Title: Walk a Mile
Prompt:
writerverse challenge #23 weekly quick fic #8, prompts ‘crimson’ & ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’
Word Count: 596
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Avengers (MCU/movie ‘verse)
Pairings : Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanoff
Summary: Pepper is kidnapped, but when Natasha rescues her, it won’t be as the Black Widow
Note(s): originally posted to the
writerverse wv_library Walk a Mile
They had taken Pepper.
It had been a surgical operation, quick and clean, and it would have been a perfect abduction except for one small thing- they hadn’t meant to take Pepper at all. They had meant to take Natasha, and an operation meant to capture the Black Widow would have had no trouble at all subduing the CEO of Stark Industries.
There was a part of Natasha that knew it was her fault. Pepper was hardly a civilian anymore, having now dated two Avengers, not to mention running a Fortune 500 company, but she and Natasha were the same size and regularly swapped clothes. As often as Natasha changed her hair, it wasn’t too hard to believe that someone would get the two women mixed up, and Natasha couldn’t help but feel that she should have seen that possibility coming.
It had been the perfect timing, when the rest of the Avengers had been on the other side of the world, dealing with a string of Hydra bases in the Himalayas, while Natasha was sidelined with a couple of bruised ribs. Pepper had immediately taken the week off- well, as much as she could, anyway- and they had spent every moment together, until this morning, when Natasha had left Pepper on a ‘quick’ conference call to get them breakfast.
And come back to an empty apartment.
With JARVIS’s help, Natasha tracked the kidnappers to a warehouse in a surprisingly more reputable section of the city, and she was moving before she realized, already thinking about strategy and tactics, but she froze when her fingers touched the fabric of her uniform.
The kidnappers though they had captured the Black Widow. It had been several hours already, and there had been no word from Pepper, like there would have been if she’d been released, and no ransom demand, like there would have been if they’d realized their mistake. If Natasha went in, guns blazing, the way every instinct demanded, things could go south very quickly.
The solution was easy- if Pepper was now the Black Widow, Natasha would just have to become Pepper Potts.
She left her uniform and pulled out Pepper’s most intimidating, conquer-the-boardroom suit and took a deep breath as she put on Pepper’s favorite shade of crimson lipstick. Natasha felt naked without her guns, but she walked purposely out on three-inch heels, ignoring Happy’s worried looks as he drove her to her target.
“I believe you have something that’s mine,” she said, to the lackey who stopped her at the warehouse door, and minutes later, she was striding across the concrete floor.
Pepper was tied to a chair, looking rumpled but mostly unhurt, and her eyes widened when she saw Natasha.
“I won’t mention how monumentally lucky you were that this actually succeeded,” Natasha snapped, to the further two lackeys guarding her girlfriend. “Because I can assure you, the Black Widow wouldn’t still be here if she didn’t choose to be.”
One of the idiots snorted. “She hasn’t even tried to escape.”
Pepper smiled. “That’s because she’s only just gotten here. Do you mind, Tasha?”
Grinning, Natasha whirled into motion, taking out both of the guards before they knew what had hit them, and bending to untie Pepper. She pulled her to her feet, rubbing Pepper’s wrists where the ropes had chaffed, then kicked off her shoes and helped Pepper into them.
“They look better on you,” Natasha murmured.
“I don’t know,” Pepper said, leaning into her. “It’s kind of nice to know you can fill my shoes.”
“Never,” said Natasha, and kissed her.
THE END
Current Mood:
blah