Archive of Our Own

Truth be told, Natasha never thought she was that spontaneous.

Sure, in her line of work, she sometimes had to ditch a plan and conoct a new one more or less on the fly, but that was her job.

She just never thought that it would also apply on her personal life.

But here she was, sitting on the backseat of a beautiful vintage motorbike, her arms wrapped around a man who had somehow managed to rock her foundations.

Steve Rogers. Aka Captain America.

When she was first “introduced” to him (they didn’t meet in person, since he still was more out of it after being defrosted), she wasn’t sure what to feel about him. Sure, she was taught on the history of Cap America at the Red Room quite from the beginning on, since he was considered one of their biggest enemies, but that all was heavily tainted with propaganda.

Besides, it didn’t tell her squat about the man behind the shield.

And as it turned out, Steve Rogers was completely different to Cap.

Of course, there was some overlapping, and depending on the situation, the lines between the two sides of him were more or less blurring. But on a general note, one had to be blind to NOT realize who they were actually dealing with.

Cap, so Natasha surmised at some point during the Battle of New York, was basically nothing else than a part Steve Rogers learned to play, like she did in her early years as a ballerina. And the more you played a certain part, the more certain aspects of that character became a routine to you.

Therefore, seeing and getting to know Steve was short of an epiphany.

Steve had a wicked sense of humor that was right up Nat’s alley, and his chivalry was something that was, especially on the helicarrier, so out of place that it already fit again. And yet, it was another big, positive point for Steve in Natasha’s book.

With the Chitauri defeated, Tony still among the living and Loki sent off back to Asgard, the Avengers split up. Bruce went with Tony, stating they needed to pool their resources in case they were needed again in the future.

Clint decided to go off the grid, mostly to deal with being Loki’s puppet in his own way. And while a part of Natasha really wanted to go with him, making sure he didn’t do anything stupid, most of her knew that this was something he only could do on his own.

And so, it left her and Cap standing in Central Park.

At first, the silence between them was kind of awkward, and Natasha felt that one of them should say something, but somehow, they both were tongue-tied for once.

But then, Steve apparently found his words again, and asked her what she was doing, now that the danger was averted.

Her first instinct was to come up with a lie, or to tell him that she was, first and foremost, a SHIELD agent and that her work was more than just fighting alongside gods and superheroes.

But somehow, it felt wrong, even to her.

And so, she told him that she had asked Fury for some days off, and that she was only to be contacted in case of a world-sized emergency.

The smile she got from Steve was blinding, and spreading warmth into every corner of her body.

Bohze moi.

She hadn’t felt about a man that way for quite some time, but Steve was tearing down the proverbial walls around her heart in no time.

When she asked him why he was smiling about her plans, he didn’t give her a verbal answer, he just turned a bit to give the seat of his motorbike a pat.

A silent invitation, yet it was loud and clear between them, as if shouted from the rooftops.

And for the first time in a long time, Natasha didn’t spend an eternity on weighing the pros and cons of something, she just followed her heart. Which told her straight ahead to get on that bike and have a well-deserved slice of “normal” life asap.

Grabbing her go bag, she stepped up to Steve, their eyes locked.

“Got a hat for me, cowboy?” she asked, an eyebrow raised in question.

“Not yet, but I think we can change that on our way out of this city,” Steve replied, before taking the bag from her and storing it under the seat.

“Well then, let’s hit the road, Cap.”

Five days later, Natasha was feeling like a different person.

Not only did she really feel free in her life, with nothing holding her back, for the first time. She also felt that the friendship feelings she had for Steve were about to change, into something different, but she wasn’t sure if her travel companion was feeling the same.

And so, she tried to contain it. It had worked for her before, so why shouldn’t it work now?

Well, she didn’t factor in Steve’s secret super power.

Ever since they started their road trip, he was (almost) uncannily in tune to her every move, but when you’re a Red Room alumni, you’re more or less used to it, so Natasha didn’t think too much about it. They both had so much to learn about the other, so of course he would pay attention to everything she did to gain some intel without asking.

Boy, was she wrong with that assumption.

They pulled into the eastern suburbs of Chicago that day, and Nat was prepared for another night in a motel room with Steve, in seperate beds.

Which was, at some level, absolutely okay with her. They were colleagues, bordering on friends, and with Steve’s personal history added to the mix, probably the best. Besides, they were saving money that way, too.

But a small, treacherous part of her, the same that was thriving on the apparent change of her feelings for Steve, kept piping up that it wasn’t content with that situation any longer, and that she should do something about it.

Nat never had counted backwards in every language she knew as much as in these past five days.

