I woke up to the sun on my face and the warmth of Steve radiating next to me. Steve was still asleep, which was fascinating since he usually woke up early to go for a run. I poked my arm out from under the covers and reached for my phone. Three texts from Tony, one from Sam, and two missed calls from Pepper. I moved myself up to a sitting position, wincing slightly. My foot throbbed from the stiffness of the night.
In the other bed, Emery was still fast asleep.
"Steve," I whispered. I watched his sleeping form as his chest rose and fell with each breath. I brushed his cheek with my hand, which got his attention.
"Mm, are you ok?" Steve asked. He squinted in the light of the room. "Is your ankle ok?"
"Yeah, it's just a little stiff." I held up my phone. "Tony was asking for us."
Steve sat up and rubbed at his face. "How long ago was that?"
I checked my phone. "20 minutes. I'm surprised the texts didn't wake me."
"We should go downstairs then." He looked over to the other bed. "Emery is still sleeping?"
I nodded, getting up and putting on my robe. "She's been pulling all-nighters watching surveillance footage on the Alexei case."
Steve got out of bed. "Should I meet you downstairs? I want to put on some real clothes."
"Sure. But I think you look sexy like this." I kissed him as we walked out to the hallway.
We headed our separate ways, me going to the elevator and Steve taking the stairs. Once downstairs, I grabbed some ice for my ankle and went to the main room to sit.
"Morning, everyone," I said as I sat down.
"Were you still sleeping?" Tony asked, forgoing any formalities.
"Yeah. I guess I forgot to set an alarm." My eyes flickered to Pepper and Sam who were sitting across from me. "I had a long night."
"Well, now that you're here, we should talk about the updates I was incessantly texting you about. Our sources might have a location on Alexei," Tony said.
"What?! Why didn't you wake me? You know how important this case is to me, Tony," I stood up and started pacing.
"I tried, hence the texts," Tony said, making it seem like it was my fault.
"Well, when it's something urgent like that, you can wake me. How much do we know?"
"We should really wait for Emery and if you still want Steve on this case, we should wait for him too," Tony said. "Just so we don't have to repeat everything."
I nodded and walked to the kitchen to make some coffee. It was going to be a long morning.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Not very long after, I headed outside to sit by the pool. I needed the fresh air after being cooped up inside for so long. Sam had only just cleared me to be able to swim again.
"Hey," Steve said behind me, jolting me out of my head cloud.
"Hi. Did Tony tell you we might have a location on Alexei?" I asked.
Steve nodded. "I wanted to see how you were doing."
I shrugged. "There's nothing I can control with this, so I'm doing as well as I can be. But honestly, I wish Tony would've just told me instead of tiptoeing around it. Alexei is my past, I'm the one who's gonna have to face him eventually."
"Nat—"
"I know what you're gonna say, Steve." I turned to him. "I know you're here and the team is here and you want to help. But sometimes these missions end up being one-on-one. I'm gonna have to face Alexei alone."
"But you don't have to," Steve protested.
"It's not that I don't want you to help. It's just—" I paused, my senses hyper-aware of something coming toward us. Steve and I locked eyes, and I knew he heard what I did. In a matter of seconds, he pulled me toward the water and we fell into the pool together as something whizzed overhead and exploded somewhere nearby.
We came up for air coughing. My foot throbbed, but I ignored it as I swam to the edge. The commotion attracted the team to come running outside, with a very confused Tony leading the group.
"What the hell just happened?" he asked. His armor was already attached as if he'd prepared for the Iron Man suit but couldn't get all the pieces together in time.
"Something just exploded off the perimeter," Steve said.
"Are you alright?" Clint asked, more to me than to Steve.
I nodded. "Yeah. Steve just saved my life. Again."
"Ok, Pepper, can you get these two some towels? Clint, you and Sam go check the perimeter. I'm gonna do a fly-by and make sure our security wasn't compromised," Tony said.
Everyone dispersed except for me and Steve. We got out of the water and dried off with the towels that Pepper brought for us. I limped inside, trying to hide the pain on my face.
"Nat, you need to sit," Steve said.
"I'm fine."
"Nat, Steve's right," Pepper put in. "You shouldn't be in that much pain. Not after this much physical therapy."
"That's for Sam to decide." I winced as I gingerly touched the bruise on my ankle—the mark of the tracker. It still hadn't gone away, although that was typical.
