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A/N: The visuals for Ophelia's suit and gauntlets will be at the end of the chapter
Chapter 4 – Control
As the scientists exited to their laboratory everyone else wandered off to their own business, all except the Black Widow who stood from her seat, carefully making her way to the slowly panicking Ophelia. Alarm bells rang in her head. Shit how was she going to get out of this? She looked over to Maria for help but only received a look of amusement.
"If you weren't trying so hard to avoid me, you would have seen me notice you quite a while ago." Natasha's face was neutral except for a quirk of the lip.
The sound that came out of Ophelia's mouth was something like a creaky door, or a seagull being choked. Either way the poor girl was having the worst time trying to speak basic English around the Russian spy.
Seemingly from nowhere Natasha brought out a deck of cards, how she managed to store them in the tight catsuit was a mystery. She noticed how during the meeting Ophelia would wring her fingers periodically, a coping mechanism that relieved her anxiety and became an indicator for how uncomfortable she was in a social setting. She also noticed the extremely burnt cards peeking out of her jean pocket. Clint had forgotten his deck of cards at Nat's after one of their game nights and never got the chance to return them. She handed the cards to an extremely flustered Ophelia.
"You'll probably have a better use for them." She said blithely, her face still indifferent but her eyes glinting wickedly at how flustered she was making the street fighter.
Before Ophelia was able to say a vague imitation of a thank you, Maria stopped the girl from embarrassing herself any further by interrupting.
"Delacour, we got to get you familiar with your suit." Maria had to suppress a smile at how quickly Ophelia nodded her head and jumped to attention.
"I look forward to working with you Delacour." Natasha smirked before she sauntered off in the same direction Fury came from.
"Cat got your tongue?" Maria snarked with poorly hidden glee.
"More like a spider. And you were no help!" Ophelia angrily muttered as she examined the new deck of cards gifted to her, a wave of gratitude aimed at the assassin overcame her as the cards rested comfortably in her hands.
"God it was like watching a trainwreck, do you have any idea how to talk to women?" Maria quietly laughed to herself as she led the still lamenting Ophelia down to the lower levels of the Helicarrier.
"Normally I do, but tell me that Natasha Romanoff is in any stretch of imagination normal."
"Touché."
Taking a turn to the basement level of the base, Maria had to go through multiple security procedures to access an unmarked door.
"Deputy Director Maria Hill, level 9 clearance." She spoke into a keypad before using a retina scanner to verify her identity.
