38 : BEFORE THE STORM**
After a very successful sleepover as Tony claimed, the couple went back to their floor at the tower. They went on a mission as usual. Steve's assault team was tasked with a mission to hunt down HYDRA agents and burn down any remaining facility that housed them throughout the world.
After a very long mission, they arrived back at the tower. Both of them did not say a word because they were too tired to open their mouths and only wanted to shower and go to bed. But without a word, Steve carried Natasha back to their quarter the way he always does when she was too exhausted.
They stripped off their uniforms and hopped into the shower together before heading straight to bed.
The morning came soon enough, Natasha was the first one to wake and found herself in the tight embrace of her soldier, the warm embrace that she knew was the safest place on earth. She watched him sleep, another thing that she loved to do.
Her finger traced down his jawline gently but he grabbed her hand before pressing a light kiss on her knuckles. Steve slowly opened his eyes and smiled at her.
"How long have you been awake?" He asked
"About an hour"
"You should have woke me"
"No, I love watching you sleep, Rogers" She stated and gave him a quick kiss "I love it when you smile while you sleep"
"I tend to do it when I'm truly happy"
They smiled at each other and didn't say anything. Steve was looking at her face. His eyes roamed all over her face like he was trying to remember every detail of her. His eyes told her everything, like they always do, telling her how much he loves her, how important she is to him, and the way his eyes are sparkling, it was like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time.
She always wondered how he could possibly look at her like that, look at her like she wasn't the killing machine she knew herself to be. He was looking at her like she was an angel, almost worshiping her.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" She asked "No man ever looked at me the way you do"
"Natasha, if I woke up with you in my arms every morning, I know that everything will be just fine"
Natasha smiled at his lovely words. Steve Rogers wasn't the only one who was waiting for the right one, the right partner. Natasha Romanoff too was trying to find the only one and luckily, she found him.
Steve carried his beautiful spy downstairs and the first thing they heard from the living room was…
"Wowww" They heard Thor boomed "Ladies of Midgard in revealing clothes are very attractive"
Steve put Natasha down and they walked to Thor, who was watching something on the laptop. The spy peeked over Thor's shoulders.
"Woah! You guys are making Thor watch the Victoria Secret Fashion Show?" Natasha asked, eyebrows quirked.
"We just expanded the mind of the Thunderer, to what Midgard has to offer him" Tony replied
"Thor, where is Jane?" Natasha asked because she knew Thor will act like Tony and Clint when Jane isn't around
"Lady Jane is on her way back to the state of New Mexico in a flying boat, Lady Widow"
Natasha chuckled at Thor's answer before she turned to see the reaction of her boyfriend whose face was a bright red.
"Is that—the brand you try to drag me with you to get?"
"Yes" She replied with a sly smile
"Please tell me you don't have one of those"
"Well, I have all of them and I will wear one of them tonight" She whispered
"I want in!" Tony exclaimed "I want to see you wear sexy lingerie too!"
Natasha rolled her eyes.
"Stark, you are basically one of the richest man in the world, why don't we get a ticket to this?" Clint asked but never taking his eyes off the computer.
"If you guys want to, I can arrange that. Six of us and Pepper."
Natasha looked very excited about this.
Steve turned to his girlfriend. "Do we really need to go?"
"I want to" She replied before realized something "So, I have to keep my man away from those models, haven't I?"
"Please" He begged with his puppy dog eyes
"Don't worry, baby. I will be right by your side"
Tony did find them tickets to the Fashion Show. He said something to the company about the Avengers wanting to see the show. Well, the company even provided them with front row seating.
Steve looked really nervous and Natasha didn't know why. He was standing in the bathroom, dressed up in blue shirt and slim fit khaki pants. She had to admit that he looks handsome in everything.
"Why are you so nervous?" She asked, staring at him from the mirror.
"I don't want to go to an event like this" Steve replied "I have never been to an event like this before".
"You will do just fine, Steve. You will just sit there and watch skinny models in sexy lingerie"
Steve sighed but he didn't say anything. Finally, the couple were ready and headed downstairs. Tony's limos were waiting for them.
They arrived at the venue where the Fashion Show was being held that year. The Avengers stole all the attention from every celebrity because every reporter and photographer was all over them.
Especially, the American golden boy and the Russian spy.
The Captain was obviously uncomfortable to share any private detail to the press but luckily, Natasha did all the talking while he just nodded in agreement.
"Are you guys planning to tie the knot soon?" A female report asked.
"We have not discussed that but I'm sure when the right time comes you will know about it" Natasha replied "We just want to focus on the present. Sometimes life is too short to be worried about the future"
They answered a couple more questions before Steve pulled her inside the building.
"I permit you to look at them as much as you want" She leaned in and whispered.
"I really don't want to look at—them. Besides, I see the best body with my own eyes"
"That's very sweet of you" She smiled as they sat down in their seats.
"Who could possibly be more excited than Stark?" Steve said and pointed at Tony who was talking to a group of celebrities.
The staff announced that the show would begin in five minutes and everyone should take their seats. Natasha could see that Steve was really uncomfortable looking at the models on the runway. She took his hands and whispered again that she allowed him to look at them.
"I'm not comfortable, Nat."
