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Thirty more minutes until touchdown. Thirty more minutes until she could get to her bathroom. Thirty more minutes until she could see her cat. Thirty more minutes until she got back to Maria.
Two weeks, minimal contact. “Only two weeks,” they told her. Sure, two weeks with minimal contact was fine with her, run of the mill. But she wasn’t expecting the extra four weeks with no contact after she was unable to make it to the rendezvous point.
It should have been an easy mission. Maisie Kovacs was a rich lady, long brunette curls, light makeup, charming blue eyes. And she wanted private access to a chunk of a trafficking ring and a even deeper drug cartel.
Maisie Kovacs didn’t want to get drugged. She didn’t want her real identity to get revealed. She definitely didn’t want to be sneaking around, extremely disoriented trying to finish her mission. Nope. Natasha Romanoff, on the other hand, was just doing her job.
Thirty minutes later, as she predicted, she was finally home. She thanked her driver, tipping him generously before closing the door. She didn’t get paid enough for this. She wouldn’t have to beg Maria if she wanted some time off. Her head was spinning and she was limping. Natasha’s breathing was slightly laboured, and she was sure she may have cracked a rib.
As she slunk up the steps to their shared apartment. She unlocks the door and it opens silently. Natasha is greeted by a loud yowl from her cat. Liho comes up to wind around Nat’s legs. A soft glow came from their sitting room, and Natasha bends over painstakingly to pick up the cat and cuddle it close. She heads towards the room, finding Maria laying on the couch. Her laptop was open, but locked, with a screen saver of Natasha and Liho on their bed all cuddled up.
Natasha was craving to lay with Maria, cuddle up close with her. But she wasn’t about to disrupt her sleep. Besides, she really wanted a shower. So she brings Liho into the bathroom, closing the computer on her way and shrouding the room in darkness.
She does a double take as soon as she looks into the mirror. Her skin is starting to look sallow and she has deep bags under her eyes. Her hair is flat and snarled, lacking its natural curl.
When she takes off her shirt, she is met with a patchwork of bruising and angry swollen skin. She inhales slowly to avoid angering her ribs, trying to dull the pain. The over the counter painkillers she took earlier are already starting to wear off.
It's been awhile since she has had a mission this strenuous. She really just wants to go curl up on the couch with Maria. She doesn’t know where to start with the clean up, but a shower sounds really nice.
Natasha finishes stripping and turns on the shower, the sound of the running water filling the room. Liho jumps off the counter and bounds away, presumably to go back to doing whatever she was doing before Nat came home.
She steps into the lukewarm water, sighing when it hits her skin. It feels heavenly as she runs her fingers through her snarled hair. The water turns dark quickly and she can’t find it in herself to care. She’s gone longer without showering before anyways. She takes her time, lathering her hair several times with shampoo and conditioner, shaving, washing her body, being careful of her bruises and cuts.
Natasha feels much better when she finally turns off the water, stepping out and wrapping a soft towel around her body. It's then when she hears footsteps coming for the bathroom door. She’s on high alert, a byproduct of strain of the past month. When she hears Maria’s sleep filled voice, gravely like her throat was dry, through the door she relaxes and invites her in.
Maria’s face is full of concern as she takes in Natasha’s form. A small frown creases her mouth and Nat almost feels bad. Almost. “Masha,” she murmurs, not breaking eye contact for a second. She drinks her in, missing the sight of her. Her presence. She says her name again, voice starting to break.
Maria comes into the bathroom, shutting the door gently. She walks up to Nat, nearly touching. Her eyes are shiny and Natasha wonders if she's about to cry. Natasha might. She tucks the towel so it stays on her body before leaning into Maria’s arms. She hugs her, closing her eyes and nuzzling into her neck.
She missed this.
“What happened out there?” And with that, the tranquillity is broken. Nat straightens, backing out of the embrace.
“I don’t want to do this right now,” she murmurs, reaching for another towel to dry off her hair. Maria stays silent for a long minute, watching her.
“Okay,” she relents. “Come find me when you’re decent and I’ll do your hair.”
Natasha dries the rest of her body, pulling on one of Marias shirts, choosing to go pantless. She throws her towels and previous clothes into the laundry basket in the corner of the bathroom, shutting off the light as she leaves.
She joins Maria in the living room, a lamp now turned on in the corner. Maria is sitting on the couch, waiting with a brush in hand. As soon as Natasha enters the room, she can feel Hill's eyes on her. They don’t look away for a second.
Nat sits in front of her on the ground, wincing slightly. “Few lacerations, bruised ribs, concussion, twisted ankle,” she rattles off. Maria starts to gently brush her hair out for her, working out the knots with much care.
Natasha’s eyes close in bliss. Oh how she missed this. She might have moaned if the mission lasted any longer. “How are you doing?”
She shrugs, a shiver going down her spine as Maria brushes a strand of red hair behind her ear. She doesn’t answer, doesn’t really want to think about it.
“Tasha,” she warns gently. Natasha knows what she wants. She just doesn’t want to give. She wants to sit here and let Maria finish braiding her hair, and then she wants to pull her to bed and bury her face in Maria’s neck. Is that so much to ask?
Maybe she needed to talk about it. She shrugs again on impulse, but quickly follows it with an apology. “It was rough.”
“I don’t care how the mission was,” she comments gently, beginning to braid her hair. They both know what Natasha means. “What was the main course?”
It's something of a code they started using at one point. She isn’t sure when it started, but it hasn’t stopped. The main course was a reference to how bad things had gotten. What she had had to do to get out.
“Maisie liked to use her body for favours,” she spits out, the words bitter in her mouth. Everything else was child's play. Her cover didn’t really like it. It was more life or death. Maria seems to get the hint, though, leaning over and kissing her shoulder.
She’s finished the braid, tying it off with a ponytail and pulling Nat up into her lap. The redhead obliges, her teeth sunk deep into her lip. “What do you need?”
“You. Let me lay with you until you leave,” she whispers, turning slightly to catch Maria’s eye.
“Let me bring you to medical tomorrow?”
“Okay,” she whispers, getting up and out of Maria’s way. It wasn’t often that Natasha went to medical with a simple request. Maria could practically feel the anxiety radiating off of her.
“I’ll come with, supervise. Might cash in on a vacation day,”
Natasha cracks a smile, tugging Maria towards their shared room. Liho is trailing after them and Natasha stops to pick the cat up. While Maria has never been fond of the cat, she tolerates it. For Natasha.
They slip into bed rather clumsily, Natasha pulling Maria on top of her body, Liho tucked next to her ribs. Maria is careful not to rest on her ribs as Natasha nuzzles into her neck. Maria twists so that they're both laying on their sides, and pulls her in close.
“I adore you,” she hears Natasha murmurs. She smiles, knowing that's the closest Natasha can get to the three words right now. She knows how difficult it is to accept that Maria wants to be here.
“I love you,” she responds in kind, placing a kiss to her temple. Natasha was alright, a little worse for wear, but she wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere and that was good enough for Maria. “Now sleep, my love.”