"So, what's the deal with you and Golden Boy over there?"
Natasha nearly choked on air as she adjusted the cuff on her left arm when Yelena asked that question out of the blue, all while staring at Steve talking to Bucky and Sam across the room. Natasha regained her composure and attempted to play dumb with her sister.
"Don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, please. You think I don't see the googly eyes he makes at you." She looked at her older sister slyly. "Plus, there was that whole thing about talking to him alone."
Yelena raised her eyebrows at Natasha which only made her want to punch her little sister even more than she already did. Still, she wouldn't have traded this moment for the world. She missed their playful banter; she was just happy to be able to talk to her again —even if Yelena did annoy the hell out of her. They definitely didn't need blood to tell them that they were sisters.
"Fine, if you won't tell me I'll just ask him." Natasha was snapped out of her daze as she stumbled to her feet to pull her sister back onto the chair when she tried to make her way towards Steve.
"<You're annoying.>" Natasha told her, which just made Yelena snicker and smile smugly.
"Nothing's going on between us. We've gone down that path before... it didn't exactly work out."
"Hm?" Yelena's teasing smile only grew bigger.
Natasha took a deep breath and explained. "We had the 'will they, won't they' thing going on for a while and just as we were about to, Ultron got in the way." Yelena listened intently like a child at group story time. "Then a little bit after the events in Sokovia we decided to give it a real try, and it was great... for a while.
--------------------------------------------------
It had become a habit at this point: sneaking into each other's rooms while the others in the tower were asleep. It's been five months since the events of Ultron and the fall of Sokovia and four and a half months since Steve and Natasha started dating. They usually didn't stay the night in each other's rooms for fear they'd get discovered by the rest of their curious team, who had been rooting for them to get together.
What normally happened was either Steve or Natasha would sneak up to the other's room after the rest of the team went to bed and stay for a few hours then return to their own room before going to sleep. That's what normally happened, but this time Natasha had fallen asleep in Steve's room with her head resting on his chest while they were cuddling and he refused to do anything that could wake her. He didn't want to be away from her.
She looked so peaceful, her subtle breathing soothing him and the warmth of her body comforting him more than anything else had since he got out of the ice. He usually felt so cold and empty when he laid in his bed, but here, with her, he felt so warm and safe. She had that way of making him feel like everything was going to be okay.
He watched her sleep peacefully with one arm wrapped around her slim body and the other brushing her hair as he admired every bit of her. The room was dark, but he could still see every part of her face: her vibrant red hair, gleaming lips and soft cheeks.
Still though, despite all the comfort she brought him, he couldn't sleep. He hadn't been able to sleep a full night in his bed yet; he'd tried multiple times but eventually gave up and resigned to the floor. The bed was too soft, it felt like it would eat him up and submerge him into an eternal darkness. So he just laid there, so she could sleep while he couldn't. Because he loved her so much. She was worth it all: the sleep deprivation and the slight anxiety he felt from laying in the bed too long.
"You know, you could try actually sleeping instead of just staring at me." She mumbled with her eyes still closed.
"Can't help it. My girlfriend's just too beautiful." He smiled at her even though she couldn't see it.
She chuckled and nestled deeper into his chest. "God you are such a sap, Rogers."
Even though she was teasing him, she knew something was wrong. There was a reason he wasn't sleeping; she could sense it. She knew him better than he knew himself sometimes and was able to point out things he wouldn't be able to admit. To her, he was everything. But to him, she was everything and more.
"You can't sleep on the bed. Can you?" She opened her eyes to look into his. So much love in both party's.
He tried to pass it off, not wanting to seem vulnerable in front of her. "No, it's fine. I'm just not tired." He smiled at her, as if that would make his lie more convincing. She didn't buy it though, but she also wouldn't force him to talk about it.
