"In these darker days

I push the limit to the love you offer.

There's a riot in my head

demanding we do this forever.

Why would we divide when we could come together?

Just bodies that collide,

lost and found each other."

—Divide, Bastille.

Natasha chewed the inside of her cheek when Wanda and Sam boarded the train a couple of wagons ahead of them. They decided to change their covers yet again to keep themselves from being recognized together.

It had only been an hour since she took the bullet in Wanda's shoulder and stitched the wound with regular thread, since buying any nylon one would actually draw more suspicions than anyone thought it would. But it wasn't the only thing bothering her, no: it was the fact that Steve never answered her question, and that, once they boarded, she would be trapped, no matter how hard she tried to brush it off, because if Steve was something then it was stubborn.

Steve's hand came to her waist and she forced a smile, feeling his thumb accidentally brush one of her wounds. As they gave their tickets to the blonde guy in front of them, Natasha laced her fingers with Steve's.

"Have a good trip, and congratulations on the wedding!" he said, pointing to Natasha's ring. She thanked him and got on her tiptoes to kiss Steve's cheek, feeling his beard brushing her lips.

As Natasha sat by the window, Steve placed their backpacks in the seats in front of her, making her guts twist inside her, activating her fight or flight. Then again, she couldn't fight in the middle of a train, and she couldn't get the hell out of there without being suspicious. Instead, she just smiled at him as he sat.

He wrapped her shoulders with an arm and brought her closer, putting her back on his chest. She could feel the heat coming from him, could hear and feel his heartbeat through their shirts, and it made her aware of the fact that hers was beating like a horse after a race.

"I don't know." He muttered, placing his lips on her hair to leave a soft kiss. Natasha placed a knee against the wall to get more comfortable and tried to process the bomb Steve had just drop. "I really don't know, Nat. Truth is, I don't think I want to know. I just don't want to think about it anymore."

"Oh, it's okay, I was just-"

"No, you weren't joking." Steve wrapped her waist with his other hand and placed her on her belly without really being conscious about the fact that it made Natasha's heart shatter in a billion pieces. "God, what are you doing to me?" he chuckled without really meaning it, and placed his chin on her hair to look out the window.

She swallowed the lump in her throat that threatened her with making her a crying mess and pulled her most playful wall up.

"What are you doing to me, Mr. Rogers?" she asked with a smirk. Through his reflection on the glass she could see how serious he was, so she licked her lips and sighed. "I don't know, Steve. And I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable with anything."

"Don't be sorry," he shook his head, "you didn't make me uncomfortable, just... why don't you sleep? You haven't slept for more than an hour in the past few nights."

"How do you expect me to sleep when every time I down my guard someone I love gets hurt?" she asked, trying not to be too harsh. Steve just began stroking her hair softly, mumbling against her hair.

"I'll be here, I promise." With that, he rubbed her belly and kept on soothing her with words.

He didn't catch the silent tears that rolled out of Natasha's eyes as she drifted into sleep.

/

"I'm home!" she shrugged off her jacket, wincing as it brushed her fresh wounds. Two sets of feet were heard around the house, and soon enough, a blonde man appeared. He kissed her softly, grabbing her by the waist without noticing her wounds, but that was okay, 'cause she was finally home.

A blonde kid appeared a second later, jumping from excitement. She grabbed him with a grunt, placing him against her hip.

"Hey there, little bunny. Did you take care of daddy?" she asked, and the toddler nodded eagerly.

"You know what, Romanoff?" he grunted, amused. She chuckled and let the kid down. "Sweetheart, why don't you go wash your hands so we can have dinner?"

Once the toddler left the room, the blonde man sighed and lifted her shirt, revealing the stab wounds.

"It's nothing, Steve."

"It's a lot to me, Nat." He placed a kiss on her forehead and wrapped her inside his arms, bringing her comfort. "God, I can't believe it's been five years with this cub." He smiled and looked at her with tears on his eyes. "Our son."

"Natasha?" she opened her eyes, sitting straight as she did so. Steve looked at her, his brows furrowed in confusion and worry. "You were crying."

It was true. Her cheeks were wet and sticky. She tried to shrug it off with a chuckle, drying her face as best as he could.

"Just, ah, when I get really worried I do so." That had to be one of the biggest lies she ever told Steve. "I guess I'm pretty worried about our friend."

She knew that Steve wasn't buying it, after all, it was a lame excuse. But he never saw her sleeping, so it could be true. Still, the fact that Natasha was telling him something like that, something so deep, just as if it was nothing, made it seem out of her.

"I don't believe you, but since you don't wanna talk about it..." he reached for her shoulder, his icy blue eyes staring deep into hers. "Just so you know, I'm here." And that was why she didn't tell him anything, she couldn't risk losing him over a stupid basic feeling like love.

Love is for children, thus, you must never feel it. Understood?

She cleared her throat and looked out the window.

"How long have I been out?" Natasha asked, trying to identify the place. Steve shrugged and looked at the clock on the wall.

"You slept for five hours, I slept for four," Steve said, stretching his arms, "I guess we both needed a good sleep, after all." He chuckled. She nodded and looked around, her sight still fuzzy, and her eyelids still heavy. Stiffing a yawn, she pointed the doors.

