FIC: The Last best Hope (Avengers), Chapters 1-5

[alexs_storybook]

Title: The Last Best Hope
Author: alexcat
Fandom: MCU
Type: FPH
Rating: C-17
Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I profit from the use of these characters.
Warnings: None
Character(s): Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, Natasha/Tony Stark(one night), Sam Wilson
Archive: Ao3, Alex's Story Book, OEaM
Summary: Steve and Natasha fall in love just before the world breaks.
Art by greygerbil.

~~~



I.
Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance. ~ Richard von Weizsaecker

~

Steve Rogers was tired of running. He’d stayed here and there all over the world, making sure his friends were all safe. He seldom slept in the same bed for more than a week. He never used a phone other than burner ones, he never went anywhere without looking over his shoulder and he worried about Sam, Wanda and Vision all the time.

He might have been better off if they’d left him in the damned ice!

He heard that there were terrorists out there using Chitauri weapons. He figured he and Sam could take them down. Or at least slow them down. He had to do something. He couldn’t sit in a dingy little room all the time and moon over what was and what wasn’t.

Stark was an ass. Period.

Well, no. He understood Stark, but he had to do what hehad to do as well. He was not going to let anyone hurt Bucky any more, if he could be fixed, and he believed with all his heart that T’Challa and his brilliant sister could help, if anyone could.

He wondered where Natasha was right now. He knew she’d run, too, after she’d allowed him and Bucky to escape. She’d also burned all her bridges.

There was a small apartment in Berlin that he had been loaned on a sort of permanent basis by someone that T’Challa trusted.

He decided to go there for a few days then find Sam and look into these terrorists. He could at least do some good while he was in hiding.

*

Steve found it ironic that Berlin was his haven and hiding place. A lifetime ago, it had been the center of what Captain America fought to stop, and now, it was his salvation, the one place he could hide and regroup without looking over his shoulder so much.

He liked walking and looking at the city.

Founded sometime in the 13th century, Berlin was huge and old. Much of it had been laid to waste by Allied bombs during World War II. He’d read somewhere that it was the most bombed city in the world. He remembered Berlin in the 40s, remembered it as the home of the Third Reich.

That was then.

It was a bustling, beautiful city with so many things to do, even if one had limited funds. So much of the city’s old beauty had been rebuilt painstakingly over the years so that the only real traces of the destruction were the before and after photos he saw in the little shops all over the city.

*

II.
I came in from the wilderness,
a creature void of form
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm ~ Bob Dylan

~

Natasha Romanov had to rebuild and rebrand herself. All (or most) of her dirty secrets and questionable past actions had come out. Everyone knew she was originally a Russian operative, that she’d been trained by the KGB. They knew the things she had done, but none of them understood why she’d done them or who she was.

With the Avengers, no one had cared as long as she did her job and she did it very well. She’d grown to trust them and care for them. Clint was like family. Tony was Tony, but she cared deeply for him, too. And Steve. Damn him, he was her friend as well, maybe the one who meant the most to her.

She sighed.

Hong Kong had about worn thin. She’d be moving on soon.

She picked up an English language paper and read the headline: Stark Industries Gala at a new building he’d just built here.

She’d love to see Tony. She called a friend from her days as a ‘model’. Lauren Wong had been a model, too, and Lauren was actually an MI6 agent, now retired. If anyone ever actually retired.

“Lauren, I want to go to the Gala put on by Stark tomorrow night. He’s supposed to be there.”

“Didn’t you work for him?”

“Yes, and I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

“David was invited, but you know how he is. He never wants to leave the house. You and I can go.” David was Lauren’s husband, a businessman turned true philanthropist. He spent his time figuring out who to give his money to.

“I need a disguise.”

“How much of one?”

“Something to make people not notice my face.”

“That bad? I have a dress that will do the job.”

The dress was stunning. Lauren called it a mermaid dress because it was shaped like one. It was low in the front, low in the back and was split up high on her thigh. It was black and clung to every curve. Lauren paired it with a pair of fuck-me sandals and a long white wig.

