14616/Back from Abroad

Back from Abroad
Date of Scene:	26 November 2022
Location:	Safehouse in NYC
Synopsis:	After months, the pair return to the U.S. and prepare to deal with everything back in the real world.
Cast of Characters:	Black Widow (Romanoff), Phobos

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Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
They had made it to the port earlier. A quick scheduling of a ride share allowed them to get back to their neighborhood with no difficulties. Then they walked the rest of the way to the safehouse, since it was only a block away from where they were dropped off.

SHIELD would wait. There was no rush to let them know they were back. It could wait a day. Not like either of them wanted to go deal with a debriefing at this moment. They needed to get adjusted to being home.

Once inside the door, she took a deep breath of the air and a little shudder went through her. Because while they were gone, the temperature had changed. It had dropped quite a bit, being much cooler than when they had left...had it been a month? Two? Honestly Natasha had completely lost track of time. Something she might check once they were settled in.

She headed up the stairs, bags in hand. He would have some as well. Not a huge amount as they'd just had what they got on the trip back. Once upstairs, she dropped them and paused to look around the room with the familiar furniture. "Home sweet home."

Phobos has posed:
    The main thing was they were home.
    He did have some luggage and he did have on a pair of blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and a grey jacket, at least some comfort against the chill in the city. He thumped the bags down near the stairwell, leaving them there. Then he started to walk around the house and smile to himself.
    "So which of us is going to check messages first? Land line? Spare cells?" He's walking around the perimeter, running fingers along the window's edges and checking some of the small markers they had in place to determine if they had an intrusion. But so far nothing.
    Then he smiles sidelong at her, "And you wanna place any bets on how many messages we have total?"
    He heads towards the hallway but along that path he stops to pull her into a one-armed embrace and kisses the top of her head. "Welcome home, babe."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
She lets him do the checking. Natasha had learned a while back that if she did check it, he would be checking it anyway despite her having just checked. So, she had learned to curb her urges. Thus, he was giving that space to do his checking around as she moved further into the living area.

Then he joined her. And she leaned in against his torso, putting one hand on the center of his back and the other rested on his chest. "Welcome home, love," she murmured, tilting her head back to look up at him with a bright smile.

She turned to move out of his arm and trailed her hand down it, until her hand was within his. Then pulling away until just their fingertips were touching. And Only then did she say, "You get unpacking duty!" And she bounded out of reach, finding that couch and throwing herself on it lengthwise, putting her hands behind her head in that over exaggerated relaxed pose.

"I am not touching a phone today. Maybe not even tomorrow. It can wait until Monday...right? I figure you probably have more messages than I do. They knew I'd quit at least. Though a few friends. Avengers knew I was away too so...yeah, You'll have way more messages. How many? Let's go with...23?"

Phobos has posed:
    "I'll unpack, you gotta clean."
    He says that as he points at her though he disappears in the direction of the bedroom and the storage area. A few moments and he's out of sight, but then he returns and replies, "We can hold off on checking. But... will see how long we can go until it bugs us."
    He returns to the living room and rests his hands on his hips as he looks down at her, "So we get back from a vacation and first thing you do is laze around?" He shakes his head, "Shame, Romanoff. Where is that Roosian Work Ethic?" His own Russian accent coming out to the fore there with those last three words.
    He clucks his tongue, "Comrade Stalin would be most disappoint." Boris Alex continues.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"Stalin was an asshole."

Then Natasha realized she better add something to that as she sat up quickly and got to her feet. "Not that I knew him personally." Though she had been alive when he was around and that was just something to wrap a head around.

She moved toward the bedroom, intending to change clothes into something more comfortable. "But yes, I'll clean. But you can unpack and help after. It won't take much at least." Dusting, sweeping, unloading the dishwasher since thankfully they had left no dirty dishes in the sink.

Phobos has posed:
    And, to be fair, the place wasn't that bad. There was some dust accumulated and things had been locked down. But they had no evidence of anything breaking down or suffering. Until he finished scouring the kitchen and said. "Ah."
    Then he stuck his head out of the room and said, "I think we have mice." He calls back. Tilting his head as she's in the other room changing and he can't see her. "Tiny mice poo in the cabinet. I am not sure how squicked I am supposed to be." Since his nose crinkles and he closes that cabinet.
    Then he straightens up and walks down the hall calling out, "I'm somewhere between get new sundries and burn the whole house down."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"You have got to be kidding," came the response from Natasha as she came out of the bedroom. She was wearing a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt with a cardigan sweater over it since it was still chill in the room. They needed to get the heat turned on.

"We clean everything out of the cabinet. Clean the cabinet itself with something like bleach. Lots of bleach. You obviously didn't live through the 30s if you are going to get squicked that easily." Which was kind of funny all things considered. Considering what they had done in Europe. Though that was a different sort of thing really.

She did move to the kitchen, looking for the folding step stool that she kept in there tucked next to the fridge. She unfolded it so she could climb up the two steps and look inside the cabinet he had closed. "Cleaning job just got a whole lot shittier. Pun intended."

Phobos has posed:
    "Gosh," Alex says as he rests his hands on his hips, "I'm sure glad I just have to unpack our luggage." And as he says that he starts to walk into the bedroom too, his turn to change as he disappears from view for a time, footsteps quiet.
    After a time he reermerges wearing grey sweat shorts and a black RAMONES t-shirt, strolling back out and wandering back in. "You know we don't have to do all of this now, save it for the weekend?"
    He leans against the archway into the kitchen.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"I mean I don't need to eat again tonight," Natasha said as she started to pull dishes out of the cabinet. Then she paused in the process to look at him from the second step. "We order in food in it's own dishes until then. Or just use what's in the dishwasher." She climbed down the steps to the floor then regarded him.

"How are you wearing shor... Nevermind. You cheat. I almost forgot." Damn Olympian physiology.

Phobos has posed:
    He's just smiling that whole time she's dealing with it, a sort of half-smug closed mouth smirky smile even as she's up there clearing out the cabinets. He does stay there hovering close at hand in case she should slip. An instinctual thing, which if he thought about it he might realize is foolish since... she's the Black Widow.
    "We'll get some Indian food. And yes, shorts. Otherwise..." He steps close and slips his arms around her and casually lifts her up as he holds her there smiling. "How could I be your electric blanket? Pants would interfere with the thermodynamics."
    His lips twist up a little more. "Hey..." Then he draws her close just for a small kiss, a light touch of his lips to hers, "Welcome home."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
And that earned a smile from Natasha as she snuggled in close again. Because he was nice and warm and she didn't want to move away from him at all. Though she was all dressed in warm clothing. That and a snuggie and him and she'd be in heaven.

"How sweet of you to think of me," she said as she gave him another kiss. "You are so cute. This is why I love you, you know. Well, part of it. Saves on the heating bill." She winked up at him since obviously, that was not the selling point of their relationship.