Work Text:
When Natasha first heard that Steve was going to return all the Stones, she was worried. Yes, she knew that Steve will be successful at returning five Stones for sure—but she wasn’t so sure about the last one—the Space Stone. Steve said it was time to move on— but what if he changed his mind and decided to stay in the past with Peggy? Saying that it was time to move on and actually doing it was totally different. He did say he couldn’t move on at the Compound and Natasha agreed with him.
If I move on, who does this?
Her own words echoed in her mind. She told him to get a life first, and maybe, maybe he did with Peggy Carter. She knew Steve missed her terribly—especially after the first fight with Thanos. He would keep looking at Peggy’s photograph, as if the image of her reminded him of a time everything was fine. He kept the photograph on him at all times...Natasha shook her head. He said— I’ll see you in a minute . He said he would come back and Steve doesn’t break his promises. But...she said those words first to Steve before their time travel journey, and she didn’t come back, did she? She never would’ve if Steve hadn’t put the Soul Stone back. Another dose of anxiety hit her.
“...I’ve been looking for you for the past 10 minutes,” a familiar voice said behind her. Steve Rogers, dressed in his Stealth suit walked towards her. Natasha looked into his eyes and knew this wasn’t her Steve... yet .
“Why?” Natasha asked, pushing the urge to hug him or even... kiss him.
“...To say goodbye,” Steve said. “Properly, this time. Just in case—”
“I’m going to stop you right there, Steve,” Natasha said. “You are going to be alright.”
“You sound so sure about that,” Steve said.
Natasha smiled. Of course she was—her past self in 2014 is going to meet Steve who almost completed his journey. But she couldn’t tell him that.
“I just know,” That was all she said.
“Of course you do,” Steve said with a laugh. “Aren’t you going to tell me how you survived? Everyone’s wondering, you know.”
Natasha shook her head.
“You’ll get your answer when you come back,” Natasha said, meeting his eyes.
Steve didn’t say anything. Instead, he pulled her into a hug.
“Goodbye, Nat.”
When Steve left, Natasha fell to the ground. He sounded like as if he was never coming back. But a lot must have happened during now and when Steve arrived at Vormir, because he was so determined about moving on from his past and having a future with her. She stood up and watched in a distance while Steve hugged Bucky and disappeared from both Tony and Bucky’s sight.
In five seconds, Steve was either going to be standing in front her or not. She couldn’t bear to watch it—so she turned around from where she was standing, and covered her eyes. She knew this wouldn’t help at all if Steve decided to stay in the past, but it was better than watching Tony count five seconds.
Five seconds were up. She heard nothing. Natasha hoped she was wrong—but….Steve must’ve stayed in the past. She understood. Probably seeing Peggy Carter in flesh caused Steve to stay…..it has been 80 years for him since he saw her young and fresh again. A single tear dropped from her eye.
“...I thought I said I’ll see you in a minute,” a familiar, too familiar voice said behind her.
Natasha turned around and found Steve standing in his Quantum suit. There were still tear stains in her eyes and she quickly wiped them off, but she knew Steve definitely noticed.
“Y—you are back,” Natasha said, trying to sound normal.
“Of course I am,” Steve said. “I’ve moved on from Peggy and my past life. I went back to 1970, returned the Tesseract and finally had that dance with her. I had my closure. A proper one.”
Natasha smiled at last. She knew what Steve was hinting at and waiting for. Without hesitation, Natasha stood on her toes and kissed Steve on his lips, and Steve naturally leaned down.
“Was that proper enough for you, Captain?” Natasha asked with a smirk.
“I don’t know, let’s see,” Steve said.
He changed back to his regular suit, pulled Natasha into his arms, and leaned down to kiss her—more passionately this time. Their lips met and twisted together, making sounds along the way. When Steve pulled Natasha back (which was not for a while), two were smiling at each other, holding hands.
“...That was our first kiss in 9 years,” Natasha said.
“Still think I’m bad at kissing?” Steve asked.
Natasha looked up and met Steve’s eyes.
“I’ve proven wrong.”
.
“...They are going to kill me if they find out I filmed their hot reunion, aren’t they?” Tony said to Bucky, watching Steve and Natasha make out from a distance.
“Steve will be embarrassed, but Natasha definitely will,” Bucky said, laughing.
Tony and Bucky really didn’t mean to witness Steve and Natasha’s make out session. But Natasha was standing close enough to where the Quantum machine was, and after reassuring Bucky and Tony, the first thing Steve did was to run over to Natasha. Since they didn’t decide to go to more private place and since they did decide to kiss each other in the middle of daylight out of nowhere, it really wasn’t Tony’s fault when he decided to film their make out session. Right?
“Mr. Stark! Oh my god! Mr. Stark!” Peter Parker yelled Tony’s name at top of his lungs while ran from the Compound to where he was standing.
“What’s wrong, kid? Did something happen?!!”
Swear to God, if something happened—
“I—I just saw Mr. Captain America and Ms. Natasha kiss! Like...for a long time,” Peter blurted it out, blushing.
Tony stared at Peter, not knowing to laugh or not because his reaction to witness a kiss was too cute and pure.
“I was just watching Mr. Captain America disappear and appear again by the window, and I didn’t mean to—but I was happened to stay by the window and well….he walked up to Ms. Natasha and they—”
“We know, Pete,” Tony said, laughing. “Cause we saw it, too, and well—being Tony Stark, a genius, I filmed their hot make out session using a drone from my suit.”
“Mr. Stark, that’s a violation of privacy!!!” Peter yelled, sadly loud enough for both Steve and Natasha to hear him. They turned around and started to walk towards three of them. Bucky shook his head silently and Tony glared at Peter.
“What’s going on?” Steve asked, looking at three of them.
“What did Stark do now ?” Natasha asked, crossing her arms.
“Uh, nothing,” Tony said quickly. “Peter’s just—”
“H—he filmed you guys kissing,” Peter answered instantly, stepping away from Tony.
“Peter!” Tony yelled.
“Stark.” Natasha gave him a death stare.
Tony gulped. He really felt that his life was in danger.
“Explain,” Steve said in exact tone as Natasha. Now it was Bucky’s turn to feel the danger. He knew that tone. He knew that tone too well.
“We weren’t trying to—uh—um, watch you two have a moment,” Tony said, stuttering. “But—you two were literally standing like a hundred or two feet away from us and we couldn’t resist but to stay and look.”
“Stevie, it just happened, okay? We meant no harm,” Bucky said.
Peter hid behind Tony, because his Spidey Sense was telling him it wasn’t a good time to be near Steve and Natasha.
“Then why would you film it, Stark?” Natasha asked, stepping forward. “Answer me.”
“Well—about that...so you guys can watch it later?”
That moment, Tony tapped his arc reactor and flew high up in the sky, so Natasha can’t do anything to him...while he was up here.
“You’re dead, Stark,” Natasha said, looking up.
“Can’t believe you were a part of this, Buck,” Steve said, shaking his head.
Bucky was backing up and now Peter was behind Bucky, since Tony left to save himself.
“It.just.happened,” Bucky said. “Stark did it all by himself, I was unfortunate enough to stand there!”
But Bucky started running too, Peter following him. When two of them disappeared from Steve and Natasha’s sight, the couple laughed.
“We scared the heck out of them,” Steve said.
“Well, I’m the assassin and you are the Super Soldier,” Natasha said. “We did sound intimidating.”
Steve put his arm around her waist and kissed her head lightly.
“I guess we make a good couple then,” Steve said.