“You do understand that every man is going to stare at you?”

“As long as they look at my tits and my legs, I’ll be fine,” Natasha answered with a grin.

Lauren laughed, “They’ll be tripping over their willies.”

The Gala was crowded with all the right people. Natasha saw American politicians and even a few celebrities before she saw Tony. Her heart actually pounded when she saw him. It had been a while and she had to wonder how angry he still might be at her.

Would he have her arrested? Would he ignore her? Maybe this had not been such a good idea.

He saw her.

“Natasha, is that you?” He whispered as he shook her hand then kissed her cheek in the impersonal way such things were done.

“Depends on whether you’re going to call security or not.”

“Not. I’m glad to see you. Let me make some excuses and we can go somewhere quieter.”

He told the people he’d been talking to that something had come up and he’d be back soon. Tony liked to keep an apartment in all of his buildings. That way, he had everything he needed in the event of a crisis. And he had his own bed to sleep in, among other things.

As soon as they were in the elevator, he hugged her. “Are you all right? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be here? How did you get in? Where have you been?”

She put up a finger to silence him. “I was in town and saw that you were here. I have friends with influence and I’ve been all over.”

They reached the top floor, stepping out of the elevator and into the apartment.

“Why did you take a chance like this?” He asked as she followed him into the large, perfectly modern, luxury penthouse. The view of Hong Kong at night alone made the apartment worth millions.

She removed her shoes and sat on a stool at his bar. “Pour me a little vodka and I’ll tell you.”

“Have you heard from Rogers? I – well, what’s done is done, I guess. We still haven’t found a trace of Bruce, so he must still be somewhere. Have you seen Clint?”

“Tony, stop talking for a minute and let me catch up.” She drank from the glass he’d poured.

He poured himself a single malt scotch and looked expectantly at Natasha.

“I was already here in Hong Kong. I wanted to see a familiar face. Yours.”

She continued, “I haven’t seen Steve. I’ve talked to him once. He moves a lot, like I do. The more I think about it, the madder I am at Bruce and his other guy! What fucking nerve! And yes, I have spent a little time with Clint and Laura. They and the kids are fine.”

“That’s some dress you’ve got on, Natasha. I can see damn near everything.” Tony didn’t hide his leer.

She grinned at him. “It’s all just wishful thinking, Tony.”

He looked at her breasts and she felt a little warmth at his gaze.

“It clings very nicely,” he said as he lifted his glass in a toast. He looked at her for a very long moment, like he was trying to decide something. “Any chance of getting you out of it?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Good god, yes, Romanov. Every man in the room stared at you when you walked up to me. They were all undressing you with their eyes.”

“Aren’t you engaged?”

He sighed. “Not this week. Pepper says I still haven’t grown up at all.”

“Have you?”

“Maybe a little. A tiny bit.” He held up thumb and forefinger with maybe a quarter inch between them.

“That much?” She sipped her drink, in no hurry to end this strange encounter with Stark.

He shrugged. “I try. Old habits are hard to break.” He opened his shirt to show her a crystal arc reactor on his chest. “This is what has her pissed off.”

“I thought you had it removed and your heart fixed?”

“Oh, I did. But this will dress me in my armor quickly. Never know when something will happen.”

“Does it come off?”

“Yeah, when I shower or other stuff.”

“Other stuff? You mean like you just proposed to do with me?” She was enjoying this. Stark was actually nervous and squirming a bit.

“Um, actually, yes, though I can wear it when I – it doesn’t affect anything. I can still, uh - ”

She made up her mind. She did not want to be alone right now. She stood up and walked over to him, giving him the straps in the back to unfasten. “Hush and undo me.”

He unfastened the straps and uncrossed them. “Your skin is so smooth. Makes me want to touch -”

“So do it.”

He ran his hand down her spine and rested it a second at the very bottom, where her dress began.

“You have nothing under this dress.”

