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Chapter 22

Natasha wasn't kidding when she told him that she would get mean when she was bored. He knew that she was lashing out at him during the first week because she felt useless and weak and he tried his best to not take it personally. He also hadn't been always very nice to his ma and Bucky when he was sick and they wanted to help him. She always apologized afterwards and let him help her.

They decided after some arguing that he would stay at her place. She insisted that it was enough if he would check in on her from time to time to help her change her bandage but he could see that she needed more help than that and he was afraid that something happened to her while he wasn't there. So he packed a suitcase and moved in with her for the time being.

The conversation with Fury about his four week long vacation was interesting to say the least. He was at the Triskelion with Nat after she got flown back to DC and while she got checked through by the SHIELD docs, he was in Fury's office to tell him about his plan.

"I heard from Barton that Romanoff isn't going to stay in Delaware." Fury sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I guess she can stay at my house. My housekeeper can look after her. I don't want her running around in her apartment alone and popping her stitches. We both know she'll try to redo them herself and she's no Dr. Strange ."

"About that, Sir. I'm going to take care of Natasha. That's why I'm here. I need the time off while she recovers."

"Are you now?" Fury chuckled. "How is STRIKE gonna run without Romanoff and you?"

"If there's a world ending scenerio I'll be there but otherwise I won't come in." He put his Captain America face on to stand his ground.

Fury's lips twitched in amusement. "And Agent Romanoff is okay with that?"

"Yes, sir."

"Interesting. Can't say I saw this coming. Or maybe I should have." Fury smirked. "I can see why you fell for her but I didn't think you'd be her type."

Should he be offended by that? Steve didn't know what to answer. He guessed Fury now knew that they were a couple. "So I get the next weeks off?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just make sure we can reach you if we need you. And make sure Natasha is taking good care of." Fury's expression darkened and Steve knew he didn't just mean the next four weeks while she was recovering.

He was now staying with her for one week and it was time again to change her bandage. He couldn't stand looking at her wound and always hurried to change the bandage. He should have protected her, he should have taken that bullet. They didn't tell him in Philadelphia but they had to reanimate Nat on the OR table. Her heart stopped beating for 30 seconds.

"What's going on in that head of yours?" Natasha asked him when he pulled her shirt back over her upperbody.

"I read the medical report about your stay in Philadelphia." He helped her back onto the couch and covered her with a blanket. "You were dead for 30 seconds." He did everything to hold his tears back. What if they didn't manage to bring her back? He couldn't imagine to live in this world without her. Sam asked him after his first visit to the VA about what made him happy and Natasha's face immediately flashed through his mind.

"Steve." She whispered and interwined their hands. "I'm okay now. Don't think about that, okay?"

He nodded and looked at their hands. Her small hand fitted to perfectly into his. Natasha wanted to take a nap while he would get out to get take out for them. She was in the mood for Indian food and he had no clue how to make it.

"I'll be right back." He kissed her forehead and left her apartment.

Natasha was on the phone when he came back with two bags full of food. She smiled at him and his heart fluttered like it did everytime she smiled. He placed the bags on the coffee table and went to the kitchen to get cutlery.

Natasha moved to make room for him on the couch and ended her phone call. "That was Clint. He says hi." She opened a styrofoam container and smelled the food. "Mm. Thanks for getting take out." She digged her fork into her food.

"No problem." He started to dig into his own food.

They ate in silence and watched the news and he got up to get her pain killers that she couldn't take on an empty stomach.

She gulped the glass of water in one sip down. "Steve?" She looked at him with hesitation.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want kids?"

He was surprised. He didn't think that would have been her question. He didn't think about a starting family ever since he got out of the ice and even before that he wasn't sure if he really wanted to have children. It was just something that was expected of you. Could he even be a father and be Captain America? No, he could only be one of the two and he wanted to be Captain America. He wanted to protect people with Natasha by his side. But did she want to have kids? Would being with him deny her of something, stop her from being a mother? Would she leave him one day because she wanted to have children?

"Steve?" She looked almost scared. "Do you...do you want to have children one day?"

"No." He blurted out. "I don't. Do you want to?" What if she said yes? Would they break up?

She shook her head. "No and even if I did, I can't get pregnant. The Red Room made sure of that." She whispered.

He took her hands to kiss them. "I'm sorry they took this from you."

"I'm sorry I lied to you."

He furrowed his eyebrows. What was she talking about? "I told you I was on birth control when we had sex for the first time."

"Oh. It's okay. I understand that's not something you wanted to talk about in that moment."

They cuddled on the couch and watched FRIENDS. The pain meds knocked Nat out and he carried her to bed and made sure that she wouldn't roll on her stomach during the night.

Two weeks past and Natasha could move around without pain. He took her grocery shopping and walked with her through a small park near her apartment complex. One afternoon they met Sam for ice cream and his mom made her cookies. Natasha was obviously caught off guard by the nice gesture of a stranger but she played with the ribbon around the cookie jar the entire drive back to her place and she knew that she was happy with her gift.

