Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You really don’t have to do this for me, Nat.”

“Don’t be stupid, Rogers. It’s either my place or the med wing for two weeks.”

Steve let out a rueful chuckle. He had injured himself pretty badly on their last mission by taking two bullets to the gut and one to his right knee. Waking up in the medical wing of the Tower after surgery on a torn spleen was hell, and his shattered kneecap wasn’t much better. While the serum running through his veins could heal him much faster than any other person, he was still ordered to be on two weeks of bed rest. That would be long enough to get the cast off his leg, at least.

Bed rest for him, however, meant being supervised the whole time. According to Fury, he had a track record of violating his orders when it came to his health. He was meant to be confined to a private room in the med wing until Natasha stepped up and offered her apartment. 

She had been sitting next to his hospital bed after he woke up, red in the face and very pissed. She berated him for being the stupidest person she’s ever met and for making her carry his “heavy as fuck” body off the battlefield and towards the quinjet. He pretended not to notice her bloodshot eyes when she leaned over to thump his forehead, then kissed him in that same spot.

He was discharged the next night. After being continuously woken up by the nurses coming and going from his room, both Steve and Natasha couldn’t wait to actually get some real sleep. The second they entered the apartment, Steve started to limp towards the couch in the center of her living room.

“Whoa, where are you going?” she asked, grabbing his arm.

“Uh, the couch. I thought-”

“What’re you gonna do, sleep there?”

Steve hesitated. That was his plan, yes, but before he could say anything, Nat started again.

“You won’t fit on that thing laying down.” She cocked an eyebrow and challenged him to argue with her. He glanced back to the couch.

“I could try?”

Natasha rolled her eyes, stifling a chuckle. “No. Don’t worry, I have a guest room.”

“Oh, o-okay.” He looked flustered. Natasha thought about making a sly comment for that reaction, but decided against it. They had only just started their relationship a few weeks ago with very little time in between for simple things like dates. They hadn’t gotten much further than making out in his quarters during a rare moment of peace and she knew that he wanted to take things slow. She did, too. Besides a couple of very tragic relationships during her training with the Red Room, this was her first serious one since defecting. She never thought she would get this far with anyone ever again, and she was hesitant to keep a fast pace. She wanted to do this right for the both of them.

Also, the rest of the team didn’t know. Steve and Natasha decided they liked it that way, so no public displays of affection were allowed, which slowed them down even more.

“They make people very uncomfortable anyway,” Steve had quipped during a casual team dinner, tickling her side when no one was watching. She had had to bite back a giggle. 

“Nat, I’m sorry. I just don’t wanna be in the way...”

“Don’t say it. It’s not a problem, okay? Not at all. You know that.” She pressed her palm to his cheek. “Can you walk by yourself or do you need a hand?” she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she tucked his arm around her shoulders and guided him to the guest room. Steve didn’t realize how much he needed the help, how good it would feel to take some pressure off his leg. He clung to her tightly.

She patted his hand. “Almost there, soldier.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, hush.”

Steve gave her shoulder a squeeze. 

When she opened the door, he noticed that the guest room was modest with a full sized bed tucked to the right side and a dresser directly next to it. The third and final object in the room was an obscenely large American flag draped across the wall above the bed, adorned with a bald eagle in the center. He stared open-mouthed at the grotesque thing, then back to Natasha. 

She smiled innocently. “Temporary home, sweet temporary home.”

“Can I please take that down?”

“If you do, I’ll just put it back up. We’ll go around in circles, which doesn’t sound like a fun game to me. Besides, do you know how long it took me to find that?”

Steve could only shake his head, fighting to keep the laugh from bubbling out of him. She didn’t need to know that he found this amusing or else she might come up with even more embarrassing things to put around her home. She smirked up at him and helped him sit on the bed.

“I can’t believe I have to look at this thing every day for two weeks.”

“That thing’s name is Ernie the Eagle and he’ll protect you, so you should actually be thanking me. Also, you're a terrible liar. You love Ernie already, I can see it in your eyes.” She playfully poked the space just above the bridge of his nose. “By the way, I went into your apartment earlier today to grab some clothes, all of which are in the dresser. I noticed that you own a lot of blue and gray and nothing else, so we’re probably going to go shopping when you’re up for that.”

“Okay, there’s nothing wrong with sticking to a color scheme.”

“Well if you don’t want to, I can just go shopping for you by myself.”

Steve thought about the outcome of that potential shopping trip. He smirked. “You know what, Romanoff?”

She grinned. “Oh, I’m back to Romanoff? Steve, I thought we were more than that.” 

Steve gave an exaggerated sigh. “Okay, fine.” He thought for a moment. “Dollface?”

“Oh, no,” Natasha scrunched her eyebrows. “Absolutely not.”

“Hmm. Sugar Bear.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t do this.”

He smiled, then grabbed her hand and dragged her so she was sitting on his lap. She tried to protest (“Hey, hey , your leg…!”), but he wanted her close. Steve studied her face for a couple of seconds before weaving his fingers through her hair and leaning in to kiss the corner of her lips. She hummed and nudged her nose against his, relaxing into him a little bit. He grinned up at her, then kissed her jawline, then beneath her ear, then whispered - 

“Honey lamb.”

She yanked herself away with a push to his shoulder. “You’re disgusting.” 

“You like it.”

“That’s a false statement,” she said as she walked to the dresser and yanked open one of the drawers. She pulled out a pair of shorts and a plain gray T-shirt. “Is this alright for tonight?”

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” he laughed as he barely caught the clothes she tossed at his face. “Oh hey, I think there’s still a squashed banana in my bag. Care to split it for our first meal as a couple who lives together?”

The question was sarcastic, although Steve did have every intention to snack on it before passing out. Natasha snorted.

 “Tempting, but I’ll have to pass. I’m exhausted and it’s your fault for putting yourself in the hospital overnight, so I’m going to bed.” She leaned over for one last kiss. “We can get more stuff from your apartment tomorrow, but we’ll talk about that later. Goodnight.” He bid her the same as she left the room, then reached down to fish the banana out of his bag. 

Just as he peeled it, there was a quiet tap tap tap at the window on the other side of the room.

“Mew.”

He whipped his head around. Sitting right on the ledge outside the window was a tiny black cat, its yellow eyes fixated on Steve. It meowed again, insistently scratching at the glass. Curious, Steve limped over to the window before sitting down next to it, his hand resting near the locks. The cat stopped clawing and stared at Steve’s face before darting its gaze down to the banana in his hand.

“Hey there,” Steve whispered. “Are you hungry?”

The cat put its paw up against the window and held it there. Steve smiled gently before tearing off a small part of the banana, getting ready to unlock the window before he stopped himself. The image of an angry Natasha popped into his mind, frustrated that a black cat would permanently lurk around her fire escape waiting for food because Steve decided to feed it once. Was it worth feeding this cat tonight if this became a recurring thing? He was a guest in Nat’s home, after all, and he probably wouldn’t be living there after his two weeks of rest, at least not yet , and he didn’t want to attract an animal to her apartment that might be bothersome - 

“ Meeew!”

He sighed and unlocked the window. Before the cat could come in, he tossed a chunk of banana onto the ledge and quickly closed it again. The little cat jumped slightly at the surprise before chowing down, looking very content with itself.

“Let’s just keep this meeting between you and me, huh? We don’t need to make a habit out of this.”

The cat looked up at him and gently bonked its head against the glass. God, Steve was already charmed. And just as quickly as it had come, it dashed away. He watched for a couple of minutes, waiting to see if it would come back for the rest of the banana, but it was long gone by now. 

Steve hefted himself up off the floor and limped back to bed, hoping he didn’t just make an inconvenient mistake.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Natasha woke him up with the sounds of her cooking. He took a deep breath and stretched his legs out as much as he could with a cast encasing one of them. He sighed and righted himself, reaching for his crutches and getting ready to face the day; however, Natasha chose that moment to burst into the room.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, tray in hand. A quick glance at it showed the result of Natasha’s cooking skills: a mountain of scrambled eggs, strips of bacon, hash browns, a couple of slices of Greek toast covered in butter and jam, and a cup of what Steve presumed to be coffee. There was also a little white flower in a red and blue vase. 

 “Good morning to you too. I was just getting out of bed – “

“You’re on bed rest, dumbass. I’m taking my job seriously by keeping you where you’re supposed to be. Here’s breakfast, chef’s special.” She pushed him back so that he was laying against the pillows and placed the tray on his lap.

“Aw, Nat, I can move around a little. What’s with the flower?” 

“Yeah, a little . You can move around later when you’re doing those exercises for your knee. As for the flower, men usually do something like this, but then I thought...you know what? Gender roles are useless and I can give my man a flower if I want.”

Steve smiled and felt his heartbeat a little faster when she referred to him as her man. He was hers .

 “It’s a very nice flower, thank you.”

She smiled and tapped two fingers on the underside of his chin. “You’ll have to repay me by painting a replica of it all nice and pretty with a sunset background.” Natasha lifted his head and leaned down for a kiss. “No comments on the breakfast I worked so hard on?”

Steve chuckled. “It looks delicious, thank you. You really didn’t have to. Truth be told, I didn’t think you could cook based on what I see you eat on the daily.”

Natasha scoffed. “First of all, yes I had to because how else are you gonna eat? And second, just because I prefer peanut butter sandwiches does not mean I can’t cook, it means that I often choose not to.”

Steve could only stare at her with adoration. He cherished these moments with her. These sweet little moments when work and the state of the world were long forgotten. The only thing in the universe was her small smile, her bluntness, her hand on top of his. For just a second, everything felt perfect. She was perfect.

There was a beat of comfortable silence between the pair before Steve remembered something Natasha said the night before.

“When are we going to get the rest of the stuff from my apartment?”

Natasha clicked her tongue. “Change of plans. I’m getting your stuff while you are going to be a good soldier, stay here, and rest your body.”

Steve sighed. “Natasha, you and I both know that I’m fine by now. It only takes a couple of days for me to heal. I could rip this cast off my leg if I really wanted to.” He tried to flash a reassuring smile, but she was having none of it.

“You rip that cast off and I’ll kick you out for being an incompetent roommate. And I’ll report you to Fury. And Tony, just for the hell of it.”

He chuckled and scratched the back of his head. Yep, still perfect. 

