The Curious Encounter in East Meadow - Blackhill

Chapter 7 - The Living Room

"Hey Robin, don't forget it's movie night tonight." Natasha heard Marshall say as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Marshall, Lily and Robin were having breakfast at the booth in the kitchen. Natasha was only stopping by for her morning coffee.

Sensing this might be entertaining, Natasha leaned against the kitchen counter, facing the breakfast party. She sipped on her coffee while waiting for drama to unfold at a relatively safe distance.

"Ugh... Do I have to?" Robin pulled a face and groaned into her plate of pancakes. Natasha snickered. Robin was only so dramatic whenever Lily and Marshall were around. When they were alone, she was always more quiet and reserved. Natasha wondered why.

"Yes, you do. This is going to be the new tradition here in our Long Island home." Marshall nodded along, agreeing with Lily's order.

"Then let it be your new couple's tradition. I don't want to be a third wheel." Robin was subtly taking her frustration out on the pancakes, attacking them forcefully with her fork and knife. Natasha took another sip of her coffee as she appreciated the view of Robin shoving chocolate chip pancakes into her mouth.

"But Robin! You're our family too! Do you not see us as family anymore now that we've moved to the suburbs?" Lily wailed. It seemed like she had entered the sensitive emotional phase of her pregnancy.

"Oh, baby, it's fine, I'm sure Robin still loves us." Marshall tried calming his wife. "Robin! How could you make a pregnant woman cry!" He whispered angrily at Robin.

"No, Lily no, you know how much I love you guys. I just... already have other plans for tonight." Robin tried another tactic. She may have been able to fool Lily, but she couldn't fool Natasha.

"Oh! Are you going out with Natalie and her dancer friends again?" Marshall asked innocently, learning from his wife earlier that his two house guests had been hanging out quite a bit recently.

Robin stole a quick glance at Natasha, just for a second, hardly noticeable. No, the two of them didn't have any plans for this evening. In fact, they hadn't spoken to each other for over a week, since that day in the closet.

Natasha tried to pretend the whole thing didn't bother her. When she'd left the closet that day, her head was still dizzy from the kiss. It scared her a little. Robin was just one of her pastimes here in Long Island. There shouldn't be feelings involved. Robin was not special. Natasha went back to the party and flirted with every single guy there. Steve, Nick, Barney... she even tried flirting with Yelena a little, which earned her some gagging noises. And then it turned into their usual bickering match instead. It was good. This was who she was, the biggest flirt in Long Island. All this was just fun and games.

Natasha was hoping things would just go back to normal with Robin. But Robin was clearly avoiding her. Sometimes when she was in the common areas of the house, Natasha could sense Robin staring at her. But as soon as she looked up to meet her gaze, Robin would pretend she had somewhere else to be, or that she had some urgent thing she had to work on. She didn't even get the chance to talk to Robin anymore.

"No actually, my evening is wide open." Natasha chimed in. Marshall jumped slightly, only just realizing that Natasha was in the kitchen with them.

Natasha walked over to the booth. Robin looked at her with an agitated frown on her face. Natasha looked right back with a perfectly innocent expression. "A movie sounds nice, you mind if I join?"

Marshall's eyes widened, he hadn't fully gotten over his fear of Natasha. "Uh... sure Miss Natalie. The more the merrier." He didn't sound genuine at all. "And uh... how about you Robin?" He asked, eyes pleading, looking even more desperate now for Robin to join. Watching a movie with just the two of them and Natalie was going to be extremely awkward.