54 : SKIP TOWN

"You guys are fucking engaged!" Tony yelled loudly when he spotted the ring on Nat's finger at the bar the day after they came back from camping.

Everyone in the bar fell in to complete silent and looked at the couple.

"We are not fucking engaged, Stark. It's a promise ring." Steve corrected and looked like he about to punch Tony

"Yeah, it is." The rich boy wiggled his eyebrows teasingly. "Rogers, you can tell me right away if you want the best bachelor party!"

"Just shut up, Tony." Nat hissed as she sat down.

Steve ordered their food but Clint dragged him to the bar with the guys to interrogate this. The girls too surrounded Nat and fired their questions at her.

"Are you guys really engage?" Darcy asked excitingly.

"Let me see the ring." Maria said

"This looks expensive." Pepper noted.

"Kinda vintage too." Jane added.

"We're not engage. It's really just a promise ring."

For the boys, they don't believe that Steve wasn't engaged to Nat, no matter how hard he tried to convince them so the captain let it slide. He went back to the table when the food finally served and enjoyed the meal with his girl.

Steve finally okay with watching Nat rehearsed with Edward. He finally kept his jealousy in check and Edward became a little amicable with Steve. When Edward stated it clearly that he and Nat were only friends.

But Steve kept his eyes close. Just in case.

"Natasha!" Someone called from the entrance to the auditorium. "There is someone looking for you."

Nat frowned, didn't realize that she would expect anyone, slowly walked down the stage and Edward followed her too. Steve stood up and walked by her side. It was a precaution since he pissed half of the football team, he had to keep Nat close.

But that someone was someone they both never expected to see again. Steve grabbed Nat's arm immediately and stood in front of her.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Steve growled and grabbed the guy's throat.

"I came here to see Natalie." The guy forced the word out.

"GO THE HELL BACK TO YOUR GOD FORSAKEN RAT HOLE!" The captain bellowed.

Nat pulled her boyfriend back and rubbed his arms to calm him down. Steve growled again and threw the guy to the ground.

"Alexei, what are you doing here?"

In front of them was her ex-boyfriend, Alexei Shostakov. The guy who Steve brutally beat up and threatened him not to contact Natasha again.

"Nat…" Steve tried to stop her.

"I will handle this myself."

"No."

"Steve, trust me."

"No."

"Babe." She said and tiptoed to kiss him.

But Steve pulled her into his embrace and crush her lips with his in a hard kiss. He intended to show Alexei that she was his girlfriend now and that Nat was moving on. Nat kissed him back but broke away when she needed some air.

"Steve, go. I can handle this." Nat whispered

"No. Let's me kill him."

"Steve, you have to trust me."

Nat could see he was obviously angry. He let go off her and looked at Alexei with a threatening eyes. It's not that he didn't trust her, he didn't trust Alexei and he was pretty sure that the ex-boyfriend will try something. Steve turned to Edward who watch the scene quietly.

"Don't let her out of your sight. If he lay hands on her, call me and I will kick that Russian ass back to his country."

Edward nodded and Steve began to walk away.

"Hey! We got your text. What happened?" Tony asked when he saw the quarterback approached the group.

Steve sent an assembly text to all the guys in the group. They were waiting for him at the parking lot.

"That douche Alexei came here!" Steve practically yelled at them. "I can't believe it."

"Maybe the previous massage wasn't clear enough." Clint suggested.

"And Nat told me to stay out of this and she will handle it by herself!"

"You gotta trust her, Steve."

"I trust her, Bruce. But I don't trust that douche bag."

"Did you have someone keep an eye on her?" Phil asked.

"I have Edward and Sam watched them."

Steve leaned against the hood of his car. Everyone could see clearly how serious he was. Millions of thoughts ran through his mind and because they were a very good friend, they will try to cheer him up.

"It's not that bad, man. She loves you and her family is here. She will not go back to Russia." Clint told.

"That's not what I'm afraid." Steve replied "I'm afraid that he might wake up old memories they shared and hurt her mentally."

They met up again at the bar. Edward dropped Nat off for Steve and the Captain couldn't thank him enough for helping him.

