Starting Over

Ch. 34

The next morning Steve wakes up to an empty bed. He can barely see the sun start to rise through the window. He should probably be more panicked by a certain missing red head, but he doesn't feel like she'll do anything rash in a moment of fear. He makes his way to the kitchen knowing sleep will not come if he's still worried about her. He finds Melina sitting at the counter cup of black coffee in her hands.
"Couldn't sleep?" He asks
"Worried about my girls." She replies, passing him the cream and sugar from the counter as he pours his own cup.
"I know a thing or two about that." He nods in empathetically.
"I was raised there. Alexei was brought in at merely 10 from the streets. We didn't realize what was happening to them because we stayed...that was our life." Melina says "If I could take it back, give her, them, a normal life. I would in a heartbeat."
"I know." Steve replies. "Where is she?"
"Come on." Melina says as she stands from her chair.
Steve follows her down the hall to a seemingly smaller wooden door, behind it a set of steps. His ears immediately flood with classic music, he's heard it at the tower and compound. The basement is small concrete floors led into wooden planks, a set of mirrors lining one side. They stay by the edge of the stairs. Steve watches as two bodies simultaneously twirl and spin, with the elegance that he's only ever accustomed with Natasha. Fighting, dancing, everything is done gracefully. His eyes drift to her toes, wrapped in a pair of well worn point shoes, more so than the ones at the compound. The ends have turned as red as her hair long ago, leaving little swirls of blood on the floor. The younger woman's, next to her, are barely stained an indication that the later has been here far longer. He hears mumbling in Russian between them, and Natasha rolls out of a turn to place a hand on Yelena's hip, correcting her position. She mumbles something along the lines of "you're getting sloppy." Before Yelena sticks her tongue out at her. He watches as Natasha cracks a smile and it lights of the whole room, then the duo is back to dancing. They both eventually collapse on the floor with exhaustion. Yelena excuses herself to get water, passing Steve on the steps with a bump to the shoulder, giving him a small smile.
"You just gonna stand there all day soldier?" Natasha's voices fills the room, he can hear the teasing tone in her voice. Immediately he's glad that either the dance or their talk has got her through the panic of yesterday.
"Was thinking about it." Steve quips back as he makes his way over to her, with some nudging of her foot against his leg she entices him to lie next to her. He settles his body down near hers, intertwining their fingers as if it is an instinct.
"I'm sorry for last night." Natasha says
"Baby, you've got nothing to be sorry for." Steve replies, reaching over to tuck an escaped strand of hair behind her ear. "You've got me till the end of the line, alright?" She nods
"How did I get so lucky?" She asks
"Ask myself that question all the time. You, our girls, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me." He replies. They're closer now her body right next to his. She scoots herself closer to him in response and he pulls her as close as possible, before placing a kiss to her lips. Soon they're both breathless.
"You forgot something last night?" Natasha says teasingly
"And what's that, Romanoff?" He replies
"These..." She says raising an eyebrow before pulling the chain out from under his shirt "are mine."
He smiles at her antics before taking off the tags and placing them around her neck, near her heart, where they belong. He kisses her again, both of them savoring the moment.
"As much as I would like to stay and kiss you all day, we should probably go see if the kids are up." Steve suggests pulling away, his hand still resting on her hip.
"Five more minutes?" Natasha says settling herself into his embrace again. He gives in because honestly she's got him wrapped around her finger, and he knows it.

After breakfast Yelena informs them that despite the fail of gathering intel from Dimitri, Kiev has pulled through with some new information. Project "Red-Winter", is a new and improved version of the red room searching for its next new group of assassins.
"So they just expect Bucky to join them?" Steve asks "I saw it on his face, before... he knew me then. He- he pulled me from the water." Natasha reaches for his hand.
"It's not that simple. They're resetting his memories on a schedule, nothing but the next mission." Yelena says bluntly, Natasha shoots her a glare. "They've done it to all of us, you get compromised you get wiped... all though it was more selective memory removing."
"Lena, task at hand." Alexei reminds her
"Ah yes, James will join them in training new "recruits" and leading the teams to complete their missions."
"Is that really all you found?" Natasha asks, reaching a hand up to adjust the baby's head resting on her shoulder. Lia had settled herself in Alexei's lap directly after breakfast playing with toy cars on the table, while Wanda had opted to curl up in her room to chat with Noah.
"Of course not. I have a few possible locations." Yelena said listing off the target areas.
"Okay, so the plan is that we just invade all the locations?" Natasha asks
"Yes, that was my plan." Yelena says sarcastically "what was yours Natalia?"
"We'll need an extra hand..." Natasha says, sending a glance to Melina
"You don't have to ask." Melina says shaking her head fondly "I'm in."
"What about me?" Alexei says "You can use another shield, yeah?"
All three women look at each other before Melina speaks
"You're on baby duty." Melina smirks at her husband.
"Just like the old days..." Alexei grumbles. Lia gives him a frown from his lap before he's placing tickles on her sides to cheer her up.