Through, Together (A Romanogers Fanfiction)

No Time for Hello's

The trip to Headquarters was... tense. Steve hadn't been there since, well, everything that had happened with Tony, Bucky, and the Sokovia Accords. He still felt a lot of regret over many of the things that had happened, but while he still had the utmost respect for the man, he hadn't talked to Tony since. That regret, that guilt, was only greater, now, knowing that Iron Man was on that ship, presumingly alone; doing what he could to protect others. It wasn't right. He shouldn't have been alone. He didn't deserve that.

The encircled "A" still stood like a beacon of hope at the top of the Headquarters building. It was a symbol of days past, Steve knew, but part of him hoped it could be a symbol of days yet to come. It would take a lot of hard work, but Steve Rogers was no stranger to hard work. Neither was Natasha.

The sight didn't mean to her quite what she knew it meant to Steve, but she could feel the regret emanating off him like heat from a furnace. She had some regrets of her own. Mostly, Natasha just regretted that all of them couldn't come to some sort of agreement. She regretted that they had been split apart. She still stood by her choice in helping Steve escape with Bucky from that airport in Germany, but she wished it had never come to that. Natasha was aware of the guilt that Steve harbored over that. Just because she had a clear conscience about it didn't mean that he did.

That was the past, though. A lot had happened since then, a lot of good, and she wouldn't change any of it for the world. So, she gave him her best attempt at a reassuring smile and then was the first to step out of the jet when it landed. She might have been a head shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than him, but Natasha Romanoff charged into situations head-on. Strong and fearless. Steve had always admired that about her. She made it easy to follow her lead, now. The others might regard him as the Captain, but even Steve needed direction sometimes. He looped one of Vision's arms over his shoulders. Sam was there to take the other. They helped him out of the jet with Wanda walking just in front of them.

Together, they entered the building and navigated familiar hallways until they found James "Rhodey" Rhodes waiting for them in a briefing room. It was large and empty, like most other rooms inside the building, but Rhodey's face was a welcome sight. He seemed happy to see them, despite jokes about the beard on Steve's face and the "age finally starting to catch up" to him. Handshakes, hugs, and claps on the back were exchanged.

"Natasha," he said, "I like the haircut."

Nat received the compliment with a slightly relieved sigh. She was pretty well-covered in tactical gear, but there was still the fear of other... differences, imperceptible as they were, being noticed. There would, no doubt, be questions, and they weren't the type that Nat felt like answering. Especially not in the face of some kind of... alien invasion.

"I know we aren't exactly strangers to stuff like this," Rhodey was saying as he lead them toward a glass table in the middle of the room. He pressed a finger to the table and illuminated a control board previously unseen. A few taps pulled up several different screens. Case files, schematics and various video feeds were laid out before them.

"Full-scale attacks on earth seem like bi-weekly occurrence anymore, but... something about this one seems different." Rhodey said.

"Different enough for Stark to hitch a ride on... whatever the hell that thing is." Sam said, motioning toward the video they'd all been watching before, at one point or another.

Steve furrowed his brow and stared intently at the footage. "What are you after, Tony..."

"Thanos."

A familiar, yet almost-forgotten, voice sounded from the other side of the room. All eyes lifted to follow the sound. A ghost stood at the far end of the table.