“Not a thing but me.”

He slipped his hands under the dress in the back and ran them all the way around to cup both her breasts in his hands. The top part of the dress fell away so she was naked from her hips up. He pulled her back against him and she could feel his erection against her butt.

“If you’ll turn around, I’ll finish taking this dress off of you and then I really want to kiss you,” he murmured in her ear.

She slowly turned to face him. He kissed her as the dress fell to the floor. He put his hands on her bottom and lifted her as she wrapped her legs around him. He moved them both to the sofa and deposited the now naked Natasha there.

“Do you want this off?” He pointed to the arc reactor. “I’ll take it off if you want me to. Of course, if Earth is attacked I’d have to -”

“Take it off. I’m willing to take my chances for a few minutes. And Tony, take the rest off, too. And stop talking.”

He didn’t stop talking though he did remove his jacket, shirt, pants and the rest. Then he removed the crystal device and set it on the coffee table.

“Now come here,” she whispered and crooked her finger at him.

He did, sitting beside her and pulling her into his embrace, kissing her quite thoroughly.

“I always wondered what women saw in you besides money. Guess I’m about to find out.”

He grinned and shrugged.

She put her hands in his hair and guided him to her breasts. He kissed and licked then finally sucked one then the other while his hands caressed down the outside of her thighs and back up the inside. She opened her legs so his fingers could find what he sought and she whimpered when he did. He kissed her again.

“I knew you were beautiful but I didn’t know you were this beautiful,” he whispered between kisses.

Natasha slipped her hand down Tony’s belly to touch him, wrapping her fingers around him. He pushed into her hand. She wanted him to feel what she did, the bare need he had awakened in her. She kept kissing him so he wouldn’t talk.

She lay back and pulled him on top of her, guiding him to where she wanted him. It was fast and hurried but she needed him now and he seemed to need the same thing.

“Oh, Natasha,” he growled against her cheek as he sank into her. He started to say something else when she put her finger over his lips.

“Just fuck me, Tony.” He did. He finally stopped talking and looked into her eyes as he thrust into her again and again. She gripped his hips tightly, holding on as if she were afraid of him flying away. Perhaps she was.

He would never be the man she loved but she loved him nonetheless. He was someone who she knew would be there for her if she needed him.

Like now.

Pleasure built quickly, spilling over them both, one right after the other. He did not move from atop her for a few moments. He kissed her cheek, her lips then moved off of her, pulling her into his lap as he did.

“Stay tonight. I – will you?”

She thought about waiting until he was asleep and leaving without saying goodbye, but in the end, she stayed. She wanted to sleep in someone’s arms tonight, a friend’s arms. They were a rare thing in the world she lived in.

*

III.

“It's hard to believe in coincidence, but it's even harder to believe in anything else.” ~ John Green

~

Almost every morning, after he’d eaten and had his run, Steve would go to a little coffee shop outside the Brandenburg Gate and watch people go by. It was always quite busy, but it had nice little tables outside. It was just across the way from the new American Embassy as well.

This morning, he drank his coffee and watched some guy with a big, red umbrella try to sell tours to people visiting the Brandenburg Gate. The guy was there every day right in front of the coffee shop. He smiled at the tourists who mumbled about him ruining their photos with the ridiculously large umbrella.

He was about to call Sam when he saw her coming down the street toward the coffee shop.

Natasha Romanov.

She was no longer a redhead, having icy, blond hair, cut short now, but it was Natasha.

She ducked inside the coffee shop and came back out minutes later and sat down at his table.

“I thought that was you. The hair and beard look great. Makes you look more dangerous.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Apparently I am hiding in plain sight.” He wondered if she knew how much she actually stood out in any crowd. He didn’t really think that hiding was possible for her.

“Why? You signed the damned accords.”

“I also let you and Barnes go. Remember?”

He nodded. “I thought for a second there that -”

“Oh, hell, no. You know better than that. I hop from here to there and back again, hiding, running. It’s the new normal, but it gets old pretty quickly.”

