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Rain drops battered the window in loud succession. The sound could be heard throughout the house. Thunder occasionally drowned it out, accompanied by a quick flash of lightning that lit up the gradually darkening sky. Steve watched it all through a large window while he waited, hands resting casually behind his back. His fingers almost itched to sketch the world as it looked through the glass: soft and blurry with no visible edges, like a watercolor painting.
His attention was drawn away from the world outside by the clicking of heels against the floor. They grew louder as she moved through each room, coming closer and closer until finally she walked into sight. Steve, who had only turned his head towards the sound before now, faced away from the window and the storm outside to take in the woman before him.
Natasha looked beautiful, though he was convinced it was impossible for her not to. He'd seen her bruised and bleeding and covered in dirt and grime, sweaty and disheveled, and every time he thought he still looked gorgeous. She was a sight to behold now even with the sleeves of her unzipped dress hanging low on her arms. Even more so because of that, actually.
"Think Fury would notice if we were late?" Steve asked, stepping away from the window and closer to Natasha. Her lips twitched, one side lifting in her signature half-smile.
"Down boy," she said, amusement shining in her eyes and the quirk of her eyebrow. She turned around and looked at him over her shoulder. "Zip me up, will you?"
Steve ran his hands down Natasha's sides, lingering at her waist and then on the zipper. "Question still stands."
He waited, letting one of his knuckles rest against the skin bared to him under the open dress, but was unsurprised by the no-nonsense expression he got in response.
"Can't blame a guy for askin'," he said with a playful smile before doing what she asked. And if he took longer than strictly necessary to finish zipping it up, Natasha didn't seem to mind.
Once the dress was in place, Steve lingered again, brushing the tips of his fingers over the pattern of lines across the back of her shoulder. They matched a pattern marked into his own skin; something he'd taken to be a sign that, as often as he felt like a fish out of water in the present day, he was always meant to crash that plane and wake up decades later.
Who'd have thought he would find his soulmate nearly seventy years in the future, when by all rights he should have been dead?
"Keep that up and we're both gonna be in trouble, Rogers."
"I like a little trouble," he said, but let his hand fall back down to rest at her waist. He couldn't help pressing a kiss where the mark was, but kept it brief and followed up with a kiss to Natasha's waiting mouth after.
"Then tonight's event will be right up your alley—and I've heard you know a thing or two about those."
Steve shook his head with scoff, a smile stretched across his face. He tried to contain it in order to at least act like he wished she didn't know quite so much about his pre-serum life, but his lips stayed where they were as she turned to face him. Her hair was longer now than when they had first met, though not by much, and done up in loose waves that he knew better than to mess up.
As much as he enjoyed teasing her—and wouldn't say no if she'd taken him up on it—he knew they had a job to do.
"It's kinda nice, getting all dressed up," he said, holding out an arm and raising his eyebrows. Natasha shook her head, but hooked her arm around his. They walked out of the room together, neither leading the other until Steve fell back to let Natasha out the door first.
"Oh yeah?" she asked as she reached for the clutch left sitting on the side table before taking a step onto the porch. The rain was still pouring down outside, but the wind seemed to have taken a break so Steve was feeling optimistic that an umbrella might be enough to keep them from getting soaked on the way to the car. "You trying to tell me something?"
He shrugged, grabbing an umbrella out from a rack sitting just inside the front entrance. Once the door was securely locked behind them, he opened the screen and then the umbrella to give them the best possible chance to stay dry on the walk.
"Just that it might be nice to do this again when it's not, you know—"
"A job?"
"I like playing pretend as much as anyone," he didn't dignify her quiet mhmm with a response, "but it could be nice. To go to some fancy restaurant, maybe dancing, when we're not on the clock."
Natasha was quiet on the walk to the car and all the way through getting into her seat. Steve didn't take it personally; between the rain and the thunder, it wasn't exactly the best place for a conversation. And once he was inside with her, she didn't waste a second before reaching over to brush her hand over the sleeve of his jacket.
"Sounds like a date to me."
Smile stretching across his face, Steve leaned over to kiss her before putting the keys in the ignition. "Can't wait."