To Find Love: Romanogers One-Shots

Keep Her Close

"I was thinking we should watch the Ocean's series again,"  Natasha told him, reaching for the box of rice and taking a bite.  "I know we watched Ocean's 11 and Ocean's 12, but you still need to see Ocean's 13 and the new Ocean's 8.  I guess that's not technically watching them again, but whatever."

"I'm down for whatever,"  Steve said. 

Natasha rolled her eyes and stole a bite of food from Steve's box.  He didn't fight her, trading her for a bite of her noodles, and they quickly finished their food.  Natasha found a bowl for the caramel corn while Steve threw away their empty boxes of Chinese food and put the leftover rice in a tupperware container.  When he was done, he found Natasha sitting in his living room, feet up on the coffee table and caramel corn in her lap as she searched for Ocean's 13.

Steve took a seat beside her and she immediately pulled her feet under her and leaned against him.  He took a handful of caramel corn and tossed it in his mouth.  When Natasha had found the movie, she set the remote on the coffee table then sat back.

They were halfway through Ocean's 8 when Steve realised Natasha was having a hard time staying awake.  He frowned as her head dropped to her chest then snapped back up for the third time.  She hadn't had a solo mission recently, but he supposed she had been staying at the office later and later.  Tonight had been the first night in two weeks she'd made it to his house before 9:00PM.

"Nat, we can finish this later if you want to sleep,"  he told her quietly.  She shook her head, watching as Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett talked on the TV screen.

"I'm okay,"  she murmured, laying her head on Steve's shoulder and curling closer.

"You're exhausted,"  he said.  She shrugged but didn't say anything else.

Steve continued to watch the movie only to discover Natasha was fast asleep on his chest ten minutes later.  He moved his arm from the back of the couch to around her shoulders and pulled her legs across his lap.  She blinked, squinting up at him before falling right back asleep.  Steve kept his arms around her for the rest of the movie, only partially paying attention to the heist that was taking place on screen.

When the movie finished, he carefully picked Natasha up and carried her to his guest room.  He laid her on the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin like he knew she liked.  He went back to the living room to turn off the TV and take the empty caramel corn bowl to the kitchen.  Before he went to his own room, he ducked into the guest room to check on Natasha who was hugging a pillow tightly.  He smiled and closed her door halfway before walking to the opposite end of the hall and climbing into his own bed for the night.

Three

If Steve was really being honest, their mission had fallen apart a few days ago.  They'd been caught tailing a high end mob boss and ended up being captured.  The moment they realised they'd been discovered, it was already too late to call back up and there were too many people with guns to risk fighting their way out.  Steve had tried, but he'd gotten distracted when a gun went off behind him and he couldn't find Natasha.  His distraction had given the enemy enough time to hit him in the back of the head hard enough to make him stumble.  Natasha had appeared then, strangling a man from above, but his vision had gone black seconds after he'd made eye contact with her.

That had been at least four days ago and now they were tied up in a dark room.  The vinyl floor was cold and hard and there weren't any windows in the room.  There was a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, providing just enough light Steve could clearly see all the bruises that covered him and Natasha.

God, they both looked bad.  He hadn't seen himself in a mirror, but if the dried blood on his forehead and the throbbing in his back was anything to go by, he was bruised in more places than just his arms and legs.  Natasha, on the other hand, looked like Godzilla's punching bag.  She'd been given a black eye within the first few hours of their capture and it hadn't gotten better.  She was more purple and black than Steve could have imagined possible.  Every part of her was covered in bruises or cuts.  They'd taken her away for questioning an hour or so ago and returned her unconscious and with one more cut across her cheek.  Steve had managed to stop the blood from the cut on her face, but he didn't know how many more bruises she'd gotten.  As soon as they'd thrown her at his feet, he'd pulled her into his lap and protectively curled around her.