Author's notes: Hello! Another chapter is up, since things are going to get heavy and dark on the upcoming chapters, I decided to make this one a little lighter. Enjoy it!

CHAPTER 12

Hotel in Singapore – Tony´s Suite

They all have finished packing and are ready to leave to their missions, well…all but Tony Stark. So the Avengers are sitting in the lounge area of Tony´s suite, waiting for Tony to finish packing his things.

Clint is sitting in an armchair with his feet up on the coffee table, playing on his phone. Bruce is on the other armchair, sitting with his legs crossed, wearing his glasses and reading a magazine. Thor is in the right end of the big couch chewing some pop tarts. Natasha is sitting next to him with her arms crossed, staring out the balcony widow. Steve is beside her, his elbow placed on the left arm of the couch so that he could rest his chin on his hand.

Steve is watching as Tony opens every door and drawer to gather his things and he can´t help but say something about it: "Jesus Tony, do you have to use every storage in the hotel room, why didn´t you just leave your clothes in your bag? We have been here for only two days."

Tony grabs the last of his shirts from the hangers in the closet and replies: "What? This are designer shirts, it would be a crime to leave them folded in my bag. But what do you know about clothes, right Capsicle!"

"What´s the problem with my clothes, I like them." Steve looks down at his khaki pants, plaid blue shirt and leather jacket and finds nothing wrong with them.

Tony looks at him and says with a smirk on his face: "Yeah, sure. You look good…for an old man."

Clint chuckles at Tony´s remark.

Steve looks at the archer who is now smiling at him and just sighs in defeat. He´ll never understand the modern fashion.

Tony starts to fold his clothes carefully and continues to speak: "I mean, look at the Little Red, her fashion sense evolved with her, she looks like a woman from our century."

Clint´s smile disappear from his face as he sees Natasha standing up to glare at Tony.

Tony stops what he is doing half expecting the spy to attack him but she doesn´t, so he continues looking at Natasha with a nervous smile on his face: "A gorgeous woman, if I may add. But you had plenty of time to change your fashion sense, right! The poor Cap here just stayed frozen for 70 years, so I´ll overlook that detail on you Capsicle!"

Natasha takes a deep breath to calm her nerves and says: "I´m going to the lobby." She walks out of the room giving a deadly stare at Clint as she passes by him, and then slams the door behind her.

Everyone jumps on their sits with the loud sound of the door closing and stop what they are doing to stare at Tony, who is frozen at his place with a folded shirt in his hand.

Clint breaks the silence: "I´m dead. You are probably next Stark. Maybe you should sleep with your armor on."

Steve chuckles with that thought then he says: "Stop playing with fire, Stark. You´ll get burn."

Bruce adds with a shy smile: "Literally burn."

Tony snaps out of his little panic moment and finishes putting his clothes on his bag, zipping it close: "Good thing we are going separate ways then. I´m sure the Cap can calm her nerves down until we all get back to the Avengers Tower." He looks at Steve with a mischief smile on his face.

Steve just rolls his eyes and look away.

Then Tony takes advantage of Natasha absence in the room to give the news to Clint: "Speaking of which, Legolas, we were right. Captain Purity loves her like we suspected."

Steve looks at Tony and then at Clint, not quite understanding what is happening.

After watching closely Steve´s reaction when Natasha was hurt and the way they were looking at each other on the hospital, Clint had no doubt about that, but he didn´t think Steve would share his feeling that fast so Clint looks surprised to Tony: "What? He told her? How did you found out?"

Thor has a broad smile on his face, he looks at Steve: "You told her about your feelings? That is marvelous news my friend! I am happy for the two of you!

Steve looks confused at Thor: "What? No I…" He stops not knowing what to say and glares at Tony, fighting the urge to punch him in the face.

Tony ignores the angry look Steve is giving him, and continues speaking to Clint: "No! He haven´t told her yet, but he told me."

Steve stands up and confronts Tony: "What! I haven´t told you anything Stark! You assumed that!"

Tony pokes Steve on the chest as he replies: "Yeah? Well then, tell me I´m wrong! Tell me that you don´t love the redhead spy!"

Bruce is amused by the discussion and just watches the scene, glancing at Steve with curiosity.

Thor puts another pop tart on his mouth but keeps looking at his friends, interested in the conversation too.

Steve poorly tries to hide the fact that he does love Natasha from the others: "What! I do…I mean…I don´t…have to answer that Stark!"

Tony jumps up and down pointing at Steve and looking at Clint: "See! He can´t deny it! He loves her! And I bet 50 bucks that the redhead loves him back, what do you think Legolas?"

