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Maria hasn’t seen Natasha in anything but work clothes before. Now that Natasha has been cleared to go on missions, they’ve been assigned to a mission where they’re required to go to a fancy business function. Despite the faint attraction she has to the other woman, Maria tells herself she can handle it. This is a mission, after all, and both she and Natasha know that the job comes first.
Maria wishes she could wear a suit, though. Dresses were never really her thing, and although she was thankfully spared from that, she has to wear a blouse and dress pants that are a little more feminine than she’s comfortable with. She finds her initial discomfort with her own outfit easy to ignore, however, when she gets a glimpse of Natasha.
“Ready to go?” Natasha emerges from the bathroom of their shared hotel room, and Maria barely manages to stop herself from gaping. Natasha’s wearing a dark blue cocktail dress, her hair swirled up into a fancy updo, and Maria feels her brain cease to function for a moment.
I really have to get this crush under control. It’s not practical.
Natasha is staring at her, and Maria tells herself it’s probably because she’s gaping, not because she looks particularly good in her own outfit. She remembers to speak after a moment.
“Yeah, I’m ready. I was just waiting for you.” Maria hopes her tone sounds normal, and she tries her best not to stare. Natasha smirks a little, as if she knows what’s on Maria’s mind, and Maria feels her cheeks tinge faintly red. God, this is embarrassing.
“Let’s go, then.” Maria resists the urge to offer Natasha her arm, but Natasha takes it anyway. She supposes they look like a high powered business couple this way, and she’s pretty sure this is just acting on Natasha’s part, anyway.
“Power couple,” Natasha confirms, tilting her head at their linked arms, and Maria nods. She briefly thinks that they would genuinely be a power couple, if they ever got together, but that’s a pipe dream. And probably fraternizing in the workplace.
They enter the banquet hall and mingle for a while, slipping easily into their aliases. Natasha has always been better at this than her, so she tags along as Natasha’s pretend butch wife, letting Natasha do most of the talking. Technically Natasha will be the one getting all the information, but Fury doesn’t like to send agents in alone, and Maria is happy to be Natasha’s extra muscle, even though she knows the other woman is more than capable of defending herself.
“Dance with me.” Natasha’s whisper jolts her out of her reverie, and Maria realizes Natasha’s led her away from the people they had been talking to. “I don’t want to mingle too long with them, but I’m going to come back for them later. We should kill some time.” Maria nods, only really registering that Natasha wants her to dance with her.
“I’m bad at it, but I’ll try,” Maria says. At least that part’s probably in character. Natasha takes the lead, resting one hand on her shoulder, and taking Maria’s other hand. Everything else in the room seems to disappear, and Maria’s concentration is focused fully on making sure she doesn’t step on the feet of the beautiful woman in front of her. The way Natasha is looking at her is making her heart pound, and she tells herself to get it together. She realizes she was not prepared at all for Natasha in formalwear.
Finally, the dance winds down, and Maria feels a bit of an ache as Natasha lets go. Natasha takes her arm again, though, continuing to play the part.
“You aren’t so bad.” Natasha gives her a little smirk, and Maria can’t tell if that’s Natasha or her alias. Either way, it makes her heart jump a little.
“It’s easy when I have the right partner,” Maria says, hoping she hasn’t just stepped over a line. If all else fails, Natasha can attribute this to Maria’s alias. To her surprise, though, Natasha smiles, a faint blush on her cheeks.
“Flatterer. Let’s get back to business.”