Eleanor and Nat had greatly enjoyed their Christmas break at Clint's, but they had to head back for a New Year's event being held at SHIELD. Clint decided to stay with his family for the remainder of the holidays, and the two women wanted to give him some alone time with his family. So, they were gonna go party. Eleanor wasn't really the person to go out and party, but she thought it would be a nice change of pace and so was pretty excited to go.

Nat and Eleanor were using the pick-up truck that they had driven here in, Clint was arranging other transportation for getting back to HQ when the time comes. It had been a pretty quiet ride so far, both were kinda tired from the holidays and entertaining the kids for a week, and it required a lot of energy to keep up with them.

Nat was mainly focused on driving, they weren't on the main highway yet, instead, they were still on some pretty quiet country roads with a lot of twists and turns. Eleanor was zoning out a lot, taking in the scenery, one of her CDs playing quietly in the background. It wasn't an awkward silence between them, they were both very comfortable. Until Eleanor opened her mouth.

"What are you wearing tonight?".

"What?", Nat responded, briefly looking away from the road to look at the passenger seat before looking back.

"It's not a complicated question Nat", Eleanor started with a giggle, "For the party, what are you going to wear to the party?".

"Ohhh, that's what you- nevermind", she replied before pretending to concentrate on the road even harder.

"What did you think I meant?", the younger woman looked at Nat with her head tilted in confusion. Nat briefly looked over and shook her head slightly.

"OH! You thought I meant that?! Head out of the gutter bloody hell", laughing afterwards.

Nat seemed to not know how to respond, and just kept giving extremely quick side glances, which confused Eleanor greatly as she was usually quite a flirty person, so thought that she would take advantage of this situation; but evidently not.

She pursed her lips together due to the sudden awkwardness, something she hadn't experienced with Nat in a long time so it was weird. In a desperate attempt to vanquish the awkwardness, she decided to carry on talking, it could go either way she thought. "Uh, I'm thinking of wearing a suit I got the other week".

Nat scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, "You wear suits?". She had never seen Eleanor in formal wear but she had expected her to be more of a dress person for some reason, although she didn't know why.

"Yeah, sometimes dresses too though, how do you not know, you and Katniss raided my wardrobe on your first proper day here?".

Nat just shrugged, "I only saw your shirt section".

"Fair enough".

"I bet you look nice in a suit".

Both women froze with wide eyes in shock at what just flew out of Nat's mouth. Eleanor's expression soon turned into a blushing mess, however, whilst Nat was still cursing herself in the driver's seat.

"Thank you, I bet you do too".

Nat turned once again to see Eleanor just absentmindedly looking out of the window, and she smiled to herself. Whilst Eleanor may have looked like she was absentmindedly staring out the window, she was internally having a minor freak out and trying to keep her cool, apparently, it was working.

"I will be wearing a dress. Navy coloured".

Excited for the conversation she initiated to not be a weird, awkward mess anymore, Eleanor was very quick with her response, "Navy's gonna make your hair pop, you will look amazing".

"Thank you, El", Nat replied softly. The younger smiled sweetly back before turning back to look out of the window, this time genuinely having a clear head.

Nat used this opportunity to do some thinking. She let her mind go on autopilot whilst driving through the countryside. It really was a beautiful day that day, the sun was shining, only a few white clouds in sight, it was comfortably warm, but the Agent's mind kept drifting to the woman sitting beside her. Recently, she had been confused, she already spent time with Eleanor practically 24/7, and yet she wanted more, but that was impossible she thought. How could she have more than they already have? They'd have to be literally glued at the side.

She was also confused at how she was noticing more things about her as of late. Her looks weren't a thing that Natasha had ever really paid attention to, she was aware that her best friend was a good looking woman, but recently Nat had begun to see her as beautiful. It had started to annoy her whenever Eleanor complained about how something looked on her, because in Nat's eyes it looked perfect, and she couldn't comprehend why she couldn't see that.

She was broken out of her thoughts, however, by the younger Agent being her classic self, "Hey, can we stop for food, I'm starving". A bit of boredom was beginning to take over, she was too tired to be able to get excited about a road trip, and when she was bored, she got hungry.

"We ate an hour ago".

Eleanor huffed like a child, "I'm hungry though".

Nat gave a dry chuckle and shook her head, "Of course we can, I think there's a small pizza place along here somewhere".

"How did you know I was craving pizza?", Eleanor gasped dramatically.

"I know everything about you Hughes", she replied nonchalantly.

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Romanoff".

---

After a couple more hours, with full bellies, the two had arrived back at HQ and immediately had to start getting ready due to the pizza break. They had agreed to get ready separately and meet in the room the New Year's party was being held, much to Eleanor's dismay. However, Nat insisted, as she knew that if they got ready together, Eleanor would put music on and start her own concert and be even later than they likely would be. The younger begrudgingly agreed that this would indeed be the case.

So, they parted ways and headed into their rooms. Nat was fast and efficient with getting ready, unlike the other one.

She wanted her hair to look her natural short and curled, but styled it so that it wouldn't go frizzy over the course of the night, and put on her navy dress, it hugged tightly at the waist but flowed more as it went down, and went to a few inches above her knees, paired with some heels.

In the time it had taken Nat to do this, Eleanor had just laid out her suit. The wall had been a bit too distracting, and now she had to speed around. She quickly straightened her hair and tied it up in a half-up style with a clip. Then, getting into her pastel blue suit, with a white bodysuit underneath, with some white Vans, classy.

---

Nat had been waiting at the bar for about 15 minutes, tutting her friend in her head for being a bit late, but also found it amusing because she had predicted this. She was sipping on her wine when she turned around and saw Eleanor heading toward her. She had to try not to stare too hard but was failing, she had to mentally tell herself to get a grip.

