During the extent of their stay at the hospital together, they had discussed exactly what had happened on Nat's mission, and what happened during the whole shooting event. The Winter Soldier they had deducted based on what Nat was saying. They knew it would be a hard task, but they agreed to start trying to look for him on the side of their assigned cases from Fury and Hill. After they had spoken about it though, they didn't bring it up again, they were just enjoying the time that they had together.

"Thank you for looking after me", Nat smiled at the younger woman sitting in front of her, packing up their bags ready for the SHIELD jet to come and collect them soon.

"Will you stop saying that?", she chuckled, of course, she was going to look after her, she didn't want to be thanked for it.

"Nope", Nat returned popping the 'p'.

Eleanor turned to face Nat and slowly walked over, "You. Are. Annoying", she said before giving Nat a peck on the forehead and going back to the bags.

"If I'm annoying, take a second to think about how annoying you are".

"No, I don't think I will". The two smirked at each other.

They were interrupted by a nurse entering the room, telling them that there were Agents waiting for them in the reception, she seemed mildly annoyed that they were taking up so much space in the waiting room, making them both stifle laughs as she spoke.

When the nurse had left, Eleanor threw the bags on the bottom of the bed, and sat next to Nat for a final time, "Now before we go, I wanna do one final re-dress is that okay? We're gonna be up there for a few hours". She had been doing all of the dressings since being here, the Doctors had protested at first but after seeing the perfect job she did on the first dressing they just allowed it, not wanting to be berated by the very persistent woman.

Nat hadn't been hesitant to let Eleanor see it over the last few days, but she had seen that the way it was healing was going to leave a large scar and so she felt a bit self-conscious. Eleanor picked up on her being uncomfortable as Nat lifted her shirt slightly, "Hey, what's up?".

Nat chewed on the inside of her cheek a bit, "It doesn't look nice".

Eleanor let out a small laugh, "Oh yeah? Well I think it's the coolest".

Nat frowned, "You- what?".

"You got shot bad enough that someone else was shot through you Nat, and lived because you're Natasha frickin' Romanoff, this", she stopped to point towards the wound she was currently re-dressing, "Is a badge of honour, wear it with pride".

Nat smiled whilst shaking her head slightly, "You're quite the optimist, aren't you?".

"Nah, I'm a realist".

"Oh fuck off", Nat scoffed and shoved her off the bed.

Eleanor regained her balance and smirked at Nat's antics, "Do you want me to leave you here? I can leave you here".

"You jumped out of a plane to see me in the first place, I do not believe this false threat".

"You're never gonna let me live that down are you?". Nat just looked at her and tilted her head, showing that it was obvious that she wouldn't just let that drop.

Nat stood up off of the bed and carefully went to pick up her bag before her hand was slapped away.

"No". There was no way that Eleanor was going to allow Nat to carry her own bags, there'd be a higher chance of her jumping out of a plane again.

"But I can take my own-".

"No". Eleanor slung both bags over one shoulder, and held out her left arm, signalling for Nat to let her take her waist and help her walk out.

"I can walk on my own you know", Nat said but still walked into Eleanor's hold anyway.

"I know".

The two slowly made their way out of the room and towards the exit where they saw people waiting for them, who led them towards the jet. They grinned at each other when the jet had come into view, they both really couldn't wait to get home. And Nat was feeling much better, she was able to walk on her own now if she took it slow, but Eleanor still insisted on helping her out of the hospital.

Once on the jet, they sat down and strapped themselves in, the two had agreed to keep whatever their relationship was progressing into quiet, for now, not wanting to draw any attention to themselves and just to see how it plays out. So, they made sure to keep a little bit of distance so that it still looked platonic, not that the other Agents were really paying attention to them, they were basically just doing a glorified taxi job.

---

The next few hours were spent just chatting, Eleanor was talking to Nat about the work that she had to do when she got back, as she was pretty much only just put on the new case before she went to Odessa.

During her rambles, Nat was listening intently whilst also admiring all of the little quirks she was showing, the way her eyes lit up in excitement when talking about her work, how she used her hands a lot to aid in talking, and how her eyebrows scrunched slightly when talking about something that other Agents did that annoyed her.

Eleanor stopped and squinted at Nat, "What are you doing?". Nat was making a lot more eye intense contact than normal and was sometimes looking at other parts of her face, making her suspicious, in a good way.

"I'm listening to you", she replied plainly.

"You're staring Romanoff".

