Untangling a Memory

Washing off

"Thanks so much for the lube job, men. Now, I'm gonna go home and give her a good wash!"

Natasha flirted in Russian with the auto shop workers, as she rubbed down the hood before sliding into the pick-up truck they had been working on all day. She had been lingering around the shop, making small talk, and generally distracting them as they attempted to work on her car. Her skintight jeans and top, along with her hair twirling, had left the workers quite oblivious to the intel she was lifting off another car in the shop and the tracking device she was putting on it. So, as she closed the truck door and started the engine, she gave a wink and blew a kiss of appreciation before driving away.

This was just the most recent of a dozen covert recognizance operations she'd conducted since they'd left Wakanda, all to acquire data for the takedown of the HYDRA black market vibranium dealer. While others had joined her on some of the jobs, she had led almost every fact-finding mission, due to her knowledge of what they were looking for, the culture and language, and her robust experience in undercover work. They were zeroing in on their last details, and now having a tracker on the car used to chauffeur the head of the black market operation, it would likely be only a week or so until they could execute their plan.

Natasha arrived back to the safe house an hour and a half later, having switched cars and walking the last mile. She went through the front door of the two story home, nodded to the man cooking in the kitchen, and headed straight to the closet in the bedroom. There she gently moved the clothes and shifted the back wall of the small closet, heading down the stairs hidden behind. At the bottom, she reached the small collection of rooms where her teammates were stretched out either working or beginning preparations for their dinner.

"Oh thank goodness, Steve is cooking. I'm starving! Those guys only had shitty junk food around and there is no way I could look sexy eating that."

"If anyone could make eating Funions look good, it would be you, Romanoff." Sam was in his usual flirting mood as he helped Okoye with something on the computer in the other room.

Natasha shot Sam a wink and headed towards the kitchen. She pulled off the long-black wig she'd been wearing all day, ruffling her blonde jaw-length hair that had been stuffed underneath. She tossed it on one of the kitchen chairs and then hopped up on the counter next to where Steve was working.

"You are soiling my workspace." Steve smirked at Natasha. Everyone had been in better moods the past day or two as the intelligence they had been gathering became more solid and actionable. "How was it?"

"You know, I flirted, they went dumb. Yada, yada. Only one or two times I thought it was gonna go sour, so I'd say a pretty good day." Natasha was about to stick her finger into the meat sauce Steve had been working on when he batted her hand away. He reached in a drawer and pulled out a spoon for her instead. She acquiesced. "Everything been coming in alright since I put on the listening device and tracker?"

Steve looked over his shoulder towards Sam and Okoye in the other room, "well, they have been working hard on something for a couple of hours. So, it's either that or they are playing Call of Duty. How does it taste?" Steve changed the subject, pointing to the spoon. Natasha nodded approvingly as she licked both sides of it clean.

"Well, hopefully that gets us what we need or most of what we need. I'm running out of wigs and tight clothes to wear."

Steve looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "I'm also running out of stuff to wear, but that's because you keep stealing my clothes."

"I steal from Sam, too! And I need something to wear after getting home from wearing these all day. I mean, look at how filthy!" Natasha gestured as she leapt off the counter, leaving dirty-greasy scuffs behind her. Steve grabbed a wooden spoon from the counter to thwak her with, but she maneuvered around the jesting attack. Natasha smirked at Steve as she walked into the bathroom and shut the door.