A/N: Kats1997, Twilight-Narnia-Charmed, MESPX13, Midgardian Avenger, immy01, Destined627, Kirigaya-Asuna54, Avengers101, Koala35, songsweareplayingforyou and guests : Thank you for your review. I really appreciate it!
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Listen to all the sad song in your list and read this chapter, trust me!
20 : NATASHA'S BIRTHDAY
Everyone noticed that the romantic gesture between Steve and Natasha was ceased. Suddenly the Captain created a distance between him and Natasha.
It was very obvious. The next morning, Steve came down from his room and found everyone was in the kitchen already. His eyes searching for certain someone.
The moment he saw Natasha, he looked away, pretended not seeing her there. He grabbed his breakfast and headed to another end of the table, far away from Natasha.
The only one who didn't noticed anything was the spy. Natasha sat next to her partner on the couch, hoping that they will continue reading the new novel together.
But Steve immediately got up and left. That's when Natasha knew something was going on.
His Fifty Shades— their Fifty Shades of Grey was left in the living room. He didn't bother pick it up from where it was left yesterday.
It's been going on like this for three days. Natasha tried to talk to her partner but he managed to get away every time. He was successfully avoiding her.
"How the hell is this happen?" Clint muttered as he and Tony was watching a surveillance feed from the gym.
Steve just sent another bag flying across the room. He looked up and saw Natasha. The captain didn't say anything, he just picked up his things and left in silent.
"You blab that dude's name, Birdbrain" Tony ranted "You make our plan fall apart!"
"Captain Rogers had been asking for the information about Taylor Keaton, sir"
Tony turned to his prank partner and rolled his eyes.
"It's not my fault! Steve caught me off guard. I didn't expect him to ask me out of nowhere"
"Now they don't even talk to one another!"
"You are the genius, come up with some plan ASAP!"
Things got worse when Steve decided to stay at his apartment in Brooklyn. Tony caught the captain packing his bag and sneaked out in the middle of the night.
"Where do you think you are going, Capsicle?"
"My apartment"
"For how long?"
"Indefinite"
With that, the captain got on his bike and drove away. Tony told everyone about this the next morning and Natasha was about to bolt out the door to find her partner.
"He needs time, red" Tony grabbed her arm. "He will come back when he's ready"
Steve did came back to the tower when he was ready like Stark said but he was different that everyone could noticed.
He was cold, quite, and reserved. He didn't talk to anyone like before and he hid himself away from others.
Today was a bit different when everyone was gathering in the living room and Steve could not avoid this chaos when Tony spotted him.
"Come down here, Capsicle!" The billionaire said loudly. "You cannot hide forever"
Steve complied but he laid down at the love seat near the window just to stay away from Natasha who sat on their usual couch.
A smile on the spy's face faltered. Her eyes were looking at the super soldier wistfully. He had been ignored her for four days already.
"Natalie, is there something you want for your birthday?" Tony asked.
"For you to stop calling me Natalie and any others name that is not my name" She fired back.
"I need a serious answer, Red so I can figure what to give you on that day"
"Alright, if you really need to know..." She replied annoyingly. "There was a house in Stalingrad, I believed it was my house if it was not a false memories Red room had planted in my head. I think I kept my most prized procession there."
"What was it?"
"I remember that I have my only family picture on the end table. I hid my dad ring and my mom's pearl string in the hole under a wooden prank under my bed. There was a book, bed time stories, with a blue cover hid under my pillow. My first knife hanging on the wall. My room was a room with a red door on the third floor"
"You can remember every detail" Bruce noted.
"But that house could be just a false memory. I don't really think that it was real because the memory was so vivid that it cannot be real"
"Woah, that's suck" Tony said and changed the subject immediately "What's about flower?"
"I like roses, to be specific, red, white and orange."
"Very girly for you, Widow"
"I know but I like to wake up to the smell of it"
"I can get you a whole garden of roses, what do you think?"
"Is this a bargain for your life, Stark? Because this one will not help, if you keep pissing me off every chance you got"
"In case I'm lucky" Tony shrugged his shoulders and turned to the certain super soldier "Capsicle! What do you think about the party?"
There was no answer from behind the love seat. Everyone got up and walked over there to check on their captain.
"He's sleeping" Clint said. "And who make him read Twilight?"
"I am" Darcy raised her hand.
They all started to walk away to let the captain had some rest but Natasha lingered behind until she saw no one was looking at them. She knelt down and kissed his forehead before got up and walked away.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Steve was pretending to be asleep. His hand was filled with note about everything that Natasha just said.
Captain America had been called in for the mission. This time he will do this mission without his friends. Fury strode in with a file for Steve in his hands.
