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"Did you get a chance to look over those proposals I sent?" Pepper sighs into her pillow, tugging the comforter tighter around her when cold air manages to creep through the cracks. Even with long sleeve pajamas and sweat pants, she might as well be living in the Arctic.
Why they chose to stay in New York instead of relocating to Los Angeles is beyond her.
Maria hums, pausing in her typing to nudge up her glasses by the bridge. She glances over to the other side of the bed with a soft smile—one that Pepper returns, even when the bottom half of her face is smothered in blankets. "That contract with the software company seems promising,” Maria notes.
"Our newest clean energy initiative." Pepper yawns and curls further in on herself, slow blinking over the edge of the comforter. "With their various outreach programs around the world and our resources, we could help a lot of people." The last part trails off into an incoherent mumble.
"I love the way your mind works."
The typing starts up again, this time with a little more force as Maria frowns at something she reads on her laptop screen.
She's wearing only a tank top and shorts, legs bare and hair pulled up into a short ponytail out of her eyes to expose the length of her neck, seemingly unfazed by the winter weather. It’s completely unfair; the woman runs so hot, she basically functions as her own space heater.
Still, Pepper's turning into an icicle just watching her. "Come to bed," she whines.
"I am in bed," Maria teases, eyes still glued to the screen.
"You know what I mean."
Reaching across the sheets, Maria finds Pepper's hand to lace their fingers together in wordless comfort, soothing the warm pad of her thumb over freezing skin. Yet, she continues to type with her dominant hand, wearily blinking over the words reflected in her glasses.
"It's cold," Pepper insists with a gentle tug.
Maria huffs out a chuckle laced with affection. "Alright, alright."
"Thank you."
It doesn't take her long to put everything away—placing her glasses neatly on the nightstand, stowing her laptop in the drawer, and flipping off the light switch before slipping under the covers with the same efficiency she'd direct an Avengers-level mission.
With a contented sigh, Maria closes the distance between them, pulling Pepper back and flush against her front with a secure arm across her stomach. "Better?" Maria murmurs into ginger hair, nuzzling at the nape of Pepper's neck with the tip of her nose.
"Much,” she hums, shifting back into her newfound heat source and clutching Maria’s arm tighter around herself.
"Good."
The room is drenched in shadow, illuminated only by the full moon and the distant soft glow of street lights through a frost-coated window. Light snow flurries brush against the glass in silence, slowly thickening as the wind outside picks up.
A comfortable quiet falls between them, and after a while, Maria's warm breaths against her neck begin to even out. The naturally slower rhythm helps to lull Pepper closer to sleep, but she can't quite seem to drift off completely.
The sheets are too confining and stifling. Tiny beads of sweat form on the space behind her knees, sticky and awkward, and she shifts, trying to find a more comfortable spot. Despite all this, she doesn't dare pull back the covers to let the cold flood back in, reluctant to expose them to the elements and start the whole process over again.
After she fidgets for the third time in just as many minutes, Maria speaks up. "It's a little…"
"Too hot," Pepper grumbles. At the snicker from behind, she shoots over her shoulder, indignant, "Well, what do you suggest?"
"Don't worry." A soothing kiss is pressed just below her ear, causing her to settle back with a sigh. "I have a feeling our problem will sort itself out soon enough."
As if on cue, the front door unlocks with a jingle of keys, squeaking open before latching shut again. It’s followed by the rustling of a coat being shed and a slew of Russian muttering, and Pepper hides a smile into her comforter, noting the motions of Maria’s quiet laughter against her back.
A shadow appears at their bedroom door, clumsily jostling it wide open, before slinking under the covers from the foot of the bed. Pepper and Maria untangle from each other to leave room in the middle, watching as a human-sized lump slowly crawls toward them. When a head finally peeks out to slump back against the pillows, they make amused eye contact over an exhausted Natasha.
Neither of them are fooled by the display. She could have easily snuck in without either of them realizing, but after the first few times of nearly giving Pepper a heart attack, Natasha started making more of an effort to announce her movements.
“Okay?” Pepper smiles, running her fingers through the other woman's disheveled red strands to clear them from her face. Natasha is noticeably grumpier whenever it snows (another effort of honesty for their sake, instead of pulling away like she used to). Pepper thinks it's a consequence of her past, but that’s still something she's reluctant to talk about.
Natasha hums a small pleased sound deep in her chest and leans into the touch, eyelids fluttering shut. “Better now.”
“You’re freezing," Maria observes, pressing her lips to Natasha's bare shoulder.
"You're hot," comes the teasing reply.
She snorts, shooting a glance over at Pepper. "A point of contention apparently."
"Oh?"
"I'm too hot, according to Pepper."
Natasha peeks through one eye toward Pepper to send a halfhearted glare, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "You take that back."
"Snitch," Pepper huffs.
"Honest," Maria corrects.
Whereas Maria runs the hottest out of the three of them, Natasha is on the other end of the spectrum with skin that's consistently chilled to the touch—and in this instance, it's a nice balm for Pepper to press her flushed cheeks to.
Cuddling closer with an arm slung over Natasha's hip, she exhales a sigh into her neck, gently rustling through stray strands of crimson hair. "Less talking," Pepper grumbles, which lessens in intensity when Natasha shifts to press a kiss to her forehead. "More sleeping."
"Yes, ma'am."
Maria's arm snakes around to pull them both closer until their legs are all tangled together, secure and inseparable. With a frosty gale raging on the other side of the glass window, the three of them drift off, finally, into a cozy sleep.