read a/n at the end

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NATASHA WAKES UP EARLIER THAN STEVE the next morning; by her own, not to the sound of a phone ringing or an alarm going off. Which was a surprise. She peers over the bed, finding Steve still deeply asleep on the floor.

She smiles, the back of her mind suddenly finding the image of him sleeping with a pillow over his eyes kind of cute.

Then it dawns on her how she must've looked in the morning. Oh, God. Her hair must be a mess, not to mention her bad breath in the morning too. Gross. She checks herself in the mirror by the bedside table, fluffing her hair into place before Steve could wake up. She cleans her eyes, dabs on a bit of lip gloss and to her cheeks as well. She pumps up her face, before laying back graciously on her back.

Jeez, Natasha. Could this look any more silly?

The things she does for–

A knock on the door shakes her out of her reverie.

"Room service. Breakfast for the happy couple!"

The cheerful voice of Sarah Rogers reaches her ears.

Her eyes widen slightly. Crap. Quickly, she tries to wake Steve up. "Steve!" she calls, "Steve!"

No answer.

"Steve!"

She slams a pillow straight to his face.

His head shoots up instantly. Wide awake. But still not here completely. He's looking at her like she just grew another head.

"Your mother's at the door! Get up!" she demands, answering to his mother's calls, "Just a second!"

Steve's gaze turns to the door, and understanding finally creeps over him. "Oh, God." he grunts, lazily standing up. He throws the pillow and blankets back to her face for payback.

Natasha tosses the pillow aside, giving him a glare. Steve hurriedly gets into the bed with her, trying to fix all the blankets and sheets while Natasha props the pillows. They had to make this look realistic.

She shrieks when she sees the baby blanket. "Not the baby blanket. Get it off. Get it off." She casts it aside.

Steve draws closer to her, trying to get into a comfortable position. "Okay, all right." He notices right away something different about her. "Wait a second. Hold on."

Natasha looks at him. "What? What?"

"Are you wearing makeup?"

Busted. She feels her face going warm, but scoffs in denial. "What? No, of course not."

Steve's gaze is still studying her, but he lets it go. "Okay, what do we do?"

"Just spoon me. Spoon me."

"All right."

However, Natasha jumps when she feels something hard touching her back. She freaks out. "Oh my God. What is that?" she asks with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry!" Steve says, looking embarrassed. "It's morning."

"What do you mean it's morning?"

Steve gives her the look. And she suddenly understands why.

"Are you guys okay?" Sarah calls from the door.

"Yup. Coming! One second. Yup. Come on in. Everything's fine." Steve answers, sitting up straight so he's now leaning against the headboard.

Natasha grimaces, moving up to his side carefully. "Disgusting."

This time, she leans against Steve, her back pressing against his warm chest. While he awkwardly places his palm on the side of her head, trying to draw her closer. She rolls her eyes, reaching for his hand and repositions it around her waist instead.

Steve stiffens, oddly, he feels the drumming inside his chest go louder. And he's trying not to think about the way she hasn't yet let go of his hand, which by the way, is touching the bare skin of her midriff because her shirt has somehow hiked up.

Yeah, he's trying not to think about that even more. Especially when he's already caught up in an embarrassing situation she'll never let him live down.

The door opens and Sarah comes in with a tray full of delicious, looking pastries.

"Oh, wow," Natasha hums.

Steve agrees, "That smells good. Cinnamon rolls."

"Oh, you shouldn't have gone to that trouble, Sarah."

Sarah places the tray on the coffee table, giving them a bright smile. "Oh, you're family now, Natasha. It's no trouble." She walks over to open the curtains, making the light hurt both of their eyes.

Suddenly, a voice joins in. "Hey, you have room for one more?" It was Joseph.

Steve presses a hand to his forehead. "Wow. Could we not do the Brady family meeting right now? We just got up if you don't mind."

Of course, they ignore him. And his dad was surprisingly in a pleasant mood. "Your mother and I have come up with a proposition, and I happen to think that it is a terrific idea..."

"We want you to get married here tomorrow!" Sarah interjects, bubbling in glee.

Both Natasha and Steve's jaws drop.

She laughs nervously, stammering, "What–what? What?"

Steve shakes his head slowly. "No. No. Mm-mm. No."

"Well, you're gonna get married, anyway, so... why don't you get married here where we can all be together. And that way, Grandma Annie can be a part of it." Sarah insists.

"Oh, oh, we're..." Steve tries to think of a reasonable excuse.

Natasha sweeps in. "No. No, it's Gammy's 90th big birthday tomorrow night. Big day for her. We don't want to ruin it. That's... you know."

Gammy suddenly walks in the room, and they get the feeling that she's been waiting by the door all this time, waiting for her cue. "I've had 89 birthday parties. I don't need another one!" she denotes.

