The long way home

Chapter one

You stood on the balls of your feet and shifted nervously as you glanced around the crowded room. How on earth were you supposed to find him here? When you had agreed to this spot, you'd had no idea what it was. Or how well frequented it appeared to be. When you had agreed to this, you had been in your bedroom. Safe and sound. Everything had been familiar and the unknown seemed exciting. Now everything was new and somehow that tempered the excitement a little.
With nothing familiar, even your shadow seemed slightly more frightening. Only slightly of course. You sighed deeply as you tried to shake the feeling of dread settling in your stomach.

It had been nearly seven years since you had last seen him. And while there had been some contact over the years, letters, phone calls, texts, seven years was a long time. It had not been the same as seeing him every day and hanging out with him. It was a lot more difficult to share your deepest darkest secrets over a phone line. That was probably what had caused the nervous feeling that you had woken up with today. If you didn't spot him soon, you feared you might vomit from the stress. Your stomach was clenching and your hands had a slight tremble to them. What had you gotten yourself into?

"Where the hell are you?" you muttered more to yourself than anything and jumped when a voice behind you replied.

"Right here" the voice was deep,smooth, manly. Somehow it took you by surprise. In your mind you still heard the voice of twelve year old Steve, whenever you thought of him. Or when you read his letters. Still there was no doubt about it, this was the voice of your childhood friend. With a bright smile you turned around only to meet his chest, instead of his eyes. And what a chest is was. Broad, muscular and stretching the seams of his shirt. This was not how you remembered him at all. Slowly you looked from his muscular chest up to the face of the nineteen year old man from your past.

"Oh my, you've changed" you said with a chuckle to mask your shock and he pulled you into a hug. He crushed you against him and you sighed. Tension quickly left your body as you took in his scent. There was still something familiar about his smell. And about the way he hugged you close. And like it had all those years ago, it immediately calmed you.

"So good to see you" he whispered into your hair and you could only nod in agreement. It had been far too long. He agreed with you on that, if the length of the hug was any indication. He had been as reluctant as you were to let go. Alas eventually, you did and he guided you out of the main hall and out towards the grassy field flanking the building. There he threw his jacket on the ground for you to sit on while he sat down next to you.

You sighed contently as you took in the sun rays as they beamed down on you. It was late afternoon and the heat was slowly dying down enough for you to actually enjoy the weather. It was still unseasonally hot for September. Not that you cared. After 7 years of extremely cold winters in Minnesota, you enjoyed every bit of sun you got. It had been part of the reason to apply for university's in California. The cold had never been your friend. Despite growing up in the cold New York winters. Steve had always teased you, while you complained loudly about the freezing cold and the slippery snow.

"So what the hell happened to you" you asked after a few minuted of silence, gesturing to his appearance and he chuckled.

"Mostly puberty I think" he replied and you laughed out loud.

"Sure, puberty often hands out muscles like that" you pointed at his sun kissed arm and now he laughed.

"Football may have helped as well" he sheepishly agreed as he looked down at his arm, absent-mindedly rubbing it. At twelve years old, Steve had been the smallest kid in his class. He had often been the source of ridicule. Although it had not bothered him too much. He had never let anyone put him down. He had been the kid that fought back. He often stood up for others. And he had always stood tall. It was something you had always admired in him. You hoped those characteristics had not been lost, with all the changes in him. And somehow you doubted he would ever loose those qualities.

The next few hours the two of you got caught up on life. Sharing all that had happened in the years that you'd been separated by the many miles that stood between New York and Minnesota. You talked about his life at University and how he would show you around the city. You talked about new friends and old. About classes he was taking and the ones you had applied too this year. Really nothing seemed off limits. Conversation flowed and it felt like no time had past at all. The friendship was still good. Solid. He still made you feel safe. And he still made you laugh out loud. You had missed him. And seeing him now only drove that home even more.

You did not want this evening to end. It had been so long since the two of you got to hang out and it felt like there wasn't enough time to catch up. Still, after grabbing a quick dinner together, Steve really had to run. Steve had to go to a meeting with his team-mates and you told him it was just fine, hoping to convince yourself. After all, you now lived mere minutes from one another. There was all the time in the world.

Therefore, as you watched him run off, you decided to see if your room mate had arrived yet. You'd expected her to arrive yesterday, as most students did, but the day had come and gone and the bed next to yours was still empty. It had not been too bad though, you had needed a night where you could just be. Where you did not have to put up a happy front. You were scared. Starting college scared you. And you had taken the extra alone time to wallow a little. It had taken all your will power not to call your parents that night. You knew you were just having a little bit of anxiety. It would get better as soon as classes started and you would get to know some people. It would have been mean to needlessly worry your parents.

When you arrived at your room, the door was ajar and movement could be heard from beyond it. Your view was still restricted, so you softly pushed the door open a little wider. What you saw made you chuckle a little. Someone was trying to move two boxes at once, blocking their view and therefore making the task impossible. Upon hearing your chuckle the person stopped and turned to the side, looking past the boxes, to see who was standing by the door.

A slender red head was revealed behind the large boxes and you quickly moved forward to take the top box from her arms. She smiled gratefully. Now she was able to finally see what she was doing and placed the box next to her desk. Gesturing for you to put the box in your hands on top of it, you nodded and grunted as you bend over with it in your arms.

"How did you carry two of those at the same time?" You exclaimed and she laughed, a bright happy sound.

"Cheerleading" she said simply before extending her hand to you, "I'm Natasha".

"Nice to meet you, Y/N" you replied as you shook her hand with a kind smile.

"So are you my new room mate or do you make a habit of peaking into dorm rooms?" she said with a straight face and for a moment you thought she was serious. Eventually she cracked a smile and you laughed before telling her you were in fact the room mate.

"I'm glad you came when you did," Natasha said as she flopped down on her bed, "I tend to think I can do everything on my own" she waved at the boxes as she said this and you just nodded. Then her stomach growled and she asked you were the food court was. Offering to walk her there, you got back up and lead the way.

As Natasha ate a sandwich she explained that she had missed her flight the day before due to traffic. Natasha, you would quickly come to realize, did everything at a fast pace, talking, eating and apparently moving. However, her estimation of the time it would take her to get to the airport had not taken into account people that did not move at such high speed. You chuckled as she passionately talked about her frustration and anger when she had missed her flight. She spoke with her hands and they were flying all over the place, causing quite a few stares. She didn't seem to mind though, hardly noticed any of the eyes on her.

Eventually she shrugged, calmer, and admitted that it had been her fault. You chuckled and promised you'd help her create a better time management habit if she wanted too. You liked being on time. Being early when you could. She accepted the offer with a bright smile.

The conversation then turned towards school. And you spoke of your majors. Natasha explained that she had come here on a cheerleading scholarship, something she had trained for since she was young. Though her real passion these days was history. This was the subject she had chosen as her major. Though you knew nothing about cheerleading, you were elated to hear she would have the same major as you had. That way, you had at least one familiar face in the class on your first day.

A/n: because I can't help myself, here is another mcu story. I was supposed to finish my original novel first, but it was so sad and draining I needed something light. that is where this story came in.
I hope you like it!