˗ˏˋ romanogers oneshots ˎˊ˗

summer heat

"Come on, it's your last summer in town before college. Stop studying and come with me." Natasha says, appearing in the doorway of Steve's room. His room is one big mess, with clothes strewn all over, a suitcase and some other bags open and stuffed, his desk  with papers but his shelf void of books for they had all been packed away. He sat in the corner, reading up on civil law. 

Steve looks up from the book at the red head and grins."I would love to but- kind of have to pack. My room is a big mess."

She scoffs. "I can see that." She raises an eyebrow. "Besides, you're not packing. You're reading. Just one week. Give me one more week of your time then you can go back to packing and studying before you move away."

He looks at her pleading eyes, shakes his head and snaps the book shut, rising from his place on the floor, running straight into her, pulling her into a kiss. Teenage love they say, it was cute, quirky and sweet. 

"Where to Madame?" He teases. She laughs. The sound of her laughter makes him smile. And it makes him feel carefree, for the time being. 

She ends up taking him so many places that summer. To amusement parks, late nights in old arcades, train rides across New York, picnics in the midday in central park, watching broadway musicals in the theatre district. 

And he ends up spending more than just a week with her. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months and two months are gone in the blink of an eye.

It's on his last night in New York when she finally looks him in the eye, sincerely hoping it would change something, but it never did, when she confesses. "Stay. Don't go to London. Stay with me, please. Stay, for me, for us. Because these past two months have been way too good to be true and I don't want it to end, because I love your company, I love having you around, I love doing all that with you..." Her voice trails off, as it cracks into a small sob. 

She never gets to finish what she wanted to say, because he does so for her. "I love you."

And she kisses him. And he kisses back. And one can only guess what happens next. 

He wakes up in a hotel room the next day, and realises his flight is around the corner. But he doesn't want to leave. Or more specifically, he doesn't want to leave her. Not after last night, where they confessed and it turned passionate. But he knows he has to go, it's his moral obligation. So he scribbles her a note, leaves it by the bedside and rushes home. 

By the time she discovers the note, he's on his way to the airport. She's upset, she didn't even get to say goodbye. But perhaps it was for the best, for they may have been too sentimental for him to leave. 

"Goodbye my love," she whispers, repeating the same last words on his note. 

Dearest Natasha, Sorry to write to you this way. Lat night was great. In fact the whole summer was great. It really made me not want to leave you. But you know I have to. And I will, no matter how much I love you. Just know that I will always love you, no matter what happens. And I'm sorry to leave you hanging like this, I really am. But I had the time of my life with you and I will treasure every single memory made in this time. If fate allow it, we will meet again someday and maybe our timing won't be so bad. So for now, I'll leave you this and all my love. Goodbye my love. 

The years go by, he's in college abroad, she's still in New York. Everywhere she goes haunts her with a memory of him. Has he moved on? Perhaps forgotten? She'll never know. Meanwhile, he sits in his dorm room and writes a letter every night, never mailing it out for the fear of commitment. But she doesn't know that. So she speculates and expects the worse. She supposes he had already moved on and found someone else, and wants to do the same. But there isn't a love like his, there isn't a love like theirs. And it hurts. 

And so she moves on, and is married to another. But her heart still belongs to him. Little does she know that her fate is about to change for the worse. 

And no, he doesn't come back to town, no he doesn't return to her arms, no, he doesn't return at all. She gets a call that changes her life. He was in a plane crash, and she was his emergency contact. He was on a plane headed for New York, briefcase full of the letters he had written for her over the years. When she rushes to the hospital it's already too late and she knows it. Se knew it from the moment she got the news, she was just holding onto too much hope. 

They hand her the briefcase. Inside it, are over a thousand letters from the years he never wrote. When in fact, he wrote but never sent it. As she reads the letters, tears fall from her eyes as she imagines what life would have been if only he had mailed those letters. She would have jumped at the opportunity to try for a long distance, and maybe the two of them had a small chance of a happy ending. But there wasn't a chance, not anymore. And as the world continued to turn around her, she was stuck in the moment and couldn't get out of it. It was as if her world came crashing down along with his plane. And she shut everyone around her out, choosing to relive the memories of that fateful summer. 

"Stay," she whispers. 

He shakes his head. "Come with me."

She weighs her options before saying, "Yes."

While he studies in college, she gets a job in a local ballet studio. And she teaches with  smile, for she knows who she returns home to at the end of the day. 

Their life is perfect. 

The strolls along the rainy night sky, the cafe hopping, museum hopping, visiting bookstores. And most importantly, all that mattered was that they were together. There was no 'Goodbye my love' because they never said goodbye. They were practically married in everything but name. 

He proposed to her years later and she agreed without a doubt. Their ceremony was small and intimate and they were married in a month. And they lived happily ever after. 

At least they did in her dreams. 

A/N: olivia rodrigo wrote jealousy, jealousy and i wrote tragedy, tragedy. okay anyways hope yalls like this one. inspired by maisie peters' elvis song 'late nights in the old arcades drinking cheap wine as elvis plays.' and yes i am incapable of writing happy endings deal with it. but im like super busy atm so this is all youre gonna get: occasionally 'tragedies more tragic than shakespeare' in the words of my english teachers. so yes its approved by people who actually male us study shakespeare and teach us shakespeare. romeo and juliet who? i only know wildestrcses' version of romanogers oop. and yeahhh thats abt all ive got to say so dont forget to vote comment like and share if you liked it ;)