Climbing up the Water Spot (CapWidow)

[Steve Rogers]

Location: New York City
Date: Friday, two weeks after By and By
Time of Day: Afternoon

Steve was in the old boxing gym again. In the two weeks since his trip back to the old lab where he'd been given the Super Soldier Serum, Steve and Natasha had barely even seen each other, let alone make eye contact or even speak to each other. Cap was starting to feel like he'd lost her over a dumb decision. If he had known that reading her file would have upset her so much, he wouldn't even have touched it.

So, he worked out, fought crime and did just about anything he could to keep himself distracted. It was starting to get relaxing today though, which usually meant something was about to-

The bright red lights began to flasha and the alarm went off, just as he suspected. Steve sighed and looked up to one of the screen as Jarvis spoke up.

"Disturbance at Goliath National Bank. Suspect unknown. Currently on duty is Captain America and the Black Widow. Please engage immediately, threat level green."

Steve sighed, that meant they both were required to go. Turning and running to the men's locker room, Steve went to suit up and head out.

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

Natasha pulled off the dark wig she’d worn that afternoon. She didn’t often wander around in disguise, but it was necessary some afternoons.

She’d developed a habit – or not a habit, exactly, because there was no pattern to her choice. Natasha didn’t leave patterns, she was too skilled a spy for that. But every now and again, she craved the structure and unique exercise of a ballet class.

Of course, she made sure to never visit the same studio more than twice. And ever since an ABT scout had taken notice of her at one weekend workshop she’d danced, she went in disguise more often than not. And as much as she hated it, she’d learned to dumb down her ability just a bit: keep her extensions short, her displays of balance unimpressive, attempt nothing more advanced than a double pirouette, and always dance in the corner of the room that caught the least mirrors. Because she did not want to be noted.

Luckily, ballet classes were full of people who did, so it was usually no problem to hide amongst them. Today had been no different, and she pulled the pins out of her own hair one by one with the soft smile of contentment; the class had been just what she needed. She shook out her curls, feeling limber and relaxed and –

Her beeper went off. And since Natasha only used that pet robot for one thing, she knew exactly what it meant. Trouble.

She undressed as she moved down the hall, clothes dropping in her wake. The Widow suit was where it always was: the central hall closet, waiting. By this point, she had suiting up down to a science, and it took her a little over two minutes to get ready. Finally zipping her boots, she had a moment to wonder who else was on call tonight before she dashed out the front door, speeding away on her Vespa to the address flashing on the beeper.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

Steve had hit the seat of his motorcycle with a thud and was off toward GNB. A bank as big as that, Captain America was going in expecting a huge crew of thugs, probably in masks of Presidents that whose terms he'd slept through. That was how this kind of thing was done, right? At least that's the way Steve had seen things in movies. Movies were pretty much his only guide to how things were now, Tony had suggested it was either that, or shadowing him for a few days. Miss Potts had suggested that shadowing Tony was a bad idea, Steve agreed and went with Netflix.

Meanwhile on Wall Street, GNB head quarters security had been smashed up and tossed around. Some bystanders had escaped, but many were still being held as hostages by one man. Morris Bench, better known as Morrie was holding the entire bank up, demanding an armored truck be filled with cash and that he could escape. What people hadn't realized until it was too late was that Bench was superhuman. He consisted of living water, and was able to manipulate any water around him. Not long ago, Morrie had taken on the name Hydro-Man and begun a career as a criminal.

Bench held up a woman by her collar and shook her, "Alright! Now fill up that car and don't try anything funny, or I'll drown the girl!"

Suddenly, a shield whizzed by and took off Morrie's arm, making a big splash of water all over the floor.

"You know sir, I know they say people consist of 70 percent water, but I think you might be a bit of an overachiever." Captain America made himself known, his shield bounced off the wall and returned to him. Ducking his arm through the loops as the hostage ran off to the side, Steve began to close in on Hydro-Man.

"Captain America huh? They used to talk about you in history class. You look pretty good for an old man. Let me fix that!" Summoning up a torrent of water, Hydro-Man blasted Steve back through the front door, shattering the glass.

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

The air was agreeably chilly as she rode toward GNB, weaving in and out of traffic. Ironically, she was momentarily jealous of Thor, who could fly off wherever he was needed; it seemed to mundane to be stuck obeying the laws of traffic lights when there was an alert in effect.

She finally made it to her destination. Leaving her Vespa well off to the side in case of it becoming collateral damage, she parked, ran, and vaulted through a broken window just in time to see someone fly through the front door. The water made it hard for her to tell who it was. She knew Tony had a full agenda today, but she also knew he’d take any excuse to get out of that agenda, so she assumed it was Iron Man who’d just taken the hit.

