kick_ass_curls | Business as Usual

They say it takes the average woman half the time of a relationship to get over a break up.

It took Natasha Romanoff seven and a half hours, a bottle of Stoli, and half the ammunition she had in her personal collection to 'get over' Steve Rogers. Or, that's what she told herself happened. In truth every second she was apart from Steve made it worse, made her worse. She was angry, violent, close to becoming unhinged. It would have been scary of she hadn't spent much of her life in a very dark place before. It wasn't anything new. He'd be better off without her, and she'd live.

She always lived.

Everyone at SHIELD knew by the time she came to work the next day that she and Steve were over. There was chatter of a betting pool. Natasha considered breaking the wrist of the man holding the wad of bills. Instead she walked by, head held up like nothing was bothering her, her expression so cold and emotionless it was terrifying. She'd got mission orders. She was a SHIELD agent, damn it and a failed relationship wasn't going to stop her from doing her job.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Natasha wasn't going to say a word either. She followed Barton onto the plane, their usual team dynamic looking a little more shaky than usual. She could still co-pilot for him, that wasn't a hard thing to do.

Instead of slowing her steps when she noticed Steve she held her head even higher, her nearly silent footsteps so confident and professional she was like the good little SHIELD agent poster child. Natasha didn't look back, she didn't do anything as she slide into the co-pilot seat.

Clint on the other hand. "You OK?" He glanced at her, then back at Steve for a micro second. Tasha pulls the radio set over her head and started flipping switches. "Perfect." She says flatly. "Absolutely perfect."

Steve didn't look at them, not wanting to look at anyone unless he absolutely had to. Tony got on and, having heard what had happened, looked from Steve to Natasha and back again before sitting down next to him. "How you holding up?" He asked, glancing at Steve. "Don't. Just don't." Steve murmured in reply.

Clint considers calling Tasha on her bullshit, but he knows better. They needed everyone with their head in the game and asking her about her personal life wouldn't do that. He was a bit made she chose to get wasted without him, though. "Fair enough." That's all Clint said before he took the plane up. Natasha didn't say anything either, doing her job expertly until the neared the sight of the disturbance.

Tony glanced around the plane as it flew to their destination. After a while, he looked back at Steve. "Moping around about this isn't going to help anybody, you know." He said, looking ahead of them. Steve looked at Tony, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously? That's how you're going to try and cheer me up?" Steve asked, shaking his head. "Wasn't trying to cheer you up. Just stating the truth. You being 'down in the dumps' or what ever could endanger the team on missions and all that...."

Steve breathed in deeply and sat up straight as he stared ahead of them. "Well, you're not going to have to worry about that after this."

[[ooc: stupid laptop went nuts earlier and now it won't let me log back onto AIM. Connections all weird too,s o I don't know how my replies are going to be.]]

Edited Date: 2012-09-12 09:32 pm (UTC)

Tasha doesn't hear what Steve and Tony are talking about. It's proabably better that way. Even so she's glancing back at him far more than she should, so much so that Clint notices. "Are you going to help me land this thing?" His comment breaks through her thoughts.

"Yeah. Sure." She blinks and nods before she looks at the controls again.

(( *HUGS* We have email if we need. Sometimes uninstall/reinstall AIM helps *crosses fingers*))

Tony looked at Steve, frowning. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, curious.

Steve, who had been staring yet again at the wall opposite them, glanced at Tony. "It means that is my last mission for S.H.I.E.L.D."

Tasha helps Clint get the plane down, not saying a word. Once they're landed he look right at her, something in his eyes more concerned that usual. They don't have they kind of friendship, usually. They joke, they tease, they're not serious unless... "You sure you don't want to sit this one out?" Clint asks her pointedly, nodding to her hands that are shaking as she touches the controls.

"I'm FINE."Tasha tears the radio from her head and stands in a huff, storming her way to the back of the plane to she can get the hell off of it. She just wants to do her job and go home. but she can't do it by herself. "Are you guys coming, or what!?"

Steve glanced up but didn't look at her as he stood and walked off the plane. Tony stayed sitting down, watching him with a look of shock, confusion & concern on his face. He then looked at Clint and mouthed the words. "We've got a problem."

"No shit." Clint's not going to bother being discreet. He gets his equipment ready, half watching Tasha leaves, then Steve. Then he looks at Tony. "You watch his back, I'll watch hers, deal?" It's not any different than the way Hawkeye and the Black Widow work together usually.

When Tasha gets off the plane, she immediately starts to survey the area, gathering information, trying to work out a plan.