Things felt so perfect that Steve completely forgot about his secret in the form of a small black cat. As it turned out, this cat did not need much to go back to Steve’s window in search of food. That night, the animal returned. She looked quite comfortable with herself as she was perched upon the ledge of the window, licking her paws as if waiting for a guaranteed meal. Steve had to laugh at that, remembering Clint’s explanation for being a dog person. Something about cats thinking that humans were lesser than themselves. 

Also, she was just so damn cute. She poked her little pink tongue out and just left it there like she didn’t know what to do with it. When she turned her head towards him, he saw her yellow eyes practically dominated by the black of her pupils and Steve’s heart just about melted. How could he deny a face like that?

He turned to his bag resting on the foot of his bed only to find that he didn’t have any snacks in there. That meant he’d have to go into Natasha’s kitchen and search for something kitten-friendly, and Steve doubted she kept any spare cans of cat food. With a huff, he assured the cat that he would be back in a moment, hoisted himself off the bed, grabbed his crutches, and made his way out of the room and towards the fridge. He made sure to look up which human snacks that cats could eat but considered whether or not he should go out and buy some real cat food. 

To his surprise, the light in the kitchen was already turned on and Natasha was sitting right at the counter, poring over some files from their last mission. 

“Hey, Nat,” Steve started. She didn’t even look up. “I thought you went to bed.”

“I did, but I figured I could look at this one more time before handing it in tomorrow.”

Steve nodded and thought that he should’ve been aware of this pattern by now. She rarely got any sleep whenever she had work to do, which he thought was problematic. The first time he voiced his concern, she responded with a firm “don’t worry about it.” At that point, he didn’t think he could convince her to go to sleep if his life depended on it. He simply leaned down to give her a peck on the cheek before making his way to the fridge.

“Hey, wait,” Natasha glanced at him before returning to her files. “Why are you awake?”

“Oh, well,” Steve fumbled, trying not to let slip that a stray cat would probably make numerous appearances near the apartment. “I was just hungry. Thought I could use a midnight snack.”

She blinked before smirking. “Can’t help that super soldier metabolism, huh?”

“Haha, nope ,” he said, worried that his nervous chuckle gave away his terrible lying skills. 

Natasha looked up at him completely this time, eyes squinted. “Okay, what’s wrong?”

“Uh, I’m just hungry. That’s all.” He opened the fridge, avoiding eye contact and searching for something a cat might not have a hard time digesting. 

“Why are you nervous?” she asked, her expression now shifting to a concerned one.

“Me? No, no. I’m just...I just need to…” Steve couldn’t complete the sentence, concentrated on the baby spinach he spotted in a little plastic container. He could feed a little bit of that to a cat! He reached out for it, but felt Natasha grip his elbow and pull him back to face her.

“Steve, your midnight snack usually isn’t little bits of spinach. Be honest with me,” she demanded, her eyes focused on his. “Are you uncomfortable with this?”

“With...wait, with what?”

“With this, with living together. I know it’s only for a short period of time, but I also know that our...relationship is fairly new. I didn’t give you much of a choice back at the hospital, but I figured you might like it better here than staying there for longer than you needed to.”

“Oh - no, Nat. That’s not the issue at all!”

“So there is an issue.”

Steve blanched. “Uh, well no , not really.”

“Steve, I just told you to be honest here. You’re barely holding eye contact and your nervous laugh is so detectable it’s embarrassing.”

“ I know , I know. Look, I’m actually very comfortable living here with you, Nat.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded.

Natasha flashed a small smile before asking, “Then what’s the problem?”

Steve thought that maybe he should come clean about feeding the stray cat. She wouldn’t be too upset about it, would she? But then he thought of that morning and how shockingly peaceful he felt. He said something that wasn’t a lie but was actually a thought that had been subconsciously running through his head.

“I think...I’m a little surprised by how comfortable I am living with you.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow, silently asking if she should be insulted.

“I mean,” he quickly continued. “I said that I wanted to take things slow, but here we are living together. I know...I know it’s temporary and it’s only been a day, but this morning was just so nice. I’ve never had such a lovely sight to wake up to.”

A slight blush crept up Natasha’s face as she stepped closer into his space. “So why are you so jittery?”

Steve had to take a second to think about it, then shook his head. “I’ve never done this before. I’ve never wanted to rely on another person and I don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to relationships.”

“Neither do I.”

“But that’s okay! Right? Because I’m...I’ve got no experience with any of this, but this morning felt so natural and domestic and that’s not us at all, but...but it could be. I don’t always know how to act. You always tell me I’m impulsive and I suppose that’s the reason why I’m staying here in the first place. So I just want to do this right.”

Steve felt his heart jump to his throat when Natasha looped her arms around his neck. “I want that too.” She leaned up all the way to slant her lips over his. He wrapped an arm around her waist and returned her kiss, sweet and accepting.

Before it could go any further, she pulled back. “You don’t have to be nervous about how good this all feels. We both know that relationships, genuine relationships, aren’t exactly my forte either, but I like this too. I’m not all too surprised about it, about my feelings towards this. We’ve just started calling this,” she gestured between the two of them. “A relationship, but we both know we were dancing around it for more than a few days too long.”

Steve had to cringe at that, knowing full well that he waited an unacceptable amount of time when confronting his feelings for the spy. 

“But like you said, that’s okay. I thought this morning was really nice too.” She gave him a full smile this time and handed him the container from the fridge. “Here’s your spinach, you crackpot. Didn’t mean to hold you hostage.”

He accepted the spinach with gratitude. “No amount of time with you could ever be interpreted as being held hostage.”

“Oh, well aren’t I a lucky girl?” She winked. “Need help going back to your room, old-timer?”

Steve very suddenly remembered the cat waiting at the window and declined her offer, and instead wished her goodnight with a kiss to her cheek.

When he got back to his room, the cat was leaning against the glass of the window, seemingly impatient for her snack. When she saw Steve enter, her ears perked up and she squeaked out a short “meow” as if to get his attention. Steve quickly closed the door.

“Shhh, I’m coming, I’m coming.” Steve insisted, abandoning his crutches and hopping the rest of the way to the window. “The second time we meet and you’re already so demanding.”

The little cat swatted at the glass in retaliation and Steve had to laugh. He unlocked the window and very carefully took a clump of spinach leaves in his fist to lay them out on the ledge. Before he could do so, the cat nudged her head against Steve’s fingers until he opened up his palm to her. She started to eat right out of his hand.

“Whoa,” Steve breathed, entranced. “Didn’t know we were already there.” When she was done eating, he very gently extended his index finger to scratch her head. This did not work in his favor, however, since she snapped her head up to bite at him.

“Ow!” he hissed instinctively, drawing his hand away. “Sorry, too personal. I get it.” When he noticed that she continued to eye the container next to him, Steve grabbed another handful and repeated the process.

“You know,” he stated, staring at the stray as she ate more small bits of spinach. “If this is gonna be a regular thing, I need to start calling you something. What do you say?”

She didn’t respond, so Steve continued. 

“Should I call you Sweetie ironically, considering how much of a brat you are?” Steve did not expect the cat to look up from her spinach and stare him down dead in the eyes. “Uh...sorry?” He was shocked at how often she seemed to understand him. 

“Okay, how about...Licorice? Like black licorice?”

He was embarrassed by how unimpressed she looked.

“Damn, tough crowd. Alright, well...uh, Nat taught me some Russian. What was Russian for ‘cat’ again?” He did not receive an answer from the cat that stared at him in what could only be described as mild amusement. “It was ko-something. Kotik? Kotik.”

The cat’s ears perked up again as if she recognized that word. She bonked her head against the window in the same way that she did last night and Steve could not help but smile. 

“Okay. Kotik it is.”

Chapter Text

A week went by in a similar pattern and with each passing day, Steve was allowed to move around a bit more. He had enough time and privacy to research some more about what Kotik could eat and decided that he needed to get her some real food and not just little treats. One particular afternoon, Natasha had been called away to test some new gadgets that Stark had made for her and Steve had used the opportunity to visit a nearby pet store. After some asking around and feeling absolutely appalled by the price of some of the higher-end brands of cat food, Steve had settled on buying a variety pack of Fancy Feast and was disproportionately excited to see if she would prefer the turkey, chicken, or beef flavored food. As soon as he got home, he hid the box in the guest room closet.

When he had set out the can with the chicken in it that night, Steve was absolutely enthralled to see her chowing down with such excitement. What a good kitty.

 In terms of his health, he convinced Dr. Cho to remove the cast around his leg one week earlier than scheduled.

“Look, I told you,” Steve said to Nat as they were sitting on the couch back at her apartment. He extended his leg up and down with ease. “Completely healed.”

“I never doubted that, Steve,” she replied. “But you’ve still got one week of rest left.”

“What? Still?”

Natasha scoffed. “Did you forget about your torn spleen or…? I can do my best to remind you.”

“I feel perfectly fine just like I said a few days ago.”

“Cool. You still won’t be going on missions for seven more days.” Natasha put her hand up when Steve began to protest. “Fury’s orders, not mine. Besides, when are you going to get this kind of time off again?”

Steve made a motion to argue but paused. She had a point. He certainly didn’t miss the pressure of an important mission weighing down on him, nor did he miss the exhaustion that came after it. He’d never felt more rested.

“Okay, point taken.” He sighed before continuing. “I guess I’m not comfortable leaving the team behind for this long when I know I’m fit enough to help.”

Natasha blinked up at him for a moment before placing her hands on either side of his face. “You can’t keep extending yourself like this. Why is it that every time one of us needs to take a step back, you don’t hesitate to grant us leave?”

Steve shook his head. “Nat, it’s different. You know it is.”

“Different how?” She raised her eyebrows and gave him a second to think about it. “Has anyone ever told you how dramatic you are?”

A flash of Peggy’s smiling face came to mind. “Maybe once or twice.”

Natasha shook her head as she stroked his cheek. “You need to hear it more often. You trust the team, don’t you?”

“Of course I -”

“Okay, that’s it then. Right? They’re all more than capable of handling an op here and there without your constant guidance.”

Before Steve could figure out if he was supposed to be hurt by that comment, Natasha’s expression shifted into a soft one. “You and I have trained them well enough at this point. They know what to do, they know when to ask for help.” She patted his cheek once before removing both her hands. “Besides, I’m still there most of the time if they really need some help. You trust me.”

It wasn’t a question because Natasha knew Steve well, but he was still compelled to answer with a rushed “Yes, of course I do. You know I do.”

She huffed in amusement. “I know.” She kissed his nose. “You hungry yet? I don’t have too much in the fridge, but we could order something.”

