Hi again! Here's the next part...
Pepper had never felt so guilty in her life. Every time Maria stopped by, her upper arm wrapped in white gauze, Pepper's heart sank. She hated the thought of harming her friend's career, and hated the fact that she hadn't brought a phone on that walk. Tony couldn't even console her. Pepper had nothing to do except think about the rest of the team, and everything they were going through. Nat's flashbacks were somehow getting worse, and Maria's arm constantly bothered the agent, even though she tried to hide it.
"Tony?" she said one night as he sat in an armchair beside her bed. He refused to sleep with her now, because he was afraid of harming the child.
"Yes, Pepper?" he said, looking up from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She gazed at him.
"You should take them out to dinner or something. Or cook dinner together, so that they have something to do. Tell them that I want to try the dish that they make." Pepper said finally. Tony hesitated before he replied.
"It's dangerous to do that, Pep."
"Why? They're all good people, and I'm sure that their cooking really isn't that bad-"
"It's not the cooking I'm worried about. It's their sanity." Tony said sharply. "If Maria drops something, she'll get all aloof and cold, and then only Wanda will be able to talk to her without getting her head bitten off. And if something sets Natasha's flashbacks off, we'd all probably die. There's knives in the kitchen. A knife is what caused Maria's injury."
"They need some off time, Tony, and they need to work together to solve problems like that!" Pepper insisted. "I don't want to be the center of attention anymore." The Avengers were constantly up at the Stark's floor. Clint brought his kids once. Natasha and Steve sat and read some of Lord of the Rings in Smurf voices, which had been oddly amusing. Betty and Bruce had almost bored Pepper to death talking about gamma radiation. Thor had overflowed Pepper's nightstand with cake PopTarts. Maria, in her own quiet way, had presented Pepper with a black-and-white multi-picture frame. Inside of it was pictures of Tony and Pepper, and individual shots of all the Avengers. Pepper had asked who had taken them, and Maria had replied that she had.
"I'll bring it up at breakfast tomorrow."
Steve was apprehensive about this 'dinner' that Tony had requested. There were so many things that could go wrong. By the way Maria was sitting, it was clear that she wasn't quite sure how to take the request, either. They were eating Belgian waffles, with store-bought bananas and strawberries
"A dinner." Clint said. "You want us to make a dinner today." Tony nodded. The other Avengers had varied looks upon their faces. The ones that were perfectly fit and sane looked more enthusiastic, while Maria and Natasha looked doubtful.
"I don't want to ruin your dinner, Tony." Maria said. "I'm not up to that yet." Tony looked across the table at the SHIELD agent. She had been sleeping on the couch on the main floor, because she obviously couldn't drive home and none of the Avengers wanted her to leave.
"There's a first time for everything, Maria. Including making dinner with a damaged arm." Maria flinched away at his words, and Clint shot a reproachful glance at the businessman. He rested his arm on the back of Maria's chair.
"You know, Maria, you can ask for help. That's allowed." The Agent gave a weak smile but she didn't reply. Steve rested a hand on Natasha's knee, under the table and out of sight of the others. He continued to eat his waffles. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Natasha give him a brief smile.
"You said that Pepper really wants it?" Thor asked innocently. Tony nodded hopefully. "Well, if Lady Stark wishes it, it shall be done. I will do it alone if I must."
"No, no." Betty said quickly. "We'll all help you, Thor. I don't know why we were even questioning it." Everyone at the table knew that if Thor had done it alone, the dinner would have been more of a dessert than a dinner.
The baking started out smoothly. Steve stood at the refrigerator, faced with a coloring page of Clint, but his face was purple and Maria and Wanda had colored outside the lines to create the wavy purple hair from the Despicable Me movie. He could tell which parts had been done by the left-handed Wanda, and which ones had been done with Maria's damaged right arm. Sometimes there were random lines where her arm muscles had jerked, however much she tried to cover it.
"What was I looking for again?" he asked out loud. Wanda glanced over her shoulder.
"Getting old, Grandpa? Can't remember what you're supposed to be looking for?" she teased. After a beat of silence she finally gave in. "The eggs, Rogers." Natasha laughed. The redhead and the Sokovian were standing at the sink, chopping green peppers and onions. They had decided to make omelets, with homemade tater tots and toast. Maria was helping with the bread-making crew, handling the flour and the milk.
"Thanks, Miss Witch of the West." Steve replied. He heard Maria and Clint laugh from the island. Wanda didn't.
"It's from the Wizard of Oz." Natasha stage-whispered to Wanda. The brunette nodded, but she clearly didn't know the movie very well. "I'll have to watch it with you. It's a good movie." Steve delivered the eggs to Clint and Maria. He leaned against the counter, watching the action. It was quite fun, he decided, making food with a team that normally only destroyed things. Now they were making something.
The first event happened while Maria was spooning flour into the bread dough. Clint was reaching across her, and he bumped into her upper arm. A jolt of pain seared through Maria's arm and she instinctively dropped the cup full of flour. It landed with a crash, and the sound of breaking glass rang through the room. Flour sprayed everywhere. Natasha and Wanda's pants were suddenly covered in white dust.
"It's alright!' Clint said frantically. Maria was holding her arm, a look of horror on her face. "My fault, I'm sorry. Carry on. You start measuring again, Maria. I'll clean this up. It's fine." Maria frowned at him.
