Authors Note: You know what's amazing? Like, jaw droppingly awesome? When you get back home from a pretty rough day, and find 746 views on your work! Lights up my whole day! Okay, so this one is dedicated to my fabulously funny friends Kels and Hannah, without whom I wouldn't be the mad Irish eejit that I am today! I hope you all enjoy it, prompts are always welcome! I love you all, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!


Saturday night was take-out night. End of discussion. It was a tradition in the tower, and had continued in the new base. But, as with all traditions, there was bound to be conflict. The same way it's debated which family gets to host Christmas dinner, at the base, it was a bitterly fought war as to which take-out they'd get for dinner. It didn't help matters that Thor and Pietro would end up eating all their own food, then most of the leftovers that weren't snatched quickly enough by the remaining members.

Inevitably, something had to be done. Feeding ten people, as well as Jane, the Barton's, Darcy... There were too many people to be fed off the scraps that Thor and Pietro left behind.

So, when the opportunity arose, Steve ended up taking it, without thinking of what the others might do, think, or say. And they had plenty to say on the mattEr, too.

"Pizza." Wanda suggested at their weekly take-out discussion.

"Nah, we had that last week. What about Chinese food?" Clint asked.

"Screw that, I just spent a damn week in China. I want somethin' greasy. How about burgers from Chelsea's?" Sam asked.


"I'm with Sam on that one." Tony agreed.

"I'd be interested in eating Chinese food." Vision voiced his opinion.

"Oh my god, you guys are ridiculous." Rhodes was shaking his head with notable exasperation. Steve glanced up at him, then over to Natasha, who regarded Rhodes with a withering gaze over the Thai menu. His sky blue gaze swiftly moved to the oblivious lieutenant, and he stifled a laugh. "We do this every damn week, and-"

"Steve doesn't like that word, Rhodie." Tony replied automatically. Steve shot him a faintly amused glare.

"You guys realise that the Internet went crazy with that, right? There's all these me-me's..."

"Memes." The group corrected him collectively.

"Those too! I blame Peter." Steve nodded emphatically.

"How come I always get the blame?" Peter protested.

"Because you're a young hooligan, Pete." Sam pretended to croak. That earned him a little grin from Pietro and Tony.

"We still haven't decided on what to eat. Does that sushi place deliver?" Natasha asked, dropping the menu onto the stack. It wobbled precariously, threatening to send the glossy menus cascading across the counter.

"Nah. Not to us. Not after last time." Peter reminded her. Tony and Thor had gotten drunk and ended up ordering fifty portions of every sushi item listed on both of the menus. Yes. You read that correctly. They ordered from two different sushi bars in the area, and then, when the delivery men arrived, Tony ended up bellowing out the lyrics of "The Final Countdown" while Thor tried to strum Mjolnir like a guitar.

"Fine. I'll go over and eat there." She turned around and grabbed her jacket from the coat hanger. Steve didn't take too long to make a decision.

"I'll go with you." The entire team stopped to give him a variety of looks. Natasha was already out the door, and as Steve shrugged his leather jacket on, Rhodes was the first to speak up.

"She's gonna eat you up, man." he informed the good captain.

"Use protection." Thor remarked. For a moment, he was in the limelight, to which the Asgardian simply responded, "Against him being eaten."

"That's not-" Tony stopped himself when he realised how long that discussion would take. "Jeez, Steve. The last guy she knocked down ended up crying into his pillow for days."

"Knocked down? Tony, it's just a meal between friends." Steve tried to roll his eyes, but a knowing glance from Peter made him stop.

"You're in the friend zone."

"That's right." Sam clicked his fingers in Peter's direction. "You, my good friend, have been friend zoned."

"Jeez... You guys really need to stop watching TV. It's just sushi." Steve made his way to the door, knowing that he'd have to run to keep up with her at this rate.

"Man, you don't even know what sushi is!" Sam yelled after him.


As it turns out, Captain Rogers certainly did know what sushi was. Once he'd caught up with Natasha at the door, the hostess broke into a bright smile, bowed, and spoke in rapid-fire Japanese to the chefs behind the counter. Steve felt a little flustered, but Natasha assuaged his fears with a raised eyebrow.

"You're a regular here, Cap?"

"Only place that serves sushi without making me feel like an imposter." he explained sheepishly.

"They sure seem to admire you." she remarked, leading him to a table.

"Akira is friendly. Plus, I usually end up over-tipping."

"Huh. No surprise there." she replied smoothly, opening a menu and handing it to him. Steve declined it.

"I always get the salmon rolls and wasabi."

"Wasabi. Gee, Cap, you're full of surprises today." She cast a cursory glance down the list of Japanese meals, then closed the menu just as Akira arrived to take their order. She didn't have to ask Steve; instead, she extended her hand to his menu questioningly, and he nodded with a little smile.

"Good, captain!" she beamed, pronouncing it cap-tahn rather than the usually cap-ten that he was so accustomed to hearing. "Very good! And for the lady?" Akira looked over to Natasha eagerly, her sleek ponytail forming a uniform black line that ended just above her shirt collar.

"The unagi, please." Natasha replied politely. Watching Akira leave, she returned her attention to Steve, who was pouring out two glasses of water. "Did you do any tours in Japan?"

"No. Just Germany, a few in Poland... I think I would've been sent to Japan, eventually. If I hadn't gone down in the jet."

