Title: A Little Bit of Forever
Rating: M
Word Count: ~4,000
Characters: Steve/Natasha
Prompt: "anniversary" + "Steve and Nat going to a private beach house for their anniversary AU"
Summary: Yes, maybe people still think he deserves better, but he wants her, loves her, and she loves him. That's all that really matters.
A/N: Also known as, "4 times Steve and Natasha couldn't get away for their anniversary + 1 time they finally can"
For: jamesbartonrogers and marvelousdorito
A Little Bit of Forever
Her body is still humming, still tingling as she comes down from her high, and she gnaws on her lower lip a little as he presses light, wet kisses down the column of her throat. She hates waking up early when it isn't needed, but she doesn't mind it so much (or, at all) if it's Steve. The gentle press of his fingers tracing over her hipbone had stirred her from her sleep, and then he rolled on top of her, propped up on his elbows and completely crowding her space, kissing her on the lips before she could totally grasp that she was awake. They have half a dozen things to do today and no time to be lazing around in bed, but her bones are still a little liquid from his touch and she sort of needs to catch her breath, so it's fine.
Steve kisses his way back up, along the underside of her jaw, and it's ridiculous that that's all it takes for her warmth to start pooling in her stomach again.
"Happy anniversary," he whispers, breath hot against her ear. Her mouth tugs into a wider smile and she hooks her hand over the back of his neck, dragging his lips to hers. The kiss is almost tentative, that's how slow it is, how gentle, but she still loves the way it feels.
"Happy anniversary," she echoes, murmuring it into the kiss as his fingers brush over her ribs. For whatever reason, that's one of his favorite places of hers to touch.
A year. They've been married for a whole year to the date, and she wonders why she seems a little bit overwhelmed by this realization, because it's not… She knew that Steve was the one for her even before he put a ring on her finger, and it's not as if she didn't think they would make it this far. She used to worry about things like that before, things like how much Steve deserved better, like how many ways she just didn't think she could be someone's (especially his) girlfriend, how many ways she was worried that she would disappoint him or end up not being who he thought she was. Remembering it now, it's ridiculous. She feels so stupid for having that kind of doubt in herself at all, not when Steve has been so adamant about her worth long before they'd even started dating. Yes, maybe people still think he deserves better, but he wants her, loves her, and she loves him. That's all that really matters.
Steve draws back a little, his expression loving. There really is no other way to describe that look his eyes, the way they sparkle as his gaze traces over her, taking her in with a smile tugging at his lips like he can't quite believe it himself. Like he can't quite believe how she's his. She can more than relate to the feeling.
"I'm sorry—" he starts, but she breathes out a laugh, tilting her head up to cut him off with a kiss, quick but sweet. "I know, I know. I need to stop apologizing."
She pinches his side, grinning. "You do. Our lives have never been the kind that comes with the luxury of vacations. Our anniversary is really no different."
He nods in understanding, but she knows that, no matter how many times they've talked about this, it still bothers him, just a little. It bothers her a little, too, of course. A weekend away with Steve sounds nothing short of perfect. But things are far too crazy right now to try and slip away and they both know this.
"What kind of person does that make me, not taking his wife out for their anniversary? Not even to dinner?"
"Stop," she says, pinching his side again, harder, and he flinches this time out of surprise. They're flying to Mombasa with Wanda and Sam tonight to investigate leads on superhuman activity being used within their armed forces, and obviously this hadn't been the plan until just a few days ago when Nick came to them with the reports, but that can't be helped. "You know what kind of person you are? The kind that gives up his anniversary to work with foreign countries to help them keep their people safe. The kind always protects the innocent."
He smiles, a bit of pride touching his expression. He'll never, ever give himself praise, but she likes that he doesn't just brush it off when she pays him a compliment, either.
"Not just me," he reminds. "You'll be right there, too."
She slides a hand up his chest, pressing it flat just above his heart. "Of course. It's you and me, right?"
He nods, bringing his hand up to cover hers. "You and me," he echoes, squeezing her fingers gently. "Guess that still counts as being with my wife on our anniversary."
She chuckles softly and he leans down, pressing his lips to hers in another slow, lingering kiss. Then she pulls away a little, lips tugging into a grin. "You know, we don't actually have to be at the facility for a couple of hours," she reminds. "If it makes you feel better, you can make me breakfast in bed. Home-cooked is more romantic than eating out, anyway."
He breathes out a laugh, pulling her hand up to brush a kiss to her fingers, just above her wedding band. "Can I shape everything into hearts?"
She knows he's only half teasing, and she rolls her eyes playfully. "Whatever you want, soldier. It's our anniversary, after all."
... ...
