Title: To Swallow or Not to Swallow
Fandom: Avengers
Rating: Mature
Length: 388 words
Content notes: This is about what you'd think it's about.
Author notes: That was the ONLY place my mind went with this prompt. It's all talk.
Summary: Steve asks Natasha a question.



“Do you swallow?” Steve asked Natasha as they sat close on the sofa watching a movie.

“Is it really Important?” she asked after she nearly choked on her Coke.

Not that it was an issue with them. They were just friends, best friends these days, but nothing more. Yet.

“I – uh, yeah, I guess it is.”

“But why?” She set the popcorn bowl down on the other end of the sofa and turned to look at him.

“Maybe it’s a trust thing? I don’t really know.” Steve looked a lot more innocent than he was.

“Do you know what it tastes like?”

Steve shook his head.

“Creamy vinegar, maybe,” she said with a laugh.

Steve looked appalled. “Are you serious?”

“I am. I swear to you that is exactly what it tastes like.”

They went back to watching the movie and munching on their popcorn as if they’d never had the conversation at all. The movie was about a car chase of some kind.

After ten minutes or so, Steve asked her another question. “Then why would you, or anyone, for that matter, do it?”

She acted as if she hadn’t heard him for several minutes, intently eating popcorn and looking into her Coke cup as if it held the secrets of the ages.

“It seems to make men so happy.”

“You never seemed the type to worry too much about making anyone else happy,” Steve said, hoping she wouldn’t smack him for that statement.

“Sometimes a happy man tells you things he’d never tell you otherwise. All you have to do is ask nicely.”

Steve tried to school the shock at her words from his face, remembering that she had been a spy and an assassin before she defected. She still was a spy, at least part of the time.

She looked straight at him and grinned. “And sometimes you just really like a guy.”

Steve nodded and said nothing, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bowl. He seemed lost in thought for a bit then looked at her again, then went back to the movie without saying anything more.

“Want some more popcorn?” she asked when the bowl was empty.

“Sure.”

She took the bowl to the kitchen to get some more popcorn then returned and sat down. They went back to watching the movie.