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.

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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.

"It seems to be centering around this area. I'm looking for something that may giving off a signal." Tony said through their headsets as he kept looking. Steve continued to fight with the civilians, disarming one that was about to shoot Natasha. A little harder than he probably should have.

She's too busy fighting to notice what Steve did. Tasha's at the risk of being overrun here since she has to hold back and not hurt anyone. It's not easy for her, and she takes a couple of hard hits. Even so she never stops fighting. When she hears Tony in her earpiece she all but shouts back. "Look faster! I'm getting buried here!"

Steve notices how she's getting over run and automatically runs over to help her. Tony continues to search before spotting something. "Think I found it."

She doesn't need to be rescued, Steve! Okay, maybe she does but the fact it's him makes her all the more cranky about it. "I've got it just fine." Tasha says sharply, pushing him out of the way when someone with a crowbar goes to hit him. "Watch your own ass, Cap. I'm...." She stops suddenly, a choking gasp coming out of her mouth instead of the next words. Tasha looks over to Steve again, shaking her head before she looks down at her stomach.

Maybe it would have been a better plan to let the super solider take the crowbar to the guts instead of herself. "Oh...shit." Tasha nearly falls over as her gun falls from her hands so she can cover her stomach. "Ow." She says weakly before dropping to her knees.

Steves eyes widened before he took the crowbar from her attacked and knocked him unconscious. He then moved to her side, checking on her.

"Tasha?"

By the time he's done with that she's on the concrete, her eyes wide with panic and pain. There's a million thought rushing through her mind then. So many things, and none of them concerning the hole that just got torn into her. She blinks, trying to focus her eyes on him. "Are you OK?" A second ago it wouldn't have been the first words out of her mouth, but it was always in her mind. Always. You don't just stop loving someone because they hurt you.

"I'm fine." Steve replied as he looked her over. Seeing how she was hurt, Steve tapped his headset. "I need to get Natasha out of here. Can you guys handle this?"

Nothings ruptured, but she's torn up enough that she's losing a lot of blood and the pain is somewhat blinding. "Good." Tasha tried to smile, but even that hurt.

There's a loud curse before Clint's voice comes over the communicator. "What? WHY?!? What happened?"

Natasha can hear him, even though it's fuzzy. Everything fuzzy and she's so damn cold. She picked a very bad day to not wear the re-enforced cat suit but there was that incident with the acid a few days back and it's still in repairs. "Steve, I'm..." She closes her eyes, trying to shake her head. "Don't leave them. I'll be fine. I...I promise." She might be lying. She doesn't know.

"She took a crowbar to the stomach and she needs help now" Steve said in reply to Clint.

"I need to get you out of here, Tasha you need help..."

That's enough to make Clint pause long enough to order emergency extraction. There will be a helicopter there soon enough.

"Watch your back." Tasha says weakly, her eyes opening slightly. They're still in the thick of a fight, after all.

"I'll be fine." He told her before glancing around. "Just keep looking at me."

"Didn't think... you'd want me looking at you again after...I..." Tasha stops, swallowing back tears that threaten. Is this really the way she's going to go out? Torn to hell by a...zombie and whimpering like a child.

Maybe...she doesn't know so she has to say something. She has to say everything in case she never has the chance to again.

"Steve, I..." Tasha pulls on every ounce of strength she has left to reach her hand up to his face. "I never wanted to hurt you, not ever. All...all I wanted was for you to be happy, and I...couldn't." Her eyes close again, the ability to speak getting harder and harder. "I'm so sorry, baby. I...I...I'm so sorry made everything worse for you by... being...me."

Steve closed his eyes as she touched his face, instinctively leaning into her hand. "Tasha..." He murmured quietly. "It... it wasn't your fault. Zola made that duplicate too identical to me. No one could have known...." He replied, opening his eyes to look into hers. "You make it better by being you...."

Edited Date: 2012-09-13 07:15 pm (UTC)