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The elevator's doors opened quietly and I steped into the room with Peter trailing behind me. There was a wall between the elevator and the living, a big gap on the left was used to get into it and just let a view of the kitchen. That meant that in the moment I steped out of the machine I could see the kitchen but not the living room even if the gap let me hear both rooms.
I heard a sound coming from the living room, a laugh, and suddenly the world stoped spinning for me.
I could very clearly hear my heart furiously pounding in my chest, the loud beat in the back of my head, and in my ears. I could feel it everywhere, like a shower of life.
How wouldn't I feel it? It was here, finally, in the room next to me, resting comfortably with it's owner, gleefully warning me of our newly recovered closeness.
My heart was here, and so was Steve.
"Hey? Are you alright?" My ears lost their numbness once my heart calmed down a bit and I heard Peter talking to me. His tone made me imagine it was not the first time he had called me.
"Peter? Is that you?" I catched my dad's voice coming from the living room.
"Uh, yes. We-" I cut him off by grabbing his hand and turn around, hiding in the elevator, minding to return to the street.
Steve was here, probably not alone, and my mind, that thankfully seemed to be winning territory, was not as happy as my heart.
"Alba? What the hell?" Peter wondered once the doors closed at my back. I didn't say anything just waited 'til the doors opened again in the lobby before leading him out again. "Alba!" He kept calling me as I dodged passers-by until I found a bench sufficiently far from the tower, and my heart. I could still feel it bumping against the back of my head, twisting my gut, but it was more faint. I walked to the bench and crashed my knees against it, my coordination failing me because of the shock my body had.
"Alba..." Peter carefully said as I sat, already feeling the tears accumulating in my eyes. The drops of water were blurring my sight and I just saw splodges of color. Was I being overdramatic? I didn't have time to analyze it but I was a Stark so it wouldn't surprise anyone. I sniffed my nose, feeling Peter worried by my side.
"Uh, there's a blonde looking at us from across the street and it's creeping me out."
"What?" I weakly said, taking the tears away from my eyes and following Peter's sight to focus my eyes on a woman staring at me. We looked at eachother for a pair of seconds until she sighed and crossed the street.
"Natasha." I murmured to myself. I saw Peter's eyes widen when he realised it was the Black Widow herself who was coming to meet us.
"Hello." She quietly said. I just stared at her, astonished.
"Nat." I called faintly. I got up still looking at her, feeling the blood pounding harder in my veins, after all it seemed like there was a small bit of my heart in each member of my family. She smiled at me weakly.
"It's been a while." She admitted, and I nodded vigorously, already feeling the tears load my eyes once more. She sighed and pulled me in for a hug. I remained stiff and surprised for a second before returning the hug strongly.
Has Natasha ever hugged me? Yes, but I could probably count those times with the fingers of a hand and at least one was pretending to be Natalie Rushmore. In 8 years.
"I missed you." I weakly admitted. She sighed again and parted from me, smiling softly in return.
"I did too, believe me." She said before she seemed to remember Peter's existence. She turned stiff and looked at him questiongly.
"Oh, it's Peter, Spiderman." I quickly said when I realised she might need a boost before knowing who he was. "He's of trust." I promised her. She quickly nodded and looked back at me.
"What happened?"
Remembering the evens that happened just two minutes ago I felt a sudden weight against my chest, sighing.
"I- I just panicked. I-" I stoped myself to sigh again and looked down, fidgeting with my fingers as I always did when I was nervous, continuing in a whisper. "I just heard Steve laughing and panicked." I painfully admitted in the softest whisper. I heard Natasha sigh and she past an arm around my shoulders in a semi-affectionate way.
"Oh, girl." She said. "Your dad thinks that something has happened to you, and he is going a little crazy, you should return." I nodded and turned around to face Peter.
"I'm sorry, P, I don't think I'm feeling like studing biology right now." I sorrily said.
"Don't worry. I guess I'll see you tomorrow in school." He said before waving goodbye and leaving probably for the bus stop.
"Let's go. The party is about to start." She jockingly said, making me groan. Five minutes later the doors of the elevator were opening for me in the main floor for the second time, Natasha with an arm still in my shoulders, leading me.
"I brought the prodigal son back." Natasha loudly announced as we entered the living room. I tried not to look at Steve, because I knew that in the moment I laid my eyes on him I would stay glued.
It was not easy, not with my heart furiously bumping inside my body so hard that I was surprised no one was seeing its setoff jump in and out my body. We were together again and it was trying to warn me, to make me look so we could properly reunite.
"Hey." I shyly said trying to curve my lips into a smile, succesing but not too much I would say.
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Peter knew it. It had been a small thought always present in the back of his head, pricking everytime he spent time with her or even thought of the girl.
He knew he never stood a chance.
Alba and Steve were made to be together, and he could try as hard as he could, but never own her heart completely. He heard her on the few moments she would talk about him, or just see her expression when someone mentioned him; she wasn't over him and probably would never be. Peter had thought something had changed lately, she seemed happier when she was with him, but still had the same heart broken eyes when someone talked about Captain America. Peter seemed to have a little bit of her heart with him, but would she ever give all of it to him?
No, even if she wanted, that was something she didn't have a choice on.
And now the Captain was back, and any small piece of Alba's heart that remained with him had returned to it's previous owner just with his laugh. Any chance he stood with her only needed Alba to know Steve was there to be ripped off from Peter.
Peter had this sensation, he would try to make himself believe it was just paranoia, but he knew it was the truth, Steve Rogers and Alba Stark where bound to reunite, and in the moment that happened he would definetely loose her.
He had, but he wouldn't give up, at least not for now.
