Title: Some Things Were Meant To Mend
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~1,700
Characters: Steve/Natasha
Prompt: "steve and natasha get into their first major fight together as a couple"
Summary: It's terribly ironic that the first fight that makes them walk out on each other is over a house they're looking at so they can move in together.
For: the anon that requested it
Some Things Were Meant To Mend
It's terribly ironic that the first fight that makes them walk out on each other is over a house they're looking at so they can move in together.
She hates this.
And if she's being honest, she doesn't remember, specifically, what the fight was about. They were looking at places and comparing notes and it all kind of escalated too quickly for her to catch, which is a bigger deal than you'd think considering it's her. She's good at what she does because she predicts things and adapts and deals accordingly. She doesn't miss much or forget easily, especially when it only happened last night, but when she shows up at Maria's door and the girl asks what happened, she says, "I'm not sure," because it's the truth and Maria gives her this look like that tells her everything. It probably does. They're best friends, even if they don't actually call each other that or acknowledge it often, or at all.
Maria doesn't have a guest bedroom but she doesn't let Natasha sleep on the couch, either, so they share her bed and Natasha is convinced the only reason she got any sleep at all (even if it did nothing to make her feel better) was because Maria was next to her.
She wakes up to too much sunlight in the room and the sounds of Maria moving around in the kitchen.
She doesn't want to get up, but she should.
What she does instead is grab her phone off of the nightstand. She has missed calls and unread texts, almost all of them from Steve, and it's stupid that this both pisses her off and comforts her, just a tiny bit. He could just be trying to continue their argument (which is unlikely; it's Steve) but she'd like to think that he's trying to get them through this.
Maria walks into the room with a mug of coffee in each hand, and Natasha puts her phone down to take the mug Maria hands her.
"So, are you ready to talk about it?" Maria asks softly, though it's not really a question. She knows the girl wants to.
"I don't know where to begin. I don't know how it began."
"You said you guys were looking over places, right? And it just happened from there?" Natasha nods. Maria brushes her hair behind her ear and takes a sip of her coffee, so Natasha does the same. "Were you… Did it happen while you guys were looking at the paperwork for that renovated house with the bay windows?"
"Yeah," she says slowly. "How did…"
"You guys really love that one, right?" Maria interrupts. Natasha just looks at her, nodding again. Maria presses her lips together, hesitating, and then says, "I think you're scared."
Natasha laughs, but it's empty rather than bitter. "You got that from bay windows?"
"Yeah, I did."
Natasha meets her eyes. "Why am I scared?"
"You know why," Maria says gently.
And yes, she knows, but she's ignored it long enough that she forgot for a while. She's scared. Not of settling down with Steve, but of doing that and then screwing things up and having it all be yanked out from underneath her. She's horrible at the whole communicating thing because has such a backwards way of going about everything, and Steve is patient enough to deal with it now, but what if a few years go by and he doesn't want to anymore? What if he gets tired of trying to be in a relationship with someone that overcomplicates things all the time? She loves him and she loves being with him, and maybe she always knew that he could leave, but he's never once showed signs of that even being an option.
But moving in together… It feels more final, and once it happens, there's no going back. If he leaves, it'll really feel like he's left.
Except she knows that's a stupid way of looking at it, because honestly, she's already at that point. If he leaves now it'll feel just as awful. She's not dependent on him and she's pretty sure she'd be able to carry on if he's ever out of the picture.
She just doesn't want to.
After a moment, Maria says, "I don't think you're scared enough to want to call it quits with him."
Natasha lets out a breath, shaking her head a little. "How do I stay with him if I can't handle moving in with him?"
"I think you can handle it. You just needed to get this out." Natasha sips her coffee to keep from arguing against this, because she knows Maria doesn't just say things to say things or make people feel better – that there's always a point, and usually a really good one. "Have you two talked about it before?"
"No," Natasha admits. "My being terrified to live with Steve isn't exactly a conversation I want to have with anyone at all, let alone him."
"But you've ignored it this whole time, and you know what happens. Pressure builds and then gets released." Maria shrugs. "You two will make it through this."