“It does. I hoped we had a home at headquarters once but that was not be, was it? Despite all, I get why he feels like he does. I still love the bastard.” They both knew he meant Stark. Their friendship had soured into a war over Barnes and the things he had done, things Stark couldn’t forgive, things Steve had not told him he knew. And Steve could not abandon Bucky to the US government.

“I talk to him once in a while. I saw him recently.” She hoped he didn’t notice the slight blush when she mentioned seeing Tony. She decided not to tell him any more about that. It made her feel less abandoned when she’d been with Tony. She smiled to herself. Tony Stark truly never stopped talking.

“Was he well?”

“Yes, he was fine.” It was hard to stay neutral. “He and Pepper were on the outs again.”

“He and Pepper are always on the outs. It’s their normal. So where are you staying?”

She pointed to the Adlon Hotel. It was a beautiful old luxury hotel that had been featured in several books and movies over the years and was still quite a nice place to stay.

“How did you rate that? I live in an apartment so small that I meet myself now and again. I must not be doing the on the run thing right.”

“I, um, am a Norwegian businessman’s piece on the side. At least until time for his bill to come in, then I’ll be gone. Poof!” She snapped her fingers. “I figure I’ve got a few weeks anyway.”

They both sat quietly for a few minutes. It was not a strained silence. Steve and Natasha had worked together quite a bit before the attack on New York, when they’d both been S.H.I.E.L.D. agents under Nick Fury. They were colleagues, and more importantly, they were friends.

“I’m getting too old for this shit, Natasha.”

“Language, Cap,” she said with a grin. She reached across the table and took his hand. “Me, too. I wish sometimes I had a life and a family like Clint does.”

“I think I’m too old for that. But you, you can still do it. I thought when I woke, and when I saw a whole new world, that it would be a different world but it isn’t. The names of the villains have changed, but that’s all.”

“And settle down with whom? In case you hadn’t noticed, my boyfriend ran away without a trace in a Quinjet, of all things.”

“I’d have thought Tony would have found him by now.”

“He obviously doesn’t want to be found,” she answered, still angry at Bruce.

Steve decided a change of subject would be a good idea. “Do you speak German?”

She grinned. “I do. Do you?”

“Nope. Well, a word or two but luckily, most Germans speak enough English for me to get by. I like it here. It’s a good city and big enough to be invisible in.”

“Aren’t you afraid of getting picked up on the cams this close to the embassy?”

He pulled a ball cap from his pocket. “With the hat and beard, I’m a little harder to spot.”

She squeezed his hand. “I hate to tell you this, but you stand out almost anywhere.”

He blushed at her compliment and wondered why it pleased him so much. Maybe it was just a reaction to being alone so long.

“So where have you been hiding?” He asked her.

“I spent some time in South America. And some time in London. I stayed a few months in Hong Kong with an old friend.”

Steve raised an eyebrow.

“Not that kind of old friend. She was MI6 a long time ago. So, what do you do here?”

“I walk, ride my bike, read. Sometimes I play tourist.”

“Steve, honey, how are you not bored to tears?”

“Um, I am, I suppose. The tourist bit would be fun with someone to share it with though.”

“I can do that. I’ve always worked when I was here. You don’t see much when you’re kicking asses.”

“I’ve seen the world that way, too. Quinjets, warehouses, evil hideaways. Oh, and war… can’t forget the war bit.”

“But you did tour the US as Captain America pretending to punch Hitler!”

“Don’t remind me.” The whole Captain America promotional tour made him crazy to think about to this day.

She laughed and took a small photo out of her purse. She handed it to him. It was a black and white of him and several women dressed in costumes decorated with American flags.

“Jesus!!! Where did you get this?”

“Stark gave it to me a long time ago. I had actually forgotten it.”

“I look so young.”

“You looked exactly like that the first time I saw you.”

“I’ve aged.”

She patted his hand. “We all have, Cap. You still look pretty good to me.”

