All the Colors of Earth (Natasha Romanoff)

1.7

It took a week to convince her, but finally, after nagging and a little bit of begging, she agreed. Her only request was that she got to decide what we do.

So here I was, standing in front of the compound, waiting. Waiting and hoping that she showed up. I checked my phone for the time-

She was five minutes late.
Then ten.
Then fifteen.

My heart sank with each passing minute and finally when I had decided to give up and had turned to go back into the compound, a motorcycle pulled up in front of me. Romanoff pulled off her helmet, her red hair falling in waves out of it, "I'm so sorry I'm late, Tony caught me for a last minute briefing and I couldn't get away." Her words sounded sincere but her eyes were guarded.

"It's ok," I tell her as I walked over to the bike. "I didn't know you could ride."

"There's a lot you don't know about me."

I nod, "and I hope we can change that."

She nods and hands me a second helmet, laughing when I look at it confused, "have you never worn a helmet before?"

I shrug slightly, "never needed one before now."

"Here," she said, getting off the bike and standing in front of me. She puts my hair behind my ears and put the helmet on me, "Feel ok?" I nod, feeling my heart race at how close she is. She gives the helmet a light tap and gets back on the bike, putting on her own helmet. "You coming?" Her voice coming to me through a speaker in the helmet.

"Absolutely," I tell her as I carefully get on behind her.

She starts it up and it purrs beneath us, "you're going to have to hold on." I look down at my hands, Unsure where to put them. "To me. You'll have to hold on to me."

Ignoring the slight tremble of my hands, I wrap them gently around her waist and almost die when she grabs my hands and moves them tighter around her. Good thing she did too because after she took off and started speeding between cars I was hanging on for dear life.

I'm only slightly ashamed to say that I had my eyes closed for the entire ride, even though it gave me a much clearer view of her driving, but her exhilaration that flowed through the Bond had me smiling. I only finally opened them when she turned the bike off.

"You can let go now," she said, a slight laugh escaping her.

"Is it safe?"

"Yes кекс (cupcake), it's safe."

Groaning, I try and get off the death machine with some amount of dignity. "Do you always drive so fast?" I ask her as I take off the helmet.

She shrugs, "it's how I was taught."

"Someone taught you to drive that recklessly?"

"Yes. Always drive faster then the people shooting at you."

"Solid advice," I grumble as I take in our surroundings and finally notice where we are. "The boardwalk?"

She nods, "all these years in New York and I've never been here."

On impulse I grab her hand and start to pull her towards the lights, "then let's go!" We make our way towards the crowds and the smell of food and the joyful screams wash over us. I drag her up the ticket counter and grin at the man behind the glass, "two please."

"$20," he says in a bored tone.

Romanoff starts to pull out her wallet but I stop her, "don't even think about it," I say as I pull out my own.

"Do you even have money?" She asks.

I give her a look as I pull out a twenty and hand it to the man who waves us in, "I'm probably richer than you."