Focusing her attention on their foe, she placed herself between him and the majority of the crowd, pointing at the now-open door without ever moving her eyes from their target.

“Everyone OUT,” she ordered, the faintest trace of a Russian accent just noticeable behind her consonants when she raised her voice. If she concentrated, she could get rid of the intonation, but in this situation it hardly mattered.

Her guns stayed on her belt, as she assumed bullets weren’t the most use against water, but she kept her hands free, the grappling hook in her left utility bracelet at the ready in case she needed to dodge a blast like the one she’d just witnessed.

“I’d make the quip about picking on someone your own size, but it’s a little obvious for my taste,” she deadpanned, subtly sizing up her opponent against the layout of the bank. If she could just get him close enough to a wall outlet, she thought a bit of electricity might take care of him, but it would take some planning, and she would rather stall a moment until she heard those familiar metallic footsteps behind her.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

As Steve began to regain his legs and climb back to his feet, Hydro-Man had turned toward Natasha and grinned, "Well now, another Avenger. I was hoping there'd be more than one." With no further warning, Bench began to throw violent bursts of water in Natasha's direction. The water was comparable to a normal human's temperature, so it was actually quite hot as well as powerful. He was aiming for her head, trying to end things quickly in case Captain America returned to the fight. Battling one Avenger was going to be hard enough, two would be near impossible.

Hydro-Man got tried of missing rather quickly. His entire body turned into water and he launched himself at the Black Widow in the farm of a small wave, "I'll finish you off right here! No one's going to stop me from ripping this place off!" As soon as he crashed into Widow, Bench would materialize into his flesh form and giver her a pounding. If he couldn't kill her before Cap got back up, he'd at least try to incapacitate her.

Suddenly, there was a splashing sound.

Lodged into Hydro-Man's back was Captain America's shield. Steve began to stare Hydro-Man down and spoke up again, "So water control then? I can handle that." Hydro-Man smirked in response, "Can you now? We'll just see what holds out, a natural element, or a tiny human body."

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

The jets were definitely keeping Natasha on her toes, and those toes happened to be soggy. She kept in motion, swinging from her grappling hook every now and then when a simple dive-and-roll wouldn’t get her out of the way in time. The ceiling showed every spot she’d had to latch on to, but with all the water damage it would really be the least of GNB’s problems. A few times she’d caught backsplash from a jet as she swung, and the hot water soaked her boots. It was annoying, but not exactly dangerous; she easily had the reflexes to stay away from this guy.

She had just landed on the far side of the building, causing their foe to place his back to the entrance in order to keep an eye on her. As he launched himself in the form of a wave, Natasha ducked, dropping in an instant to flatten against the floor; the trajectory of the wave should crash just over her.

However, at the familiar metallic zing of Steve’s shield, Tasha’s head popped up. It was a rookie mistake, but the sound that followed – the sound she hadn’t heard in almost two weeks: his voice – was almost worth the face full of water she took.

Natasha had been waterboarded before. It was never a pleasant experience, to put it lightly, and this was no different. The water was not hot enough to cause any large amount of damage, but it was a far cry from comfortable. She shut her eyes tight, feinting to the side in a blind roll. Sputtering as she relied on her training to keep moving, a series of effortless aerial flips at least made her a moving target as she fought to catch her breath between the exertion and the water.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

Now that Steve was back in the fray, he was able to assess the situation a little better. Natasha was there now, keeping Hydro-Man busy at the moment. That actually worked out well, he had an opening now. As long as Natasha could keep him busy, he'd be able to sneak up and potentially knock him out. Unfortunately for them both, that's not exactly how it worked out.

Steve's arrival had thrown Natasha off and she'd been caught in an attack by Hydro-Man. The criminal smirked as he got distracted by her stumble and tried to take advantage of her opening, "I've gotcha now!" He reared his fist back and then launched another torrent of hot water towards the redheaded hero. Steve had an instant reaction as well.

Sprinting with the full length of his legs, Steve snapped his shield off the ground, took a leap and used Bench's own shoulder as a stepping stone. He ended up landing in front of Natasha, shield forward to block the attack. Captain America glanced back to his team mate and said, "We've got to finish this before it goes any further." He assumed she had already come up with a plan, so instead of trying to take too much charge and offend her, he asked for her advice.

"Tell me what you need and I'll handle it."

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

Drenched, Natasha immediately thought how nice a warm shower would be right about now. The irony wasn’t lost on her, and she was immediately grateful for the cover of the Captain’s shield, though the reaction was followed by an awkward tension.

Tension could obviously wait; they had a job to do.

