One year after Winter Soldier…

"You owe me one, "Clint's voice crackles over the earpiece. Natasha continues through the barren woods, soundlessly stepping over the pine needles.

"I owe you nothing. You're the one that asked me to help," she said, soft and low but still getting her annoyance across. A stick cracks and she pauses, her finger tightening on the trigger. Her eyes dart around, her muscles tensed and ready to lap into action.

Another crack, on her left, and she instinctively swivels around with her gun at the ready.

The biggest dog she has ever seen is behind her. It was huge with slobbering jaws, a matted long furred brown coat, and big brown eyes blinking up owlishly at her. A guard dog? She prepared to shoot it, aiming right in between its eyes. The beast wagged its stumpy tail, licking its sharp teeth. The thing was probably thinking about what she would taste like. Well, she was not in the mood to be eaten.

Just as she was about to kill it, another sound reached her ears. An explosion, not a crack this time. The dog whined and raced away. Natasha ran, too, but towards the sound instead.

Clint's voice reaches her again," You left me in Siberia. I almost froze my nuts off."

"And this mission is me making it up to you."

"No, this mission is to kick HYDRA ass."

"It can be for both," she said as she leapt into the frenzy as HYDRA agents rushed to escape their base, which had been conveniently set on fire. Natasha scanned around her, they were all too panicked to take notice of the woman dressed from head to toe in black in their midst. She took note of their rankings, patches ironed onto their sleeves and collars. Natasha didn't exactly know how the rankings worked, so she decided it would be best to capture one of each that she sees.

She kicks the legs out from under one, activating the electrical pulses in her metal glove (courtesy of a certain billionaire). She wraps her hand around his neck, the pulses coursing through his body. As his body is still recovering, she slaps cuffs onto his arms and legs.

One agent notices her and the Black Widow narrows her eyes at the other woman, noting the similar crest from the man she just took down. Getting more than one from the same rank would be useful, but time consuming. Just as she prepares to capture the woman, the HYDRA agent starts to pull out a gun. Black Widow shoots her between the eyes before she can lift it out of the holster.

A few more, following the first HYDRA agent's example begin to draw their weapons. Most she easily eliminates. A few she deems valuable and simply shoots the guns out of their hands or dances around the bullets, winding herself around them in an embrace and pressing the electricity around their necks. They drop like flies.

"A few ran into the trees," she informs Hawkeye. "Do you have a visual?"

"Locked on target," he tells her," Poison or tranquilizer?"

"Tranquilizer," is all she says. There is no need for more communication.

Her eyes catch the glint of metal, and she turns, gun poised at the ready just as a dark shadow blends back into the woods. She lifts a brow. Still a living ghost, apparently. The same dog she saw earlier lopes into view, turning to wag its tail at her before disappearing into the brush with that same ghost. She doesn't think on that too long. If he didn't want to be found then there was nothing she could do to make him stay.

She turns to the building, watching the flames reach higher and higher into the sky. Her eyes fixate on all the exits, waiting for a certain face to appear. If she had to go in after his ass then she'd make sure he'd never hear the end of it. Two bulky shapes appear in one of the windows and fist punches through the thin glass.

Sam come out first, pulling his half-mask away from his face as he breathes in the fresh air. She goes forward and helps pull him out, reaching into her pocket to bring out a flask of water. He grasps it and gulps it down. He doesn't thank her, his voice clearly still raw from the smoke, but he does blink up gratefully at her and gives her a thumbs up. Natasha nods her head acknowledgement of his gratitude.

Steve leaps out, flopping down onto the grass next to where Sam is sitting. He pulls away his own masks and smiles up at her, "Hey, Natasha. It's been awhile."

"It's only been a year, not that long," Natasha says, scanning him from head to toes. A year could be quite long actually. He's forgone the red, white, and blue suit in favor of black cargo pants and a loose fitting black shirt. Various weapons are hidden inside his clothes, which she can only tell about through her own hidden items. Guns strapped onto his ankles, knives sheathed around his thighs and torso along with an endless supply of bullets. His shield, painted over with black that is already chipped enough to see the star design in the middle, is still loyally on his back.

Needless to say, this isn't exactly Captain America at the moment.

There are still some things that are the same. His eyes are still that same unwavering summer sky blue, warm and determined. He still has a slight Brooklyn old timey accent that she's pretty sure he could do away with but chooses not to. He still has a high moral code, but doesn't even look mournfully at the bodies littered around them.

She presses her finger to her earpiece," Report."

"All down. Think Cap could give us a hand in loading these assholes into the vans?"

"Steve and Sam you're on body duty," Natasha orders, ignoring the looks they give her. "S.H.E.I.L.D. has four van down the mountain by the road next to the river. You know the location, right?"

Steve nods, standing up and tossing one of the HYDRA agents over his shoulder. He no doubt had memorized this entire area before they ever set foot into the continent. She wished she had his almost photographic memory. Too bad for her, she found things easier to forget than to remember.