Nat downed the rest of her wine to try and find some confidence, and then stood up to meet her halfway, and when she did, Eleanor's jaw dropped, and she had to snap herself out of it.

The two had finally reached each other, "I was right".

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to rub it in, I know I'm late", Eleanor scoffed with an amused smile, her and Clint were always on Eleanor's case as she had a tendency to leave when something started, not a great way of arriving on time.

"No, I was right about you looking good in a suit", Nat had her signature smirk.

This left Eleanor very flustered, "T-thank you, I was right too, you look amazing".

Both blushed at each other's compliments before heading over to the bar. "Another wine?", the bartender asked Nat, to which she nodded in response. He looked over to Eleanor expectedly.

"Vodka coke please".

Whilst the bartender was getting their drinks they stood in silence, not knowing what to say to start the conversation. Nat saw Eleanor tapping the bar repeatedly with one of her nails, signalling that she was slightly anxious, but she too was at a bit of a loss for words for some reason.

Once they got their drinks, they headed to a part of the room not swarming with people. It proved to be a hard task at first but they eventually managed to push through some crowds to an empty corner. Once Eleanor made a snarky comment on how busy it was the two managed to slip into easy conversation, chatting for hours. They told cringey jokes and talked about work, activities they thought would be fun to do together - Eleanor had to turn down skydiving about ten times, claiming that she did not want to jump to her death.

Throughout the night some other people had asked them to get a drink with them or to go and dance, but they both declined the offers. They were perfectly happy in each other's company. It was a wonder that they still had things to talk about, but they always did, when they weren't anxious messes as of late that is.

They eventually had to stop and go to the middle of the room, ready for the countdown to 2009. Eleanor said that she just wanted to stay put in their little corner, but Nat made the point that they'd looked completely anti-social all night and so should probably go and join in with the others. Eleanor reluctantly agreed, Nat having to drag her by the arm across the room. Both of them stood towards the back of the crowd, as they were one of the last people to get there, due to their debate.

People around them started shouting the countdown, including Eleanor. Nat was simply looking at her side profile, which didn't go unnoticed. She stopped joining in with the others and turned to face Nat, they both looked into each other's eyes, slowly getting closer, until the countdown was over, people cheering and clapping in the background. At this point, both of them were a bundle of nerves, but they wanted this, it felt right, felt natural.

Nat saw that Eleanor wasn't backing away and so took the lead and started leaning in, prompting Eleanor to do the same. This was it. This was the moment.

Unfortunately, just as they were about to reach each other, a man in front of them got pushed backwards, ultimately slamming into Eleanor, who went flying and would have been flat on the floor if Nat hadn't been able to grab her by the bicep.

The man hurriedly gave his apologies which they accepted, as it wasn't his fault. When Nat realised she was still holding onto Eleanor's arm she quickly let go. She turned to meet Eleanor's gaze and saw that she looked happy, Nat however was now at mental war with herself. Now that she wasn't caught up in the heat of the moment she realised that she couldn't do this. Not that she didn't want to, because she really did. She was just being held back by her mind and didn't know how to fight back, to be able to freely chase what she wants.

"I'm gonna go", Nat said tearing her eyes away from Eleanor, before quickly walking away. She couldn't exactly storm off as she had to push her way through the crowds of happy people who were getting drunk and celebrating the new year. Due to her slow speed, the younger Agent was able to match her speed and follow the path that she had unknowingly created through the crowd, leading Eleanor right towards Natasha.

During her short-lived journey to keep up with Nat, Eleanor's mind was racing. Everything was currently so confusing, and it didn't help that her mind was slightly clouded by the alcohol that she had drunk tonight, albeit she didn't have much, a few glasses, but enough to mean she wasn't thinking as straight as normal. Did she say something wrong? She couldn't remember talking during that though. Had she accidentally put pressure on Natasha? Though she could swear it wasn't her who leaned in and was in fact, Nat.

She didn't have much more time to ponder though, as she soon caught up to Nat and gently grabbed ahold of her wrist, "Are you okay?".

Nat looked down at her hand before snatching it away and looking back up, seeing hurt flash in the other's eyes. She pushed the guilt down and instead snapped at her, "Get off me, I'm fine", then turned back around, storming out the room. She didn't want to even think about what was going on in her mind right now, let alone talk about it. And so she made a beeline for her room where she knew that no one would come and bother her.

Tears threatened to spill out of Eleanor's eyes. She was so happy a few seconds ago, about to kiss the person she likes, and they were the ones to lean in first. But now she was left hurt and confused. Standing idly for a few seconds, she gathered her thoughts before leaving as well, going straight to her room.

Eleanor felt like the universe was against her on the way as she kept seeing people in the halls, and had to put on a smile and say 'hello' out of politeness each time, so she swallowed thickly and pushed the tears down until she got to the safety of her room.

Once at her destination, she flung the door open, and the momentum meant that the door closed a lot louder than normal, making her wince slightly before carrying on with her actions. A few tears silently made their way down her face, before she aggressively pawed at her cheeks to hide them, she didn't want to cry over this.

Slowly, she got out of her clothes and into something comfier for nighttime wear and paced around a bit trying to clear her head so that she would be able to get to sleep. She doubted that she would be able to sleep though, her mind would be replaying everything that happened tonight, overanalysing and dissecting every detail until she wouldn't be sure what really happened anymore. The blessing of an overthinker.

After she couldn't take being on her feet anymore, she sat on her bed and stared at the floor for while. Once she decided that it was time to try and sleep she climbed under her covers, hugging them to her body tightly. "Oh well, almost", she muttered before closing her eyes, and not falling asleep.