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Natasha looked warily across the sparring mat at where Clint was in an easy fighter’s crouch, a shit-eating grin on his face.
“So,” he asked, mock casually, “where were you all night?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, which is when he attacked. He came in fast from the left, and, as she spun to avoid him, she gave a mental shrug. She’d never really believed he wouldn’t notice; for all his dumb jokes and carefully crafted facade of stupidity, Clint was a pretty decent operative.
Still, after she’d hooked her arm through his as he rushed by and used his own momentum to pull him into a brutal headlock, she hissed in his ear, “None of your business.”
His answering laugh was a little choked by the arm around his windpipe. She ignored it, trying to brace her feet correctly to steady the hold, but before she could he dropped like a stone, using his greater weight and a well placed thrust of one hip to send her flying across the mat.
Twisting quickly in midair, she managed to land on one knee, her other foot on the mat and ready to propel her into his next attack.
But he just stood there, still grinning as he caught his breath, then asked, “Really? Because I’m pretty sure you once told me that it was a spy’s business to know everyone else’s business. And, boy, Captain America sure did have an extra spring in his step when he went out for his morning run.”
Natasha launched herself at him before he could continue.
---
Two floors up, Steve stepped out of the elevator, invigorated from his run and whistling some song he couldn’t quite place.
He’d never get tired of being able to run. No stopping after a half dozen steps to cough and wheeze, no painful stitch in his side, no sharp ache in his joints, just the amazing feeling of moving fast and free.
His already good mood improved when he saw Bucky eating an orange and looking half asleep.
Clapping Bucky on the back, Steve said, “You’ll never guess what happened!”
“Yes, I would,” Bucky replied, not bothering to look up from his orange. “Even if the walls here were a match for super hearing, I’d still know from your dumb face. Besides, I recognize that tune. All This and Heaven Too? You struck it lucky with someone last night. I just can’t figure who.”
“Natasha!” Steve answered proudly.
Bucky did glance up at that. “Really? Wow she’s… Well, she’s something.”
“She really is,” Steve said, ignoring Bucky’s sarcasm.
“Well, cheers to you for having the balls to ask the world deadly woman out.”
“But I didn’t ask her out...”
---
“So, you just showed up at his door and told him you were going out. You didn’t even ask if he wanted to first?” Clint demanded from where he was pinned to the mat under her.
She only tightened her hold until he rolled his eyes and tapped out. Two rounds to her.
As they stood, she answered shortly, “Why would I ask him out? Questions are a waste of time when you already know the answer.”
She pretended she didn’t remember just how nervous she’d been as she knocked on the door to Steve’s rooms, flowers held too tightly in her sweaty hands.
“Uh-huh,” Clint said, his disbelief clear. “So where did you take him? Early bird special at Denny’s with all the other senior citizens?”
“He’s physically younger than you are, old man.”
“Ouch! No need to get mean. So, are you saying you took your young buck out clubbing then? Oh, wait! No, you took him to a strip club, right?”
She put all her judgement for Clint’s life choices into a glare.
He, unfortunately, had always been immune to that glare.”No, you’re right Nat. If you’d taken him to a strip club, they’d never have let him leave. He’d still be there, chained to the pole and shaking America’s Ass.”
“Try not to hurt yourself with that imagine Little Hawk.” The ‘before I hurt you for it’ she left unspoken but, she felt, understood.
“Could you blame me if I did?”
She tilted her head, admitting his point. “But no. I took him to dinner and to that M.C. Escher exhibit he’s been talking about.”
“You mean the one that doesn’t open until next weekend?”
---
“She broke you into the MoMA?” Bucky asked disbelievingly over the rim of his coffee mug.
“I don’t know if you could really call it breaking in,” Steve hedged. “It was shockingly easy.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think anywhere is particularly difficult to break into if you’re with the Black Widow.”
“Maybe not,” Steve admitted. “But it was still amazing though. I mean, not everything was up yet, but it was fascinating to see the space in progress and get an idea of how they set the exhibits up.”
“You know that if you asked, the museum would’ve loved to show you that anyway. They probably would’ve given you a guided tour with all the experts and everything.”
“They’d have given Captain America a tour, with cameras and reporters and made me have to answer everything in polite soundbites. No, it was way more fun to see the space with just Natasha. She listened while I talked about the pieces they did have up and when the guard made his rounds she pinned me in the corner and…”
“And?” Bucky demanded.
Steve smiled down into his own coffee. “A gentleman never kisses and tells.”
---
Nat’s high kick barely missed Clint’s face as he recoiled in disgust
“God, Nat! TMI! I don’t want to have to look him in the face over the dinner table knowing that.”
““What?” she asked innocently, even as she jabbed her foot back towards his head. “I only said his dick was-”
“Yeah! I heard you the first time. I wish to god I hadn’t too.”
Clint managed to catch her ankle on the next kick and she set herself to move into the pull so she could plant her other foot into his chest. Instead, he pushed hard and only a quick hop backwards kept her from landing on her ass.
To keep him off balance while she struggled to regain her own, she said, “And his stamina! Why when we made it back to the Tower we barely go into the elevator before he-”
“NO!” Clint shouted. “I use that elevator every day and I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW!”
“The stairs are better for you anyway, old man.”
She made a quick feint to the left, then drove her right shoulder towards his solar plexus. He turned just enough to take the blow on his own shoulder instead.
Pressed closely together, he glared down at her. “I hate you so much.”
She blew him a kiss and said, “Wait until I tell you about how when we got back to his room he-”
“URGH!” Clint said. breaking off to reach up and pull the hearing aids out of his ears.
When she raised her hands to start signing, he tackled her artlessly but ruthlessly.
When both of her shoulder blades were pinned firmly to the mat, Clint smirked down at her and asked, “So, when are you seeing him again?”
Glancing over at the digital readout on the wall, she replied, “Actually…”
---
Steve stood to put his coffee cup in the sink. “I need to get going, Buck. Got an important meeting to get to.”
“Yeah, right,” Buck snorted. “Is that what people are calling it these days?”
“I don’t have any idea what you mean,” Steve said, turning towards the elevator.
“Sure you don’t, punk.”
Bucky picked a banana out of the basket in the middle of the table and tossed it at Steve’s retreating head. “Here, you’re gonna need to keep your potassium levels up for your ‘meeting’.”
“Thanks,” Steve said, easily catching the banana. “I probably will.”
“Try to keep the noise down this time, Romeo.”
“No promises!”
“Assh-” Bucky started before he was cut off by the elevator doors closing.
Alone in the small space, Steve started whistling once more.