Nobody knows the beginning

Chapter 3

"I make grave mistakes all the time. Everything seems to work out" 

-Thor

14 YEARS LATER

Natasha's P.O.V

"Hey Fellas," I said as I pulled up, in the car Tony had lent me to go pick up Steve from his morning run, to save some hostages that were taken by boat. But Fury had given me a different mission, to gather as much intel from the ship as I could.

After we went back to the tower, got into a jet, and discussed the most important part of the mission: rescue the hostages.

Steve literally jumped out of the plane with no parachute. I wasn't surprised, obviously, but a little warning would have been nice.

We could see Steve surrounded as we slowly but surely descended onto the ship with parachutes. Rumlow got down first and shot everyone around Steve.

"thanks," Steve said, clearly a little ashamed.

"You'd be screwed without me" Rumlow smiled at Steve.

"yeah, yeah" Steve rolled his eyes but failed to hide the small smile.

At that moment I dropped from my parachute and winked at Steve and he knew exactly what I was about to say before I even said it... but...I said it anyway.

"What about your next-door neighbor? She seems nice." I smiled at his eye roll and he let out a shy chuckle when he said "Romance is the last thing on my mind."

At my frown, he made a compromise.

"secure the engine room, then find me a date." He was clearly not interested in the last part but it was a good compromise.

"I can multitask" I grinned at him skeptically.

I ran into the engine room and snuck up behind the capturers.

"Hey Sailor," I said, as I threw him a flirty grin.

I punched the first one in the temple, knocking him out. Then using unarmed techniques I took down the rest.

"engine room secure." She said into her radio.

But I must have broken my radio sometime after that because for some reason they couldn't hear my response. So I continued to run through the halls until I came across a big unconscious man with Steve standing over the top of him.

"well...This is awkward" I said, slowly

"What are you doing?" Steve asked me, sounding slightly annoyed.

"backing up the hard drive." I replied honestly

He started walking towards me. "We needed your help, what are you doing here?" he paused when he saw the screen I was using. "You're downloading intel." he said while sounding slightly exasperated. "For what?!"

"whatever I can get my hands on." I had to tell myself not to scratch my head awkwardly, I had completely disobeyed the plan and Steve was not happy. But this was my mission and I know I should have told them but it was a 'spare of the moment' kind of thing.

"Our mission is to rescue hostages," Steve said, trying to control his anger.

"No, that's your mission, and you've done a wonderful job" I pulled out the USB and put it into one of my vest pockets.

"you jeopardized the entire operation." Steve spat through clenched teeth.

We would have continued to argue but that's when the guy Steve had made unconscious jumped up and threw a grenade in our direction. We jumped out of the room just in time to smash into the deck outside and see the glass windows smash in.

I sighed "Okay, that one's on me"

"yep," Steve stood up and walked off in the direction to find the man who threw the grenade.