Summary: When Yelena starts teasing Steve about crushing on Carol, Natasha comes in. She, of course, happily joins in, not about to miss an opportunity to mess with one of her brothers. However, she quickly realizes that Steve might actually have feelings for the other captain in question.
"Natashka, tell him," Yelena declared suddenly as soon as Natasha came into the gym. Natasha furrowed her brow, looking at her sister quickly as she glanced between the blonde and her latest victim that she had found in the one and only Steve Rogers.
Natasha had been planning to innocently come into the gym for some training, wondering where Yelena had gotten off to in the compound. However, the moment that she entered, she found her sister, and it became startlingly clear that she was not going to just be able to innocently train this time.
She had already done her stretches before coming down, and she was fully prepped to start working out, so she headed over to the treadmill that was on the opposite side of Steve.
As she grew closer, she only got a better look at the situation. She quickly noticed how Yelena looked far too pleased with herself and Steve looked extremely uncomfortable.
"What are we discussing?" Natasha tentatively asked, stepping up onto the treadmill. She did not want to step right into the conversation without being fully informed. Besides, with what she knew at this point, she was not even prepared to start a conversation at all.
"Look, I came in and found Star Spangled Speedo and Boomer in here talking and working out together. As soon as they saw me, she left the room, and he looked embarrassed. He was watching her while she left, and then it magically occurred to me that they must be attracted to each other," Yelena declared, and Steve looked even more red in the face at her caressing of the word.
Natasha paused, taking in the expressions on both of their faces. Yelena did not really seem to be interested in this endeavor for the sake of making their two friends happy and seemed to be way more interested in the aggravation aspect of it. And honestly, given how Steve was reacting, Natasha could not resist joining in. Plus, given just how worked up he was about this, she wondered if there might be something to Yelena's accusations, and while Yelena was not in it for really getting them together, Natasha was more than willing to try setting them up for real.
"That's ridiculous. We're friends, and we were just talking. A guy and a girl can talk without it being weird. Besides, it wouldn't work," he argued unhappily, and Natasha noted that he was protesting far too much for it to be a thought that he found entirely repulsive. He seemed almost like how Peter was when they discussed MJ.
"I don't know... I think you and Carol would be cute together," Natasha acknowledged, trying to bite back her smile, and Steve just groaned deeply.
"Really? You, too?!" he cried, terribly unhappy that he had lost a potential ally. Natasha started up the treadmill and began running on it carefully, picking up speed.
"Oh, come on. She's been single for like sixty or so years. You've been single for eighty or so years. Sounds like a match made in heaven," Yelena told him with a far too wide smirk. He let out a long, deep breath, shaking his head as he tried to recollect his cool.
Natasha never knew him to get this worked up when she teased him about some girl in the past, which further gave her reason to believe that he might actually have some sort of real feelings about their other resident captain.
"She's hardly ever here," he finally argued, and Yelena just looked around him to gaze at Natasha and throw it back to her to argue their point that they both had so efficiently taken up.
"Hardly here is better than not here at all," Natasha pointed out with a shrug, and Steve just wrinkled his nose a little.
He did not bother responding at that moment, keeping up his steady gait, and Natasha just watched him. He finally furrowed his brow, apparently having thought of something to say to her.
"And why are you so determined to get us together anyway? This is more Natasha's thing," Steve asked Yelena, and Yelena smirked in reply to him with an innocent look in her eye that was exceedingly practiced. Natasha knew it was practiced because of the many times that it had been used on her.
"Can't I just want you to have someone to swap spit with?" Yelena questioned, and Natasha could tell that Yelena was honestly just enjoying aggravating him. It was not about the romance at all, and it was one of those typical Yelena schemes to tease and embarrass people.
"Look, I don't need somebody to... do that with, okay? I'm fine," Steve insisted far too grumpily, and Natasha knew that while his heart was still undoubtedly Peggy's, she also could see that he seemed almost sad right now. Which further told her that he must have some manner of feelings that he believed must be unrequited.
"It wouldn't hurt to give her a try. I know she's not what you're used to or exactly what you want, but she's a good woman, and I think you'd like her. Yelena says she has an amazing sense of humor," Natasha mischievously pointed out, referencing Yelena's incident in the elevator when she had been stuck with Darcy and Kate. Yelena narrowed her eyes immediately, terribly unhappy with the fact that Natasha had brought it up again.
"Look, that was a dare, okay?" Yelena defended, pointing at Natasha, and Natasha could not help her huge grin at Yelena's expense. She then redirected her attentions to their main target at the moment.
