A/N: Holy moly I could NEVER expect to have so many favs and followers out there! You truly lifted my spirits with such positive response, I hope I can keep up to the challenge so here we go. This chapter has both action and fluff so brace yourselves!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. All rights to Marvel Cinematic Universe, etc.


CHAPTER 3: Blood and wine

Every time I see you something happens to me
Like a chain reaction between you and me

My heart starts missing a beat
My heart starts missing a beat
Every time
Oh oh oh, every time

- Pet Shop Boys, "Heart"


The next day Steve woke early as always, however this time with Natasha snuggled to his side. Soldier glanced at beautiful redhead and realized she had a peaceful expression on her face and was breathing steadily. Steve knew that she had no nightmares after his late-night visit.

He smiled and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. Then he quietly got up and went to the bathroom.

He washed his face with cold water and combed his tangled blonde hair. After that he changed into jeans, white t-shirt and trainers. Then he took his leather jacket and left the apartment, closing the door silently. He took the stairs to the ground floor.

Steve nodded at the receptionist at the desk and exited the lobby of the San Domingo Hotel, finding himself in an ordinary street with little traffic and few pedestrians. Barcelona was a huge city just like NYC so he hoped he wouldn't get lost.

He put his blue cap and sunglasses on and began his hunt for breakfast supplies.


After ten minutes of looking around, he found a small bakery as well as a grocery store. He bought fresh bread, eggs, vegetables, spices and a few other special ingredients, paying with money provided by S.H.I.E.L.D.

On his way back to the hotel Steve stopped by a tourist information and equipped himself with a map of Barcelona (he still wasn't overly fond of using phone for getting around the city – especially those provided by Tony) and went back to the apartment.


When he returned to their room, Natasha was already awake, sitting in an armchair in the living room, looking outside the opened balcony door. She was dressed in sweatsuit pants and black tank top. Her fiery red hair were in a complete mess but that didn't bother Steve at all. In fact he preferred her in this outfit, relaxed and sleepy, more than in her combat suit. Relaxed Natasha meant less dead bodies.

"Oh, hello. I thought you were asleep." He said, closing the door.

"I couldn't sleep after you left." She simply said and smiled faintly. "Who would have guessed you would jump into my bed so willingly?"

Steve's face and neck coloured.

"You know, I did this because you had nightmares. I wouldn't… I wouldn't do anything inappropriate Natasha." He said in a slightly offended voice.

"Relax Rogers, I was just joking." She chuckled. "I must admit I had no bad dreams for the rest of the night."

Steve smiled. "Glad I could help, ma'am."

She glared at him, as she hated being called "ma'am". It made her irritated for some strange reason.

"Okay, you win this round Rogers." She said with feigned offense in her voice.

Steve gave her a lopsided smile and began to make breakfast. First he prepared a pan which he used to fry slices of jamon serrano. Spanish people would probably kill him for such desecration of their delicacy, but Steve was eager to try something new. Then he took a bowl and separated yolks from whites. He added diced red pepper, grated local cheese with pungent aroma as well as a combination of various spices.

Steve poured the mixture onto the hot pan and soon a mouth-watering aroma filled the air.

"You know, you should really get Stark to pay you for those breakfasts back in the tower." Natasha said, sitting at the kitchen table.

"It's no big deal. I just like cooking, especially for someone else." Steve replied preparing toasts with garlic butter and oregano. "Bon appetit."

Redhead spy sampled Steve's omelette and it was delicious. She immediately took another bite and reached for the toasted bread. Steve just smiled at her and quickly made another portion for himself and they both ate in a comfortable silence.

Having finished the breakfast Steve did the dishes and put his newly bought map of Barcelona on the kitchen table. Then they both discussed possible locations in which they could find Hydra agent Aarón Ignacio Alcala using information from the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s folder and their own ideas and assumptions, which in this case were mainly Natasha's ones as she was far more experienced in spy-craft than the super-soldier.


