Winter's Widow

Chapter 5: Old Haunts

"We seem to keep running into each other." Natasha's voice echoed down the hallway, and I spun slowly in place, catching the redhead smiling at me. I'd been at Avengers Tower for a couple of days and the only thing I felt like I was excelling at was getting myself lost. I paused, allowing her to catch up, which she did with a small little jog. We fell into step together. "Where are we going?" She asked as I turned the corner to another hallway that I was certain that I had never seen before.

"Kitchen," I mumbled, embarrassed. She stopped walking and I looked over at her, eyebrows raised, arms folded across her chest – shit eating grin on her face. "What?' She jerked her head towards the opposite direction.

"Kitchen is that way," she said simply. I groaned, resisting the urge to slam my face into the wall out of embarrassment, feeling my face flush. Her green eyes glinted with amusement.

"I'm never going to get used to this," I grumbled as once more we fell into step together as she guided me back down the hallway towards the elevators. When we approached the kitchen, she gestured with a wide flourish of her hands.

"Here we are," she teased. I rolled my eyes.

"Thank you." Instead of leaving, however, Natasha walked into the kitchen behind me and made herself at home on one of the counter bar stools, watching me as I went towards the fridge. I pulled out the milk, which I immediately dropped, sending white, cold liquid spraying all over the floor and my feet. "Damn it!" I hissed. Instantly Natasha was on her feet, pushing me out of the way and reaching for a roll of paper towels. I felt bad that an Avenger was cleaning up after my mess. "You don't have to do that," I growled, crouching down and beginning to dab the floor with a paper towel like she was doing. She smiled.

"I'm always picking up after the boys, so if I pick up after the new girl it's not too much worse," she grinned.

"Are you always this nice to people?" I smirked. She didn't strike me as the type, really. She shrugged her shoulders.

"I dunno, are you always this clumsy?" I felt my face flushing again.

"Usually." I admitted. Her eyebrows raised questioningly.

"Sounds like a good time for the rest of us – to have a meta human that controls electricity in the tower who's a massive klutz." I glare at her.

"Watch it, Romanoff. I can zap you into next week." She tilted her head slightly, unable to keep the grin off her face.

"Okay, Sparky. Come down and train with me sometime, and we'll see about that." I laughed, projecting a confidence that I only wished was real.

"Anytime!"

"Assuming you can find the training room again, that is." She added. My confidence fell back down to ground level, and I felt the blush spreading across my cheeks. Again.

...

I followed Yelena silently as we made our way to the building's elevators. After the blip and the showdown with Thanos, there were rumors that they were going to make at least part of this building into a sort of museum/memorial, and I was curious to see if it was true. We stepped into the elevator and Yelena crossed her arms over her chest, staring at her own reflection in the door. "You used to live here?" She finally asked. I nodded.

"For a while, before we moved to the compound." She stared up at the ceiling as the elevator rose to the main living area. When the door slid open, the familiar smell that was impossible to describe assaulted my nose. Coffee. Sweat. Maybe a little bit of panic. The residual smell of alcohol from the multitude of parties that Tony threw here. I got lost in the memories for a moment, forgetting to exit the elevator and the door started closing again. Yelena stuck her boot in the doorway, holding it open.