Rumor has it
A/N: Drama….like you have no idea. NO IDEA!
Ahem. Natasha is bat shit insane under all those cold calm masks. See if you agree with me.
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Chapter 11
Steve felt his muscles tense as he focused solely on channeling all his pent up anger into the punching bag in front of him. He felt the rhythmic flow of landing a solid blow every few seconds vibrate through his entire body. Strike. Pull back. Switch arms. Strike. Pull back. Switch arms. It was an addicting pattern that was easy to get lost in when he didn't want to think about his crazy life anymore and just wanted to punch his demons into the ground. He didn't know why he kept the habit up even after 6 months – if a punch bag would make his inner demons go away it would have happened months ago.
"How many bags did you did you destroy this week?" a familiar voice asked from behind him.
"Just three," he grunted as he continued his silent routine. He felt her walk along the wall before she came to a stop directly behind his current punch bag of the hour. Natasha Romanoff was interrupting his day – again.
"That's better than last week – I think you came close to almost 9 that time," she said quietly watching him beat his demons with his powerful blows.
"Rough mission," he muttered noncommittally. They didn't usually talk about the missions they went on separately – some things are better left unsaid. Steve was a soldier – there was no possible way he didn't see the atrocities that still occurred in their world 70 years later. The fact that his belief in humanity still remained intact after everything he has been through meant he had a bigger heart then she thought – or he was simply an idiot. She watched him finally grab the swinging bag as his punches finally came to a stop. He was drenched in his own sweat and when he finally tore his eyes away from his workout and locked with her own she knew he was going to say something she might kill him for.
"You look like you just had a run in with the devil Nat," he said carefully. Natasha gave him the don't mess with me boy glare.
"I'm fine," she said crossing her arms and waiting for him to step away from his punching bag of death so that she could tell him about their mission and get out of here. Steve gave her a once over look and stared at her dead in the eye.
"No you're not – you look like you want to hit something and haven't slept in days," he said simply. Natasha's eye twitch – what was wrong with all the men in her life today?
"Everyone looks like that around here Steve," she said warningly. She didn't need another man worrying himself into the ground about her – one American worrywart was more than enough.
"You got a special way of looking messed up Nat," Steve said dryly.
"You're such a charming boyfriend Steve," Natasha shot back sarcastically. Steve rolled his eyes and picked up his water bottle off the ground and took a generous sip from it. He took an extra-long time to swallow just to see the very particular twitch of annoyance on her face that meant she was seriously considering maiming him.
"If I was your boyfriend you wouldn't force me to fake date you, fake sleep with you or fake be with you to piss off an archer which frankly you are failing spectacularly at," Steve said after a long minute of her silently watching him practically make out with his water bottle.
"You agreed to be my boyfriend – I'm not the only one responsible for this disaster relationship," she said stiffly. Steve scoffed. Did she not hear the word fake?
"I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship," he muttered under his breath. Natasha snorted.
"You've never been in a relationship," she said giving him a pointed look. Steve scowled at her.
"You know I had a real nice girl before my world saving plane crash threw me into a 70 years coma. Then I wake up to the 21st century and 6 months later I'm on a new team, in a fake relationship with the only woman who is practically already taken by my teammate and I still haven't found an actual nice girl that is not in love with someone else!" Steve said irritably whipping his water bottle across the room and watched it burst open and drench the entire wall in water.
"Who the hell said I was a nice girl? I kill men as a job!" she growled. Steve suddenly paused as he replayed her harsh response in his head.
"No - that's called fighting back Natasha. It's called doing the world a necessary service," Steve said steadily. Natasha snorted.
"You can beautify soldierhood all you want Steve - but at the end of the day we're all doing dirty business. You're the only person on this base who even comes close to having a clean past. No one works for SHIELD unless they screwed up big time somewhere in their life," she said firmly. Every single agent she has ever met had something nasty to hide.
"You don't think I'm a screw up too Natasha? You don't think that I've made mistakes too?" Steve asked heatedly.
"Never as many as I have Rogers," she said darkly. Steve paused as he took one good look at her rigid form.
"You talked to him just now didn't you?" Steve asked slowly. Natasha tensed – how the hell did he know that? Steve saw the question flash across her eyes and answered before she even asked.
"I can tell because you always get really cold after a confrontation with Barton," he said carefully. Natasha narrowed her eyes.
"We don't have time to play the pick Natasha's brain game Steve. I'm sick of you always trying to be my damn therapist," she growled. Steve glared at her.
"What am I supposed to be when you're acting like a crazy person Nat? I'm sick of your denial and stubbornness - just to fess up and deal with him!" Steve said running his hand through his hair in frustration.
"It's not that easy right now Steve!" Natasha said angrily clenching her fists at her sides. Steve's expression suddenly looked way too determined for her liking.
