"Think they'll cut it?" Steve passed Natasha a beer before grabbing one for himself, the two of them settling down to look at the forest that surrounded their new headquarters. Steve wondered why all of modern architecture insisted on large windows replacing good old fashioned walls, when glass was so much easier to blow up than concrete.
"They sure aren't the original set."
"That's probably a good thing. Didn't Banner describe us as a time bomb, our first time together?"
Natasha didn't wince at the mention of Bruce, but she did look down for a fraction of a second.
She clinked her bottle against Steve's. "Boom."
Steve took in a big breath. Then breathed out. This was the moment. He took a sip of his beer. Took another deep breath.
"Got something on your mind?" Natasha's eyebrow raised and judged him.
What would Sam say?
"You doing alright?"
"I'm fully operational, Cap." She said with a cheeky salute.
Sam got him to talk about himself within the first day he met him. How did he do that? He should share. Friends share. Friends get vulnerable.
"I was in the past. When Wanda was trying to shake us up. All muted, worse than when I was colorblind. Saw my best gal, and her lipstick was all wrong."
"Sounds like a doozy."
"Sure was. Coulda gotten lost, maybe, but I blinked and everyone was gone. Spun Peggy and came up empty."
Natasha spent a few seconds staring into Steve's soul before she took a drink and looked back out of the window.
"Happy endings aren't in the cards for us." Steve saw something slightly wistful in her expression, and wondered if the same was reflected on his.
Fuck it. Sam could talk about feelings, he was going to deal with Nat's hurt the same way he usually did with his Howlies. He punched her lightly in the arm.
"The dancing kind, at least. Saving the world's a pretty nice gig, though."
"We have gotten pretty good at it. And the new kids are all eager to please and actually listen to you."
"I got a picture of War Machine running drills. I'm going to color it red and blue and send it to Tony."
"Cute. Show off you know how to use Photoshop, and brag that you've got a well-behaved Iron Man to make him jealous. He'd probably hack the training sessions and you two could flirt without even being in the same room."
"As long as he doesn't blast the Star Spangled Man whenever I walk into a room again. And Peggy said I was dramatic. She obviously never met Tony."
"You think you aren't dramatic? Do you remember tearing a log in half with your bare hands?"
"The axe wasn't cutting it."
Natasha rolled her eyes so hard her head hurt while Steve chuckled to himself.
"A flair for the dramatic is a prerequisite for joining the Avengers. And a ridiculous sense of self-entitlement. How else would we look at a Demi-God in a cape opening a portal to unleash an alien army and think we have it handled?"
"And look good while doing it."
"So you saw the site I sent you? Captain Booty?"
"And the Assvengers, yes, stop looking so proud of yourself."
"You're welcome."
"I didn't thank you."
"Details. You're grateful, I can tell."
"Grateful you've stopped trying to set me up, at least."
"I haven't stopped, your date's just too busy being a drama queen." Natasha sighed, "I mean, there's not calling someone back, and there's going completely off the grid."
Steve raised an eyebrow. She raised one back. He gave up and drank more of his beer with a sigh.
"I'd tell you me and Buck aren't like that, but I know how much you like not listening to me."
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"Fucking hilarious." Natasha opened her mouth. "If you say 'language' or anything like that, I swear to God."
"C'mon, it makes the grandpa jokes so much more dynamic."
"Yeah, that was my goal in life. Make it easier to poke fun at me."
"It's good for team camaraderie." Natasha insisted and bumped her shoulder into his.
"Yeah, yeah, anything for the team." He took a long drink and hoped that some liquid courage would rub off on him through a placebo effect, "Sam told me about this new thing the young kids are doing."
"Yeah? What are the whippersnappers getting up to these days, Pops?"
"He bought me a certificate for a spa weekend getaway, said that dating myself was the cool new thing to do." And then gave him a bunch of pamphlets on self-care and sustainable habits. Fucking Sam.
Natasha laughed and some beer spilled out of her mouth. She hastily wiped it up with the back of her hand and Steve grimaced and dodged with the speed of a genetically enhanced super-soldier as she tried to clean her hand on his uniform.
"Get yourself a towel, you're ridiculous. It wasn't that funny." He leaped up and grabbed a towel from the wet bar Stark installed in every room that didn't house weapons or heavy machinery.
"Being ridiculous is also a prerequisite."