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After she dumps all of SHIELD’s files onto the internet, things change. SHIELD is technically gone, and along with it all of its rules and regulations, especially those about inter-office romances. She can be out with her relationship. They don’t have to hide anymore.
That one of them is officially, if not actually, dead makes things a little more complicated, but they’ve dealt with worse.
“You sure you have to leave?” Natasha asks, rolling over in the bed so she can watch Nick as he searches for his shirt. She remembers that it slid behind the chair in the corner, but she’s not going to tell him that.
“It’s for the best,” he says, just like she knew he would. He’s got his own agenda, running all over the world doing things he still won’t talk to her about, and it doesn’t include more than a night’s stay in New York. She knows she’s lucky to get that, but it doesn’t stop her from pushing.
She waits a few more minutes to say anything else, time enough for him to find his shirt and pull it on. “Steve’s in town for a few days,” she says. “He invited me to dinner tonight with a plus one.”
He pauses, eying her suspiciously, and she smiles back because she’s not trying to hide that she wants him to stay or that she wants them to go out as a real couple. He knows that, deep down, she’s just providing the reason for him to stay a little longer. She just has to wait for him to take it.
“Alright.”
She lets out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding and pulls back the sheet, inviting him to strip and come back to bed. “I’ll text Steve later,” she says, smiling when he crawls in next to her and leaves a soft kiss on her shoulder. “Let him know we’re coming.”