Romanogers Oneshots

Ep. 09 - Soviet slug, no rifling

A/N Steve finds out Bucky and Nat used to be dating back in the red room and gets jealous. 

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It wasn't the other voice that pulled Steven into the common room, although it often was just Natasha and him in the Avengers compound. It was the softness of Natasha's giggle that lured him to come to check it out. Soft morning rays beamed down the hallway of the avenger compound, painting it in a gentle golden glow. The voices become louder, intelligible to Steve's ear. He halted. He recognised the second voice. Something stirred in him, an emotion he couldn't place but spread an uncomfortable buzz through his body. His jaw tensed as he proceeded forward.

"I remember that going a little differently." Natasha sat on the sofa, her arm supporting her head on the backrest. She leaned forward, looked down and then up through her eyelashes. Then she tilted her head slightly and smiled softly at Bucky, who sat a little too close next to her for Steve's liking. She didn't notice Steve standing in the doorway.

"Sure. With that hit that you got to your head, I'm astonished you remember anything at all." Bucky replied, and Natasha giggled; gently, she brushed Bucky's chest for a moment. If Steve didn't know better, she was flirting with Bucky. He knew her tells, up close. This was not her faking it to trick someone into giving her what she wanted. This was genuine flirting. Steve cleared his throat, not so subtly announcing his presence to the two.
Natasha's head jolted up and instantly pushed away from Bucky, bringing in some distance between them. She switched so easily back to her usual character; Steve felt like he stepped into a private moment and ruined it. Although that moment shouldn't even exist. Her face lit up when she spotted Steve.

"Good morning", she greeted him. He leaned down to give her a quick peck, but something inside of him felt different this time. His whole body felt tense.
"Good morning", he mumbled. Nat held him back by his shirt.
"You okay? You seem a little out of sorts."
Steve put on a smile. His heart felt full looking at her, and yet he couldn't shake this underlying, unreasonable anger flaring up in him.
"Yeah, all good." he noticed a little photo strip in Bucky's hand and nodded at it, "What've you got?"

Bucky and Nat exchanged a glance. Less than a second, Steve noticed how an entire unspoken conversation happened in front of him. He forced himself to a smile, not pushing it, although every fibre in him urged him to bring it up. Natasha snatched it away from Bucky. "Oh, it's just an old picture I found cleaning up."

Steve stole a glance at it. It was a series of pictures of Bucky and Nat. They didn't look much younger than now, and yet the photo itself looked faded. Something wasn't adding up for Steve.
"Where did you take that?" he wanted to know. His voice went up half a note, barely noticeable by anyone but Natasha. She furrowed her brows. Slightly unsettled, Steve awaited their answer. They were hiding something. Steve was sure of it.
"A small town in North Carolina.", Bucky answered a little too quick.
"You were never assigned a mission in North Carolina together," Steve noted. He took another glance at the picture. That's when he realised why it looked so faded to him. The picture was old, like a few decades old.
"You guys knew each other before this.", Steve realised. There it was again: the other two shared another look. Something in his eyes made Natasha's shoulder sink.
"We worked together in the KGB. For a while, they ordered me to train a few Widows, one of them being Tash."

"Tash?" Steve repeated, confused, never having heard his friend calling Natasha by a nickname. But it wasn't the only thing that alerted him. Bucky spoke her nickname with such deep care that Steve wasn't too sure if he wanted to know more about that.
"On a mission, I found this photo booth", Nat continued to explain, "I dragged him into it. I found it and wanted to give it to him, for the good old days. There were only a few of them." There was more to this story, but they clearly didn't want him to know. Natasha offered the photo strip to Bucky. He took it out of her hand, carefully folded it in the middle and ripped it apart in one quick, smooth move.
"Now we both can keep a part." Natasha blushed, smiling. She tucked her hair behind her ear. Steve clenched his jaw. Natasha and Bucky had an entire life together that he never knew about that neither his best friend nor his girlfriend ever found the time to tell him about. A sharp pain hit his chest, his breath becoming quicker, his hand clenched into a fist. With all his might, he pressed his anger down. This all happened while he was frozen before he and Natasha were ever a thing - he had no business feeling angry. It was their history. Not his. Still, his body felt too small to contain all the emotions that were bubbling up inside of him.
Natasha walked up closer, but Steve stepped away. It pained him to see the flash of hurt across her face, but he could not be close to her right now. There was too much going on in his mind. He needed some distance. Sort himself out, before he did something he would regret.