"Uh huh." She began to get out of bed as Steve gave her a confused look. "Come on." She got out of the bed with a pillow and blanket and headed for the open space next to his bed. She knew that he had been sleeping on the floor for the past months; she walked into his room one time to talk to him and saw his pillow and blanket on the floor while he was taking a shower. She never said anything; she knew he didn't want to talk about it, but she never forgot.
"Nat, I am not letting you sleep on the floor." He protested, not wanting her to sacrifice her own comfort for his, but she was stubborn.
"Too late, already here." She mumbled as she laid on the floor with a pillow and blanket and got ready to go back to sleep. "So are you gonna sleep up there with no blanket or are you gonna join me?" She asked cockily with her back still turned to him which in turn just made him smile and roll his eyes.
He grabbed his pillow and laid down next to her, hugging her waist while she turned around so they were face to face. She smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, then closed her eyes again. He listened to the gentle sound of her breathing until he began drifting off to sleep himself. Unknown to him though, she wasn't asleep yet, she stayed awake to make sure he actually went to sleep. Only when she was sure that he actually fell asleep this time did she try going back to sleep herself.
She slept terribly that night. She kept waking up because of the ache in her back caused by the hard wooden floors, but she never left. Nor complained. She just stayed there the whole night, while he slept peacefully. This time she watched him sleep, and she couldn't have been happier to do so.
--------------------------------------------------
Natasha smiled at the peaceful memory. "But, things didn't last. We dated for a little over a year and I broke up with him."
Yelena raised her eyebrows at her, curious as to the reason why.
"We just... weren't compatible. He was too cautious with me when we were on missions and on the battlefield. Undermined a lot of my orders and decisions. He meant well but... I don't know, things just didn't work out." Her voice showed no signs of sadness even though she still carried feelings for him. She was over what happened, but she still loved him.
--------------------------------------------------
"Dammit, Steve! You completely ignored my orders back there!" Natasha said in a stern and angry voice.
"I know, I'm sorry! But I couldn't just leave you there."
It had been an hour since their mission together. Things started out well; they were supposed to be rescuing child hostages from a bunker in Bahrain where black market dealers took them to use as a distraction in their escape plan from the local police. Natasha and Steve were called in to lead a Strike team to rescue them.
Things had been rocky for a few weeks between the two of them; Steve was so scared of losing her that he constantly put her safety over the mission time and time again, despite knowing Natasha could handle herself. He kept "protecting" her even when she didn't need it. Natasha had remained calm and cool headed all the other times this happened and just talked things out normally instead of blowing up on him even though it did annoy her. But this was the final straw.
This time, they were in the middle of escaping with the children when they noticed that one was missing.
"You take the kids and go, I'll meet you outside." She told him while he protested.
"No you take them, I'll go."
"You know I'm better at being stealthy than you. Now go. That's an order." She ran off as Steve reluctantly led the kids towards the exit with two of the Strike team agents.
He was in the middle of leading them out when he heard a gunshot go off. It came from Natasha's direction and his heart immediately sank with worry.
"Natasha! Do you copy? Are you okay?!" He yelled into his mic.
"Steve, I'm fine, just g-" Her radio cutting off mid sentence was enough to send him into sheer panic mode and run after her, leaving the kids with the Strike agents.
He ran down a few halls until he saw her run up to him with a little boy in her arms and blood dripping down the side of her arm from a stray bullet that grazed her.
"Nat!" He ran up to her to see her annoyed face.
"Steve I told you to stay with the kids!"
"I know, I just-"
"For God's sake, we'll talk about this later!" She huffed.
They ran up to the exit to see the two Strike agents dead and four of the mercenaries pointing their gun at the kids. Luckily Steve was quick enough to throw his shield at one of them, distracting the others enough for Natasha to shoot them, saving the kids. They barely made it.
This hadn't been the first time Steve did something like this, but this was the first time that innocents almost got hurt because of it and Natasha had had it. She was not some damsel in distress and she certainly didn't need Prince Charming to come save her like one.