"Yes it is. I've had enough of your crazy plans Nat. We're telling him now," Steve said making up his mind and turning towards the door. Natasha tensed.
"No we're not," she growled as she instantly blocked his path with her body. Steve narrowed his eyes.
"Get out of my way Natasha," he said stiffly. He was done with all these lies. Natasha firmly shook her head.
"You're not leaving this room until you promise you aren't saying a word to my partner," she said warningly. Steve stared at her serious face in disbelief.
"Natasha I'm tired of being dragged around and having to pretend to be someone I'm not. I'm not a spy Nat – my acting is crap and we both know it. The only reason anyone believes us is because they still can't get passed the how is this even possible part," Steve exclaimed gesturing haphazardly between the two of them. Natasha glared at him fiercely.
"I will shoot you if you take one step towards this door," she said threateningly. She had no gun in her hand but they both knew she had one on her person that she could fire in less than a millisecond. Steve stared at her dead in the eye.
"I can run faster than your bullets," he said confidently. Super soldier serum had its perks. She narrowed her eyes.
"I'd like to see you try Rogers," she said challengingly. Steve took a deep breath through his nose and his eyes flashed to the open doorway behind her.
"I'm going to tell him and you're not going to stop me!" Steve said firmly before he instantly dived to the right and tried to quickly maneuver around the dangerous spy so that he could get out of this training room. Natasha was not going to let that happen.
"You will do no such thing you big oversized mutt!" she shouted as she expertly tripped the super soldier and slammed her hand again the keypad beside the door to punch in the deactivation code before he could get back up.
"What is it with you and calling me a dog?" Steve shouted as he shot to his feet behind her ready to break down the metal door – just because she locked them in here doesn't mean he still can't get out.
"Stop acting like a stupid dog then!" she shouted back.
"Dogs are not stupid - they are highly intelligent beings that have aided-" Steve started to protest but Natasha was just staring at his little rant in disbelief.
"Shut up Rogers you are completely missing the damn point!" she growled as she suddenly shoved him back away from the door, elbowed his in the gut to throw him off balance and yanked him by his hair before she slammed him into the ground. They both knew the only reason she could do that was because he refused to physically fight her back.
"That is a dirty move Romanoff!" Steve shouted as he winced from the hard impact with the ground. Natasha ignored his protests and instantly pinned him to the ground with her knees digging into his chest and a gun pointed at his forehead – if he wanted to disable her he would have to hurt her. She knew he wouldn't risk it.
"You. Are. Not. Going. To. Say. Anything," Natasha said threateningly as she towered over the well-built superhero.
"Why won't you let me break up with you damn it?" Steve exclaimed in anger as she held him at gun point. Natasha eyes darkened.
"Because in 1 hour we're all being shipped to Turkey for an important Avengers mission and I can't work with him if all of this crap explodes right now," she said stiffly. Steve finally stopped seething in anger as he started to understand what exactly her problem was with telling Clint anything right now. He sighed and dropped his head back against the cold gym floor.
"Natasha - he's not going to freak out as much as you think he is," Steve said tiredly. He felt the gun pressed harder against his forehead but he had a feeling the safety was on – he was sure it had been on the whole time.
"You don't know him Steve. He's not like other men - the man actually picked out my dress for our fail date and then preceded to stalk us, not because he wanted to sabotage it - but because he's my friend and he doesn't want me to get hurt or some other sentimental crap reason he would give if I forced it out of him," Natasha said gruffly. Steve really wished it wasn't part of his personal code of conduct to never hit a woman because damn did he want to slap some sense into this Russian.
"So you screwed up! It's called admitting to your mistakes and fixing them Nat! Whatever you wanted from him is not going to happen because you made him jealous! He's not even running after you or trying to kill me anymore! If anything he's getting used to us! What the hell does that say?" Steve said in disbelief. Natasha suddenly dropped her gun from his face and looked away.
"I forgot," she muttered as she let her gun slip out of her hand and clatter to the floor beside Steve's head. She was tired of pointing her gun at her teammates multiple times today.
"Forgot what?" Steve asked carefully.
"It's a part of his job. It's the only reason our partnership works - he's not allowed to get jealous, he trained not to be jealous - otherwise we couldn't do our jobs," Natasha said in defeat. She made a tactical mistake in her already terrible plan.
"So…how did we end up here exactly?" he asked warily gesturing towards her current position of basically sitting on him, but she knew he was talking about essentially everything. Natasha shot him a burning look and huffed as she finally pushed herself off of him and stood up.
"I was helping your reputation idiot!" she growled down at the most annoying captain in her life. Steve took a sharp breath as he stood up as well.
"Yes and you did help. Agents don't rib me for being as old fashion as they think I am – but we don't need to keep up the charade anymore Nat! You don't have to tell everyone our relationship was a lie - just tell the damn man you're in love with the truth and let me go!" Steve said insistently. He was never a good liar. He didn't want to be a liar. Lying was not something he endorsed and none of this sat well with his conscience. Natasha froze as his words rang in her ears.
