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Chapter Text

Natasha was early, as usual, but this time she was really early, like an hour early. The fact that she was going to meet her new partner made her come to work even earlier.

She knew what she signed for when she decided to follow her Captain, Tony Stark, but getting a new partner was still quite difficult for the redhead.

"Carol Danvers huh?" she said out loud, reading the files she could find on the woman she'd now spend her working days with.

She went through the whole life of that blonde agent. She was in the US airforce before she left to go to the police academy where she graduated at the top of her class. Then she was assigned to the 47th until she asked and got to the 11th.

Natasha was deeply focused in her reading when a voice made her jump. "What the hell are you doing here this early Romanoff?" A masculine voice asked.

Natasha knew this tone better than anything, "I could ask you the same thing Stark," she replied, not glancing away from what she was reading. "Well I am the Captain so I have to show up before anyone. And it's Captain Stark, please, Detective Romanoff." Natasha chuckled at the Captain's comments, the two of them have been friends for years, back in the days when Tony was still a Lieutenant and Natasha a simple police officer.

"Ready to meet your new partner?" The man asked, half worried, knowing how Natasha usually does with new people.

"Yeah I think I am, I've read her file. She looks appropriate."

"Appropriate? She is the best partner you could ever dream of." Tony replied, insisting on the best.

"That's a gift I assigned her to you. You should be thanking me, come on I'm waiting."

Nat rolled her eyes at Stark's snob face and gave him a light punch on the shoulder. "Get off my desk, I have things to read." Tony raises his hands in defeat, "Alright, I'm leaving." He stood up, walked toward his office but stopped in front of his door, "But please Natasha, don't sleep with her the first week." Nat's eyes widened and the sound of Tony's laugh made her wanting to throw something at him. She did so, with the first thing she found, in that case, a pencil sharpener which ended up in Tony's back.

"Careful Romanoff, I have the right to fire you." he said pointing at the woman. She waved her hand at him, telling him to go in his office and restarted reading.

~~~

"Hey, hi." A voice spoke up behind Natasha. "Detective Romanoff? I'm Carol Danvers, your new partner" the voice added.

"You're late." the redhead stated. Carol, surprised, looked at her watch to check that she was, in fact, early. "Yet I'm pretty sure I'm not" she replied with a firm tone.

"That's right, you're not but I was there before you so I consider you are."

There was a weird silence for a moment, Natasha still had her nose in files, her back facing the blonde. She turned on her chair and saw a hand linked to a blonde head. She recognised it from what she had under her eyes for the past 15 minutes.

"Ex airforce pilot, turning police officer, what happened back there that made you come to us?" Nat couldn't stop her curiosity, she needed to know what were the redacted parts in Carol's files.

"That's a very long story I'm not able to share unfortunately." the blonde replied hand still waiting for the other woman shake it.

"Alright!" she spoke up doing so, "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

There was another weird silence between the two women, hands still linked, they stared at each other until Carol took a step back, "So I guess that's my desk?" She asked, trying to sound normal.

"Yep!" Nat replied popping the P "Cute isn't it? We are face to face, Tony says it helps to create a good team spirit or something."
Carol raised a brow, "You call the Captain by his name?"

"Of course I do, even if he doesn't like when I do it at work. We are friends, I'm here because I followed him."

"Oh okay!" Carol walked to her desk, unpacking her stuff from her bag.

"So it's the first day for three of us at the eleventh? Glad I'm not alone." she added as she sat down and looked at Natasha over her laptop's screen.

"Same." Nat said, not making eye contact with the blonde.

~~~

"Can you stop reading my file in front of me. If you wanna know something you can just ask. Except if it's why-I-left-the-airforce related." Carol said firmly, they've been sitting for ten minutes and Nat was still go through her papers. The reaction of the blonde shocked her a little, people were usually scared of the redhead and preferred to be respectful around her in case she gets angry. But this woman didn't, Nat supposed she was just being herself, which was fine by her, "Hm yeah sorry, I just, you have an interesting profile."

"Listen up everyone!" Tony spoke up to get the precinct's attention cutting Carol in her will to reply to Natasha.

"As it is my first day as the Captain of the eleventh I thought I should, you know, say a few words." he waited until everybody was looking at him.

"I'm really glad to be here, I know the eleventh has a reputation to be an effective station but I also know y'all loved your former Captain, Bell. Taking is seat is a challenge I accept and I'm willing to achieve. I'm sure we can do and we will do an excellent work together." The whole precinct applauded their new Captain who faked modesty and acted like he didn't deserve it.

"And I hope you'll be welcoming with the two recruits I brought with me, Detective Romanoff and Agent Danvers."

The attention turned to the two women, once again all the policemen applauded. Natasha smiled at the support then looked at Carol, she noticed the blonde was slightly blushing. The redhead decided to ignore that fact, thinking the other woman wouldn't want to talk about it because she must, obviously, feel uncomfortable.

Tony took his way to the newly formed duo "Ladies there's your first case. Don't thank me Romanoff I know you'll enjoy it." They both took a file from Tony's hands and started reading it.

"This son of a bitch is back, great, I finally have an opportunity to take him down." Natasha smiled while reading the papers.

"Who is it?" Carol asked kinda lost about why Natasha was happy about a murder case.

"This murder has been related to the gang Steve Rogers lead. I've been running after him my whole career."

"So our first arrest will be a big one." Carol smiled back.

"You damn right!"

Chapter Text

"Dammit!" Natasha exclaimed, giving the table of the meeting room a big punch with her clenched fist, "We can't let this son of a bitch run away with another murder."

