There was no clear out at a party like this. Natasha knew the rules, she knew what was expected. She'd been to hundreds exactly like it since she'd been a child. Thousands, maybe, by now, if she felt like adding up a depressing tally, and there was no real way to sneak out of something like this early. Not when it was compulsory, and certainly not before that unidentifiable signal started fluttering through the party, the one that indicated it was now an acceptable time to start rounding up your belongings, finding your date, saying your goodbyes. The best she could do until that happened was sneak a quiet little pocket of silence.
She'd brought along morphling for Wanda, contained in the small decorative silver handbag she carried. She wasn't happy with herself for doing it; her brain had run on ahead with all the consequences that could follow in the wake of using the drug for something other than physical pain. In this case, though, the reward outweighed the risks. Sometimes that was all there was, the slightly less hideous of two ugly options.
The clothes. The contents of her handbag. The relaxed line about acceptable circumstances under which to abuse said contents. The absence of the aura of glamour that she usually wore wrapped around herself like a familiar coat. Everything about her was off tonight, everything felt wrong.
Maybe that was why she didn't flinch when Clint crept up behind her, his hand warm against the bared blade of her shoulder and the way he pressed his thumb into that particular knot of tension that never seemed to be worked out. She hadn't actually seen him since the night they'd fought in her apartment. Gestures, since then - a pint of strawberries, a pretty fish with a mermaid tail. Back and forth texts and some kind of truce that still felt fragile. It was strange, that he'd touch her without permission; he was usually so careful about that, always.
"Well, it'll do for tonight, at least," Natasha said, facing him. She wouldn't have done it if it had been an actual bold gesture, but she hadn't expected people would still see it as a way for her to achieve maximum attention, by setting herself apart. Couldn't get away from the Capitol version of herself even when she made a weak stab at it, she supposed. "You look relaxed."