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.: Set between CA:CW and Avengers: Infinity War, when they're running operations to recover enhanced Chitauri/Ultron/SHIELD weapons being sold in the black market while on the run.
To Build a Home
16. Overprotective
"Eyes up. Our target just walked in."
"I see him. Relax, we got this."
Steve held back a sigh, his jaw tightening up. Only Natasha had that ability to tell him to relax in such a manner that actually made him tense instead. He turned around, leaning sideways against the bar as he brought his glass up, taking a sip from his drink as his sharp blue eyes surreptitiously scanned the room.
They were in a high end hotel bar in Moscow, which was already reason enough to get him tense. Their latest lead as they worked to recover enhanced weapons sold in the black market had taken them into the heart of Russia. When they first traced it, he thought of going to Maria Hill and having her give it to someone else. He knew the former SHIELD agent had a wide network of spies doing covert ops out there; they weren't the only contacts she and Nick Fury had working on these independent, unsanctioned missions. But his hesitation in taking on the mission had only gotten him into an argument with Natasha.
"It's too risky." He had argued, brow furrowed and arms crossed over his chest, when they'd first got the lead and she proposed a tactical plan.
"Oh please." Natasha had promptly rolled her eyes at him. "It'll be an easy target."
"It's in Russia." He'd raised an eyebrow pointedly at her. "Someone could recognize you, Nat."
"I'll wear a disguise. I think I know what to do, Steve." She had parried back with a smirk. "I had actually been doing this for a living long before we met, you know."
"I don't like this plan." He'd insisted, shaking his head a little.
"It's the best we got. We'll be in and out before anyone knows it." She had then raised a sardonic eyebrow at him, her tone of voice changing to a slightly mocking and challenging one. "But if you don't like it, we can always go somewhere else. How about Wakanda? Check out what T'Challa has been up to these days? We're due for a vacation, don't you think?"
"That's not fair, Nat." He'd bristled a little at her jab, knowing that had been exactly her goal and unable to stop himself.
"You said you wanted to help. That doing anything we can to help would be worth it." She'd said, crossing her arms and staring him down. "This is what we do."
At that point, Steve knew that continuing to argue with her would only get her mad at him and accusing him of treating her like a damsel in distress, which, admittedly, he sort of was. Rationally he knew she was the best in the business and that she could take care of herself in any situation. But being a leader meant he was constantly assessing the risks and worrying about the safety of his team. He'd always rather put himself on the line, but he also knew Natasha was right and in this case her plan was the best one they got, with actual minimal risks and little chance of it going wrong. However that did not mean he had to like it, especially when it involved the sort of subterfuge that was at play here.
"Loosen up your jaw a little." Her voice came through on the comms then, just a hint of teasing to it. "You're supposed to be unwinding after a long day of work, remember?"
He narrowed his eyes, looking across the room and finding her green ones for just a moment. Her hair was long and dark blonde and she had expertly disguised her most prominent features with make-up, but there was no mistaking those eyes. She wiggled her eyebrows up at him then turned back to the task at hand, a seductive smile taking over her lips. Even wearing ridiculously high stiletto heels, she weaved in easily and gracefully through the tables and people spread around the saloon, the strapless dress she wore hugging her torso, the skirt of the dress flowing loosely around her legs and painting an alluring picture for those around her. Wanda followed closely behind her, dressed similarly in a dark cocktail dress, the thin shoulder straps contrasting against the paleness of the skin of her exposed collarbone. Steve felt a surge of protectiveness for both women as he noticed several hungry, dangerous eyes following their movements, but he pushed it down and stayed put as they went to work.
Their target was a middleman responsible for coordinating the deal between a local drug lord who was about to acquire enhanced weapons through his illegal connections in the black market. The deal was scheduled for the next day and the team needed to get confirmation on the current location of the weapons or where the meeting was supposed to take place, as they hadn't managed to find that information so far as all parties involved seemed especially paranoid and were taking extra caution. But as all men, their target had his weaknesses, which was why Natasha and Wanda were here posing as high end escorts, easily charming their way into his table. Steve was standing by as back-up, if needed, while Sam was outside taking care of the perimeter and their getaway routes.
The communication channels were open and Steve could hear how the conversation flowed easily in Russian. He'd learned the language back in WWII enough to carry on a simple conversation and Natasha had been helping him brush up on it between missions, so he got the gist of what they were talking about even as his focus was on surveying the main saloon. There was some back and forth as the party enjoyed their drinks, but it wasn't long before their target, Natasha and Wanda got up and headed upstairs to one of the suites.
