To Go Unseen (A Natasha Romanoff Story)

27 [hotel room]

The day was spent, from morning to night, in the hotel room. James didn’t talk much and instead, laid on the bed and stared out the window and brooded. Natasha spent most of the day on her smartphone on the other side of the room, working through SHIELD and muttering to herself.

“When does she get here,” James asked later in the day after a few hours of silence and Natasha almost jumped at hearing him. She looked over.

“What?” She said and James shifted and looked at her.

“You’re trying to guess Belova’s next move,” he said. “So when will she be here?” Natasha looked back down at her phone and frowned.

“Probably soon. She might be mad that it’s not a chase anymore,” she said.

“What’ll we do?” James asked.

“She’ll come in to fight us and I’ll shoot her in the face pointblank,” Natasha replied bluntly and James swallowed and didn’t say anything else after that.

Later in the day, James approached Natasha again.

“You wanna go get dinner at least?” He asked her, standing next to her chair and trying to get her attention. “You’ve been at this all day, your eyes are red.”

Natasha glanced up at him and didn’t respond. She looked back down and James followed her gaze, kneeling on the ground and taking her free hand in his. She avoided his face and felt him kiss her fingers pleadingly.

“Come on,” he said gently. “It’ll be fun.”

“And we’ll come back to find our room ransacked,” Natasha replied and set her phone down to put her other hand on top of James’.

“What is she gonna steal?” James asked. “We have nothing. Look, come on, let me get you a dinner, a drink, something.”

“I don’t know about that,” Natasha said.

“Please,” James said.

“Aren’t you the one worrying about money?” She asked and James made a face.

“Well, yeah, but we’ve been in this hotel all day and we came out here to have some fun, didn’t we?” He said. “They don’t serve a continental dinner, you know.”

“I know,” Natasha sighed. That’s when James looked down and swallowed and she watched him shift on his knees and felt him squeeze her hands. He looked back up at her, armed with puppy dog eyes and a pout, and she expected him to beg her further, but he didn’t.

“Talia, I’m…,” he said and frowned and looked at her eyes. “I’m worried about you.”

“What?” Natasha exclaimed. James shrugged.

“Don’t act so surprised,” he said. “I’ve literally never seen you so stressed, so… Edgy. You’re jumping at little things and getting irritable and you’re anxious and you don’t sleep well. I feel like this whole Yelena Belova thing is more than just an ordinary Black Widow ordeal.”

“Is there really such thing as an ordinary Black Widow ordeal?” Natasha asked and she looked back at him and cocked her head. “James, you’re sweet, but I’m fine.”

“You don’t seem fine,” James said and Natasha carefully took her hands back from him and placed them on his shoulders. She put on her best liars face, which, by all means, was very very good.

“Darling,” she said and she leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “It’s alright.” He put his hands on her wrists and leaned into her, looking up desperately from where he knelt on the ground.

“Then go out with me,” he begged. “I’m asking for one dinner to forget about this mess.” Natasha sighed and closed her eyes exhaustedly.

“I can’t let her win,” she said back.

“I don’t understand,” James replied weakly. “She’s not going to win; you’re better than her! You shouldn’t be worried about this at all.”

“But I am,” Natasha said and James let out a breath. She felt his shoulders rise and fall.

“I know,” he said back, and then began to climb to his feet. She let her hands fall away from him and turned her face away. “So you won’t come with me?”

“I can’t,” Natasha said back and James was silent for a moment.

“I’ll bring something back,” he told her, and then he was pulling on his coat and gloves and she heard the door shut behind him and she put her head down on the desk and squeezed her eyes shut and felt all of a sudden as though she would cry.