Sorry for the messed up file I uploaded!

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NATASHA

Everything's going according to plan…so far.

Wanda and Vision have been located, no thanks to their failure to check in with her or Steve every now and then. Seriously, Wanda…you knew better. The darn kid.

They had three hours before reaching Wanda and Vis' location, give and take. They picked one hell of a city, too.

Darn kids on a romantic vacation.

Plenty of time for a nap, a bit of stretching before the inevitable fist fights, and even a bit of pep talk, and she could really use a proper meal about now, but Natasha could see that Steve was already a bit riled up. He had been restless since finding out from the news that Tony had gone missing. It was pride that kept the two apart for years, and now Steve believed that it was pride that put Tony in jeopardy. Like the good old hero that he was, Steve thought it was his fault.

Natasha sighed. Although this brooding, quiet-er side of Steve was making her feel all sorts of unprofessional feelings, she had to do something to whip him back to shape. That had always been their dynamic—look out for each other and set each other straight. She switched to autopilot and left everything to Sam.

"Hey…" She nudged his shoulder playfully.

Steve looked up briefly but found his shoes more interesting. "Hi."

She sat down beside him, "If everything goes smoothly, we'll be there in two, three hours tops. Two and a half's possible."

He nodded.

"Cap." She said coolly and put her hand over his to stop his fidgeting. "…it's not your fault, alright? None of this is. And we're making good progress here; we found Wanda and Vis, and we'll find Tony too. This isn't your fault."

He chuckled, almost mocking. "Then whose is it?" He was looking at her now, and for the first time she wasn't seeing Captain America, everybody's boy-next-door, charming hero who'll most likely rescue cats from trees or help senior citizens cross the pedestrians. No, right now he was something else. His anger and his guilt were eating him, and it showed right there by the way he looked at her. "I could have talked to him. Reached out, in some way. Let him know he wasn't alone, that he can still count on me instead of take on alien races alone."

"You did reach out, Steve. It was all up to Tony to—that's not even the point. My point is, the world—no, the universe? It's too damn big and every second it unfolds in a million different ways. And we do our best but let's face it, Steve…" she trailed off, tilting her head so she could look at him straight to the eye. "…we can only do so much."

He did soften a bit, and she wanted to hold him, let him know that Bucky wasn't the only friend he can count on. Or Sam. That she would always be on his side, and he'd saved her ass countless times now that she'd be willing to lay down her life for him any second of the day. It'd be a sacrifice she'll be willing to take, and not just because it was literally in her contract at SHIELD and then the Avengers.

Steve took her hand and placed a gentle kiss on it, much to her surprise.

In the past years, to say that she and Steve became closer would be the understatement of the century. It started when she went out of her way to find him after the team split up and she became, once again, a fugitive from the government. And of course, he was more than glad to take her under his wing. They became a family—a law-breaking, on-the-run, shoot-on-sight kind of family, but hey, Natasha has had worse company. Then their friendship turned into…well, something else. She convinced herself first that it was just a school girl crush, and the attraction was because he was there all the time, but then Sam was there too, and she didn't feel the same way about the guy.

Oh well, then the rest was history. A long, complicated history.

But they both decided it was best to keep it to themselves, and keep it a secret from everybody else, even Sam. But of course, the guy knew what was going on in the other side of the thin walls of the dingy shacks they rented.

"What about laying low, hmm?" She grinned, amused by the butterflies that seemed to come alive at the slightest brush of his lips on her skin.

Steve shook his head and rested both their hands on his lap, "The world could very well be ending, Nat. I think we can let loose a little."

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