"Plus, like Yelena, I have seen how you look at her," Natasha pointed out, and he groaned deeply, slowing down the treadmill as he prepared to get off.
"I don't look at her any differently than I do the rest of you," Steve tried to argue, and Natasha just huffed before Yelena suddenly scoffed loudly and voiced her disagreement.
"Please... If you looked at my sister like you look at Carol sometimes, I'd have to murder you," Yelena disputed, preparing to get off of her treadmill as well. Steve just sighed as he got off. Natasha headed off of hers as well, accompanying the other two despite the fact that she had barely started her workout.
Steve wiped his head with a towel nearby, and he slung it over his shoulders before guzzling some water in a bottle he had brought into the gym.
"Look, it won't hurt anything to give her a try, will it?" Natasha questioned breezily. Steve was quiet for a long moment, and Natasha heard Yelena drawing in a breath to speak and add to the ongoing conversation. However, Steve suddenly spoke up, interrupting her.
"Hypothetically... What even makes you think she'll agree to it? If she doesn't, I'll just look stupid and it'll make things weird," Steve pointed out, looking strangely worried and concerned as he looked at Natasha carefully.
It was a genuine question, and she knew that it was not as entirely hypothetical as he was trying to make it out to be. He was truly considering doing it.
Yelena grew quiet, and Natasha knew that she was realizing that this was actually starting to turn into something with more serious meaning behind it. It was beginning to leave the realm of aggravation and head into real possibilities.
"I'm pretty sure she'll agree, Steve. If she doesn't, just be smooth and cover it up with something like me and Yelena pushed you into asking. Make it out like you didn't want to do it in the first place, and it'll be nothing," Natasha explained, and Steve just smiled wryly, letting out a small sigh as he let his chin drop to his chest. He then looked back up at her with a raise of his eyebrow.
"I don't want to do it in the first place," he stated, and Natasha just stepped a little closer to him, one of the men that she considered to be a brother to her.
"Then why are we having this very real hypothetical conversation about how to ask her out?" Natasha asked, and Steve let out a deep breath of resignation. At this point, she knew that he was planning to actually listen to her and try it.
"Y'know, you can be extremely persistent."
"So I've been told," Natasha shrugged, letting it roll off of her as she smiled smugly. He shook his head, straightening a bit.
"Alright... I'll ask her at some point. Might not be today, but it'll be before she leaves."
"Sounds good, but make sure it's at least several days before she takes off. You guys need to have some time together if this all works out well," Natasha told him, and he nodded with a sigh.
"I'm going to go clean up," he told them before heading off, and Natasha smiled a little as she nodded resolutely.
However, after a moment, Yelena let out an unhappy, very much disappointed huff, and Natasha almost grinned as she looked over at the blonde.
"Hmph. That wasn't how I expected that to go at all!"
.....................................................................................................................
"Hey, Carol," a voice resounded behind her, and Carol turned around quickly. She grinned widely as she realized it was Steve, and she gave him a subtle onceover, forcing herself to focus on his face despite the fact that she had already been entertaining dangerous thoughts of the entire package that was Steve Rogers.
It had been two days since Carol had been talking to Steve in the gym and Yelena had walked in. Carol had been sure to hightail it out of there as soon as she saw the shorter blonde, some part of her worried that the younger woman would catch onto her feelings for the man even though she probably could not see them just rolling off of her.
The feelings had quite honestly been building within Carol since she had spent more time with Steve. She could not remember feeling this many things about a guy since she was a young girl playing baseball with the boys and girls and she felt the biggest need to impress Jack Hughes. And that was elementary school.
She had dated during her teenage years a little and dabbled in it somewhat during adulthood, but she had mostly never found guys that were fully comfortable with her tomboyish nature.
But Steve was truly something else.
He actually embraced the fact that she had power that surpassed even his own, and he never seemed to have a problem with the fact that she did. He was always confident in himself and never allowed her powers to shake him. And her nature did not seem to faze him either.
He got adorably flustered sometimes, and she always found that to be the cutest thing, and he had the kindest eyes that carried the weight of the world but, all the same, held such innocence within their depths.
"Hey, Steve, what's up?"
"I was wondering if maybe you'd like to," he suddenly grew dead silent and Carol just looked at him wordlessly, waiting for him to speak with bated breath. She felt excitement and the thrill leaping into her throat as she eagerly anticipated his next words.
