Chapter 8- Confessions
Natasha smiled, looking over at the boy opposite her with loving eyes. Her menu covered most of her face, but she let her eyes wander, allowing herself at least a semblance of normality when it came to standardised dating etiquette.
She had never done this, which came as a surprise to most people. Her obvious good looks and mostly agreeable personality made it common practice to crush on Natasha Romanoff, even if from afar. Which it usually was, considering her close circle of well-known boys who would be remiss to let someone into her life who wasn't worthy of her.
It wasn't exactly an anti-feminist thing. Natasha would always have her own say, the boys weren't controlling her choices, they were just protective and knew the boys better than she did. Thor would have the greatest influence on her choices as being the one guy who frequented the most social circles. He was a jock who also excelled in academia and also went for the occasional cigarette between classes. Despite his outlandish build, height and blatant masculinity, Thor Odinson was the biggest gossip the school had to offer. Tony often thought it was him, but that was mostly his desire to be the best at everything he did.
The boys in the 'Avengers' loved her dearly, all seeing her as something of a sister they never had. It helped that none of them actually had sisters of their own, replacing that void with Natasha herself, who didn't mind any of that. Natasha had no siblings, either, so the boys were like brothers to her. Her parents loved every one of them, though they had taken a particular shine to Clint and Steve, for reasons she knew not.
Her eyes flicked to her menu as she pretended to appraise it. Every time she came to this particular restaurant, either with her friends or her family, she would order the chicken salad. She had never done anything else in her life, so why was she pretending to be interested in the other selections?
Sam Wilson looked back at her, his eyes not as interested as hers. She could tell that he wasn't as in this as she was, but that didn't say much considering that Sam had been her crush for a long time now. It had surprisingly taken her a while to tell her friends about it. It wasn't for fear of judgement, because they knew Sam and were friendly with him, without actually being friends. Thor knew him the most of all of them and he had said that Sam had seemed really excited about it. Though, save for perhaps Bruce, Thor was the nicest of the boys and Natasha wondered whether he was just saying that to make her feel better. Thor was both kind yet honest and often one of the two won out over the other. It was possible.
Sam drummed his fingers on the table. "You ready to order?"
Natasha shrugged casually, pushing down all of her emotions as she always did. "Yeah. Are you?"
"Sure." He flagged down a waiter and nodded curtly at him as he ordered a medium rare steak.
"Chicken salad, please," she said with a smile as he quickly scribbled down her order and walked away. "So, what do you want to talk about?"
Sam shrugged. "Up to you."
"Well, we've been in the same classes since we were eight and I don't really know that much about you. What music are you into?"
Sam met her eyes for a brief second before glancing at his phone. "I don't know, everything I guess."
"Movies?"
"Whatever's on."
Natasha clenched her jaw. He had seemed at least partially enthusiastic when he had asked her out at school just a few days prior to their date. What had changed? Natasha had gotten outfit approval from her parents, Steve and Tony, who all said that Sam wasn't going to be able to take his eyes off her. She rather thought she looked good. So why all the moodiness?
"I gotta go the bathroom," Sam told her casually.
"Sure."
As he left, Natasha's eyes flickered to his phone, which had been buzzing all night. The screen lit up once more with another message. Natasha didn't want to pry, but she could read upside down.
Having fun without me? I bet Romanoff doesn't even let you see her naked tonight. ;)
Natasha suddenly hated her skill for being able to read upside down. Not everything was clear to her immediately, but she knew the score.
Sam approached the table, smiling though his eyes were bored. Natasha fixed her lips into a snarl and glared at him. Sam checked his phone and saw the message. He checked Natasha's expression. He frowned.
"You went through my phone?"
Natasha shrugged. "No. I can just read upside down. One glance and I knew, I didn't mean to read your messages. Although I'm glad I did. Because it appears I've been wasting my time with tonight. And so have you."
"Nat."
"What do you want me to say, Sam? That I don't care that you're using me to make your actual girlfriend jealous? That we can just eat and have a good time? No, absolutely not."
Sam put his hand out onto the table. "That's not what's happening here."
"It sure seems like it. And I don't think you're going to have a valid explanation for anything tonight, so I'm going to wait for my chicken salad and I'm going to get it to go so I don't have to waste any more of my time on you. Someone who clearly doesn't appreciate what they could have."
"I can't believe how seriously you're taking this."
