Iron Forged in Stars & Stripes

Natasha Stark

Natasha woke, her heart racing and head aching. Where was she? She looked around, seeing pictures of Steve, of Peggy, of...her? Ok, that was different. Obviously though, this was Steve's room.

The last thing she could remember was...oh god, no.  Please, she didn't want that to be the last thing that happened between her and Steve.

There was a note on the night stand, and it had her name on it. Rather than reading it, the brunette sighed and ran a hand through her tangled mess  for hair. Natasha got out of bed and regretted getting trashed without locking the door to her lab. "Jarvis, Deactivation Code 24 Bravo-Alpha-369 Omega."

"Backdoor Program Activated, Miss."

'Good.', she thought aloud, stretching a it. "Open my private elevator, please.", she asked, walking over to the mini fridge as it moved, the wall sliding out and rolling up. She stepped in and everything started to replace itself. "To the Lab, please."

On the way down, she was thinking about what'd happened, how she felt about Steve. It was all mentally taxing, to be honest. She just wanted this to go back to normal, so Natasha would ignore it as long as she could.  Yea, that sounded good.

So once she got to the lab, Natasha grabbed her noise canceling headphones, plugged in some music, and decided to work on her cars. They needed oil changes, tune ups, and a couple other easy fixes. Plus, she wanted to get to work on her newest car, which needed a lot of help. So she started by taking apart the newest of her collection, knowing that it'd need a lot of work to repair the damaged frame and other problems that older, weathered cars had.

Steve Rogers

Steve woke up way before Natasha ever did, though his muscles were achy from sleeping on the couch. He didn't really care that he had to, cause whenever she ended up falling asleep watched movies, he'd put her in his bed and sleep on the couch. It was a thing they did that he enjoyed, though it wasn't always on the best occasions.

Sometimes he was comforting her after she got upset about not being able to help complete the work on her building, or other times they were having a good day and ended it on a good beat. Or how it happened a majority of the time, one of them had the spur of the moment idea and it happened. One moment, they'd be watching a movie and the next, Natasha was passed out in the crook of his arm, her head on his chest. It warmed his stomach and he'd let her stay like that for a while before putting her to bed and grabbing the blanket off the back of his couch so that he could sleep in there.

Now, his routine had been the same since he'd woken from the ice, with a few obvious exceptions. He woke up, stretched, got into his work out clothes and went for a brisk morning jog. When he was done jogging circles around the other guys, he would go home, shower, change into his day clothes, and drink a cup of coffee before making he and Natasha breakfast.

So once breakfast was done, he had figured that Natasha wasn't coming up, he decided to find her. 

After a year of living with the brunette, he'd pretty much figured out her places to go when she didn't want to be bothered. She was either on the balcony of her penthouse having a virgin drink or she was in her lab working on a new project. Usually the latter of the two was right. 

So down the stairs he started. It was a long walk/jog and a good workout, but he was also carrying two plates of food and had to make it down twenty flights of stairs with fifteen stairs per flight because Natasha's lab didn't have a normal elevator level. Steve learned that the hard way. 

Anyways, most of it was spent balancing the plates while he tried to make his way down, but also dodging people(who were probably used to his antics by now involving Natasha.) There was also a portion of him that was nervous and is stomach was aching from anxiety over the issue. He usually did his best to not let that show though, as it wasn't always pleasant to see it. He had to be strong for his team.

The distractions had made the trip down the stairs faster than normal, and he expertly balanced the plates on his arm so that he could open the door to Natasha's lab. The room which was quiet on the outside was loud on the inside. He looked around after shutting the door and setting their plates down, finding her bare feet sticking out from under a car.

"Natasha?", he asked, but earned no response.

"Natasha.", Steve called again,  but he got no response once more.

"Natasha.", he called, grabbing her ankle and-

CRUNCH.

Natasha Stark

Natasha felt horrible as she looked at Steve, who's nose was currently leaking blood from where she'd broken it.  "Steve, I'm so sorry.", the brunette apologized for what was probably the millionth time in the past ten minutes. "I didn't mean to break your nose."

Steve half smiled, partly because smiling hurt his nose. "It's ok, Natasha. I probably shouldn't have grabbed your ankle, considering that you're trained to fight. Plus, you didn't know who I was. For all you knew, I could have been Ivan Vanko or someone like that. ", he assured her, though it didn't appear to be working. "Plus, it's almost dried enough to have it reset and it'll heal like you never even broke it. I promise."

God, even when he'd just been kicked in the face and his nose broken, Steve was still too good looking and too nice for his own good.

"Hey, Natasha?", Steve asked, something in his voice sounding off to her. It was soft and caring and she wanted it to go away. She'd wanted to avoid this and the pain that came with it. She'd rather her own nose be broken in return than what she thought he wanted to talk about.

"We need to talk about last night.", he murmured, affection in his voice. That's what it was. Affection.

"Steve, I was drunk. You know that I can get weird when I'm drunk, Captain Sober.", she partly joked, partly trying to be serious.

Steve gave her a sad, yet determined look. "You can't tell me that's true, Natasha. You can't say it while looking me in the eyes.", he bet, watching the brunette. God, how could he do this to her. She didn't want to mess things up like she'd done with Pepper.

They didn't talk about Pepper.

"Steve...", she whispered, then pushed her palms into her face, moving her bangs and covering her eyes. "You know how I feel about this. After...what happened, I swore this off. I swore I wouldn't have another Pepper."

Pepper was the word that they used for, "Natasha, you've done fucked up this time."

But suddenly, Steve's lips were on hers and she didn't even try to push him away. His lips were soft, even though the kiss was chaste and unexpected. She'd imagined this for so long and yet, it didn't seem like it was actually happening.

And it was over just as quickly.

"I-I'm sorry, Natasha. I shouldn't have-", he started, but then they were kissing again, smoother, easier. Her hands were on his stomach, moving up his shirt to feel the skin underneath. He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss as they went. Next his shirt was coming off and Steve suddenly pulled himself away from the entire situation, leaving her in front of him where she'd been. He looked like his nose hurt from that too.

"I can't do that. Standards from my time are...different than those of today.", he quickly tossed in, and she shrugged.

"It's ok. I don't mind, Steve."

He smiled and she reached up, shoving his nose back into place.

Natasha flinched as he let out a loud howl, watching as the pain took effect over him. "You couldn't have warned me?", he asked as he put the rag back under his nose, just in case it started bleeding again.

"It would have hurt more because you would be expecting it."

He shook his head and sniffed a bit. At least it was already healing.