ROMANOGERS: And Then You

Chapter 4

The sun beams in from the sheer curtains and bleeds light into the room. Sleep has never felt so good and the bed has never been so comforting. Feeling light as a feather with her eyes closed and a smitten smile across her face, Nat snuggles further into Steve's warm body.

For the last ten minutes he's been awake, Steve silently watches Natasha completely at rest; her breathing is steady, her eyebrows relaxed, her lips slightly curved upward, her heart on her sleeve. All the Avengers teased him for never going out on dates, wanting to meet anyone, or move on. Jokingly making fun of him for holding out, and wasting what time he had. Little did they know, and himself, that this was what he was holding out for. Experience life through a few decades, never has the air felt fresher.

He kisses the top of her head and whispers, "Good morning, beautiful."

She slowly blinks her eyes open one at a time, and squints up looking at him. She lifts her hands up from underneath the white sheets and touches his cheek. Her bright green eyes softly glaze over his. "Is this real?" She says in a low whisper, scared that if she'd say it any louder everything will disappear in a cloud of smoke and she'll wake up.

He moves in and softly kisses her lips. "Very." She leans her forehead against his chin. "Last night..."

She lets out a quiet laugh and he can feel her shy breath on his neck. "...Yeah."

"I have never felt more alive since I came out of the ice," he jokes throwing his head back. He cups her face in his hands. "You make me feel alive."

"It feels like..." She can't even believe the words the coming out of mouth. She takes a deep breath. "I was drowning. And you were like coming up for air. You saved me."

"We saved each other." They share another kiss and playfully roll around in the messy white bed sheets. As Nat rolls off to the edge, Steve grabs her waist and pulls her back into him like a little spoon. "I never want to leave this bed," Steve says nuzzling his face into the crook of Natasha's exposed neck.

"I don't think Tony wants any roommates," she laughs.

Suddenly, their super sensitive hearing register the sound of the doorknob turning. Nat immediately ducks underneath the covers and Steve tries to act normal and cover himself.

"Hey Cap—Whoa, Whoa! Who knew Captain America slept naked," Tony said surprised and covering his eyes. "Well, just wanted to let you know that breakfast is ready. And would you tell Nat too. I think she's in the bathroom." Underneath the covers, Nat covers her mouth from giggling.

"Yep, sure thing. Will be down in five," Steve responds.

Nat peeks back up from the covers. "Do you think he saw me?"

"Of course he did." Natasha starts getting out of the bed and dragging the sheets with her. "Hey, hey!"

"You said five minutes!" She says running to the bathroom to get ready.

After cleaning up, Natasha and Steve make their way down the stairs. Trying to look as serious as possible, but they couldn't fix their bed hair. As they descend down the stairs, they see everyone at the table waiting for them.

"Good morning!" Pepper cheerfully says. "Hope you both had a good restful night of sleep."

"I di-" Nat answers.

"We di-" Steve answers making Nat nervously laugh and Tony smirk.

Everyone sits down at the table and breakfast smells amazing. Nat doesn't remember the last time ate a home-cooked meal. "Well, I call this superheroes breakfast. We've eggs, sunny-side and scrambled, toast, bacon, hash browns, yogurt, fruit, and a stack of pancakes."

"Thank you, Pepper," Nat says smiling.

"Course, let's make it a normal thing," she replies.

Everyone starts taking their share of each dish. Morgan goes straight for the pancakes. Nat patiently waits for everyone to finish grabbing their picks, but Steve takes a sunny-side up egg and slides it onto her plate.

"You like them sunny, right?"

Nat smiles. "Thank you," She mouths.

As everyone is eating, Tony looks at Nat, "By the way, Nat, you got to be the best guest ever, granted we haven't had any. But I checked the room this morning and it's spotless!" He takes a bite of his bacon. "As if you barely slept in it!"

She can feel her cheeks becoming hotter. She embarrassingly smiles down at her food.

"Oh! And did you know Cap sleeps naked?"

"Alright, alright!" Steve interjects. "I don't think Morgan would care to know about any of those details."

"For crying out loud, just confess! I so close as caught you!"

"Tony!" Pepper sends him a glare. "I'm sure it's none of our business."

"It's Avengers business! Once an Avenger, always an Avenger," Tony bargains. "So as I was saying, do you have anything you'd like to share with the team?"

"—I think this time heist thing would work." Saved by Scott Lang. "We just need to figure out the exact entry and exit points of the Quantum Realm—"

"Hey, hey, hey! What'd I say about talking about this inside?"

After breakfast, Natasha, Steve, and Steve get ready to head back to the Avengers facility. As their car drives off of the Stark residence, they see Tony holding Morgan in his arms, both waving them off.

Instead of driving straight to the HQ, they decide to contact Bruce Banner and meet him at a diner in town. They're seated at a booth, Steve and Nat sit across from Scott waiting for Bruce; however, he enters the diner with a commotion as Hulk. As he sits down at the end of the table, Steve can't help, but slide closer to Nat.

"Nat, how's Clint?"

The question catches Natasha off guard. She suddenly feels a lump in her throat thinking about her close friend. "He's uh.." She tries to clear her throat, and she feels Steve's arm behind her and squeezing her shoulder. "He's coping."

They all head to the Avenger's facility together, and begin researching and testing ways to use the Quantum Realm. They have a string of continuous failures with Scott returning as a different version of himself. Frustrated with the outcome, Steve exits the building to take a break just as Tony drives his car up to the building entrance.

Getting out of the car, Tony says, "I figured it out."

He's never been happier to see Tony. "So you changed your mind?"

"How were you ever going to do it without me?"

"Well, we don't have to find out now," Steve chuckles.

"Only if we can bring everyone back without losing what I've gained. I can't."

They see Nat running to the glass doors, but she stops when she sees both Steve and Tony. Her body language relaxes and she smiles in relief.

Steve looks at Nat and smiles, while answering Tony, "Of course."