"Natasha—"
"Steve, I said I'm fine." I glared at him. I didn't want to start arguing, but I also didn't want Steve to think that just because we were sort of back together, it meant he could treat me any different than as a team member. But I also didn't want him to think I was pushing him away after last night.
"Alright, I'm gonna go put on some dry clothes. Stay inside until the others get back, you're safer inside the compound anyway," Steve said.
I nodded, my expression softening. "Thanks." I gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
He left, and Pepper turned to me. "Ok, this might just be my woman's intuition, but did something happen between you two last night?"
I forgot I hadn't given Pepper the details of the night before. "I'll tell you everything later. Is it really that obvious that we're together?"
"Well, you just confirmed it so..." Pepper's mouth twitched into a teasing smile. "I'm happy for you. Both of you."
"Thanks." I smiled. "Just don't say anything to Tony yet. I need to talk to Steve about telling everyone we're back together. And now isn't the right time."
"You know I won't tell him anything."
I hugged her and hobbled to the elevator. Steve and Pepper were both right: my ankle shouldn't still be in this much pain after six weeks of physical therapy.
Once I was back in dry clothes, I reconvened with the team in the living room. No one looked very happy.
"There was a break in the protection screen over the compound," Tony reported. "It's likely whoever sent that—whatever it was—could track you because of it."
"But we don't know what broke the protection screen?" Steve asked, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Not at this time, but I'm working on improving the security." He turned to Clint. "What did you and Sam find?"
"One of our decoy weapons sheds was caught in the explosion. But no further damage," Clint said.
I risked a glance at Steve. "Tony, can Steve and I talk to you alone?"
Tony nodded and addressed the group. "We'll reconvene at lunch. Keep doing what you normally do."
Everyone dispersed, and we got serious.
"This situation is getting a little out of hand," I said.
"Yeah, I can see that. So, what did you want to talk about?" Tony said.
I glanced at Steve. He nodded his approval. "Steve and I might know someone who could be helpful with finding Alexei. Someone who knows him as I do."
"I still don't know how you know him," Tony reminded me.
I gave him a quick recap of what I had told Steve six weeks ago. Once I was finished, Tony gave me a look.
"So let me get this straight. You want me to bring Bucky here so he can help us do exactly what we're already doing? Isn't that why we have Emery?" he asked.
"Well, yes. But Bucky knows Alexei, trust me on that. He knows Alexei better than anyone, even more than I do."
"And you both are sure about this?"
Steve and I nodded.
"Alright. I'll put a call in. I can't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do," Tony reasoned.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
A few hours later, after we were done and Bucky had planned to take the first jet out of Wakanda in the early hours of the morning with Shuri, we reconvened with the rest of the team to fill them in on the details.
"Before everyone goes, Steve and I want to address something," I said. We'd talked briefly after our conversation with Bucky about getting things out in the open.
"In the last couple of months, there have been a lot of questions thrown out about our relationship and keeping it strictly professional per the no dating policy." I glanced at Steve before continuing. "We wanted to make everyone aware that we are, in fact, dating and would like to keep that information just between present company. Bucky will be arriving in the morning, and we really want to tell him in our own way on our own time."
"I have a question," Clint piped up, looking directly at Steve.
"No, this didn't happen because of Truth or Dare," Steve answered before I could say anything.
I gave him a look.
"I'll tell you later," he said to me.
"That wasn't my question but I appreciate the clarification," Clint said, leaning back in his seat. "I was going to ask why you decided to tell us this now. Or at all."
He had a point.
"Because transparency is important and while I believe there is nothing more important than the mission, I'm not the same person I've always been." I looked up at Steve and smiled.
"None of us are." Steve slipped his arm around my waist.
"Sometimes there are people out there who make you rethink everything you've ever known and they teach you how to be better. And that's what Steve has done for me."
"Well, I called it. Clint, you owe me ten bucks," Tony said.
My mouth dropped open. "You were betting on us?"
Clint put his hands up defensively. "The truth or dare game made us rethink a lot of things. The way the two of you acted around each other was one of those things. And the bet was Tony's idea, not mine."
"Thanks, Clint. Make me the bad guy. Anyway, I guess we sort of have to abolish the whole inter-team dating rule, huh?"
"That would be nice." I glanced at Steve and smiled. "I don't see us changing our minds anytime soon."
Steve grinned and kissed me, earning us cheers and groans from the group.