That Friday night, after a long day of waiting anxiously and restlessly at school and cleaning up, there was loads of excitement both in front of the stage and backstage. Everyone was running around, getting last adjustments to their sparkling outfits and fixing their hair and make up.
"Five minutes, everyone!" called out Clint, who was checking off names on the clipboard. Natasha was standing next to him, clad in a gorgeous mermaid outfit, complete with a fluffy white jacket and glittering turquoise tail and a matching mask. Her bruises managed to heal, so she was looking great as usual. Her long red hair spilled around her shoulders.
"Thanks, Clint," she said gratefully.
"No problem." He gave her an appreciative once over. "You look amazing."
"Thanks!" Natasha replied and he walked away just when Steve crept up behind her.
"You're drooling," teased the sandy haired boy, who was wearing a wrestling outfit and the redhead glowered at him fiercely.
"Shut up! I am not!"
"Hey, Natasha," prodded Hill in a kitty cat costume. "You didn't tell us. How'd you do on the test?"
"I kicked major geometric ass, that's what," the red haired female announced proudly with a flourish of her arms.
"Yeah!" congratulated Pepper.
"All right!" Hill fist pumped.
"Awesome!" Steve said, hugging her, which Natasha returned after a few stunned seconds.
"Boring!" cried Tony and pulling the sandy haired man away from his redheaded crush, he then whispered over to Steve, "Even if it was fake dating, you did manage to sleep with her, right?" He nudged him in the ribs with his elbow, a huge grin crossing his lips. The other boy looked back, a horrified expression on his face.
"No!"
"No?" the dark haired boy repeated incredulously and looked at him in disgust. "What's wrong with you?"
"Unlike you, I'm not desperate to lose my virginity," snapped Steve.
Tony shot him another funny look with a mischievous glint in his dark brown eyes. "Who said I'm a virgin?"
Steve looked positively disgusted himself.
"Oh my God!" Pepper suddenly cried out and began to fix the chocolate brown butterfly wings of her costume nervously. "It's starting."
A long few hours of strutting down runways and flaunting their costumes with the little pets of theirs, the teenagers were wiped out and practically sweating backstage. "Who wants to crash somewhere right now?" Darcy sighed and raised her own hand. Ian immediately high fived it and the black haired girl stared at him grumpily before kissing him. Tony shielded his eyes.
"Oh, pretty please get a room!" he begged in horror and Darcy reluctantly pulled away from Ian with a glare directed towards Tony, who only harrumphed his blonde girlfriend a little more.
"We did it!" grinned Jane in her rock star outfit.
"It was amazing," Sif nodded and the two girls were managing to keep their rivalry on the down low.
"Listen to them," Steve said, whipping off his boxing mask and peeking through the lavender curtains to hear the roaring of the crowds outside. "They loved it!"
"Oh please!" Tony waved his hand in dismissal. "They only loved me. In fact, I'll go out there for their dying encore!" He was about to make an exit when Clint and Banner grabbed an arm each and dragged him back inside, despite his very loud protests.
"I think we need to celebrate," Pepper announced, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder and hugging Natasha's shoulders. "What do you say we all go for a little outing somewhere?"
The redhead shrugged, still hyper from the excitement. "Yeah, sounds great!"
Pepper shot a pointed look to her dark haired boyfriend, who at first didn't get it until she covertly shoved him in the stomach with her arm. "Ow! You girls go ahead," he instructed nonchalantly. "The guys and I will catch up with you later."
Natasha led them out, oblivious of the quiet giggles behind her.
"I can't believe we drove around for an hour and couldn't figure out one place to go," the red haired woman complained after taking off her sequined mask with a sigh. She looked at the girls in front of her with impatience as they currently stood in front of the door of Hill's loft.
"It's because we're all dressed up," Hill explained, turning away to hide the huge grin creeping up on her tanned face. She pretended to fumble with the key as she inserted it into the lock. "We can stop here for now and change into regular outfits."
She swung the door open, revealing a pitch black empty room and flipped on the light switch . . .
"SURPRISE!" everyone yelled at the top of their lungs at the very astonished, caught off guard and speechless Natasha. Everyone was laughing and smiling and the redhead spun around to face the girls who had planned it all. They all clapped a hand over their mouths and then waved their hands in a Ta Dan fashion.
"Surprise!"
"You guys, my birthday is a month away from now!" she exclaimed, clutching her hair in a happy and still hyper manner.
"How else were we supposed to make it a surprise?" pointed out Jane, her dark brown hair flying and the dark haired girl next to her heaved in a huge breath and sighed it out exaggeratedly.
"Finally! I actually managed to hold in the secret!" Darcy boasted out in triumph and all of the girls laughed.