"You're alright?" He asked as he pulled her close. Blue eyes inspected every part of her body.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nat replied and leaned up to kiss him. "I told you…you don't have to worry about this."

"I couldn't help" Steve smiled against her lips and kissed her again.

Phil coughed loudly to warn the couple that there was audiences witnessed there PDA. They broke off and sat down together before ordering their foods.

"How did you manage to get rid of him?"

"Just tell him I moved on, my home is here, my family and friends are here, and he's no longer a part of my life."

"The last one is pretty cruel, babe."

"I know. It's the only way because let him down easily never work. I always have to do this the hard way."

A flash of guilt filled her eyes and Steve didn't fail to notice it. He knew she was thinking about the night she left her ex-boyfriend. The most haunted memory resulting in her fear of waking up alone in bed.

"It's not your fault, Nat. He left you no choice. He can't force you to stay with him and abandoned your dream."

"I know. Sometime, the old scar can sting."

"Trust me, I know that shit."

Nat laughed and leaned closer to Steve's body. I made the right decision, Nat thought in her mind. It's the best decision she ever made because if she didn't left Alexei that night, she will not meet Steve.

She will not meet the love of her life.

The next day started off pretty bad despite Nat thought that she and Alexei parted away easily. They were about to leave their dorm to go to class when Steve roared angrily and charged into Alexei.

"You just don't know how to give up, do you?" Steve grabbed him by his shirt and lifted the guy up from his feet. "Just leave my girlfriend the fuck alone!"

"No, I will not let her go or let you get in our way again." Alexei replied even though he was visibly shaking in fear because he could remember the last time Steve beat him up.

Steve's eyes shown with fury, "Need I remind you that you called her that last time and I found you the next day kissing another woman? You said you want her back but you already move on!"

"Steve, let him go." Nat said quietly and tried to pull Steve back.

"Let me handle this little shit, Nat. Maybe this time he will learn the fucking lesson."

"Steven, let him go. I will do this alone."

Steve frowned but let Alexei go. He huffed angrily and walked away immediately. Leaving Nat to deal with Alexei as she wish. He couldn't bear to stand there without beat the crap out of that guy. Nat watched as Steve left and she felt her heart arched a little because Steve didn't even look at her. He just left.

He was angry, she know. And he had every right to.

"Natalie, please come home." Alexei begged. "Don't leave everything behind. Our family waiting for us back in the motherland."

"No, my family is here. I got my real parents back, Alexei, They live here with me now." Nat replied "My life's here. My friends are here. My dream is here. The dream that you seemed to take it for granted for the sake of your own happiness. How could you ask me to abandon my own dream?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Yeah! It's what you meant, Alexei. You want me to give up everything for you."

"Come home, Natalie. I will give you everything if you come home with me."

"It's a little too late for that."

"It's not too late. You know that."

"I'm engaged, Alexei! I'm engaged to Steve!" Nat yelled at the guy "I love him. I'm not in love with you anymore. You blow you chance away."

"I don't believe you, Natalie."

"It's his mom ring he gave me. What more proof do you want?"

Alexei didn't know what to this time. He didn't want to accept the fact that he lost his first love. The only real relationship he ever had.

"Go back to Russia, Alexei. There's nothing you can do to change my mind."

"Hey, turd!" Tony shouted from his car.

Steve rolled his eyes, "Fuck off, Stark. I'm not in the mood."

"Get in the car, you grumpy old man."

"Where the hell are we going?"

"In town. Doing some errand for Pepper."

Steve sighed and got in Tony's Audi R8. He needed to get out of here because he couldn't stand a second to know he stood on the same ground as Alexei. Steve folded his arms and stared murderously at the dashboard.

"Is red and you get in a fight?"

"No, why?"

"Because you look like you are about to kill someone and the only thing that could make you be like this is red."

"We didn't get in a fight. It just…that douche Alexei keep coming back to her. I know Nat loves me and I trust her."

"You just want him to leave Natasha alone."

"Yeah, I'm afraid it might stir something. But maybe I'm overreacting. I'm afraid of losing the only person I ever love. I need to take my mind somewhere else."

"Don't worry, bud. I got that part covered."

Steve went wide eyes when he realized they didn't head into town. "Where the fuck are you taking me? What the hell are you doing?!"