"You must be big, important man to have such guards?" He heard Natasha murmur in Russian as they seemed to get into the private room, her way of letting him know there was security stationed at the door. The man laughed out an unimportant reply, as Steve took that information and thought about it. Strange, as a middleman wouldn't usually be so heavily guarded.
The super soldier noted out of the corner of his eye how a second party got up from one of the adjacent tables and followed out after a minute, also taking the elevator up. "Sam, we got some movement down here," he said, pressing a finger to his comm as he walked out into the lobby, watching as the elevator doors closed.
"I hear you, already scanning them," Sam replied right away through their secured channel. "They're headed for the suite. They're packing and seem to be our man's entourage. I don't like this, Steve."
"Yeah, I'm on my way up," he said, pressing the button calling for another elevator. "Be ready for extraction in five."
"Roger that."
He was on the elevator nearly to the right floor when he heard their target get impatient and try to get down to business with the ladies, making Steve's jaw tense up once more.
"Hands off!" He heard Wanda exclaim in Russian then a sound like a body crumpling to the ground.
"Nat? Wanda?" Steve asked, pressing on his comm.
"We're fine," Natasha replied right away unconcernedly. "Our man was getting too handsy and Wanda just put him to sleep. Did you at least get the intel we needed before you knocked him out?"
"Yes, he actually has the weapons here in this room," Wanda said, sounding a little breathless.
Suddenly there was some shouting in the room and he heard Natasha curse softly. Just as the elevator doors opened into the floor, Steve heard what seemed like a fight breaking out. "Nat?" He asked, aiming a punch at the man standing guard by the elevators and knocking him down, quickly turning around and kicking the gun out of the second man before he could shoot at him, then throwing him down on the floor and punching him out.
"We got company," Natasha grunted in reply accompanied by the sounds of a scuffle.
"We're handling it," Wanda chimed in.
Steve ran out into the hallway and engaged the guards standing by the door that led into the room in combat, throwing out his punches and kicks with precision to quickly incapacitate then knock them out. As he kicked in and cleared the door off its hinges, he stepped into the living room of the suite and surveyed the scene, noting how half a dozen men lay spread out unconscious on the floor around Natasha and Wanda.
"You okay?" He asked with a concerned frown as he stepped up to them.
"We're fine," Natasha assured him, raising an eyebrow at him as she looked down at the smashed door on the floor. "A little too much, don't you think?"
"I thought you could use the back-up," Steve offered with a nonchalant shrug, relaxing a little now that he saw the immediate threat had been neutralized.
"We said we were handling it," she drawled out, crossing her arms over her chest and staring back at him.
"You can debrief me on my directive later," he countered with a raised eyebrow, half-sarcastic, half-serious as he felt she was working up to a real argument with him. "Right now let's just find those weapons and get out of here."
"They were in the next room," Wanda said, levitating with her powers a couple of cases and a wooden crate she'd already located through the door into the bedroom. "Not so much the middleman as the merchant himself, apparently. We're good to go."
"Right," Steve nodded back at her. "Sam, pick us up."
"Already on it, look outside," came the swift reply in his ear, then he added with some humor. "On your left."
He looked out and hovering right next to the balcony their Quinjet suddenly materialized before their eyes, as Sam removed the cloaking device. The three of them quickly walked out and into the jet, checking on the weapons and stashing them away as they headed for the drop-out location.
"The nearest secured POC is in Paris," Sam called out, looking over his shoulder from the pilot seat and Steve nodded in affirmation at him. Back in stealth mode, the Quinjet headed out under the cover of night west towards the City of Lights.
"Are you alright?" Steve asked gently as he put a hand on Wanda's shoulder and sat down next to her. He had noticed that despite her words she'd been a little rattled back in the hotel suite and he wanted to make sure she was okay.
"Yeah," she smiled a little back at him, then furrowed her brow in thought. "I'm sorry I blew our cover. I just couldn't take that guy pawing at us like that anymore."
Steve inhaled a breath sharply at hearing that. He really hated putting them in that situation in the first place. He knew it was a risk they'd both accepted willingly, but it couldn't be easy on Wanda especially considering her past traumas of being manhandled during her stay at the Raft. He would also never understand why some men thought they could just treat women like that.
"You did nothing wrong," he assured her in a serious tone. "You got the intel, we recovered the weapons and no one got hurt, so it was a job well done. Besides, the situation was heading south, I was on my way up to get you out anyway."
Wanda smiled back at him and seemed to hesitate for a moment before she talked again. "So I know it wasn't on the schedule, but do you think after we drop the weapons I could take a few days?" She asked him then bit her lip before adding, "I feel like I really need to see Vision."
