To Find Love: Romanogers One-Shots

Keep Her Close

Summary: The five times Steve finds Natasha in his arms and the one time he finds himself in Natasha's arms instead.

One

Steve ran down an alley, jumping behind the building as a shower of bullets chased after him.  He pressed himself against the wall, breathing heavily as he waited for the bullets to stop.  He turned to look at Natasha and his mind froze when he realised she wasn't beside him.  She had been right at his side before he'd ducked into the alley, where could she have gone?

He peered his head around the corner as the bullets stopped and spotted Natasha lying face down on the ground.  The gunmen were nowhere to be seen, so Steve shot out from behind the building and dropped down beside Natasha.  He rolled her over, choking on a breath of air when he noticed three bullet holes in her chest.  He tried to feel for her pulse, but couldn't find anything.

"Natasha!"  he yelled, shaking her roughly in hopes of waking her up.  She didn't react and he quickly tried to find her pulse again.  He put his ear to her mouth, but she wasn't breathing.  "No!  Natasha, wake up.  Come on, Nat.  Get up!"  he screamed, starting CPR.  It did nothing but cover his hands and arms in her blood as he continued to scream for her to wake up.  He kept trying, pressing harder and harder until he was sure he'd broken every rib possible.  "Come on, Natasha,"  he cried, dropping his hands from her chest and looking down at her still body.  "Please wake up."

Steve woke up suddenly, inhaling sharply and tensing up when he didn't immediately recognise the room he was in.  He blinked to adjust to the dark light then remembered he was on a mission with Natasha.

Natasha!  He almost flew out of the bed to find her but stopped short when he realised something was on top of his right arm and part of his chest.  Looking down, he saw Natasha curled up against him, her red hair splayed across his chest and her soft breaths hitting his neck.

Steve breathed out in relief, wrapping his arm around her back a little tighter.  She let out a quiet moan and hugged him but didn't wake up.  He looked down at her, watching her sleep peacefully until he felt his eyelids drooping.  He let his eyes close and focused to the sound of her breathing until he fell asleep again, subconsciously thankful their hotel ended up only having a one bed room available.

Two

Steve loved their movie nights.  Natasha had always visited his floor at least twice a week when he'd lived in the Tower and once he'd moved out, she came by almost every day.  He knew his apartment wasn't exactly on her way from SHIELD to the Tower, but that didn't change the fact she came by so often.

A couple months after they'd become partners at SHIELD, Natasha had started a movie night, insisting it was necessary for him to be able to understand the modern world.  It had been nearly three years now and Steve was pretty sure he'd become accustomed to the modern world at this point, but their movie nights were still a weekly occurrence.

"I brought caramel corn!"  Natasha announced, holding a bag of popcorn up proudly as she walked into the apartment.  Steve smiled at her as she came into the kitchen and set it on the counter.  "The farmers market down the street was still open, so I stopped by to grab fruit and they had caramel corn!"

"Must be our lucky day,"  Steve teased.

Natasha nodded, reaching across the counter for a fortune cookie.  Even though he rolled his eyes, Steve let her take it and handed her the box of chow mein noodles he'd gotten for her.  She grinned and opened it up immediately, sliding onto the stool beside her.  She grabbed a pair of chopsticks and dug into the noodles, watching as Steve grabbed his own box of food and some chopsticks.  It had taken many, many nights of flinging and dropping Chinese food on the floor, but Natasha had finally managed to teach Steve how to use chopsticks.