Is This Love?

Chapter 23 - The Battle Part 1

Please watch the video above as it is absolutely amazing! All credit goes to Marvel and the creator of the video.

Steve POV

"Steve wake up, we have to be on the roof in an hour." Nat's angelic voice called out to me, waking me up. I opened my eyes and saw her face was inches from mine and so I moved my head up and gave her a kiss on the lips.

"Good morning to you too." Nat chuckle as she pulled away and straightened up. She was already in her catsuit, but her weapons were yet to be put on. Her hair was straightened and hung just below her shoulders neatly. By now, this is how she dressed for nearly all of her missions and she looked hot if I do say so myself.

I got up out of bed and went into the bathroom to get ready whilst Nat went and fetched us breakfast. She came back up 10 minutes later with two plates of eggs, bacon, and toast. She placed them down and walked over to me, reaching out to straighten my collar.

"What would I do without you?" I grinned as I sat down with her and started to eat breakfast.

"Well for starters the patriotic Captain America would have slept in and probably missed his battle." She quipped causing me to chuckle.

Once we had finished our breakfast I went and returned our plates to the common room whilst she went and got all of her weapons. I came back up a little while later and realized that Nat must still be in her room getting ready.

I decided to go and check on her. I knocked on the door and heard a very muffled "Come in!" I opened the door and saw Nat sitting on the floor wrestling with her Widow Bite bracelets. I sat down next to her and grabbed the bracelets off her before helping her secure them.

"I usually can get them on myself, but I am not sure what is going on today." She said whilst looking up at me gratefully. I chuckled as I finished attaching the second bracelet and then stood up, lending her a hand of which she took.

"Nerves?" That was all I said and she looked at me with a look as if I had just shot her or something.

"The Black Widow does not get nervous." She answered indignantly. I smirked at her. She was definitely nervous. Fighting your past isn't exactly pleasant for anyone.

"But Natasha does," I replied, turning and walking out of the room before she punched me. We had to be on the roof in 5 minutes and it would hurt being a little early anyway. She huffed and followed closely behind me as I grabbed my shield out of my room and secured it before walking out again and locking the door.

"Maybe just a little." She admitted quietly as we stood and waited for the elevator.

"That's ok, I am a little nervous too. Fighting the demons of your past is scary, no matter who you are or how good you are." I responded kindly. I wanted to make Natasha feel as supported as possible. It wasn't often that she admitted her feelings to anyone and so I was going to make sure she didn't regret doing so.

As the elevator opened we stepped in and pushed the button to the roof. When the elevator doors closed, I moved towards her and pulled her into my chest, kissing the crown of her head. I wanted so badly to take all of her nerves away, but I knew there wasn't much I could do, so I tried the next best thing, be a good boyfriend and make her feel as comfortable as possible.

We released each other when the elevator dinged, letting us know that had reached our destination. We stepped out onto the roof, it was still dark out and the Quinjet was the only thing providing any light.

All of the avengers were already there except for Tony, who would no doubt make a big entrance in a few moments. As if on cue, he came rushing out of the elevator already dressed in his iron suit.

"I'm here, did you miss me?" He said, using his repulsors to fly over to us. We all started to board the jet along with around 20 other SHIELD agents. Clint took the pilot's chair and Nat took the co-pilots, leaving everyone else to sit in the chairs or on the benches. This arrangement is how we usually travel when we were going on missions as a group.

We took our seats and buckled up, preparing for take-off. Fury had said that the base was about a half an hour flight and so I planned to use that time to go through the battle strategy with everyone and get myself prepped for the oncoming battle.

I did exactly that. All of the team were now aware of our strategy and we received word from Clint that we would be arriving in 5 minutes, so we all rushed around gathering our weapons.

The plane started to descend heading towards an appropriate landing area. Once we landed, we all got out of the plane and started off towards the base. The plan was that we would get there silently and then spring into action all at once, creating an element of surprise.

"Good luck everyone. Stay safe and get the job done quickly." I said through the intercoms before looking over at Nat and giving her one last loving look before we sprung into action.

We were almost immediately under fire as we sprung out of the forest, splitting up and starting to take out the guards. If the initial defense was anything to go by, this was going to be a very long and grueling battle.