What Do You Want Us to Be?---Steve x Nat

Bullets and Bottled Feelings

P𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕝𝕪....

"Okay, I'm ready if you are-" He cut off, pausing when he saw only Tony who was yet again sipping his beer innocently, and frowned as he looked around a bit. "Where'd Nat go?"

"Hmm? Oh Nat...yeah she uhhh, she left for a bit."

"And does this have anything to do with you by any chance, Stark?" Steve questioned, narrowing his eyes slightly at his fellow Avenger.

Tony said nothing in response, instead poorly hiding a smirk and winking as he brought the beer bottle to his lips again.
It was answer enough for the blonde super soldier, and his answer was only confirmed by the sound of distant gunshots that managed to reach Steve's ears.
Steve's jaw tensed briefly, as he mentally noted to deck Tony later, but it would have to wait for now.

"Dammit anyway, Tony-"

Shaking his head, he instinctively ran past Tony to the direction in which he heard the gunshots from. She was probably fine, of course. But Steve wasn't taking any chances and something in him told him that he needed to go find her, and calm her down. Sometimes this happened, not often, but it did happen, and it was often because of Tony. He usually just let her blow off steam, and she'd come back when she was fine, but today it felt like he needed to find her. Today he felt he ought to give her some time to relax away from Tony, and that's what he was going to do, even if he didn't quite know how yet; he'd have to wing it, but it would be worth it, he told himself. For Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers would always try his best no matter what it was that he was trying to do.

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Nat wasn't exactly the 'sensitive' type. She didn't really get upset easily, and when she did she usually hid it expertly. But today....Tony just kept pushing her buttons, pushing in just the right ways, that pissed her off. And whenever she needed to let off steam, think to herself, or just be alone for some time, she would head to the training room gun range. 
And that's where she was right now, protective ear coverings on and guns in hand, firing one after another; twisting, angling, flipping, spinning--shooting the targets in any way she'd been trained to do. 

The question was though, why was this--Tony's taunting about Steve--something that pushed her over like this? Why was she like this about it? Weren't they only friends? Hadn't she been telling herself that over and over for years now? So why was it, that now of all times, it was getting to her?

Maybe she had been bottling it up--her feelings, her irritation, her emotions--for long enough that now the walls she'd put up for herself were starting to faulter. Which, if she was honest, she wasn't sure she was ready for that. She'd grown so used to keeping most people out, to having to many names, stories, identities, lies...that the thought of that changing made her feel, scared a little. Scared that she'd open up to the wrong person. Scared that opening up might get someone she cares about killed, might get innocent people killed. 

And somehow Steve had always gotten under that hard exterior, seen her at her lowest and her highest, supported her and even trusted her with his life. No matter how hard she tried not to let it get to her, his comforting words and gentle touch made that wall come down little by little every day. Now she was afraid as she had let him in, he didn't feel the same way bout her as she did about him. 

It  all kept buzzing around in her mind, a million questions and yet none of them had answers. 
It wrapped up her mind so much that she wasn't focusing enough on what she was doing, and  in a split second between going into another flip and landing it, she was snapped back into focus. 
Her aim was off, causing the bullet to hit her thigh. As the pain slowly started to send the message to her brain for her to register it, her thoughts cleared and brought her focus back to the room. But as much as her leg stung with pain where the shot had hit her while she sat on the floor and clamped a hand around it to stop the bleeding, it was at least enough to stop her mind from spinning with thoughts and feelings she didn't understand nor was used to.

In that moment, Steve came in and saw Nat, sitting and holding her hand on her leg, the crimson stain visible enough to give him a clear idea of what had happened to her even if he didn't know what really caused the mishap.
Immediately when he saw her, his heart had picked up speed a few notches, and his protective instincts went into high-gear.

"Nat?? Shit, hold on, let me help." He said, coming over to her and kneeling down so he was on her level and adding his hand to her leg to help with applying pressure. She winced a bit at the shift, gently moving her hand aside as she let him take over. "Are you alright? How'd this happen?"

"I was too busy daydreaming about your American ass to pay attention to where I was shooting"  was what she wanted to say. But of course she didn't. Instead, she opted for a version of the truth.
"I was trying to get my mind off Tony's snark-ass and, I just wasn't paying attention as much as I should and my aim went off."

Steve nodded with a slight smile, silently noting to knock the billionaire upside the head later. For now though, Natasha was his priority.
"I'll have a few words with him later if that helps...Can you stand to walk?"

"I think yeah-" Nat replied, attempting to push herself up.

She wasn't steady enough in her leg though, as of course it was injured. Steve was quick to catch her though, and Nat let him steady her as she silently cursed.
It wasn't that she minded being this close to him, necessarily. It was more that she actually did like it, that his arms around her holding her up made her feel warm and at home, that the fact that he cared about her like this sent the butterflies in her stomach fluttering. It was that she couldn't stop herself from letting her feelings take hold of her, despite her best efforts to ignore them.

Steve had to hold back the smile--and the blush--that threatened to appear on his face as her hands held onto his arms, his own on her back to keep her pressed against him so she wouldn't fall. "I'm gonna take that as a no...here, I'm gonna pick you up ok?"

"No, Steve I can-"

"You clearly can't, you almost fell over. Let me help Natasha.."

She couldn't really argue with him now, and after she nodded half reluctantly in agreement, he bent down, carefully scooping one arm behind her knees to pick her up and carry her bridal style. Nat held onto him with her arms around his neck, and winced only slightly at the shift in positions. But she kept her gaze downward, avoiding Steve's face, so she missed his caring look in his deep blue eyes as they roamed over her body while he walked her to the med bay, causing his cheeks to tint a light pink.