Title: Looking Back, It Was You and Me From the Start
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~1,600
Characters: Steve/Natasha ft. Tony/Pepper
Prompt: "Tony finds the footage of the Romanogers kiss."
Summary: "They're engaged. I imagine they'd want to come home to their own place as newlyweds instead of going back to crashing on my couch. Or, in my guest room—guest floor."
For: findthetenthmuse
A/N: This is sugary sweet, and barely has a plot, but I wrote it anyway because I'm weak when it comes to fluff. If fluff gets into my head and wants to be written, it gets written.
Looking Back, It Was You and Me From the Start
"You know, you two really should find a place of your own."
"Tony," Pepper says.
"What? They're engaged," he reminds, grabbing the pen tucked behind his ear and pointing at them with it. "I imagine they'd want to come home to their own place as newlyweds instead of going back to crashing on my couch. Or, in my guest room—guest floor, I guess, but that's not the point. Wait, never mind—that is the point. They're guests. They should have the privacy of being able to relive their marriage consummation without an audience. Though, I might end up missing this one's breakfasts," Tony admits, gesturing to Steve.
Natasha smiles, amused, and Steve just chuckles and pours more batter into his pan.
"What he really means is that we love having you here," Pepper assures.
"No," Tony corrects, raising his eyebrows. "If I meant that then I would've said that. I'm straightforward."
"You're straightforward?"
"I am—"
"Does this include the time you tried to cook me an omelet so you could tell me that you were dying?" Tony opens his mouth again but doesn't say anything. Natasha smirks behind her mug and Steve doesn't even try not to look as amused. "And before you think you're off the hook, it's not your guest floor—it's ours. We're married."
There's a pause, then Tony gets a smile on his face as he exhales, "Alright, yeah, you win," and Pepper smiles, patting his hand on the table as he kisses her cheek.
Natasha glances at Steve, who looks over his shoulder at her, and they share a grin.
She kind of loves it, this little existence of theirs.
She'd spent over a year after exploiting HYDRA and taking down S.H.I.E.L.D. just roaming around, trying to lay low and occupy each day. Because for the first time since she could remember, she didn't have a next plan, no new assignment, no one to report back to. She roamed around, actually saw the sights and enjoyed the culture like you're supposed to when you visit foreign countries, stayed just until she started to go stir crazy, then packed up and took off. Sometimes she'd make it a point to visit people and sometimes they'd come to her. It was nice, knowing that they still wanted to be in her life somehow, and it took her longer than it should've to realize that she, quite desperately, missed everyone.
So she took the job that Tony kept pushing towards her (even if he pretended to take back the offer when she finally accepted), came back to New York and roomed with Maria on her floor in the newly rebuilt Stark Tower – which, of course, was right above Steve's.
At least it made it easier to move in with him three months later.
And maybe that seemed rushed, getting into a relationship so quickly after a year of barely seeing each other. But they were comfortable, and they wanted it, and they'd spent two years after New York working together, putting their lives in each other's hands more times than they could count and slowly becoming more and more attached.
That year apart was practically nothing. If anything, it was just another reason why they shouldn't waste any more time.
Anyway.
Steve flips the last pancake onto the stack and switches off the burner, and he's barely set the plate on the table when Tony slides it over and starts helping himself. Pepper shakes her head, but she's smiling, too, and Natasha feeds Steve a bite of her bacon strip as he tops off her coffee.
"Forget what I said," Tony says after swallowing a few bites of pancake. "You two are never moving out. Or, if you must, you still have to come here in the mornings and make breakfast for me… and Pepper, obviously. And it'll just be less of a hassle for you if you're only a few floors away, so, like I said, you're never moving out."
Steve laughs. "I'm sure that's supposed to be kind, but we wouldn't want to impose."
Tony gives him a look. "You've been living under my—our roof for how long now? You're already imposing, but whatever. I'm used to it."
"For now, maybe," Natasha begins, tilting her head. "From what I'm told, babies cry at night a lot. And while the parents have to deal with it, we don't want to keep guys up, too."
Silence.
Total, absolute silence.
Then Tony says, "Holy shit," and Steve chuckles.
