Saviors

I woke up in my bed with the sun beating down on me once more. Only this time I was actually able to sleep. I didn’t remember going to bed last night, and it was obvious how I had gotten here by the sticky note that was placed on my nightstand.

The note read: “Figured you didn’t want to spend another night on the couch, I think you owe me 1.5 now - Steve”

I let out a breathy laugh, rolling back onto my pillow. I simmered in the moment for another minute before getting up and getting myself ready for the day. I had to prep notes for my meeting with Rocket and Rhodey, make calls to a few orphanages around the city, and try to do something for Steve to get a 0.5 off of my owed favors to him.

After showering and changing into a plain black tee shirt and jeans, I headed towards the offices where my desk and paperwork were.

Ever since life became mundane again after the snap, if it ever could be, Pepper had set me up with a job at the Avengers facility. She was letting Steve and I live and work there, writing checks to us every month and giving us tasks to accomplish. Most jobs involved rebuilding the city. Even though I rarely spoke to Tony anymore, I knew that he still cared and still checked up on us through Pepper. She stopped by every few weeks or so to make sure everything was okay, or as okay as it could be with Steve and I.

Pepper and I talked about how we could help all of the children who were left without their parents after the snap. It mostly involved organizing how to allocate funds to different orphanages around the city and we were working on expanding throughout the state. Thinking about all of those children left without families brought me back to my childhood, and I knew I had a personal stake in helping clean up this city and helping these children after I had failed them in Wakanda.

Steve helped in my work, but he was always running around working on rebuilding the architecture of the city after all of the various accidents happened. The snap killed much more than half of Earth’s life. Pedestrians died as cars veered off the road. Other cars were crashing into each other as drivers dusted away. Pilots dusted and planes and helicopters fell from the sky. The snap was catistrophic and had heinous repurcussions that no one could have predicted.

So, after the damage was done and the world was left in ruins, Steve put his artistic skills to use in redesigning multiple buildings that had been damaged beyond repair in the city.

On the way to my office, I heard Steve’s voice raised and hostile.

“Look Bruce, you know you’ll always be a friend, but I don’t think this is the best time to come to the facility without warning,” He stated. Oh, God.

“Steve, I know I fucked up with her, but I just wanted to grab some equipment and get out of here. She doesn’t even have to know I came,” He said much more calmly than Steve.

I paused briefly to think about whether or not I should continue listening in on their conversation. I figured I shouldn’t spy, but before they saw me enter the room I heard Steve respond, “Look, fine, just make it quick. It’s better if she doesn’t know anyways.” He was tense, more so than I have seen him in a while.

“Too late,” I said, sauntering into the room and moving towards my desk.

“Shit,” Steve mumbled under his breath, rubbing the back of his neck while looking at the ground.

Bruce looked surprisingly nervous, his big doey eyes looking at me.

“Wow, so that’s what it takes to pull a swear out of you,” While my words sounded playful, they came with a bite. Steve was supposed to be on my side. I know that he was only trying to keep the peace, but there was a small part of me that wanted him to kick Bruce out.

I pulled out my files to prep for Rocket and Rhodey and placed them on my desk nonchalantly. I couldn’t bring myself to look at either of them, yet I knew they were both looking at me.

“Look, Nat, about the other night,” Bruce started, walking over to the front of my desk.

“Oh, your night with nipple rings? How was she by the way?” I said without looking up from my papers, pretending to read whatever was written on the pages.

“Wait,” Bruce coiled back in confusion and shock, “How did you know she had nipple rings?”

I let out an involuntary scoff and I saw Steve shift in my peripheral view, “How did you?” I looked up from my file and caught his eyes.

Bruce’s face was blank and he looked into my eyes for a while, then letting out a sigh.

“Look, Nat, can we talk? I’m sorry about the other night, things got out of hand and I was acting like a dick, and,” He was at a loss for words.

“You were, and we’re not together anymore, Bruce, you made that decision. So we don’t have anything to talk about,” Again, I saw Steve shift around again, not sure if he should stay or go.

“Well, uh,” He looked uncomfortable, grasping for any break I would give him. When he realized there wasn’t going to be any, he let out another sigh.

“Why are you here,” I asked after another few seconds of silence. I looked ovre to Steve again and saw his tense body and furrowed brow.

“Well I’m working on something big for Hulk and I asked Tony if I could use some of his materials here. I was just trying to get in and out, I didn’t mean to mess anything up any worse.”

“Hmm,” I didn’t know what to say to him. I was interested in what he was working on, but I had the willpower to not seem interested. It was petty, but it was where we were at this point.

He cleared his throat, looking back and forth between Steve and I. There was a period of silence that was just a bit too long before I heard Bruce ask, “So are you two, uh, are you together or,” He trailed off, unable to finish his awkward sentence.

“Does it matter to you whether or not we were?” I raised a brow at him and he pursed his lips.

“Uh, yeah, well, right, I’m just gonna get my things,” He responded, giving a small wave as he exited the room. On his way out he nodded at Steve, who gave a stiff nod in return.

Steve waited to say anything until Bruce had been out of the room for at least a minute or two before saying, “Look, Nat, I’m sorry. I should have just kicked him out.”

I dug myself back into the paperwork in front of me. I was desperately trying to make it seem interesting to me even though it clearly wasn’t.

“Please,” He said, sitting down across from me while pushing the files back down onto the desk and out of my hands. He grabbed one of my hands in his and I couldn’t help but look up and at his big blue eyes.

Shit.

I felt myself soften against his effort to apologize and knew that I couldn’t be mad at a face like that.

“Look, what if I agree to take 0.25 off of what you owe me. You’ll only owe me one and a quarter,” There was a playful optimism in his voice as he caught his eyes with mine.

I couldn’t help but give in, “One, and that’s my final offer Rogers. I owe you one.”

“Deal,” He shook my hand with a smile.