He got up and threw his cup in the trash. “I have to be going. It was great to see you.” He started to go.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, Rogers?”

“I figured you have stuff to do and so -”

“No, you don’t.”

“I need to check in with Sam. I use an endless supply of burners.”

“Tony said you sent him a phone. Do you have that one?”

He patted his pocket. “I keep it with me always.”

She took his arm. “So, take me to your hideout.”

He laughed and they went to his tiny little apartment. It was a sort of one room deal, with a stove, fridge, bed, an old television and one chair.

She grinned. “Wow! The Ritz. I’ll bet the chicks are dying to come to this groovy pad.” Her sixties references didn’t go over his head. Steve had spent a lot of time studying the years he was in the ice.

He laughed and hunted a phone in the drawer. “Yes, and they really love that they have to go down the hall and wait for someone to vacate the bathroom to pee.”

He called Sam and they talked for several minutes, then Natasha chatted with Sam for a bit. After they hung up, Natasha asked, “Did he tell you about the Chitauri tech that they think some Chechens have?”

“Yep. Want to go remove it from them?”

“You’ve done this before?”

“We’ve hit a couple of times. Can’t sit around and look at porn all the time.”

Natasha laughed. “Oh, this we’ll get back to. Captain America and porn?”

He grinned and shrugged. “I’m a guy.”

*

IV.

Idleness is to the human mind like rust to iron.
~ Ezra Cornell

~~

It turned out that the Chechens were meeting their seller in Berlin. Berlin was the center of a lot of illicit trade in many things, including weapons.

Sam met them outside the old rundown building where this deal was supposed to take place. None of them actually had any real weapons. Natasha did have her Widow Bites but Cap and Falcon were just two guys armed with knives. And their skills. Their mad skills.

That did not deter them at all. At the last second, Wanda showed up with Vision in tow. Cap gave them all tiny com devices to wear in their ears and they all set off. Wanda was able to find the Chechens with her powers.

“Want me to mindfuck them?” she asked Steve. No one was actually sure how much power Wanda really had, and no one wanted to find out.

He laughed. “Such a pretty image. Yes, that’s exactly what I want you to do.”

Wanda’s powers were so strong that by the time they got into the building, the Chechens and the two men who were selling the tech were blithering idiots. One was begging the spiders to go away. One was crying for his mother and the third actually tried to eat his own gun right in front of them.

“Maybe a little too fucked?” Wanda asked as they tied up the criminals, called the local police and a secret contact within Stark’s Avenger organization (one that would not rat them out to the oversight committee) to come get the tech.

They all went to Steve’s tiny apartment after the job. Natasha called out for a bunch of pizzas and they drank a lot of beer. They were all innervated from the action and needed some decompression time. Vision couldn’t eat, but he was happy anywhere Wanda was.

“So, Vision, doesn’t anyone watch you while you run off to see Wanda? Are we in danger?” Natasha asked him as she drank her fourth beer and ate her third piece of pizza.

“I am seldom watched. Mr. Stark, I believe, knows I meet Wanda sometimes, but chooses to ignore it.”

“He might not ignore it when he hears about this,” Sam said.

“I do not believe you to be in danger at this time,” Vision assured them. “There’s not much reason for him to know who captured these men.”

“This is a really small place, Cap,” Sam laughed. “Can you lay down to sleep?”

“When my bed isn’t covered in people, yes.”

They ate and laughed into the night, all still a bit keyed up. Eventually Wanda and Vision left and Sam left not long after.

“I guess I should go, too,” Natasha said after she’d hugged and kissed Sam goodbye.

“You can stay. The bed isn’t much big, but it’ll hold both of us. You can make a blanket barrier or something.” He didn’t want her to go, wanted a chance to talk to her some more. He spent way too much time alone and was very reluctant to see her gone.

She laughed at the idea. “I’m not afraid of you, Steve. I don’t think you’ll ravage me and I have no reputation to worry about.”