Carol did not know much firsthand about being asked out the proper way outside of Maria setting her up with some dude so many years ago or guys flirting with her throughout the years, but this sounded a lot like how being asked out was supposed to sound.
"Sorry, something stuck in my throat," he told her, clearing his throat with far too much exaggeration. Carol huffed a little, grinning as she took in the awkward guy before her. For him to be a super soldier and Captain America of all people, he definitely was really uncertain of himself.
"Would you like to go and spar? It's always nice to go at it with somebody that I don't have to hold back on," he explained with a somewhat uncertain smile, and Carol shrugged easily.
"Sure. Let's do it," she easily told him, and his expression turned to something akin to relief.
She almost knew that he must have had something else to say originally, but he must have chickened out last minute. Carol was a little scared to hope, but she could not help but wonder if he had been actually trying to ask her out. She supposed that she would test the situation a little more before she came to any abrupt conclusions.
They headed to the gym that fortunately happened to not be so far away, and they remained in silence until they reached the inside.
They both started strapping on gloves, and Carol easily vaulted over into the ring as she eyed the man before her. Steve followed her moves and got in with her, and she grinned as she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Five out of eight?" she asked him, and he shrugged with a small smile.
"Let's go," he told her, and she still noticed that there was something sort of off, but she did not push him, instead deciding to keep fighting with him and hopefully work it out of him that way.
The moment they tapped gloves, she went into her routine punches, warming them both up for the bigger moves, and he easily started to block her. He threw fists at her as soon as she offered an opening.
She could not help but smirk as she took advantage of his move, taking hold of his arm, and jerking him forward with her super strength as she threw him onto the ground. She quickly moved so that she had a foot on his chest, and he let out a breath, looking up at her with surprise.
"Hey, you were the one that said you wanted someone that was a more equal match, Mister Super Soldier," she acknowledged before stepping off of him and offering him her hand to help him up. He huffed, pausing for a moment as she brought him to his feet. The both of them looked at one another for a moment, remaining still.
Steve quickly stepped back after a moment, and he cleared his throat, readying his fighting stance again.
"I said I wanted somebody that I didn't have to hold back on."
"Then don't hold back," she replied, and immediately realized how overly flirtatious that happened to sound. She pushed it out of her mind quickly, readying herself to receive his punches as he threw them out at her. He came in toward her with more strength than before, and Carol chuckled a bit as she wrestled his arms for a moment, fighting him off. As she caught him in a lock and expected him to fight her back, he froze up quickly, and she took advantage of the moment to throw him down again.
"Two for me. You better step it up some. You haven't won any of these so far," she pointed out, far too pleased with herself, and Steve just huffed as she helped him up. This time, he very pointedly avoided her gaze as he returned to his original position, and she had the strongest inkling that he was feeling awkward about something.
As they got started into the next round, it quickly became clear that his head was obviously not in the game at all. Whatever had been bugging him this entire time was getting to him.
"There some reason you're holding back more than usual?" Carol questioned finally as she purposefully used the same move she had just pulled to see if he was paying attention. He countered it, but somewhat sloppily.
"Nope," he replied, continuing to parry her. Carol kept on throwing several punches at him, and she finally managed to catch him off-guard once again as she jumped for him, wrapping her legs around his waist as she knocked him to the floor.
They both collapsed down hard, and she allowed herself to fully settle down on him as she looked at him mischievously.
"So you always fight and miss cues like an awkward teenager?" Carol questioned, feigning uncertainty as she smirked down at him. He suddenly looked very nervous, and she could not help but notice their close proximity. Carol, despite how nervous a part of her was, remained on top of him experimentally.
"Not usually. Just when a lady is around," Steve admitted, and Carol raised an eyebrow, trying to ignore the flutter in her chest at his goofy old-fashioned ways.
"So taking it easy because I'm a girl, huh?" Carol asked, not truly offended since she knew that was definitely not the case. She just wanted to push him to actually say the words that he had not yet uttered.
"Must be."
"Well, I'm going to have to call BS because I've seen you with Natasha. You don't go easy on her at all when you're feeling cockstrong and she's in the mood to throw you on your rear end," Carol pointed out, and he let out a breath, looking at her somewhat embarrassedly.
"No... Just... When a pretty lady is around," he stated, and Carol barely pushed down the ridiculously huge grin coming onto her face. She was beginning to strongly believe that her hunch about what he was going to ask her was accurate.