Nodding, Tasha coughed again, her nose still stinging from the blast that had caught her in the face. She wiped her eyes unceremoniously on the back of her sleeve, an eyebrow arching unamusedly as she found it would do her no good: her sleeve was soaked as well. Rolling her eyes and grasping her bracelet, she clicked open a specific hatch and unceremoniously pulled out a length of cable. It’d been engineered in one of the SHIELD labs, and for its size was rated higher than anything the civilian world knew. It was coated in a nonreactive black rubber, and she stripped off a foot at one end and two inches on the other. She tossed the end with the exposed foot of cable to Steve.

“Just get that around him, I’ll do that rest.”

She wound the other end around her wrist, making sure she wouldn’t drop it.

“We’ll split, I’m heading back to the counters, there’s bound to be an electric socket. You give me the signal and stand clear, you got it? This whole place is soaked, have a plan to get yourself grounded before you tackle him.”

The stress she placed on the words conveyed her concern for his well-being, but she was oblivious, her mind on the task before them.

“Got it? 3... 2… 1… now.”

And without another word, she began a break for the back end of the bank, forgoing stealth in favour of raw speed; they needed to take this guy out before he flooded the place any worse, or her plan might become impossible.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

At the moment, Steve was all business as well. He still regretted what had happened between himself and Natasha, and he certainly wanted to clear the air, but now wasn't the time to deal with such a difficult matter. Cap nodded as Natasha gave him a rundown on the plan. An electrical shock, to a man that could turn himself into water. While he was worried that it could kill the man, Steve knew it was better that Bench be compromised than a civilian, or even worse, Natasha.

"I'm set, give the word."

Holding the cable steady, Steve prepared himself for the battle plans. It was nice, for once, that he wasn't the key strategist. As a soldier, Steve knew how to follow orders better than anyone, and in today's society, Steve knew that Natasha was his superior in rank, he'd best listen to her no matter what. When he was asked for advice or strategy, he'd offer it willingly, but until that time, he'd do as he was told.

“Got it? 3... 2… 1… now.”

"Wait a second, I-" Steve shut up and moved like he was supposed to. Focusing on his duty, Cap protected himself from Hydro-Man's attacks with his shield and moved into position. As soon as it was set, he pressed the button on his earpiece.

"All set Natasha, go!" Steve got clear to prepare himself for Natasha's phase.

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

Natasha kicked down the door that led behind the teller stations; obviously there was a back way out, because the area was clear of civilians. Small miracle, she supposed, and quickly found a utility outlet. Even with that amount of voltage, she doubted it would be enough to kill the man. He was obviously a mutant of some sort, and she knew that mutants tended to have different mortality rules; they could live through an awful lot.

Which wasn’t to say that if he died she would be upset. She wouldn’t be. Natasha had been through too many situations like this – situations in which countless lives were threatened, including her own. It didn’t make her angry; she’d learnt long ago that anger was a predictable reaction, and above all else she fought to never be predictable. No, it helped clear her head. Sorting things into black and white – from a professional perspective, anyway – was what Natasha had been trained to do her whole life. SHIELD policy had always stated a preference for taking criminals alive, but when it came down to it, they preferred her to come back in one piece. And if she had to kill to do that, then so be it.

So she’d gotten comfortable with the idea. Sometimes too comfortable, she thought, but Natasha would never admit that to anyone else. She took no pleasure in it, of course – it was just part of the job.

As she unwound the wire from her wrist, boots splashing through puddles on the tile, Steve’s signal blare din her earpiece, and that familiar thought echoed through her head: it’s just part of the job. She flipped the cover from the outlet, jamming wire inside. A noise echoed from the main area of the bank, and her head yanked up, instinct telling her to make sure the yell hadn’t come from Steve.

As she took her eyes off her work, her hand slipped down the wet wire, ratcheting a shock through her body. Her last thought was how she really should have incorporated gloves into the Widow suit years ago.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

There was an awful cry of pain from Bench, Steve could hear it so vividly, it almost made his blood curdle. He sighed as Hydro-Man fell over in a heap, not able to move properly now. As soon as it was over, Steve looked to the people inside and said, "He's knocked out, call the police and let them know it's safe to move in now." After someone moved to do so, Steve pressed his earpiece again, "Nice work Natasha. You were great."

He paused before continuing to speak to his redheaded teammate, "I um, wanted to say sorry again. If I had known you hadn't wanted me to read that file, I wouldn't have." Cap looked up in the direction Natasha had gone earlier, "It's, weird not having you around. You're really the only one I have Natasha." Steve really wanted his friend back.

There was no response, "Natasha?"

Fearing something horrible had happened, Steve rushed over into the room where he'd seen Black Widow head off to. When he walked in upon her, he nearly panicked, rushing to her side, "Natasha! Can you hear me?" She wasn't breathing, but there was a pulse. Steve knew what to do, he'd been trained for this kind of stuff years ago. Tipping her head back a bit, Steve leaned and listened for breath once more, nothing. That's when he began CPR, chest compressions and the breathing as well.