It's late when they finally land, just after midnight, and she doesn't even really fight it when Sam hands her his jacket to put on as they wait at Baggage Claim. Two nights in Berlin turned to four because one of the rogue arms dealers they'd been tracking turned out to be a superhuman, which was nothing they hadn't handled before, but there were way too many civilians around to risk engaging him. At least falling back had given them a chance to observe his powers, figure out a plan of attack once they followed him out of the city.
Tony is the one to pick them up, and they drop her off first, since the house is closer to the airport than Sam's apartment.
Sam grabs her bag from the trunk, and Tony gets out of the car, too, following her up the front steps. He sort of kept eying her in the passenger seat the whole way home, and he caught Sam's eyes in the rearview mirror at least twice, one eyebrow arching in a question. She would've rolled her eyes if she wasn't so tired.
Steve is in the living room when they walk in, James cradled in one arm, sound asleep against his chest, and Steve's expression brightens as soon as he meets her gaze. That's all it really takes for the slight uneasiness in her stomach to ebb, for the sleep that'd been threatening to take over ever since they'd landed to fade, and she smiles, too, walking over and leaning down to press a kiss to his lips. It's soft and slow, and when she pulls away after a moment, he follows, kissing her again and then leaning away, giving her a dimpled smile.
"Welcome home," he says, voice low, soothing. It's ridiculous how much she's missed him considering it's only been four days. "Kept your promise," he adds, lifting his free hand to brush her hair from her face. "Well, sort of." His lips tug into bit of a smirk. "Said you'd be home before our anniversary, but it's already midnight. I can let that slide, though."
She rolls her eyes a little, breathing a laugh. "You better," she says, and he lets out a soft laugh, too, tilting his head up to kiss her again.
"Might want to dial it back on the lip-locking," Tony chimes in. Natasha glances over her shoulder at him. "Sam texted me when you landed, said you were sick."
"What?"
"I'm fine," she exhales, moving to sit beside him, body sinking into the couch. Steve gives her a look. "I am."
"You threw up before we boarded, Natasha," Sam argues. He looks just as bit as worried as Steve, and Tony, too. (Boys.) "I could tell."
Steve presses the back of his hand to her neck, checking for a temperature, but she grasps his wrist and pulls him away as she says, "Trust me, Steve, I'm not sick." She slides her fingers down, threading them with his. She definitely wanted to wait a little bit before telling him, but, well. It is their anniversary. "I'm pregnant."
He blinks, lips twitching into a bit of a smile despite the slight confusion still in his eyes. It reminds him of how instantly happy he'd looked when she'd gotten pregnant with James.
"What?" he asks. She knows he heard her, but he wants her to say it again.
This makes her roll her eyes again, but she's smiling, too. "I'm pregnant," she repeats, squeezing their joined hands as if for emphasis, and she watches his expression brighten as he lets out a soft breath. She feels her stomach flutter, and the giddiness of this news settles over her again like it had when she'd taken that test in the airport bathroom.
"Natasha," he says in this whisper, sitting up a little straighter. If it weren't for James still asleep in his arms, he would've pulled her close and kissed her by now.
She does it for him, though, reaching out to take his face in her hands and bring their lips. He kisses her a little harder this time, a little deeper, and she this little whimper escapes her throat. He pulls away after a moment, just as her lungs start to burn a little, as if he can tell, and he presses his forehead to hers, kissing her cheek. She meets his eyes and smiles.
Three years, and soon to be two kids. Maybe it's the sleep, but she can't really wrap her head around the fact that this man, this family, is hers.
"Don't know how I got so lucky," he murmurs, kissing the corner of her mouth, and she breathes out a laugh. Somehow he always knows exactly what she's thinking.
... ...
She can hear the three of them laughing in the living room as she rinses loads their plates from breakfast into the dishwasher, and she can't help but smile at the sound. She wonders if the flutter of giddiness she gets in her stomach whenever she hears their voices together like that will ever wear off. She doubts it, though.
Tatiana lets out another giggle, light and airy, and Natasha loves the sound of it a little more today. Tatiana has had a fever the last few days, which is something that's still a little terrifying, even if this isn't their first time dealing with it now. The immunity from the super serum isn't as strong in Tatiana as it is in James, but it's still there, and the fact that she'd gotten sick at all means that she'd caught something pretty bad. She and Steve knew it would probably burn out of her system before the weekend – she caught a cold before and it had been gone within hours – but they still hesitated about leaving for the ski lodge in Aspen that they'd reserved for their anniversary, then ended up cancelling at the last second.
She doesn't mind, though. As nice as it would've been to get away, she will always, always love staying home with her family.