"Oh, Gammy." Natasha says.

"It would be a dream come true for me to see my one grandchild's wedding." Gammy says, and Natasha swears she could see her eyes twinkling. Which makes it all the more difficult to turn it down. "A dream come true!"

"Mmm." She hums guiltily.

Gammy brightens. "So, you'll do it?"

Steve's still shaking his head. "Mmm-mmm." Natasha nudges him gently. He grunts lightly, glancing at her.

Gammy frowns, voice going quieter. "... before I'm dead?"

Natasha and Steve quickly give her a thumbs up. "Okay!" They say simultaneously.

They were delighted with their answer. Sarah's already planning the next few hours of their lives. "Okay, we will do everything. And you can get married like we did, in the barn!" she exclaims.

"It's a Rogers' family tradition!" Gammy adds.

Natasha's only nodding along at this point. "Oh, wow. Wow! Uh, I've always wanted to get married in a... in a barn."

"I have." Steve echoes, but only Natasha could detect the sarcasm in it.

Gammy gasps. "It's a sign. A sign from the universe that you two were meant to be together! Oh, we must give thanks, I tell you." She starts heading towards the door. "Come, come. We must give thanks, Sarah."

Sarah still hasn't moved an inch though, still grinning happily at the couple. "Okay, I know I should leave you two now. But we're just so excited! I know you're excited too!"

Steve and Natasha laugh along.

"It's the craziest."

"Really excited, mom. Thanks. Okay, go. Go. Bye now. Bye."

Finally, the door shuts and they're alone once more.

Steve was the first to groan. "Oh my God." He bangs his head against the headboard, pinching the bridge of his nose. "When my mom finds out this whole thing is a sham, she's gonna–she's gonna be crushed."

"Steve–"

"And my grandmother's gonna die."

"Your grandma's not going to die."

"I... and my father? Where the hell did that come from? The whole wedding thing?!" He asks in disbelief. "Just yesterday he was telling me a completely different thing and now he does a complete one-eighty."

Natasha's trying to calm him down with her level-headed answers. "Your mom probably got him worked up for it." She sighs, shifting in the bed. "Relax. She's not going to find out."

Steve presses his hands to his face, just thinking about the possibility of it makes him sick. "Oh god, Natasha."

"Steve, they're not going to find out, okay? Just relax." She assures him. "It's gonna be okay."

And she doesn't know what she's thinking next when she finds herself pressing closer to his side, rubbing his shoulders in a soothing– and quite unknowingly to her– affectionate way.

"It's not like we're going to be married forever. We'll be happily divorced before you know it." She just continues on, still oblivious to the fact of what's happening. "It will be fine. It'll be fine."

Steve then notices what's going on, and his panic subsides. He eyes the hands rubbing his shoulders and biceps, quite confused, but surprised himself that he's not finding it annoying. Or ridiculous.

Just... strange.

Natasha gently places her chin on top of his shoulder. "You okay?" she asks in concern.

Steve nods, glancing at her in an entirely different way. A mixture of puzzlement and another emotion hard to decipher. "Yeah."

Silence falls over them.

His gaze drops to her hand that's still on his bicep.

It's only then Natasha realizes what she's done. Oh, shit. She instinctively pulls away, getting out of bed in a moment of panic. "I'll get us some coffee."

"Yeah, thanks." Steve says awkwardly.

"So, would you like a cinnamon soy latte?" She jokes, trying to ease the tension in the room. Because that's what they do whenever they find themselves in uncomfortable situations, use humor as a means of defense.

It works, though. Steve chuckles.

While Natasha's pouring them cups of coffee, Steve's gaze settles on her, suddenly finding it hard not to take his eyes off her.

He knows he shouldn't look because she's still in her nightdress, and any respecting gentleman should look away– but Steve couldn't. He gulps at the sight of her, making a mental note that she must probably be Satan's mistress because it's a sin to even look this amazing early in the morning.

He's just glad that she doesn't catch him staring at her this time.

What the hell is happening to him.

He changes the subject. "You're right, you know. Get a quickie divorce, we'll be fine. It's gonna be fine."

"Absolutely," Natasha assures, picking up the plate of cinnamon rolls and cup of coffee. "But this little missus better learn how to cook so she can take care of her husband. Keep my man happy. Don't want him to leave me for another woman." she jokes lightly.

Steve laughs quietly. "Come on. Haven't left you yet, Nat." 

Nat. Nat. He had called her Nat. It was more of a proof for her that the conversation they had last night did happen. And it was just as real as the sun that's shining outside is.

And it was just as real as these confusing feelings.

"Uh, Nat. Let go of the plate."

Oh, God. This was not good.

"Nat. Natasha? Hey, I got it. Let go." She finally snaps back to her senses, brushing it off with an awkward smile. He takes the plate from her graciously. "Thanks."