They settled on a noodle place a couple of blocks away from Nat’s apartment. She insisted on going out and getting it herself while instructing Steve to use his time wisely and pick a movie he hadn’t seen yet. 

“Anything between 1980 and now. Nothing before.”

He gave her a mock salute as she walked out the door, then turned to look through the pile of DVDs on the shelf. As he leafed through them, he heard a familiar tap tap tap coming from Natasha’s guest room. He turned his head towards the noise and paused.

Tap-tap-tap!

Steve’s eyes widened as he quickly walked towards his room and was greeted by the sight of Kotik, her paw pressed up against the glass in her usual fashion. Steve frowned and took out his phone. 1:02 pm.

“What are you doing here so early?” Steve asked, kneeling by the window. Kotik let out a little squeak before insistently patting her paw against the window again. Steve grinned and got up to fetch the cat food from his closet, wondering whether or not he was spoiling this stray cat if she was coming back earlier in the day. He shook the thought out fairly quickly by the time he grabbed the turkey flavored can and sat back down near the window, peeling the lid off.

“I guess we serve lunch and dinner here, too,” Steve muttered as he undid the locks and lifted the window up. Before he could set down the can, however, he missed the flash of absolute glee in Kotik’s eyes. In an instant, the cat squeezed herself through the small opening and landed gracefully on the floor of the bedroom.

Steve reeled back in shock. He never planned on letting the cat in, not into Natasha’s home where she probably didn’t want any animals. Steve didn’t even know if animals were allowed into the building. 

“You’re not supposed to be in here,” Steve said, partially convinced that Kotik could understand him based on everything about her. Despite this, she simply ignored his statement and began to rub up against his legs, crisscrossing between him. 

Oh no, that’s so cute.

“God, I can’t say no to you. Okay, just…” Steve ran a hand down his face. “Just stay in here.” He ran to close the door before she could escape into the rest of the apartment. Just when he turned back to retrieve the food from the outside ledge, Steve heard a dreadful ripping noise. 

Kotik was hanging on the flag above his bed, clinging to a shredded piece of fabric. 

“Oh shit.” Natasha’s going to kill me. He moved to grab the cat off the flag, but that only succeeded in agitating Kotik. She sliced the other end of the flag before letting go, dropping down and jumping back up to the window to drag her meal inside the room and onto the floor. She ate delicately like she hadn’t just made a scene that Steve could barely process. 

He huffed out a huge breath and stared at the ripped wing of Ernie the Eagle, then moved his gaze to the cat munching on the food he had bought her. She looked up after her last bite and Steve could have sworn that Kotik looked smug.

“You know, I’m starting to feel like you only hang out with me for the food.”

Kotik poked her tongue out before turning to her paws and licking them.

“This isn’t even my flag,” he continued, mainly talking to himself. “Maybe I can sew this together before Nat sees it…” At the mention of Natasha’s name, Kotik’s ears flicked up in Steve’s direction but otherwise remained neutral. Steve noticed. “You know Nat?” 

The question was a joke, but the cat looked up this time, done with cleaning herself. Steve considered her thoughtfully before shaking the idea out of his head.

“Of course you don’t, you’re a cat. Well, whether you know her or not, she might kill me for letting an animal set foot in her apartment.. Hope you don’t leave any hairs anywhere.” Steve reached out to snatch the empty can, but Kotik stopped him by biting his fingers. He yanked his hand back, cursing. “Work with me, Kotik!”

If cats could smirk, the expression on her face could have counted as one. She let him grab the can this time, only halting him briefly by rubbing her head against the back of his hand and purring.

“God, you have such a strange way of showing affection.” 

She meowed and reached for his hand with both paws, latching on to him. Steve laughed, startled at her behavior. He lifted his arm upwards, but Kotik held on, clinging to him as she hung in midair. 

“It’s so hard to be mad at you,” Steve chuckled. “But we can’t have any more of this funny business, alright? No more ripping things that don’t belong to us.”

“Mew.” With that, Kotik released her grip on Steve and raced to the door. She started scratching at it, leaving tiny claw marks on the wood. So much for his stern instructions.

“No! Bad Kotik!” Steve shouted, scooping her back up. “You can’t go there.”

She meowed in protest. For some reason, she was determined to enter the rest of the apartment. Steve briefly wondered if there was anything in there that she could sense, something that she wanted. 

Just then, the sound of the front door opening reached both pairs of ears. Quick as a flash, Kotik wriggled out of his grasp, darted up to the window, and ran out of sight. This left Steve with an empty food can, an open window, and a ripped up flag that he didn’t have time to hide.

“Steve, I got you some pad thai,” she called from the kitchen. “You’ve been avoiding unfamiliar foods for too long and I won’t deal with it anymore.”

“Coming,” he shouted, determined to keep her from seeing the flag. He quickly tore it off the wall, consequently ripping the upper corners as they were pinned with tacks ( shit shit shit!) , crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into the closet. He then walked out of the room and into the kitchen where Natasha was taking their meals out of the to-go bag. She turned her head towards him when she heard him enter and playfully waggled his box of noodles in the air.

Attempting to look as non-suspicious as possible (he had gotten better at this in the last seven days), he snatched the box from her hand and pecked her lips in thanks.

“Have you picked a movie yet?”

“Oh! Uh…” Steve turned to the shelf that he had been looking through earlier. “Let me look at those again.”

He set his noodles down on the table in front of the TV and made his way back to the shelf just as Natasha finished unpacking the utensils for them. She came up behind him to see which movie he was going to choose when she noticed something.

“Hey, what happened here?” she asked, lifting his hand up. To Steve’s horror, Kotik left a couple of marks where she bit his fingers. “The hell is this?”

“That! That is nothing.”

“Okay, so obviously it’s something. Did you get bit?”

Steve tried his very best not to perspire under the pressure. “Maybe it’s a bug bite. It’s fine, I hardly feel it and it’ll be gone by the end of the day.” Natasha looked skeptical, but Steve really did not want to ruin their impromptu movie lunch with a cat confession. “I promise you it’s fine.” He leaned down to kiss her forehead. Natasha sighed and accepted the answer with mild suspicion, but not enough to concern her too much.

“Fine, fine. Just a grab a movie.”

“Right! Okay…” Steve grabbed a random one out of the bunch. “Oh, here’s a Star Wars one that I haven’t seen yet,” he said. He held up The Phantom Menace and visibly saw Natasha clench her jaw. “Something wrong?”

“No, no,” she sighed. “If you’ve seen the originals, I guess this is the most logical next step. Pop it in.”

They took a seat on the couch as the movie began to play. While the opening credits rolled, Steve turned his chopsticks towards Natasha’s box of macaroni and cheese but before he could grab a piece of it, she yanked the utensils out of his hand and threw them across the room.

“What.” It was more of an exasperated statement than a question.

“There are spare chopsticks in the bag. Don’t touch my mac and cheese.”

Steve shook his head and couldn’t fight the smile that crept up his face. Once he retrieved the new chopsticks, Natasha rested her head against his shoulder and turned to kiss his collarbone. He laughed and squeezed her thigh.

“Such a strange way of showing affection.” 

Chapter Text

Natasha discovered his secret in the best way possible. 

 After the movie, they tidied up the living room and he suggested they go for a walk if Natasha didn’t have anything to do back at S.H.I.E.L.D. She agreed and went to grab her shoes from her bedroom, but as she passed the open door of the guest room, she noticed that an essential item was missing. 

“I told you I didn’t want to play this game…” she muttered as she stared at the Ernie-the-Eagle-less space above the bed. Her gaze darted to the closet off to the side and figured that that was where Steve put the banner. She shook her head and yanked open the door, immediately spotting the balled up fabric on the floor. What she didn’t expect, however, was the box labeled “Fancy Feast: Classic Poultry & Beef Variety Pack” tucked away in the corner. 

“What the…” She quickly removed the ball of fabric and tossed it onto the bed, then grabbed the box and pulled it out. She thought for a moment, wondering if this was an old box she ordered for Liho a while back. But...she didn’t feed Liho Fancy Feast. And she certainly didn’t store the food away in her guest room closet. 

Curious, she turned her gaze back to the banner on the bed. She unfurled it and noticed a glaring issue; the banner was ripped. Poor Ernie lost part of his wing to the damage and Natasha was 90% certain that Steve wasn’t the cause of it. She grit her teeth and looked towards the door. There, near the bottom edge, were claw marks. Natasha knew exactly who they came from.

Dammit. She knew Liho was getting chunky.

“Nat?” Steve called, still standing by the door. “Do you need help?”

She hesitated for a moment, then said “No, I’m good.” She quickly crumpled the banner and threw it back into the closet. It was amusing and, at worst, a little annoying that he would lie to her about feeding her own cat (well, kind of her cat. The details of her arrangement with Liho were complicated). She decided to wait this out and see how long Steve would keep this secret of his. 

After quickly grabbing her shoes, she walked back to meet him at the front. He smiled at her so innocently and asked if she was ready to go. That’s when an idea struck her.

“Yeah, but Steve? Why is Ernie missing from your wall?”

His eyes widened slightly and Natasha had to keep herself from smirking. Steve cleared his throat and asked “What?”

“I just passed by your door and it was open, so I saw that you took the banner down.”

“Oh! Oh, yeah. You know, it was really, uh, giving me some anxiety before I fell asleep. Didn’t want it to fall down on me in the middle of the night.” 

She watched him fumble for that response and was prepared. “We can just hang it up somewhere else in the room.” She turned around and began to walk back to the guest room. “Here, let me go-

“No!” His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. She bit back a smile. 

“Something wrong, soldier?”

He seemed frozen in place for a moment before sliding his hand down to grasp hers. “No problem, but can’t we go on this walk first before we move some decorations around? The banner will still be there, but the nice weather might be gone by tomorrow.”

She let herself grin and let him have this one. “Can’t argue with that logic. Lead the way, lamb chop.”

Steve visibly relaxed and Natasha made a mental note to remind him of his obvious facial expressions later. 

“And you call me the disgusting one.” He leaned down to peck her lips before leading them both out the door.

They ended up having a very pleasant time while they walked around the city hand-in-hand like any regular couple. A couple of people may have recognized them for who they were and the paparazzi certainly got a couple shots of them, but they went relatively undisturbed. Steve ended up steering her towards an ice cream parlor just before their walk back to her apartment.

“They’ve got the best chocolate ice cream you could ask for, I’m serious.”

