Nat's POV
United States, New York City 07/14/2009:
Natasha watched as Agent Davis played her guitar and sang all while having her eyes closed. It was clear that she was lost in her own world. To Natasha, it was fascinating to see someone so occupied, so very tangled up in a moment that they forget everything else around them. It was beautiful. Yet she knew that she could never do that outside of work.
She scanned the woman and her eyes landed on the tattoo that is hardly visible through the small rips in her jeans. It's rather uncommon to see someone with such a big tattoo. Especially at that age. Her eyes search for something else that was unusual but they didn't find anything. She allowed herself to enjoy the show for as long as it lasted because whether she liked it or not that woman was beautiful. The way a strand of hair fell in her face, she sang the words and her fingers played the strings...But the way her face expressed the passion with which she sang the song that was the most vulnerable and most beautiful thing she had seen in a long time. And when her eyes opened and met with Natasha's she could see the exact moment that the woman was brought back to reality.
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Shared POV
After ten minutes which felt like an hour to Kate, she could finally see the boys from the band talking to Mrs. Garcia. She finished the song and thanked the crowd, then left the stage and squeezed past some customers until she reached the spot by the bar, where Agent Romanoff was leaning against the wall.
"You're pretty good at that.", Natasha remarked when the other woman was close enough to hear it. "Where'd you learn that?"
"Self-taught. And thanks.", Kate answered and then continued, "What are you doing here?"
"The boss said that we should get to know each other."
"And how did you know where to find me?", Kate asked and she had to swallow hard at the thought that the spy had followed her without her knowing
"Maria snitched on you. She said I could probably find you here.", Natasha explained, with an infectious smile that she couldn't suppress after watching the brown eyes of her counterpart go wide.
"Damn you, Maria. I thought she was supposed to keep secrets.", she joined in with a smile. "What else did she tell you?"
"Not more than that. Not even that you'd be singing. Why? What more is there to tell?", her head was somewhat bowed down but her eyes looked up right into Kate's
"Yeah, no, I'm not telling you all my secrets.", Kate said while looking down at Natasha.
"Too bad. That's kind of why I'm here."
The answer caught her a little off guard but she just ran with it. "And I thought people go to a bar to drink. By the way, what do you want?", Kate nodded towards the bar.
"Oh, you don't have to...", Natasha already shook her hands in a declining motion but Kate insisted.
"No need for diffidence. This rounds on me."
"Fine. How about a beer, then?", she looked down with clenching jaw muscles, feeling troubled by accepting this act of kindness.
Kate was surprised by how much the otherwise so confident woman struggled with expressing a want but pretended not to notice it. Instead, she waved Mrs. Garcia over and she came.
"Can you give me two beers, please? Just subtract it from my paycheck."
"Sure thing, kid. Anything else?"
"Actually, yes. Do you think we could get the table back there?", she pointed to the darkest corner of the bar. The table was further away from all the others but two customers were already seated there.
"I should charge you extra for that stuff, Layla. But yes, just give me a second." The woman shouted something into the kitchen behind the bar and then went over to the table that Kate had requested.
"Layla, mh? How often are you here that they know you by Name?", Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It's part of my cover. I am an unhappy business major who dreams of becoming a big musician."
"Wow. And how's that working out for you, Layla?", Natasha kept teasing her with the false name.
"I don't know what would you say?"The light tone of flirtation in Kate's voice surprised even herself but before Nat could answer, Mrs. Garcia gestured to Kate that the table now was free.
"Well, seems like our table's free now.", she said and took both beers in her hand.
"Lead the way.", Natasha extended her hand to show that the other woman should walk ahead. She watched as Kate stepped away and made her way through the crowd.
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They sat down and neither of them seemed to want to restart the conversation. Both took an awkward sip from their beer and Kate grimaced in revulsion.
"What?", Natasha asked laughing.
"That's just really, really bad beer."
"What do you know about beer?", Natasha asked still laughing. "Don't get me wrong, I agree, but still."
"Enough to know that this shouldn't be called beer.", she put the bottle down in front of her and leaned back.
"Are you even old enough to drink?", she asked more as a joke than anything else and took another sip.
"Depends on where in the world you are. In America? No. Europe? Yes."
Natasha choked on her drink. "Wait. You're not even twenty-one?", her mouth stayed open longer in surprise.
"Nope.", Kate smiled while taking another sip of her drink.
"How old are you?", she asked still a little shocked.
"Twenty.", Kate answered while tipping her head to the side.
