Disclaimer: I do not own anything Avengers or Marvel related, although I wish I did.
*No stealing stories, thanks.*
A/N: I was inspired by a post about Steve and Natasha, and this one-shot came about. Reviews/critique/comments always appreciated! Enjoy!
After the escapade with Ultron, the Avengers team was thrown into chaos. They were no longer at war with the A.I. monstrosity that tore apart the team, but, in a sense, they remained at a distance from each other. Some, like Barton, left on good terms, in search of a break from the action. Some, like Stark, felt the sting of betrayal and failure and turned their attention elsewhere; whether it was loss of interest or to mask their true motivation, no one asked. For some, however, this life was all they knew and all they had. Steve and Natasha both fell into this category, and they took it upon themselves to hold down the fort and stick around.
It was a strange friendship that the two of them shared. If an outsider had observed the pair in their element, be it combat, strategy, or everyday life, they might have hazarded that Steve and Natasha didn't get along. Together, their dynamics- the traditional golden boy, straightforward and steady, and the silvertongued acrobat, versatile and vicious- seemed to clash and defy one another. For some reason, however, it was the exact opposite; the two had become good friends, and fought together cohesively. Moreover, when they trained the new batch of recruits, they seemed to pick up where the other would fall short, using their differences to teach their team concepts from different angles to see what worked best. It didn't make sense, but it worked.
What most people never understood, however, was what existed beyond teamwork between the two of them. Very few knew the history between them, and even less could understand exactly what it was that kept Steve from walking away every time Natasha nudged him in the direction of the operations agent that worked on the fourth floor and glanced at Steve whenever he walked by, or how Natasha managed to be patient with the super-soldier whenever he would go off on a rant about the ridiculousness of modern social conventions. Their relationship wasn't something one could easily describe.
To Steve, Natasha was both a sister and an enigma. She had constructed walls that reached higher than the stars and let very few people though them. It had taken time and energy, but Steve had slowly managed to let himself in, silently and carefully. The person he found behind the shields of wit and firearms was empathetic, calculating, and kind, suspicious of many but searching for someone she could trust. She reminded him of someone he once knew- alone, ready for a fight, and needing someone to stick with them, although they would never admit it. More importantly, he knew someone who had been that for him, and Steve knew he could be that for her.
To Natasha, Steve was both an open book and a mask. To the outside world, Steve was the epitomy of honesty; it was not in his nature to keep secrets, which was the exact opposite of everyone she'd ever known. However, as she poked and prodded, she could feel something hiding behind his openness- a chest of secrets no one would think he would have, things no one would care to ask; it was well disguised, but not invisible. Natasha knew what it was like to have your life peeled apart and put back together, sometimes without your choice in the matter, and she understood how hard it was. Despite this, he had put his trust in her, something no one had done before; all she could do was make it worth it to him.
Above it all, there sat between them a mutual understanding of what the other was searching for- a place to belong, a role, a home. They had nowhere to return to- none that really mattered, anyway. In a world where neither of them could fit in, they knew they were both looking for the same thing. It wasn't easy to get along all the time- after all, one can only take so much Russian pop music or 40's crooner hits. But, as teammates are bound to do, they stuck together.
In the end, they were friends, and that alone was enough.