I am back for another chapter, hope you are all enjoying the story so far. I did think this story would be a two maybe three parter, but I think it has more legs than that. So by no further ado on with the show.
The sudden cough coming from behind her made Natasha jump. It was unlike her not to be completely aware of her soundings, it was testament to how much her encounter with Steve had gotten to her. Turning now Natasha let out a short puff of air and placed her hands over her heart.
"Dam it Banner you scared the hell out of me." Natasha said as Bruce pushed off the back wall and stepped closer to her.
"Good job it wasn't the other way around, I mean I'm not sure the other guy would fit in here." He said a weak smile on his lips as he took in Natasha's dishevelled form, and wet rimmed eyes. He had never seen her in such a state, Natasha always seemed so composed. Yet Bruce did not feel comfortable with coming straight out and asking her what was wrong. Plus he had always thought of her as such a private person, and even now as he looked at her he could see her mentally pulling away.
"What floor?" He asked as the lift stood motionless waiting for instructions.
"Basement." She stated without looking at him, Bruce made no move to punch in the detestation, knowing that he had to at least try and find out what was going on.
"Off to the gym a. Kind of late for a work out." Bruce said not venturing closer, but unfolding his arms and placing them in his pockets.
"Guess so I hadn't noticed." Natasha replied, giving him only a cursory glance before looking back at the wall in front of her.
"So." Bruce started but he was quickly interrupted as Natasha turned to him sharply. Suddenly aware that the elevator hadn't moved and Banner was looking increasingly uncomfortable.
"Was there something you actually wanted to ask me or are we playing twenty questions?" Natasha said feeling a mixture of frustration and guilt as Banner's face dropped. He seemed to recover quickly however, pulling his hands from his pockets and clasping them together.
"Well I was wondering why you looked so sad." He said knowing that it was now or never, and he really did feel like she needed a friend right now.
"I'm fine, it's nothing." Natasha replied before turning from him again, trying to hide her face from his probing eyes.
"No your not, and I think it might have something to do with a certain Captain." Bruce said taking a punt on his suspicions. He could tell by the tight set of her shoulders, and the clenching of her jaw that he had hit on something.
"You know he likes you right, that while you were gone he worried about you more than anyone else, even tried to find you for a while. I also know that you like him too. I saw that hug you gave him, the stolen glances across the room at one another." Bruce paused taking a step closer to her, encouraging her to look at him by placing a light hand on her shoulder. Natasha didn't shy away from his touch, but he could feel her muscles clench under his fingers. Looking at her now he continued.
"What we do, who we are can be overwhelming, unforgiving and at times thankless. But at others its wonderful and exciting, and I know you love what you do, but it can't make you feel complete. Your job can't love you back, Steve can, you don't get many chances in this life to find someone special. If you do you should grab it with both hands, and never look back." For a moment Bruce saw Natasha's eyes soften, and her head dropped momentarily to her shoes.
"You know thanks for the pep talk honey, but I am fine, love is for children, and last time I checked I was all grown up." Natasha said running her hand down Bruce's arm and winking at him before leaning forward and hitting the button on the elevator.
Bruce couldn't say anything, he just hoped that at least some of what he had said would have gotten through. He saw the thin vale of lies she masked herself in, and yet that vale was becoming thinner and more fragile with every passing day, and he wondered if that's what was truly scaring her.
Steve lay in his bed just looking up at the ceiling, he had tried to get some sleep but his mind kept going over what had happened that night. As he went passed anger, and moved to hurt he realised that maybe Natasha hadn't lied to him, not in the way he had first thought anyway. What she had lied about was her true feelings for him. He had seen it in her eyes after she had kissed him, he was sure of it, but then she had changed, withdrew into herself and pushed him away.
"Dam it." he said sitting up in bed and letting his head fall into his palms. Rubbing his eyes with the heals of his hands Steve knew he has pushed right back. Making it easier for her to run from him. Now he didn't know if there was any hope of getting back what they had, let alone thinking about having a relationship.
Steve knew that he was inexperienced when it came to women, but in this case it didn't seem to matter, Natasha was no ordinary women, and Steve knew Natasha, well at least he thought he did.
