Disclaimer: The Avengers, its characters and The Marvel Cinematic Universe belong to Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company, among many others. I'm only a fan, writing this for love of this film franchise and personal pleasure.

A.N.: This is set during Avengers: Age of Ultron, in the party scene at the Avengers Tower, after Steve talks to Bruce and before they're all lounging around and start messing with Mjolnir. I'm expounding on another Tumblr theory about the "language" gag and I had so much fun writing this, after how heavy the last chapter was.


To Build a Home

7. Flirting

After seeing Sam to the door and getting back down to the main floor of Tony's official party lounge at the Avengers Tower, Steve saw Natasha behind the bar once more and it was like deja vú, only this time he was the one making his way towards her and Bruce was nowhere in sight. She'd also ditched her now empty cocktail glass and seemed to be nursing a beer bottle, and she looked up through her lashes and smiled at him as he got closer.

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns, in all the world, he walks into mine," she said, and the smile morphed into one of her famous smirks.

"Really, Romanoff?" He raised an eyebrow and smiled at her as his arms came to rest on the counter in front of her. "You're quoting me Casablanca?"

"What? It's a very famous quote." She blinked her green eyes innocently up at him. "Besides, I would have thought you would know I have a vast and varied knowledge when it comes to movies." She quirked an eyebrow up at him, referencing her quip when they'd found Zola's AI the year before.

"I am very aware of that," he chuckled a little and smiled back at her. After all, she was the one who watched Star Wars with him and she'd also given him several other movie tips over the years.

It felt nice that he was able to simply joke like this with her once more. He'd missed her terribly for the months following that mess with SHIELD and the Insight helicarriers as he and Sam trudged across Europe in search of leads on Bucky. Then Tony had called and said he was putting the team back together, creating his own version of The Avengers Initiative to handle the HYDRA cells that were still active and they'd learned Loki's scepter wasn't among the SHIELD property they'd recovered, so that had become his number one priority as he, Tony, Bruce and Thor worked together.

It was just his luck that as soon as he got back to the US, Natasha had gone off to Europe on her own. She hadn't told anyone what she was doing there, but he had a feeling it had something to do with the fallout of her secret files becoming public knowledge on the internet. He'd offered her help, but she assured him it was nothing she couldn't handle on her own, and after a few months she also joined them, bringing Barton along with her so that the whole team was finally back together.

He'd wanted to talk to her about what Sam had told him about the two of them, but they'd been so busy making sure they took care of all the HYDRA cells and everything, then on one of the missions the Hulk had needed to jump into the fray and help them out and Natasha had seemed to be the only one that managed to calm him down back to Banner afterwards, so Steve put them working together on the "lullaby". As the months went by, Steve saw the two of them growing closer and how Natasha had seemed so at ease with the doctor, which was so different from how on edge she'd been when they'd worked together. He figured that whatever might've happened between them was in the past and he'd missed his chance. Again.

As for Natasha, she thought it felt weird to be called Romanoff once more instead of Nat, but the distance she'd put between them on the months following the fall of SHIELD had done its trick. Her heart felt more settled as she worked with Steve once more and she no longer felt in a panic at the thought of him getting hurt on a mission, which was exactly as it should be. Of course, she'd been doing whatever she could to avoid him outside of working hours for that and she missed him as a consequence, so this party was the first time she'd been able to talk to him about anything other than work for a long while now and she decided to indulge herself a little.

"So what do you have there?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him as she looked down at the glass in his hand. "Thor's special Asgardian mead?"

"Yeah, it really packs a punch," Steve said easily, glancing down and swirling the contents of his glass for a moment. "Even I can feel the effects. It's been a long time since I've felt more than slightly tipsy."

"I know," she smiled, one of her eyebrows quirking up again. "I also have a higher tolerance for alcohol, which works quite well for me. I can actually drink on the job yet keep sharp so no one suspects anything. But on social occasions, not so much fun." She smiled at him, thinking how nice it was to be able to talk about this with him since she'd told him about her own Soviet super soldier serum.

"Here, have some of mine," he said, reaching out for a second glass and sharing the contents of his own with her. "Thor topped off my cup with what those veterans couldn't take anymore."

"Thanks." She smiled appreciatively at him as she took a sip from the glass he handed her, then she narrowed her eyes almost imperceptibly at him. "So what were you talking with Bruce back there?"

Steve felt his face growing warm as he gave her an embarrassed smile at being caught red-handed. "Uh, you saw that?"

"You weren't exactly subtle about it." Natasha quirked an eyebrow up at him. "You're right when you say you're a soldier, not a spy."

He held back a sigh as he looked down at his glass once more and said, "I was just saying how I think it's nice, whatever is going on between the two of you."

"You do?" She asked then, surprised at his words and that he'd actually answered what she'd asked. But then this was Steve and as he'd once said, he's always honest.

"Of course." He lifted his eyes back to hers, in turn surprised at the surprised tone in her voice. "You deserve to be happy, Nat." He added with warmth in his voice.

"Thanks." Natasha said, looking back into his blue eyes, her lips twitching for a moment before she looked down at her own glass, took another sip and decided to change the subject. "So can I ask you something? That 'language' slip up─"

"Oh not that again!" Steve groaned a little at that. "I'm never gonna live that down, am I?"