“Hmm. Okay, but with all that hype, it better be as good as that milkshake you made me drink last time. And my favorite flavor is mint chip.”

“That’s too bad, because they only serve chocolate,” he teased, squeezing her hand.

It ended up being a close match, but Natasha decided that the milkshakes were superior. Steve disagreed and did not let it go for the  remainder of their walk. It was all so domestic and lighthearted that Natasha had decided to “forget” about the missing banner.

A calm dinner and a shower later, Natasha sat down in front of the window in her room, waiting for a special guest. Right on time, Liho sauntered her way to the outside ledge, waiting for her late night meal. 

“Hey there, you little demon. Have you been tricking poor Steve into feeding you?”

Liho did not respond, but she did focus her gaze on the tin of cat food in Natasha’s hand. Natasha sighed and opened the window, allowing enough space for Liho to jump inside.

“You’re a little shit, you know that? I have to buy that special diet food to keep you healthy now.”

Liho simply rubbed her head against Natasha’s shins. She bent down to scratch under the cat’s chin, then dropped the tin on the floor for Liho to enjoy.

“Once Steve finally admits that he’s been feeding you an extra meal a day, you’re going back to your regular feeding schedule.”

Liho seemed unbothered. A second later, Steve’s voice rang out.

“Nat? I’m putting the food away. Did you want dessert?”

Liho’s ears perked up at the sound of his voice and she started for the door. Natasha quickly scooped her back up, chastising the cat.

“No! You’re not done eating!” If Natasha was being honest with herself, she would also miss out if she didn’t play along with this situation for a little while longer.

After depositing Liho and the remainder of her food back outside on the window ledge, she quickly responded with “No dessert, the ice cream was enough.”

She heard shuffling noise as Steve continued to clean the kitchen. Using this time, she turned back to the cat outside the window.

“Diet and exercise. That’s what this has come to. Jesus, now I have to buy a bunch of toys to get you running around.”

Liho tapped the glass with her little paw and poked her tongue out at the redhead.

“God, you’re so spoiled.”

Chapter Text

The next morning marked the eighth day of Steve’s stay in Natasha’s humble apartment and to him, it felt like time was going by too quickly. He enjoyed being with Natasha for so long. Starting and ending the day with her felt so natural that he loathed to think about what he would do once he reverted back to his regular routine. He had had time to think about his day-to-day life in his one-bedroom apartment and realized that he didn’t want to go back. With Natasha (and Kotik, of course), life seemed...well, livelier. He wasn’t reduced to just a patriotic fighter or a national symbol when he was with her.

These thoughts ran through his head as he laid in bed, his brain still muddled up from the morning haze. Just then, a knock sounded at the door, followed by Natasha poking her head into the room. Her eyes darted to the window for a split second before she turned her attention towards him.

“Good morning. Didn’t know today was a sleep-in kind of a day,” she said, smirking at his tremendous bedhead.

Steve was confused for a moment before glancing at the clock on his bedside table. 10:03 AM. He shook his head for a moment before chuckling. “I guess I got used to a life of luxury. No need to wake up early for training.”

“And yet, you’ll still keep your super soldier physique. That’s an unfair advantage.”

“You know I can’t control it.” Steve made a grabby hand gesture. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the bed, yanking his arms up so that he moved into a sitting position. She hopped onto the bed and sat criss-crossed in front of him so that she could lean forward and rest her head against his shoulder. He sighed and wrapped an arm around her waist, dragging her forward a little more so he could hold her.

They sat like that for a moment, just taking each other in. Steve kissed her cheek affectionately, savoring the feeling of a lazy morning with the woman he loved. She nuzzled his shoulder in response, completely content.

Suddenly, Natasha felt something tickle her nose. She lifted her head, only to find short black hairs adorning Steve’s sleeve.

Ah, she thought. Let’s have fun with this.

Natasha faked a sneeze before slightly scooting away from him. “Ugh, ‘scuse me. Steve, what is that?” She pointed to the hair on his shirt and sneezed again.

Steve looked to where she pointed and his eyes grew big. Oh God. Oh no. “Uh...that’s, uh, I actually don’t know.”

Natasha bit back her smile. “Looks like fur. Have you been hanging out with animals in your spare time, Soldier?”

Steve forced out a laugh and prayed that he didn’t sound nervous. “Not that I know of.”

She made a show of rubbing at her nose and sniffling. “Whatever it is, I think I’m allergic,” she said. “Try to not hang out with animals even harder, hm?”

Natasha did feel a little bad when she saw his face steadily turn red and almost admitted her joke to him right then, but-

“They’re from Tony!” 

There was a beat of silence. Natasha’s expression was unreadable. “The hairs on your shirt are from...Tony?”

Steve gulped. “Y-yeah. You know, when you stepped out for your run the other day, Tony came over to show me a new design for my suit.”

“And then he, what? Rubbed his head against you?”

“No! No, I just gave him a hug,” Steve said as he tried his damn hardest not to wince at his own words. “You know, like a short one. In thanks. Maybe he got a haircut earlier. You know how little strands of hair can fall out after a haircut? So yeah, you’re probably, uh...allergic to his shampoo.”

The lie was so terrible, but Natasha commended him for trying. A flash of a memory came to the surface of her mind, the image of a flustered, undercover Steve in an Apple store.

“Right, we’re getting married.”

What a moron. She loved him so much.

“I suppose so,” she said, humoring him. “Well, next time you see Tony, tell him to keep his hair to himself.” She smirked at him and patted his cheek. “You’re all mine.” She got up from the bed and made her way out of the room, throwing in another fake sneeze for good measure. She wondered how long it would take for him to crack.

Steve, on the other hand, did not find any of this to be amusing. What had he done? He allowed Kotik to crawl all over him the night before (he had noticed that she’d gotten fluffier and couldn’t resist) only to learn that Natasha had a cat allergy. He figured that he had to fix this and decided that that night would be the last time he fed Kotik. She had survived long enough without him, so Steve figured that she could learn to live without her turkey pâté . Right?

Steve suddenly shot up in bed with a more pressing issue on his mind. Had he told her that he hugged Stark? Oh, God. He reached over to grab his phone from the nightstand and made a quick call. After a couple of rings, Steve heard some clanging sounds on the other side, followed by Tony’s voice.

“Morning, Capsicle. Kinda in the middle of something here,” he said, sounding distracted.

“Hey, Tony. Listen, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Uh, ok, do you remember what I said half a second ago?”

“Tony, just...I need you to come over to Natasha’s place this afternoon. Act like you’re showing me new suit designs.”

“You want a new suit?” Tony asked. There was loud banging noise in the background and an incoherent shout. “I can whip up something by this afternoon, but my best work usually starts closer to three in the morning and this is kinda last minute.”

“No, I don’t need a new suit!” Steve shouted. He became increasingly frustrated for putting himself in this situation. “It’s hard to explain, but just be here.”

“Yeah, whatever you need. A please would be nice,” he grumbled. A crash sounded off in the background. “Ah, shit. FRIDAY! Would you turn on the sprinklers, dear?”

Steve took that as his cue to hang up. He sighed and pressed his palm to his forehead, questioning why he didn’t just come clean to Natasha. She would have understood and he knew that. But...the thought of letting Kotik go was an unsettling one. He grew attached to the fuzzy little thing and he didn’t want to think of her wandering the streets, hunting for food like she was some kind of unloved stray. 

He blew out a huge breath before heaving himself off the bed and making his way toward the kitchen. Natasha sat at the counter with her coffee mug and laptop out, glancing half-heartedly at some files of a possible target. Always working.

Steve felt a pang in his chest. This woman gave him a place to stay, food to eat, and the best company he could ask for. He repaid her by lying and bringing in an animal that would only inconvenience her. He had never felt more ashamed. If it meant Natasha would be more comfortable, he would end his contact with Kotik that night.

(The pang in his chest hurt even more at the thought.)

Natasha noticed his staring and smiled. “See something you like, Capsicle?”

He chuckled, shaking his head to clear his mind. He needed to focus on Natasha. “Don’t call me that, that’s what Tony calls me.”

“Well, based on the hairs on your shirt it looks like I’ve got some competition.”

Steve glanced down at his T-shirt and before he had time to think about it, he pulled it up and off. “There you go, no more competition.”

Natasha’s eyes widened, but only slightly. “Well excuse me, Mr. Rogers.”

Steve fought to not duck his head down out of embarrassment for the impulsive move. “I mean, you’ve seen me shirtless before.

Natasha smiled, very amused. “Yeah. And now I see something that I like.” She blew him a kiss from her seat and turned back to her work. Emboldened, Steve ran to her, lifted her out of her chair, and showered her face with kisses. She gave a tiny yelp in surprise before turning in his arms and kissing him, laughing all the while.

By mid-afternoon, Natasha had left to meet with a team of agents to brief them on an upcoming mission. About an hour and a half after she left, Steve called Tony to come over.

“Okay, Cap, I have your fake suit designs right here,” Tony called as he entered the apartment. “Care to explain why you’re making me do this?”

Steve sighed and rubbed his forehead. “It’s a long story, but basically I attracted a stray cat to the apartment and I haven’t told Nat about it. I’ve been keeping it a secret for over a week now, but I got cat fur on my clothes, Natasha’s allergic, and I told her that the fur was your hair.”

Tony’s eye twitched for a second. “Uh-huh. Why did you rope me into this?”

“I’m sorry, I had to come up with an excuse for the hair! I said that you were showing me new designs.”

“But I’m not showing you designs. So what am I doing here?”

Steve had the decency to look sheepish. “Yeah, so I don’t think she believed me when I told her it was you, so if you could stay here until she gets back? Just pretend like you finished showing me some stuff when she walks in.”

“Cap-”

“I would really appreciate it.”

Tony thought for a moment, then smirked. “At least keep me nourished. Where’s your grub?”

Steve visibly relaxed. “Yeah, sure. Thanks, Tony.” He reached into the fridge to pull out some leftovers from the night before.

Suddenly, a familiar tapping on the window from his room sounded through the apartment. Steve’s eyes widened and he looked back at Tony, who started quickly but cautiously walking towards the guest room.

“Wait, no Tony!”

“Oh, well lookie here,” Tony drawled, already in the other room. Steve heard the telltale sound of a window sliding upwards. “Is this the little intruder?”

“Tony, hang on!” Steve was scrambling to put the food down and run to the bedroom, when all at once, he heard a small ripping noise, Tony cursing, and a light thud! 