She went off on him the moment they entered her apartment together when he tried to apologize after she ignored him for the entire plane ride.
"You could've gotten them killed, Steve!" She shouted at him. "I said I was fine! I can handle myself!"
"I know... I just..." He gave her a somber look. He groaned and took a deep breath. "I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you and I did nothing."
She returned his sorrowful eyes. "... and I can't live with anymore innocent blood on my hands."
"Natasha..."
"No. You don't treat me as an equal out there. Even when you know more than anyone how capable I am... I can't do this anymore, Steve."
His eyes widened; he couldn't bear to hear her say it.
"Nat... "
"We need to break up."
"Please..." He looked down as his eyes teared up. "I... I love you, Nat."
It was the first time he said it. Even after a year of dating they never said it out loud to each other. They never needed to. They just knew. She just returned his broken look.
"What is love without mutual respect?" This time she was tearing up too. Though unlike Steve, she held them back. "It's over." She said quietly, walking past him to the door of her apartment and opening it.
She turned the silver knob slowly and by the time it was opened all the way and she was facing him again her tears were flowing too. She held the it open and stood by it, looking at Steve and saying nothing.
He put his head down and reluctantly walked out the door, his tears leaving a trail on his cheeks. She slowly closed it after he crossed the threshold into the hallway, his back facing her.
He turned around after he heard the latch close and took a deep breath to try to stop his tears. He took a step closer to the door and rested his forehead on the cold wood, unsure of how to handle his broken heart. Unbeknownst to him, on the other side of the door she had sank to the floor with her back against against it and just sat there. Crying her eyes out, also unsure of how to stop her heart from throbbing.
--------------------------------------------------
She looked at him standing across the room with a small smile on her face. Yelena noticed the way her sister talked about him; so much love and compassion for a man that seemed to be her opposite on the outside. Somehow she could tell how much Steve meant to Natasha despite never seeing them together before, it was written across both their faces. If only they'd stop acting like idiots and just get together already instead of pining over each other from afar.
"I went on a month-long mission after the breakup to get away from everything for a while. Then I came back and had to work with him again. Took us a while but we eventually became friends again. He started respecting my decisions on missions and we've been good friends since."
Yelena smiled at her sister's subtle pining. No one else would've noticed it for her —except maybe Clint (if he tried hard enough and long enough).
"Was it love?" She asked her sister cheekily, but genuinely wanting an answer.
Natasha chuckled as she thought about her response. "Honestly I don't know... we were taught all our lives that love was nothing but a weakness. No one ever taught us how to love. The Red Room wasn't exactly a place for it."
They both pondered the thought for a minute. Natasha had a point: apart from the mission together in Ohio, no one ever showed them any sort of love. For Natasha, Bucky had for a little while the Winter Soldier, but that was short-lived and only led to heartache. Neither one of them had any idea what romantic love looked like.
Natasha was lost in her thoughts when she heard Yelena start snickering and then breaking out into a full laugh. She gave her sister a confused look.
"Wait til Alexei hears that you slept with his rival." She continued laughing.
"Nope! Absolutely not! I'll never hear the end of it. He's not finding out!" Natasha started poking Yelena's sides to get her laugh even more as Yelena squirmed away, trying to catch her older sister's hands, but missing because she was laughing so hard.
They were so busy messing with each other that neither one of them noticed Steve staring from across the large room. He had been watching them for some time now —well, one of them at least. He couldn't hear anything they were saying; he just saw the huge and real smiles across their faces. He was so enchanted by Natasha that he didn't notice a small smile had formed on his face. Someone else noticed it though.
Steve was so distracted by Natasha and Yelena that he didn't notice Clint and Bucky walk up to him. Clint went up to him first and put his arm on Steve's shoulder, having to stand on his toes to reach.
"You should go for it. But if you break her heart again, I'll put an arrow through you." Clint said jokingly, though meaning every part of it.
