The Prince And The Rose

26 - Headcanon Drabbles

Prompt L: My favorite Romanogers headcanon is that they are both huge fans of Star Wars.

"I refuse to wear that," Natasha huffed, crossing her arms.

Steve rolled his eyes at her and adjusted the black vest he was trying on. "Come on, it would look great on you. And you don't have to do the double buns or anything."

She gave him a long-suffering eye roll and a sigh, but he could tell she wasn't really adverse to the idea.

"Come on," he said, grinning. "I'm going as Han, you have to be Leia."

"I do not," she grumbled. "We could do a different Star Wars couple."

"What, Anakin and Padme? That was a disaster. And the pairings for the new one aren't confirmed yet." Personally Steve thought Natasha going as Rey would be adorable, but then what character was he supposed to be then? "You know you wanna get it."

"You're insufferable," she grumbled, but she was already reaching for the costume. "Bad enough you're making me go to Comic Con, we have to get costumes too."

"All your idea," Steve sang, elbowing her. "It's gonna be great.

Natasha didn't disagree.

Anonymous Prompt: Romanogers reunite after civil war

He was a little afraid of seeing her again. He'd never been able to thank her for helping him escape, and he knew... he knew that she'd probably gotten in a lot of trouble. Sometimes he wondered if she'd even be there when they got back, if maybe she'd been put in jail for helping him. But he told himself that was irrational, and tried not to think about it too much.

So when he walked back into Headquarters after what felt like forever (not just the year it had really been) he was nothing but a mass of teeming nerves, tense and on edge like he expected to be shot. His team picked up on his mood, walking behind him in a small, anxious group.

He saw her first, even though Tony was standing closest to him. She looked fine – better than fine, really. He forced himself to look away, though; Tony was making a blundering attempt at an olive branch speech.

Steve would admit later that his own responses to Tony were probably terser than he meant them to be; he just wanted to talk to Nat. As soon as he dared, he turned his attention from Tony and took a hesitant step towards Natasha.

"Hey," he said.

She smiled a little, a wry turning-up of the corners of her mouth, so familiar. "Hi."

His composure was crumbling; he knew that before long he might cry or run to her or say something stupid and he wasn't sure what to do to prevent any of those things happening. He felt trapped in place and he suddenly wanted to hide.

Natasha knew what to do though (she always did) and pushed forward past Clint and Vision, heels clicking deafeningly against the floor. Then he was moving too, not sure what he meant to do but certain he had to get to her.

Her arms wrapped around his waist like she was trying to strangle him and she pressed her face into his chest, silent and maybe... maybe she was crying. Steve's arms fit just right around her shoulders.

"Hey," he said again, chuckling a little because if he wasn't careful he was going to cry too. "Thank you."

There was entirely too much going unsaid with those two words, but Natasha said a muffled "You're welcome" and held on to him even tighter, if that was possible.

"I missed you," he whispered. How he had missed her!

Anonymous Prompt: headcannon: single dad steve meets his daughter's ballet teacher, Nat

Steve knew he should probably just take Grace and go home. She was tugging on his pant leg, which meant she was getting impatient. He told her, "Hang on, sweetie, I just want to talk to your ballet teacher." The ballet teacher with legs that went on for miles and brilliant red hair and the most captivating eyes he'd ever seen.

Grace apparently felt that waiting for her teacher (what had she said her name was? Miss Natalie? Miss Nadya? Something with an N...) would take too long, so with all the ear-splitting power available to small lungs she hollered, "Miss Natasha! Daddy wants to talk to you."

Okay. Well, that was one way to get her attention. Steve gave Grace a reprimanding look and then sent an apologetic one Miss Natasha's way.

"Hello." The dance teacher padded over and held out a hand to shake with an amused smile on her face, and Steve realized he was out of his depth. He shook it anyway. "I don't believe we've really met. I'm Natasha Romanoff. Grace is a delight to teach."

Steve fumbled for a proper, not-creepy, answer. "Pleased to meet you too. Grace talks about you a lot. I'm Steve Rogers."

Natasha dipped her head in a gracious nod and Steve was perilously close to asking her something stupid like "You wanna get dinner sometime?". But instead, he asked, "So she's not much trouble?" He winked at Grace before continuing, "She's a terrible mischief-maker at home."

Natasha laughed (oh, shit, she had a nice laugh too) and shook her head. "No, she's very well-behaved."

"Good." Steve scrambled for something, anything else to say, and came up blank. "Well, Miss Romanoff, it was very nice to meet you, finally," he said, smiling awkwardly. "Keep up the good work." That last part was such a dad thing to say; he cringed inwardly and wanted to kick himself.

"I'll certainly try," she teased, and then she said a quick "Excuse me, it was nice to meet you" as her attention was drawn away by another set of parents.

Steve was forced to walk out of the studio with Grace and pretend that he wasn't still distracted by the seeming perfection that was her dance teacher.

Meanwhile, Natasha was having an equally difficult time pretending that she wasn't still thinking about Grace's father and his arms. If he was to do a lift with her (an impossible scenario but still) he'd probably hold her up without so much as breathing heavily. Those smiles should be criminal, and he was so cute with Grace. He was perfect, as far as she could tell.

But then apparently she was being asked for her opinion on something, so she was forced to set aside the image of his hands around her waist for later examination.