A/N: I hope the wait was worth it!

"The point… is Banner isn't your only option. You don't have to be alone if you don't want to be."

She stared at him, her eyebrow raising slightly.

"You're a great girl. I'm sure you've got guys breaking down your door for a shot with you."

"Not a many guys can handle the job." She shrugged. "It's tough to have a relationship with someone when they're always running off to save the world. Hell, it's tough to have a date."

He took a deep breath. "It looks like you might have a lot more time now."

She gave him a wry smile. "Yeah, well, when push comes to shove, not many guys can handle a woman who can kick their ass, either."

He frowned. "Really?"

"What, you could?"

"Nat, just about everyone could kick my ass before…"

"Right." She looked down. "Still, that's a pretty enlightened take—"

"For a fossil?"

"You have your own museum exhibit. I stand by that one."

"Do you want a relationship?"

She looked slightly surprised. "Practically… probably not. But I think everyone wants someone."

"Including you?"

"Including me." She laughed softly. "But I'm not the marrying kind."

"Yeah, neither am I." He admitted.

"No aspirations of a picket fence and a perfect lawn?"

"Do I look like the kind of guy who would have a lawn?"

She stared at him. "Yes."

"I'm from Brooklyn."

#

She stepped into the bathroom to change. She thought back to all of the bad dates she'd been on over the past few years. There weren't many, but they'd all sucked. There was the guy who'd wanted to know if she wore underwear under her suit. She'd helped save New York from a nuclear explosion, and that was the most pressing question he wanted to ask? He wasn't the first, and he probably wouldn't be the last. Tony's publicist had shared a list of the "best of the worst" Avengers-related tweets. They were gross. At least some of them had made Steve blush, though, and that had been worth it. The ones about her had made him angry.

Her wet dress clung to her skin, and she struggled to pull it off. Another guy had seemed really sweet, but balked when she told him that even if she could be relied upon to show up to her own wedding, kids were definitely off the table. She threw on a t-shirt and blow dried her hair before she pulled on her jeans. Then there was the guy who seemed great on paper, but in practice… she wasn't sure what exactly it was. They had as much in common as anyone could without him being an Avenger. He was former military. He'd done two tours. They'd gone on a few dates. But… there was always a but.

#

Steve looked around the room. He could hear the muted sound of the hair dryer start in the bathroom. A soft knock at the door came, and a porter handed him his suitcase. He tipped him a euro and thanked him.

Their relationship was a collection of moments and maybes, could've beens and almosts. Nat knew about Sharon, the cute nurse down the hall, because she'd been to his apartment more than a few times. They were experts at toeing a line neither of them could cross. Friends. That's what they were. And truly, they were great friends. She was as close as Bucky had ever been. Maybe even closer now.

Not seeing her every day hurt. And he was running out of excuses not to do anything about it.

He opened up his suitcase and pulled out a change of clothes. He was just buttoning up his shirt when the bathroom door opened.

"Are you decent?" She called.

"Yeah."

She stepped out of the bathroom. "Do you want to get something to eat?"

#

She took him to a little corner bistro, hardly bigger than a large closet. A woman of indeterminate age, somewhere between sixty and ninety, took their order then left them alone.

"You can't tell me you haven't met anyone, though."

"We're still talking about this?"

"Oh yeah."

"Why do you care so much?"

"Same reason why you've been trying so hard to find me a date. I want to see you happy."

Sure. That was the reason. She suppressed an eye roll. "There was one guy…"

"But?"

"I dunno. We just didn't click."

"How many dates did you go on?"

"I dunno. Five, maybe six."

"That's a lot of dates for not clicking."

She took a deep breath, and saw him start to blush as it dawned on him that she might have seen him for other reasons. "I kept trying to find a spark," she said, deciding to play it straight. "But no matter how much we had in common… I'd tell him a story about a fight or an argument with Tony, and he just didn't get it."

"You want a military guy to understand your point against the largest arms dealer in the world?"

"When you put it like that…" She laughed. "He just couldn't… relate. I don't know. As much as we had in common, we weren't on the same wavelength."

He chuckled. "I know what it was."

She looked up at him.

"You want shared life experience."

She sighed. "You've been waiting to drop that one on me, haven't you."

"I owe you for the fossil joke."