She wipes her hands on a kitchen towel and then heads into the living room, breathing out a laugh at the sight of James and Tatiana on the couch, occupied by one of James's early reader books as Steve picks up the toys that they've scattered across the floor.
Steve drops a few foam blocks back into their bag and catches her gaze, giving her a dimpled smile.
"Hey," he says. She feels her lips tug into a grin as she walks over to him, smoothing her hands up his chest, and he snatches them in his and leans in to kiss her lips.
"Hey," she echoes. He pushes his thumb over the ring on her finger, which will always, always makes her heart flutter a little, even if it's been a habit of his ever since he proposed. "Bummed that we're not in Aspen right now?"
"Maybe a little," he admits, squeezing her hand in his a little. "I'm still here with you, so it's not all that bad, I guess."
"You guess?" She arches an eyebrow. "That's certainly not the tone you had this morning."
"Natasha," he says. His voice is a little lower now, a little heavier, and she pulls her hands from his grasp and reaches between them, yanking his hips to hers so that they're pressed together. He breathes out a soft, "Whoa," as she stretches on her toes, hands smoothing back up his chest to settle at his neck as she nips at his jaw. "Our kids are right there," he points out, but his hands are on her hips and keeping her in place, so she hardly thinks he wants her to stop. She snatches his earlobe between her teeth and he groans. "Natasha."
"Peter and Wanda won't mind babysitting, right?" she asks.
He hums in agreement, squeezing her hips. "They love James and Tatiana. Take any chance to snatch them away from us."
"They can handle the kids for a night," she adds, kissing the corner of his mouth as she scrapes her nails down his front. He groans lowly. "Think you can handle me, soldier?"
"Hit me with your best shot," he tells her, and she can't help but laugh as she kisses him.
... ...
She gets tossed off of her bike during a chase through London and hits her head on the pavement, which is nothing she hasn't shaken off before, but then she'd thrown up on the side of the highway and didn't even try to fight it when Sharon rushed her to a hospital.
Bucky meets them at Emergency after taking their guy into custody, phone pressed to his ear, and she doesn't have to ask to know that Steve is on the other end of that call. Once upon a time, she wouldn't have batted an eye at something like this, probably would've found all the fuss unnecessary, but things are different now and have been for a long time. She doesn't just have herself to think about anymore – she has Steve and James and Tatiana. She has her family, and they need her to take care of herself. They need her to come home.
"Natasha," Steve says once Bucky hands her the phone. His voice is tight, the way it gets when he's trying not to sound as worried as he really is. The kids must be within earshot.
"I'm alright," she reassures. They ran a few tests and the doctor already cleared her to fly home as soon as she's given mild painkillers. "How are things over there?"
"We're fine. We miss you."
Hearing this always, always makes her smile, even though she's barely been gone a day and it should be ridiculous that they miss her as much as she misses them. But it isn't, not at all. "We should be boarding in a couple of hours, so I'll be home before you know it," she tells him. "Back in time for our anniversary, even."
"I never doubted that." He means this, even if she can hear the hesitation in his voice. "Natasha, about this weekend—"
"No, I know," she interrupts. She knows him, of course she does. This kind of thing always freaks him out, even if he tries not to let it. "I need to take it easy."
"We'll take care of you," he promises, and the thought makes her grin. She remembers when she'd bruised her shoulder pretty bad a few months ago and had been ordered to take the time off to let it heal. Steve and the kids practically doted on her more so than usual. James is always, always excited to help out, especially when it comes to his parents, and he without a doubt gets that from his dad. Tatiana likes to help, too, now that she's almost four and wants to be a little more independent, but she always gets a little clingy when one of them gets hurt and Natasha doesn't mind it one bit. The girl sort of stayed cuddled up against Natasha's the whole week and to hell with you if you think it isn't the cutest thing ever.
"You better. I plan on milking this as long as I can."
Steve chuckles because he knows she doesn't mean this – one of the things Natasha hates most is feeling helpless, on any level – and then she hears James talking somewhere beside him, words tumbling out too quickly for her to quite decipher. He's worried, of course, but not so much so. She's glad. She hates freaking out the kids.
"Can I talk to Mommy?" she hears James ask, and Natasha's heart squeezes in her chest a little. "Mommy?" he says a moment later, voice closer now, right next to her ear.
She knows she's smiling a little too widely, but whatever. "Hi, baby," she says. "Shouldn't you be in bed by now?"
James giggles a bit. He'd never really had a curfew before, which some parents might be horrified at considering he's only six, but he and Tatiana sometimes stayed up waiting for her or Steve to get home from a late assignment so they could both be there to tuck them in. It was hard putting her foot down when James started Kindergarten. Nearly broke her heart actually, because her nights don't feel as complete if she and Steve can't put the kids to bed together, but it can't exactly be helped when their schedules are all over the place, either.