"WE ARE GOING TO ATLANTIC CITY, ROGERS!"

Nat didn't see Steve for the rest of the day. She didn't know where he went and he didn't tell her anything. She just send Alexei back home and he will leave her alone. She expected to meet him at the stadium but Sam told her that he didn't show up for practice.

Where the hell was he?

She came back to their dorm where she supposed to find him but there was no sign of her boyfriend.

She called him for like fifty times right now and he didn't answer her call. Nat began to worry as she paced herself back and forth in the living room.

Don't leave me, Steve. The thought sneaked up in the back of her mind and caught her off guard.

Nat flopped down on the floor, starring at her phone.

Don't leave me like this. Don't leave me again. I cannot handle this.

"Are you alright, Nat?" A voice came from the doorway. It was Jane and Pepper.

"No." Her answer was simple. "Steve's gone. Disappear without telling me again. I tried to call him but he didn't answer his phone."

"Tony's magically disappeared too!" Pepper exclaimed. "I couldn't reach him too."

"Both of you tell me that you let your troublemaker boyfriends out of your sight." Jane frowned.

"Where the hell did Tony take my boyfriend?"

And the girls proceeded to call their boyfriends until they picked up their phones.

Tony dragged Steve to casino but it ended up with the captain had to stand and watch Tony playing every game. Tony decided to take Steve to stripe club where the captain could get some action for himself.

Tony brought him like six lap dance in total but Steve kept every dancer away from him.

"I don't need a dancer, Stark. I want to go home."

"I booked us the best room in the hotel!" Tony yelled over the loud music inside the stripe club. He planned to thoroughly ignore everything Steve suggested tonight.

"Stark, I don't have a fucking cloth or anything with me. I don't even have my phone!"

"Don't worry about that. I have to hotel prepare us some clothes and you can use my phone."

"I just want to go home and be with Nat."

"Consider this as a little getaway, my friend. You come back to her right now you might find she didn't finish her business with Alexei and you will regret leaving his place."

"I WANT NATASHA!" Steve whined.

It had been half a day already and he missed her badly. He just wanted to see her face and her smile. He wanted to smell her intoxicated scent and held her tightly in his arms.

Tony threw his phone at Steve, "Go and talk to her. But we are staying here for the weekend."

Steve got up from his seat and walked out the club to call his girlfriend but it went straight to her voicemail.

"Babe, I'm sorry. Stark abducted me to Atlantic City with him" He said quickly "I'm not mad at you and skip town but Stark left me no choice. He tricked me into coming here with him. I'm sorry for everything. I will make it up to you when I'm back. I love you, baby."

Nat got the voicemail the next morning and it caused her to smile but then she knew she will kill them both if they came back to the university. She discovered that Steve forgot his phone in their room so that was why she couldn't reach him.

But she couldn't reach him again because none of them picked up the phone. Nat was waiting for Pepper to make breakfast for her.

"Steve, if you're not come back to me by two hours. It's over!" Nat yelled into the voicemail.

"You're not really gonna break up with him, are you?" Pepper asked.

"Of course not! I just threaten him"

"You should just wait, like me. I'm not even freaking out that Tony disappeared without telling me anything."

"THIS IS STEVE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, PEPPER!"

"I understand your point, Nat. But this time is different from that incident." Pepper reminded "He's your boyfriend now and I'm sure he will not hurt you again.

Before Nat could say anything, her phone rang and it was Tony.

"Sup, red?"

"Stark! Where is Steve?!" Nat yelled through the phone.

"Getting his manhood back. You ripped it off from him remember" Tony replied coolly "He's pretty hung over right now.

"Bring my boyfriend back to me within two hour or else I will kill all of you when you came back"

"Fine, we will be back by tomorrow because Steve will get a lap dance tonight and he will really enjoy it."

"You're gonna take him to stripe club?"

"Gotta go, Bye!"

"Stark!"

Steve woke up in the afternoon with a terrible hangover. He slowly crawled out of bed and tried to get on his feet. He went to the bathroom to take a shower but when he came out, Tony was already there to take him to strip club.

"Can I at least eat first?"

"Don't worry. I have the strip club had buffet tonight."