Sam hasn't moved, he's still lying on the ground, looking mournfully into the empty flask. Natasha rolls her eyes and flings another one into his lap.

He takes a long swig and turns his face upwards," Thank you, Jesus."

Natasha kicks him in the ribs and points at the first agent she took down, "Body duty. Now."

"Yes, ma'am, "he salutes, finishing the water and getting to work.

/

As they walk down the mountainside, the moon shining overhead, Steve turns to her with a strange look on his face, "You seem different."

"Well, so do you," Natasha points out, inspecting the metal joints on her glove. Sam is walking some distance behind them, struggling to carry one body while Steve carries two with an unnatural ease.

"You probably won't answer, but what have you been up to while Sam and I were…" he can't seem to find the right words to describe their actions.

"Batman-ing it around the planet?" Natasha suggests. That's what Tony called it when he wanted to take the law into his own hands. For two men with supposedly opposing view, they really were just two sides of the same coin.

Steve grins, "Thanks to Sam, I actually get that reference."

"Sam likes Batman?"

"No, we were trapped in a hotel in Russia and the only movies they had available were all of the Batman series. He spent the entire time complaining and acting like he was about to kill himself."

Natasha gave a low chuckle. Oh, the irony, "To answer your inquiry, I was doing a lot of paperwork."

"Paperwork?" His face was filled with confusion. She simply smirked and nodded mysteriously. There was no way in hell she would admit that for most of the time she bummed in her apartment eating ice cream and take-out. She also wasn't going to admit that for the last two months she's been babysitting teen heroes who need attitude adjustments and swift kicks in the ass. It was already bad enough that Tony and Clint knew.

She won't ask him what caused his vigilante stunt, because she already knows. She won't say that the one who he's looking for is just a few steps behind them at all times. Instead, Natasha informs him of all the changes within S.H.E.I.L.D. and the new Avengers Initiative, copyrighted and run by Stark now. Steve grimaces at that and she hides her smile, knowing Tony had already designated Captain America as the team's leader. Natasha gives him gossip about how Thor is planning on proposing to Jane soon and how Bruce has been seen hanging around a certain lab assistant more and more lately. He politely asks about Pepper and Tony and she tells him that she hasn't seen Pepper in a while. Not that the CEO cares for her much, still miffed about her working undercover in Stark Industries. Natasha begins dropping hints of new female workers in the Avenger's Tower and in S.H.E.I.L.D. Because he has been back for a while now and needs to get back into the swing of things.

"Well, to be honest," he cuts her off slowly as she goes off on the many assets of the voluptuous secretary stationed in the lobby, "I've already got my eye on a certain dame."

Natasha glares at him. Setting him up on dates, or at least attempting to, were the highlights of her last few months in the previous S.H.E.I.L.D. Besides, she didn't believe that the man who has only been interested in one woman in his entire life could ever successfully woo a girl without a modern day woman's assistance.

"Who is she?" shei demands casually, flexing her gloved hand.

He smiles down at her, "You know, I really missed working with you."

"Flattery will get you nowhere. Now tell about this amazing girl who Captain America likes," Natasha quips, testing the electricity in her glove. Steve swallows nervously, watching the currents run over its surface, but refuses to tell.

/

Natasha spends weeks hunting for this girl and she eventually finds out who it is when Steve shows up at her office one day (the one at school, she could really kill Clint for his big mouth) with a bouquet of white violets, red tulips, yellow daffodils, and artfully placed ferns.

He asks her a question that leads to the beginning of a new era for the Black Widow and Captain America.

They aren't quite lovers, aren't still friends, but what they do know is that they have each other's backs.

And for them, in this messed up word they've found themselves in, that's good enough.

/

Author's Note: Hi my reader! Long time since I left a note. Anyway, these pass few chapters are what happened after I watched Winter Soldier for the first time. I really liked the way they showed the relationship between Steve and Natasha.

One of the issues that occurred during the movie is that it now went against my first chapter of this story. To make it be closer to the canon storyline, I went back to show what Natasha was doing or what I personally assume her to be doing. 'Nomad', or what Captain America call himself in a certain arc in the comics, seemed like a likely choice for what Steve has been up to.

As for Natasha at Peter Parker's school…well, I watch the cartoon Spiderman online and thought it would be cool if my two favorite spider based heroes would interact more. Also, I just recently watched the first Amazing Spiderman and it was awesome….so expect me to go into that storyline as well in the future because I like the idea of Natasha being in a school setting and watching out for the young heroes. And for other reasons-insert evil laughter-.

Also, this story is no longer a plot less mishmash of one-shots. Do not fret, my readers, it will still keep the same slow pace but the chapters will flow into one another more.

(If I did my research right the plants in the bouquet symbolize taking a chance on happiness (white violets), believe me (red tulips), new beginnings (daffodils), and fascination (ferns).)