She helped clean up all the bottles and pizza boxes and scraps and put them in the trash outside. They went down the hall and waited for the bathroom. Natasha grinned as she went in before him. Once they were back in the room, he realized that he should have put on his sweats in the bathroom.

“I can sleep in my clothes.” She seemed to read his mind.

“You can wear one of my shirts. I won’t look.” Steve was ever the gentleman and didn’t look, but he seriously thought about it when he heard her zippers and the sounds of clothes rustling.

“You can look now.” His t-shirt came halfway down her thighs and he could almost see through it in the lamplight. He tried not to stare and didn’t even notice her grin because he was staring.

They lay down in the narrow bed to sleep and even though they began facing away from one another, sometime in the night, they snuggled together. Natasha woke first and grinned at the rather hard part of Steve poking her in the back. She slipped out of the bed, slipped on her pants and went to the bathroom, making a bit of noise when she came back to wake him.

She popped back into the room and he was still under the covers though he was awake. “I’m going back to the hotel, Steve. You can get your shirt later. Coffee at 10:30?” She kissed his cheek and she was gone.

They met at 10:30 at the coffee shop from the day before.

“Good morning!” Steve was way more chipper than Natasha felt. She was a bit headachy from all the beer and she was sore from climbing fences and such to get to the old building last night. She’d already had a few cups of coffee in her room after she returned from Steve’s apartment. One more cup and she might be human.

Might.

“Why can’t you get drunk and feel lousy the next day like the rest of us?” she moaned as she sat down and grabbed the coffee he’d gotten for her.

“I’m sore, if that helps.”

“Pfft.”

They drank quietly, enjoying the beauty of the day. There weren’t many people visiting the Gate yet and the coffee shop was in a mid-morning lull. Natasha moved her chair to the same side that Steve sat on and took his hand as she sipped her coffee. She even laid her head on his shoulder.

“I’m really glad I saw you here. I’ve missed you, Steve.”

“I miss everyone, especially you.” He put his arm around her shoulder and they sat there in companionable silence for a long while.

*

V.
In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
~ Henry David Thoreau

~~

Steve and Natasha fell into a routine, meeting in the morning for coffee, then they’d go sightseeing. Sometimes they just walked through neighborhoods and sometimes they visited historical sights and even a museum when they had the funds. Steve did odd jobs here and there for pocket change and Natasha wasn’t half bad as a pickpocket, though she didn’t tell Steve that part. She didn’t think he’d approve.

“So, what’s on the agenda today?” Natasha plopped down beside him at their usual table.

“Sam called last night. There’s a German arms merchant named Hendrik Braun, who is meeting to deliver what may be Chitauri tech to some white supremacist groups from the US. I have a location and possible time. Want to do it?”

“Hell yes! Sam coming in?”

“Yep, though I don’t know about Wanda.”

“Do we have any weapons?” It was not fun to go after an arms dealer without guns. Doable, yes. Easy, no.

“There might be some stashed for us. Sam will know.”

The meetup was the next day, so Natasha and Steve spent that day enjoying themselves. They ate currywurst at a little stand not far from their coffee shop. Steve laughed at Natasha for taking such huge bites.

“I’m starving. I didn’t eat this morning. You’re usually the pig!”

“I am a pig, but I don’t take bites too big to talk around.”

She swallowed and took a long drink of her beer, looked at Steve and burped.
“Ah, this is the life!”

“More?” Steve asked as he got up from the outdoor table.

“Sausage or beer?” She asked, her mouth still full.

“Either.”

“Both!”

Steve was back in a few minutes with more beer and they waited for their sausages to get done.

“There’s a wonderful chocolate store with a giant chocolate Reichstag nearby,” Natasha told him. “Wanna go look at candy buildings?”

“Can we eat candy too?” Steve grew up poor in the twenties and thirties when times were hard and candy was still a treat to him.

“Yep. They have tons and tons.”