"Yeah, of course." He smiled at her. They'd been running back to back missions for a while now, so it had been some time since she'd gotten out to see the android per the arrangement they had come up with once Vision had helped her get back in control of her powers and they'd started seeing each other. "We could all probably take a few days' rest. Talk to Vision and coordinate the drop-off with Sam."
"Thank you, Steve." She gave him a bright smile, then she got up and headed for the cockpit to talk to their pilot.
The super soldier then got up and went to the back looking for his partner. He found Natasha had removed the hair extensions and the make-up, so she was back to her regular features and the new shoulder length dark blonde hair that she'd been sporting for the past couple of weeks. She'd been constantly changing her hair since they'd gone on the run but she always avoided shades of red and Steve found himself strangely missing it these days.
"Looks like we might get that vacation after all." He said in a light tone as he approached her, but got no response as she continued going through the items in her bag. He knew there was no point avoiding it, so he just heaved a sigh and sat down before her. "Alright, let's have it."
Natasha didn't waste any time as she remained standing and looked sharply down at him. "Seriously, you're okay with boosting me up to catch a ride on an alien airship but you're nervous when I get alone with a man in a room?" She countered at once, as if they'd hit pause on their previous conversation and they were now getting back to it, as she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "When I'm the one who actually knows 17 different ways to incapacitate or kill someone without any weapons?"
"17, really?" He raised an amused eyebrow at her. "I can think of 9, maybe."
"Obviously you lack imagination." She parried back with a smirk. "And stop trying to distract me." She paused, her smirk melting away as she grew serious once more. "Look, I can literally take on guys twice my size with my hands tied behind my back, and Wanda can move things with her mind. You need to trust us when we're out there."
"I do trust you, you know that." He raised his eyebrows then, looking earnestly back at her. "It's those guys twice your size that I don't and I'm not gonna apologize for looking out for you, Nat. It's my job. I'm the one who got us into this and I'm gonna make damn sure we all get out of it alive and unharmed."
"I get that, I do, and I appreciate it." She told him sincerely, a frown forming between her eyebrows. "But you have got to stop treating me like some damsel in distress."
"That's not what I─" He protested, then interrupted himself and shook his head a little to get back on track, as he knew that denying what he'd done would only get them suckered into a useless argument. "Nat, those guys weren't there because you blew your cover and got the target down. They were there for you." His blue eyes were blazing in anger as he thought back to the moment he realized what was happening, that their sleazeball target had thought hiring a couple of escorts gave him the right to share them with his buddies, whether the women had agreed to it or not.
"I know that." She told him, her voice low and a steely glint in her green eyes that let him know she did understand exactly the situation they'd been in. "And we handled them just fine."
Steve could only stare back at her for a few moments. "Look, this is not about you or your abilities. It's about me." He told her softly then, leaning his head back against the wall and looking up at her. "I can't see a threat heading your way and do nothing about it, especially if I'm the one that's watching your back. This is what I do and you know that, so I'm gonna look out for you whether you like it or not."
Natasha kept on looking at him, her expression softening a little as she thought about what he'd said. "Okay. I understand that." She nodded back at him, then sat down next to him. "Now I need you to listen to me and understand what I'm saying." She looked pointedly back at him and he nodded at her to go on. "If we tell you we're okay, you need to trust us otherwise one of us might get hurt during one of these missions." She paused then, struggling to make him understand what she was telling him and some sense of vulnerability seeped into her voice with her next words. "We're all we've got, there's no backup here. We need to be smart, efficient and precise. We can't go barrelling through doors without talking to each other or something may go wrong and the next mission could be our last."
He stared back at her, slowly nodding as he got what she was saying. "Okay. You're right." He sighed and gave her a small, conceding smile. "No more knight in shining armor acts or punching doors off hinges unnecessarily."
"That's all I'm asking," she said, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "And thanks, Steve."
"You're welcome." He smiled back at her, then grew serious once more. "And I'm sorry. You know I'd never doubt you or your abilities. I don't ever see you as a damsel in distress and I don't want you to think that. It's just…" He shook his head, looking out for a moment before he brought his eyes back to hers. "You're my partner. And I can't help wanting to protect you." He gave her a rather helpless shrug and another small smile. "You, Sam, Wanda. You're all I got, now."
She swallowed hard, her eyes shining brightly for a moment. "I know." She nodded at him then gave him a small smile of her own. "Just remember, you're all I got, too."
Steve felt a mix of pain and warmth spreading across his chest as her words sunk in, then he reached down for her hand and gripped it tightly in his for a moment, reveling in the feeling as she gripped his back just as tightly.
