ROMANOGERS: And Then You

Chapter 5

 They spend the next month and a half perfecting their mission plan. With only a limited amount of Pym Particles, there is not much room left for error or test runs. Tony designs suits for every member that will allow their bodies to travel through the Quantum Realm. Successfully simulating a flawless travel path, there is space for one experimental run.

"Who's it?" Tony asks looking around the room at his fellow Avengers. They all know the risky possibilities of time travel; coming back not as they left and even not coming back at all, trapped in the medium like Janet, or Scott.

"I'll do it," Clint volunteers.

"Clint—" Nat says hesitantly.

He looks at his friend who's eyes nervously shake looking back at him. With a sad smile, he says, "What'd I have to lose?"

Clint suits up while everyone gathers around the control panel behind the platform they've built to enter the Quantum Realm. Clint walks up to the center of the device and clicks his helmet on. With her jaw tightened and eyebrows furrowed, Nat nervously stands beside Steve. Still getting used to any sort of PDA, especially with all their team members around, Steve simply stands closely behind her emitting comfort through the warmth of his body. Nat feels his chest behind her shoulder, and the tension in her body loosens as she leans slightly into Steve's body. Clint faintly nods at Nat, and she nods back.

"Okay Barton, remember, just go and come back," Tony instructs. "Don't interact with anybody and don't mess up any timelines." Five minutes pass, but it feels like twenty. "Bringing him back in 5, 4, 3, 2... 1." Tony hits the switch and Barton comes flying back onto the platform, landing on his hands and knees, barely catching his breath.

Immediately Nat runs to Clint trying to help him to his feet. "Clint, are you okay, are you hurt?" Steve knows they have always been close, yet he feels a slight drop in his heart at how unhesitant her warmth left him. Looking at them together, he has a feeling like he's out of place, but he shakes the thought away.

Chuckling in disbelief, Clint says, "It worked."

She is so happy for him, but she looks back and smiles at Steve. The sincere excitement in her face, he could feel her heart beating to bring her family back from miles away.

After the successful test run, the Avengers go to work calculating the specific timelines they needed to infiltrate to retrieve all the Infinity Stones. They pinpoint in 2012 with the Battle of New York, they can get the Time Stone, the Tesseract, and the Scepter, as well as the Aether in Asgard. In 2014, they can get the Orb and Soul Stone.

Dividing up into teams is easy and hard. It's the obvious choice for Steve to accompany Tony back to the Battle of New York, since he can use his knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D. to his advantage, but he so desired to partner with Nat like they always had. Instead, she's going to Vormir with Clint, which makes him nervous since neither of them have any idea the other worlds out in the galaxy and how they work. He wants to be able to protect her, and frankly just be with her.

Unsurprisingly, Steve finds Nat in the kitchen making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"You want a bite?" Nat offers lifting up her perfect sandwich.

"You bet," he responds as he walks toward her and lays a kiss on her lips. "Taste great."

She smirks at him and takes a bite of sandwich. "It better." She leans her back against the counter and Steve leans back across from her. Both of them look at each other bittersweetly with words on their mind that they don't know if they should keep to themselves or speak.

"I wish I could go with you." The words came out of their mouths at the same time.

"Well, at least we're on the same page," Steve says.

"Duty calls," Nat responds in a sad-tone through her smile.

"All I've ever wanted to do was the right thing, but right now all I want to do is run away with you," Steve confesses.

Nat flashes back to when she told Bruce that she was willing to leave everything behind and run away together. She shakes the reckless memory away. These past few months, her relationship with Steve has been so fruitful for her. She's learning to love and want more for herself than she's ever let herself even think about and being with Steve feels like a dream. But the fact that she can't hide from is that she's here and everyone who disappeared isn't.

"We owe it everyone not in this room."

"I know, I know. Of course I want to do this," Steve sighs. "But I just want you to know that is how you make me feel."

"To not to do right thing?" She jokes.

"To have someone to love that makes you want nothing else."

Suddenly, the tension between them rises above boiling point and her joking smile flattens to a linear line as she looks deeply into his sincere eyes. Love. The word doesn't feel real to her, it never has, but somehow she's falling for it when it comes out of Steve Rogers' lips.

"Steve..." Now she wishes they had started sooner. Saving the world a handful of times, running around the world, and sleeping next to him for almost a whole two-year, yet she's feeling greedy and wishing they had more time because suddenly everything feels so fleeting.

He kisses her speechless lips and holds the back of her head with his hand. "I love you," he utters softly as they break apart.

She parts her lips to respond, but they're interrupted by Scott who doesn't seem to be phased anymore by them.

"Knock, knock," he says knocking on the glass panels of the kitchen wall. Caught off guard, Nat and Steve shy off of each other with Nat rubbing her hand on the back of her neck and Steve leaning back on the counter and crossing his arms. "It's time."

Leaving their conversation hanging, Nat and Steve walk with Scott to meet up with everyone else. They all suit-up and walk to the platform with Tony carrying a briefcase of Pym Particles just enough for each person to have a roundtrip.

"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know, that doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're going to win. Whatever it takes. Good luck," Steve says shifting into Captain America mode.

As Tony gives everyone their Pym Particles, Nat wraps her arms around Steve's neck pulling him into a long embrace. She closes her eyes for a brief second and recalls all their joyful moments from the past months. "I love you too," she whispers in his ear. She pulls away and moves her hands to both side of his cheeks getting a good, deep look at his eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth... Remembering every detail.

Steve can't help it and leans in for a kiss. It's long and lingering. They hear Thor whistle, and they smile while pulling away.

"Well, well, my good sir! It's about time, can't say good time though," Thor cheers.

"I knew it!" Tony shouts.

"So did I," Scott chimes in.

"I had an inkling long before any of you guys," Bruce interrupts.

"No way! When the job is done, celebrations are in order!" Tony says. Everyone stands in their place in a circle on the platform. "Everyone ready?"

Steve looks over at Nat one last time, memorizing the smile radiating on her face. "See you in a minute."

They flip their helmets on and rush into the Quantum Realm.