Several Nightcaps Later // WandaNat Bartender AU

7

This is it, Romanoff, Natasha thought to herself, steeling her nerves as she entered the hotel lobby. She had only been back to the bar once in the days since she kissed Wanda's cheek and left her in the lobby, though it seemed the bartender had a rare off night, as another bartender had served her.

Through the past few days, Natasha and Clint had made significant headway on the mark and the mission overall. The young man with blonde hair, though rising through the ranks quickly as an efficient and discreet drug runner, was inexperienced and sloppy. Natasha
and Clint could track him without batting an eye, though he was so slippery and quick that it was difficult to catch him in the act.

Given the progress in Natasha's mission, she felt a deadline with Wanda, and a lack of inhibition as well. The plan tonight was to ask Wanda out, formally, and see what came of it. Natasha would be gone in a few weeks anyway, so if she got rejected, so what? And if the bartender said yes, well, the spy deserved a few weeks of bliss.

A rueful smile on her face, Natasha rounded the corner to enter the lounge, when her heart stopped and she froze, her veins turning to ice water. At the bar was Wanda, green Henley clad arms crossed over her chest. Impossibly, astonishingly, in front of her stood Natasha's mark, scraggly platinum hair and all. Wanda was frowning deeply at the man, who seemed to be asking, no, begging for something. Every time Wanda attempted to open her mouth to speak, the man would just talk over her, hands clasped together, eyes pleading.

Without thinking, Natasha rushed up to the bar.

"Is this guy bothering you, Wanda?" Natasha asked in a commanding tone, stepping up to the pair.

The man jumped, startled. "No, no, I'm not-"

Relief flooded Wanda's features. "I think this is your signal to leave, Pietro. We've been over this, I'm not giving you any more."

The man, Pietro, shook his head with disgust, but took Wanda's suggestion, sauntering out of the bar and disappearing into the night. Wanda took a long breath, smoothing out her hair.

"You know him?" Natasha asked, eyes on the door as she sat down at her normal stool.

"Know him?" Wanda scoffed. "That's my brother."

Natasha froze again. Her mark, her main lead on the biggest operation SHIELD had directed in over a decade, was Wanda Maximoff's delinquent brother.

"Nat?" Wanda asked, habitually setting down a glass of whiskey for the redhead. "You good?"

"Yeah, I just..." she trailed off. "He looks familiar."

Natasha shook off her disbelief, reverting back into her usual calculated demeanor, relying on her training. This was a huge break in this operation. If Natasha could get some information out of Wanda...

"So... your brother, huh?" Natasha continued cooly with a sip of whiskey. "What'd he want?"

Visibly agitated, Wanda pursed her lips. "He.." she sighed, "it's a long story."

Natasha, feeling bold, placed a calming hand over of Wanda's furiously working ones. With a sly gaze and a low voice, the spy responded, "I've got all night, Maximoff."

At this point, Natasha wasn't sure if her attempts at flirtation were genuine or for the sake of the operation. It made her feel dirty, using Wanda like this, but her brother could be hurting innocents or spreading laced drugs, and if he was, Natasha had to bring him down. Either way, getting closer to the bartender would make a lot of things in Natasha's life easier, and the Black Widow would take life's gifts where she could find them.