Chapter 2

Adjusting to a new world was not easy. Everything was foreign, loud and too bright in the beginning. Nothing made sense anymore. Everyone he knew was dead. Everyone except Peggy but she was in the early steps of dementia and it broke his heart to see her fierce spirit vanish in front of his eyes.

When Fury showed up at his apartment two weeks after the battle of New York - he still had some issues to wrap his head around the fact that aliens were real- and offered him a job at SHIELD, he said immediately yes. He knew from Peggy's file that she help found it and that was a huge factor why he agreed to move to DC. He would work with Agent Romanoff since her partner Barton needed to recover from the whole Loki accident and would then be undercover for a few months. Steve liked Romanoff. She was a capable agent and fought well along side him in the streets of Manhattan. He was still extremely impressed that she jumped off his shield to hijack a Chitauri ship.

So he packed his few things and left Brooklyn a few days later to move to DC.

She made it from the moment they left Fury's office very clear that she wasn't going to hold his hand or baby him. He appreciated that immensely. Everyone treated him like he was made out of glass and it drove him nuts. Everyone except Romanoff. She taught him the rules of espionage, how to use new technology and trained him in various martial arts. They spent hours on the training floor of the Triskelion.

Practically everything he knew and learned in this new world was what she taught him. And he liked to think that she was his friend. He wasn't so sure if Natasha Romanoff did friends but she didn't give him a death glare when he sat down at her table at the SHIELD cafeteria. He witnessed how some Level 2 agent once tried to sit at her table and she gave him her signature death glare and the poor man almost fell over his own feet when he stumbled away.

They were on their way back from a mission from Mexico City to DC when Romanoff plopped down on a seat next to him on the quinjet and asked him for his book. She gifted him a small notebook a few months ago so he could write everything new down that he wanted to learn about or see. He pulled it out of the unity belt of his uniform and handed it to her. She had a pen in her hand and wrote down quesadiallas and crossed it out.

"You still haven't checked out Harry Potter?" She held the book in front of his face so he could see it. Harry Potter was right over quesadiallas and not crossed out.

"I've read the books but I haven't seen the movies yet." He explained and hoped that she would offer to watch them with him. They didn't do it often but sometimes she would notice something on his list and watch a movie with him at his place or go to a restaurant with him. She introduced him to Thai food last month and he underestimated the hotness of the food and almost burned his tongue off. She was laughing at him with tears in her eyes and it was the pain worth it.

She gave him the book back. "I would start them with you but Barton comes back tomorrow."

Right, Barton was needed for some reports at the Triskelion and had to leave his post in Chicago for a few days. They never confirmed it or showed any PDA at SHIELD but everyone assumed they were an item. Barton saved her and brought her to SHIELD and since then they were inseparable. But then Loki happend and she needed a new partner and he took Barton's place.

He couldn't help but be disappointed that Barton would come back and even if it was just for a week.

"Okay maybe another time, Romanoff?" He asked hopefully. It was maybe sad but she was his only friend and the little time they spend outside of SHIELD together meant a lot to him.

"Sure." She gave him a short smile and stretched her legs. "I think after one year you can call me Natasha."

That for some reason made him incredibly happy. "Only if you call me Steve."

"Okay, Steve." She patted his knee for a second and he liked how his name sounded when she said it. "Hey, did you ask out Lola from Public Affairs?"

He groaned and crossed his arms over his chest. She'd been trying to set him up with several SHIELD agents for the past two months. For some reason she was hellbent on finding him a girlfriend. But he wasn't ready for that and he had to admit that he somtimes wished Natasha would throw her own name in the ring. He knew he wouldn't say no if she asked him out. But she was with Barton and she was his only friend, so he let that fantasy go.

"I told you I don't want to date yet, Natasha." He liked saying her first name. He had a feeling he would use it a lot from now on.

"It is almost a crime that you refuse to share that patriotic booty with the female population of the world." She smirked at him.

He could feel how a blush was forming on his cheeks. "Shut up."

Natasha grinned even wider and looked very pleased with herself. Yeah, he already figured out that she liked to tease him and for some reason he liked it too.

They landed at the Triskelion two hours later and after a short debriefing with Agent Hill they were free to go. Natasha was already in the elevator when he got in. The sun was rising and shined through the glass walls of the elevator and gave Natasha's face and hair a beautiful glow. He couldn't tell when he started to pay attention to those things.

"You gonna go crash or are you gonna run a marathon now, Steve?" Natasha arched one of her perfectly plugged eyebrows at him.

"Nah, I'll think I head straight to bed."

"If you asked out Lola, she might would have been waiting in your bed for you." Her eyes sparkled at him.

"I walked right into that one, didn't I."

"Yup, you did."

The elevator stopped and Rumlow got in.

"Mission went like clockwork, didn't it?" Rumlow said to no one in particular.

Steve felt obliged to answer. "Yeah, it did."

Rumlow turned to Natasha and gave her a look of approval. "Looking fine as always, Romanoff."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "It's like you're begging me to kill you."

They all got out when the elevator reached the garage. Natasha needed to go the other end of it for her car and said goodbye to him.

Rumlow's car was near his bike and so he had to walk a bit with him. "Did you just call Romanoff Natasha?"

"Yeah. So?"

"It's just there are only three people who get to call her that. Fury, Coulson and Clint. And now you. Rollins once called her Natasha and she wiped the floor with him the next day in training. No one ever dared to use her first name again." Rumlow shook his head at the memory and got into his car.

Steve couldn't hide his grin the whole drive back to his apartment. It was a good sign that she allowed him to call her Natasha, wasn't it? He knew how important Fury, Coulson and Clint were to her. He was honoured that he now belonged to that circle as well.

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