I Can Take You Home (A Romanogers Fanfic) COMPLETED

Steve

"So, you've finally gotten Natasha over here to join the Avengers," Nick Fury said in an impressed tone, his hands behind his back.

  Steve and the other Avengers (except Thor, he was busy in Asgard) had brought Natasha to the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, to which she said she knew the way to, for she was traveling around as a double agent for a long time, giving S.H.I.E.L.D information about Hydra through secret passageways.

  "So many years, I have been trying to convince Natasha to join the Avengers initiative, but she had always refused." Fury nodded at Steve. "I wonder how you convinced her so fast, in just a day. As I've known her, Natasha doesn't trust people easily."

  Steve felt flustered. He didn't know how either. The way Natasha had looked at him with her enthralling forest eyes, and over the days they had softened and they looked even more beautiful. He had looked forward to doing missions together with her, if Fury would assign them together. He knew Natasha didn't trust people easily, if not at all, and she was a hard person, difficult to convince. Always suspicious. Always cautious. Always guarded. "I...I don't know."

  "Rogers gave me a chance," Natasha cut in. "And now I've met the Avengers, I think I can cooperate with you boys."

  "Boys?" Tony exclaimed. "Boys?"

  Natasha flashed him a look.

  "Okay, let's get to the serious matter here." Fury adjusted his eyepatch and clasped his hands behind his back. "Natasha, are you sure you can't be tracked?"

  "I took my tracking badge off. It hurts like hell, but worth it." Natasha looked at everyone's confused expression. "Back in Russia, I was given a badge at a very young age to prevent me from escaping. It connects to the tracking system, and no matter how far you run, you'll be found. Unless you take it off, but it's going to hurt badly."

  "Wait, are you, say, abused in your home?" Tony asked.

  Something in Natasha's eyes broke, but she held herself up still, and the broken look in her eyes went away. "My past is none of your concern, Stark."

  "Well, whatever rocks your boat, Agent Romanoff," Tony replied, not the slightest bit intimidated.

  Natasha muttered something vulgar in Latin.

  "Then if Natasha can't be tracked, then please explain how the fuck does your house got blown up by some assassins?" Fury turned his one-eyed scowl at Steve.

  "The assassins are smart," Natasha answered for Steve.

  "I'll protect her." Steve nodded at the rest. "We all will."

  "For the last time, Rogers, I don't need-"

  "Look, I know you're a master at fighting and everyone knows you are." Steve took her wrist and felt her pull away. But he held her in an iron grip, thanks to his enhanced strength. "But you need to understand that sometimes help can make things better. Asking for help does not hurt you, Romanoff."

  Natasha's piercing eyes flicked to her wrist trapped in Steve's grasp. Then, they went up to Steve, and suddenly, her fingers fastened into his wrist, digging into his skin, and she flipped him over and twisted her hand free from his.

  Steve's breath flew out of him as he crashed onto the ground. It was like having asthma all over again. In his shock, he looked up and saw a pair of green eyes and smug smile staring down at him.

  "Does it look like I need protecting now?" Natasha lifted her shirt up, and her wound looked fully healed already. She must have stripped off the bandages when Steve wasn't looking. "You're not the only one with enhanced strength, Rogers."

  "Wow." Tony chuckled. "You're really getting old, aren't you, Capsicle?"

  "Shut up," Steve grumbled. Natasha held out a hand and helped him up.

  The Russian spy gently smoothed down Steve's slightly wrinkled shirt. She crouched down and dusted his pants. Steve's breath got stuck under his ribs when Natasha got up slowly in a seducing way. Her body was on the verge of touching his, and when she smiled at him and winked, he nearly fell backward.

  "Nat, quit flirting with him. The man's old," Clint joked, slapping Steve on the back.

  Natasha just smiled that alluring smile of hers, then went away with Fury, initiating a conversation with anxious Bruce.

  "You're really lucky to have caught Nat's attention, Steve." Clint nudged Steve with an elbow as they trailed along at the back of the line. "Despite how hard and cold she may be sometimes, she's a good woman. Has the biggest heart in the world."

  Steve thought back to when she pushed him into his room back when his house hadn't combusted into flames. The way she cried. The way she was shouting the word 'sister' all over again in her sleep. The way she had looked at Yelena and refused to fight her sister, though that meant her being injured badly again. The way she had burst into his house to warn him to run, despite being terribly injured. The way she had sobbed, all alone, at night when he came to check on her, saying Melina's and Yelena's names over and over under her breath. He didn't dare disturb, so he just silently shut the door. And most of all, the way her walls crumbled down a little when she was in Sam's house, her vulnerability showing through. The way she had wanted to wipe all the red out of her ledger, whatever she had done bad in the past.

  "You can try asking her out," Clint said, interrupting his train of thought.

  "W-What?" Steve spluttered. "Who says I like her? And who says she likes me?"

  "Trust me, Nat isn't always this playful around men. Only you. Her main flirting technique is, obviously, seduction. It isn't hard though, she's attractive as hell." Clint gestured toward Natasha talking with Tony and Bruce. She looked like she wasn't trying to seduce them. She didn't move in a sexual way. Didn't touch them. Just normal talk. Not in a way she had talked to Steve.

  "And as for you," Clint started to pick up speed when Natasha waved at him to come, "you have it written all over your stupid, blushing face."

  Steve ran to catch up, and when Natasha saw him and smiled again, he wondered whether the things Clint had said was really true.