He saw what Natasha went through after things didn't work out with Steve and didn't want to see her in pain again. Especially when he thought the world of her and wanted her to find her own happiness for once, instead of just fighting for others'. He gave Steve one last smirk and walked away to join Natasha and Yelena's squabble.
Bucky stepped up to his old friend, he loved Natasha more than anything but he knew how much Steve did as well. And he knew that Natasha would be better off with Steve; he was the clear choice, Bucky had way too much baggage right now and he wanted her to be happy... even if it was with someone else.
"You ever gonna tell her you're still in love with her?" Bucky asked him while still staring at Natasha, even though it broke his heart.
"That smile..." Steve started, still transfixed by her and smiling to himself. "I haven't seen it in a while. She didn't really laugh or smile much over the five years and I... I don't wanna say anything that'll make it go away." He looked at Bucky with glistening eyes. "Besides, I think she needs to focus on her sister for now."
Bucky smiled back at his friend and gave him a pat on the back as they both stared at the woman they loved, but only one of them could have.
"By the way, how are Melina and Alexei?" Natasha asked Yelena after they had both settled down and Clint left to go sit in the pilot's seat.
"You know them. Annoying as ever... they miss you though." Yelena answered softly.
Natasha gave her a soft smile.
"Well we know where we're going after this."
Yelena returned her smile.
---Oscorp facility---
After about two hours in the Quinjet, the Avengers arrived at the Oscorp facility. It was quiet; there was no one and nothing in sight except for the two-story, high-tech building in the middle of a giant field with a runway connecting to it.
It looked just as impressive as the Avengers Tower, though not nearly as big, that didn't stop Tony from making his snarky comments though as they exited the jet and approached the building.
"I was expecting better." His comment was met with eyerolls and an amused look from Peter.
They stepped off the jet to see T'challa and Okoye already waiting there for them. They were both shocked to see Natasha alive and immediately began asking a million questions all at once. Though they were owed an explanation, now was not the best time to give it; with the stones being in use again and all. The rest of the team promised to explain everything later and they reluctantly agreed to leave it at that, but not before Okoye could give Natasha a hug.
They worked together often during the five years after the snap and became good friends as a result. They respected each other both in battle and in strategy. Two powerful women; it was only natural the two become friends.
They cautiously entered the building to see no one inside, completely empty; not a soul inside. They looked around to each other, trying to figure out why there were no signs of life or the stones anywhere.
"Bruce, you sure you put in the right coordinates?" Steve asked after a few minutes of confusion.
"Should be. This is the only place in the world with the energy signature."
No one could even say anything else before five space portals opened up and Thanos' army -their eyes a scarlet shade of red- along with Jean's team started running out and attacking the Avengers. They all started splitting up and fighting the army. Fighting as a team, combining their individual skills to take down their opponents.
Hela and Agatha worked together using both their magic and weapons as an offense. Magneto tried to use his powers to control their suits but was annoyed to find that they all switched to suits of vibranium which weren't magnetic, so he just switched to using the rest of the metal around them. Harry used his glider to move around the room swiftly and provided support from the back with his Goblin Bombs, and occasionally complaining when Magneto messed up his building.
They fought for a few minutes when Peter realized that both Wanda and Jean were missing.
"Hey! Wanda and the weird fire girl aren't here!" He shouted into his comms which caught everyone's attention.
Tony's face lit up as he realized Peter was right. "Alright everyone, split up and look for the stones. They have to be here somewhere."
Peter and Tony took off with Harry trailing not too far behind them. "Peter Parker! Where are you going Peter?!" He laughed maniacally.
He chased after them with his bombs and gadgets as Peter and Tony tried to shake him from their tail, Peter, flinging webs his way and Tony trying to blast him just hard enough to stun him.
Meanwhile Okoye and T'Challa were being followed by Agatha, Bucky and Sam: Magneto, and Thor and Bruce: Hela. They all split up in separate directions to begin their search for the stones and were followed by hordes of the army, taking them out as they went.