He lay back down letting his body flop against his mattress glancing at the clock he saw it was just past four a.m. He couldn't do anything about it until the morning now, so he turned over and resigned himself to a sleepless night. In the morning however he was going to sort this thing out, he knew if he was going to get Natasha to open up to her feelings for him, he would have to take this one step at a time.
Despite working out until she almost passed out from exhaustion, Natasha spent a restless night on top of her bed with her clothes still on. Dragging herself out of bed and pulling off her clothes as she went. Leaving them wherever they dropped, she went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Setting it for just bearably chilly she jumped in and washed herself quickly. Feeling more awake now she turned up the temperature and washed her hair. Climbing out and drying off Natasha knew she could no longer put off going downstairs. It was already quite late and if she didn't make an appearance soon, she knew either Pepper or Tony would come looking for her.
Slapping on some black jeans and pulling on a navy blue tank top she gave herself a quick glance in the mirror. Not bothering to dry her hair she plastered on a well practised smile and walked out of the door.
This time she checked the elevator carefully before stepping in, she did not need another pep talk from Banner. It was his words that has kept her up most of the night, and she was not about to thank him for it.
"Twelve please." Natasha called and the elevator started moving, when the doors finally opened Natasha was grateful that everyone had shown up for breakfast. Her presence would be diluted, as would Steve's.
"Morning sleepy head, big night?" Tony said with a small wink, throwing her an apple which Natasha caught with sickening ease.
"Not really, took the liberty of using your gym, looked like it hadn't been visited in a while." Natasha quipped back, thanking Tony for his somewhat predictable, yet welcomed sarcasm.
"What you trying to say Romanoff, am I fat. Do I look fat?" Tony said turning to Pepper who simply smiled over her cup of coffee.
Natasha took the chance to glance at Steve, but he wasn't looking at her at all, he was reading the paper, and half chewing a mouthful of cereal. For a second Natasha felt disappointed, then quickly shook herself knowing that there were eyes on her. She saw Banner looking at her from the corner of her eye. She ignored him choosing instead to go and join Pepper for a cup of coffee.
It had taken all of Steve's will power not to look at Natasha, he had fixed his eyes on his paper, and even though he had no idea what he had just read, he had accomplished his task. He caught her slightly confused look as she turned away from him. Steve 1 Natasha 0. Steve let a small smile slip on to his lips, before Tony's hand clapping down on his shoulder made him jump.
"Wow poverty in America, what are we doing about it. Good article, not something I would be grinning about really." Tony said snatching the paper and making Steve blush as he had been caught out.
"I was thinking about something else." Steve said attempting to take his paper back as Tony stood up and held it out of his reach.
"Oh and what would that be Captain, have a good night did we?" Tony said looking briefly at Natasha before turning his attention back to Steve. Steve's silence spoke volumes, and Tony resisted it, even with his limited grasp on feelings he backed off quickly.
"I did, I had a great night, got all my family back, had a nice drink, and hey no world wide emergencies broke out." Tony clapped his hands together looking around the room as the phone started ringing and everyone was silenced.
"Stark here what's up." He asked knowing it was his job to answer the phone in his house, even though it was the world security council and probably concerned all of them.
"Morning Mr Stark, we have a new lead on a HYDRA cell that has found itself in possession of alien weaponry. Due to the nature of these weapons we will need the Avengers to take the lead on bringing their operation to a close."
"Just give us a location." Tony said as the others in the room began to stand up and prepare for the mission.
"Just outside of Siberia, it's off the grid but you should be able to locate the base with heat seeking radar. Enjoy the snow." With that the minister hung up and Tony turned to the room.
"Nat call Clint, and round up Sam and Wanda they could be useful. Cap suit up, and oh I recommend the long underwear." Tony said before the room erupted in activity. Steve took a quick glance at Natasha who had her cell phone pressed to her ear. She met his eyes for a moment, a small sincere smile touched her lips before whomever she was calling picked up and she started speaking with them in hurried tones.