"We should go see if they are eating, as we agreed." Steve nodded and they stood up. Smiling at the other passengers, they reached the back of the wagon in a matter of minutes.

Steve opened the door for her and closed it behind him. In one of the tables were Wanda and Sam; she seemed better, and even let Sam wrap his arm around her shoulders.

Sam nodded towards her and she repeated the action, sitting at the table behind them. Steve frowned and looked around the almost empty wagon.

"I haven't traveled by train since Bucky," he twisted his mouth, "I think I need some coffee. Do you want anything?" he stood up and waited for Natasha to tell him.

"Uh, a cup of black tea, if they have any, with no sugar... and sugar cookies." Steve nodded and turned around. Sam got up and followed him. Sighing, Natasha turned around and tried to smile at Wanda. "How is your shoulder doing?" she asked, feeling the guilt fill up her throat.

Wanda shrugged and smiled at her. "I've had worse, actually." She patted the place where her wound was and tugged her jacket to cover it.

"I'm glad you're better," Natasha said, reaching her hand and squeezing it; "how are you feeling? Emotionally?" over the course of the week she was with them in Australia, and the events of the day, they hadn't had much time to talk, especially about something so serious like Wanda's wellbeing. Hers could and would wait as long as her friends were fine.

"The nightmares aren't that bad anymore, I don't wake up in the middle of the night and I can wake up fast, so..." she offered Natasha a shy smile and began playing with her hair. "It's gonna take a lot of time before I can be stable, I mean... years of trauma don't go away in months." Natasha chuckled without any emotions and sighed.

"Tell me about it," she muttered. Sam and Steve came back, and, making sure that no one else would come, Natasha moved to the other table.

They talked while they ate, keeping their voices low in case someone else came in.

As their laughter died, Natasha took a quick look at the clock, stiffing another yawn.

"We've been on the move for seven hours, six more to go." Wanda groaned and Steve huffed, clearly done with the train. It moved way too much, you could hear everything, and it reminded him of the day he lost Bucky and all hope with him.

Natasha knew all of this and even more, but she wasn't about to read him entirely again. Instead, she chewed her last cookie and looked thoughtfully at the wall in front of them.

"What I want to know," said Sam, "is how you got our money out. You never told us."

Swallowing, she nodded, preparing to tell the story.

"I hacked the bank, basically," she shrugged, taking the merit away; "I transferred most of our money to another account and made it look like it was still in our original accounts before they froze them. After that, I just waited until we were at Wakanda and told Shuri to take the money out."

Wanda opened her mouth in shock and smiled widely, Sam slowly clapped while laughing under his breath, and Steve just shook his head with a shy smile, already knowing what she was capable of.

A silhouette appeared by the door, getting more and more clear as the seconds passed. Natasha led her hand to the knife strapped on her thigh, ready to fight.

A blonde man smiled at them and walked towards their table. On his forehead, a small glow gave him an inhuman look.

"Vision?" Wanda asked, standing up. Natasha tightened the grip on her knife, but Steve placed a hand on hers to stop her. Feeling the warmth of his hand against hers triggered the memories of her dream, and her throat closed as she tried to keep her shit together to not fall apart in front of her friends and the android.

"What are you doing here? Did Tony sent you?" she asked, leaning over the table. Vision shoved his hands on his pockets and shook his head. Steve moved closer to her to let Vision sit beside him.

"No, Tony doesn't even know I'm here," he said, "I told him I needed some time off since I've been feeling some... threat, approaching." Wanda leaned over, her attention fully on the android.

"Is it what I think it is?" the redhead asked, letting her hands fill with red energy. Sam placed a hand over hers, and Natasha raised a brow.

"What are we missing here?" Wanda knew that she was referring to both the threat and how comfy she looked with Sam, but decided to brush it over and stay with just the threat.

"It's the stone... it has been... I feel like it has been trying to tell me something that I don't understand." Vision shook his head, defeated. Steve awkwardly palmed his back, trying to comfort him. "It's still far away, but we should prepare for anything." They all nodded.

"So, what are you gonna do now?" Sam asked. Wanda leaned over him, uncomfortable thanks to the wound on her shoulder, and looked at the table behind Natasha, thoughtful.

"I guess... I guess I could try to figure out what it is." She sighed, leaning over the table to rub her temples. Natasha didn't like where that conversation was leading them, since it was the only thing she knew would happen, and therefore was afraid of.

"I'll go with you." Sam squeezed her good shoulder as he talked without hesitation. "Wherever you're going, I'll go... to protect you and the stone." Natasha wanted to laugh at his poor attempt of an excuse and covered with a cough.

"Alright, once we get to Ireland we can plan something else. For now, let's focus on what we have to do: hide." As everyone nodded, she found herself trying to repeat those words on her mind and make them make sense to her.

Two things: 1) My internet is shit and I didn't have it for the past days, hence why I didn't upload more chapters; and 2) I didn't feel like doing so, since Chadwick Boseman is gone and idk, it just doesn't feel real, the fact that someone I look up to is not here physically anymore just doesn't feel good, but at the very least, we now know that he's no longer in pain, and that we will carry his legacy so it is never forgotten.

Anyway, leave a review or something like that! See ya!