Hello Captain (Steve Rogers)

Little Talks

End of August 2012
Steve's POV

"So when are you gonna have sex with Sarah? Because I could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife," Natasha said suddenly, startling me. I hadn't even known she was there until now.

"What?" I asked as I turned to look at her, not sure I'd heard her correctly.

I was never going to get used to the way Natasha would randomly drop these little bombs on me. I'd been watching Sarah work out in the holo-trainer for a while now, just absorbing the way she moved and flowed with the program. This was even better than watching her dance because the moment she walked into this room, she dropped the masks and was truly herself in a way I never saw her anywhere else. She was beautiful – and deadly.

"You heard me, Rogers. Why haven't you done it with her yet?"

"I heard you, I'm just not having this conversation with you, Romanoff. Just stay out of it." I crossed my arms in front of my chest, slanting an annoyed glance at her.

"You're fully healed and cleared for active duty again, so that's not it," she said in a considering tone.

"Yes, I'm fully healed," I snapped, wishing she'd drop it. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, apparently." Natasha gave me a grin, and it wasn't a reassuring one. "Is it because of her age, because 18 is legal, you do know that?"

"I'm not talking about this with you." I turned away from her, attempting to ignore her, but Natasha was having none of that, putting herself in front of me.

"So it is her age; good to know." She gave me a sweeping look. "I told her that's probably part of the reason why you didn't want to have sex, and I was right."

"Drop it," I growled.

"Can't, not until you talk to me."

I made a frustrated noise and glared down at the small redhead. "WHY do you want to talk about this right now?"

"She's coming with me on a mission next week. We're leaving right after the holiday and we're going to be gone for probably a month, maybe two, depending on how things work out."

"Covert?"

 "Of course. You need to have sex with her before then. I can't take her along as a virgin – it's too much of a risk to her. It's bad enough we sent her to South America  in the role she had to play as a virgin. If it wasn't for Bobbi and Clint, she never could've pulled it off convincingly."

"I really don't want to talk about this," I said in a low voice. I didn't want to think about her being with anyone else, not even Clint, who was a really good guy. "That was for a mission, I don't need to know anything about it."

"Too bad. I'm not giving you a choice. If you don't, she'll stick out like a sore thumb...and there's the possibility we might not be able to get her out otherwise."

"Does she know this?"

"Sarah is aware of the risks and is willing to go through with it as she is. She doesn't know I'm talking to you about it."

"Then why are you talking to me about it? What kind of mission are you going on that it would have that kind of requirement in the first place?"

"Because I'd rather bring her home without blowing valuable long term covers. I unfortunately need another partner for this and Bobbi's still unavailable. Believe it or not, Shield doesn't have many other women that have the dancing ability and level of beauty that's necessary for this one, other than maybe Maria, but she doesn't dance and there's no way she can go on this one without blowing both our covers. You know she's not exactly the friendliest person sometimes when people try to touch her."

"I really don't want to know any more about this mission, do I?" I asked rhetorically, rubbing my hand over my face.

"It's probably best that you don't. I'm serious, though. You need to do this for her."

"Go away, Nat." I turned away from her, still not wanting to think about it. She touched my arm, pulling at it so I would face her and stepping in front of me.

"Just promise me you'll think about it. She's already asked me what's wrong with her."

I stared at her in surprise. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with her!"

I loved her; Sarah was more than I'd ever thought that I'd ever want or need in a woman. I knew we hadn't been together for long, but I wanted to do things the right way, not rushing because we got caught up in the moment.

"Then quit pulling back from her. You're not doing her any favors, Rogers; she thinks that you don't want to be with her physically because you're still in love with Peggy."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it?"

"I loved Peggy back then, it's true; that was before I knew Sarah. She's... I don't know how to say this; I've never tried to put it into words, I guess." I blew out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and took a moment to gather my thoughts. Natasha waited patiently for me to continue, eyes on my face, analyzing my expressions.

"Go on."

"I guess I'm trying to say that she's temperamentally more suited to me than Peggy. If you knew Peggy," Natasha nodded once, a slight smile on her lips. "Then you knew how prickly and independent she could be. She hardly allowed me to hold a door for her, let alone do anything else. Honestly, I never felt that I was ever enough for her. I don't even know if she truly returned my regard because we never got the chance find out."

"Then it's a good thing that you have a clean slate. Just think about it, Steve. Times have changed - no one knows that more than you. Sarah isn't Peggy, so don't make the mistake of thinking that they'd both want the same things...or even in the same order."

I nodded, knowing that at times I still merged them in my mind. It wasn't as often anymore, but it still happened more than I liked to admit. Maybe I was guilty of thinking about what Peggy would expect instead of what Sarah really wanted from me.

Natasha studied me for a long moment, then turned to go out the door. I watched her leave, not truly thinking that the conversation was over. She stopped right before the door and pivoted to face me again.

"Will you at least think about it, Steve?"

I hesitantly nodded. "I can't promise any more than that, Natasha."

"Talk to Clint if you don't want to talk to me." With that, she walked out the door.

I turned back to the glass to watch Sarah's training, but Natasha's conversation was replaying in my head. I couldn't stay still right then, I needed to be doing something, anything. I had a feeling that Natasha was right. I couldn't deny that I'd been digging in my heels about doing anything more than we already had, and I knew that she was frustrated.

I kind of wanted to talk to Maria about what this mission was going to entail – I knew she'd at least give me a straight answer. From what little Natasha had told me, though, I wasn't going to be comfortable talking to a woman about it, not even Maria.

There'd been times where I'd needed a female partner who trusted that I'd do whatever the mission required, whether I wanted to do it or not. Usually, it had been Natasha - her leading me more often than not. There was nothing Natasha wouldn't do for a mission, which had led to her kissing me more than once to avoid detection by interested parties. She was a good kisser, but I wasn't interested in her that way.

I decided to track down Clint. I'd thought things through and decided that he was probably the most likely man to talk to. I certainly wasn't going to ask Sam or Jace; they saw Sarah as a little sister.

I found Clint at the firing range, practicing with a variety of guns. I was mildly surprised; I knew he was an excellent marksman, he just preferred to use a bow. I touched his shoulder so he'd know I was there. He turned and took off his ear protection.

"Hey Clint, if you aren't doing anything tonight, did you want to go out for a beer?"

He looked up at me in surprise. "You buying?"

"Sure. Pick you up at 8?"

"Sounds good. See you tonight, Steve."