"You trying to flirt with me? I mean, you're not doing a bad job, but implying Natasha's not as pretty as me is a really good way to end up on a hitlist. And I don't mean Natasha's," Carol acknowledged as she finally rolled off of him with a chuckle, referencing Yelena's undying love and protective streak for her big sister.
Steve just groaned deeply, taking off his gloves as he raised up and rubbed at his eyes with a hand. Carol looked at him curiously, just watching him as she leaned back on her hands with her arms behind her and her legs sprawled out in front of her.
"Look, I'm sorry... I'm really, really out of practice at this. Like basically over eighty years out of practice," he explained, and Carol tilted her head a little, her hair falling into her face just a bit as she eyed him carefully and patiently as she let him go at his own pace. He let out a deep, long breath, and she could tell he was working up his nerve.
"At the risk of sounding like a real idiot... I was going to ask you out... On a date... Earlier. Because I just... I don't know... It was stupid," he trailed off, sounding disheartened and terribly disappointed in himself. Carol shook her head, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him.
"Y'know, you're a really awkward goofball," she pointed out, and he looked down dejectedly as he rested his arms on his knees. She huffed a bit before raising up, trying to catch his gaze with a small smirk.
"Luckily for you, though, I like really awkward goofballs," she pointed out, and he looked up at her quickly, hopefulness in his gaze. Carol grinned a bit, and she suddenly realized how close they were as he raised his head more fully to meet her eyes.
Her grin faded a bit, and she could feel his breaths falling upon her lips. He looked uncertain, glancing down in the direction of her lips, and she just waited for a moment, allowing him to get acclimated to the circumstances so that she did not spook him. She knew he was a real gentleman, and he would definitely not act unless she explicitly expressed it was alright.
"How long?" he asked somewhat uncertainly, and Carol allowed herself to steal a quick look at his lips as he had just done to her.
She could feel her stomach twist just a little in a way that she had not felt in a terribly long time. She then flicked her eyes back to his, feeling increased anticipation rising within her.
"Well... I really realized it that night we had to sing that stupid song that Kate thought up for us to do while Yelena was healing from losing her hearing," Carol pointed out, and he let out a breath almost akin to a laugh as he moved his head a little away from her as he shook his head with a slight smile. However, the air between them was not fully disrupted, and she eyed his profile carefully as she took in the details that she had never had the chance to before now.
"You?" she prompted, genuinely interested about the answer.
"Probably before then," he admitted somewhat embarrassedly, looking back over at her, and she smiled gently as she leaned in further, her eyes growing more half-lidded. His began to slip a little further closed as well as he remained still in his position, not moving closer or drawing further away.
"Guess it's good to know I'm pulling guys like you and don't even know it. Flatters a girl, y'know?" she whispered, and before he could respond, she moved into him, their lips gently connecting.
There was no manner of urgency in it, and she raised her hand up to grasp at his arm softly. He tentatively reached out to her face, his thumb grazing her cheek as he grasped her head barely. He was by no means holding her in place at all, and he actually seemed to be more reveling in the kiss itself.
Her stomach was doing flips, and while she had been kissed before by guys who were probably way more skilled than him, she still very much felt breathless. She squeezed his arm a little tighter, pulling him nearer, and he moved into her a little more, somewhat deepening the kiss.
"Wow, you work fast, Rogers," a familiar voice suddenly commented, and Carol furrowed her brow as she started to pull back to see who had caught the both of them. Steve followed her movement, still fighting to keep it going in some unconscious manner, and she wanted more than anything to keep kissing him.
"OH, MY— Get a freaking room or something, UGH!!!" Yelena cried suddenly, and they both jumped more fully away from one another. Her thoughts of kissing him momentarily disappeared as she very surprisedly took in the sight of who had seen them.
There behind them was Yelena and Natasha. Yelena looked as if she had been positively violated and Natasha looked frighteningly smug with a shockingly huge grin on her face as she eyed the pair.
"That's right, we're not having canoodling in this gym! This is a clean, PG-rated space! No tongue-twisting and spit-swapping in here!" Yelena declared adamantly.
They stared at her for a moment before Carol finally laughed a little with a shrug. After all, it was all she really could do, and she honestly found it pretty funny that Yelena was so disgusted. Steve chuckled a bit next to her, and she felt that warm buzz alight within her again.
Carol looked back at Steve, and they met eyes for a short moment. She finally just squeezed his arm affectionately as she glanced at his lips briefly.
"So tonight at seven maybe?"
And as he grinned sheepishly with a nod, she felt a huge smile coming onto her face as well.
Ultimately, they were two captains. It made perfect sense.