"I'm just looking at you whilst you're talking, leave me alone", she spoke at a fast pace in return.

"Mmk". Before Nat could get a reply in, they felt the jet start to descend.

When the jet was back in the hangar, Eleanor once again carried both of their bags, but knew that now they were back in HQ with more people around, Nat would want to walk herself. This didn't stop the younger Agent hovering slightly close to Nat, ready to grab her if she started to stumble or something. Nat was internally laughing at Eleanor's actions.

Clint walked up to them and grabbed Nat's bag from Eleanor, "Cheers, Barton".

The trio then began walking towards Nat's room after greeting each other so that she could unpack her stuff. "So, you feeling okay Romanoff?", Clint started.

"Yeah, hard not to be when this one", She elbowed Eleanor in the rib, "Is on your case 24/7".

Eleanor scoffed, "The Doctors were useless".

Clint and Nat gave each other a small look before Clint continued, "Well as long as you're okay, it's been weird without the both of you around".

"Awww, did Clint get lonely", this earned the young woman a smack on the back of her head from Clint.

"Well, that was vicious".

They had now reached Nat's room, so Eleanor quickly threw her own bag into her own room as it was close to Nat's, before following the other two, she would unpack later, at the minute she just wanted to make sure that Nat had everything sorted so that she could get settled again.

---

It only took about 10 minutes to put everything away with 3 pairs of hands on the job, so they decided to go down to the cafeteria to grab some lunch. They walked a bit slower than normal so that Nat could keep up, and on the way, a few Agents sent some small sympathetic nods toward her. She wasn't in pain anymore really, she just had to take it slow to keep it that way.

Once they reached the cafeteria they swiftly grabbed some food and sat down, Nat and Clint next to each other, with Eleanor sitting opposite Nat. They had only gotten a few bites in before Maria leapt into the seat next to Eleanor, stealing her packet of crisps. That was crossing a line.

"What is your problem?".

"My problem", She paused to point a crisp at her, "Is I haven't properly seen you for a while".

"And your answer to that is stealing my food?", she whined in response trying to snatch the crisp packet back, Clint and Nat stifling laughs from the other side of the table, she was hoping for some backup from her friends, but evidently not.

"I'll give you your food back if you come shopping with me or something".

Eleanor paused in thought for a brief second, whenever Eleanor had suggested shopping trips in the past Maria always turned them down. "You, Maria Hill, want me to go shopping with you?".

Maria briefly looked at Nat and Clint in confusion, before turning back to Eleanor, "Yeah? What's the issue kiddo?", smirking at the nickname.

Eleanor chose to ignore this quip and focused on what was important, "You hate shopping".

"I need new boots, and you're coming with me, you two are invited too by the way", she added briefly gesturing to the others with her hand.

"Yeah, sure I'm in, Nat?".

"Mhm", she smiled whilst looking at the side of Eleanor's head, as she was still looking in Maria's direction. Clint noticed this and smirked.

Eleanor snapped her head in Nat's direction, "Are you sure you'll be okay with, you know?".

"If we walk slow, yes", she smiled.

"Okay, so when do we go?", Eleanor asked the group.

"I'm free now", Maria said before pouring the rest of the crisp packet into her mouth, with Eleanor looking at her with betrayal written across her face, causing the group to laugh.

"Anyway", Eleanor began, not appreciating being laughed at for having her food being eaten by someone else right in front of her, "Right now? I dunno Maria I feel like I've taken too much time off work recently to just up and leave in the middle of the day".

"You're Fury's golden child, you'll be fine".

"I am?", this was news to her.

"Yeah, you can't stay on his bad side".

"What about us?", Clint asked gesturing to him and Nat.

"Well Romanoff, you out-skill every Agent here so there's no chance of him scrapping you, and Barton... well he has low expectations of you anyway so you'll be fine".

Nat smiled whilst Clint slouched back in his seat, huffing. Eleanor had to stop herself from bursting out into hysterical laughter at this.

---

The four arrived at the mall and first went into a shoe shop so that Maria could buy her new boots. Nat and Eleanor ended up going off on their own to browse different sneakers, frequently cracking jokes and making each other laugh. Other than being in the hospital together, they hadn't got to properly hang out in a while so they were enjoying the new change of scene.

"So, what's the deal with those two?", Maria asked Clint as she packed up the boots she had picked out after trying them on.

"There's something going on, right?", He added.

"Oh, so you don't know?", She stood to look at the two across the shop.

"No, the last time I saw the both of them before today, they were avoiding each other".

