Chapter Text
There is always calm between storms.
Natasha knows this, even as she allows James to pull her down again, her hair falling around the two of them in a red curtain of safety. He’s hiding something from her, she can tell; the two of them have been together long enough to read each other. There are never secrets between the two of them. Their relationship has come to the point where if one has a secret, the other must trust that the secret-keeper has a reason for holding the information close.
And Natasha is even willing to warrant a guess as to what it’s about, the secret he’s keeping from her. The civil war over the Superhero Registration Act has finished, but ended with Steve’s surrender and subsequent arrest. She can see it in his eyes. Both she and James claimed neutrality, both too used to doing whatever the hell they wanted without getting caught (eliminating the need to have to identify themselves to villains and/or civilians). They’d stayed in Europe throughout the war, but she knows that James won’t stand to the side while Steve is in prison. Steve won’t go with him, he’d rather stand trial than become a fugitive, but James will want the knowledge that he tried to convince his friend to run. Sharon, having disappeared within S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ranks during the war, reappeared yet remained mentally fractured; Natasha can see it in the other woman’s eyes. She knows something will happen as does James, and James will undoubtedly try to head it off before the situation escalates.
So she won’t stop him when he leaves in the night. He’ll wear her out now, saying good-bye without words, so that she’ll be asleep when he leaves to go rescue his childhood friend. She’ll be able to truthfully deny ever knowing his plan, and remained untouchable during the dark days ahead. The two planned an escape route—old habits die hard—into Europe so that not even Tony Stark, with all the resources of S.H.I.E.L.D. behind him, will be able to track them. When they plan to disappear, they really do mean disappear.
She also won’t tell him about the small life she has with her, the one miracle she thought she’d never have again. It will cause him to change his plans, turn all of his attention toward her safekeeping, and while she wouldn’t mind that, she doesn’t want to slow him down either. She’ll just disappear when the time is right, whether the emergency contingency plan applies or not. The two of them were the top best of the Red Room, that is their strength, and they’ll be able to communicate without getting caught without an issue. The United States can try, S.H.I.E.L.D. can try all they damn well want to, but if they hadn’t been able to capture the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow during the Cold War, they stand no chance in the modern era. The same tools that the hunters will use will be the same tools that she and James will use to escape.
Or, at least that’s what she tells herself when she feels James slipping out of the bed later that night.