Clint knows that if Natasha loves Steve, she is not going to let any of them discover that so easily, so he looks at Tony with a playful smile: "Make it a hundred!"

Tony replies with a grin: "Done!"

Steve loses his patient and shouts: "What the hell is wrong with you two?" He looks at Clint who only shrugs his shoulders.

Tony just pretends he hadn´t heard Steve and starts to think out loud: "The only problem is that is going to be a little tricky to get her to confess that. Maybe the Cap can let us know her reply when he tells her that he loves her."

Natasha sneaks in the room without anyone noticing, hearing the last part of Tony sentence and startles the guys when she speaks up with a suspicious look on her face: "Who loves who?"

Everyone turns to look at her, surprised to see Natasha standing behind the couch.

Thor swallows his pop tart, smiles at her and innocently replies to Natasha: "The Captain, he loves you!"

Tony tries to hold back his laughter by putting a hand on his mouth. He can´t believe the God of Thunder just said that.

Clint looks at Thor, shaking his head with disbelieve: "Dude!"

Bruce just gives a half-smile and look to Steve, who is now blushing, and then back to Natasha, who has a blank expression on her face.

Steve feels his face burning, but he manages to smile at Natasha as their eyes meet.

Natasha tries not to smile as she looks at Steve, she has a reputation to maintain. So she just stays collected and says in a cold tone: "Huh, okay. Thanks Cap." She then looks at the others and continues calmly: "The car is waiting to take us to the airport, let´s go." She turns around, leaving the room.

Thor and Bruce exchange confused glances, not quite understanding what just happened.

Tony is shocked, he takes his hand from his mouth saying: "I can´t believe it, did she said thanks Cap?"

Clint has a broad smile on his face, he looks at Tony: "You own me a hundred bucks, Stark!"

Thor realizes his mistake and stands up to put a hand on Steve´s shoulder: "I apologize my friend Steven, I was certain that Lady Natasha shared your feelings. I shouldn´t have said that."

Steve simply smiles at him and replies: "It´s okay Thor. No harm done."

Thor notices that Steve doesn´t look sad or disappointed, which he finds a little strange, but he said too much already and decides to let it go. He nods at Steve and walks out of the room.

Tony takes his wallet out of his pocket and gives the money to Clint: "Damn it, Legolas!"

Clint says with a smirk: "Always a pleasure to play with you, Tin Man!" he grabs the money, stands up and leaves the room too.

Bruce stands up, leaving the magazine on the coffee table. He gives a sympathetic look to Steve and then he speaks to Tony: "Hey, Tony. Enough playing around, time to go!" he picks up Tony´s bag from the bed and throws it at him.

Tony catches the flying bag and responds rolling his eyes at Bruce: "Okay dad! I´m coming!"

Tony stops beside Steve and says: "I´m sorry Cap. I thought the redhead would react differently to that. But don´t give up, maybe there is still hope!" He taps Steve on the shoulder and follows Bruce out of the room.

Steve smiles to himself because he knows what Natasha is doing, she doesn´t want to give the others any hint that they are together, or at least is what he thinks she is doing. His smile fades when he realizes that maybe she wasn´t ready to hear that. This can have consequences on their relationship; she could start to push him away. He starts to feel nervous about it, so he takes a deep breath and quickly leaves the room too.

The ride to the airport is a silent one. At first, everybody is felling a little awkward by what just happened in the hotel but then they all start to think that they are going on missions against HYDRA, which is never an easy task. The tension is in the air. When they get to the airport, the car drops them at the hangars area. Tony had arranged two private jets, one for him and Bruce and another for Steve and Natasha. Since Clint is the only expert pilot on the team, he and Thor are going on the quinjet.

They all say their goodbyes, wish one another good luck and go their separate ways.

Natasha gets in their jet, followed by Steve. Once they are inside, she turns to him and quickly puts a hand behind his neck, pulling him down to kiss him passionately. Steve eyes widen with the sudden move, but when their lips touch, he slowly closes his eyes and wraps his arms around her waist pulling her closer and kissing her back. When they break the kiss, Steve looks at her and asks smiling: "What was that for?"

Natasha says looking seriously at him: "Do you really love me Steve?"

Steve still has his arms around her; he looks into her eyes as he answers: "Yes, I do."

Natasha holds his gaze for a moment, she sees how honest his blue eyes are; he is telling the true. A huge smile appears on her face as she replies softly: "Good, because I love you too." She lightly kisses him again. She feels him smiling against her lips and then he hugs her so tight that her feet leave the floor for a moment. Natasha groans in pain with Steve´s grip on her waist, she is not fully recovered from her injures yet.

