ART

Day 7

"Art is to console those who are broken by life."

"How was your weekend, Natasha?"

"Good, thank you for asking." She lied. "How was yours?"

"It was alright. I missed seeing you though." Steve said with a smile. Natasha couldn't help but smile at that as well.

"I even considered taking a walk by the gallery Saturday afternoon, hoping I'd see you here. Lame, right?" He said, taking Natasha by surprise but she kept her cool.

"Completely pathetic." She said and Steve laughed in agreement. "At least you won the stalker award this year."

"And next year." Steve added, earning another smile from Natasha.

Maria suddenly blew her nose in a napkin behind the desk and Natasha looked back at her with a glare, making Maria laugh.

Steve walked into the gallery to admire some new paintings as Natasha turned to Maria again.

"Mood killer, I know." Maria laughed. "You two really got something going on there."

"Don't speak so loudly, he's in the other room." Natasha burst out, a bit embarrassed.

"Don't worry, he didn't hear me." Maria almost shouted.

"That cold is still there huh? Because you can't hear yourself, that's clear."

"What?" Maria asked.

"Stop shouting and go and blow your nose." Natasha said, chuckling. Maria sneezed and Natasha shook her head. "Silly, you should be home in bed."

"I can't. I'm meeting Sam later."

"If you want him catching a cold, then you should definitely go see him." Natasha said. Maria sighed.

"Yeah, I don't wanna kiss him with a runny nose."

"Understandable." Natasha laughed.

Natasha waited a while to not seem too eager before walking up right next to Steve, staring at the painting in front of them at the wall. Steve turned his head, looking at her with a smile. She kept her eyes at the art work.

"So what's your reflection's on this one?" Steve asked.

"Hold on, I'm just going to make sure the artist isn't around." Natasha said jokingly, looking around them but they were alone in the room. Steve laughed.

"I like it. It makes me feel joy." She then said, and Steve nodded.

"I agree." He said and they walked to the next one.

"This one?" Steve asked, and Natasha's eyes glanced over the canvas, showing what looked like a burning building. It sent shivers down her spine and she shook her head a bit.

"I'm not such a big fan of fire." She said, frowning deeply.

Steve nodded. "I see."

"My parents died when I was seven." Natasha suddenly said. Steve looked at her, a bit surprised by her words. She kept her eyes steady on the painting.

"Our house caught fire in the middle of the night. I woke up, jumped out of the window, but my parents were still asleep." She said. "I tried getting to them you know, but some firemen eventually caught me before I had time to run into the house again. I didn't stand a chance anyway. It was too late."

"I'm sorry." Steve said.

"It's alright. It was a long time ago." Natasha said, finally meeting Steve's eyes.

"So what happened to you after? Did you live with your relatives?"

"Well, I have no relatives here. Most of them are in Russia, and we've never been close with them. So I lived in and out of different foster homes until I turned 18 and found my own place."

"Rough." Steve said.

Natasha nodded.

"Yeah."

"Thank you. For telling me." He said. "You didn't have to."

"I wanted to." Natasha answered, giving him a small smile. "I need to get back to work."

Steve nodded. Before walking away, Natasha stayed to look into his eyes for a few more seconds. She slowly took a step torwards him and kissed his cheek. Steve raised his eyebrows in surprise but couldn't stop the smile that appeared on his lips.

Natasha didn't say anything after that but simply went back to work.

Author's note:

Just to be clear, this is definately not the ending. Updates will come! Stay patient. Thank you for reading. I hope you like this story, and what's to come.. :)