To Find Love: Romanogers One-Shots

Carefully Treading

Summary: Police Captain Steve Rogers runs one of the best detective agencies in New York. His wife, ballerina Natasha Romanova-Rogers, dances for the New York City Ballet company. It's not uncommon to see one of them at the other's workplace, though some coworkers are more problematic than others. One day when Natasha goes to visit Steve, she's pulled aside by said coworker and things don't go as smoothly as they could have.

It was always nearly impossible to find parking anywhere remotely near the precinct no matter what time of day it was.  The streets were lined with cars or taxis waiting to be hailed, so on the rare days Natasha did drive herself to Steve's office, she had to park about four blocks away in a parking garage.  She didn't mind the walk (it was just about as far as the nearest subway station, just more work) unless it was stormy out.  Then she did tend to hail a cab the few blocks to the precinct just to avoid risking a cold.  At the moment, though, it was sunny and warm out, so as she walked from the subway to the precinct, she could enjoy it rather than race to get inside.

"I'm only a block away,"  she told Steve over the phone.  She could see the precinct building just ahead.  If the sidewalk wasn't so crowded, she could get there in about a minute.  "I'm stuck behind a group of slow tourists," she told him in Russian, not wanting to accidentally offend the people in front of her even if they were moving at a snail's pace.  "Give me five minutes and I'll be there."

"Alright.  See you soon,"  Steve said.  She could practically hear the smile in his voice as he said it.  He'd been stuck late at the office working a tough case with Sam and Bucky and she'd been busy with pas de deux practices, so they hadn't had an afternoon to themselves in a while.  Even if he was stuck at work for another four hours, Natasha had been able to stop by so they could at least see each other while the sun was still out (and she had every intention of staying there until he was ready to leave himself).

By the time Natasha was stepping through the doors of the precinct, she was having a hard time not rushing upstairs to Steve's office.  Instead, she checked in at the front with Laura who just waved her through after a short conversation.  As she walked onto the elevator, she could faintly hear Laura calling up to Steve's office to let him know she was on her way.  A second later, her phone buzzed and she smiled down at the heart eyes emoji Steve had texted her.  After showing him and downloading the emoji keyboard onto his phone, Steve had started using the little emojis on nearly every text he sent her (though most of them were just hearts, heart eyes, or the kissy face).

Natasha was still looking down at her phone, a little irritated with the text she'd received from her dance partner about potentially practicing tomorrow morning when the elevator doors opened.  She sent her partner a short text about being busy all-day tomorrow and ran smack into one of the detectives she hadn't noticed.  She managed to keep hold of her phone and not completely fall over, letting out a surprised yelp.

"Sorry, Natasha!"  Sam exclaimed, steadying her and nearly dropping his files in the process.  He grinned and she smiled back.  "Long time no see.  Cap is anxiously waiting in his office even though he's trying to be covert."

"Thanks, Sam,"  Natasha laughed.  He nodded at her then stepped around her to deliver his files.  Natasha stuffed her phone in her dance bag seeing as her leggings had no pockets then started towards Steve's office.  She was intercepted a second later, but this time it was by a not-so-friendly face.

"Nat, hey, just the person I wanted to see,"  Brock Rumlow exclaimed happily.  She pursed her lips and glanced ahead at Steve's office.  "I saw this article the other day and I'm pretty sure you were on the front page.  I just printed it off after finding out you were stopping by; come on and I'll show it to you."