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Natasha walked out of the room with confident strides, ignoring all of the press and cameras flashing around her. She said her piece. Now it was time to visit a blond soldier who'd been on her mind for the last two days.
When she was in the privacy of her car, she sat still for a moment and closed her eyes. She remembered how scared she’d been when she asked if anyone had seen Steve as the helicarriers crashed into the Hudson River.
Of course, she didn’t think he would be dead. It would be pretty hard to kill a man like Steve Rogers. However, the last thing anyone heard from him was that he was still on the helicarrier, fighting the Winter Soldier when he told Maria to re-aim the helicarriers. After they crashed into the Hudson, there’d been radio silence from Steve.
That’s why Natasha was the first one who looked for him around the crash site. Nick raised an eyebrow when she blurted out that she was going to find him - not that she gave a damn what he thought; he had kept her out of the loop of his staged death and she still felt burned.
It hadn’t taken long for her to come across Steve's body. As she expected, he was unconscious, but alive. Before approaching him, she checked her surroundings to make sure the Winter Soldier wasn’t nearby. She suspected that he dragged Steve to the shore, but why? Maybe something in his conditioning cracked. Whatever the reason, she was just glad to find her partner alive.
She’d gone with the ambulance to the nearest hospital and stayed by his side for twelve hours until she got a summons from Congress. She couldn’t stand those people. They were a bunch of government pansies who sat safely behind their desks, giving out orders and getting unhappy when things didn’t turn out the way they wanted.
Those idiots are lucky they have someone like Steve and I on their side. If we were their enemies, we’d really give them hell.
Shaking her head, Natasha started the car engine and pulled out of the parking lot. The last thing she needed to do was give the bureaucratic fools that she’d just put in their places any more of her head space than they deserved. The only person she wanted to have any room in her mind right now was Steve Rogers.
Making her way down the hallway, Natasha felt her heart pound loudly in her ears. Her palms were also sweaty and slightly shaking. She normally never felt nervous about anything, but seeing Steve again brought up some anxieties.
Judging by his behavior towards her, the redhead was certain that Steve seriously cared for her, but in the paranoid recesses of her subconscious mind, she was a little worried that he might not accept what she had to tell him.
And yet, she recalled with perfect clarity how he’d kissed her forehead a day ago and told her that she had him and she was never alone. There was no mistaking the passion in his voice. To her ears, he sounded like a lover.
A few steps later and she stood outside Steve's hospital room. The blinds were closed, so she couldn’t tell if he had company. Hopefully, Sam Wilson wasn’t inside or she’d have to convince him to leave. She wanted to share her feelings to Steve without an audience, thank you very much.
Raising her fist to knock on the door, she called out to let him know who it was. "Steve, it’s Natasha."
"Come in."
She opened the door and walk into the room, making sure to shut the door behind her. The man before her looked like he didn’t need to be in a hospital at all. Save for the slight swelling under his eye, he didn’t look too bad.
"Compliments of the super soldier serum," he said as if he knew what she was thinking.
"If only mine was as good." She smirked and seated herself in a chair next to the bed. "You ready to check out of here?"
"I really want to, but the docs say I need to stay for a couple more hours while my internal injuries heal. It’s a pain, but at least I won’t be here for another day. I’m not a fan of hospitals."
"Neither am I, so I guess it’s a good thing you've got me for company until you're released."
"True. Oh, Sam told me that you were having a hearing with the DoD. How'd that go?"
She rolled her eyes. "The way you'd expect it to. A bunch of arrogant bureaucrats wanted to point fingers at us when we cleaned up a mess they couldn’t have fixed themselves."
Steve smiled. "You told them to go to hell without actually telling them to go to hell."
"Exactly. I know that my dumping all of SHIELD's encrypted intelligence files on the internet caused a lot of ruckus, but the fact that SHIELD was infiltrated by HYDRA from its very conception is a bigger issue. It’s too bad they’re more focused on assigning blame than dealing with the problem." She waved her hand. "But I don’t want to talk about that anymore."
"Okay. What would you like to talk about?" Steve looked at her expectantly.