"I'll do it. I'm fully capable." she said, her voice cold. "It's my mess, anyway. You know what you're doing up there." The other Avengers were frozen, and then Steve sprang into action. He snagged the dust pan out from underneath the sink and swept up all the flour and broken glass. He tossed it in the trash can and was done before Clint could try and help him.
"There. Problem solved, and you both can get back to work." he said sternly. He met Maria's steel-blue eyes and wasn't sure what he saw in them. A flicker of self-doubt, for sure. Anger, maybe. But who was she angry at?
The second event occurred when Thor caused a grease fire in the frying pan. He was in charge of the tater tots, and somehow they caught fire in the pan of oil that he fried them in. Fire sprang to the ceiling of the kitchen.
"Don't throw water on it!" Bruce said frantically. He pulled Betty out of the way of the flames. Natasha was frozen, her eyes reflecting the orange tongues that poured from the pan. Steve saw her start to shake. He made to move around the counter, but Wanda was already there. She wrapped her arms around the redhead.
"Elizabeth, the fire extinguisher!" Tony shouted. Steve saw panic in the scientist's eyes, and at first, Steve wasn't even sure who Tony was talking to. Betty pulled the fire extinguisher off the wall and tossed it at Tony. He caught it, pulled the pin out, and sprayed. Soon they were all covered in the white foam and the tater tots were sitting charred inside the pan. Wanda let go of Natasha, who was still quivering. The Sokovian's forearms were scratched from where Natasha clawed at her for release.
"I'm sorry." Thor said pitifully. "I didn't know that that would happen." Maria patted him on the back. Steve hugged Natasha, who seemed stunned. One hand was at her back and the other cradled her head. They broke apart after a brief moment and Natasha gave him a watery smile.
"Well, you'll need a new pan, Stark," Clint said jokingly. "Good thing your fire extinguisher wasn't expired."
"Is everyone alright?" Tony asked, ignoring Clint's comment.
"Fine. I'll take Nat upstairs and you guys can clean up, and I'll come back after she's calmed down." Steve said. He gently steered Natasha toward the elevator. The others stood there for a minute, looking slightly surprised.
"Okay. The bread is baking, and the eggs are almost done. We'll pass on the tater tots for now. If we do this again we'll try again with those." Bruce said calmly. "Wanda, go get cleaned up and tell Pepper that we're almost done." Wanda nodded.
Steve was relieved when Wanda delivered the message that Pepper liked the dinner. He hadn't come back down to help the others. Instead he sat in his room, pondering on what had just happened. He knew that Natasha's flashback was set off because of fire, but he didn't know why. She had never told him that. But he had been so close to kissing her, there in the kitchen, in front of all those Avengers. She had been so vulnerable-looking, and he wanted to hold her and comfort her.
The windows outside were semi-dark. The only light came from tiny cars moving floors below him, and the lights in the skyscrapers. He was wide-awake, and it was twelve at night. Steve stood up and stretched.
"Mr Rogers, Miss Romanoff is awake." JARVIS said, his voice loud in the previously silent room. Steve briefly wondered why the A.I. was telling him this, but his feet automatically moved toward the elevator.
As almost in a dream, Steve punched the button for Natasha's floor and waited while he moved down a floor. The doors dinged softly. Her floor was dark, but Steve moved easily though the rooms. He had been in her room in the dark often enough. JARVIS always woke him up if Natasha was having a nightmare- and these days, they were even more constant.
She wasn't in her bedroom. The covers were pushed back but the bed was still slightly warm, as if she had only just left. Steve scanned the room for Natasha. His eyes drifted toward the glass doors of the balcony. Her silhouette was framed in the lights of the city.
Steve stepped out into the wintery air and was immediately cold. Natasha didn't move, even though he knew she had heard him. He didn't move that quietly.
"I was very young when they died." Natasha said, her back still to him. "I was sleeping in my bedroom, with that bear that Clint gave me. The room was warm, and I woke up because I was dreaming about being roasted in an oven. My room was in flames, and the only thing not on fire was my bed, next to the window. There was no way to get to my parents or my brother. I opened the window, which was uncomfortably hot. I was on the second floor. I jumped out the window, and rolled on the ground. It was instinct. I got out and watched the house collapse on itself. I knew they were dead."
"You did all that you could." Steve replied softly.
"But not enough." Natasha said, turning around to face him. He could see the silver tears that glistened on her pale face, illuminated by the lights of New York City. He stepped closer. She watched him, her eyes gauging his movements. Another step closer.
And suddenly, he was kissing her. One hand was at the small of her back and the other was around her shoulders. Her lips were soft and firm. He could feel her tears on his face. His hand moved up to rest in her sweet-smelling hair. There they stood, the spy and the soldier, both of them unsure of where they stood in the world, but sure of what they shared with each other. They broke apart and they looked into each other's eyes.
Steve thought he was the luckiest man in the world.
Originally I did not plan to include the Steve/Natasha moment here at the end, but I do realize that the story has drifted a little :) I intend to bring it back on track, starting with that scene. I'm not good at kissing scenes. The only other one I've written was the Tauriel/Legolas kiss at the end of Whirlwind.
I thought that it would be nice if Maria was a photographer. She seems like the kind of person who sees the little things in life. Maybe I've been making her too vulnerable, I don't know.
Hope you liked this!