"And how old do they think you are?"
"Twenty-three."
"Unbelievable.", Natasha shook her head in disbelief.
"I don't know. I thought I sell a twenty-three-year-old business major with dead dreams and ambitious parents pretty good.", she looked down and started again. "So, what about you? How old are you?"
"What? Haven't you read my file yet?", she asked with a played offense.
"Oh, I tried but it's not like I could read anything besides your actual name. They even blacked out your birthday as if they're afraid I'd send you birthday gifts in the future.", the irony in her voice was clear and made the agent laugh once again. "Have you read mine?"
"Nope. Fury said I would only get it if I talk to you first, so this is basically a blind date."
"I don't think Fury would like to hear you describe it like that. Not that I mind you calling this a date.", Kate's smile turned into a smirk.
"That's not how I meant it.", her voice dropped about half an octave when the shame rose inside her.
"I know, I'm just messing with you.", she stopped, and when agent Romanoff didn't reply she added, "So, how old are you?"
"Twenty-four."
"Wait. You're saying you're younger than Maria but Fury said you have more field experience than anyone. How's that even possible?", she tilted her head forward in confusion.
The mood immediately changed and Kate started to regret having asked the question when the other agent sat up and cleared her throat.
"I started a lot younger than her.", Natasha answered hiding most of her story.
Kate wanted to ask what that meant exactly but she knew that that might be a wound she didn't want to poke around in. Instead, she tried to find a positive to what the woman was implying. "You must know a whole lot of stuff. Like ehm... How many languages do you speak?"
"I don't know.", Natasha visibly relaxed and a smile returned.
"What do you mean "you don't know"?", Kate had expected anything from two to ten, but not "I don't know".
"I never counted them.", Natasha just shrugged.
"Then list them or something.", she suggested.
"Okay...There's Russian, French, German, Italian, Arabic, Hungarian, Dutch, Romanian, Latin, Mandarin...", she wasn't done listing them when Kate interrupted her.
"Got it. A lot of them."
"What about you?", she tried to bring the focus away from her and back to the other woman.
"Mh, French, and German. I understand some Russian and Italian, too.", Kate almost felt less valuable when she compared her language skills to Agent Romanoff's.
"Not too bad. Why those?"
Kate hesitated for a second but then answered truthfully. "I grew up in Germany, we learned French and English in school. The other two I just picked up through friends."
"Why'd you come to America?"
"My mother died and I had no one left there so I just... left", Kate looked down as the picture of her mother's lifeless body flashed across her mind.
"What about your father?"
"Never met him.", she still had her eyes locked on her lap and kept her answers short in unease.
"I'm sorry if I was too direct there. I didn't mean to invade your privacy or anything. I just need to know in the case of... our mission failing.", Natasha hesitated to finish the sentence.
"Don't worry about it.", Kate waved her off. She didn't want to make a big deal of it even though it made her uncomfortable."What about your family?"
"Never had one." It was a fact that she had accepted for a long time. She hated to admit it but there was no one who cared about her.
"So you like, grew up in an orphanage or something?", Kate slowly raised her eyes to look at the spy in front of her.
"Not exactly.", she dodged the question as elegantly as possible.
"That's not exactly an answer. I thought we were trying to be honest.", she scanned the woman's body as it tensed up.
"I grew up as part of a KGB program that manipulated children and trained them to be physically capable to infiltrate and take down any target they chose. I was lucky and got out.", her voice cracked twice throughout the sentence, while her view blurred.
When the silence set in Kate shifted in her chair and emptied the bottle in front of her. "You know, maybe we should've just started with our first names.", Kate stretched her arm over the table offering her a hand. "Kathrine, but please call me Kate."
Romanoff took the hand and a smile appeared on her face. It was small but genuine. "Natasha.", she replied. She was relieved that Kate didn't try to force her to open up further.
"See? Now, this is much better. Unfortunately, my "beer" is empty now. So I'm gonna get myself a new one. Do you want something new, too?", Kate pushed herself off her seat and turned to Natasha.
"Sure."
"And what do you want?"
"Suprise me.", she said with a flirtatious smile.
"Is that an order, Natasha?", Kate flirted back.
"If you want it to be.", again she tilted her head down while her eyes sparkled up to Kate's.
Kate licked her lips as she walked away. That woman was unbelievable.
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Sooo, I hope I made you feel some chemistry between them.
Stay tuned to see where this night is going.
Let me know if you enjoyed it.
Thank you for reading this story:)
~1774~