So they went to the shop. It smelled like chocolate. There were all sorts of candies and cutesy things for tourists to buy. There was the miniature Reichstag and other buildings as well as a Berlin bear made entirely of chocolate. They held hands as they looked and leaned against one another often when they were talking about something.

They got a few morsels for themselves and began their walking again.

Natasha took a bite of one of her candies and made an appreciative “mmm” sound. “Want a taste?” She held it to his mouth. Watching him take a bite of the treat made her feel rather warm inside. She felt a moment of guilt for being disloyal to Bruce. She told herself that he’d left her. She didn’t want to examine what she was beginning to feel for Steve too closely yet.

Steve seemed rather oblivious to the battle inside his friend, but his own feelings were not far from hers. She was so warm and soft, a side he’d seldom seen, but she was someone else’s girl, wasn’t she?

They were a little tired by evening.

And hungry again.

“We can dine on my rich boyfriend tonight.”

“Not sure I have a thing to wear,” Steve quipped.

“Ever hear of room service?” She grinned wickedly.

“It’s a date. I probably should grab a shower. You don’t want dinner with a stinky man.”

“I have a shower, your t-shirt I borrowed and you don’t need underwear to eat dinner.”

There was still a lot of old-fashioned about Steve. Wearing underwear was one of those things. He insisted they run by his apartment. He picked up some stuff and back to the Adlon they went.

“The shower is yours,” she said as they got off the elevator and she opened the door.

Steve was in the shower when he heard her come in. There was a glass door on the shower, made opaque only by the steam from the hot shower. She could see in better than he could see out.

“I gotta pee,” Natasha told him cheerfully and did so. When she finished, she said, “If you need anything, let me know.” She went out and stuck her head back in. “Nice ass, by the way.” And the door closed again.

Sometimes he felt way out his depth in this modern world.

They had a simple dinner of roasted chicken with wild rice and a salad of fresh greens with a nice table wine. They talked a little about tomorrow’s mission and a lot about the past, without going into each one’s real traumas. He was a man who was, in reality, almost a hundred years old and she was a woman raised to be a killing machine. Yet here they were, almost whole and living as normal people in the real world. That was enough for now.

“I should go.” Steve got up from the small table.

“Don’t. You can bunk here. The bed is huge and we can put a blanket barrier between us. I promise I won’t take advantage of you,” she quipped.

“Only if you promise,” he laughed but he did agree to stay.

She disappeared to the bathroom and came out in sweatpants and a tank top. They did nothing to hide her beauty or her sexiness. He wasn’t aware that he stared until she spoke. “Honey, if a girl in sweatpants is hot to you, you might need to get out a little more.”

She hopped into the bed and grinned at him. He stuck his tongue out at her.

Steve slept in his underwear, though he was a little shy about letting her see him in them. They started out as they had before on separate sides but were snuggled close by morning. Natasha woke first and slipped out of bed for the bathroom. When she returned, a tousled and sleepy looking Steve sat on the side of the bed. He smiled when he saw her.

“You look beautiful already,” he told her as he took his turn in the bathroom.

When he got back, Natasha asked Steve when they were supposed to meet Sam.

“Not until dark. We might as well take it easy. Things could be rough tonight. We haven’t heard from Wanda. It’s easier when she can screw with their heads, but the three of us should do okay without her.”

He continued, “Sam emailed me the layout of the buildings and a street map.”

“Steve, is Sam here in Berlin, too?”

“I think he might be in the Netherlands. I don’t ask so I won’t know.”

She nodded. “How much longer are you staying here?”

He looked at her and smiled, that dazzling smile that melted metal and made him the sweetheart of many American women. “Depends on how long you stay.”

“Awww!” She punched him playfully and he grabbed her arm and pulled her close, kissing her quickly, then letting her go. “What was that for?” she asked him.

“Your mouth has always begged to be kissed. I had to do it.”

“Will you do it again?”

He did, lingering a little longer this time.

“No one could ever have convinced me that I’d enjoy kissing a ninety-eight year old man.”

He laughed and kissed her one more time for good measure.

*