Maria narrowed her eyes on the pair, Eleanor was sitting down on a stool trying on some Adidas running shoes, whilst Nat was holding her actual shoes, both of them chatting away and laughing every now and then.

"They're going out or something".

Clint snapped his head to Maria, "You think so?".

"I mean they're subtle but we are trained spies Barton, come on", she scoffed.

The other two reunited with Hill and Barton at the till as they paid for their shoes, "Found something you like?", Maria asked the younger woman whilst patting her shoulder.

"Mhm", she smiled nodding.

They all left and started heading to the food court as they ended up not eating their lunch due to Maria's interruption. Maria was making a point of talking to Nat more on the way there, only basic small talk or work talk but it was a continuous conversation that they were both enjoying. Eleanor was relieved, it was really important to her that the two got along, so this was nice.

---

Their food was purchased from a small independent burger place, and once the food was ready, they sat down, this time Nat was next to Eleanor, and Clint was in front of her with Maria on his side. Nat didn't get fries with her burger as she wasn't that hungry, but after she finished her burger she still felt a bit picky. "Can I have a couple?", She gestured towards Eleanor's fries.

"Yeah, sure", she held the packet of fries in front of Nat, who promptly took a couple.

Clint lightly slammed his hand down on the table, "Okay, that's enough". Eleanor almost jumped out of her skin, and Nat just blankly looked at him whilst slowly chewing on the fries.

"You never share food with anyone Hughes, and you know that, so what's the deal here?". At this point Maria leaned in, she wasn't going to contribute as she respected their boundaries, unlike a certain archer, but now that Clint was onto them she was invested in the storyline.

"What?", Nat and Eleanor said at the same time.

"You two, the deal, what is?". Great English there.

They continued to blankly stare at him, not wanting to reveal anything. So they acted confused. He huffed, "We know that you're going out or something, whatever you kids call it these days".

"Hey now, don't bring me into this", Maria quickly said after hearing 'we'.

Their eyes both widened and they looked at each other before turning back to face the two in front of them. Eleanor started tripping up on her words as she was flustered trying to get an explanation out that would leave Nat happy but also shut Barton up, so Nat jumped in and saved her. "Not that it's any of your business Barton", she seethed before softly saying, "We don't really know what it is yet, we're trying to get through new terrain so I'd appreciate it if you just dropped it".

Clint met Nat's glare with a beaming smile, "I knew it". This was just met with head tilts, so he rolled his eyes. "That day I was sorting out your scheduling, I told you Natasha that you both seemed veeery comfortable with each other". Nat and Eleanor wanted the ground to open up and just put them out of their misery then and there, but the universe doesn't work like that, so they both had to continue listening to Clint, unfortunately.

"Shut up, please", Eleanor pleaded.

"And all those times I cancelled on you both last-minute, forcing you two to be alone?", he smirked.

"Oh God...", Nat muttered under her breath. They didn't want to think about Clint being a potential puppetmaster of their relationship.

Maria jumped to the rescue by dragging the group off to another random shop. On the way there she stopped Eleanor by grabbing her arm, "I'm happy for you El, I really am, you seem a lot happier, and she's a good one".

"Thank you, I am", they smiled at each other before quickly catching up with the others. Not that it would have changed anything, but Eleanor was glad that she had Maria's approval, she looked up to her and so it meant a lot.

---

Later on, in the evening, Nat and Eleanor were in Nat's room, eating some peanut butter sandwiches whilst watching a James Bond movie that Nat chose.

Eleanor had been feeling guilty all day that their secret was out and within a few hours of being back too. She personally didn't really mind, but she knew that Nat was a bit more closed off with these things and so didn't want her to feel uncomfortable with how it was playing out so far.

"I'm sorry they found out", Eleanor started.

Nat turned and placed her hand on Eleanor's thigh, "Hey, it's not your fault, we should have really expected it considering our only friends are literal spies". Nat didn't blame Eleanor at all, she wouldn't mind giving Clint a good kick in the shins, though.

"You don't mind?".

"I mean, I don't like the idea of everyone knowing our business, but it's not the end of the world if people know you're off the market".

"Oh, so I'm off the market now?", Eleanor teased, which caused Nat to pinch her leg before picking up her sandwich again.

"Yes", she responded assertively whilst having her eyes back on the movie.

Eleanor didn't need words to respond, she just leaned into Nat's side, melting the redhead's heart, who promptly wrapped her arm around her, pulling her closer.

They were home.