“Son of a bitch,” Tony muttered, still in the guest room. Kotik, who had crawled through the window once Tony had opened it, scurried into the kitchen. 

“Little demon ripped the cuff of my sleeve,” Tony huffed, rubbing at his wrist. Steve couldn’t bring himself to care as he stared down at his little Kotik. She looked up at him and gazed at the Tupperware of stir fry that was still in Steve’s hand.

“ Mew ,” she whined, and started to claw at his pant leg. Steve quickly put the Tupperware down and lifted Kotik into his arms.

“No, Kotik, that’s not your food. Let’s go back to my room and I’ll give you your own.” He began to scurry back to his room with Kotik, trying to get her out of the kitchen as soon as possible. His attempt proved to be well-intentioned but pitiable, because Kotik started to squirm around in his grip, flailing her limbs out and trying to escape.

“Hey, hey ! Enough, we’re almost there-”

But she wouldn’t have it. She successfully squirmed out of his grip and, with surprising force, jumped onto the countertop. Steve blanched. Kotik couldn’t stand where Natasha ate, that would make things worse!

“Tony, can you help me?”

Tony, who had been watching the show with amusement, shrugged and moved forward. “You gotta handle animals with more care than that, Capsicle. Isn’t that right, you little fluff ball?” 

“Yeah, is that why she ripped up your shirt?” Steve muttered. Tony pretended to not hear Steve’s remark and instead reached for the black cat on the table. Kotik noticed the hand coming towards her, looked into Tony’s eyes, then pounced.

Tony let out an involuntary scream when Kotik landed on his chest and tried to cling to his neck. “Shit! What, did you give her catnip or something!?” 

“No, of course not! Bad Kotik!” Steve shouted, reaching to remove her from Tony’s neck. “We do not play with our friends like this!” He put his hand under her belly and turned her to face him. “Kotik, let go!”

She removed her claws from Tony’s next, then extended them to Steve’s collar. His eyes widened, but before he could move, she threw her whole body at him and tore his shirt right down the middle, clinging to the strands of fabric and hanging in the air in front of his knees.

“Gah!” Tony yelped, jumping back about five feet from the scene.

There was a brief pause where the men just stood there, one clinging to his neck and the other with a cat hanging from the ripped remains of his T-Shirt. The spell was broken by a light cough coming from the front door. Steve looked up and, to his abject horror, Natasha was standing there, face blank.

“Uh, hi Tony.”

“...Romanoff.”

“Steve.”

“Nat, I’m so - I can explain. I didn’t mean -”

“Liho.”

Steve cocked his head to the side. Was that Russian? Did she curse at him in Russian? But then, Kotik’s head perked up at the noise. Her ears swiveled a bit before she gave a tiny little mew and released her hold on Steve’s shirt, opting to weave between Natasha’s legs instead. Without breaking her gaze from Steve’s, Natasha bent down and scratched under Liho’s chin, who began to purr. 

She smirked. “I think I owe you an explanation.”

Chapter Text

After Natasha set some food out for Liho, she dragged Steve to the couch. She offered a spot for Tony, who declined and immediately walked to the door. As if it were an afterthought, he turned to Steve and smirked.

“Whenever you’re ready to decide on your next suit…”

Steve sighed. “Tony. Please.”

Tony smiled innocently before removing himself from the apartment.

After a brief pause, Steve turned to face Natasha. She sat with her arms crossed over her chest.

“So...You’re not allergic to cats. And you knew what I was doing the whole time.”

“Hmm, not the whole time. I found your hidden stash of Fancy Feast yesterday and found Ernie tucked away right next to it. I also noticed the scratch marks on the door. And Liho looks fluffier than usual.”

“Liho?”

“That’s her name, yeah. Did you call her something else?”

“Well, you know. Kotik.”

Her lips ticked upwards. “You named her kitty. Of all the Russian words to remember, you remembered kitty?”

Steve helplessly shrugged, unable to explain himself.

“And I cannot believe you decided to fatten up my cat and throw off her diet without telling me.”

Steve gaped, incredulous. “What? Nat, I didn’t know she was yours!”

She scrunched up her face in thought. “Well, she’s technically not mine mine. She comes around every so often, so I feed her here and there. She was a scrawny little thing the first time I met her and it was sad.” Then, as if she had forgotten, Natasha produced a plush mouse from between the cushions and tossed it towards Liho, who jumped back at the sudden object before biting it by its tail and dragging it around. 

Steve furrowed his brows. “She’s not yours, but you have cat toys?”

“Just the one. But now that you’ve decided to make her an unhealthy cat, I have to buy more. Get her to exercise a little.”

Steve tried to contain his smile. “But...but if she’s not your cat, then why would you do that?”

Natasha shrugged. “She’s growing on me. Plus, it looks like she’ll be here a lot more lately, since you can’t seem to deny anything with sad eyes.”

“Guilty,” Steve shrugged. “It seems you can’t either.” He bumped his knee against hers, half teasingly and half apologetically. “Why not just make it official?”

“What, let her move in? Rent-free?”

Steve chuckled. “Why not? She’s already used to us both. Maybe she doesn’t have any nice neighbors feeding her.”

“What, besides you? Without my permission? Rhetorical question of course, in case you were still somehow wondering about why I was giving you a hard time.”

“But why mess with me? Can’t you see I’m physically suffering enough?” He put a hand against his injured side as if he hadn’t made a show about how he was fully healed the day before. 

Natasha huffed. “You thought you were sneaking a stray animal into my apartment. With possible diseases, Steve. You deserved to be messed with a little bit. Don’t argue with me.” She then smacked his hand away from his side. “Stop pretending, you’re fine.”

“So you admit I’m okay?”

“I admit you’re okay and I also state that you still have about six days of mandatory leave in my care.” She poked him between his eyes. He shrugged back, playfully swatting her hand away. He muttered something about his caretaker attempting to poke his eyes out, but Natasha was unfazed. She poked him again, but Steve was quick enough to snatch her wrist and pin it against the cushion behind her head. He grabbed her free hand and, with some hesitation, kissed the back of it. Natasha’s playful smirk softened into a sheepish smile.

“You’re not really upset that I screwed with you, right?”

Steve huffed. “If you’re not upset over the fact that I brought a seemingly stray cat into our home, then I have no reason-” 

“ Our home, huh?”

Steve paused, mouth open and at a loss for words. Natasha’s eyebrows were raised in an amused expression. Steve’s tongue suddenly felt dry. He stuttered for a moment, but before he could answer Natasha’s question, Liho cried out and jumped onto the couch. She wormed her way between Steve and Natasha’s bodies and placed her paws on Nat’s thighs as she started to knead. Her tail swished against Steve’s knee. 

Saved by the cat , Steve thought as Natasha looked away from him and focused her attention on the black mass of fur. He knew that she wasn’t going to forget what he said, but it seemed that she dropped the matter for the time being.

There was a full minute of silence before Natasha spoke again. “So you think I should make it official?”

“W-what?”

“You said I should make it official and take her in. Do you really think so?”

Steve blushed, his mind having gone elsewhere. Images of his stuff lying around the apartment, more than a two weeks supply, him and Nat sitting on the bed together but not the bed in the guest room…

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, Nat. Yeah, I really think so. Look how happy she is with you.”

Natasha smiled down at Liho. The cat was purring and leaning into her hands, then attempted to drag them back down when Natasha started to move them away. Steve chuckled at the sight.

Natasha hummed. “Alright, I’ll give it a shot. How about this? You’ve got six more days, so I’ll give Liho a six-day trial. I won’t let her out of the apartment like usual and we’ll see how she does.”

Steve beamed at her, then pressed his hand to Liho’s small head. “Here that, Kotik? You won’t have to rip up my things anymore to get your food.” Natasha laughed.

“Oh no, she’ll still do that. It’ll be my source of entertainment.”

Steve shoved her shoulder, then planted a kiss on her cheek before wrapping an arm around her. Just him, Natasha, and Liho for six days straight? He was looking forward to it.   

Chapter Text

On the first day of Liho’s fully in-home six-day trial, Steve and Natasha went to a nearby pet store to buy the necessities for the rest of the week. These things included different forms of dry and wet foods, food and water bowls so that Liho wouldn’t have to eat right out of the cans, a litter box, a cat bed, a scratching post (“someone’s gonna have to pay to fix the marks on my door, Rogers, and I don’t want this to happen again.”), and several toys. 

“Think Liho would like this one?” Steve asked, holding up a plush mouse that looked more cartoonish and bigger than the one Natasha had in her home. It wore overalls and had an oversized head. She hummed in thought as she looked it over.

“Yeah, that’s fun. And we can put catnip on it, so she’ll have more reason to exercise. Which she needs. Because you-”

Steve slapped his hand over her mouth, laughing. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I fed her too much without asking and she’s unhealthy now. I’m putting the mouse in the cart.” He tossed it in along with the wands and interactive toys. Steve had suggested getting a laser pointer earlier in their shopping trip, but Natasha vetoed that suggestion on the grounds that she didn’t want the cat jumping all over the place.

“Besides,” she had said. “I just know that one day, you’re going to get distracted and point that thing right at my curtains.”

When they made it back home, several plastic bags in hand, the couple was greeted with a delightful sight. Liho had clearly explored Natasha’s apartment while they were gone and found her floor-length mirror hanging on the closet door. The cat was staring at herself, pacing back and forth, her eyes never leaving her reflection.

Natasha stifled her laughter while she watched and Steve let out a quiet chuckle, not wanting to startle Liho and to see where she would take this. They got their answer two seconds later when Liho bared her teeth and hissed before pouncing at her own reflection  - and flopping back to the floor when she hit the mirror.

Steve burst into laughter, which caused the cat to startle and fly back even more, which subsequently set Natasha off. Liho looked unamused. She licked her paw before strutting over the couch and leaping onto the cushions.

“Silly kitty,” Steve muttered, then began to empty the shopping bags onto the kitchen counter directly across from the living room. He started to section off the items by category: food, furniture, and fun things. As he did this, Natasha gazed at him with a fondness. She quickly stood on her toes to press a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. Steve’s hands stilled in their activity and he turned to face her, a huge smile on his face, before leaning down and pecking her lips, moving his hands to her waist and drawing her in closer. She laced her hands behind his neck, keeping him in place as she kissed him back, smiling into it.

Steve tickled her side very quickly and when she broke the kiss to breathe out, he lifted her up onto the counter (carefully avoiding his meticulously placed pet items) and wrapped his arms around her once more, peppering kisses on every part of her face. Natasha giggled and swatted at him.

