Chapter Text
“What’s holding Trip up from this mission?” Natasha adjusted her suit as Skye tightened the straps of her vest.
“Same thing as Clint, family matters he had to deal with. Did either of us tell Fury it would just be us?” Natasha clicked her tongue softly.
“Nope.” she hummed. “I know we can handle it, but he would take us off the mission of he knew it was just us two.” Skye nodded lightly. The mission was last minute, just as last minute as Clint and Trip having to call off at the same time for separate family issues. That left her an Natasha for a four-person mission with a team that had shrunk to two.
Natasha had worked on her nerves around Skye on missions enough that Fury didn’t see any issues with them working together anymore. After everything with Skye’s major fuckup they had to be separated for a while again mission-wise, but he’d seemed to slowly calm down about it over time, and probably with some reassurance from Natasha.
“Hopefully we don’t get trapped somewhere again, considering it’s happened to you three times.” Skye groaned softly at the reminder.
“I have bad luck is all.” she whined. “I swear I’m good at my job.” She joked softly as Natasha laughed, a smile playing across her lips as she shook her head lightly.
Skye tucked her silver locket into her shirt once they were close to landing, Natasha glancing at her with a soft smile as she got ready.
“I still don’t know what to do with all those gifts you got me, we don’t have any more space in the closet.”
“I’ll build it out.” Skye smiled, Natasha deflating slightly.
“Or… you could slow down on the gift-giving.” Skye stuck her tongue out at her in a clear refusal as Natasha rolled her eyes softly. “Or hire a contractor for another thing, you don’t have to do all the work yourself even Tony doesn’t do that.” She shrugged softly
“It lets me add more high-tech implements without having to weird out a contractor, and they’re too slow, I’d rather do it myself in a night then get it finished over a weekend.” she paused for a moment “Besides, you had no complaints about the kitchen weapon cabinet.” Natasha opened her mouth to retort before closing her mouth, huffing softly.
She liked that installation a lot, right behind the advanced security system Skye had installed with Jarvis monitoring the outside constantly. It gave Tony peace of mind to because Jarvis would always tell him they were doing fine as he observed through the outdoor security system. The inside system was more closed off from Jarvis, constantly monitoring but by no means sentient.
Natasha loved how secure the house was.
“You have to slow down?” she asked instead.
“You tricked me into forgetting our anniversary, I’ve got at least three more months of gift-giving in me.” Natasha cracked a smile at her reply.
“Fair enough.” she laughed.
“So what’s the goal? I didn’t read the briefing.” Natasha snorted softly as Skye yawned softly.
“We’re after a strike team touring cities, they’re taking out targets as they go, making political assassinations look like suicides.”
“How did we catch on?”
“One of their photos made it into our hands, they work off commissions and someone who bought their services died, their correspondence and the photos for proof of the job completion were all on his computer and handed over to us by the FBI.” She explained. Skye hummed softly.
“Fury wanted a tech on the job?”
“He wanted a list of all their buyers if you could get it from their phones.” Skye clicked her tongue softly as she looked out the back of the quinjet, Natasha shouldered her backpack as they left the quinjet behind. It would have to stay there until they got done with the mission.
“Should we grab something to eat on the way?” Natasha suggested. Skye shook her head lightly.
“It’s too time-sensitive.” Natasha frowned lightly but didn’t argue, following her to the hotel they had set up, across the hall from where they were. Skye got to work setting up a camera on their door’s peephole to keep an eye on them while Natasha set up their monitoring equipment.
“-Danny, the client-” the audio crackled in and out a bit, Skye peering over at her as she watched the equipment fade in and out. She left her project to peer down at the screen.
“Must have a scrambler,” Natasha backed off, letting her have a go at it for a minute before the audio crackled to life.
“-square, we’ll have a good vantage point from there. The client wanted a murder-suicide. His dick needs to be cut off.” Skye coughed, brows raised as Natasha blinked.
“Should I order pizza while you listen in?” Natasha plugged in headphones to it, slipping them on as she gave a slight nod. Skye flopped onto the bed, ordering a pizza on her phone.
The pizza came fairly quickly as they sat in silence, eating just as silently as they listened in, and Skye watched the cameras idly. They weren’t going much of anything, and based on Natasha’s updates they had so far worked out a rough plan and decided to call it a night for now.
So needless to say, the opportunity was right there.
When night fell and all was silent they confirmed they were all asleep with a thermal camera and Natasha picked the lock with Skye standing guard.
When a soft click finally sounded Natasha slid into the room, unsheathing a knife from her boot as Skye held her combat knife tightly, silently closing the door behind them. They stepped lightly and silently, Skye moving towards the two cots to the far side of the room as Natasha sunk a knife though the neck of the man closest to the door, a hand over his mouth muffling any of his reaction.
One of the assassins shifted in the bed at the slight noise.
Skye dispatched him quickly with minimal noise as Natasha moved around the room to the last remaining assassin. Skye moved quietly, grabbing one of their phones as she killed him at the desk he was sleeping at, dragging the chair back and away from the blood-spattered desk. Skye pulled on plastic gloves, typing away at the laptop, breaking through the passcode. She downloaded the information to a USB, glancing over the current mess of the room. Four dead men and a bloody mess to clean up.
She didn’t keep her attention on the mess for long, pocketing the USB and tossing her gloves.
“We should call for a cleanup crew.”
“Already texted Hill about it. Was this really supposed to be a job for all four of us?” Natasha rolled her eyes softly as Skye rose her brows. Yeah this was oddly easy for such a high tier job.
“Maybe it was mislabeled, or we’re just that good.” Natasha chuckled softly at her second explanation, shaking her head lightly.
“They’re supposedly very skilled assassins. Though no one is too strong when caught off guard.” Natasha shrugged a little as she wiped off her hands and knife. “Should we get something on the way back?” She looked up, watching Skye check her watch.
“Sure, we’ve got time.” They left the room, locking it behind them, Natasha hanging a do not disturb placard on the handle as they left.
They walked beside each other holding hands as Skye looked up a good place to grab something sweet on the way back to the quinjet, utterly unbothered by the mess they had left behind.
“There’s a churro place on the way, you like those.” Skye smiled softly.
“We’ll get those then, let me pay.” Skye gave her a side glance. Natasha rolled her eyes at the look.
“You promised you’d let me buy you treats and food every now and then Skye.” she reminded. Skye pouted softly.
“Fine.” she agreed.
“You’re not allowed to get me a gift to make up for it either.” Skye huffed softly, her thought process interrupted by Natasha’s swift denial.
“Fine but I’ll buy the next meal.” Natasha shrugged lightly. She’d nearly given up on paying for things most of the time. Skye always put her card down in advance, or on some occasions bribed staff to take her card instead of Natasha's when Natasha managed to put her card down first.
“Alright.” Natasha smiled softly.
They ate while walking back to the quinjet, smiling and laughing as they talked.