"You should ask Stark some time. He has a bunch of partners there, Pepper used to talk to them all the time."

"You were friends with Pepper?" he asked, surprised. They were both powerful women, sure, but Pepper still seemed completely different to Natasha.

"I worked with her, Cap. When I was undercover in the enterprises." she corrected him. "She wouldn't let me talk to them unless she was there with me."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a troublesome slut."

"She said that?"

"That's how I wanted her to see me." Natasha couldn't hold back the smile. "Stark loved attention back then. It's changed now. But she still doesn't like me."

"I'm sorry." Steve felt bad for her. One time he made the mistake of calling her Virginia, and Pepper hadn't spoken to him for two days. Tony eventually built a bridge by explaining to Pepper that Steve hadn't done it intentionally, and warned Steve against making the mistake in the future.

"Why? I'm relieved, personally. I hated working for her." she sat up a little straighter as their food arrived, and then picked up her chopsticks. Steve simply used the wooden fork beneath the plate.

"It's a real shame they broke up." Steve remarked, a hint of sadness in his voice as he skewered an unsuspecting salmon roll.

"Don't worry about it. She's with Happy, and Clint and I are planning on setting him up with someone, soon."

"Huh." he laughed once, softly.

"What about you?" she asked, removing an eel roll from the plate and letting it hover near her lips.

"Sorry?" he replied, bemused.

"Well, Sharon went to London, she gave you a letter. You're on the market again. Any ladies back at base catching your eye?"

"One. But I'm not pinning my hopes on her. Too much history, I guess."

"Were you friend zoned?" she raised an eyebrow, a flash of a cheeky smile on her lips. Steve went bright red, and tried to come up with a response. Had she heard that discussion? Jeez... She could have, it wasn't beyond comprehension. Was it? But before he could stammer out anything close to a syllable, Natasha had returned her attention to her meal, swallowing the eel roll and dunking another one into the soy sauce.

"You want some wasabi?" he asked suddenly. Akira and the chefs were watching from their perch, slightly amused by their regular patrons fumbling attempts at conversation.

"Sure." Natasha agreed easily, refilling her glass with water.

"Y'know, Tony and I got sushi once. We both got the wasabi, and the last person to take a drink of water-"

"Got to dare the other person to do whatever they wanted. Yeah, I know. He tried to get me to do it once." she grinned. "Who won?"

"Tony."

"What'd he make you do?" she asked curiously.

"Well... Uh, it's pretty dumb, actually, but I had to, er..." he cleared his throat, blushing scarlet. "I had to sing my old theme song everytime I answered the phone for a week."

"Wow." Her grin grew bigger, and he couldn't help but smile back, amazed by the rarity and beauty of her natural, genuine smile.

"Yeah, I know." he chuckled slightly, raising his eyebrows as he divided the portion of wasabi in half. "You wanna give it a try?"

"Okay... And the winner gets to make the loser do whatever they want."

"Mhm."

"Great." she replied coolly. Once they had the wasabi balanced on their forks, Steve counted backwards from three. All the while, he couldn't help but wonder what he'd do if he won. Probably make her download that song on her phone or something. The song that Tony always played while she was in his lab. It was lame, but he didn't have the guts to do anything else. On zero, all his thoughts of what he'd do were replaced by the blinding, eye watering heat of the wasabi, and the view of one stunning Russian right in front of him.

Five seconds passed. Steve was struggling, and could already feel the heat rushing to his cheeks. Natasha seemed perfectly at ease, as if the small scoop of green dynamite in her mouth was simply another stick of chewing gum. Ten seconds. Steve's face was going red, and his throat felt as if there were hot needles trying to push out of his chest through his oesophagus. Natasha scarcely batted an eyelid. Twenty seconds. The second he felt a tear threaten to brim in his eye, Steve groaned inwardly and grabbed his water, slugging it back frantically.

Natasha was laughing, a real, bright, happy laugh that erupted from her mouth and filled the air like bubbles filled with a joyous melody. As she passed over her own glass, he drank it down, albeit slower than he had the first time. When he'd lowered the glass, exhaling slowly, she tilted her head to one side innocently. "I win?"

"You win." he agreed. Way to go, Steve. Smooth move. He just hoped Natasha wouldn't tell Tony about this- Any and all thoughts of returning home to Tony's raucous laughter were replaced by the sensation of her lips against his. Her eyes were closed, one hand holding his shirt collar, the other resting on the table. Steve allowed his eyes to flutter shut, and opened his mouth slightly. The coolness of his mouth battled briefly against the heat in hers, before blending to form a comfortable balance. And then the kiss ended, and he felt suddenly foolish. "I... I'm sorry, if I did something-"

"No. No, you didn't do anything wrong. Did I do something wrong?" She asked, a little confused.

"No! God, no... You've no idea how long..."

"Oh, trust me. I have a pretty good idea." she assured him.

From that day forth, a word was added to the list of food-related-sex-words that Steve had gathered over the years. In the same way that fondue once meant sex to him and Peggy, and strawberries had once meant no sex for Tony and Pepper, the word wasabi became synonymous with alone time for Steve and Natasha. And as their relationship blossomed into something real and palpable for the both of them, one thing had to be sure.

The Avengers seriously needed to stop associating food with sex.