A/N. Hi guys! :D I see you liked Phil ;) I hope you like April too. There is a little bit of Stania in this, but mostly it's other stuff. Read on to find out!

Disclaimer - I don't own the Avengers

CHAPTER FOUR
April 1st – Prank war! Continued.

April 3rd – Thor leaves for Asgard

April 8th – Steve tapped his pencil against the desk nervously, tapping his foot in sync. A few seconds later, the utensil broke into two pieces and clattered to the floor. He sighed and picked up another pencil from the can full of them in the corner of his exceedingly small desk. He shifted uncomfortably and looked around the room at the teenagers in similar states.

He randomly peeked over his desk and saw the ever growing pile of broken piles on the tile floor. He barely restrained a groan and stared at the scantron in front of him. Tests were not like this in the nineteen twenties.

An epiphany hit him in the face and he gasped, scribbling the final circle with his lead pencil and scrambling out of the very, VERY small desk. He almost knocked it over and scraped it against the floor several times, startling the other teens.

"Sorry!" he whispered before bolting out of there, praying he would never have to return. He handed the paper to the elderly woman behind the desk and sat down in the awfully uncomfortable waiting chair.

Ten, agonizing, minutes later, "Steven G. Rogers" was called to the counter. He raced forward and accepted his test back. He flipped it over with shaking hands. Eighty percent. He passed.

A wide grin split his face and he fist-pumped. The lady smiled knowingly at him over tortoiseshell glasses and watched in amusement as the twenty-three year old man ran out of the building.

Steve entered the lounge, the smile still plastered on his face and the test gripped tightly in his hands. He didn't want to interrupt any of them, so although he was dying to say something, he merely sat down at the counter on one of the bar stools and accepted the glass of water from Pepper, who winked at him. She knew. He blushed a little and smiled, bringing the glass to his lips after a nod of thanks.

Tony and Bruce were discussing something animatedly on the white sectional while Clint was bouncing his head back and forth between them from his position on the floor, looking like he was watching a ping pong tournament. On the bar stool next to him, reading on a tablet, was Natasha. Graham stood by the floor to ceiling windows, basked in a yellow glow, and talking on his phone – probably to Darcy. Pepper stood behind the counter, assembling ingredients for lunch from a variety of different places. Tania, Jane, Thor, and Betty were not on the floor.

At that very moment, the elevator doors opened and Tania and Jane entered. The taller brunette stopped speaking mid-sentence (something to do with hiding in Thor's closet…?) and spotted her boyfriend. She grinned widely and scuttled over to him.

"How'd it go?" she asked excitedly. Lately, she had become a bit more… animated and a bit less depressed. It was a small change but everyone was starting to notice. She was slowly (agonizingly slowly) moving past the HYDRA incident. Steve always found it contagious when she smiled and he often returned it with the same magnitude for reasons he couldn't explain.

"See for yourself." He handed her the papers and she grabbed it, skimming the test for the mark. She spotted the red eight percent in the corner and squealed, hugging him tightly. He laughed and settled his arms around her. It seemed that their excitement levels matched.

"That's so great! I'm so proud of you!" She pecked him on the lips, one hand on his cheek before dropping her heavy looking red purse on the counter. She pulled up the third and final bar stool on his right side, scraping its legs against the floor as the others began to notice the commotion.

"What for?" Clint asked, pushing himself to his feet and walking closer to the action.

"Steve passed his driver's test," Pepper explained knowingly while grabbing two plates from off the island in each hand and transferring them to the counter by the fridge.

Tony gaped. "What? When did you start learning how to drive?"

"A little while ago. Tania's been teaching me."

"He's a very fast learner," she added in while pushing herself around the chair from right to left, spinning halfway before changing directions.

"Well I'll be damned."

"Way to go, Cap," Bruce congratulated from his spot on the couch and an encouraging smile.

"Yeah, congrats." Clint slapped Steve on the back and placed an elbow on Natasha's shoulder, crossing his legs.

She appeared vaguely annoyed. "Way to go Steve," she said without looking at him. She reached for Clint's wrist. "You can go on a lot more trips-", she kicked her foot out, knocking the archer's legs out from under him and sending him sprawling to the floor, "-now."

Tony and a select few others snickered. "Before you ask, El Capitano, I am not buying you a car when you have a perfectly good motorbike- wait a second. When did you have the time to get a motorcycle license?" He was probably referring to when Steve drove off on his motorcycle after the Chitauri attack.

Steve shifted his eyes back and forth and sipped the water from his glass nonchalantly. Clint and Natasha, who both knew the answer, also turned away from Tony.

"Don't leave me hanging! Come on, tell me. Guys? Hello? GUYS?"

April 10th – Graham and Darcy start dating.

April 13th – Tania ducked as Natasha's leg whizzed past her head. She struck out with her own leg, only to have the assassin leap over her body and land into a front roll with a light thud on the mat. Tania placed all her weight onto her hands and kicked off the ground, bringing herself into a handstand before continuing the motion and stepping onto the ground to right herself.

The two women stared at each other with absolute focus in their eyes. Tania was panting like crazy and sweating buckets whereas Natasha looked fresh as an ocean breeze. There was barely a second before Nat took two steps forward and jumped, twisting her legs around Tania's neck despite the brunette's attempts to block the attack with her forearms. The red head continued her momentum and arched her back, swinging her legs forward and slamming Tania face first into the ground, letting go just before the impact and landing on her feet gracefully.

She turned around and placed her hands on her hips, looking down at Tania with narrowed eyes. "That's what happens when you stop training for three months."