Natasha took her place on the couch and put her legs over his lap. She was getting better and her wound was nicely healing. She would have a scar but Tony offered to fly her to Seoul to a Dr. Cho who removed the scar from his heart surgery. Natasha said that she was thinking about it since a scar on her stomach wasn't that easy to hide as the one on her hip. He knew that she personally didn't care about her scars and he didn't care if she had any. It didn't make her less beautiful, it made her even more beautiful. It was a reminder that she faced death and won.

He massaged her legs and she had her eyes closed and hummed to herself. If he was being honest, he didn't want to go back to his place after she was healed. His apartment was cold and quiet and hers was warm and full of life. But he didn't have the courage to ask her if he could move in with her for real. Besides it was probably way to soon for that. Who moves together after two and a half months?

"You wanna watch a movie or something, Nat?"

"No. Tell me something about your friend Bucky." She gave him a small smile. He started to tell her about his life before the ice and the serum. About his ma and how hard she worked and how loving and kind she was.

"What do you wanna know?" He pulled her socks off her feet to massage them.

She shrugged and bit into one of the cookies Sam's mom made for her. "What was he like?"

"He was funny, he had great sense of humor." He smiled at her. "Always looked out for me and saved my ass when I got in trouble. And all the girls in Brooklyn loved him. He even charmed the old lady from the clothing store who never smiled or sold her clothes for a deal. But his little sister Becca saw a nice dress one day in that window's shop and really wanted it but it was too expensive. Bucky walked to the store the next day again and charmed the old hag into selling it to him for half the price." He chuckled. "Bucky was a great brother to Becca. And to me. I wouldn't have made it past 17 without him. He was the best." He knew that he must have had a sad facial expression when Nat leaned forward and cupped his face to kiss him.

"I didn't mean to make you sad, Steve." She whispered and kissed him again.

"I know. It's good to talk about him. He was memorable guy."

"I wish I could have met him." She leaned back against the pillows again.

He had to laugh. "Oh boy, he would have been so smitten with you. He would have hit on you the moment he saw you." He grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes and pulled her feet from his lap and was in the next moment sitting on his lap. "Too bad I only have eyes for his best friend." She pressed her body against him and kissed him hungrily and slipped her tongue into his mouth when he gapsed. They needed to stop any minute now before they were both too far gone. Natasha wasn't allowed to engage in any strenous physical activities and sex was definitely one of them. He didn't think it would be this hard to go without sex for a few weeks when he was still a virgin but now that he knew how great sex was, how great sex with her was, it was really taking its toll on him. He ached for her.

Nat started to grind her hips against him and grabbed her waist to hold her still . "Stop it. You know we can't"

She tried to move but he was so much stronger than her. "Please! I miss you!" She whispered against his lips. "I miss having you inside me."

Yeah he missed being inside of her too but her health was more important than that. He kissed her nose. "One more week, doll."

She groaned in annoyance and got of his lap. "This sucks!"

He nodded and grabbed a pillow to hide his erection but of course she knew that it was there. She was sitting on it seconds ago. She smirked at him. "Good to know I'm not the only one who's horny."

He huffed a laugh out and turned the tv on. They watched a documentary about giraffes and fell asleep on the couch.

He thanked the universe that he wasn't needed during the four weeks and he got to look after Nat the entire time. It was horrible what happend to her but it also brought them closer. They talked about everything and anything and learned so much about each other.

They visited Sam at his house and had a barbecue with him and his family and Steve felt so proud when he introduced Nat as his girlfriend. She would go back to work next week but he still insisted that she should sit down and that he would get her anything she wanted. He got up to get her a beer and some ribs and Sam's mother Darlene sat down next to Nat and thanks to his good hearing he could hear them.

"He's a keeper. You don't find a good man like that every often, honey."

"I know. I'm not letting him go anywhere." Something told him that Nat knew that he could hear them. "He's mine." Her possessiveness made him dizzy and filled him with happiness. He knew how much it meant that she said something like that.

On Friday she had a appointment with the SHIELD docs and they cleared her for work. She told him that after she came back to her apartment and before she crashed her lips against his and pushed him against a wall.

"I can now officially engage in strenous activities again." She wiggled her eyebrows and led him to the bedroom.

He honestly lost count of how many times they made love. They only left her bedroom to get food or to use the bathroom. Or to have sex somewhere outside her bed.

It was Sunday evening and they both would get back to work tomorrow. He was looking forward to it but it also meant that he would have to get back to his place. They ended up on the floor in front of her bed after another round of mindblowing sex. No wonder everyone was so obsessed with it, sex was fucking amazing. He was laying on his back and Natasha was wrapped around him with her head on his chest and looking up at him.

"Steve?" She kissed his pec.

"Mm?" He was getting sleepy after all that sex.

"Did you buy your apartment or did you rent it?"

"It's rented. Why?"

She moved up his body until her face hovered over his. "So you could easily move? Like say to here?" Her voice was small and unsure.

"Really?"

"I know it's probably too soon and all that jazz. But I like having you around me all the time. Sleeping next to you." She paused. "But it's okay if you don't want to."

He reached up to kiss her. "I recall my lease tomorrow. I would love to move in with you."

She smiled brightly at him and kissed him. "This is gonna be fun."

And it turned out they weren't too tired to celebrate this new step of their relationship with another round of lovemaking. He was going to live with a woman. The little Steve from Brooklyn would have never thought that would happen for him.

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