Maria Hill had a rule about dating her co-workers. She had a rule about nearly everything, a long list of guidelines to make life as easy and stress free, or as much as possible in her line of work. More importantly her rules were a line in the sand, Maria assessing what was right and wrong for every situation there wasn't any official rules.
In SHIELD there wasn't an official rule forbidding 'in house' dating, although it would probably make things easier for some people if there were. But Maria Hill wasn't some people. She wasn't some wet behind the ears recruit anymore, no, she had risen up the ranks to Assistant Director, a.k.a. second-in-command, and would sooner or later have her boss's job given the way he did things. So she couldn't afford to mess that up with a relationship now, something Maria found constantly reminding herself whenever Natasha Romanoff was around.
At first it had been easy as Maria's interaction with the former Russian agent was limited. She was certainly guilty of giving the redheaded bombshell a second look, but given some of her co-workers were literally drooling Maria was fairly confident her second look went unnoticed, even if it did linger a bit. Then all of a sudden Nick Fury, in his infinite wisdom, signed her up to mentor The Black Widow and get her ready for something called the Avenger's Initiative. Maria hadn't liked the sound of that, but she wasn't one to turn down an assignment lightly, and if someone below her on the pecking order complained about something so trivial as having a crush on a co-worker she would have been furious.
Of course back then it hadn't been a crush, just a passing attraction. It became a crush after spending an hour with the beautiful redhead. Or more accurately Maria was crushing on Natasha within ten minutes of their first sparring session. Maybe five.
It was impossible not to, Maria told herself over and over. Natasha was just so... charming? Perhaps that wasn't the right word, the redhead wasn't talkative, even when being questioned, but there was just something about her. The way she said and did things. And while Maria never fully felt comfortable with her, never fully trusted her, it was impossible not to like her. Or maybe Maria was trying to make excuses for the giant metaphorical boner she had for the voluptuous seductress.
"Something on your mind?" Natasha asked, her tone unreadable.
Maria looked over Natasha, forcing herself to look the lower ranking Shield agent in the eye. Maintaining eye contact with Natasha should really be on Maria's resume as she was the only one she knew who could do it without looking down at the redheaded spy's large rack. She'd even seen Fury's eye lower at least once, briefly. Of course Maria deserved a fucking medal for not looking down when they were both naked in a shower together.
"Nothing." Maria said dismissively, cursing herself for obviously waiting too long to respond, thus making it obvious it wasn't nothing.
For a brief moment Maria thought she got away with it as Natasha raised an eyebrow but seemed to return her attention to washing her goddess like physique, Maria feeling so relieved she almost forgot to keep her eyes from lowering. Almost. Luckily she was able to keep her composure and concentrate on finishing up and getting out of here.
She swore only took her eye off Natasha for a second. Maybe two. Either way it was apparently enough.
"You seem very tense." Natasha whispered in the other woman's ear, causing Maria to freeze. No one had ever got the drop on her like that before, and in her moment of shock she could practically feel The Black Widow smirking against her ear before she added, "Would you like some assistance with that?"