So Steve mostly chatted and whispered to Natasha. In his mind, he was praying that SHIELD would call him in for a mission. Everyone else in the family looked like they were enjoying the show. Thor, who was still as confused as Steve, said to Tony that,
"The ladies of Midgard are more attractive than I thought"
"They are the most beautiful women in world, Thor" Clint said before he received a punch on his arm by Bobbi. "But you are the MOST beautiful, babe"
Steve was able to sit through the entire show but the after party was by far the worst. Everyone seemed so eager to meet with the Avengers, but no one earned as much attention as Captain America. The girls swamped him in no time and Natasha wasn't there to help him out. The spy did keep a close eye on her man while she sat at the bar with Pepper.
"I'm surprised you let Rogers in the middle of hot supermodels"
"It's fun to see him struggle" She said with a devilish smirk. "Besides, I don't have to worry that he might cheat on me"
"But he doesn't seem to be struggling anymore, Red" Tony pointed out Steve and a blonde supermodel "He looks comfortable with that girl"
Natasha frowned and got up from her seat immediately. She sauntered her way to her boyfriend.
"Hey, honey, I've been looking for you" She tiptoed and gave him a quick kiss.
"Hey" He replied and looked at her lovingly before introducing her to the girl he's talking to "Natasha, this is Candice"
"Nice to meet you" They both said and shook their hands.
"Tony has been looking for you" She informed
"Excuse us" Steve said to the girl before walking away with Nat.
"You seemed happy" She noted.
"She's nice, easy to talk to…wait!" He stopped and turned Natasha to face him "Are you jealous?"
Natasha pouted "Every single woman in this room is drooling all over you and yes, I am a little bit possessive sometimes especially when my man is near supermodels"
He chuckled and hugged her "Natasha Romanoff, I'm with the hottest girl in the world. For me, no one can compare to you"
"I love you, Steve Rogers"
"I love you too, ma'am"
She smiled and led him to where their friends were. Tony received a hundred dollars from Clint.
"You got whipped, Rogers" Tony noted "You should flirt with those models"
"It's called respect, Stark" Steve retorted "And I don't want to do that"
"Geez, you are the least fun person I have ever met"
Before anyone could say anything, their phones buzzed at the same time and it was an urgent message from SHIELD.
"Sorry, girls! Duty calls" Tony said as the team exited the party and headed back to the Triskellion.
The team was suited up and was waiting for Fury at the meeting room. They still were still discussing the show and the party. Fury came in with Hill, Victoria Hand and Phil Coulson. Everyone could sense the urgency of the matter if the meeting required so many highly ranked SHIELD agents.
"Avengers, we have a situation" Fury began "Last night, we had a prison break at one of our maximum security facilities, the Fridge. HYDRA was behind this attack and was led by John Garrett."
"We have one prisoner escape. HYDRA specifically chose to release him."
"Who is he?" Tony asked
"A man the two of you are very familiar with, Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff have faced him before"
Everyone could see the couple tense up.
"His code name is the Winter Soldier or—"
"James Barnes" Steve finally said
"Your comrade from the old time?" Thor asked
"Yes"
"We believed a group of terrorists by the name of Leviathan allied with HYDRA to help him out"
"Leviathan? I thought we shut them down for good" Tony asked
"After Castle and Natasha teamed up last time" Clint recalled to the event
"You can never shut down a terrorist group, Hawkeye." Steve said "I thought I shut down HYDRA for good twice but has been running all this time".
They all noticed the bitterness in Steve's voice. HYDRA turned his best friend against him, forced him to fight with Bucky. More than that, HYDRA was able to infiltrate SHIELD, turning the organization that Howard and Peggy created into their own source of power.
He actually did nothing to stop them. He didn't try hard enough.
Suddenly, Steve felt a hand on his leg, it squeezed lightly and he looked up. Natasha looked at him, trying to console him because she knew how he felt.
They had been through this together before.
"We got a lead that Coulson's team pick up. They tracked movement via satellite and found this secret base in Ecuador"
"Your assault team is ready for you at the deploy bay" Fury told Steve "You are leaving in one hour"
The team began to exit the room while Steve lingered behind until everyone was out the room except him and Fury.
"Director, may I speak with you for a second?"
"Of course, Cap"
"How could you let this happened?"
"It's beyond my control, Captain. The Fridge is THE maximum security facility. We all know that John Garrett is a traitor but he couldn't assault that place without the help from someone"
"I thought we cleared everyone inside this organization after I crashed the helicarriers" Steve said "We uncovered all the HYDRA sleeper agents and so else could still infiltrate this place! We killed Pierce! We blew the STRIKE team's cover! We exposed everything about this entire place!"
"Captain, I know that you are frustrated"
"Damn right, Fury! I am beyond frustrated!" Steve yelled and everyone turned to them "I trusted you to hide him from HYDRA! To help him regain his memories! We had a deal and that deal was to keep him safe and no one would know about his whereabouts"
"Barnes was a highly trained assassin and one of the most valuable assets to HYDRA. They sure will take him back"
"That's not what I am afraid, Fury" Steve replied "I'm afraid they might brainwash him again and this time, it will more than we can ever recover"
"I'm sorry, Captain." Fury apologized and it took Steve off guard "I apologized for letting this happen but there will be no good if you're still here"
"I'm not done with you, Fury" That's all Steve said and headed out of the meeting room.
AN: After I'm finish with this story and AU story. I thinking about taking a break from writing for a while. :( Something came up.
- Thank you to my proofreader, RushmanNatalie!
- Please kindly leave a review!