It took a few days, but Eleanor was now able to talk comfortably again, much to Clint's dismay.

Nat still hated seeing the bruised handprints on her girlfriend's neck, even if they were fading. She was a bit scarred after seeing the light draining from her eyes, and so had been in a kind of 'mother hen' mode when it came to Eleanor over the last few days, not that Eleanor was complaining. She was being extra attentive, Eleanor didn't know how that was possible as she was already incredibly attentive before that.

It had been a rough few days waiting for the pain to go away. Today, however, was going to be a good one. It was a rare day for them, they both had a day off!

They hadn't set an alarm because they didn't have anything to wake up for, Nat awoke before Eleanor did as she was quite an early riser, unlike the other. Looking at the clock, she saw that it was 8 am. The next place she looked was at the younger woman she was holding in her arms, still fast asleep.

She found herself staring but she didn't care. After a few minutes, she started to gently push the baby hairs out of the way of Eleanor's face, which slowly woke her up. She looked up slightly with very sleepy eyes, which Nat found adorable, and both smiled at each other.

"G'morning", Eleanor said through a yawn.

"Morning детка".

Eleanor frowned, "What does that mean?".

"Get a Russian dictionary and you can find out", Nat smirked before squeezing her a bit more tightly.

Eleanor loved moments like these with Nat, everyone else in the world got harsh glares and blunt replies to the conversation, but in private with Eleanor, she was a complete softy.

They lay like that for about an hour, having small conversations. It was something that they didn't get to do often but really relished when they were able to, it was one of their favourite things in the world. No responsibilities, no people annoying them, just holding each other. When the hour was up, they decided that they should get up and get ready for their day off.

They both had a shower and picked out some warm clothes to combat the winter freeze, Nat insisted that Eleanor wear a thermal shirt as she felt the cold a lot, but refused to wear one herself. Hypocrite, Eleanor thought when she playfully rolled her eyes at Nat. They then did their hair. Nat left it in her natural state but used a bit of hairspray to hold it as it was a particularly windy day. Eleanor's hair was longer, so she did a loose French braid so that it wouldn't get blown around everywhere.

The two wanted to have a 'domestic day', it was something that they could only get small glimpses of usually, so today they wanted to have a full day of it. There were no hard plans, they were just going to see how the day flowed. The world is their oyster, well, D.C is their oyster.

Wrapped up in hats and scarves, they headed out into the city on foot, not before Eleanor gave Nat a small nose boop, with the sound effect, as she fixed her beanie for her.

Hand in hand, the two walked to go and get a coffee as their first stop. They made sure to take long routes around the city instead of more direct routes and ended up walking for a while, going through a few parks with nice scenery.

Eventually, they entered a cute little cafe that didn't seem too busy and ordered a black coffee and a vanilla latte. When they sat at their table Nat started teasing about how much of a basic bitch order that latte was.

"Hey, it tastes nice and it's very domestic", Eleanor defended.

"Whatever you say".

They both enjoyed the vibe of the coffee shop, it was very relaxing. The walls were a light blue with lots of canvases of landscape photography, there was wooden crate shelving dotted around with cute potted plants, and a bookshelf in the corner with classics for people to browse and read through whilst sipping on coffee.

Eleanor looked around the place and saw a poster saying that there was a small winter market happening downtown, "Ooo bub can we go to that?", pointing out the poster to Nat.

She smiled softly at the nickname, "When you've finished that ridiculous coffee, yes". Eleanor did not think that it was ridiculous but took a small sip anyway.

Soon enough, they were both walking hand in hand again towards the market. When they arrived Eleanor's eyes sparkled with excitement seeing all of the different stalls with handmade goods, which made Nat's heart swell.

There were stalls with all sorts of things, bakery stalls, chocolate, soap, toys, clothes, art supplies, personalised dog tags, and a lot more. Eleanor started wandering over to the dog tags one, and Nat had to drag her away, there was no way they could get a dog and she knew that Eleanor would pester her about it if they went over and browsed at the tags and collars.

They instead went over to a stall with handmade crotchet animals, they're a lot easier to look after compared to real animals. When Nat saw Eleanor eyeing up a pufferfish doll, she grabbed it and paid for it, then handed it over to the young woman. She promptly took it and squeezed it to her chest thanking her, before then scolding Nat for buying her something, to which Nat rolled her eyes, she wanted to treat her, and she didn't see any issue with this.

As the pair continued down the stalls, a wood carving stall caught Nat's eye. She grabbed Eleanor's wrist and dragged her over to the stall, making her laugh at Nat's excitement. Nat began hastily looking at everything, she wanted to buy something, but she didn't know what, everything looked so well made. She then noticed Eleanor handing money over to the lady running the stall, and narrowed her eyes at her.

Eleanor turned to Nat after completing the transaction and placed a compass carving into her hand, "So you can always find your way home", She grinned.

It was an incredibly corny gesture but Nat loved it, "You're such a sap", Nat giggled, she then kissed her temple and pulled her in for a side hug and stayed with her arm around Eleanor's shoulder whilst they walked away to look at the other stalls.

---

When they arrived home, they warmed themselves up with some hot chocolates and ate some soup, made in the very small kitchen area that everyone has in their rooms. Eleanor made the hot chocolate whilst sitting on the mini counter, and Nat was in charge of stirring the soup on the stove. They then practically inhaled the soup and beverage, they were very hungry after walking around for hours.

"Was frigging cold out there", Eleanor said as she jumped onto Nat's bed in a starfish position.

Nat smirked, "And where am I supposed to sit?".

"On the floor".

"Move".

"Make me". Bold move.

Nat looked down at the young woman with a devilish glint in her eye, time to mess with her, she thought. "Are you sure about that?", she said in a low voice.

"Y-yes", Eleanor gulped.

Nat then proceeded to walk to the bottom of the bed and stared for a few seconds, before grabbing her ankles and yanking her off of the bed. Eleanor landed on the floor with a loud thud, and by the time she sat back up, Nat was sitting on the bed with an innocent look on her face, as though she hadn't just launched her girlfriend to the floor seconds previously.

"Well that was unnecessary", Eleanor mumbled whilst slowly climbing back onto the bed next to Nat.

"Aw, I'm sorry детка", Nat pouted.

"What does that mean?!".

"Figure it out".

Eleanor whipped her phone out, challenge accepted, and after about 5 minutes she slowly looked at Nat, "It means 'baby'?".

Nat swiftly turned her head around to meet her eyes and just stayed quiet, she may show her softer side around Eleanor but feeling this vulnerable was still hard.

Eleanor scooted closer to Nat, who pulled her onto her lap sideways, "I didn't know you were one for pet names, Romanoff".

"Well-".

"Don't worry, I love it".

Nat started playing with the baby hairs on the base of Eleanor's head, the other hand resting on her thigh. "Oh yeah?", she said her voice going low again.

"Mhm", Eleanor turned to meet Nat's gaze.

"Why don't you show me how much you love it, детка".

Eleanor's eyes widened in slight shock before she smirked. The rest of domestic day was going to be fun, they both thought.