Locked, Loaded, Loved ✔️ COMPLETE | UNDER EDITS

Chapter 2.1--Steve

"Romanoff! Cap! We're back!" Tony's voice jolted me awake. 

Natasha stirred slightly, but didn't wake up.

"Shut up, Stark!" Sam whispered loudly. "They're asleep."

"Really?" The floorboards creaked. "Man, this is too good!"

"What are you doing?" Wanda asked.

"Getting photographic evidence."

"What? No! Tony, leave them alone."

"Aw, come on. Just one photo!"

"Tony!"

Tony didn't say anything else, which I hoped meant that he was letting it go. Once I heard all footsteps dissipate, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

Natasha moved around in her sleep, elbowing me in the ribs.

I grunted then carefully untangled myself from where we laid on the sofa. I turned off the television before padding carefully back to the sofa and laying down again next to Natasha.

"Mm." She pushed against my chest and rubbed at her eyes. "Hey."

I smiled. "Hey. Did I wake you?"

She shook her head. "No, I just heard you get up."

"We fell asleep. I was just turning off the television."

Natasha sat up. "Seriously?" She glanced at me, the corners of her mouth quirking into a smile. "I guess we should head upstairs. I didn't realize we'd fallen asleep."

"I didn't realize it either. But I'm kinda glad we did."

"Me too." Natasha stretched, a sliver of her stomach peeking out from the bottom of her shirt. She caught me looking and smirked. "Steve? You ready?"

I nodded, and we walked upstairs, stopping outside of my room. I looked around at the empty hallway. "Um, do you want to stay with me for the rest of the night? I know we're taking things slow, but—"

Natasha put her fingers to my lips. "You're cute when you're nervous, you know that? Yes, I'll stay with you. You're surprisingly comfortable."

I laughed. "I'll take that as a win." I opened the door to my room and turned on the light.

"So, if I'm staying, can I borrow a t-shirt?" Natasha asked. She bounced on the end of my bed.

"Yeah." I found a shirt in my closet and tossed it to her. "You can change in the bathroom."

"Thanks." She took it and closed the bathroom door.

Once she was out of sight I changed into a pair of flannel pants and shrugged out of my shirt, putting on a fresh one.

"Hey." Natasha leaned against the bathroom door frame, holding her clothes from earlier.

"Wow. You look really great," I said.

She smiled. "Thanks. Maybe I should wear your clothes more often." She winked as we climbed into bed.

"You're cute when you flirt, you know?" I teased.

Natasha laughed. "Night, Steve."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

A few hours later, we woke up again to my alarm. Natasha had her arms around me and tightened her grip as the alarm went off.

"Do we really have to wake up?" she mumbled.

I brushed her hair away from her face. "We could stay here, but chances are that we would blow our cover."

Natasha nodded and sat up. "I'll go change in the bathroom again." She picked up her clothes from the night before, which were carefully folded and sitting on the desk next to mine.

When she came out, she sat down on the bed next to me. "Thanks for letting me borrow a t-shirt to sleep in."

"No problem," I said, running a hand through my hair. "I'm gonna take a shower before breakfast. I'll see you in a bit?"

Natasha nodded. "Sure thing." She got up from the bed and headed for the door.

"Nat," I said.

She turned. "Yeah?"

"I had a lot of fun last night."

Natasha smiled. "Me too. See you in a bit." She opened the door and left just as Sam came into my room through the adjoining door. 

I made a mental note to keep it locked at night. Not that I didn't enjoy having adjoining doors to Sam's room—we'd actually had a lot of deep late-night conversations lately—but I figured if this thing with Natasha was gonna go anywhere, I didn't exactly want Sam—or anyone else for that matter—barging in on us and discovering our relationship. Or well, whatever it was.

"Was that Natasha?" Sam asked with raised eyebrows.

"No, it was her evil twin."

"Dude, you're so smitten." Sam closed the door as I threw a pillow at him.

"I'm not smitten." I looked at the closet. "I just don't want to mess up whatever it may be that is or is not going on between us."

"Hey, man. You know I'm happy for you no matter what. I think you should follow your heart. And I won't mention to anyone that Nat spent part of the night here after you two left the sofa," Sam said.

"You heard us come upstairs?" I asked.

"You knew we saw you on the sofa?"

"Yeah. Why do you think we went upstairs? We're trying to keep a cover here."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "You should know that Tony may or may not have taken a photo to use as blackmail."

I ran a hand through my hair. "Sonofa—"

"I know, I tried to talk him out of it."

"If he did, Nat is going to kill him. And I don't mean that figuratively."

"I'm sure he doesn't know anything about your relationship with Natasha," Sam said.

I shook my head. "I can't take that risk."

Sam shrugged. "Then you better hurry up and get ready so she doesn't find out." He left with a nod to me, and I hit the showers.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 

"Steve, I'm making eggs. Do you want any?" Pepper asked when I came downstairs.

"Yeah, sure. Thanks, Pepper."

I took a seat on one of the breakfast counter stools and swung my legs.

"Something on your mind, Cap?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Nope."

Pepper smirked. "Natasha is outside if you were looking for her."

"I wasn't. Did she say something?"

"No. But she is talking to Tony. Although, I don't think it's about last night, so you don't need to worry about that." She winked.

Sam joined us. "What's the plan for today?"

"I was going to go for a run after breakfast, and then I need to work out," I replied.

"You worked out yesterday," Pepper said.

Sam smirked. "He works out every day." He turned to me and lowered his voice. "Except now you have a reason to."

"Sam—"

"I'm kidding. Relax, man." He clapped me on the shoulder.

I stabbed at my eggs. "I have to pick up some dry cleaning."

"Oh, you can go with Tony. He promised he'd pick up some things for me," Pepper said.

I nodded. "That'd be great." I watched Natasha come back inside. She gave me a small smile before walking toward the stairs.

"Maybe I'll stop by the diner and pick up something for lunch."