thinking a pair of throwing daggers, with arm sheathes. You have to start early with that sort of thing if you want time to develop the hand-eye coordination.”
“Why did Clint want you to be godmother again?” Maria asked as they reached an intersection and stopped with the crowd to wait for the light to change.
“I think he thought it would be help me settle down. I’m not sure he thought about the influence I’d be on his children. Also, have you noticed how quiet he’s been?”
Maria hadn’t and she looked at Nathaniel in amazement. “He hasn’t fussed once since things started in the restaurant.”
“Yup,” Natasha was proud as she shifted his position in her arms. “He’s a born agent. He’ll do wonderfully once he’s had some more training.”
“That or he’s in shock.” Maria countered.
“No, he’s been alert and watching the whole time. He’s got the makings of greatness. They were right to name him after me.”
A few more blocks and they felt secure enough to hail a cab and head home, where Nathaniel was put down for his nap, the first time either of them had ever seen him go easily.
“It was all the excitement,” Natasha said sagely when Maria commented on it. “He’ll learn how to conserve his energy better as he gets older, but it was his first mission, so he has time to learn.”
Maria rolled her eyes but moved to straddle her on the couch enjoying the feel of Natasha’s hands coming up to caress her back.
“Or he’ll learn to burn off his extra adrenaline in other ways,” she murmured into Nat’s ear before shifting to kiss her neck.
They made the mutual decision later to leave any mention of the gunfire out of their report to the parents on how the day went, though they did have to file some interesting paperwork that week.
And Nathaniel did exhibit one new thing they hadn’t meant to teach him. He’d learned a new word: damn.
Natasha had just turned to look at Maria when Clint commented on his son’s new verbal knowledge and tutted, “this is why we don’t swear in front of the children, Maria,” knowing full well that Maria would get her back later for the comment, and that it would be worth it, which it was.