Steve was taking no chances, he wasn't losing Natasha.

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

The next thing she knew, Steve was kissing her.

This was odd. Her alcohol tolerance over the years had built up impressively; she could still drink Clint under the table. She certainly couldn’t remember the last time she’d blacked out.

His hands brushed dangerously close to her chest, closer than she’d ever thought he’d have the guts to get, but the moment was ruined as he pressed down repeatedly, as if he was giving her CPR.

Instinctively, her arm raised in an effort to push him away, but all she managed was a weak shove, a groan issuing from her throat as she remembered. Her fingertips were tingly, and she felt like she’d been, well, electrocuted. Laying still, she mentally took inventory of her state as she addressed Steve.

“It’s ok, I’m fine...”

Her voice was raspy, and she added extreme dry mouth to her mental list of problems.

“What about the water boy?”

True to form, her first thoughts were about the mission. Once she was sure everything was squared away with the situation they’d been called to deal with, she could go back to puzzling over how it had felt to have Steve’s lips on hers. Her head pounded as if in response, a wicked headache making its presence known, and she belatedly thought that maybe she’d puzzle over that happening later; she definitely wasn’t going to mention it in the meantime.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

If Steve hadn't been so focused on trying to save Natasha, he would have been kicking himself for putting his lips on Natasha's without her express permission to do so. That said, when she pushed him off, Steve took a breath of relief, "You're alright." He sighed once more before looking down at the ground and smiling, "You sure know how to worry the hell out of a guy, don't you Natasha?"

“What about the water boy?”

"The NYPD are handling it. I think they'll probably be pulling in the Hulkbusters unit to deal with them," Steve waved his hand like it was over and done with. Right now he was more worried about Natasha, "Are you alright Natasha? Your heart had stopped beating. That doesn't happen every day." He was still in a semi-panic, having really believed that he could have lost her.

He looked into her green eyes again before managing to speak again, "Sorry. For everything, reading your file, avoiding you for two weeks, all of it. I just, panicked. A lot. I haven't panicked this much since the time I rode the Cyclone on Coney Island when I was a kid."

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

"You sure know how to worry the hell out of a guy, don't you Natasha?"

The ex-spy managed a weak smile.

“Don’t worry about me, soldier boy.” She held onto his bicep, the material of his costume wet beneath her hand, and groaned as she sat up. The panic in his eyes was what worried her most, and she patted his cheek reassuringly, trying to make it seem natural; it’d been years since she’d shared a gesture like that with anyone.

Well… with anyone sober, she amended, remembering that drinking spree in Poland.

Your heart had stopped beating. That doesn't happen every day."

She winced inwardly at the words, not letting her reaction show – or so she hoped. She locked her gaze with his, trying for a smile as she drew a shaky breath to make another comment to downplay the events of the afternoon, but he beat her to the punch. She listened, ignoring her urge to disentangle herself from the situation just because it involved personal details. The bit about Coney Island even coaxed a genuine smile onto her lips, surprising herself most of all.

“Steve, it’s…” She waved a hand wearily, immediately planting it back against the ground for support. “If you didn’t notice, I did the exact same thing.”

It wasn’t exactly an apology, but it was as good as she could get for now.

“And you did just save my ass. So… I think we’re even.”

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

“Don’t worry about me, soldier boy.”

Steve flashed a small smile in response. How could he not worry? As well trained and skillful as Natasha was, she wasn't a Super Soldier. She didn't turn into a giant green beast, wear high tech armor and she wasn't a goddess from another world. In the long and short of things, Widow was a normal human being. Highly talented, of course, but as today had proved, dying was much more of an achievable status for Natasha than it would be for most of the others on the team, barring Hawkeye of course.

He knew better than to speak those worries to Natasha. Best case scenario, she'd tell him that her well being wasn't his problem, worst case, they took another two steps backwards. Cap wasn't willing to go through either scenario.

That was when her hand touched the side of his face, making all the hairs on his body stand up suddenly. What was that all about? What was it about Natasha that just put Steve on edge like this? He couldn't put a finger on it, but honestly, Steve didn't mind. He rather liked the feeling.

“Steve, it’s… If you didn’t notice, I did the exact same thing.”

Actually, Steve really hadn't noticed. He'd been so wrapped up in avoiding her on his own, he never even thought that she might be doing the same thing to him. Rubbing the back of his head, Cap finally spoke, "I guess so. I feel kind of silly about it all though."

“And you did just save my ass. So… I think we’re even.”

Standing up, Steve bent over and held his hand to help Natasha to her feet, "Even's good. I can do even." It felt like they were starting over again, but really, Steve didn't mind that at all.