"When I go on a date with someone, Sam, I expect them to actually be interested. This is a date. You asked me out. If anything should be taking this seriously, it's you. But that's not happening, so it's best if I leave. Enjoy your steak." Natasha slapped down a few bills on the table and headed for the counter to inquire about her food.
Sam let out a chuckle, but didn't stop ogling her ass as she walked away.
"I'm sorry if you guys had plans."
Natasha lay on her bed, all five of her boys somehow arranged in a formation where they could all fit. It was a very large bed, but they were very large boys.
Someone, she thought it might have been Bruce, was stroking her hair in tender rhythms that might have made her want to fall asleep if she wasn't so angry.
"Are you kidding? Of course we were going to be here," Steve replied kindly.
Natasha sat up, gaping at him. "You had plans with Bucky didn't you?"
Steve waved a hand. "Not important. You come first, Nat. You know that."
That touched her. Steve was so willing to sacrifice spending time with his new boyfriend to make sure she was okay.
"Besides, none of the rest of these dorks had any plans tonight," Steve added.
They all chuckled, Tony trying to protest that in fact he did have plans, but nobody was going to believe him.
Natasha poked at her chicken salad lazily and sighed. "Boys are dumb."
Thor nodded. "Agreed. I mean, we have to be them but you and Steve have to date them. That's gotta be a raw deal."
"It's just...I thought he liked me."
Natasha would usually be very reticent to drop her guard, but she was with her boys in the sanctuary of her own home. If there was any place she could do that, it was here with them. She rather liked that, well as much as she liked exposing her deepest emotions, which was just gross anyway.
"He's such a jerk," Clint piped up from the end of the bed. The others nodded.
"You know we have to do something about this, right?" Tony raised an eyebrow at everyone.
"Guys..." Natasha began, but she knew it was moot. "Never mind."
"Nat, when someone hurts one of our own, we don't just let it slide. Like the time that Danny Rand made a homophobic comment to Steve. We shut him down, because we can't let people hurt us. None of us. In any way. So we gotta go to school on Monday and let him know that he can't get away with shit like this."
"Eloquently phrased, Tony, but you're right," Bruce agreed.
Steve shrugged. "I wonder how much Bucky can drop his English scores without it being noticeable."
Natasha stared at him with cold eyes. "Don't do that. You're risking what you have Bucky. We can find another way."
"So you're in?" Steve smirked.
"Not fair," she retorted. "But yes, I'm in."
"Time to get plotting, I guess," Clint said with a snarl.
The six stayed up most of the night, debating about what was the best course of action. They had a few ideas, but nothing that would really teach Sam the lesson that he deserved. They would think of something, eventually, though. They always did. Danny Rand ended up transferring schools due to not being able to handle their scheming.
The next day, the made sure to arrive at school together and in fashion. When this happened, everybody knew that they meant business.
Natasha would walk in the middle as she always did, hips swinging from side to side, eyes darting around the hallways, looking anyone who dared to look back dead in the eye.
Clint and Tony were on either side of her. They were the shortest, but also the most feared of the boys. Everyone figured that Thor, Steve and Bruce were too nice to get angry at them, but Clint and Tony were scrappy and smart-mouthed.
Steve and Bruce took the flanks. They were generally well-liked, but also had major influence in academic and social circles. They would keep everyone out of the way while they did business.
Thor brought up the rear. He was the biggest and strongest, but also universally adored by pretty much everyone. He could keep the peace if he needed to, but he could cause some trouble if the situation required it.
They walked through the hallways like it was a runway. Like it was induced with slow-motion effects and everyone else was caught up by the blizzard of their reputation. People looked, no, stared at them with a mixture of intrigue and fear sparkling in their eyes.
Nobody really knew what to make of this new spectacle...except for Sam Wilson.
He knew that he had fucked up and he wasn't going to deny the punishment that he knew was coming for him.
He stopped dead as he saw the six saunter towards him, eyes finding him easily. They stayed like that as they walked past him, their struts staying in complete harmony as they did. It was rather scary, actually.
As if from nowhere, Clint broke out from the formation, fists balled as he barrelled into Sam with great force.
The formation dispersed, Steve and Thor rushing towards Clint to try and pull him off Sam.
Sam fell against the wall, a punch landing against his eye. He shoved Clint away from him and threw his own punch back. It landed, but with little effect.
