Romanogers - What if... nat returned from the dead?

04

Everyone was showering her with hugs and telling her how much they missed her (well everyone expect Hill and Fury that were just standing in the door observing, and Steve, that still hadn't gotten the space or opportunity to do or say anything). It was a mess, but she looked happy, so Steve was too. Every now and then she would glance at him, until he accidently looked at her at the same time. They smiled at each other, he opened his mouth to say something but they were again interrupted, this time it was the Barton kids. He left the room, to give her some space, it was way too crowded in there.

The days passed, and she was getting better and better. They told her about the fight, about Tony, about the stones and the time travel. She suffered a lot from losing Tony, they had a weird sibling relationship in which they picked at each other to show their love, Steve hadn't noticed how close they actually were.

Lots of tests and lots of physical therapy sessions later and she was finally released from the medical wing in the tower and back to her room. Things were going well: Nat, Steve, Sam, and Wanda were living at the tower, Thor and Bucky would always come and go and the others always visited. Steve and Nat talked, and it was just like old times: she would make jokes about his oldness and his difficulties with women and occasionally flirt with him to make him uncomfortable, and he would blush. And everything was going well like that, except he knew he wanted something more with her than just friendship, but was too afraid that she didn't see him that way and that he would ruin what they had.