“Stop, I thought we were making out,” she halfheartedly whined.

“Mmmm, but you’re just so sweet.”

“Oh, fuck off, Steve.”

“Ah, right there. Sweeter than honey.”

She smiled again, but put a hand up to stop his adoring kiss-assault. “Okay, okay. Let’s finish putting this stuff away. We can continue this,” she paused and kissed him one more time. “Later.”

Steve nodded and squeezed her waist before letting go and continuing to organize their stuff, placing the canned food in the pantry. Natasha grabbed some of the toys and went to the living room, opening up a cabinet in her entertainment center just below the TV that she and Steve designated as the “Cat-binet.” She set the toys down inside of it, but left out one of the fuzzy wands with small, colorful feathers attached to the end. 

“Oh, Liho,” Natasha sang, turning the toy in her hand before waving it in front of the resting cat. Liho did not even spare her a glance. Natasha frowned and jangled the toy right in front of her face. “Liho, look what I got you.”

The cat looked up lazily and batted at the feathers for a moment, then opened her jaw wide in a yawn before resting her head down onto her paws. Natasha glared at the cat, then turned her gaze onto Steve. He had tried to stifle a laugh, but couldn’t help himself and let a little bit of sound slip past his lips. The next thing he knew, the cat wand thunked against his head.

“Wha-, Nat!” 

“You’re not allowed to laugh at me. It was your idea to invite the beast in for a full-time position.”

Steve gasped mockingly. “Watch your mouth, she’s right there.”

Natasha glanced back down at the cat, who blinked slowly at her before closing her eyes completely. “Oh yeah, she’s definitely offended by my trash talk.” She sat back on her heels and puffed out a breath. “Well, I guess she’s tired from doing nothing all day. Help me put this stuff away first and then we can make a schedule.”

“A schedule for…?”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “We have an animal to take care of now. We need to make a feeding schedule and figure out what times we need to exercise with her. We should also find a vet while we’re at it, although I’m sure Stark probably has someone he knows.”

Steve smiled and crouched down next to her in front of the sleeping cat. “Sounds like you’re taking this awfully serious for a six-day trial run.”

She swatted at his arm lightly. “She’s a beast, but she’s a living thing. Even if she’s just here for six days, she deserves to have a nice six days.” Natasha moved her hand to Liho’s head and began to scratch lightly. The cat purred in her sleep.

A warm feeling bloomed slowly in Steve’s chest as he watched Natasha. God, he really was the only person who saw this side of her and he appreciated every moment of it. Leaning forward, he kissed the side of her head and settled his gaze on their new roommate.

“She really looks sweet when she’s not destroying my property or attacking my guests.”

Steve chuckled. “Remind you of anyone?”

Natasha squinted up at him with a half-hearted glare. “How dare you? I never destroyed my own property.”

By dinner time, Liho woke up from her nap and began to explore the apartment, taking stock of all the best corners to hide in and all the new stuff her humans had set up for her. While Steve set up the dinner table with their dishes, Natasha opened the bag of cat food and scooped it into the new food bowl right next to the water bowl. To remember her feeding schedule, they both decided that Liho would eat dinner at the same time as them.

At the scent of the food made just for her, Liho scampered out of one of her corners and sniffed before taking a big bite. 

“Good kotik,” Natasha praised, patting her head lightly before moving over to the table to sit across from Steve. “And good on you for making dinner tonight. Smells delicious.”

“Ah, you know me. I can’t ever make a bad meal. It’s a gift and a curse.”

“Dare I ask what part of that skill is a curse?”

Steve schooled his expression into a deadly serious one. “Once tiny redheads try my food, they’ll force me into cooking in their apartments for all of eternity. It’s a serious problem, especially when those tiny redheads can’t cook for themselves.”

Natasha matched his serious face. “If you call me tiny again, I’ll never let you leave these walls.”

“And how is that different from now?”

“Excuse you. I allowed you to come shopping with me.”

“Oh, that’s right. Thank you for allowing me that freedom, Ma’am.”

Natasha tried not to let her mind wander too far into inappropriate territory, as it tended to do whenever Steve called her Ma’am. Damn those piercing blue eyes. “Also, I thought we already established that I can cook for myself, but I choose not to.”

Steve broke out into a grin. “Fine, you got me there.” 

She winked and blew a kiss in his direction, a move that would have been seen as a calculated seduction technique in the field, but was absolutely lovely in Steve’s eyes. He tried to capture that look on her face as she blew her kiss, filing the image away in his brain to save for later. She was divine and he resolved to paint her soon. 

Just then, a cry was heard a few feet away from the table. They both turned to see Liho staring at them, meowing loudly for attention.

“What’s wrong, Liho?” Steve asked, getting up to inspect. “Why so loud, huh? Need more food?”

“Do not give her more, Steve.” Natasha demanded, shooting up out of her seat to follow. “We gave her a healthy amount, she should be full enough.”

“Ah, Nat, but she’s crying.” Steve said, feeling sympathy towards the small creature. “Maybe just a...little...wait.” As he got closer, Steve noticed that the food bowl wasn’t even close to being empty. Liho had eaten from the center of the bowl and left a small space where they could see the bottom, but there was plenty of food along the sides. The little cat didn’t seem to notice and began to yowl for more. 

“You stupid cat,” Natasha muttered. She gestured towards the bowl. “Your food is right there. It’s right there!”

Liho paused her noises, turned her head towards the bowl where Natasha was pointing to, and lowered her head towards it to get a better look. She gingerly placed a paw to the center of the bowl and when she felt the ceramic bottom instead of chicken bits (narrowly avoiding all the remaining food), she cried out again. She tossed her head back dramatically before flopping to the floor, resuming her distressed meows.

Steve was in physical pain from withholding his laughter. He didn’t want to offend the kitty by laughing at her (she was strangely in-tune whenever he spoke to her, so she understood at least some human words and sounds), but his face was turning red. He got on his knees and grabbed the bowl.

“Liho, kotik, look.” He shook the bowl a little, just enough to get the rest of the food to the center again. “Look, yummy food just for you.” He placed it back down and stood up. 

Liho got up on her legs again and inspected the bowl. Suddenly, her pupils dilated until both eyes were almost completely black. She began to chow down once more as if she didn’t just throw a tantrum over the injustice of her “empty” dish.

“Steve,” Natasha said, voice full of affection and a wide smile. “That was the stupidest thing I have ever seen.”

“Agreed. Please record it next time.”

Natasha nodded and patted Liho’s back. She then gestured towards the dinner table, prompting Steve to walk over with her so they could finish their own meals. They sat down again and got a couple of bites and a few sentences in before-

“ Meeewww!” 

Steve couldn’t contain his laughter, knowing exactly what he would find if he got up to inspect. Natasha grunted in annoyance, but the smile on her face betrayed her amusement. It was amplified when she reached into her pocket and took out her phone, pointing the camera to their silly Liho.

Chapter Text

Steve woke up to a pitter-patter against his window and gray light filling the room. With a hazy mind, he noted that the sun was blocked out by overcast skies and it was drizzling; it was a perfect day to stay inside. God willing, Natasha wouldn’t be called away on a mission or for last-minute training. Before Steve could go any further with that thought, he began to drift off again, comforted by the soft light and pink noise. 

The next time he woke up was only half an hour later when his door creaked open and the familiar sound of Natasha’s footsteps entered the room, walking up the bed to look down on him. He registered that she was saying something, but he didn’t process the actual words. Steve opened his eyes just enough to squint up at her. She was still wearing her pajamas, but looked like she had been awake for some time. 

“Whazzat?” he yawned.

Natasha mock-frowned at him and pinched his nose. He snorted and snapped his head in the opposite direction, now fully wide awake.

“I said that Liho isn’t a stupid cat. She has sensitive whiskers and she freaks out when they touch the edges of a bowl. She needs a new food dish.”

“Uhh...good morning, Nat.”

“Good morning to you too, Cap. Liho needs a-”

“No, yeah, I heard this time. How’d you figure that out?”

“I showed you the Internet, Steve, you should know how.”

“Ah, ok.” Steve hummed. Poor Liho just needed a regular plate. He decided to handle that later at breakfast time. Instead, he lifted his arm up in an inviting gesture. “Now that we’ve figured that out, c’mere.”

Natasha smirked. “Why Steve, are you inviting me into your bed? This early into our relationship?”

Steve paused for a minute. Was it too fast? He thought back. They had cuddled plenty of times on the couch and went slightly further than that in places other than the bedroom...but maybe taking things to the bedroom was too far? It meant something different, symbolically speaking. Steve knew that much based on every romantic comedy Natasha had him watch, so maybe he was overstepping.  He certainly wasn’t trying to imply that they would do anything other than hold each other while they laid down and-

And Natasha was pulling back the covers. “I can hear you over-thinking. I was kidding, now move over.” She shoved his leg over and laid down next to him. Steve sighed and rubbed a hand down his red face, a little embarrassed that Natasha could read him so well. She rolled her eyes at that and nudged his arm with her head until he lifted it up and around her so that he was cradling her against his chest. She turned her face into his chest and hummed.

“I could get used to this. Laying down like this with my personal body pillow.”

Steve laughed, feeling the redness drain away from his face once his brain registered that none of this was awkward at all. He squeezed her tight. “Always at your service, ma’am.”

She rubbed his side. “Still feeling ok? Did your spleen spontaneously rupture while I wasn’t looking?”

“Nah, I’m all good Nat,” he kissed the side of her head. “All good and nursed back to health with the best caretaker around.”

“Mmm, don’t you forget it.” She threw her leg over his, successfully forming a pretzel with their two bodies. She brought her hand up to slowly rub his clothed chest and occasionally drum a beat with two fingers. Ba-ba dum, ba-ba dum. The feeling brought a kind of comfort to them both. For Natasha, it was a sense that she could still be moving, even if it was minimal, and she felt so perfectly safe in doing so. She didn’t have to monitor every movement, didn’t have to worry if Steve would be averse to her little ticks.  For Steve, the motion and rhythm she kept up against his chest was relaxing and solaced him. The feeling was starting to lull him back to sleep.

Natasha saw his eyes begin to flutter. She continued her motions as she leaned up so her head rested against his shoulder. “Go to sleep, Soldier,” she whispered into his ear. “It’s early and we’ve got all day.”

Steve allowed his eyes to shut. “You still gonna be here?”