"Sorry for calling you in such a short notice, Captain" The director began "This mission is optional. You can join if you want to but I do understand that you don't want to accept this mission, Captain Rogers. Tomorrow is your partner's birthday after all"
"What is the mission about, sir?"
"We will investigate an old house in Russia. We believe it was one of the terrorist cell. The mission won't take too long. Just in and out within 5 hours"
"I will join with your team, sir. It is better if I go with them in case some superpower villain emerge."
"Good! Plane will leave in one hour"
His team consisted of 10 agents. There were on their quinjet to Russia. It's already been eight hours that he had to sit in quinjet.
"Cap, we will be at the dropping zone at Stalingrad in ten minutes" Agent Wade informed.
"Captain, I would like to remind you that this 5 hours window is all we have. If we don't get out in time, Russian government will shoot us on sight."
"Thank you, Hills" Captain America said and prepared himself for landing. "My team will meet you at the rendezvous point in four hours"
It was midnight in Russian when Steve and his team jumped out of the quinjet before hid themselves in the dark.
"The house was clear, sir" Agent Blake said "There is no sign of hostile"
"Alright team! We're going in" Steve said and slotted shield onto his arms.
The team stealthy move toward the front door and Wade was scanning for any booby trap. When it was clear, Steve was the one to get in.
"First team took this floor and dungeons, proceed with caution." The captain ordered "The rest of you with me. We will take the second and third floor"
They were silently moved to the second floor. Steve signaled Jackson and Blake to clear this floor while he and Wade will searched the third floor.
"Steve!" A voice that made Steve rolled his eyes immediately.
"Stark, what the hell? Did you just intercept my communication?"
"Damn right, bro" Tony replied "Why the hell do you go to Russia anyway? It's Red's birthday and she is very pissed that you choose your mission over her."
"I don't care." Steve answered but trying to make it didn't sound too harsh, he added "I have a job to do"
"More like you volunteer to do. Cap, Hills told me that you are more than eager to accept this mission."
"It's for the greater good and could you please deliver my apology to Natasha?"
"I will do it but I don't know that she would…"
"I know" Steve replied sadly before suddenly changed his tone "And get off my comm now!"
Captain America now standing in the room previously belong to Natasha Romanoff. He was looking around and found a family picture on the end table next to the bed.
The picture covered in dust. He gently swept the dust off and it's revealed a little girl with red hair, smiling and hugging her parents. She was surely his Natasha.
Steve found an old box and put the picture in there before began to search for other things his partner said. He took the delicate knife off the wall and picked the bed time stories book from under her pillow.
The pearl string and ring were the hardest to find until he found the wooden prank that she mentioned. There is a velvet red box covered in dust rested there. Steve opened it and saw the ring and the pearl string.
Steve gently put everything inside the box before started to look for other thing Natasha might want it back until Wade walked in to report the team status to his commander.
"Captain, this is a Black Widow recruitment center where they brought orphans in and gave them a shelter before train them to become a spy"
"Like Natasha?"
"Yes, like Agent Romanoff. This one is an old facility that perhaps turned into the liar of our enemy."
"Do what we need to do and better make it quick. We only have two hour left"
"Captain! This is a trap! Red room agents and rouge KBG spies are all here!" Agent Fisher interrupted through his comm
"Do we have enough information we need?"
"Yes, sir"
"Extraction team are en route. We're better hold them off right here" Wade said.
Steve and the three agents went downstairs and found a massive gun fire between his agents and the red room rouge. Steve use his shield to defect the bullets and provide a cover for his agents.
"Кто может принимать Капитана Америку вниз, будет значительно наградить!" The leader shouted something over the gunfire noise and immediately every gun was point at Steve.
"Cap! It seem like they want to kill you" Wade said.
"I already know that, Wade" Steve replied. "You guys get the hell out of here and Wade…take care of that box with your life"
"Yes, sir"
The agents started to run out of the building. Quinjet was already here.
"Cap! Get the hell out of that building" Wade yelled over his comm
"Kinda busy right now"
Steve stuck in the gunfire and cannot moved. Some part of his body had been injured by bullets. Suddenly, everything was stop. He peeked over his shield and the Red Room agents were gone.
The bomb was about to go off in five second and Steve run for his life. The bomb ignited behind Steve.
"You're alright, cap?" Wade sounded concern as he pulled his captain up.
"Yeah, I'm fine"
"That was pretty close"
"Wade! Rogers! We gotta go" Hills shouted from the cockpit.
The two walked onto the quinjet and Wade asked his captain about the box.
"Is this box worth your life?"
"Yes, it worth risking my life. I will do anything to protect the things in this box."
