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25 : PROTECTION*

Natasha had to go get her boyfriend out of a nightclub by herself because Tony wouldn't let Steve go. Steve couldn't thank her enough. They headed back to the tower, took a shower and went straight to bed.

The couple needed to leave for SHIELD earlier than usual. The Black Widow had a meeting with Agent Hill and the Captain has to submit the list of his team for Fury's approval.

Steve's meeting with Fury was done before Natasha's so he waited for her in his office and went through some documents. Half an hour later, the door opened and Natasha walked in.

"Hey, honey!" Natasha greeted as she approached her boyfriend and sat on his lap "Heard you had to pick your new team"

"Yeah, the list is in my hand—"

Natasha snatched it from his hand and had a quick look at it before finding her name on the second line.

"Aww, you picked me before anyone else"

"Who else would I want to have on my team rather than you?" He held her in his arms "And to be my second in command"

"Really?" She asked, wide eyes

"Yes, ma'am, I trust you more than anyone and I see your skills first hand"

"Thank you, baby" She kissed him on his cheek "You should put your list up before those agents have a heart attack."

Steve saw a group of agent gathered in the hallway, waiting to see the list.

"How about we go have lunch?" He said and reached his hand out for her.

"Thai food!" She replied and took his hand.

Steve put the list on the announcement board in front of his office before leaving the building with his girlfriend.

Fury sent Steve's team on their first mission the next day, along with Hawkeye and Mockingbird. They were to strike another AIM base in remote area of Canada.

Steve sat with Natasha as always. They were talking casually when Wade, the pilot, interrupted.

"Captain, looks like they are expecting us"

Steve got up from his seat and went to the cockpit. "Is the cloaking mechanism on?"

"Yes, sir" Wade answered

Before Steve could say anything, the defense tower opened fire at the quinjet.

"Everyone hold on!" Steve shouted "I thought you said the cloaking was on"

"They must have traced our heat signal"

"You will find a safe spot for rendezvous after we jumped" The captain gave his order and turned to his team "Guys! We will jump"

Steve headed to the hatch and jumped down without a parachute again, completely ignoring Natasha's protest.

The captain landed on the ground and distracted AIM soldiers in another direction so his team could land safely.

Natasha and the team got through the gate without any problem because it was left undefended by the soldier who pursued Captain America to another direction.

"Steve, where are you?" Natasha asked over her comm.

"Here" He replied before jumping down the building and landing in front of her.

Natasha gave him a very displeased glare and turned away without saying anything. Steve gave an order to his team before they went separate ways, each one of them had a very specific objective.

Clint was at his position, looking out for everyone on his team.

Natasha and another two agents were able to set a bomb in the base structure of the building while Steve, Sharon and Agent Blake flushed every AIM soldier out in the open, clearing the way for Natasha to get out.

"Nat, where are you?" Steve asked, worried from not seeing her out of the building yet.

"20 seconds to your position" She replied "Crap!"

And Steve heard gunfire and the sounds of punching and kicking.

"Steve, she is surrounded by AIM soldiers inside the building." Clint said "You need to get her out of there"

"No! I can handle this" Natasha yelled "Stick to the plan, Steve"

"Cap, bomb will go off in 1 minute!" Sam warned

"Carter and Blake hold them here. I will go get Widow"

Natasha cursed something in Russian. Steve ran into the building and helped her fight off the remaining enemies. He used his shield to deflect bullets and protect her.

"Cap, get out of there now!" Falcon said over the comm. "You've got 10 seconds"

Steve turned to Natasha "Let's go"

He grabbed her arms and they ran to the front door. The bomb went off. Steve used his shield and his body to protect her from the explosion force which sent them both flying for 5 meters. Steve helped her get up, eyes searching her body for any injury, luckily, there was not one.

Clint walked toward his friends

"You guys alright?"

"Yeah" Natasha replied

"Clint, take care of this for me" Steve ordered.

Hawkeye nodded and walked away. Leaving Steve and Natasha confronted with one another. The spy, looking really pissed, yelled first.

"I don't need your protection, Steve!"

"I'm not protecting you. I'm helping you"

"Are we gonna do this now?"

"Nat, if I didn't get in there, you would have been buried under the rubble"

"I said I can handle it, it's mean I can handle it, moron!"

And with that, Natasha stormed off to the quinjet. Steve glanced after her, looking really hurt. Steve stood there until someone touched his arm.

"Are you alright, Captain?" Sharon asked

"Yeah, I'm okay, Sharon"

"You should get on the quinjet. We're almost wrapped up"

Steve gave her a small smile before did what she said. He sat down beside Natasha but she got up and sat next to Clint, far away from Steve. The Captain looked hurt in every possible way he could.

They didn't talk. Steve didn't want to provoke her any further by attempting to say anything. Everyone noticed and it was very silent on the awkward flight back to the Triskellion.

Fury wanted to debrief right away even when it was almost midnight and everyone was exhausted. Steve just wanted to go home and clear everything up with Natasha. He needed to apologize to her.

Guess that it has to wait.

"You guys all go home and get some rest." Steve spoke to his team "I will take care of this"

Everyone said goodbye to the Captain and Clint told him he will take care of Natasha. Steve nodded and followed Fury into his office.

Luckily, the debrief didn't take long, but Fury noticed that the Captain was bleeding. There was a bullet wound in his right shoulder so he dropped by at the infirmary.

He came home around 2 AM and found Natasha was asleep. The thing between them didn't clear up yet so he sat on the couch, working and reading a file until he fall asleep.

One hour later, Natasha woke up and heard the television was on and found her soldier sleeping, still had a paper in his hand. She laid on top of him and snuggled closer, she startled him awake but when he saw who it was, he smiled sleepily.

"Why don't you sleep in our bed?" She asked

"I didn't know that I fell asleep"

"I'm sorry, Steve for yelling at you like that"

"It's alright, Nat" He rubbed her back and kissed her forehead "I'm sorry too that I didn't trust you to handle it all by yourself. I'm just worried. I'm afraid that anything might happened to you, Nat, and if it did happen, I don't know what I'm gonna do."

"I'm so sorry, Steve. I didn't know that's how you felt" She looked in his eyes "I just let my ego and my pride get in the way"

"It's okay, Nat." He reassured "So…we're good now?"

"Yeah" She nodded "I love you so much, Steve Rogers"

"Thought I am a moron to you"

"Drop it"

"Okay" He replied "Let's go to bed, shall we?"

AN:

- Thank you to my proofreader, GSMemorial18!

- Please kindly leave a review!