Few days later

"Natasha I got him." Steve said to his wrist comlink, observing a good-looking and extremely well-dressed man in his late 40s. "I'm sending you the coordinates."

"Copy that. Don't lose him." Natasha responded and immediately headed for the location he sent her.

They both met at the same time, in a little café just on the other side of the street from an entrance to a luxurious residence on the outskirts of the Barcelona. There were guards dressed in black suits with sunglasses patrolling the perimeter, high walls with metal spikes and security cameras everywhere.

Steve and Natasha, pretending like they didn't know each other, went into the café and ordered coffee (Natasha opted for Carajillo while he went for ice coffee). They sat at separate tables, yet both were facing Alcala's residence.

Steve began to draw the residence in his sketchbook, while Natasha examined the entrance to the residence with help of dark sunglasses. The guards didn't pay attention to café's clients so the redhead spy had enough time to assess vital information.

After almost two hours Steve left for their apartment, while Natasha pretended she got a phone call which enabled her to stay a little longer at the café without raising any suspicion.

Finally after twenty more minutes she ended the "conversation" and went back to the hotel.


"Well I must congratulate you Rogers." Natasha said changing into black, sporty leggings and red tight t-shirt with a white star on it. If somebody was to ask Steve about it, he would say it was almost too tight.

"On what?" Steve asked quizzically as he was concentrating on something else at the moment.

"Congrats Cap on not blowing your cover back at the café. I'm impressed." Natasha smirked being completely aware of the fact that she distracted Captain America. Somehow she felt much better with that knowledge.

"O-Oh that." Steve realized that as well an quickly refocused on their conversation. "Oh yeah, I'm picking a thing or two while working with you."

"I hope spying isn't the only thing you're gonna pick up from me." She said with a suggestive grin.

Steve blushed uncontrollably, which caused the redhead spy to break into laughter. Gosh she just adored making him comfortable.

"You know that I don't..." he began but was immediately interrupted by amused Natasha.

"Always a gentleman. Always so strict." She smiled. "Relax Steve, I'm not gonna eat you..."

"...but I would very much like to." She finished in her mind.

Steve looked at her with vague expression on his face. "Why does she always sound like she's proposing me something inappropriate and threatens me at the same time?" Steve thought to himself. "That's just wrong."

"Let's just... Finish work for today, shall we? How do you think we should get into the residence?" Steve awkwardly changed the subject, but Natasha seemed to be satisfied with making him uncomfortable for today, so she didn't mind.

They leaned over the map of city and started to hatch a plan of silent elimination of HYDRA lieutenant.


1.47 am, outskirts of Barcelona

Steve quickened his pace and began to run full-speed towards the wall of Alcala's residence. He was wearing his Captain America suit, this time however black and navy-blue without regular white star on his chest – in order to avoid excess suspicion. The shield on his back was also painted dull black so it wouldn't reflect the light of the streetlights.

Steve focused his strength and took an unbelievable leap over four metres high wall landing silently on the other side. He quickly scanned the area and immediately spotted multiple guards as well as a bunch of security cameras.

"I'm in." He whispered into the wrist comlink and Natasha responded instantly:

"Copy that. Take care of the guards outside and deactivate the cameras."

"Understood."


An agile shadow moved swiftly between the guards, taking down all of them in a matter of seconds, before they could even realize that someone has breached their defences.

With the last guard outside the residence falling to the ground, after being hit with the shield, Cap checked if the cameras noticed anything, but it seemed that his actions remained undetected so he paid a visit to the security booth. Soon the video surveillance was inactive and that was a signal for Natasha.

Steve smiled to himself. He was almost sorry for the HYDRA thugs inside the building.


Natasha stealthily slipped into the residence through the back entrance and almost instantly came across a guard, fully equipped and holding H&K UMP gun. She took him out with ease, using her favourite combat knife with short, wide blade.

Having picked up the gun she attached a multi-purpose silencer (designed by Tony Stark so it made almost no sound, unlike regular silencers), and began to eliminate all the other thugs with single, precise shots. Bodies fell to the ground one, after another. Unfortunately for them, their skills were no equal to Black Widow's lethal abilities.

