Unexpected Romance

Chapter 4

Valerie:
Once again, I'm woken by Natasha calling my name. I roll over so I'm facing away from her side of the bed that she's not on. I attempt to ignore her and go back to sleep for a while more but I can hear her footsteps making their way over to me.

"Oh hell no, you are not going back to sleep. Get your ass up Valerie," she says to me on her way over to stand directly in front of my face.

She stands with her arms crossed and leaning on one leg more than the other. As much as I try to ignore it, I can't fall back asleep with her standing right there.

"Okay, damn. Fine, I'm up," I grumble as I sit up and put my legs over the side of the bed where Nat is still standing.

"Um. Are you okay?" I look up to ask her.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you're still standing here. Not to mention you happen to be blocking my path..." I try to say in the nicest way I can.

"Oh am I?" She responds without moving an inch.

"Okay then."

I slowly stand up with the little space there is. As I get up, she nervously uncrosses her arms, places them at her sides, and stands evenly on both legs. She still hasn't moved in the slightest, so when I'm fully standing up, we're standing less than a foot away from each other and our faces are so close, I can feel her breathing.

We stand like that for a few moments, just staring at each other. Something in me doesn't let me walk away from her.

I manage to squeeze out a little, "Brea-" but my voice cracks just a little. "Breakfast?" I try again.

"Yeah, sounds good."

She takes a small step backward, giving me just enough room to get past her to the kitchen.

Natasha:
Val walks away from me to make breakfast in the kitchen. I'm still standing where we were, my heart pounding. I realize I've been holding my breath that whole time so I take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Breakfast is ready!" she calls to me from the other room.

I walk out of the bedroom to see her eating her food on the balcony. The full plate of food and cup of coffee on the counter that she made for me makes me smile. It takes me a second to gather my thoughts but I go sit with her on the balcony.

"It's really pretty out here," she says to me without even looking over at me.

"It really is," I agree with her then take a small sip of my coffee. I look over at her staring at the morning city. She's pretty when she's focused on something. I examine her for a bit. How her head is slightly tilted back, exposing her sharp jawline, her lips very slightly parted. How her gaze is so gentle, her eyebrows relaxed.

"What?" Her voice snaps me out of my stare.

"Hm? Oh, nothing," I awkwardly answer.

She gives me brief smile before getting up from her seat and walking back inside.

"I saw some cute shops yesterday when we went grocery shopping that I want to check out. What do you think?" I ask as I walk in after her.

"Sounds fun, I just have to change then we can go whenever. I'm assuming you're already dressed and everything?"

"Yes ma'am."

She disappears into our room for a while and comes back out wearing gray joggers and a tight white crop top. I can't lie anymore, she looks really good.

I inadvertently look her up and down before saying, "Okay! Let's go."

Valerie:
The shops that Nat wanted to go to are really nice. She brought me to an adorable little clothing store, if we weren't here for an Avengers mission, I totally would've bought something. We walk around it for only a few minutes because it's not all that big and leave to head to a few more. On our walk to the next shopping area, we have to walk down some sketchy streets and I get a weird feeling. The kind of feeling you get when you think someone's watching you.

"Nat." I tap her arm.

"What?"

"I don't feel good."

"What do you mean? Like you feel sick?"

"No. I don't feel good about this. I have a really bad feeling and it's only getting worse by the minute."

She attempts to shut down these ideas by saying, "It's getting late. You're probably just scared of the dark."

I take a quick glance around, making sure to check all sides of us when I notice a tall guy dressed in all dark clothes following us. The sick feeling immediately worsens.

"No, Natasha, I am not scared of the dark, thank you. I wish I was joking, and don't look, but there's a guy behind us. He's all in black and walking faster than we are."

She goes against what I just said and looks behind us at the guy I was talking about.

"Okay yeah, that's not normal. See that alley coming up? We're gonna go down there. Got it?"

Before I can say yes, we make it to the alley. Nat takes my hand and drags me around the corner. We're about halfway through when I turn around and see the same guy but now with an additional two men on either side of him following us. I know neither of us has weapons on us because I remember seeing all our weaponry back at the hotel before we left.

Before I can turn around, I see the man in the middle pull his arm over his shoulder then stretch it back out in front of him. I can feel Nat pulling on my arm but I can't move. The men disappear.

Natasha:
I tug on Valerie's arm but she won't budge.

"Come on, we have to-" I'm cut short when I turn around to see Val standing completely still, looking down.

"Nat..." She says in a weak voice.

I walk around to the front of her and see what she's staring at. She places both her hands on her stomach and her knees give out. The dagger is laying on the ground and her shirt quickly starts to absorb the blood. She falls into me and I catch her. I slowly bring her down to the ground with me. I sit her sideways on my lap, holding her for a few moments, trying to figure out what to do. I have to think fast.

"Okay Val. Okay, I have to lift you now. We need to get back to the hotel. Hang in there."

She closes her eyes, setting me in a panic.

"Hey now. Hey, stay with me. Please." I carefully pick her up and carry her bridal style back to the hotel. I do my best to hide the wound. We get a few looks but I ignore them.

Somehow I manage to unlock our room's door. I bust through, making sure to close the door behind me and bring her right to our bed. I lay her down and rush to grab the first aid kit. I put one hand on her stomach to attempt to slow the bleeding and use the other to unwrap the bandages. I fix her up the best I can. By the time we're all set, it's almost midnight. I'm not that tired so I sit in a chair in the corner of the room near the bed, I don't want to leave her alone. What if something happens and I'm not around to help? I read my book for a while before dosing off to sleep.