Steve, Clint, Natasha and Yelena managed to stay together longer than the rest of the group before splitting up to take different routes. Steve and Clint hastily climbed a set of stairs to the second floor of the facility, while Natasha and Yelena stayed on the bottom floor and ran through a long hall.
"Be careful." Steve shouted out to Natasha as they separated.
"I'm always careful, Rogers."
"Respectfully disagree." Clint shouted from the background.
"Ugh! Get a room." Yelena remarked as she turned the corner with Natasha.
They all smiled at each other and went their separate ways.
One of the soldiers managed to get close enough to Yelena and slashed the side of her shoulder with his spear. Natasha, being the faster of the two, with having the Red Room super serum, managed to outrun the horde trailing behind them. She turned back when she heard Yelena's pained yelp and threw one of her batons at the soldier leaving her back open for an attack as another soldier snuck up behind her and prepared to bludgeon her with his axe. Luckily, Yelena recovered in time to assemble her batons into a staff and block the axe, while Natasha took her other baton and shocked him, saving both of them.
They continued like that, fighting as one. Switching positions and creating opportunities for the other to take out the soldiers, until they were able to kill all the ones following them.
"Alright that's the last one. Come on, before more of them show up." Natasha said in a huffed breath, pointing to the end of the hall. Yelena nodded and ran forward with her sister.
They arrive at the end of the hallway to see a T-section of two pathways: one leading right and the other leading left. They looked at each other, silently communicating their plan.
"You take right, I take left?" Yelena suggested.
Natasha nodded and the two began to part ways.
"Stay on the comms! Shout if anything happens!" Natasha warned her sister.
"You're such a mom!" Yelena joked as she started running away.
Natasha just rolled her eyes and continued on her dedicated path.
More portals open and close, placing five more soldiers in her way. She ran up the walls, jumping onto the shoulder of one, shocking his neck then taking his pocket knife and throwing it into the neck of another. Three left. She readied her Widow's bites and launched a ball of electricity at one, and shocked him with her baton while he was distracted. Two left. One of the two charged at her while the other remained hesitant. She used the first one's speed against him by slipping between his legs and delivering a powerful kick to his back to throw him off balance, while taking out one of her glocks and shooting the other in the gut. She took out her grapple and subtly binded the two soldiers together without their knowledge then maneuvered around them, making them pull each other off balance. With one final blow of her batons she knocked them into each other and out of commission, then ran towards the room at the end of the hall.
The hall opened up to a giant room. She stopped for a moment at the entrance to catch her breath, not realizing there was someone in the room with her. She looked up to see a series of red magic streams go past her head; the source of it was someone she recognized. The conductor's back was facing her, but she could recognize those hand motions anywhere. It was her.
"Wanda..." She called out, breaking Wanda's concentration.
She was controlling the army and brainwashing them into fighting for Jean, that's why she wasn't fighting with the rest of her team.
Wanda was struck by the voice. She knew whose it was but couldn't fathom the courage to turn around. It was just in her head, it had to be. Her guilty conscience punishing her for turning her back on her family. What else would it be? Natasha was dead. Yet that voice; it was so real, so close, like it's speaker was right behind her.
"Wanda." It spoke again.
This time Wanda turned around slowly and was shocked to see her old friend standing there, alive. She didn't know what to do or how to react.
"Nat..." She mustered. Wanting nothing more than to run to her and let her warm hug comfort her, but not having the courage to after all she had done. She didn't even care about the how. She just wanted to be comforted.
"Dammit, Wanda..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wonder if Nat will be mad at Wanda. hm :) This chapter had a bit of Romanogers action for those of you guys that were looking forward to that. I enjoyed writing it. Also this is a ay early because I literally have no life. XD
Please leave a comment and vote if you enjoyed.
Thanks for Reading!