Natasha licked her lips and met his gaze. "I’d like to talk about us."
"Alright." He reached out his hand and she didn’t hesitate taking it in her own. It made her feel wonderful that he wasn’t taken by surprise at her words. Obviously, he’d been thinking about them too and his easy acceptance gave her more incentive to go on.
"What you said about my not being alone, it affected me a lot more than I expected. For a long time I always had to take care of myself. I couldn’t depend on anybody or trust anyone. Even when I joined SHIELD, I had nothing except Clint, but even then, he never looked as deeply into my heart as you have."
"I knew you weren’t the kind of man to judge people for their past or mistreat them for it, but it was one thing to actually hear it come from your lips." She looked at their connected hands and entwined their fingers. "When you told me that you’d trust me to save your life you made me realize that there was something in me that was redeemable. That maybe, just maybe, I could wash the blood off my ledger."
"If Captain America, a man who'd always been a paragon of virtue and strength, someone I could never hope to imitate, thought I was worthy of his trust, then all of my doubts seemed so small and inconsequential."
"The more we spent time together and got to know each other behind the moniker of Captain America and Black Widow, the more I realized that I was attracted to you. Not only that, but it was fun for me to work with you. You didn’t mind my flirtatious quips and sometimes I felt like you flirted back. It gave me hope for the two of us having a future. I don’t know what kind of future it’ll be, but if you’re willing and I believe you are, I’d love to see where this would take us."
Natasha felt so good to get all of this off her chest and finally tell Steve everything she’d been wanting to say. The ball was in his court.
He hadn’t broken eye contact with her since the moment she began talking and now that she’s finished, he still didn’t break it. The soldier's eyes had a gleam of happiness in them and he pulled her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss against the knuckles.
This show of affection made Natasha's heart skip a beat and she edged closer to him. Steve scooted back on the bed and patted the soft mattress, motioning for her to join him. She toed off her boots and got on the bed with him, placing her hand on his side as they faced one another.
"That was quite a confession. Thank you. After hearing you, I’m glad I didn’t talk first because I doubt I could’ve been more eloquent than that."
"You mean...you were going to tell me how you felt?"
"Yeah. After the talk we had the night before we took SHIELD and HYDRA down, I knew I had to say something. There was no way we could pretend like we were just friends after that conversation. Honestly, I've always believed there was something between us that was deeper than friendship."
"Really?"
"Mmhm. I never understood it and for a while I ignored it because that was easier than facing the truth, but ignoring things never helps. It just causes problems." He sighed and shook his head. "You're the only woman who I've connected with on a deep, personal level. I thought what I had with Peggy was something, but this was a completely different ball game."
"I think part of the reason why our relationship is stronger than my relationship with Peggy is because we actually got to know each other as friends first. We're always in the same orbit at work, but outside of work too."
"I know Fury gave you the job to help me get acclimated to the twenty-first century, but I could tell that you took pleasure out of doing it. I think you helped me in more ways than one."
"I did?"
"Yes. Remember, I was alone when I woke up. All of my friends and family had been dead and gone for years. I was a man out of time. I did my best not to show it, but I was very lonely in those days. That’s why I threw myself into my work. It made me forget how empty my life was. Then suddenly, you were there, waking me up from my sleep, dragging me all over town to see the sights. And I can’t count the number of times you've sneaked into my apartment with pizza and a movie for us to watch."
Natasha had to smile at that. She had no idea that she made such an impact on Steve.
"You made my life better just by being there for me and I want you to know I appreciate you." He caressed her cheek with his fingertips. "I do want to see where this will lead us."
"I was hoping you'd say that," she replied as she leaned into his touch. She moved closer until their faces were inches apart. "Now, stop talking and kiss me, soldier."
Steve didn’t need any more prompting. He slid his palm over her thigh and gently pressed his mouth to hers. The tenderness of his kiss would’ve made her swoon if she’d been standing. She clutched his hospital gown and moaned, enjoying the sensation. This was a million times better than their kiss on the escalator.
Natasha had no clue where their newfound relationship would take them, but one thing was for sure, she would savor every moment of it.