"We wanted to say goodnight first," James tells her. She imagines Tatiana right next to him, cuddled against Steve's chest. "When are you coming home?"
"We fly back tonight. I'll be there when you guys wake up, okay?"
"Okay. We miss you," he says. She feels her heart flutter. She wants to be home now.
"I miss you, too, baby. Get some sleep, okay? If you're up on time, Uncle Bucky might take us to the diner for breakfast." In her peripheral, Bucky shoots her a look. He gets ignored. James lets out a noise in excitement, and then Steve asks for the phone back, so James wishes her goodnight again before handing it over. "Give them a kiss from me, alright?"
"Of course," Steve tells her.
"You don't have to wait up for me, either," she adds, even though she knows he still will.
He breathes out a bit of a laugh. "Who's going to give you your goodnight kiss?"
"You're such a sap," she tells him.
"I love you, too."
... ...
She doesn't think much of it at first. Well, she does, because ten years – it's incredible and she knows it. They both know it.
But they also knew that they were going to get here sooner or later, because it's them. They're teammates, partners, and she vowed it to herself to stay by his side long before she'd said the words to him in a church, or before he ever put a ring on her finger. There had been so many things she was never certain of, so many things in her life that required her to have a back-up plan, a failsafe, but – not with him, and not anymore. She knew it was going to have its complications, of course. They're still two incredibly different people and that's going to have its challenges, but they're both too incredibly stubborn to let anything come between them. It's always going to be them against the world, and she loves it this way.
So, yes, ten years is incredible, and she's loved every second of it. She's loved every second with him, with their kids. But they still have the rest of their lives together.
If she gets through this weekend first, that is.
"Steve," she breathes, half-heartedly pushing at his shoulders, trying to nudge him away as he presses wet kisses down the flat of her stomach. Every muscle in her body is thoroughly exhausted, and yet, she feels her desire coil tighter and tighter under his touch, as if she hasn't had enough of it already.
(She hasn't. She'll never, ever have enough of this man. She's more than happy that he feels the same way, if his inability to keep his hands off of her is any indication.)
It had seemed sweet and incredibly, incredibly hot when he'd whispered it into her ear, pushing her back against the door as soon as they'd made it inside the beach house, promising to make her come for every missed anniversary getaway. They'd honestly had plans of exploring the expanse of the private beach just behind the property as soon as they got in, but as beautiful as Hawaii is, as much as she loved the feel of the sun on her skin and the sight of Steve's muscles wet in the ocean water, she loved this sight much more – Steve's hands on her hips, pressing her against the door as he knelt down, undoing the strings of her bikini with his teeth. He's definitely taken this thing off of her as many times as she's put it on.
It's evening now, and they haven't stepped out of this house even once since they got here around noon. She certainly doesn't have any complaints.
"Steve," she whimpers, pressing her legs a little further apart as he kisses the inside of her thigh. Her entire body is still tingling, still feels very much like it's on fire.
"Ten years, Nat," he says, breath hot against her skin as his hand comes up to squeeze over her hip. Her heart jumps at that, and then his tongue passes over her folds and she arches her back, lips parting. "We could've had so many more of these weekends."
He closes his lips around her nerves and she swears she sees stars. "Our choice," she breathes out. She can hardly collect her thoughts when he does this, but he still understands.
He chuckles and she feels it right between her legs. "I know, and I wouldn't change any of it." His thumb smooths over her hip. "This was worth the wait."
He licks right up her center again and she can't help it, rolling her hips against his tongue. He knows her so, so well, knows exactly what to do, exactly what her little ticks are, and it'll take him nothing at all to get her right there on that dizzying edge. She almost lets him, too lost in the pleasure until her walls flutter and she feels – she needs—
"Steve," she breathes, nails scraping over his shoulders. He pauses, glancing up at her from under his lashes. "Come here."
He passes his tongue over her one last time, making her shudder and dig her nails into his shoulders a little more, shaking her head in protest. He breathes out a laugh (ass) and thenkisses the skin of her thigh again before moving back over her. She winds her arms around his neck, his breath stuttering as he presses into her slowly, and her body hums.
Her eyelashes flutter open, her heart skipping as she meets his eyes, bright and blue and beautiful. Nothing will ever, ever compare to this, right here. To him.
"Happy anniversary," she whispers.
"Happy anniversary," he echoes, and then dips his head to capture her lips in a kiss, rolling his hips against hers slowly. She's there, right there, and then he breaks the kiss and nuzzles his face into her neck as she falls apart, breath hot against her pulse as she holds him close.
Definitely worth the wait.