Is This Love? (UNDER EDIT)

Chapter 19 - I remember

Steve's POV

I woke up the next morning cuddling with Natasha. I could get used to this however, I am not sure about how Nat feels about sharing our relationship with the others so this might be the last time for a little while that I get to wake up next to her. I'll have to ask her about that later. I kissed her forehead gently and breathed in her scent, savoring her.

She woke up a few minutes later, her emerald green eyes meeting my ocean blue ones.

"Good morning handsome." She greeted, her voice still raspy from hours of no use. I smiled back at her, she looked too cute.

"As much as I would love to lay here with you forever, we do need to get up and get ready. The plane will be here in an hour to pick us up and take us home." I said starting to shift, only making her cling to me tighter.

"Do we have to? I want to stay here forever too." She groaned. So, I did the only thing that I knew would get her up. I reached over and tickled her sides causing her to shriek.

"I c-can't bre-eath." She wheezed out as her laughter rang out through the room. I stopped upon deciding that she was awake enough, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom to get dressed.

Over the last few weeks, we had made quite a mess of the place. There were various toiletries strewn throughout the bathroom, clothes in the closet, and various bits of clothing and other belongings randomly placed in the living areas.

I stepped out of the bathroom once I was ready and started to pick up our belongings whilst Nat was in the shower. By the time she had re-emerged from the shower, I had basically completely cleaned the living areas and made the bed. The only thing that was left was to pack our clothes into bags and then we would be ready to go, just in time for the jet to arrive.

Once we had both packed our clothes back into suitcases, we were ready and still had 5 minutes until the jet arrived. I stacked all of our suitcases at the door ready and then went and found Nat.

She was sitting on one of the couches outside looking out onto the water so I went and sat down beside her.

"You know, I nearly didn't come." She said softly not removing her gaze from the water.

"Are you glad you did come?" I asked her, curiously.

"Yeah. I truly am." She said tearing her gaze from the water and looking at me instead. I smiled at her and leaned forward. We kissed passionately for who knows how long but were interrupted at the fast-approaching sound of a jet. I pulled away slightly and gave her one last quick kiss before getting up and grabbing our belongings.

A second later she was beside me and picked up her own suitcases and we both took one last look at the villa before closing the door and locking it. We left the keys in the designated area and then turned to see the jet landing on the landing strip. We walked towards it slowly, savoring our last moments in this amazing place.

The jet door opened and we walked up the ramp, entering the jet. We soon realized that this jet was autopiloted, they usually were when transporting the Avengers as they couldn't afford to have a compromised pilot. The technology could usually be trusted more than people, well that's at least what a paranoid Fury swears by.

Nat walked up to the front and re-set the coordinates for the Avengers tower before finding a seat and sitting down. After securing all of our suitcases I went and sat down beside her, buckling up my seat belt, preparing for take-off.

The plane lurched forward and started to lift off the ground. Once we were safely up in the air the seatbelt sign disappeared and we both unbuckled our seatbelts. I wrapped my arm around Nat and she leaned into my shoulder, sighing contently.

"What are we going to do Steve?" She asked, clearly she had thought about what our relationship would become when we arrived home too.

"What do you want to do?" I asked her, really wanting her opinion on the matter as I didn't mind what we did as long as she was comfortable.

"I'm not sure that I am ready yet to reveal our relationship to the avengers. As you are probably aware all of my relationships in the past haven't exactly been... successful and to have something that I truly believe is a good thing... I guess what I am trying to say is that this feeling is new to me and I am adjusting to it, but in the meantime, I would rather just keep it to ourselves whilst we figure it all out." She said her eyes searching mine nervously for a reaction.

"You being comfortable with our relationship is my priority and if you want to take it slow, I am more than happy to accommodate that," I said, smiling lovingly at her. She smiled gratefully back at me before getting up and looking out the window as the last of the Maldives disappeared from view. Avengers tower, here we come.

Nat's POV

The rest of the flight home was spent mostly talking about nothing in particular and enjoying being in each other's presence. Before long the Avengers tower came into view and the jet started to descend. Buckling up, Steve and I shared one last quick kiss and the jet jolted as it hit the ground.

We got up out of our seats and grabbed our luggage before walking out of the back hatch. Most of the Avengers and Fury was standing out on the landing strip to greet us, all with huge smiles on their faces. I guess the goofballs did miss us.

We walked over to them and greeted them happily. Wanda and Clint came bounding over to me first, wrapping me in a massive hug. They were about the only two people other than Steve that could do that without getting knocked out.

After we all exchanged greetings we headed back inside. Due to the long plane journey and time difference, it was already 11:00pm over here and everyone was well and truly ready for bed. Even me, as the jet lag and lingering exhaustion from last night, were making my eyelids feel like lead.

Saying our final goodnights, we all headed back to our rooms. I gave Steve a quick hug and then opened my door and we went our separate ways. I unpacked all of my belongings in record time and then flopped into bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

It wasn't long until a nightmare invaded my dreams, I hadn't had one since the start of our vacation. As always I was back in the Red Room however, this time it was in a different section. There was a strange symbol on the wall behind me. Where had I seen that before? I must have started screaming due to being tortured in my dream as I heard someone worriedly calling my name off in the distance.

I woke up suddenly and I was back in my room with muscular arms grabbing my shoulders. I took some deep breaths and wiped the tears that had started to fall off my face. As I came to grips with myself it dawned on me where I had seen that symbol before. The vials holding the minerals.

My eyes widened at my realization. I had to get to Fury and tell him. I jumped out of bed and ran towards the door. Steve grabbed hold of me, pulling me back. I squirmed out of his grasp and turned to face him.

"I need to get to Fury now," I tell him sprinting out of the room.