"WHAT? I'm not going to strip club with you again. I miss Nat. I wanna go home." The Captain whined.

"Don't be such a baby and got up."

Tony had to drag Steve out of the room and went straight to strip club at 4 PM. The captain was pretty hangover so he tried to sit as still as he could so he wouldn't fall of the chair.

"Dude, just take me home."

"Rogers, you suck all the fun from me like Pepper did."

Tony pushed Steve down in the armchair and sat next to him. His brown eyes fixed at the stripper on the stage. Steve ordered a large portion of food and didn't pay attention to any girl who tried to get close to him. He devoured his food within half an hour and when he looked up, he saw Tony look at him in disgust.

"You're a savage animal when it comes to eating, Rogers. You and Odinson by the way."

"We're athletes. We needed substances to build muscle."

"Whatever." Tony rolled his eyes "So how was the sex with little red? I thought you guys must have sex on fire"

"Well, I don't want to brag but the sex is spectacle." Steve replied smugly and very proud of himself. "What about you and Pepper?"

"We never do it, Rogers."

"WHAT?" Steve yelled "WHAT?!"
"Well, Pepper isn't ready." Tony said "She says she wanted to wait for the right time and she didn't know that we should have sex in this early stage of the relationship or not. She said she wanted to wait so I'm okay with it."

"You did the right thing, man. When it's gonna happen, it will happen."

"That's why I don't rush her because deep down I know she will trust me enough to let me make love to her."

"Maybe your situation is better than mine." Steve sighed

"What? You and little red practically do it every night."

"That's not what I mean." The Captain explained "I mean you get more time to know her and to be sure that you really want to be with her and she will not regret her decision. At least you're not going to freak out the way I do and hurt Nat like that time. Thing between Nat and I happened to fast and I ended up hurting her."

"But you made it up to her, dude." Tony said

"Look at the bright side, Stark. Relationship is not about sex. It's about love and I can't believe I'm talking about this shit to you."

"I don't want mention that sex seems to be a very big part of your relationship lately including you and Romanoff's weird kinky things."

"It's just some light bondage and blindfold and hand cuffs and…" Steve then realized he and Nat did have weird kinky things "I got your point. We just can't stop ourselves from tearing each other clothes off."

"It's a good sign, man. You guys still want each other after all. That's the most important point."

"I started to put all the pieces together about why you dragging me here."

"What is it?"

"You wanted to be as close as you can to a naked girl rather than help me with my problem."

"Your problem is only 12% of my plan."

They talked about their love life the whole evening and didn't pay any attention to the girl on stage. When Tony realized he wasted his time by talking to Steve too much, he demanded to stay here for one more night.

"Stark…I wanna go home now. I miss her."

"Fineeeeeee….I better take Barton with me next time, you clingy bastard."

Steve drove them back to the university before 10 PM. He really missed Nat that when they reached their dorm, Steve ran off to his room and he found Nat and Pepper inside the room where his girlfriend was currently drinking her beer.

He swiped his girlfriend off her feet and kissed her lovingly.

"I miss you so much, little red." He said between the kiss "I'm sorry I leave you like that. Please forgive me."

"Apology accepted." Nat replied and kissed him again.

She missed him as badly as he did. Steve carried into their bedroom and let Tony alone with Pepper.

"Baby, I'm sorry. I just want Rogers to put his mind somewhere else or he will kill that guy."

"Let's go back to our room and talk about this." Pepper said.

Tony swallowed and he knew he was in trouble. Inside the bedroom, Steve didn't stop kissing his girl as he slowly lowered her down on their bed, all the while whispering how much he love her, he was sorry and how much he miss her from being away from her.

"Stop it, Rogers. You're making me blush." Nat said and broke away from the kiss. "I forgive you."

"I just want to protect you from him. I don't want him to caused you pain again."

"I already send him back to Russia and make peace with everything."

"How did you shook him off anyway?"

"I lied that you and I are engaged and you gave me your mother's ring."

"I did give you my mother ring."

"WHAT? Steve! This is too much."

"Babe, it's not too much. I love you and I'm really serious about us."

"But it's your mother ring. I only give you a stupid ring from a fair we went together."

"It's okay. You can replace it someday but now, I want to show you how much I miss you."