She kissed his ear and hummed in affirmation to his question. “As long as you need me to be.”

“Forever, then?”

He meant for it to come out as a light joke, but he was so relaxed and in the moment that he didn’t care too much if it didn’t sound like one. He had never voiced the concept before, the concept that he was just so used to being near her now, so in love with their routine, so in love with her , that forever seemed like an appropriate amount of time to spend with each other. He opened his eyes halfway just to gauge her response and saw the smile that he adored. The smile reserved just for him.

She put her hand up against his face, swiping her thumb over the apple of his cheek and repeated her earlier statement. “As long as you need me to be.”

Steve felt a warmth bloom in his chest and mustered up the energy to lift her entire body over his so that she was covering him like a blanket. “I think I’ll always need you.”

Natasha’s face flushed for a moment before she dropped her head down onto his chest and turned it sideways, no longer looking at him. “Steve…” The word hung in the air for a moment and it seemed like she wouldn’t complete whatever sentence she was about to start. No matter, because Steve felt himself drifting further and further back into the arms of sleep. Just before he did so, he gathered the last bit of energy to slide his hand up her back and gently tug on a strand of her hair. 

“I love you, Natasha.”

It was a mumble at most, but she heard him loud and clear. At least, Steve was pretty sure she heard him based on her hands tightening around his shirt and balling up a couple fists of fabric. He didn’t have time to analyze that reaction as sleep finally took him under. 

He woke up again a couple of hours later to Natasha’s hair tickling him under his nose. A bleary smile crossed his face as he nuzzled further into her, grateful that she stayed with him while he slept. He took a deep breath in, inhaling the sweet scent of wet beef and...

Wait a minute.

Steve opened his eyes to see Liho’s stomach in his face. His eyes widened and he pushed the cat further down the bed, much to her protest.

“Nooo…” he groaned when she tried to use his face as her resting spot once again. She swished her tail at him and nibbled on his chin before being pushed back for the third time. At that point, she gave up and leapt off the bed, making her way out of the room and towards the kitchen. Just before she crossed the threshold, she turned her head to stare at Steve. He stared right back into her yellow eyes and didn’t realize that Liho had extended her claws and scratched against the door just once before lowering her paw and sauntering out. 

“Bratty cat,” Steve mumbled and closed his eyes again, not even surprised with her behavior. Too much like her owner.

Steve’s eyes popped open immediately. Oh God, Natasha! What did he say to her right before he went back to sleep? He told her loved her. That’s right. Had he ever said that before? Steve wracked his brain for an answer and realized that he thought about it a lot, but he never...Oh God, he had never said it out loud before! 

He made to jump out of the bed, about to toss the covers off of his body to go find Natasha and...well, not apologize , but to at least explain himself. To see if she would accept his declaration and maybe even share his feelings, early as they may be. But before he got far, a hand caught his wrist. He turned and saw Natasha lying there right next to him, a sleepy smile on her face. It seemed she fell back asleep the same time that he did.

“Captain America has no peripheral vision?”

Steve chuckled nervously. “T-to be fair, I did have a cat on my face.”

“Mmm, to be fair,” She mumbled. “I can still hear you over-thinking.” She brought her thumb up to his forehead and smoothed out the lines there. “I love you, too.”

It took Steve a moment to process what had just happened. He breathed out a small, giddy laugh and brought her thumb down to his lips to kiss it. “I love you.”

“You said that already.”

“Yeah, but I was half-asleep.”

“And?”

“And I want to look at you when I say it.”

Natasha smiled. “What a charmer. Are you always going to look at me when you speak?”

He tapped her nose. “Don’t be that way.” He waited a beat, then leaned forward to give a chaste kiss. “I love you.”

She smiled into it. “I love you.” 

When they finally got out of bed, Liho was in the living room looking at her reflection again. Before she could attack, Natasha grabbed a bag of her dry food and shook it until it caught the cat’s attention, effectively ending the potential self-fight. Liho ran into the kitchen and circled around Natasha’s legs, purring loudly.

“Okay, Liho,” she said. “Careful now. Yes, yes, breakfast time for kotik.”

Steve watched from the counter, enamored with the scene. He didn’t think he would ever get over the simpleness of it all. He watched as Natasha ended up pulling a regular dinner plate out of the cabinet so as not to bother Liho’s sensitive whiskers. When she poured the food onto the plate, the cat’s eyes dilated before she began to devour her food. Natasha bent down to pet her head. 

“Good girl.”

“Very good girl,” Steve chimed in, already forgiving the cute little monster for scratching the door earlier. Natasha took a seat in front of him and he pushed a plate of heart-shaped pancakes in front of her. 

“To celebrate.”

Natasha sucked her lips in and kept an embarrassed smile at bay. “What’s the occasion?”

Steve would have been humiliated by his next sentence, but with the confirmation that she loves him like he loves her, he lost some of his inhibitions. “It just feels like a day of love all around, don’t you think?”

Natasha snickered. “All around, huh? Are we including Liho in this love fest?”

At the mention of her name, Liho looked up from her breakfast and pounced into Natasha’s lap. She clawed her way up her human’s shirt and nuzzled into her neck. Natasha laughed and stroked the length of Liho’s body, enjoying the affection. “I guess my question is answered.”

Steve reached over to give the kitty a little tap on the back. The second his finger made contact, she turned all the way around and hopped onto the counter, narrowly missing the pancake heart. She quickly stepped around it, leaped over to Steve, and latched onto the collar of her shirt with her claws, dangling there like a long and heavy necklace. He stayed still as a statue, wondering what his next move should be.

Click!

Natasha, quick as a whip, had pulled her phone out and captured the moment. Steve grimaced in mock-betrayal. She merely shrugged and took another photo. 

“Looks like I’ve got some competition. Someone needs to learn to keep her claws to herself.” She got out of her seat to move towards the pair. “Get off, Liho.”

“ Meeeeewww!” She whined when Natasha scooped her body up and away. 

“None of that. Go finish breakfast.”

Liho turned and poked her tongue out at her human, leaving it there as she wiggled. Natasha sighed and kissed the kitty’s spot right above her eyes. “You’re being cute on purpose. Hang out with Steve after breakfast.”

Natasha dropped the cat, who landed perfectly on all fours. With a flick of her tail and a single lick of her paw, she stalked back to her breakfast dish.

“What a diva,” Natasha sighed, sitting back down.

Steve, who had just recovered from the shockingly cute encounter of a cat hanging from his shirt (second time now), smiled and patted her hand. “But you love her?” When she raised her eyebrows at him, he continued. “Love all around, remember?” He helpfully gestured to the pancake.

Natasha smirked at Steve’s sudden confidence. She let out an overly dramatic sigh before raising her hand in surrender. “But I love her.”

Chapter Text

Natasha awoke to her alarm and quickly shut it off. She wanted to avoid waking Steve up, but when she looked over, he was already opening his eyes. The constant naps from the day before prevented him from sleeping in, a habit he had started to get used to. 

Natasha turned to face him and leaned up on her elbow, resting her cheek on her closed fist. “Good morning, Cap.”

After their morning nap in the guest room, Natasha had invited him into her bed to rest later that night. He had only been slightly hesitant, but Natasha had convinced him that it would be fine. 

“It’s the same as this morning, don’t make it a huge deal.”

Ever dutiful, Steve had listened to his girlfriend and crawled in right next to her. She had been right; it was exactly the same as that morning nap. Just as warm, just as comfortable, just as safe. Waking up to Natasha’s face that morning really sold him on the whole bed-sharing idea and he had decided that he wouldn’t question it again.

“Mornin’, Doll,” Steve drawled, finding her free hand above the blankets and giving it a squeeze.

Natasha smiled. “Hmm. I think I like that one. Doll.” She flipped their hands over and drummed her fingers against his. “Better than Honey Lamb.”

Steve interlocked their hands once again and raised them to his lips. “I know you liked Honey Lamb,” he murmured into the back of her hand before giving it a kiss. Natasha simply smiled and shook her head. 

Much like Steve, she also enjoyed the domesticity of their arrangement. Something about always having Steve around reminded her of something akin to having a family again. When she was living in The Tower, her team represented something close to being a family, but there was always some degree of separation that held them back from completely achieving that. Stark was always self-isolated in his lab if he wasn’t attending group gatherings, Bruce took to going to several rallies for different social justice causes and helping in any way he could from behind the scenes, Thor was off-world most of the time, and Clint didn’t even live there. She would visit the farm a lot, and she knew she was family to the Bartons, but...despite the fact that Clint told her she was always welcome, she couldn’t allow herself to feel too comfortable there. She was the Fun Aunt to the kids, but the Fun Aunt wasn’t meant to be a permanent fixture in a household with two parents. She never said this to Clint.

But with Steve, she felt like she had something that she didn’t feel guilty about holding on to. Steve, with his stupid heart-shaped pancakes and his warm sleep shirt and silly nicknames. She allowed herself to be engulfed by every bit of his tenderness.

“You keep telling yourself that, Soldier,” Natasha said, her voice still raspy from having just woken up. She began to make her way out of the bed, but felt Steve’s arms wrap around her from behind. He was sitting up now.

“Where are you off to so early?”

“One of us still has a job, remember?”

“I still have a job! Someone is forcing me to stay home.”

“And you can take it up with Fury whenever you see fit.”

Steve gave her a deadpan stare, but Nat kissed it away. She then got up and began to make her way towards the closet to get dressed. “You’re going to have to keep Liho company today by yourself. Maybe tomorrow.” 

Steve’s face dropped. “Tomorrow?”

“ Maybe, ” Natasha emphasised. “I’ll be training a new batch of SHIELD agents, but I’ll also be attending a brief for a new mission. Depending on the severity, it’ll either be me or Carter sent out tonight, so. Maybe.”

Steve sighed and leaned back against the headboard again. He didn’t know if he was a bad person for hoping that Sharon would get sent out. He knew she was capable enough and that she would be safe. Besides…

“You’re already on assignment. I thought you were forced to keep me from being reckless and breaking my mandatory leave too early?”

Natasha smiled as she rummaged through her closet to find her gear. “I found a substitute.” She paused her efforts and walked the few steps towards the bedroom door, opening it up and letting Liho inside.

The black cat had been waiting outside the door, occasionally scratching it to see if one of the humans inside would let her in. The second Natasha opened it, Liho launched her way in and leaped onto the bed. She saw Steve laying there and took her chance by clawing her way onto his chest. 

