In the Snow (Stasha)

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

Natasha laughed. The sound was rare, warm, and open. This was not a move that anyone had been brave enough to try out of the blue with her, and it had tickled her. She could kill him 17 different ways from this position, and yet she knew from the look on his face that he wasn’t dwelling on that fact: she was just Natasha.

That was a confidence she didn’t have, even in herself, and she kissed him back with an aura of thanks. Her lips pressed against his, slowing their pace, every movement studious and deliberate – like most things she did. Though most of those things weren’t nearly as enjoyable as this.

One hand rested at the back of his neck, his haircut regulation perfect as usual. Idly, she wondered if that was an effect of the serum. Her other hand reached across the pristine sheets, groping for the remote. The cool plastic slid under her hand, and she gently backed away from Steve’s lips, leaning against the pillows behind them as the screen flickered to life, bathing them in the blue light of electricity.

“Movie?”

She watched his eyes, wondering what sort of mood he was in. Sometimes he did this, deciding to jump forward with both feet until reality caught up with him and he backed off, not for lack of enthusiasm. It was intriguing, but then she supposed she’d always been a bit grey in the morals section; murder, intimacy… they didn’t always hold the proper weight with her. At one point in her life, she’d taken up each solely on the basis of restlessness. Boredom.

That wasn’t who she was anymore. Or, that wasn’t who she wanted to be. She kissed him again, lips ghosting the line of his jaw as she watched him.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

Steve was going bold. He'd actually put his hand on Natasha's thigh and left it there!

Progress!

Certainly being this intimate wasn't a problem for Steve, in his head at least. He thought about it often enough. He figured it must've been the pace of their relationship. He and Natasha hadn't even really become friends until six months after they'd met during the Loki incident. It was a full month after that when they'd started dating, and here they were a month later. For Steve, who'd never had a girlfriend beyond his short-lived relationship with Peggy, this all was very fast, never mind the fact that he was raised in a different era.

Luckily for him, Natasha was patient, and let him go slow.

She backed off and Steve smiled, taking in a small breath, “Movie?”

After the second kiss, he moved to the side and rolled onto his back next to her, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Another second there, and they would have been moving dangerously close to Steve's line. It wasn't that he didn't want to cross that line with Natasha, god he did, but, Steve had already decided.

The moment had to be amazing, spectacular even. A perfect moment, better than any movie could ever hope to imagine, because that's what she meant to him and what he felt she deserved from him.

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

Tasha smiled to herself knowingly; she’d called it. Her specialty had always been reading people, but steve was a bundle of nervous, unpredictable energy – not to mention he had completely different frame of reference as to acceptable behavious, having grown up in the 40’s – and sometimes she didn’t know where he stood. It was the tiniest bit unnerving; it’d been a long time since she’d had trouble reading anyone who hadn’t trained for years on end to be unreadable. But that was also part of what made him exciting. Nearly every relationship she’d ever had, romantic or otherwise, had come without the thrill of surprise.

People were so predictable.

With a stretch, she draped her legs over his lap and curled against the pillows, almost but not quite resting her head against his shoulder. This was new to her to, the concept of unwinding. Normally when she needed to decompress from a mission or otherwise, she went to the gym. Or she hacked a government site, just to remind herself that she could. Occasionally she went to the firing range, but they tended to get nervous when she insisted on training blindfolded.

The movie began, music playing over the opening credits, and she could almost relax and enjoy it. Almost. It was far more interesting to keep one eye on Steve, loving the way he reacted when she stretched against him.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

Steve wasn't shying away, but his eyes kept falling to Tasha's legs now and then. She was an incredibly beautiful woman, no doubt about that, truly hard for Steve to look away from and pay attention to the movie she'd selected. Biting his lip was poor manners, he remembered the Nun at the orphanage told him when he was ten, so he refrained.

Instead, he'd just, well, he didn't know.

Eventually, Steve calmed down and a hand accidentally crossed paths with the redheaded assassin's legs. Instead of panicking, pulling his hands away and apologizing, Cap left it there, not wanting to disturb her. He'd leave that up to the bell that rang before Jarvis would call them.

"Excuse me Captain, Agent Romanoff, but I have a message for you from Mister Stark, marked urgent."

Steve tilted his head, "All of his messages are marked urgent. Can it wait?"

"I'm afraid you know Mister Stark as well as I do."

"Good point. Go ahead Jarvis."

"Very good sir. I've been asked to deliver invitation to the Stark Gala to you." Steve tilted his head, they still held galas? When he'd asked Tony about dancing in this era, Stark simply patted his shoulder and told him he was too old for all the new dancing, and it would all make him blush anyway.

His eyes shifted to Natasha, "Well, Tasha? Do you want to go?" His going was dependent on her decision, he certainly wasn't going out dancing without his partner.

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

Natasha all but rolled her eyes at the mention of an urgent message. Stark seemed to delight in being obtuse, she wasn’t surprised.

”I’ve been asked to deliver invitations to the Stark Gala to you.”

Oh, yes. She’d seen a memo about that somewhere. Pepper’s desktop, probably. As a rule, hacking into Stark Industries wasn’t great practice – all the general passwords were easily guessed. Well, easily guessed when you were her. If she really wanted practice, she had to try for the upper-tier accounts, and Pepper was the woman she knew least about. She wouldn’t mind picking the woman’s brain, though: she must hold the secret to unending patience after having been with Tony for so long.

