Chapter Text
2008
It was your first day at SHIELD when you met her and, to be honest, she terrified you. The organisation had approached you while you were at university, saying you showed potential, and you agreed because who would pass up the opportunity to be a spy? She, however, had been in training for this since childhood, since before you were even born. She signed up because she wasn’t even given a choice, she was too big a threat to leave loose.
And yet, the two of you were both here, in the same place, in the same standard training that all new recruits had to do. Every recruit steered well clear of her, including you. Her reputation preceded her, and anyone who had the poor luck to be her sparring partner ended up flat on their backs in 10 seconds tops, even the instructors. You knew she wouldn’t be in the recruits group for long; she was going to rise to the top of SHIELD at the earliest opportunity.
At two weeks in, you’d only spoken to her once, introducing yourself on the first day. You knew all the other recruits well, sleeping in the same room meant you’d bonded fairly quickly, and could joke around with them. Natasha, however, was still a mystery. Two people had tried to approach her and ask her to hang out with the group already; they both ended up with broken wrists and a silent shame. They were both pretty sleazy people in your opinion, something about them set you on edge, so you couldn’t blame her. But still, it didn’t exactly encourage you to extend her an invite.
Things changed in the third week though. You were the slowest to find a partner for sparring that day, which meant you were left with her. Just the two of you. For a whole day of fighting. It was worrying, and you knew even the instructors left her be, knowing she needed no training.
You smiled nervously at her, trying to muster a friendly ‘hi’, but even you could hear your voice shake.
“You don’t have to be friendly, I know you don’t want to train with me” Natasha muttered lowly, her Russian accent strong. Head bowed as she wrapped her hands.
“Well, yeah” you admitted, “I’ve only been doing this three weeks and you can take down the instructors. I’m expecting to hurt tonight”
“I’ll go easy on you” she shrugged, finally looking up to see your cocked head,
“Is that what you said to the others? Cos they all came back bruised”
She smirked, “No. They were very cocky about being able to beat me. I decided to take them down a notch”
You glanced around, “they thought they could beat you?”
“Yes”
“Wow, they really haven’t been paying attention”
With a chuckle she answered, while getting into a fighting position, “they have actually, some people, however, just think very highly of themselves”
You mimicked her stance, and she continued, “they’re always the same people who don’t like people who don’t fit in as well, so I’m really a double blow to them”
“Start!” the instructor called, and Natasha came towards you faster than you could even react, sweeping your legs and grabbing a shoulder, so you were flat on the ground in just a few seconds. It didn’t hurt though, she hadn’t let you fall, using her own strength to lower you gently before pinning you down.
“I’ll go easy on you” you repeated sarcastically, “that was your easy?”
She shrugged, helping you up to do it all over again. You continued the conversation she had just interrupted, “I mean, you don’t fit in, but that’s just because you should be higher up than a recruit, why would they take that out on you?”
“You’re pretty naïve, you know that?”
“I have been told”
“Most people aren’t fans of Russian spies who used to assassinate people in cold blood”
“When they’re training to be American spies who might have to kill some people though, surely they could put that aside”
“You say that now, but you’ve steered clear of me too”
“Yeah, cos you’re this badass spy who is definitely going to be SHIELD’s top agent in no time, and I’m some random person picked off the street three weeks ago… Plus you have a very intimidating glare.”
She was silent for a moment, staring at you, then “I’ll work on the glaring”
“Thank you” you muttered. Right before she sent you sprawling once again.
—————————————————
After that day the two of you became closer. You would actually volunteer to train with her, (‘because training with the best is the fastest way to learn’, her words), and you made efforts to include her in anything you were doing. You became fast friends, and, despite the fact that she did not work on her glare, you found her to be one of the kindest out of all the recruits.
As predicted, after your joint graduation she instantly rose to work alongside the likes of Clint Barton and the STRIKE teams; people even your mentors looked up to. If the SHIELD gossip was true, she was even the favourite of Director Fury.
Your progress was a lot slower since you actually had to learn and gain trust as you went, like a normal person. The first few months were filled with paperwork, having to do background research for the field agents and, rarely, getting to shadow higher-level agents to get mission experience. Natasha didn’t forget about you though, texting throughout the day and stopping in to chat in person whenever she had the time, and you still trained together where you could. She was already your best friend, and it didn’t take too long for that relationship to evolve, with her asking you out on a date roughly a year after you first met.
