Target (Romanogers Fanfic)

Chapter 11

After her little crying incident. Natasha returned to find out that Steve was finally and officially given the ranking of Captain.

And she? Well, she still managed to maintain her job. It did nothing to lessen Phillips's disapproval of her, though.

They had been called in a meeting from their Captain.

She had been given a new uniform, a black bodysuit with a V-shaped neckline, long sleeves and tight-fitting. Around her hips was a black utility belt and on her hands were her signature wristbands, both contained numerous gadgets. And on her feet were black boots. It looked far different than the military uniform she wore, but she liked this look on her. Badass.

By the time she got to the office, Steve and Peggy were already there.

An octagonal table was centred in the room, placed above it were different maps of the world. Little flags were marking the place they needed to go to, and small poles that she was sure represented the HYDRA bases.

"Good morning, Nat." Peggy greeted with a kind smile.

She could Steve glance at her when Peggy mentioned her name. She nodded curtly. "Good morning, Peg." She turned to Steve, condemning her voice to a withdrawn tone. He was shortly smiling at her. "Captain Rogers,"

Steve furrowed his eyebrows, dropping the smile. His heart sunk a bit when he was taken aback by her sudden coldness. He returned it evenly, "Agent Romanoff."

She scowled at him.

Peggy easily detected tension between the two, noticing their full-on glaring. Natasha, especially. "So," She tried to divert the topic away. "We were just discussing HYDRA bases."

That seemed to bring Steve back to reality. "Right. The fifth one was here in Poland, right near the Baltic. The sixth one was... about here." He started, pinpointing all the locations on the map that was laid out on the table, by marking it with a dot. "Probably, thirty-forty miles west of the Maginot line."

One soldier came in to take away the map.

Natasha looked down. "HYDRA's working with the Red Room." She said ever so softly. Peggy turned to her, eyes wide and frantic. "What?" She said. "How do you know?"

 Natasha looked up at her. And whispered one word. "Ivan."

Peggy paled. Natasha swallowed and stared at the floor. "Red Skull mentioned that he had been talking to Ivan." She explained. Peggy nodded her red lips forming a thin line on her face. "I'll inform Phillips." She said and walked off towards the other side of the room. Leaving Natasha and a very confused Steve. "I'm sorry, but what is the Red Room?"

Natasha brushed past Steve, walking briskly to head over where Peggy and Phillips were. "Nat." She ignored him. His tone became firmer. "Agent Romanoff."

He stopped as soon as she did. She took in a deep breath, turned around to give him the fakest, innocent smile she could muster. "Is there a problem, Captain Rogers?"

"I think I should be the one asking you that, aren't I?"

The fake smile was washed away like that. She gritted her teeth, staring blazes at him. "Everything's just fine, Captain."

Steve still tried to talk to her,  she turned on her heel and started walking again. "Nat, Natasha!" He hissed. "Why are you acting like this? You still owe me answers. What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?"

Natasha wanted to tell him the reason that was bothering her, but she feared that it would scare him. Hell, it still scared her. But with every pair of eyes focused on Steve, she couldn't risk causing a scene now. Not there. "Not now, Steve."