She reloaded the gun and headed for the bedroom of HYDRA boss, stepping over corpses with a sinister grin on her face.


"You're waiting for someone?" sudden voice behind Steve's back made him almost jump out of his skin.

"Jesus, Natasha." he exhaled deeply, seeing the redhead spy smiling cockily at him. "Don't do that again, please."

"As you wish, Captain." she chuckled.

"Alcala's down?" Steve asked, returning to scanning area for any possible threats.

"Of course. Let's get out of here." Natasha replied and they both headed for the wall which Steve breached earlier that night – going through the main exit could still be dangerous, plus they wanted to minimize the suspicion.

He boosted her up and Natasha jumped gracefully over the tall obstacle. Cap followed her right away and they vanished into the night, leaving Hydra with yet another important agent down.


After they changed their clothes, Steve and Natasha went back to the San Domingo Hotel. Staff was a little bit surprised why they returned to the hotel at such late hour but Natasha made up a believable story, which for some reason made Steve really uncomfortable. The receptionist just gave her a jealous look and wished them goodnight.

"I must tell Fury that if I am to kill somebody every time I go on a mission he will need to find someone else to do the job." Steve said, when he closed the door to their apartment.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "I think you're missing a point here Rogers. This is Hydra for fucks sake. These are merciless, cruel people who intend to cause world-wide chaos. Not to mention the fact that you should be the first one to get revenge on those bastards."

"Still..." he opened his mouth but Natasha continued:

"No, Steve. Alcala was no different. He smuggled weapons to Argentina and I am not talking about regular guns, but some crazy shit. What's more he helped dozens of Hydra agents to get to safety so they could lay low and strike again. This man had blood on his hands." Natasha replied in an exasperated voice.

Steve looked unconvinced but then realized that his moral compass sometimes blinded his judgement. After all, thanks to Hydra, he lost 70 years of his life, including Peggy Carter, dr. Erskine and his friends. He shouldn't hesitate to finish what he started so longago.

"Maybe you're right Natasha." He said. "I guess such thinking is stronger than me."

"And it is good that way Steve." The redhead spy said in a serious tone. "This is what makes you different from those... monsters."

Steve looked at her with thankful smile. For some reason Natasha Romanoff perfectly understood what kind of storm was breaking within soldier's heart.


They slept for almost 10 hours, tired after their night escapade. Steve woke up in the armchair in Natasha's bedroom (she said they could share the bed but Steve insisted on keeping things professional) when he heard her speaking with someone on the phone.

He got up and went to the living room to investigate.

"Yes, sir. Thank you." She ended the call just as he entered the room.

"Morning Steve." Natasha said smiling. She was wearing black bathrobe and her hair were in Steve's favourite style – a fiery tangled mess.

"My God, why does she look so beautiful?" Steve thought to himself.

"Something happened?" Steve asked. "I heard you've been talking with someone on the phone."

"Quite the opposite. Fury has just called me and said that Clint will pick us up on his way back to NYC." redhead spy replied. "He will be here in 20 hours, so we've got some free time for ourselves."

"I guess Fury felt slightly less guilty offering us a one-day holiday in exchange for constant working, didn't he?" Steve asked with a grin.

"I think you could put it that way." She said smirking. "So… what would you like to do?"

Steve looked outside the balcony door. "Honestly, I'd love to do some sightseeing. Starting with Sagrada Família."

"Actually that's not a bad idea, Cap." She replied. "Let's do it."

Steve gave her a wide smile and started preparing breakfast. At the same time Natasha watched his back as he was bustling around the kitchen. He was so perfect with his human-peak muscular body, blue eyes, blonde hair, honest smile, outstanding cooking skills (she couldn't imagine what he could come up with when he would be preparing dinner) and pure heart… She could go all day about it.

"Stop it Romanoff, he's not your date…" Natasha thought to herself.