"I love it! Thank you so much!" And all of the other girls squashed her in a bear hug, which she sank into for a moment before noticing a familiar figure sauntering up to them with her blue green orbs. She rolled them once in her sockets.
"Did anyone ask for drinks?" Tony said and handed the other glass in his hand to Pepper. Darcy immediately snatched the one in his hand and he looked up at her in angry shock.
"That would be me," she smugly added and took a grateful sip.
Phil Coulson was currently at the DJ turn tables and clicked it on, spinning the wheels around expertly. The girls scattered among the dance floor and Natasha was left with Darcy, who sidled up to her.
"This is why I wasn't speaking to you," Darcy explained to her in a bashful tone. "I'm the worst at keeping secrets, remember?" She winked at the redhead, who laughed in a breathless tone.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed slowly in emphasis, her fiery red locks flying everywhere. "You were the best! I totally thought you were jealous about me going out with Steve and everything."
The said boy suddenly materialized next to them, swaying to the music. "Well, what can I say?" he shrugged in a seeming helpless way but was wearing a smug smile and Darcy hid another smile as Natasha planted her hands on her hips with a stern pout. "I have that effect on girls."
As Darcy disappeared into the swarming crowd of gyrating people, Natasha slugged him on the arm in a half serious, half playful manner. "Did you know about all of this?" she demanded, waving her hands around.
"Yeah, I did," he admitted with another smirk to the fiery haired girl in front of him, who leaned back and crossed her arms, but couldn't help a entertained beam at his cheekiness.
"I can't believe you! You never said a thing."
Steve shrugged. "It was a surprise-" But he was knocked off his feet when Natasha flung her arms around his sturdy frame in a breathtaking hug. He quickly patted her back and blushed deeply until she pulled away, her eyes stunningly soft and glowing as she gazed at him.
"I never really thanked you for pretending to be my boyfriend," she whispered up at his face.
"Hey, no problem," he nervously laughed. "You don't even have to. It was . . . easy. I mean-" But Natasha interrupted him before he started a long and awkward conversation and he was grateful for that.
"Yeah. You know, the weird thing was that nobody was really surprised when they thought that we were going out together."
"Yeah, I noticed that too. Weird, huh?" He then turned away from her lovely face and pointed over to where Clint was enjoying a drink with Coulson and some other friends. "You know, Clint is still totally into you. You should tell him that we're not really together. He'll be psyched."
The redhead stared off into the distance for a moment. "Yeah, maybe," she murmured absentmindedly. The only reason she had flirted with Clint in The Dish was to mask her true feelings for Steve and to make him slightly jealous, which worked. She then remembered her and Pepper's words together and then asked once a slow song played in the background, "Hey, wanna dance?" She offered her hand.
"Sure, I'd love to," he smiled shyly, taking it and sweeping her into his arms. Here goes nothing.
"Steve, there's something I need to tell you," she murmured into his shoulder a few minutes into the dance. Steve slowed his pace even more so Natasha could pull away from him.
"Yeah, me too. Clint said that when you guys broke up, it was because of somebody else. Can I know what exactly he meant by that?" He raised an oblivious eyebrow. The woman in his arms had the ghost of a smile tracing her soft pink lips when she looked back at him.
"You, Steve. It was always you." And just like back on the escalator in the mall that day, she crashed her lips onto his, which he immediately reciprocated to. He pulled away just for a moment to whisper, "Damn." She giggled and leaned up to kiss him again.
Just a couple of meters away, all of the other teenagers in their group stared at them happily. Pepper gasped once she turned around and saw them. "Check it out!" she gushed and Tony just let out a bored, unimpressed, "Ew."
"I have to say, this party has been a massive success," agreed Hill with Sam's arm slung around her shoulders. The blond picked up her glass full of a sweet pink liquid and raised it in a toast.
"Ahem! Cheers to us," she announced.
Darcy lifted her own. "To keeping secrets," she said with a laugh as she leaned into Ian.
"To sharing secrets," called out a new voice and everyone now spun around to see Steve and Natasha walking up with their own glasses and Steve's arm wrapped around Natasha and Pepper once again cooed at their cuteness while Tony rolled his eyes. "With the best friends a person could ever had."
"Yo, Rogers. Does this mean you're actually dating now?" Tony inquired to Steve after they all toasted and sipped on their drinks. Steve then shifted over to face Natasha, who looked back at him haughtily and expectantly.
"So, doing anything fun this Saturday night?"
A/N: This is the end, but no worries, there is a sequel. Well, not exactly a sequel, but another Romanogers fanfic. It's on my profile called You Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart. Please go and read it and thank you so much to everyone who supported and read this! :D :) ;) xoxo -N