"Love is for chil-" she started to say her normal reactionary response but Steve was finally fed up and threw his hand up in the air in frustration.
"Oh for the love of god don't start that tangent Natasha! There is no possible way someone would do all of this without being bat shit crazy in love with the person they're trying to get the attention of!" Steve exclaimed in disbelief. She was so damn stubborn. Natasha glared at him.
"He doesn't control me. I can want whoever I want," she said darkly. They both chose not to mention how that sounded just a little bit more arrogant that she usually was. Natasha wasn't even close to being the most egotistical member on their team - but she definitely had an ego under all that ice and indifference. Steve sighed and closed his eyes as he ran a hand through his short hair.
"You don't choose who you fall in love with Nat," Steve said softly. He knew what he was talking about too. If he could turn off his feelings for Peggy he would have done so a long time ago - it hurts to know you can never be with the one you want – why doesn't she see she already had Barton since the day they started their partnership?
"Bullshit," he heard the low growl break into his thoughts. He sighed in defeat.
Here we go again. Steve opened his eyes and leveled his girlfriend with a pointed stare.
"Did you really choose to want him - or did it just happen because of the naturally progression of your relationship? Because that is how most feelings work Natasha. There is no such thing as love at first sight – but there is definitely such thing as falling in love before you realize it," Steve said firmly. Natasha clenched her jaw.
"I really hate when you go all poetic on me Steve," she said with annoyance clear in her sharp voice.
"It's not poetry – it's the truth," Steve said carefully.
"I run my life Steve – no one else," she said harshly. Steve sighed.
"Feelings don't worth like that Natasha. You can't always control how you feel," Steve said slowly. Natasha's eyes suddenly darkened. Oh yes she could.
"You're my boyfriend right? So doesn't that mean I can kiss you if I wanted to?" Natasha asked suddenly with an odd look in her eye. Steve had a bad feeling about all this when she suddenly took a step into his personal space – Natasha was always invading his personal space – but this was different.
"Wrong - it's pretend Nat," Steve said carefully taking a step back.
"Everything in life is pretend," Natasha whispered flashing him a flirty smile that sent an unpleasant shiver up his spine. He didn't think it was real for a second.
"I don't think you should use me as a replacement for what you want with your partner," Steve said taking another step back until he felt his back hit the cold wall – crap he was screwed the moment the Black Widow made him her target. Steve made sure to keep his eyes locked with her darkened green ones even as she trapped him between the wall and her too close warm feminine body.
"Why not? It sure would be a hell of a lot less complicated," she said casually running her long expert fingers down the center of his chest and leaving a sensitive trail of Goosebumps in her wake. Steve tensed and forced himself not to react to her delicate touches. He wouldn't react to something that was clearly not real.
"We wouldn't work Nat – not only because you're always going to want him instead, but because you're not actually attracted to me," Steve said firmly. He had a feeling she could fake anything though – he knows that to be the best at what she does she had to be able to fake any type of feeling with anyone. He froze as she suddenly stopped trailing her hands down his body and instantly snaked her arms around his neck, crushed their bodies together and breathed warm air against his ear. Holy shit he was not trained in the military for this kind of attack.
"That's not true. I think you're innocence makes you look delectable. I think your hot body mixed with your shy little boy personality would make any woman want to just eat you up," she whispered as her words brushed dangerously close to his lips.
"Natasha…" Steve said warningly. She ignored him as she continued to tease him.
"Do you want me Steve? Do you really want to know what it's like to be with a woman who knows what she's doing and can make you scream in ecstasy? Don't you want lose that pesky virginity to someone who will make you cum harder then you ever had even in your dirtiest wildest dreams? Doesn't America's favourite soldier want a taste of everything he has been missing?" she whispered seductively in his ear as her lips brushed his outer ear lobe and her hands buried into his hair as she draw him closer. Steve inhaled a sharp breath of perfume, gunpowder and something distinctly Natasha. This was dangerous. She was dangerous. He promised himself a long time ago that he would never fall for a girl that clearly belonged to someone else.
He was so screwed it wasn't even funny.
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A/N: THE EPIC CLIFF HANGER OF DRAMA! LOL
Round 11
Natasha has clearly lost it – Natasha 0 : Evil 1
Steve is so screwed with a Natasha in black widow mode – Steve 0 : evil 1
Total: Evil…maybe I should just give you the rumor has it trophy before this story ends…
1st - Evil – 16
2nd - Natasha - 8
3rd - Steve – 7
A/N: Review and let me know what you think is going to happen! :D I wrote the next chapter already so if you review maybe I'll post it soon ;) (I am not above bribery!)
Wonder who should just walk right in? ;)