˗ˏˋ romanogers oneshots ˎˊ˗

☄. *. ⋆ a love too late

Natasha and Steve were meant for each other. Before they even knew it, they were already right for each other. It was written in the stars. Everyone they knew saw the signs before them. They were high school sweethearts, having met in freshman year. They had discussed the future way before and everyone would expect them to last. Except that they didn't. Natasha was moving out of town for college and a potential full scholarship at a ballet school. Steve supported her decision, but could not bear the thought of having a long distance relationship and had ended it with her. 

Years past. Natasha has gotten married, to a man she met while training in ballet school. Steve was invited to her wedding, but never showed. Perhaps he was still in love with her, or perhaps he had moved on so much he never wanted to see her again. He too, did move on, and had a girlfriend. Sharon Carter, Natasha's best friend. 

Natasha hadn't expected to return to her hometown so soon but she had the matters of her father's untimely death to tend to. As she stood at the front porch of her house, the plants withering, the tiles cracked, she couldn't help but remember the happier times back in high school. She looks up at her old room window and smiles. It now had ivy growing over it, but there was a time when it was clean and spotless. She smiles to herself, remembering the times he had looked up that window. 

Steve had stood outside so many years ago, when they first got together, to show her that he had gotten her favorite flowers, red roses. Steve, oh how she missed him. 

The timing for this trip was too much of a coincidence. Natasha had been having unspoken problems with her husband and maybe a break to her hometown was what she needed. She wondered if Steve was still in town and contemplated ringing him up but could not bear to reach for her phone and call him. 

Steve drives by her house in his Chevy truck, something that he has not changed over the years. After all those years, he still drove the same car that he had first gotten shortly after him and Natasha had split. He told himself that he had moved on a long time ago, but anyone who caught him driving past the old ivy covered cottage at the edge of town would have said otherwise. He still had the habit of pulling up in the driveway everyday and getting out of the car, looking up at the same widow he had always looked up into. And it was always empty, like the sinking feeling in his stomach. 

Tonight, however, there was a light in the window. He catches a glimpse of a silhouette dancing in the shadows. Something in him reacts faster than he can process and he finds himself on her front porch, checking his reflection in the glass panel before pressing her doorbell. 

Moments later, he hears the soft padding of feet across a hard wood floor and the door opens. Natasha. She gives him a small smile, twirling the end of her red braid in her hand, her eyes puffy from crying. He grins back before realizing he must look stupid doing that and tones it down to a small smile, mirroring hers. The sight of her crying makes his heart ache, but he knows the tears are not for him. He longs to pull her into a hug. The two struggle to get words out, having not seen the other in ages. 

"Hey," He mutters, breaking the silence. "You look different."

"Hey. You don't look so bad yourself. Would you like to come in? I mean I've barely had time to unpack I literally just got here and I have nothing to offer in this house, no food, no nothing. I mean if you don't mind-" She rambles but is cut off by him pressing his lips against hers. 

As shocked as she is, she doesn't pull away. She missed this. She missed him. And she needed him, badly. She feels the warm tingly sensation in her stomach as her heart flutters. It's been a while since she's felt this way. Rarely, if ever, had she felt like this. Not since her high school years, not since Steve. Not even with her husband. And it that moment, all the pain, all the regret, all the hurt she had felt transcended into one thing: lust. She pulls him closer to herself, dragging him into the house and closing the door. 

Her fingers make her way into his hair. She pulls away and laughs, something she hasn't done in a while. "You grew it out," she smiles, her hands still in his blond locks. 

He blushes at the memory of her teasing him about growing his hair out some day and him telling her that he would never do it. "You wanted to know how I would look like." He lies. In truth it had been because he had been taking a break wit his girlfriend and with no one to care about his looks, he had not bothered to shave or cut his hair. 

"You know, the beard looks good on you. But it tickles." She remarks, pursing her lips, a habit she could never get rid of. 

He raises an eyebrow. "Oh does it now?", his voice teasing and playful. 

Suddenly the two of them are seventeen, without a care in the world as they laugh in each others arms. 

"Earth to Natasha?" Steve says, snapping Natasha out of her thoughts. 

She gulps. "Sorry, I've been very distracted lately."

Steve smiles, even without asking, he knows that something is up. He always knows, even though she never says a thing to him. "Penny for your thoughts?" He asks, taking a step back, knowing that they might have taken a step too far with their kiss. 

She sighs, looking down and biting the inside of her cheek. "I'm going through a rough patch with Matt, but I'm sure we'll be fine. I just needed a break, and I guess this came at a right time," a small smile forms on her lips. "Coffee?" she offers and Steve nods. "Expresso, just the way you like it," she says, handing him a steaming cup of liquid. 

He accepts it gratefully and sits himself down on her couch. She follows suit, leaning her weight in him and relaxing into his arms. 

The pain and problems might have been too much to handle but with them in each others' arms, somehow that was enough. The weather might have been cold and it might have been snowing. But in here, in freezing hands and firewood, all the pain seemed to go away. 

A/N: dont worry theres a sequel to this but for now lets enjoy this forbidden love affair in the middle of winter because tis the damn season and evermore supremacy and your ivy grows and now im covered in you is just so poetic. vote and comment and i hope you like it hehe. and i posted this in a writing thing for school and kinda went famous for making my characters make out in a school environment like it was the talk of the town for weeks so-