She's Mine) Romanogers

Part 6) Morning After

Steve P.O.V.

Nat didn't come get me the whole night. I stayed up and even paced around my room a bit, I guess I had picked that habit up from her as well. I wasn't normally an anxious person, but when Natasha was involved, I could get a little ancey. I tried to reason and logic it out in my own head, figuring that she probably didn't get me just because she didn't want to blow our cover.

But what if she had a great time with him? I was so selfish to hope that she didn't enjoy it, I realize that, but that thought kept playing in my mind. What if she was starting to actually like him? She had been so tense in the elevator with him, even before she noticed I was there... but maybe it was because of something else.

I wanted to know exactly what had happened, but I wasn't going to push her, I knew better than to do that. I waited anxiously for 6:00am to roll around and then quickly went down to the training room, knowing she would be getting there around this time too.

I walked in hoping to beat her there or catch her in warmup, but I found her already pushing it on the treadmill. She was running fast and covered in sweat, so she had clearly been here a while before me, already in the middle of the workout (or hopefully near the end). "Het Nat," I called, but realized it was futile as she had her noise canceling headphones on. I had gotten her those for her birthday last year, and she would use them whenever she did a workout alone. If we were working out together we would talk until we were too out of breath to do so, at which point we would turn on our shared playlist.

I started to stretch a bit against the wall, and I couldn't figure out if she knew I was here or not. Sometimes when she would workout, Nat would get into a zone where she didn't register much of what was going on around her. Other times, she was hyper aware of everything and could sense everything going on around her. I kept looking over at her for clues as to which frame of mind she was in during my warmup stretches, and decided the former seemed to be the case.

She was still running at that incredibly fast speed when I had finished warming up, and so I hopped on the treadmill next to hers and started to walk. However, in doing so I spooked her. She jumped back off of the treadmill and rolled into a crouched, defensive position, glaring daggers up at me for a moment before recognition hit her. "Oh my gosh," she panted as she placed a hand over her chest, "Steve, you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry," I quickly turned her treadmill to a walking pace and beckoned her back up, hoping I could convince her to cool down (which she absolutely hated, she claimed it was more boring than watching paint dry).

She gave a bit of an eye roll and the invitation, but still got up and started to walk next to me, slipping the headphones around her neck. "So, you started your workout early this morning," I observed.

"Couldn't really sleep," she hummed, reaching over for my water, and I realized that she must have forgotten her's somewhere. I was more than happy to share, she would leave water bottles and drinks all around and completely forget about them.

"I'm sorry, did something happen?" I tried to keep my tone genuine and hide how curious I was.

"Ya, I had a shit date last night," she laughed, and then I laughed too. That quelled my fear that she liked him more than me, and I suddenly realized how ridiculous that thought was.

"Want to talk about it?" I offered, I was desperate for any news.

"Gosh," she huffed a laugh, "it sucked. He ordered for me."

I was instantly seeing red, what the hell? My anger must have shown on my face as I whirled a bit to face her.

"Easy Steve," she calmed, "it's fine, he's just a bit of a control freak," she played it off with a wave of her hand.