"You sound so sure," Natasha points out softly.
"I am," she says simply, easily. "You love each other, and being scared of something doesn't change that. It just means you have something you have to deal with together, but I don't think it's anything that'll make either of you want to give up on each other."
Natasha looks at her and can tell that she sincerely believes this, and it makes her smile, just a little bit.
"Have you ever considered being a psychiatrist?"
Maria chuckles, knowing that that's Natasha's way of thanking her, and saying that yeah, she thinks she's right. At least, she hopes so. "The last thing I need is to listen to other people's problems. It's different when it's for friends, but…" She shakes her head and they both laugh. "Anyway, I made bacon and pancakes, so let's eat."
Natasha grabs her phone again and follows Maria out of the bedroom, and the Maria's phone starts ringing as they're walking into the kitchen.
"Hello?" Maria greets, opening the cupboard with her free hand. "Sam?" Natasha raises her eyebrows, but the girl just waves her away and Natasha laughs a little, sitting herself at the breakfast bar and stealing a strip of bacon from the plate, biting the top off. "Wait, you're what?"
Natasha is intrigued.
"No, don't," Maria says a little quickly, glancing at Natasha. "No, I'll just let you in."
She hangs up and Natasha smirks.
"I can vacate if you want," she offers, and Maria just grins before leaving to open the door. Natasha takes a few more bites of bacon and reads the one unread text she has that's not from Steve – Pepper confirming brunch tomorrow. Natasha begins typing her reply as she hears three sets of footsteps heading back for the kitchen.
Three?
She looks over her shoulder as Steve walks in, and she lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
"Hi," he says, and somehow he sounds so sad and relieved at the same time.
"Hi." She stands, about to say more, but then he pushes his fingers through her hair and presses their lips together, kissing her a little harder and a little deeper considering Maria and Sam are in the room, but she hardly cares. She missed him so much and they were only apart overnight. "Hi," he says again, breathless as he pushes their foreheads together.
His thumb is smoothing over the apple of her cheek and she closes her eyes, leaning into his touch. "I missed you," she says.
"I missed you, too. So, so much," he tells her, meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry about—"
"Don't…" She shakes her head, but she's laughing, too, so Steve just smiles. "Don't apologize, alright? I know it's like you to, but… Our fight wasn't your fault. It was mine." He's about to protest, she can tell, so she quickly adds, "It is. I should've told you that some stuff freaked me out."
"I could kind of tell," he admits. She smiles. She should've known. He knows her better than she gives him credit for sometimes. "I just wasn't sure how to bring it up."
She smiles, kissing him again. "I love you. I just… I love you. No matter what happens, please don't forget that."
"I won't," he promises. "I love you, too."
"And I want us to live together," she adds, gripping him a little tighter.
He grins, tilting his head. "Well, that's kind of a big decision," he teases lightly, and she hits his arm, laughing. It should be silly that she feels her eyes watering, but considering how worried she'd been at the idea of them not getting through this, she thinks it's alright that there are a few relieved tears. He kisses her in the middle of her forehead, and she bites her lower lip. "I want us to live together, and to get married and to have a family," he adds. She feels her eyes widen and he actually laughs at her. "I didn't mean today or anything."
"God," she exhales, pushing his shoulder, but he just chuckles and pulls her close again. "You're so lucky I love you," she tells him.
"I know," he says. She grins.
"True love prevails," Sam says cheekily. Maria and Steve both laugh and Natasha rolls her eyes, smiling. "Now let's eat! I'm starved and Maria's breakfasts should not be wasted. They might even be better than yours, Rogers. Sorry, bud."
Steve arches an eyebrow. "How many times has Maria cooked you breakfast, exactly?"
"That's not the point," Maria answers, and Sam just points his thumb at her and says, "What she said," before helping himself to a bacon strip. Maria shakes her head, but she's smiling, too, and Natasha is definitely going to ask her at least a dozen questions about that later.
Steve meets her eyes, runs his hand over her back and smiles like he knows exactly what she's thinking, and she's pretty sure he's going to dig information out of Sam, too.
It's kind of scary, how amazing they are together.