While she was lost in her train of thought Steve finished preparing the breakfast and soon they were eating oatmeal with blueberries, banana slices, nuts and cinnamon, just as delicious as redhead spy expected.

"…for now." She grinned under her nose.


Steve and Natasha spent almost whole day wandering around Barcelona and delving into the Spanish culture. Their lives were always complex, they always had to fight and that is why they enjoyed their little tour so much – they felt like two normal, ordinary people, doing something so mundane as simple walk in the city without need of fighting any evil organizations, crazy geniuses or aliens.

Just as Steve suggested, their first stop was Sagrada Família, world-wide famous modernistic church designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. Both the soldier and redhead spy were impressed by the marvellous structure.

Natasha, not being overly religious, left Steve alone for some time he could pray for Peggy and his friends. She understood that his traditional upbringing had a significant impact on his morality and way of thinking and she knew he needed to think things through.

After a dozen or so minutes Steve rejoined her, smiling, and they visited another well-known city's landmarks and that were Casa Batlló and Casa Mila – tenement houses rebuild in Art Nouveau style by Gaudí as well. In comparison to NYC's crude and simple skyscrapers these buildings were superb examples of architecture.

In the afternoon, they headed for Park Güell where they would walk the verdant alleys and talk for a long time about ordinary things, other than Hydra, their missions and usual work gossip.

None of them seemed to be bothered by the fact that they were holding hands the entire time.


After whole day of sightseeing Steve and Natasha returned to the hotel, where they decided they should celebrate their last evening in Barcelona with a fancy dinner. They both took a shower and prepared themselves to eat out.

Steve, dressed in black suit and navy-blue shirt with first few buttons undone, was looking at his watch and realized that Clint will arrive in five hours, which was definitely enough time for them to enjoy a romantic dinner.

"What am I thinking? She's just a friend, Rogers…"

Then the doors to Natasha's bedroom opened and Steve's heart skipped a few beats.

Natasha was dressed in a plain black silk dress with red flowery details here and there, perfectly accentuating the attractive curves of her body. Her straight, fiery hair was shoulder-length and toned in her outfit just as the dark-red lipstick and light make-up, which highlighted her emerald eyes. She also had black high-heels and small handbag, which surely contained a gun or some other dangerous pieces of equipment.

Even though the outfit was simple it excelled at drawing Steve's attention. He stood there not being able to turn his gaze back. "She's an angel…"

"Considering you have almost devoured me with your eyes a moment ago I'll take it as a compliment." Natasha said with an amused expression.

Steve blushed so heavily, that he almost matched the colour of her lipstick and his only response was a wide dorky smile, Natasha just loved.

"C'mon Captain or you'll be standing here forever." She grabbed his hand and walked him out of the apartment, still not being able to produce any sounds.


"Stop staring at me, Steve." Natasha said with amused expression on her face.

"Oh, sorry. I got lost... in thought." Steve shook his head with apologetic smile.

"I can tell." She said smirking at him, when the waiter approached their table.

"May I take your order, Madame?" waiter asked Natasha, who smiled back at him.

While Natasha was asking the waiter for recommendations and was picking the perfect wine for her medium-rare, Steve's thoughts raced with a speed of light and perhaps even faster.

"Why does she tempt me so much?" Steve wondered. "I must stop this before..."

Before what? Telling Natasha what he feels about her? How he had no nightmares after her brief visit during the day of the exhibition? Steve Rogers had been an honest man all his life, pure-hearted and had strong moral rules that he would always follow. He knew that to be true, that was the reason dr. Erskine chose Steve for the project "Rebirth".

If Steve was a cruel and deceitful man Erskine would have probably created second Red Skull. Or maybe someone even worse, considering the fact that the serum which was used on Steve was more powerful than the one which Schmidt was injected with. The wondrous serum allowed Steve to achieve peak human strength, agility and reflexes but also enhanced his character traits. Steve Rogers was undeniably honest... But not to himself.

He had known this for a long time now, especially when looking at such irrestible person as Natasha.