By now, Steve had gotten the hanging of finding decent motels (the first night right outside New York was still fresh on their minds, especially the part where they both relocated to the floor, fearing that the beds would break the moment they sat down on them)

The “Bluebell Motel”, as the large sign told them, had a nice, vintage feeling to it, and for a hot moment, Natasha expected to see at least one or two old cars parked in front of the main building. But as it turned out, their bike (and its driver) were the oldest things around.

Getting off the bike, Steve told her to wait for him before heading over to where the office was. Natasha gave his back a fond smile. Every other guy would get a lecture about it, that she was more than capable of getting a room for them (or for herself), but something about the way Steve did it kept her from giving him that treatment.

Was it the honest look in his incredible blue eyes? The way his whole face lit up when he did each of these little, chivalrous things? Natasha couldn’t tell, and if she was honest with herself, part of her didn’t want to pinpoint it at all. It felt good to her anyway, so why trying to dissect it?

The jingle of some keys brought her out of her train of thought, and when she looked up, she was met with another blinding smile of her road trip companion.

“I was victorious,” Steve announced, dropping his voice to make it sound like Thor’s.

Which was so unexpected that Natasha couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Steve joined in, and for a few moments, they had to struggle to get their breathing and compositure back under control.

At long last, they managed it (though barely, if the way the corners of Steve’s mouth twitched were anything to count for), and Steve led them to their temporary quarters.

Where Natasha was (a) stopped dead in her tracks and (b) rendered speechless the moment she stepped into the room.

Apparently, Steve was, once again, the “Man with a Plan”. A plan he had yet to share with her.

“What’s wrong, Nat?” he asked.

Natasha gave herself a shake before turning to him with a smile, even though her mind was still racing.

“Nothing, Steve. I’m just used to see two seperate beds by now, that’s all.”

“Oh, that. Yeah, I saw that the staircase to the upper floor was a bit rickety, so I didn’t want to test it with my weight.” Natasha gave a nod. “And this was the only room left on the ground floor.” He looked around the room. “But if you want, I can sleep on the floor, let you have the bed to yourself.”

“Now why would I want that, silly?” Natasha fired back.

“You didn’t sound happy about having to share a bed with me, that’s why.”

“Yeah, but not for the reason you seem to think.”

“Which is?”

Dang it, Natasha thought, he would make a damn fine interrogator. Cutting straight to the chase was a skill that most people in their line of work spent almost a lifetime to hone, and yet, a lot never managed to master it.

“Earth to Nat?”

“Still here, just lost in another lane in my mind. As for the reason - I’m… I’m not sure if I can keep myself in check, knowing you’re just on the other side of the bed. But on the other hand, part of me exactly wants that, and more.”

For some moments, Steve’s face was an unreadable mask, and even the years of training at the Red Room failed Natasha. But then, the corners of his mouth went up and in the next moment, his whole large frame began to shake with laughter.

“What’s so funny, Cap? Me confessing my innermost feelings and turmoils is something very rare, I tell you. And besides you, only Clint had the privilege to witness it. Though his reaction was quite different from yours.”

Still laughing, Steve came closer, until he was close enough to wrap his arms around Nat’s shoulders.

“Maybe it’s because Clint is your friend, but I… I also would like to be that, but wouldn’t mind being more as well.”

“What?”

Steve heaved a sigh, one of that kind she had heard several times during the Battle of New York.

“I can’t explain it myself, I wasn’t really ready for it to happen, but somehow, I feel I’m falling for you, Nat. And this is something no serum can help me withstand it. Mostly because I don’t want to fight it, not any longer.”

“Oh,” was all Nat got out.

“Yeah, ‘oh’, and if I got your little speech right, you’re feeling the same.” He locked his gaze with hers, blue meeting green. “If I learned something since being defrosted, it’s that the world still is a dangerous place, where you can’t predict what’s happening tomorrow. So what do you say, let’s give whatever this is a shot and see where it leads us?”

“Wow, you really have a way with words, Steve. And yeah, I would like that.” She led them over to the bed, where they both sat down next to each other. “I gotta warn you, I’m not good at voicing my emotions, and part of me still has that old mantra of ‘love is for children’ going, but I’m willing to give it a try.”

“That’s all I’m asking, Nat, and I’m not gonna force you to say or do things you don’t want,” Steve told her. “Can I kiss you?”

“Of course you can,” Nat replied with a laugh, “you don’t have…”

She didn’t get any further, mostly because Steve was closing the distance between them and giving her a toe-curling kiss. Apparently, she thought, this man had more than one secret superpower. And Nat was willing to discover and explore every single of them.