Is This Love?

Chapter 22 - To be Right

Fury's POV

I had been working all day with the research team to pin down the origins of Ryadh. Turns out that Cap was right. We have found phone records, bank transfers, plane tickets, purchase receipts, job applications, everything basically. All of the information lead to Ryadh being involved and paid by Hydra. Great.

I still can't get over the fact that these knuckleheads didn't figure this out before now. Their entire job is research. They are meant to know about everything that is going on so that when I am sending my agents on a mission, I have all the details behind it.

Their lack of research has led to Natasha getting hurt on the first mission, she thinks I don't know but I do, I know everything. Including the fact that she and Steve got together during the vacation/second mission, that I sent them on. All of those loving glances at each other, there was no way they weren't together.

"Sir, we have pinned down the coordinates of the Hyrda base that is responsible for Ryadh. It is actually here in New York. Roughly 30 minutes downtown." One of the research agents piped up.

"About time. Call the Avengers, I want them all in the meeting room ASAP." I said before rushing out of the room to get to the meeting room, which happened to be 10 floors up from here.

5 minutes later, I was sitting in the meeting room as all of the Avengers started pouring in and taking their seats. Natasha was to my right, who was sitting beside Steve, who was sitting beside Sam, who was next to Wanda. On my left, there was Tony, Clint, Bruce, and Thor.

"Right, everyone listen up. We have received intel that Hydra is indeed back. It also has a transportation company called Raydh which Captain America and Black Widow have been fighting the last few weeks. They succeeded in taking out the leader of Ryadh however, they found a shipment of serums which were intended to go to the Red Room." I addressed.

"What this means" I continued "Is that it is most likely that the Red Room and Hydra have joined forces as neither are strong enough on their own, but together they are a worldwide threat. Thankfully, the research team has managed to pin down the location of the main base, which happens to be in a warehouse downtown. You are all to prepare for the battle that you will leave for at 5am tomorrow morning. Understood?"

All of the Avengers nodded and started talking quietly amongst themselves, whilst Steve and Nat looked the tensest out of any of them. I guess it isn't fun to find out that the very organizations that have terrorized your past are back and working together.

"Whilst I have you all here, I think now is as good of a time as any to let you guys know about something," Steve spoke up, quickly getting everyone's attention.

"Nat and I are together and have been for about 2 months now." He informed causing a burst of cheering and applauding from the rest of the team. I smiled at them before walking out of the door to leave them all in peace. About time.

Nat's POV

Steve cleared his throat and proceeded to tell everyone about our relationship. We had talked about it earlier this morning and decided that telling them would be for the best to avoid any other events like the one from yesterday in the elevator.

Everyone took it surprisingly well, even Fury who smiled at us before leaving. There were a bunch of told you so's and congratulations as everyone came over to us. After about 5 minutes of this, we both decided it was time to leave and start preparing for the mission.

We bid our farewells to everyone, leaving hand in hand. It felt good to finally be able to do this in front of the Avengers without being scrutinized for it. We headed back downstairs and decided to go to the training room for a bit to practice sparring each other. Not having access to proper training facilities for a few weeks took its toll and we both knew that we needed to be in top form for tomorrow.

After a few hours of sparring and using other training equipment we called it quits. Steve came over to me in the shooting range from his position at the punching bag and tried to hug me. I used my quick reflexes to dodge it and move out of the way.

"Eww Steve, we are both sweaty, I am not touching you until we have both have had a shower," I said before running over to where we left our drink bottles and belongings before he could try and do anything else to me.

Once we got back up to our floor we went to our separate rooms to shower with the promise that I would meet Steve in his room when I was finished.

The cold water felt amazing on my skin as I washed away all of the sweat and dirt. Steve was no assassin, but he had his own strengths and put up a pretty good fight regardless of whether I told him so or not. I was positively exhausted when I came out of the shower and slowly made my way over to Steve's room in a tank top and shorts.

He was already sitting on his couch waiting for me by the time I got there so I went over and sat down next to him, pulling him into a side hug.

"Do you wanna watch something?" He asked as he grabbed the controller from the coffee table.

"Sure, what do you want to watch?" I asked as he started to flick through the channels.

"How about this one?" He asked as he stopped on one of the channels. It was a movie called The Greatest Showman. I nodded in agreement and snuggled into his side as the movie started.

I must have fallen asleep at some point during the movie because I woke up in Steve's arms as he was carrying me over to my bed. I quickly pretended to still be asleep as he laid me down and tucked me in. He kissed my forehead and spoke to me softly.

"Sweet dreams Nat, I love you so much." I waited until he left the room and then smirked and blushed. He. Had. Just. Said. He. Loved. Me. Wow! Thousands of emotions coursed through my body. He actually said it. I had no idea that he actually fell for me, but apparently, he did. There you go.

Now all that was left to do was gather up the courage to tell him the same thing.