I'd like to call this closure for the RomaRogers ending a lot of us wanted.

Chapter Two: The Goodbye

Natasha turns around and looks at him strangely as he approaches her. Once they're face-to-face, Steve sees her confusion and that's when he knows he already screwed this up. He called her Natasha when they weren't even teammates met. Technically, in this timeline, they just met but he has eleven years of memories with her that she hasn't lived yet. This Natasha barely knew him for eleven minutes.

The Battle of New York. The Avengers. HYDRA's infiltration. Ultron and Sokovia. The Accords. Fugitives. The Stones. The Decimation. The Time Heist.

His long-time partner post-thaw was gone in a minute. One of the people he was comfortable with in the new era and survived the snap was gone in a minute. Another one of his closest friends is gone.

"Do you have a minute?" Steve asks. He clears his throat to prevent his voice from shaking.

He knows he shouldn't keep her but can she please come back? She said a minute…

"Yeah," Natasha replies. Her face doesn't show whether she noticed the lack of title when he called, but he knows that she's aware.

Steve remembers how excited Natasha was when they came up with a way to get everyone back. She went from being sad about their deaths and separation to overjoyed with the idea of a reunion, even with no indication of its success rate. Imagine how happy and relieved she would've been when Doctor Strange opened all those portals and heroes poured out.

She would've been right beside him because she was always by his side. She stuck with him, sacrificing her clean ledger and then her life. He didn't even get a goodbye. He should've been there.

"Still defrosting?" Natasha asks since Steve hasn't said anything.

Steve shakes his head as a small laugh escapes his mouth.

Like with her, Natasha grew comfortable around him. She started cracking jokes even if she didn't look like the type. She was his second-in-command to their Avengers-turned-fugitives.

"I think so," Steve responds. "I'm just trying to keep it together."

Natasha nods. "This must be overwhelming for you."

"You have no idea."

If only they could comfort each other as they always did in their darkest hours. If only she knew…

Steve knew that he would somehow get back to her. He wanted to do more, say more at this minute he asked from her time. This moment in 2012 is the edge of an alien invasion and here he is taking her away from something important.

"Captain Rogers?" Natasha calls softly, tilting her head a little as she looks up at him. She starts to look concerned. "Are you okay?"

He's not and Natasha knows that even if she's unsure why. She's a master spy: she doesn't have to be close to him to sense that something's wrong. He doesn't tell her that because he can't find the words and worse, he can't maintain a conversation that would make everything sound alright. He can't let eleven years of memories cloud his way through this conversation.

She came back to him at the very last minute, not in a minute.

He knows she's waiting for him to say something. Steve wants to warn her in some way but he can't muster up any power to say it.

But there's something he can tell her.

"We win, Nat-asha Romanoff," he whispers. He should've just left it at Nat because saying her full name rushed like that makes it even weirder. He didn't know it would hurt so much to say her name to her face. Because he didn't think he would ever say it like that again.

Steve looks at Natasha and a small and hopeful smile appears across her lips. It's the youth and naivety of the truth behind his words that send bittersweet nerves through his body. This Natasha thinks he's talking about Loki, but he means everything. Everything from today to their last.

He had to at least tell her that because it's true. They would've never won anything without her, especially against Thanos. Steve shouldn't let this goodbye scare him from letting her live the best story of her life.

"We haven't even started," Natasha says. The remains of the grin show that she appreciates the optimism. "But I'd love to believe that so thank you."

"No," Steve insists, "thank you."

Before Natasha could question him, she receives a message in her earpiece. She lowers her head to listen to it. While preoccupied, Steve takes a deep breath and wipes his eyes although he didn't shed any tears. It felt right.

"We have new intel on the Tesseract's location," Natasha says to him. "I'm going to circle around and see if there are any developments on Barton before checking in on that."

Steve nods. "Right."

"I'll see you in a minute."

Steve bites on his tongue and holds himself together. He nods and Natasha walks past him. Exhaling, Steve turns around and watches her go. The further she gets, the more the strings on his heart tug, trying to not burst at the seams like a rope on her arm.

If this interaction makes a new timeline, he wants to assure her that he will find her regardless of the circumstances.

When Natasha reaches the corner, she stops before taking the turn. She looks back and sees the single tear running down his cheek. She isn't sure how she sees it from how far she is, but that doesn't matter because it's there.

Steve keeps his gaze on her, tear not wiped.

"You're welcome," Natasha says before walking off, having missed his growing grin. He did thank her.

My poor RomaRogers heart.

Thank you to anyone who read this. Please let me know what you thought in the reviews. If you have any story ideas for me to write or have a story you want me to beta, don't be afraid to ask!

~ MysteryGal5