"You're… Are you really…" Pepper doesn't finish, just takes Natasha's hand and squeezes a little, like she does sometimes. Natasha exchanges a smile with Steve before looking at Pepper again and nodding. "Oh, my god," the girl squeals, and even though neither of them really ones for hugging, that's exactly what they do.
"You dog!" Tony exclaims, pointing at Steve, who just laughs again and shrugs his shoulders. The two hug, and Tony pats him on the back and says, "I'm happy for you, man." Then he turns to Natasha and she raises her eyebrows expectantly. "Alright, you can get a hug, too. Consider it a baby gift," he tells her, taking her hand and drawing her closer.
She rolls her eyes but laughs, wraps her arms around him and then smiles when he kisses her hair.
"We need to celebrate," Tony says, throwing his arms up. "I'll grab the champagne!"
"No, you're not," Pepper interrupts. "Pout all you want, but it's seven in the morning and Natasha can't have alcohol, anyway, so suck it up." Then she sets one hand on the Natasha's back and adds, "But we will be celebrating this, and I'll take care of the party, and don't worry. It'll be nothing like Tony's birthdays because we don't know that many people, anyway."
Natasha smiles (honestly, Pepper loves having a project to work on and gets so excited about it) and Steve thanks her, kissing the girl's cheek.
"Oh! And I already have an idea for entertainment," Tony chimes in, swiping the surface of the table and pulling up a menu. Natasha arches an eyebrow, watching him flip through files. "I was planning to save this for when you two get hitched, but it'll fit at a baby shower."
He swipes again, enlarging the image window so that it takes up the half of the table that isn't covered in dishes.
It's a mall.
Or, rather, security footage of a mall, because there's a timestamp on the bottom and the camera is pointed at a pair of escalators.
"Is that…" Pepper begins, but she trails off as Tony traces a section of the image and it zooms in on a couple stepping on – a girl with red hair and a striped jacket, a boy with large glasses and a blue cap – and Natasha lets out a laugh, a little impressed but mostly amused as she recognizes the couple as herself and Steve. The HYDRA incident had taken place over the course of two, maybe three days, almost four years ago, and even with her more photogenic memory, small moments like this tended to get lost over the years. It should be strange how clearly she remembers this, but that's probably because it was more than just a cover and an evasive tactic, even if she didn't consider it anything else back then.
"This is my favorite part," Tony says needlessly (since this is probably the only part he's interested in).
Natasha watches herself in the security footage as she turns, whispering to Steve, and then she pulls Steve closer as she stretches on her toes and presses her lips to his, his hand sliding over her waist and he leans into the kiss.
"Just look at that." Tony hits pause and zooms in a little more. "That's love, right there."
Natasha could argue that technically, no, that's a cover and not really them. But then she glances at Steve, who has this smile on his face as he's still looking at the image, looking like he's remembering the day as clearly as she had, and she's pretty sure this moment was a little (a lot) more than just a cover, even back then.
"How did you even find this?" Steve asks, finally looking away from it.
"Well, Steve, there's this wonderful thing called the internet." Steve chuckles. (No matter how many years pass, Tony still makes jokes.) "And I got word of this blogger that'd been taking pictures at the mall that day and, after looking back at their photos and remembering that they were taken around the same time as Natasha's public scandals and the whole Captain-America-is-a-fugitive joke, they were convinced they'd taken a picture of you two. Of course, most people dismiss it as untrue, but it was definitely a great lead to follow."
Pepper laughs a little, shaking her head. "And how long have you had this up your sleeve, exactly?"
"Oh, three, maybe four years?" he guesses. "I'd originally saved it as visual proof in the argument I had prepared that these two"—he gestures at Steve and Natasha—"should stop fooling themselves and start dating, and then when it actually happened, I was saving it for their wedding day."
"You are something else entirely, you know that?"
"Thanks buddy," Tony says, patting Steve's shoulder. "And you should thank me. Most couples wish they could record their first kiss, but yours actually is."
Natasha looks at Steve, eyebrows raised. "We really need to move out."
Tony scoffs (which she ignores) and Steve just smiles a little wider, grasping her hips gently and pulling her closer. "Actually, I think this is the best present he's ever given us," he admits. She tilts her head, grinning. "Remind me how amazing that first kiss felt?"
She laughs, but then does exactly that.