I Thought You Were Different

Awakening

"Okay, so how about the 14th?" Steve asked, rapidly thumbing through the calendar on his phone with a furrowed brow and a look of anxiety that he wasn't getting this done as quickly as he had promised you. His leg bounced nervously and the fingers of his other hand drummed on the table top as he waited for news on you.

"Steve, that's only three weeks away."

"Your point?"

Natasha shook her head and laughed at his ignorance, "do you really think that she'll be in any shape to walk down an aisle in three weeks? And, she's still using her cane. She wants to walk on her own, you know that."

"So, then not the 14th?"

"You're impossible," she groaned, standing to refill her coffee cup, "I don't know how she does it."

"Look at me, Romanoff," he smirked, standing to turn in front of her, "this is a lot to resist."

She rolled her eyes and faked a small gag, walking away without another word and leaving Steve laughing as he returned to finding a date for your wedding before you came out of surgery. His thumb again swiped over the screen, reading a full calendar filled to the brim with official business and everything that was infinitely less important than your upcoming nuptials. He didn't see anything that couldn't be moved and he silently challenged anyone to tell him otherwise.

"Hey, Cap. Any word?" Clint asked, cautiously taking a seat across from him. "They've been in there a long time."

Steve looked up from his phone at his teammate and set it down slowly, leaning back in his chair with a visible uncomfortableness that still persisted even this long after everything that had happened between you. He saw Clint with Natasha now; he saw it with his own eyes. But he also saw Clint with you when you asked him to let you donate for Tony. There was something lingering behind his eyes that Steve didn't like, and he wouldn't make the mistake of ignoring it any time soon.

"Uh, no, nothing yet. The doc said it's pretty complex so they'd be in there a while."

Clint nodded and looked around the room, unsure if he was happy that the waiting area was empty other than for them, or if he was nervous that he was completely alone with your super soldier fiancé. It was the first time they were alone since he had moved out of the training facility and back into the tower. "Steve, can we talk for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," Steve sighed, taking his phone in his hand and beginning to study the calendar again. He knew where this was going, and he was just a reluctant passenger in the conversation.

"That day in the gym-"

"Is in the past," he deflected.

"It was a mistake."

"Really?" Steve suddenly challenged, now tossing his phone on the table with a loud bang against the glass, "because it sure didn't look like one from where I was standing. You knew full well what you were doing, Clint. You knew that we were engaged at the time. You knew that you were crossing a line but you went ahead anyway. I'm not sure if that makes you brave or an idiot."

"Oh, I'm an idiot, there's no doubt," he agreed readily. "But I was an idiot who thought he was in love. I was an idiot that bypassed thinking and went right for irrationality. But, believe it or not, Tony was the one to set me straight."

Steve blinked in surprise, remembering that Tony had done the same for him that day. "He must have come to my room after talking to you," he mumbled. "I bet he talked to her too. I guess I owe him more than I thought." He rested his elbows against the table, leaning forward to rest his head on his clasped hands, "now I see why she had to be the one to do this. I get it. He's always there for her. He's her one, unwavering constant in everything that's happened."