"Not anytime soon, I suspect." She smirked back at him, then raised an eyebrow at him. "But I was curious, did it have something to do with me?"

"What do you mean?" He countered, his eyes narrowing a little in curiosity at her question.

"C'mon, Rogers. I know you." Even if she didn't openly roll her eyes at him, her tone of voice had the same effect. "You were in the freaking Army and you ran around with a bunch of guys called the Howling Commandos. I bet you know more curse words than all of us combined and you're no stranger to the occasional expletive in the battlefield."

"Yeah?" He raised an eyebrow at her, bringing his glass up to take a sip.

"Yes." She nodded firmly back at him, and carried on with her theory. "But back in the day, it would've been a big no-no to curse in front of a lady, am I right? So given that technically I am a lady and I am in the team, your old-fashioned brain immediately went to the inappropriateness of someone cursing within my hearing range and that's why you automatically called out on Tony."

"How did you figure that out?" He blinked his eyes and openly stared at her in admiration. No one had even come close to understanding the weird way his brain had worked when he'd called 'language' out on Tony. Most of them seemed to think it was part of him as this righteous, polite and correct person that he was, the figure of The Captain, as if he himself never cursed, which was a laughable thought. Bucky would've had a field with this if he'd been here, he thought with a pang in his heart.

"I told you, I know you." Natasha smiled triumphantly back at him at having her theory confirmed. "Though I must say that by now I would've thought you had started to see me as part of the team, you know." She added, looking down for a moment before looking back up at him through her lashes. "Like I'm just one of the guys."

"You're very much part of the team, but it would be really hard to think you're one of the guys," Steve said in a low voice, his eyes shining brightly with warmth at her.

"Really?" She said, feeling frozen in the spot for a moment as she looked back into his eyes.

"Really. You're an amazing woman, Nat." He said, staring back at her and the two of them were caught in some sort of momentary spell, until Steve seemed to catch himself, cleared his throat and forced his eyes away from hers as he gave her a small smile. "I hope Banner knows he is one lucky guy."

"Thanks, Steve." She gave a small smile back at him, taking a sip from her drink before she continued. "You know, you deserve to be happy, too."

"I know, you never seem to stop trying to set me up on dates with other women," he said easily, rolling his eyes a little at her as he also took a sip of his drink.

"Just trying to do my part to help you get settled in the 21st century." She countered with a casual shrug. "We need you with us, Cap."

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." He assured her, as he reached over the counter and grabbed a beer bottle out of the cooler then he gestured with his head up towards the lounge and they grabbed their drinks and started moving away from the bar to where the rest of their friends were gathered.

"Good to know." She smiled and fell in step next to him. "By the way, I hear Maria is single."

Steve almost tripped and choked on his drink at the same time, but managed to keep his balance as he glanced down at her with a frown. "Please, don't. I'd get nightmares just thinking about it."

"What's wrong with Hill?" She asked him, her voice going up an octave in surprise at his protest. "She's fierce, loyal and funny, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous!"

"Of course, she is." Steve was quick to concede to her points, then he was shaking his head at her. "But I would keep thinking she'd try to kill me in my sleep."

"She would never." Natasha laughed back at him at the notion that Maria Hill would ever attempt to kill Captain America.

"It doesn't matter, that woman terrifies me." He told her, still shaking his head at her.

"Interesting." She raised an eyebrow at him. "I might use this information to my advantage later on, by the way."

"I should've known." He rolled his eyes at her once more, but there was also a smile on his lips.

"What about Helen Cho?" Natasha asked as they started mounting up the steps.

"I think she's interested in Thor." Steve raised an eyebrow back at her.

"Who only seems to have eyes for Jane Foster." She commented, then furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "Oh, how about that girl who's her assistant? What's her name? Darcy something?"

"Will you stop trying to get me to date all these women we work with?" He protested with laughter in his voice, once more lightly shaking his head at her.

"Alright, alright! I'll think of something else." She conceded with a bright smile back at him. "Maybe Pepper has a friend outside of our work circle. Actually, whatever happened with Sharon? She's not working with us anymore." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh my God, you're relentless." He kept shaking his head at her, but a smile still tugged at the corners of his mouth despite his protests.

"You have no idea." She wiggled her eyebrows provocatively up at him as they stopped for a moment when they reached the landing on top of the stairs.

"Seriously, you're being impossible right now." Steve said, still unable to stop the smile that was on his lips as his eyes sparkled in amusement down at her.

"I could get worse." She said, tilting her head a little, raising an eyebrow in challenge up at him. "We could take advantage we're done taking down HYDRA bases and maybe get you your own reality TV show to find you a girlfriend. I can see it now: The Bachelor: Captain America edition. I think it'd be a huge hit." She grinned up at him, rather proud of her brilliant idea.

"You're being ridiculous, you know that, right?" He laughed a little at her then.

"I'll stop the day you bring someone other than Sam to these parties." She quirked her eyebrows up at him once more still with that bright smile.

Steve could only smile and shake his head at her and he noticed out of the corner of his eye how Bruce was looking with interest at the two them, then he nudged Natasha with his elbow towards him and went around the table to sit down next to Thor as they joined the others as the party seemed to have dwindled down to only the Avengers and their closest friends.

It would be years before Natasha would think back to this conversation and realize Steve had actually said 'other women' and not just 'women' on the subject of setting him up on dates.