No wait. That's not her job. It's...the leaders job.

"Whats's the plan, Cap?" Natasha asks crisply as she doubles checks her guns and her wrists to makes her the cartridges are all in place.

Tony nodded before turning to walk away, but not before saying quietly. "Caps leaving the team."

Steve breathed in sharply when she spoke to him, glancing in her direction then back at the plane before looking around. "We need to head towards where we got the signal from. Keeping a watch incase theres a trap or something."

"He said he was quitting?" Clint, again, doesn't bother to be quiet. "Who's that leaving in charge? You?" That wouldn't be very fair. The archer follows Tony, a bit pissed that Stark walked away without giving him more information.

Natasha sighs at Steve's 'orders'. That's a fairly obvious plan. He's smarter than that, isn't he? Now that just makes her bitter. He's not usually like this in the field. "Of course there's a trap, there's always a trap. Give me some better direction here, Cap!" The last part is snappish and she doesn't really care.

Oh, who is she kidding, yes she does.

OOC: Emailed you with question, BTW. Nothing huge though.

"I'll give a better direction when I want to and when I need to, okay?" He retorted, looking at her properly for a moment before looking away and breathing in and out deeply to calm himself.

"Okay children, calm down and lets go." Tony said as he walked between them.

"Maybe you need to think about what could happen before things happen so people don't end up getting hurt." Tasha shoots back, the comment not just about Steve's leadership style. It's actually more self-critical than anything, but he's the jerk that made her fall in love with him. Yes...she's to the anger phase of the whole 'process'. She likes the anger phase.

Tony's comment and moving between them doesn't help. She gives Steve one last look, part judgment and part regret before moving after Tony. "Iron Man knows how to lead." Now she's just being mean...

Steve gritted his teeth tight and tried to keep himself calm but couldn't help but retort as she passed the both of them "Maybe you should think before things happen then maybe people wouldn't have gotten hurt."

Natasha opens her mouth to say something back that would probably get a guy who said the same thing punched, but she stops when one of Clint's arrows go flying past her head.

"Maybe you both should pay attention." Barton says before jumping into the thick of of a fight. Tasha's eyes follow him a second before she runs after him.

Steve looked ahead of them and ran intot he fight, swinging his shield and hitting several people.

People? That's never good. Tasha does her very best to keep her temper in check and take down the henchmen without any casualties. They're all used to people picking the wrong side by now but...there's so many of them this time.

Tasha flips around to dodge a man in civilian clothes swinging a crowbar at her. She keeps the comment about this being like a bad video game to herself before she knocks the man unconscious. "I don't think these guys are here voluntarily."

"Was starting to think that myself." Steve replied, ducking & rolling out of the way. "We'd better be careful we don't kill anyone." He added, looking at Natasha and the others.

Edited Date: 2012-09-13 03:04 pm (UTC)

Tasha usually doesn't go for insults this easy, but he practically handed it to her. "Thanks, Captain Obvious. I'll try not to kill any innocent people." She dodges another civilian who seems to thing they're a street fighter, then looks around to see how the others are doing. It seems like everyone in a short radius of the distress signal is effected. "This may have been localized." Tasha points out before flipping out of the way of someone else. "Tony, can your butler figure out if that's the right track?" Yes, she'll always call JARVIS that.

Steve glared at her, neutralising a few of their attackers. Tony nodded as he struggled not to shoot any of the civilians attacking him. "Agent Romanoff is correct." JARVIS replied.

She's not exactly pleases with Steve's lack of leadership at the moment. Still, Tasha doesn't want anyone to die so she calls out an order. Something she imagines Steve would say. Hopefully. She's still questioning if she knew him very well at all. "We need to find and neutralize what's causing it." She looks upwards. "Somebody get up high and see if you can get a better look at the area."

"On it." Tony replied before flying up, hoping that Clint could handle Steve and Natasha. Steve watched him fly up before diving out of the way of some bullets.

Natasha does something very stupid, and very telling then. She spins around to see the man who shot at Steve, her expression still a lot angrier than usual. She pauses one moment to aim, then shots at the mans hand, hopefully knocking the gun away. She's still protective, too protective. Those feelings don't just go away overnight.

Steve looked over at her and gave a nod of thanks. He looked at the shooter on the ground, making sure he was neutralized. Even though he knew Natasha could get the job done.

Of course she can. Natasha looks away from Steve quickly, moving forward to the thick of the crowd of drones. Clint doesn't like that, of course he can't watch Steve and Tasha when the distance between them is growing, so he stays in the middle, eyes darting around the block.