The head of Marketing and Advertisement coughed violently before splitting up blood. Natasha's eyes widened before she kneeled down beside her friend and began patting her back. Another hacking cough and Tania wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She turned and sat on her bum, practically hyperventilating. "What… can I say?" she asked as Tasha left and returned with a water bottle in one second flat. "You… were right." She unscrewed the cap and took a huge sip, barely managed not to spit it all out when she was hit with another cough.

"Jesus, Tania, I'm… I didn't mean to do this."

She barked out a laugh and took another swig. "Don't worry about it." She wiped at her forehead with her arm. "It was my fault. I should have continued training."

"We can't dwell on it now. I'll go easier on you next time."

"No." She shook her head and chugged the water back, finishing it in a final gulp. "Ahh. Don't ease up. It'll just give me something to work towards – being able to hold my own for longer than two minutes when you're already going easy on me."

"You've come a long way since I first started training you. I've gone less and less easy on you. I'd say you're about… intermediate."

She nodded, slowly catching her breath. "Interesting."

"I'll have to get you to start sparring with Clint. He's more careful and precise than I am. Plus, the majority of your opponents will be men. You can get used to fighting against them instead of just me. We'll try that tomorrow."

"O-okay. Yeah. We'll do that."

"I… uh…" Natasha looked at the ground, seemingly unable to say the words she wanted to.

Tania shook her head and grasped her friend's shoulder with a reassuring squeeze. "I know. Hey, I have something for you." She reached into her back pocket and removed a USB. "I probably should have given this to you before in case it broke during the match but… here." She held it out. "It's a playlist. I think you should listen to it. If you don't want to, then that's fine. They're just songs." She shrugged.

Natasha eyed her strangely but tentatively accepted the stick anyway. "Thank you."

Twenty-five minutes later, the Black Widow plugged a USB stick into her laptop.

April 16th – Stirring the coffee pointlessly, Tania stared into its black depths, brown orbs following the plastic spoon in circles. It was incredibly awkward. The silence between her and Steve was unusual, uncommon, and unwanted. They sat across from one another in their coffee shop, the one they'd first truly interacted within. They had immediately directed themselves toward the table at which they always sat out of habit, despite not having visited the building since January, before they had been taken.

Soft country music played in the background alongside the quiet musings of other customers and the dings of the door opening and closing. But there was no talking between one of New York City's most famous power couple.

Because of their frequent visits, the owner had deemed them "especially valued customers" and always made sure that any one person who dared bother the two of them was to be dealt with responsibly. Thanks to him, Tania and Steve never had to come in disguises and could always be themselves without being smothered by fans, paparazzi, or stalkers.

Over the past several months, the coffee shop had been changed here and there. It was weird to get used to, having whole new chairs to sit in and mold your bodies to, having bigger paintings on the wall to replace the smaller ones, and having newer faces behind the cash and serving the food. It was all a little disorienting, but what could you do? Adapt. That was what you could do. Despite all the change in the coffee shop, they would still continue to go there. The coffee, hospitality, and layout were all the same. The very core of the place could never be changed, and that was why the two of them kept coming back.

She watched as Steve, dressed in beige pants, a white T-shirt, and a blue and white plaid collared shirt, drummed his fingers along the round tabletop. He looked around at all the new adjustments that had been made, probably wracking his brain for something to say.

Nervously, she set down her coffee and began twisting the ring around her finger – around and around. Things hadn't been this awkward in a little while. Ever since their captivity, Steve and Tania had rarely left the other's side except for… well… exceptions.

Now that they were here, a place they hadn't visited in what felt like forever, they had nothing left to say. There was nothing new to discuss. They'd been together for as long as physically possible. They knew all that would have happened in the other's life. Recently, it had started to become a problem.

They were starting to get on each other's nerves a lot faster and conversations were becoming rather awkward. This was the worst by far.
Suddenly (mercifully), Steve broke the silence. "Where did you get your ring?" he asked, pointing with his index finger toward the jewellery she kept playing with.

She froze. Surprisingly enough, this was one topic that had not come up. She "nonchalantly" brought the coffee mug to her lips and took another tentative sip. She swallowed and cradled her drink with both hands, once again looking to the bottom. "It-it was my dad's," she confessed. "When he and my mom left, they took most of their belongings with them. This was his wedding ring. I doubt he still wanted it after splitting up with Felicity, so he left it behind. I was six at the time. I took it for my own with a small hope that he'd come back for it."

"But he never did," he filled in.

She nodded sadly. "I got older, and when I reached teenage years, I realized that he was never coming back. But I kept it. At first, I decided to hide it in a jewellery box in my room at Aunt Gemma's house. But then I had to pack for University and choose what to take with me and what to leave behind. I came across it and… well, I decided to take it with me. After all, it was just a ring.

"For a long time, I never wore it. But then one night, I thought, 'why not?' and slipped it on. It became like an extension of my hand. It just… fit there. After my second boyfriend, Darren, and I broke up, I started wearing it on my ring finger to deter guys from asking me out. It worked for the most part.

"Then I met you and switched fingers but I… I hardly ever take it off. It's a part of me. I don't know why I wear it really, it's just… it's the only thing I have left of my parents. Despite everything, they're still my mom and dad. We had a few good times, not many but a few. I think this ring reminds me of those times."

Steve nodded, listening intently. "Interesting." He brought his cup of coffee to his lips, thinking deeply.

Tania relaxed a little. Just because they didn't know what to say, didn't mean that they had to say anything at all. They could have silence and not have it be awkward. So that's what they did: sat in content silence.

April 20th – Bucky's birthday: Steve visits his grave again, Tania in tow. The two of them spend the day sketching nineteen forties people Steve met.

April 26th – Clintasha mission in Barcelona that is rated Level 8 Clearance.

A/N. Stay tuned for the month of Mayyyyy! ;D