Banner had stayed in the plane, he liked to hang back unless his presence was necessary. Truth be told a code green could get a little messy, and so far it hadn't been that hard getting into the HYDRA base. It seemed that this cell had gotten hold of some of the alien staff weapons from the battle in New York. Fortunately not many of them, and they were soon inside the building. Leaving Falcon and Wanda outside to control the perimeter the others had gone inside. There was more resistance here, and being a tight enclosed space, with many wires, and guard rails separating the walk ways it was almost impossible for Tony to fly around taking out the enemy. He and Clint had been resigned to standing on the upper levels taking shots at some of the operatives that kept coming from the rooms below them.
Natasha and Steve were in heaven though, close combat was their forte. Working together like a well oiled machine they picked their way through the men sent to stop them with ease until they found what looked like a control room.
"Let's see what they are so determined to protect." Natasha said sitting at one of the monitors and typing furiously at the keyboard.
"Bingo, looks like they are building some kind of super weapon, doesn't look finished yet, won't be hard to shut this operation down." Natasha said offering Steve a full blown smile as she turned back to her screen and looked at the base plans to find out where the weapon was being kept.
"Hey you two almost done in there, we're having a little problem out here." Clint said appearing in the doorway, and letting an arrow fly without even looking, before several explosions erupted around them.
"Sure keep your panties on." Natasha said as Steve ran at the door, dropping down in front of Clint who was about to take a staff blast right to his chest, but instead the blast bounced off Steve's shield and he quickly took out the man who had shot at them.
"Thanks old man." Clint said as more men began piling up the staircase and they all began fighting hand to hand.
"Well that's what you get when you get distracted by a beautiful woman." Steve said looking briefly at Natasha, who had her legs wrapped around a man's neck and was currently choking him to death.
"Aww Cap you know flattery will get you everywhere." Natasha replied as Clint rolled his eyes.
"Isn't it supposed to be flattery gets you nowhere." He stated as he let an arrow fly catching a man right in the neck and sending him tumbling off the edge of the walkway.
"I don't like to comply with conventional norms." Natasha said kicking another guy in the chest and then punching him so hard he flips over the railing and plummets down to the floor.
"I would say you were defiantly extraordinary." Steve said as he bashed a man in the face with his shield effectively putting him down before offering Natasha another smile as she grinned at him from atop a guys shoulders.
"Ok guys please I can't take any more flirting its getting hard to aim whilst throwing up." Tony's voice came over the comm. Line and Natasha quickly dispatched her latest victim before heading down the stairs.
"Ok Stark keep don't get a knot in your tights, basement, that's where all the action is." Natasha said with a broad grin as she hopped the railing, attaching a grappling hook to the edge and sailing all the way to the bottom. Two seconds later Steve landed beside her, his shield reverberating as it dug into the concrete below it.
"Ok you two can have all the fun on this one, but I get to be point on the next." Tony said as he looked down at the pair as they fought off maybe twenty men.
"Having fun yet Cap?" Natasha asked slightly out of breath before Tony took out a guy behind her and she looked up briefly to thank him.
"Not yet, I've barely broken a sweat, think giant robots, and huge alien ships makes everything else seem boring." Steve said as he took out two at once with his shield.
"I know what you mean, but hey this is fun too, its nice you know doing something together." Natasha said as Steve stopped what he was doing, before he got clocked form behind and he quickly pulled the man over his shoulder and put him down with a single blow.
"Should I be flattered now, or worried?" Steve asked as they finally could see daylight as they put down the last few HYDRA operatives.
"Take it as a complement Cap." Natasha said before strutting over to the door and pulling it open. As she did so her eyes blew wide open and she took a large step backwards.
"I think this might warrant a code green. Hit the deck!" Natasha yelled as a gun barrel turned settling on their position, the sound of the gun winding up to fire rang in her ears as she jumped into Steve's waiting arms and they leapt for the nearest hidey hole.
The blast rang out only seconds later, Natasha curled herself into a tiny ball. Steve's body and his shield covering her completely, but Steve was not so lucky, Natasha could see the blood pouring from his abdomen even before the dust settled around them.
TBC...
Thank you to all who have stuck with this story, I am sorry for the cliffhanger, but I am know to use them on occasion. Please let me know what you think, comments and suggestions welcomed. Thank you for reading XxX