Steve quickly puts her down and says: "I´m so sorry Tasha, are you okay?"

She only nods her head at him.

Steve let go of her and continues: "Sorry about the hotel situation too, Stark kept pushing me and you know that I´m a terrible liar, unlike you. I confess that I was a little worried after your reply back there!"

Natasha laughs and sits at one of the spacious chair inside the jet: "Sorry, Steve! I have a reputation to maintain, the Black Widow doesn´t fall in love." She winks at him as he sits in the chair in front of her, only a small table is between them.

The pilot announces that they have permission to take off, so they both buckle the seat belt and stay silent.

Natasha looks out the widow and Steve is still thinking about what she said and for some reason he wants to solve all the mysteries of this woman sitting in front of him.

Steve keeps looking at her as the plane gains altitude and then he breaks the silence asking: "What about Natasha Romanoff, has she ever fallen in love?"

Natasha meets his eyes, with a hard expression on her face, she slowly answers: "Once…when I was really young...before I became the Black Widow. I met a combat pilot, his name was Alexei Shostakov. We were both KGB agents…we were married for a few years and then…he died." She stares out the widow again.

Steve lost count of how many times Natasha surprised him on the last two days, but he tries to leave his curiosity aside and just remains silent, trying not to cause any more pain to her. He remembers of his lost love, Peggy, and decides that maybe it is his turn to tell her something about his past: "I have loved a woman too, during my time in the war. But I never got to tell her how I felt until it was too late."

Natasha looks back at Steve and asks softly: "What happened? Did she die?"

Steve takes a deep breath; put his hands on the top of table and looks at them as he nervously plays with his fingers. He replies: "No. She is still alive, but she is in a nursing home. I visit her when I can, but it is getting harder because she has Alzheimer and most of the times when I go see her, it is like the first time we met after I got out of the ice, I have to watch her reaction all over again, she tells me how much she missed me, almost breaking down and then I have to explain to her again how I am still alive."

Natasha reaches for his left hand, squeezing it and then says: "I´m so sorry Steve."

Steve shakes his head and looks at her small hand on the top of his: "It´s okay, she moved on, she got married, had kids, she lived a long and happy live. That´s what comforts me."

Natasha caresses his hand with her thumb and continues: "Is she the woman in the picture we saw when we were in Camp Leigh?"

Steve meets her eyes and gives her a half-smile; nothing gets past the spy without being noticed: "Yes, her name is Margaret Carter but we used to call her Peggy. She helped Howard Stark to found S.H.I.E.L.D."

Natasha raises an eyebrow: "Carter? Is she related to Sharon?"

Steve takes a deep breath and replies: "Yes, Sharon is her niece. I found out that later, it was one of the reasons I didn´t ask her out. It´s just too weird for me to date Peggy´s niece."

Natasha asks with a questioning expression in her face: "One of the reasons?"

Steve smiles at her and put his right hand on her face, caressing her cheek: "The other reason was you."

Natasha gives him a sweet smile: "You really love me don´t you?"

Steve is intrigued by her doubt; he puts his right hand down on the table again and replies: "Yes! Why is it so hard for you to believe that?"

Natasha lets go of his left hand and looks down, remembering that a memory of Alexei had recently came back to haunt her too.

Natasha says in a low voice: "I guess...you are the first man in all these years that really loved me." Tears are starting to form on her eyes as she continues slowly: "Alexei didn´t…love me…I discovered that he had faked his death…because I didn´t want to join the Black Widow program. I just wanted to have a normal life with him."

A single tear escape from Natasha´s eyes and she quickly wipe it away and continues: "So KGB had faked his death and lied to me and so did Alexei." She looks up at Steve blinking her tears away: "I only became the Black Widow because I thought he was dead, I had nothing else to lose. And when I discovered, several years later, that it was all a lie, I tried to leave but they suppressed my memory again, I didn´t remember that...until my encounter with the KGB agents on Ukraine."

Steve furrows his brown and blinks a few times. Again Natasha past brings a lot of information for him to process. How did she manage to carry this entire burden alone, he is not sure. But at least now she is sharing some of it with him.

Steve leans over the small table and kiss Natasha´s lips softly, then with his intense and honest gaze, he says: "You are the strongest and most amazing woman I have ever know and I do love you Natasha, with all my heart."

Natasha cups his face with her hands, her eyes tearing up again, but now with joy. She smiles and replies: "I guess all these years of suffering were worth it because in the end it led me to you, Steve." She kisses him passionately and this time they don´t let go until they are out of breath.