"Well, Tasha? Do you want to go?"

He was serious. Hurriedly, she tried to remember the last time she’d gone to a function like that of her own free will.

“’Want’ is a little strong…”

She’d gone undercover at formal functions countless times before; her wardrobe included several pieces that would be suitable. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that if she went, there was sure to be talk from the rest of the team. Not to her face, probably – Dr. Banner was too polite, and Pepper had too strong a sense of decorum, and Clint just plain knew better – but there’d be talk all the same. It would come from Stark if it came from anyone, especially since there was sure to be booze at the party.

On the other hand, this was how normal people did things. Dates. Dresses. Dancing. Maybe it only seemed far-fetched to her because she’d led a very different life. Maybe it would even be nice. She nudged his shoulder with hers before resting her head against it, her eyes flickering back to the movie, conflicting opinions warring inside her head.

“Sure. Why not.” She smiled as a thought crossed her mind. "We can always ditch if it's horrible."

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

When Natasha said yes, Steve grinned like he had just won the lottery. However, in his head, he was now going over a mental checklist of things he needed to do before the Gala, the major one being that he needed to learn how to do at least one dance. After all, Tasha was a real dancer, he couldn't go in there stepping on her toes, it would be horribly embarrassing! Maybe Janet would show him, or Carol, or even Pepper. Yes, Miss Pepper, busy as she was, probably would be the least likely to laugh at him, so he silently chose her.

Second, Steve needed a tuxedo. Or at the very least, a suit. As of his last look through of his dress clothing, the closest thing he had was a military uniform featuring his multiple medals. As impressive as it looked to Steve, he knew that a ball wasn't the place for it. Besides, he'd just be made fun of for that anyway. Cap was going for impressive, not side splitting.

"Definitely," Steve said in reference to the possibility of leaving early, "We don't have to stay the whole time, but it might be nice. Different from our usual dates." The two were almost always on duty, so dates were either on the rare day off, or short mini-dates. Either way, a whole night in a ballroom, with Natasha in some kind of incredible dress, these were things that now were filling Steve's mind. He began to turn a bit red in the face, "I- yeah, we should go. It'll be good. Er, fun, fun." He nodded, settling on fun as the word of choice.

The film was harmless, Steve wasn't really paying much attention to it. He was far more preoccupied by the perfect red hair resting on his shoulder. He love-

Oops.

There it was again, that even bigger step that Steve knew was too soon to take, but he couldn't help it anyway. It was too late now to try and convince himself otherwise. Steve Rogers loved Natasha Romanoff. The fantastic Black Widow slipped in like a cat burglar, and in under a month and a half, made away with his heart. Was he falling too fast? Probably, but Steve was enjoying the ride all the same, he certainly wasn't going to stop tumbling now, even if he were able to.

[Natasha Romanoff]

* * *

The unspoken thoughts in Steve’s voice gave her pause: he was really looking forward to this. Mentally, she swore. In Russian.

Did she have anything he’d like to see her in? Yes, she had a row of eveningwear, but most of it was tight, cut down to there, or both. She’d always kept her purpose in mind when dressing for these events in the past, and her collection of formalwear reflected that.

But that wasn’t who Steve was. While she knew he would appreciate some of the pieces she had in her wardrobe, she did want him to be able to look her in the eye without blushing. The corners of her mouth twitched as she thought; perhaps it was time for some shopping. The idea of surprising him held more merit than she would have thought… this could be good. Not to mention, there’d never been a man who could resist her in formalwear. She wasn’t conceited about the fact, she just tended to know what men liked; they were the most predictable of creatures. She hoped Steve would be similarly pleased.

Despite her first misgivings, she found herself looking forward to the event. This was new territory, liking someone enough to plan ahead and searching for something to wear. Natasha had lived her life not caring what people thought of her, but she found herself caring what Steve thought.

God help her, she cared.

* * *

[Steve Rogers]

If they could see him right now, they'd be cracking up. Well, Bucky, Logan and Dum Dum would, Namor would have told him how odd it was he was getting so worked up and the others would have been more sympathetic, Steve was sure of that much. Steve was so excited about getting dressed up and going dancing. He couldn't help it really. After building it up in his head for so long, he couldn't believe this was finally happening to him. It was like a rite of passage.

The fact that he couldn't dance? Minor inconvenience. He'd figure that out later. The suit, no problem, that could come later.

Getting rid of all this excess elation? That needed to be done soon.

Turning his head a bit, Steve's chin found it's way to the top Tasha's head. He rested lightly against her for a few moments. At this point the movie was just background noise, Steve had spent too much time fixated on Natasha to have invested any time in paying attention to a plot. He liked this better anyway, paying attention to a person over a flat screen, especially when that person was as important to him as Natasha was. He could tell she was really thinking about the dance as well, for him. That amazed him, that there was someone out there that cared that much. She really didn't give herself enough credit.

That was fine by Steve, he could shower in Tasha all the affection and intimacy he could muster now that he could tell how much she cared. He just needed to find that perfect moment, and he thought it was coming soon.