Way We Go Down ｡ Natasha Romanoff

25 - HAIL HYDRA

Being undercover was almost tranquil to Natasha Romanoff, a little reminder of her past where she would spend months on end pretending to be somebody else, to blend into crowds and disappear from view while on a mission. It almost felt like old times but now was not the time to reminisce about long forgotten days. 

Right now, they were slipping through a busy shopping mall with one thought in mind. Steve was complaining about his attire, not very pleased with the shoes he was currently wearing. Natasha had to keep reminding him that he was on the run from a top secret organisation, who would know their location very shortly. The pair had slipped into a Mac store to use one of the display computers to hack into the flash drive Fury had left from them. Natasha hacked into device effortfully, commenting that the flash drive was protected by an AI which kept rewriting itself to counter her commands, but she was slightly more clever. 

With the seconds ticking down, they were running out of time before S.H.I.E.L.D agents would be right on their tails. "I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from." Natasha suggested quickly, fingertips racing over the keyboard. 

"Can I help you guys with anything?" A random employee asked, his voice a little high pitched because he seemed all to happy to actually help them.

Steve almost jumped out of his skin, a little on edge. "Oh, no. My fiancé was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations." Natasha lied smoothly, it was second nature to her. 

The golden boy jumped into the lie, "Right! We're getting married."

Apparently, the employee didn't catch the memo that they didn't want or need his help. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose a little bit. "Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?"

Steve was glancing back down at the screen, the tracking system displaying a trace within seconds. His voice seemed a little tense with the realisation where the signal was actually coming from. "New Jersey."

Natasha ignored the conversation that circled around her, focusing solely on where the signal finally stopped which happened to be somewhere in Wheaton. She had no clue what was located there, but had a funny feeling Steve might know where they were going. "You know it?" She questioned once he had yanked the flash drive from the computer and stuffed it back into his pocket. 

"I used to."

Together they moved swiftly through the mall, heading right for the exit. They had slipped by a few odd agents with the sheer ability to blend in and not be noticed by acting like a couple swept up in romance. Once they were stopped on the escalators, that's when things became a little more interesting. Natasha spotted Agent Rumlow and her stomach tightened immediately. Without thinking, she turned back to Steve who had just clocked Rumlow too. "Kiss me."

He was ambushed with the demand. "What?" 

Natasha rolled her eyes with his lack of interest. She wanted to slam him across the chest with the horror filling his eyes but she didn't have time because any second Rumlow was going to notice them hiding in plain sight. "Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."

Steve couldn't agree more. "Yes, they do." But without gaining confirmation from him, Natasha rose to her toes, her hands threading behind his neck and pulling him close. Their lips touched for a second and both froze up. Thankfully, Agent Rumlow went right by without seeing them, completely oblivious that they had been right under his nose. 

When Natasha finally pulled away, she gave him a smirk. "Are you still uncomfortable?"

"It's not exactly the word I would use." Steve mumbled.