Steve slept all the way back to New York. Hills had to wake him up and when she saw those wounds on his body still bleeding, she exclaimed.
"Captain! Those wounds need to be tend!"
"I'll live" Steve tiredly replied "Just take me back to the tower, I have something important to do"
Wade and Hills had to pilot the quinjet to take their Captain back to Stark Tower. As the jet landed, Steve quickly walked off with a box in his hands
"Wait here! I will take only 20 minutes"
Steve got inside the building and took the elevator down to his floor. It was 11 pm already. He was just in time before it will pass Natasha's birthday.
"JARVIS! Is the flower here yet?"
"Already in your room, sir"
Steve went to his room and started to wrap the gift. He walked to Natasha's room and sat the box and a rose bouquet in front of her door.
Then he heard the sound that could broke his heart, Natasha was crying on the other side of the door. Steve could felt something inside him started to tumbling down. He wanted to hug her and console her.
But he couldn't
The soldier just knocked the door and quickly walked away.
Natasha went to her room after her birthday party with her friends. Everyone was there except the person she really want him to be here.
Steve Rogers who was on a super important mission that he chose it over her.
Natasha was very sad. She had to fake a happy smile so she didn't worry or upset her friends.
Thing between her and Steve was very weird lately. The moment the spy was in her room and securely locked the door behind her. She cried.
Cried like she never cried before in her entire life because of a man.
She was crying because of a man!
She heard footsteps outside her bedroom but she didn't care until there was a knock on her doors. She quickly got up and swung the door open but found no one.
She looked left, right and then down and she spotted a wrapped box with a big rose bouquet on it. There was a small note on it too.
'I'm not sure that this is what you mentioned earlier about Russia but I have done my best. Happy Birthday, Nat! - Steve'
Oh. My. God. Did he—did he just accept this mission just to get her a birthday present?
She needed to talk to him.
"JARVIS, where is Captain Rogers?"
"He just left with quinjet from SHIELD, ma'am and on his way to the Triskellion"
"Did he injured?"
"From my brief scanning of Captain Rogers's body, he has shrapnel in his body from the explosion, a second degree burn on his back and shoulder, three severe cuts and ten bullet holes."
Steve went through all of this just to get her the present she want. Natasha couldn't believe it. He went through hell just to make her happy.
Oh my god!
The next day, Natasha was really looking forward to talk to Steve and thank him for his gift. The soldier didn't show up in the morning. She went to his bedroom, gym and library but couldn't found him.
Until JARVIS alerted the team in the evening.
"Sir, Captain Rogers would like me to inform you that he will stay at his apartment for indefinite amount of time as he need some private time"
"I will go check up on him" Natasha said and stood up from her seat. "Something must bothering him"
Clint grabbed her arms to stop his best friend.
"I don't think he want to talk to any of us, Nat"
"But—"
"Just let him have some time to himself"
The spy sighed before pacing back and forth. Tony felt the same way as Natasha. Something must bothering his best friend and he really need to figure out what it is.
But his gut already had an answer.
The certain redhead spy must be the cause of all the fuss.
Natasha tried to call Steve but he didn't pick up his phone. Clint was unwillingly on the task to stop Natasha from going to Steve's apartment.
Tony went there to check up on his friend without letting Natasha know. The billionaire had a key to the apartment, of course he bought this apartment for the good captain.
The genius saw his friend was lazily laying on the bed and had his sketchbook next to him. Some finished drawing laid on the ground but the billionaire didn't pay his attention.
"Why are you hiding here, Cap?"
"I didn't hide." Steve corrected "I just don't want to go back to the tower—"
"And facing Natasha" Tony finished the sentence.
Steve didn't say a thing and that enough for the billionaire to know that he was right.
"JARVIS told me you done a background check on Taylor Keaton"
"Yeah, I needed to"
"What's your opinion about that guy?" Tony tried to make it sound like a casual talk "For me, he must really like her that much to put up with our little red this far"
"Yeah, she must really like him too. It's been almost four months"
Tony could noticed the feeling on the Captain's face. It filled with hurt, pain and sadness before Steve put it all behind the cold mask.
"Dude, just told her how you feel—"
"My feeling doesn't matter, Stark" Steve harshly interrupted "Please leave, I need sometime— alone"
A/N: The Russian part, I'm not sure that it was correct or not. I use google translate. If it was wrong, sorry for the mistake. Hope that I didn't offend you.
- Lots of drama ahead *dodging rocks*, you guys need to put up with it a lot.
- Fate of Steve and Nat is in your hand, leave your opinion about anything you want.
-As always, Review, critic and advice are greatly appreciated! I love to read your review so much that I read it 10 times everyday
Next chapter: well, sorry no spoiler! (but leave your prediction)