prompt: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Natasha Romanoff, ballet and romance novels
Marvel Cinematic Universe with a dash of comic canon, Natasha Romanoff/James 'Bucky' Barnes, ballet and romance novels
In another life she could have been a dancer; not famous, perhaps, but content in her art which she would one day pass on to the children of others (even in her dreams she cannot imagine having her own children). Yes she would be old now, or dead even - a thought that has never perturbed her, old and happy with the way her life had been. There was something to be said for that.
These thoughts are not allowed to enter her mind often, she deliberately keeps them out even as she dances – always ballet, anywhere and any time she can.
To most people she lies, claims it as part of her physical conditioning (which it had been, back then, when she was first taught).
A few are eventually privileged with the truth. One day Clint asks and they are friends now so she answers “Because it's mine.” and he understands because there have been so few thing in life that were his alone.
She could have explained more, if he had needed it, told him how it had started as part of her training and she'd never shown how she enjoyed it (loved it, if she was completely honest with herself) because even then she' knew they would take it away if they realised.
She would never have mentioned him, not even to Clint, James is hers and she is his. Perhaps her makers knew and that is why they were separated, she pretends not to know this. He is gone but still hers and hers alone, even if they knew some of it they did not know all.
The novels are another thing she never explains, even though she keeps them now she belongs to SHIELD (or to herself, it is harder to think of it that way). People are surprised, they make jokes, she ignores them all unless forced to comment in which instance she simply says it's because she doesn’t have to think when she reads them.
Nobody knows everything about her, not the men who made her, not SHIELD (or Hydra, when the revelation comes), and there's no one she trusts enough to admit that she reads romance novels to imagine a happy ending for herself and the man she has loved for so long.
She knows it isn't possible, would never have been possible, but when she reads the books she can lose herself in the story and pretend for just a little while that this could have been her life.
Marvel Cinematic Universe, Clint + Natasha, spiderpig
crossposted to AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/2
The motel room is humid and smells weird, thanks to their unexpected third guest. Natasha manages to sleep a little in spite of this and wakes up when she hears Clint singing.
"Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig, does whatever a Spider-Pig does. Can he swing from a web? No he can't, he's a pig. Look out! He is the Spider-Pig!"
Natasha opens her eyes and, sure enough, he is re-enacting that scene from 'The Simpsons Movie' with the package they were sent to collect.
"Clint," she says wearily and he freezes, standing on his bed and holding what looks like a giant orange dust bunny up to the ceiling.
"Put the alien baby back in its box," she says firmly then squints up at the trail of hexagonal spots on the ceiling. "And find some way to get rid of the footprints."
This is the moment when she promises herself she'll never tell anyone, who doesn’t have access to the report, what really happened in Budapest.
Based on one of the Age of Ultron trailers, I've only seen one so not sure which. Small spoiler for a scene in the trailer, for those who haven't seen it.
crossposted to AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/269329