“Liho will be reason enough to keep you from being reckless. Isn’t that right, kotik?” Natasha scratched under Liho’s chin. The kitten purred contently and leaned into her human’s touch, happy to receive attention from the people who gave her a home. Steve reached up to pat Liho’s head.

“Don’t guilt me with this cat.”

“I’m not guilting you, I’m stating a fact.”

“ Mew!’ Liho added, wiggling her way towards Steve’s face. He chuckled and half-heartedly pushed her down. She protested loudly and swiped at his hand until he let her plant her fuzzy chin into his mouth.

“Ha!” Natasha barked out before whipping out her phone and snapping a picture.

Steve couldn’t help but smile and relish in the moment. He had never had this much fun with such mundane things.

Natasha double-checked that she had everything set before leaving the apartment. Just as she opened the door, Liho came sprinting from her position on the floor and circled around Nat’s legs, blocking her exit.

“I gotta go now, kotik,” Natasha sighed, scooping the whining cat with ease and placing her near her scratching post. “I’ll see you later. Be good for Steve.”

Steve looked up from his seat in the kitchen and gave Natasha a pitiful wave goodbye. Natasha sighed again, more half-heartedly this time, and took three strides towards him to plant a kiss on his lips.

“I’ll see you soon, okay?”

He gripped the hem of her shirt. “Okay.” He kissed her again. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Natasha nudged her nose against his for a moment, relishing in how easy it was to say those words, before turning around and officially leaving their home.

Her home , Steve had to remind himself. Not theirs.

Once Natasha was out, Liho looked up from her scratching post, ears swiveling. She let out a little “mew” and trotted towards the closed door, pawing at the door. It was a sad sight, one that Steve hadn’t seen from his little kotik at that point yet. The cat would normally cry out for food or attention, but he hadn’t witnessed signs of her actually missing her pseudo-owners before.

“It’s okay,” Steve said, bending down to scratch her forehead. “I miss her already, too.”

After a couple of hours taking care of Liho and calling in to ask for any emergency updates from the team (“Don’t call me for help again,” Tony had barked at him through the phone. “Because A: you’re not working, and B: I won’t go near your demon cat again. Ripped my fucking Tom Ford…”), Steve decided to take a breather for himself. He went back into the guest room that he’d been staying in and decided to clean it up. He would be out of Nat’s apartment in three days time and figured he could get a head start. 

He willed himself to ignore the sinking feeling in his chest at the thought of leaving her in that apartment.

He started with the smaller things first, things he’d accumulated during his time. Small items that he needed to see if they could just be thrown out or kept. As he opened the drawer to the small night stand, Steve was suddenly eye-level with a wilted flower in a vase. He recalled this flower that Natasha gave him on his first morning in the apartment. She had surprised him with breakfast in bed and dolled up the tray, white rose and all.

“You’ll have to repay me,” she had told him as he dug into her cooking. “By painting a replica of it all nice and pretty with a sunset background.”

Well, now. Steve decided what he would do for the remainder of the day.

He set up an easel, a stool, and a small coffee table in the living room near the sliding door that led to the balcony. Ample sunlight, plenty of room. Perfect space. On the coffee table sat his tools for the project: several paintbrushes, a mix of blues, reds, oranges, pinks, and a stunning white paint ready to be dipped into, and the rose in the vase. Natasha wanted a painting, so he was determined to give her one.

He took a deep breath and let it out after a few seconds, content. Yes, Steve had felt like he’d been sitting on the sidelines for the last week and a half, but this...this was a little slice of peace that he didn’t know he’d been lacking. With that thought, he unbound the rubber band around his paintbrushes and got started.

About forty-five minutes into his venture, Steve decided to get up for a glass of water, not realizing how focused he’d been. He made the short walk to the kitchen and back, and this time, Liho was curled up next to the stool, picking at something on the ground with her teeth.

“Whatcha got there, sweet girl?” Steve asked. “Catching a fly?”

Liho lifted her head up to showcase her new finding: the rubber band. Steve’s light smile dropped completely.

“No, no! Spit it out!” He crouched down and was about to take the band out of her jaws, but the sudden movement spooked the cat and she darted out of reach. “Liho! Kotik, enough!”

The black cat continued to high-tail it to Natasha’s bedroom, moving swiftly under the bed. Before she could get too far, Steve dove and grabbed for her hind legs. Liho let out a pitiful yowl and Steve had the decency to feel guilty, but he also had a good cause for this. By the time he got her out from under the bed, however, it was too late.

Liho was snapping her jaws and making a show of swallowing when Steve got a good look at her and he was horrified.

“Oh shit, oh shit!” He picked her up and forcefully opened her mouth, peeking inside. He could see half of the rubber band resting on the base of her tongue. The other half seemed to have disappeared. “Oh shit .”

Steve very carefully attempted to tug the visible end out, but Liho made a gagging noise that nearly sent Steve into a pure panic. Liho wriggled out of his grip and walked over to her scratching post, shaking her head a couple of times and coughing before digging her claws in, as if nothing was wrong.

Steve, feeling only slightly less panicked than before, took a moment to think. He and Natasha hadn’t set up a vet for Liho yet, considering they were still in the trial phase. He took a deep breath.

Emergency animal hospital, it is.

After a grueling two and a half hours in a busy waiting room, complete with worried pacing and several iPhone cameras flashing in his direction (“Is that Captain America?!”), Steve was finally called back into the room where Liho was kept.

“Oh, Kotik,” Steve muttered upon seeing her looking exhausted on the examination table. “Is she alright?”

“She’s going to be just fine,” the vet, Dr. Beverly Switzler, said with a calming tone. “I had to sedate her to safely remove the rubber band, so she may be a little sensitive or cranky for the next 24 hours. Just keep her in a temperature-controlled room, don’t do any sudden movements near her, and don’t try to force her into activities. She might claw at you.”

Steve felt like he should have been writing it all down. “Thank you, doctor. Anything I should feed her? Does she need medicine?”

“No, none of that. She didn’t swallow the rubber band all the way, so it didn’t disrupt her digestive system. Hey,” she put her hand on his shoulder. “I can tell you’re pretty beat up about this. First time?”

Steve sheepishly nodded his head. Dr. Switzler chuckled before informing him that she’d seen a lot worse and a lot more to come out of a cat’s mouth. “Just make sure not to leave small objects lying around. She seems like the curious type and will try this again. Don’t want her to become one of our regulars, do we?”

Steve shook his head, feeling like a child. “No, ma’am.”

“Thought not. She’s free to go, and since you came in just carrying her in your arms, here’s a spare cat carrier.”

Steve rubbed the back of his neck as he thanked her, his face burning from the blush. After shuffling Liho ever so gently into the carrier, he exited the clinic and made his way back to the apartment. 

He arrived at the door of the apartment and as he was fishing for his spare key, he heard a quiet “ahem” from behind. His eyes widened and he turned to see Natasha standing there, bag of takeout in hand.

“I finished the training and the mission wasn’t severe enough to send an Avenger,” she explained before he even got a chance to ask. “Did you take Liho for a walk?”

“Uh,” he chuckled nervously. “What have you got there?” He gestured towards the takeout bag.

“Thai food, thought we could have an easy dinner for today,” she said, not breaking eye contact. “You avoided the question, so now I know something bad happened. Just tell me.”

Steve sighed. “Kotik swallowed a rubber band. We just got back from the vet.”

As expected, Natasha was not pleased. Unexpectedly, however, she was quicker to anger than usual. “What? Steve, I wasn’t even gone all day! How did you let that happen?”

“ Let ?” Steve was taken aback. He wasn’t used to this sudden burst of anger and accusation from her. “Nat, I didn’t mean for it to happen!”

She scoffed under her breath. “Okay, fine, but since when do we leave things just lying around for her to get into? You need to be more careful.”

“I was careful!”

“Clearly you weren’t! She had a rubber band in her gut! Do you know how fucking dangerous that is for cats?”

“I assumed it would be, which is why I took her to the vet! And look, she’s fine now!” Their voices rose in volume, echoing around them in the small hallway. “And she didn’t swallow it all the way, either! It never made it to her stomach. Don’t make this sound worse than it is.”

“Oh, great! That makes it all better.” Natasha said sarcastically. Just then, Liho let out a yowl. She had been disturbed by the noise and let her owners know it. 

Natasha growled. “You need to be more responsible next time. I didn’t think I’d have to come home from work to find this mess.”

“Nat, that is not fair-”

She ignored him and unlocked the door, tossing the takeout unceremoniously on the counter when she passed the threshold. Just as she was about to stomp to her room to get changed, she caught sight of the easel by the window and her breath hitched in her throat. On the easel rested a canvas with a half-finished painting. 

A snow-white rose was at the center, resting in a vase swirled with cobalt blue and ruby. It appeared to be sat on a wide window sill where she could catch the beginnings of a sunset. She recognized the inspiration instantly. 

The flower in the vase. He was actually painting it.

Natasha sighed and pinched her nose, hanging her head to gather her thoughts as the anger diffused from her body. As she did this, Steve slowly let Liho out of the cat carrier and laid her down on the bed in the corner of the room. He came up behind Nat and hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder.

“I was going to surprise you with it. I know how much you love my art.” It was an attempt at a joke, but it fell flat as he lost his confidence. “I’m sorry, Nat. I should have been watching where I put my things. I took her to the animal hospital the second I knew something was wrong, I swear. I would never intentionally hurt her, you know that.”

“Of course I know that,” Natasha said, turning around. “I shouldn’t have shouted, I’m sorry. It’s just…” she hesitated, but forced herself to continue. “We’ve only kept her around permanently for three days. If we’re incapable of keeping her safe after such a short amount of time, what does that say about us?”

“Nat…”

“I know, I know. We’re heroes, we keep people safe all the time. I know we save lives on the daily, I know. That’s not- but this is...this is more personal. It hurts a little more than normal to know that, with the extent of what we can do and have done before, we messed up this one simple thing of keeping a pet safe and happy and healthy.”

Steve nodded. “I understand. If it helps, you didn’t do anything wrong. I made a mistake. Maybe I didn’t feed her enough, or give her enough toys to play with. She got bored enough to eat rubber.”

Natasha cracked a smile. “Domesticity isn’t as easy as we thought, huh?”

Steve laughed, feeling a weight lift off his chest now that the tension had eased down. “It’s not what we’re used to.”

“But we’ll learn.”

“Yeah. Yeah, we’ll learn.”