Ironic. Captain America fought in the greatest human conflict ever to happen and was less scared to fight nazis than to tell Natasha that he has grown fond of her and that she was constantly on his mind.

This not-so-secret-yet-meant-to-be-undercover mission wasn't helpful at all. He was finally with her, one on one, they shared the same bedroom, even though Natasha slept in bed and he opted for armchair.

Steve Rogers wasn't capable of being honest with himself and admitting out loud that he... Well he knew what he felt towards the redhead spy. He knew that very well.

"My god, why this has to be so complicated?" he asked himself.

"May I take your order, sir?" Waiter asked turning into Steve's direction, who quickly refocused on the reality around him and replied almost instantly.

"I'll have gazpacho and maybe... paella con marisco." Steve said smiling at surprised Natasha.

"Of course, sir." waiter took the menus and headed for the kitchen, skilfully manoeuvering between the tables of other guests.

"It's hard to admit, but I didn't expect you to have such strong taste in Spanish cuisine." Natasha said. "I thought you didn't like seafood."

"I don't. But it's a big part of local culture, so why not? Besides I am keen on exploring new things." Steve replied. "Back in the army I had a friend from Spain. He wasn't a member of the Howling Commandos but still, I valued his friendship… Once he said that I should visit his country after the war and try their cuisine... So here I am!"

"What happened to him?" Natasha asked, curiously. She thought she knew everything about Steve from his file and their five-year acquaintanceship but such little details only proved there was much more to the super-soldier than met the eye.

"He lost his life in an explosion, saving mine." Steve said with his face showing no emotions. "The blast didn't leave much. He had no proper burial."

Natasha sighed. Steve fought the worst, most inhuman conflict ever and even though the nazis lost, he himself lost even more. Friends. Family. His brother, Bucky. Even dr. Erskine and colonel. And Peggy Carter of course. Natasha felt sorry for him, again realizing how much he suffered.

"He chose your life, so you could end the war Steve. And you did it. Stopping Schmidt was an unbelievable feat, which no one but you could achieve." She said reaching for his hand. "Don't blame yourself."

Steve's hand twitched. He looked at her hand holding his and realized that he didn't want to let go. He just wanted to be here and now with the redhead spy, forever. He wanted so badly to say these few simple words, yet he was only able to nod his head.

"Thank you. You're right Natasha." He replied and smiled.

Soon their meal arrived, exceeding Steve's expectation with the simplicity and taste.

"I definitely need to adopt some Spanish recipes into my repertoire." Soldier said.

"That means that you will cook for me even more than now? You know I kinda got used to those breakfasts." Natasha said cutting her steak.

"Well it depends how often will Fury send me on a mission with you…" Steve said and reached for his glass with fine red dry wine. "Here's to you."

"And vice versa, Steve." Natasha said giving him a wide smile.


They returned to the hotel at late hour, having spent a wonderful evening talking about everything they could, unplugging from their secret world-saving heroes' lives which they were sometimes really sick of.

It was 2.24 am when they finally reached the door to their apartment and that was when Steve's predictions about the mission – which he almost forgot about – turned out to be correct.

Steve uses small silver key with number 11 on its tag, to open the door. He turns on the light and Natasha follows him into the apartment. Then he spots an odd small square-shaped package on the kitchen table. He doesn't remember any packages lying around before they left.

Then he sees something which chills the blood in his veins. Suddenly time slows down and seconds become an eternity when Steve forces confused Natasha out of the room, away from the suspicious package with strange wires here and there and one, ominously flickering red diode. The flickering accelerates and suddenly stops for a nanosecond, just as the soldier manages to get the redhead spy out of the apartment.

The world around Steve is abruptly being enshrouded with flames of the powerful explosion. The darkness takes hold of him and he has a feeling of falling down, with Natasha's screaming his name. Everything goes black and his mind shuts down.


A/N: This chapter had both action and some fluff and I intended to create a cliff-hanger, especially because next week I have lots of exams and I won't be able to write regularly. So I'd like to say sorry for this upcoming delay and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you hopefully next time. Goodbye! WS