Dating Natasha was great, but it did have a tendency to make missions slightly awkward. You were, after all, still a rookie agent, so needed supervision to go on your first team mission. Whether she was assigned the role or if she volunteered, you would never know, but Natasha was the rookie supervisor for that mission. Which meant you had to follow her orders to a t, and hide the fact that your superior was also the person you were dating.
She came to your house the night after the mission, mocking you relentlessly over your ‘yes ma’ams’ while you scowled playfully. You didn’t mind being the lesser agent, you were just proud of how well she’d done, and how much more she opened up to you compared to the early days as recruits.
It was on a mission that the first person found out about your secret relationship. It was hardly surprising that it would come out eventually, given that you worked for a spy organisation, but the circumstances in which it happened were a surprise. For example, it wasn’t actually you who gave it away, it was Natasha. You were with the other agents, talking about random things that had happened in the last week to pass the time before the mission briefing was started. Natasha and Clint Barton, the ones who were supposed to give the mission briefing, were on the other side of the room joking around.
All of a sudden, a loud gasp from the archer drew the attention of everyone in the room. “…Uh, just go back to what you were all talking about” he waved off, “briefing will start in five minutes”. Natasha was staring at you the entire time, which, given she usually ignored you during these things, clued you in that something was up.
“Agent Y/L/N, can I talk to you for a minute?” she ordered curtly, waving you over to her and Hawkeye.
“Agent Romanoff, Agent Barton” you greeted,
“Yeah you don’t have to do that, he worked it out” Natasha sighed
“Told you I was actually a good agent” he boasted. Meanwhile, you were stood with the realisation that Agent Barton, one of the most well-respected agents in the organisation, was the one to know you and Natasha were dating. Of course, to Natasha, he was a good friend, teammate, and recruiter, but to anyone else, he was a role model. “See, I know that you two were in the same recruits cohort, and I watched your group so I know you were friends. But now whenever you have a mission together you both act as if you’ve never met before. So I thought maybe something had happened between the two of you, growing apart or an argument perhaps, but that would usually one of you would show resentment for the other, but you don’t. Which meant it was probably overcompensating to hide something.”
He then turned to you, grinning, “so I kept a closer eye on Nat, did you know she watches you when she thinks no one else is looking? And she blushes!”. You smirked too, biting your tongue as you watched your girlfriend react to being exposed.
“I didn’t, but that’s cute” you replied,
“It sure is, and don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your relationship. Anyway, we have to start the briefing so head back to your seat Y/N if you don’t want to look suspicious”
You nodded, doing as he said, just to be bombarded with questioning looks upon your return. “What was that about?” someone asked,
“I’m not allowed to talk about it” you muttered. SHIELD made the ‘it’s confidential’ card very easy to play, since most things were. Luckily, they couldn’t question you further, with Clint and Nat taking charge of the meeting.
—————————————————
It turned out that Clint wasn’t the only one to know. The week before Natasha was set to move in with you, you received a surprise visitor, coming home from work only to see the Director himself sitting in your living room.
“Director” you stuttered, turning back briefly to check your locks; it didn’t look like they’d been tampered with.
“Your locks are perfectly functional, good enough to keep most people out. But you should know I wouldn’t be stopped by something like that.”
He may run the organisation you worked at, but this was the first time you’d talked to him. There were about five chains of command between you and him, so that fact wasn’t particularly surprising. “What are you doing in my house?” you asked, because that part was more surprising.
“Just… checking things out. You know I’m particularly fond of Agent Romanoff?”, you gulped, then nodded. “And I make it my purpose to know things, including the fact that she’s moving in here, while you’re still here.”
“That’s correct”
“Which would lead me to believe that you two are dating?”
“Yes sir”
His eyes tracked over you, obviously sizing you up. “You have a good track record at SHIELD, don’t hurt Natasha,” he said simply, before standing up and walking out of the front door, leaving you speechless.
*Well, Fury knows about us now* you text Natasha
N: *Did you tell him?*
*No. He told me. While sitting in my living room. Which I did not let him into.*
N: *…we’re making it safer when I move-in*
Sure it didn’t seem great that your boss had broken into your house just to tell you that you were basically dating his daughter, but it did end up with some benefits. Firstly, that he knew who you were. Secondly, he soon put you on your first big spy mission, working with Natasha to infiltrate Stark Industries.