Clint laughed, grimaced and pushed his arm against Sam's throat. Sam coughed and spluttered as Clint applied more force.
"You had better apologise to her," Clint growled.
Sam found it inside himself somewhere to laugh before regaining use of his arms and ripping Clint's away, pulling his arm back for a punch.
He let his fist fly, connecting with Clint's nose.
Only it wasn't Clint.
Steve had stumbled into the middle of them, trying to pull Clint away.
Steve's nose cracked painfully. He flicked his eyes up to meet Sam's, darkness swirling within them.
"What's going on here?" The sound of Bucky Barnes' teacher voice greeted them.
Several students dissipated to their next class, but the Avengers plus Sam stayed still. Sam figured that he would be in more trouble if he ran away. He didn't need any more suspensions.
Steve lazily wiped the blood from his nose and sighed. Bruce wordlessly handed him a tissue.
"Are you okay, Steve?" Bucky's eyebrows furrowed with concern.
Steve nodded, blood spreading quickly across the tissue.
"Let's get you to the nurse's office," Bucky nodded, placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.
As they turned the corner, Steve looked to his boyfriend.
"What the hell was that?"
"What?"
"That! You just ask me if I'm okay and ignore everybody else? That's not exactly being subtle."
"You were the one bleeding. It made sense to check on you. Speaking of, what actually happened?"
"Wasn't my fight. Sam...did something and Clint lashed out. I was trying to pull Clint off him and got hit with a stray punch."
Bucky's eyes darkened. "Looks like someone's getting a month of detention."
Steve gaped. "Bucky..."
"What?"
"You can't. Because then you'd have to give it to Clint too. And me for getting involved. And besides, we don't need anybody thinking anything they don't need to be."
"You're right. I wasn't thinking properly. I just saw you bleeding and...you know. I was worried about you."
"I'm fine," Steve assured. "Just gonna wait for the bleeding to stop. Don't you have a class?"
Bucky smirked. "Want to get rid of me?"
"Yes."
"I do have a class actually, but I'll see you before lunch. Take care of yourself, Steve."
Steve nodded. "See you in class. Mr. Barnes..."
Bucky shivered and swatted Steve's shoulder gently. "Dick."
Steve winked from behind his hand as he entered the nurse's office.
"Steve!"
Steve turned as he saw Clint running up to him.
"God man, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I just...lost it. I saw him and I couldn't hold out."
"Wanna sit with me during study hall?"
Clint smiled. "I'd like that. But I gotta say in advance, I can't do for you what Bucky was probably gonna do."
Steve pouted. "But Clint...I was looking forward to it."
"Is that so?"
Steve winked quickly. "Yeah. But I think we've both got people who would stop us from doing it."
Clint frowned. "I'm not following."
"Okay, correct me if I'm wrong here. Do you...have feelings...for Nat?"
Clint's lips parted but no sound came out.
"Clint?"
"I don't know. I know there's something there, but I don't know. I haven't really figured anything out. What made you say that?"
Steve shrugged. "I was thinking about it last night, but it made sense when you attacked Sam. We're all protective of her, but you've found reasons to leave the conversation whenever she brings up Sam."
Clint's face reddens. "I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. I just wondered. If you do, I really think you should talk to her, but only when you've figured stuff out."
"You think I should?"
"Definitely. Nat prefers honesty over almost anything else in the world. You're better off being straight with her."
"I guess that's something you have trouble doing," Clint chuckled.
Steve rolled his eyes. "Simian."
"But I'll...think about it. I just don't want it to backfire. You think the others know?"
"Nah, nobody's as perceptive as me."
"Good. This isn't something I want to be teased about just yet."
"Oh, there will come a day, Clint."
Clint nodded. "Thanks, Steve. Seriously. You're the best friend a guy could have."
Steve charmed by the words as Clint wrapped his arms around him.
"Uh...I think I got blood on you, man," Steve blurted.
Clint pulled back. "No big. I'll just say it's Sam's."
Steve laughed. "You're ridiculous. Now go do the Bio homework we both know you didn't do."
"Yes, mom."
Steve pulled the tissue away from his nose, aiming at Clint's head.
"I'm going, I'm going. See ya, Steve."
"Later, Clint."
Steve sighed as Clint left the room, lying back on the nurse's bed. It had been an eventful day and it wasn't even lunch yet.
God only knew how the rest of the day was going to go.