Is This Love?

Chapter 21 - Elevators

Nat's POV

I woke up in my bed wrapped in Steve's embrace. I was tempted to reveal our relationship to the others just so that I didn't have to go a single night without falling asleep in his arms. Whenever he was there, I felt so safe and I didn't seem to have nightmares either.

I rolled over and looked at the clock realizing that we had slept in. Oh no, the other avengers will have picked up on this by now. I got up and headed to the bathroom to take a shower before I went down to breakfast.

By the time I had finished Steve had left, most likely to get ready himself. I made my way down to the common room to find Steve and the rest of the Avengers already there.

"Geez red, what did Capsicle do to you? Since when are you ever the last to get up?" Tony piped up. Why did he have to be so annoying all of the time? I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Steve did nothing. I had a big day yesterday and I was exhausted. No big deal." I brushed it off in my usual confident manner. There was no way they were going to find out about what happened in the early hours of the morning until they absolutely had to.

I went over and made myself some toast before sitting down. I was suddenly swarmed with questions from all the Avengers.

"So red, how was your mission? Did you and Steve have a good time?" Tony winked. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Steve choking on his drink. Great, this is just great.

"That is so disgusting Tony, and we didn't do anything like that," I answered coolly yet internally my insides were churning.

"So nothing happened at all? You two definitely should get together." Wanda stated, making me heat up. If only they knew. But I had had enough of this conversation and so I got up.

"Let me make something clear, Steve and I are not together, end of the story," I responded loudly, and everyone went quiet. I walked out of the room into the elevator heading down to the training room. The last few weeks I didn't have the facilities to train properly so I needed to train now to make sure that I am always in top form.

The next few weeks continued like that, all of the Avengers were dropping little hints, suggesting that Steve and I should get together because we "love" each other. Steve would often come over to my room of a nighttime and share stories of what they had said about us and what they were plotting against us.

One rainy day, Steve and I had left the Common Room via the elevator because we were both fed up with everyone making sly comments about us and our relationship once again this morning. Suddenly the elevator jerked to a stop, nearly knocking me off my feet. The lights went out and we were left stranded in the elevator in the dark. Wonderful.

I had no doubts about who was behind this. They had been going to extreme lengths to get us together but I didn't think they would go as far as trapping us in the elevator together. I heard some whimpering coming from the other side of the elevator.

As my eyes adjusted, I realized that the whimpering was coming from Steve, who was now crouched in the corner of the elevator with his head in his hands. It dawned on me that Steve was either claustrophobic or he was afraid of the dark, maybe both.

I walked over to him quietly and crouched down in front of him. I removed his hands from his eyes and looked into them as best I could, considering that it was extremely dark.

"Steve, are you ok?" I asked, using my thumbs to rub small circles in his palms.

"I don't like being in the dark when I have no escape route." He said quietly as he started shaking.

"Hey, hey Steve, it's going to be ok, I'm here. You are safe, I promise." I said as I sat down beside him and wrapped him in a side embrace. It didn't help, however, in fact, he started getting worse, now practically bawling. I could see he was trying to hide his tears from me but I knew him too well and could see straight through him.

I quickly moved on top of his legs so that I was straddling him and wrapped him in the biggest hug I could, given our considerable size difference. I sat there hugging him for what seemed like hours until all of his tears and shaking had stopped. When I pulled away from him a little I realized that he had in fact, cried himself to sleep in my arms.

I sighed the poor thing. The bit that hurt the most was the fact that there was nothing that I could do to help him. There was no way that I could get us out of there, it was up to the team to decide when that happened. All I could do was sit here and hold him while he cried.

So instead, I sat next to him with my back against the wall. I then carefully pulled him down onto my lap, letting my thighs become a pillow for him as he slept. I wiped the last of his tears off his flushed cheeks. I noticed that he had started to become restless in his sleep and so I started running my fingers through his hair which seemed to calm him. I figured it was better to let him sleep through this than be awake and freaking out.

I glanced down at my watch as I continued to run my fingers through his hair. It had been three hours. Surely they would let us out soon. I swear, as soon as they let me out of this thing, I will kill them all with my bare hands.

I would not let them put Steve and me through the hell that had been the last few hours and have them get away with it. Not happening. As I sat there in silence I started to wonder where Steve's fear for being in the dark with no way of escaping stemmed from.

It was either something to do with his army days in World War 2 and constantly being under attack all the time or it could have been something to do with his childhood. Compared to some of the others on the team, he had a pretty good childhood, however, I know there are definitely some demons from his past that he had never told anyone about. I am sure of it.

I was pulled from my thoughts as the elevator lights came back on and the elevator started moving down. Steve reacted to the light and turned to the other side, facing my stomach to get away from the sudden light. He still stayed asleep though. The poor thing, the whole experience has clearly worn him out.

As we continued to go down, I realized we were heading back to the Common Room floor. These people are going to die. I grabbed two of my pistols from under my jacket as the elevator door opened and loaded them.

Tony, Thor, Clint, Sam, and Wanda all had massive smiles on their faces as the doors opened but quickly wiped them off when they saw that I had my guns pointed at them, Steve still on my lap. Luckily Steve had turned away at some point, obstructing his face from view, so no one knew that he had been upset.

"If you say or do another thing to try and intervene with our relationship again, I will kill each and every single one of you." I threatened menacingly, letting them know that I was dead serious. Their eyes all widened in fear and they nodded quickly. Tony then reached his arm over and pressed the button to our floor before retreating with the others further into the common room. The elevator doors shut and we were back on our way to our floor.

"Steve? Steve wake up baby, come on, let's get you to a more comfortable bed." I cooed softly to him. His eyes opened slowly and I helped him up, guiding him towards his room. He was still half asleep by the time we had gotten into his room so I guided him over to the bed and laid him down on it.

I tucked him in and his eyes closed instantly as he hit the pillow. I decided to stay with him, so I walked over to the couch and sat down on it whilst flicking through the TV channels, deciding what to watch.