never leaving your side || romanogers

Chapter 11

Nat sat in the bathroom. Her head was resting on her hands. A stressed expression etched itself on her face, making her look worried and upset. And she was.

What had she thought? Of course, Steve was a very good looking man and certainly polite and the dream boyfriend, but she had learned never to love. Love clouded sense, and she needed sense to survive. That was how it was in the Red Room.

She wasn't in the Red Room anymore. She was not in Russia. She was in New York, America, and she was part of the Avengers. She was not afraid of them anymore. But somehow, she started crying anyway. She was in the middle of a silent sob when the door opened. "Natasha?" A quiet, soft voice said. "It's Pepper. What's wrong?"

When Natasha didn't reply, Pepper asked again. "Nat? Answer me. What's wrong? Steve's scared for you. You just ran from him. And now you're crying. You never cry."

Pepper's words sunk into Natasha's brain. "Wait," she said. "Steve sent you?"

Pepper nodded. "He's really worried."

Natasha broke down again. Tears streamed down her cheeks like small waterfalls. "Tell him to stop. He needs to stop. Why won't he stop?" Natasha said, her voice rising to a scream.

Pepper slid down to sit next to her. "Stop what?" She said gently, putting her arm around the younger girl's shoulder.

Natasha whispered something under her breath that Pepper didn't quite catch. "He won't stop caring about me." She whispered again, so faint that Pepper could only faintly hear it.

"But Nat, he wants to care about you. He loves you, Nat."

Instantly, Natasha stopped crying. Her head jerked up, and her bloodshot eyes focused on Pepper's blue ones. "What did he say?"

"Nothing much, just that you ran off after dancing with him, and he wanted me to check on you," Pepper said, smiling.

Natasha looked down at her hands. "Then how?"

"Come on, Nat. We're the only two girls here as of now. I'll notice things that the boys don't."

Natasha sighed. "Please don't tell anyone what I'm about to say."

Pepper nodded, her eyes gleaming in anticipation of what she was about to say.

"He's not bad. And if I had to date anyone here, it would most definitely be him. But we're not dating right now, and I don't want any rumors, please, so just don't tell anyone, especially Tony, all right?"

"Alright. But there's no guarantee that they won't figure it out themselves. Now c'mon, we gotta get you fixed up."

"Actually, Pepper?"

"Yes?"

"I think I want to do something else."

Walking out of the bathroom, she immediately found Steve's tall frame standing in a corner, surrounded by many ladies trying to get his hand for a dance. As soon as he saw Nat walking toward him, looking a little blotchy, but otherwise happy, he pushed his way from the crowd, murmuring excuse me's to everyone he passed.

Natasha stood there, waiting for Steve to walk over, and put his arms around her, to hug her, to make her feel better. Instead, he picked her up and swung her around in a circle, red dress fanning out around her waist. That was the first act of love. The second would come soon.

Setting Natasha down, Steve grinned down at her, breathlessly. Natasha gazed up at him, love clouding any sadness left in her. "What do you say?" Natasha asked. "Shall we dance?"

"Yes, we shall."

With that, the soldier and the spy linked their arms and stepped onto the dance floor, waltzing along to a slow song. When she spotted a certain someone with a certain phone, she groaned and ripped her arms from Steve's. "TONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She screamed, running after a tall man in a suit.

Pepper walked up to him. "Did I do good?" She asked, smirking a little.

Steve turned to face the redhead. "Pepper," he said, flushing pink. "What did she say?" Pepper offered him only a smile in return.

Natasha then ran back to Steve. "Ok," she said, her voice showing no sign that she had just been chasing a man around a party room who been recording a certain two people and might have beat up a little as well. "We're done here. Let's go home."

When Steve gave her a weird look, she knit her eyebrows together annoyed, and replied, "Let's go to my room. I'll tell you what I did to Tony there. How bout that?"

Steve nodded, looking ahead as their elevator door opened. "Seems like a nice deal. I'll take it."