All the Colors of Earth (Natasha Romanoff)

1.7

She scoffs, "I doubt that. You've been in prison for a while."

"I had a very lucrative job before we got busted," I tell her as we head towards a row of games. Stoping in front of a shooter game I pick up one of the air guns and steady it against my shoulder.

Romanoff watches me as she asks, "lucrative? What'd you do, rob banks?" I grin as I start to shoot the metal ducks. They make a satisfying ding as they fall over. "You robbed banks?" She practically hissed.

Setting the gun down I take the little stuffed animal from the lady behind the table and hand it to Romanoff, "does it count as robbing if I technically only made the map and provided the safe code?"

"So that's why you were in prison?"

"no, that was just a side gig."

She stops in the middle of the walkway and looks at me, "then why were you in prison?"

I grow slightly uncomfortable under her gaze, I knew this was coming. "What's my file say?"

She crosses her arms, "I didn't read it."

That surprises me, "why not?"

"Because I wanted to give you a fair shot and not have tonight be tinged by what a bureaucratic file said."

"Oh," I say as I think what answer to give. I wouldn't lie to her, but I also didn't want tonight to be over before it started. So finally I settle on the safest option for now, "read the file, then we'll talk about it." 

She looks at me for a long moment before finally agreeing. "You hungry?" She asks.

"Always!" We head off towards the smell of food and when I saw all the stands I couldn't help but let out a happy squeal. And then Romanoff did something that made me stop- she laughed. A full, real laugh. I stared at her with what had to be the dumbest smile, just taking her in.

She notices me looking and asks, "what?"

"You're beautiful," I tell her.

"I'm not sleeping with you tonight," she says, immediately back on guard.

"Ok, you're still beautiful," I inform her before a brightly lit vendor catches my eye. "Hell yes," I say as I try and contain my joy as we go to the stall. Large cotton candy flowers greet us and I ask the guy excitedly, "how much?"

"$40," he tells me with slight concern. Maybe I wasn't hiding my excitement as much as I thought.

"You are not spending $40 on candy," Romanoff says sternly.

I scoff, "the hell I'm not." I already have my money out and a cotton candy flower in my hand before she can even register what happened. Skipping over to a bench I sit down and open the package, taking a large bite as she joins me. "Want some?" I ask, offering her the flower. She looks at it suspiciously until I say, "unless you're afraid you'll have too much fun if you do."

Taking a large chunk she pops it in her mouth, "ok that's actually good," she admits. "Not worth $40 though."

We sit there for a while eating the candy and people watching until finally the candy was gone. "What now?" I ask her as I lick the sweetness off of my fingers.

She looks around for a second before her eyes stop on the Ferris wheel, "how about that?"

I grab her hand again and pull her into the line, buzzing from the sugar and from the fact that she hasn't let go of my hand yet. When our turn came we slid into the seat and I raised our hands as we began to rise. She chuckled slightly and when I looked at her questioningly she simply said, "you're crazy."

"Maybe so, but you like it," I tell her with a grin. She only smiles and turns her attention to the view. I watch the ground get smaller as we get higher and then we stop. At the top of the ferris wheel, looking out at all the lights, I can honestly say that I felt happy. For the first time since my planet was invaded. I look over at Romanoff and find her watching me. She looks absolutely beautiful in the lights of the ride and I can't help but ask, "can I kiss you Romanoff?"

She pauses for a long moment and for a second I think she's going to say no but then, "yes."

Reaching up to cup her face I slowly lean over to her, pausing right before our lips touch, giving her a chance to change her mind. But she doesn't, instead she closes the space between us and presses her lips to mine. Immediately I feel the Bond strengthen and I deepen the kiss, tasting the sweetness of the candy on her lips.

We could have kissed for seconds, minutes or hours and I wouldn't have noticed the time. It seemed to stretch for an eternity and yet not long enough. Kissing her was, without a doubt, the best thing I had experienced since coming to earth.

I could have kissed her forever but the jarring of the Ferris wheel as it started to move broke us apart. We sat there in silence for a second before I said, "sorry, guess I got a little carried away."

She laughed softly, "if I minded I would have stopped you."

"Oohh so you like kissing me?" I tease.

"I didn't say that."

We make it to the bottom and step off of the ride, heading back towards the food, "so you don't like kissing me?" I ask, slightly nervous.

She grins at me, "I never said that either."

"You women are confusing," I mumble.

"You say that like you're not a woman." She pauses, "you are a woman, aren't you?"

"Yes, last I checked," I chuckle. "But I am not confusing."

"Yes you are," Romanoff says softly.

Turning to her I ask, "how so?"

She sighs slightly, "you're just not what I was expecting."

"Well what were you expecting?"

"Not this."

Nervously I ask, "is that a good thing?"

Her finger hooks onto my pocket and she tugs it gently, "yes, it is."

Pulling her closer I kiss her again, gripping her waist firmly and pulling her against me. We kiss heatedly for a minute before pulling away to catch our breath. "I'm still not sleeping with you," she says softly.

"Are you telling me or you?" I tease.

"Both," she admits.

"Then maybe we should call it a night?"

She looks almost disappointed but agrees, "I think you're right. I still haven't made up my mind about you."

"Then I'll keep showing you who I am until you do."

"I hope so," she says softly.

We walk back to the bike and after an all too quick ride back to the compound we find ourselves in the living room on our floor. "Goodnight Romanoff. Thank you for tonight, it was the most fun I've had in years."

"Natasha," she says.

"What?"

"My name, it's Natasha- technically Natalia, not Romanoff. You made it to first base, least you could do is use my first name," she teases.

"Natalia?"

"A story for another night," she tells me. "But goodnight Marz," she says before disappearing into her room.

"Goodnight Natasha," I say softly to her door before going to my own room.