A beat of silence passes once more.

And Natasha's gazing at him again. And for whatever fucked up reason, she can't stop staring at him. Ever since they had that conversation last night, her mind was thinking of nothing else. She's remembering the sound of his laugh, and even his soft, honest declaration of how he finds her beautiful.

And now, she's touching him, being flirty around him, and every time she looks at him, the memory of him giving her a mind blowing kiss that's supposed to mean nothing is suddenly replaying in her head.

What scares her more is how, deep inside, she knows she liked that kiss. She knows that she's aching to experience it should another chance come around.

Which was ridiculous, because this is Steve, her assistant. And she's his boss. This was nothing more than a business deal they made back in NY. And it doesn't mean anything else. It shouldn't be anything else.

Steve looks over at her, noticing her suddenly gone quiet. "You okay?" he asks.

"Yeah," She answers a little too quickly. "Um..." She needs some space. She needs to think some things over. Being in close proximity with him right now is too much for her ridiculously fast, thumping heart to take. "You know what? I'm gonna go."

He frowns. "Where?"

"I just kinda feel like going outside."

He looks at her warily. "Alright... that's the bathroom, though," he says when she's heading for the wrong door.

"Oh, yeah. I know. I just... uh, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, and then I'm going to go out. Outside. I just–yeah." She shuts the door before she can trip over her words further.

Steve inhales a deep breath, nodding to himself. "Alright. Okay."

He is in the middle of chewing his cinnamon rolls when Natasha emerges from the bathroom a few minutes later. And he suddenly realizes that it's a smart decision to stuff his face with food right now otherwise his mouth might hang loosely at the sight of her again.

His eyes don't leave her form even when she's striding across the room to grab her shoes.

Finally, he downs the rest of what he's eating. Of course, she catches him looking at her, but instead of a cocky, flirtatious remark like she'd normally do, she only laughs quietly. "What?"

"Nothing, just, uh," His gaze settles on what she's wearing. "You look..." Amazing. Pretty. Beautiful. "... different."

Instead of the all black outfit that he sees her wear everyday at work, she's wearing a white, floral dress, bringing out her vibrant red hair even more – which was hanging in loose curls past her shoulders instead of being pulled back in a slick, high ponytail.

She chuckles again, and he makes a mental note that he could get used to the sound of it. "Oh, right. It's the clothes your mom bought for me when we were out shopping yesterday." She gives him a small smirk, "You like it?"

"Well, this goes better with sneakers so..." he quips, not wanting to admit the truth that he does, in fact, like her new look. "By the way, how's your, uh, ankle?"

"It's feeling better. It doesn't ache anymore when I walk," she replies.

Steve nods, pleasant to hear that.

Silence washes over them again, and both were just now awkwardly staring at each other.

Natasha snaps out of it first. "Yeah, um. I gotta–I gotta go." She grabs the denim jacket from the rack. Before she can step out of the room, she throws him a sideway glance. "I, uh, enjoy breakfast."

Steve smiles, raising the plate of pastries to her. "Will do."

Once she's out of the room, he buries his face in his hands, taking the moment to breathe deeply. A million questions are swarming inside his head, all of which concerns the person who had just left the room.

"Oh, God..." he rubs his face in distress.

He isn't stupid enough to not know what he's feeling right now. He knows that he's treading uncharted waters here, because he's suddenly feeling things that he isn't supposed to be feeling – hell, he didn't even know that he could feel anything close to this again. Much less, with someone like Natasha Romanoff.

And worst of all, he knows he's never going to be able to hear the end of it once Sam finds out that his theory may be correct after all.

Thankfully, before he can get further deep into this thinking, he hears the sound of his phone ringing. He leans over to grab his phone from the coffee table, seeing an unknown number. "Hello?"

It's Howard. He's calling to say that the phone he ordered for Natasha was already ready for pick up.

"Great. We'll stop by the store later to get it. Thanks, Howard."

And he hangs up, hurries to clean himself up and get ready for another eventful day in Ireland.

--

hello lovelies!

first of all, i am SO SO SO SORRY for disappearing for like, almost a year, I think? Idk anyway, for a very long time is what i mean to say.

i've just been really busy with college stuff :< and i was finding it hard to write bc i lack inspiration. i think i just lost in touch with my romanogers fan' self so i've been trying really hard to get my love for them rolling again

anyway, for those ppl that keep asking me if i'm going to update aao? YES, i will. i won't abandon that fic. although, my priority right now is completing a dash of red because this only has a few chapters left until it's done.

after i finish a dash of red, i'll be mainly focusing on aao (and i am planning to write the first chapter asap,, just really need to clear my writers' block lmao)

thank you for all your sweet messages! i read every one of them <33