"We won't!" spoke up Carol as she stood up and walked to Natasha's chair. She rested a hand on one of Nat's shoulder and leaned forward to see the redhead's face, "You want a coffee or something?" The touch of the blonde on her back made Natasha shiver a little, "Hmm, yeah a coffee would be great, thanks!"

As the blonde left the room, Natasha shook her head, trying to get her focus back on the case. They've been working on this murder for three weeks, they found the murdered after 5 days but they kept digging to link Rogers to it, without success.

Nat heard the door opening and leaned backward on her chair, almost laying on it, "Thanks!" she said softly reaching the cup Carol was handing her.

"So let's see what we've got from the beginning okay?"

~~~

They have been reviewing the whole case for hours and still hadn't find a lead big enough to get a warrant against Steve Rogers.

"It's his gang MO, the victim is from a rival gang and yet nothing. Someone put a spell on me, I swear, I'll never be able to arrest this piece of shit." Natasha's head was resting in her hands as she tried one last time to find the detail she thought she missed.

"At least we have the murderer. I know that's not what you want but it's still a bad guy we can throw in jail." Carol tried to be supportive, during their whole investigation she had heard about how Rogers drove Natasha crazy since her first day as a police officer. Her attempt was quite non efficient, unfortunately for her, "I couldn't care less about this guy, he's not even known in Rogers' hierarchy. If it was Barnes I could've relax a bit but this Rumlow is just a mercenary, nothing we can work on." Natasha was repeating herself, she has been for days.

"Alright, I think it's time we call this day quit." Carol said, packing her stuff, "What? You tired Danvers?" Nat teased grabbing Carol's wrist to stop her from getting the files she was reading.

"No I'm not, but you definitely are. You should look yourself in a mirror, you look awful,"
The redhead face shifted from a smirk to raised eyebrows, "Excuse me, what?" She tried to not sound offended but a crack on her voice gave her away.

"You usually look good, like very good looking good but lately you really seem tired. I know this case means a lot to you but you should also think about your health." The blonde's words made Natasha's cheeks heat up, she wasn't the blushing-at-compliments kind of person but when it came out from Carol's mouth, she couldn't stop herself, "W- well I suppose you're right." she stammered.

"Of course I am," Carol smirked, staring at her partner with insistence, "Alright, I'm gonna go to the bar next to the precinct, if you wanna join you'll be most welcomed" the blonde added with a wink as she left the meeting room.

Natasha was lost for a few seconds, did Carol just asked her on a date? 'Of course no, she was just being friendly,' the redhead thought, 'she's quite good looking though and we've been working together for three weeks so it would not break Tony's rules.' She shook her head 'what the hell are you thinking about Natalia, you're not going to sleep with your new partner. Geez I'm such a mess.'

She finally packed her bag and walked to the exit of the building. On her way she walked pass by Tony's office and stop at the opened door, "Knock knock!" She spoke up to get his attention, "Wanna come to the bar down the street?"

"I have work to do Nat, maybe another time. Why don't you ask Carol?"

"Actually she asked me to go with her but I thought why wouldn't the three newbies of the 11th go all together there, you know, to get to know each others and stuff." the redhead tried to sound emotionless, her usual self, but she failed deeply.

"Yeah sure, you just don't know if she asked you out or if she was just being a good partner huh? So you're scared of going alone." Tony laughed at her.

"What? No, she didn't asked me out you fool!"

"Tell your cheeks that Romanoff because they are blushing. It might be the first time I see you blush honestly." the Captain was still laughing, even more when Natasha touched her cheeks to hide them

"So you're not coming?"

"I'm definitely not."

"Alright, see you tomorrow." Natasha waved at him out walked out of the office.

On her way back to her place she had to pass by the very bar Carol was in. She was undecided until she saw Carol through the glass, 'I can't do this' she thought and started running so the blonde would not see her outside.

~~~

When she got to her place she took her phone and texted her partner, 'Sorry I couldn't make it to the bar. You were right, I'm tired and I didn't feel to drink tonight' she sent the text and threw her phone on her couch then stepped in her bathroom to take a shower.

After a well deserved pretty long hot shower Nat threaded into a short and a tank top and prepared herself for a lonely movie night. She sat down her couch and took her phone. On it, a new text message, 'no problem Nat, another time ; )'  She smiled at the winking emoji, turned off her phone and focused on her TV until she eventually fall asleep watching it.

Chapter Text

Another day, another early arrival for the red haired detective. Since Carol and she met, it became a habit for the two of them to be as early as possible, the first sitting at her desk getting a coffee from the other. But this morning, Natasha arrived with her full filed cup, even though she knew she would be first. Carol had texted her during the night, saying that she was sick and needed a day off to rest. Natasha replied with a not-to-much-supporting-text of her own, saying 'I guess you owe me a drink for being one day late. If I don't see you tomorrow you'll owe me a dinner. Rest well C.'

She knew her text sounded flirty but it was her style. And maybe she was actually flirting with Carol, why wouldn't she, the blonde was quite good looking and smart and interesting.

Nat's thought got cut by an overjoyed high pitched voice, "Hi desk neighbour!"

"Hello Wanda." She answered casually. Wanda Maximoff, a young police officer, was the only other person Natasha liked to talk to, beside Carol and Tony.

"Where's your partner, you've been inseparable lately, actual lovebirds!" the brunette asked with a grin.

"She's sick so I get to do all the paperwork." she shrugged, not really minding to do all the work, she was use to compensate for the other, her latest partner wasn't a good one, especially compared to Carol.

"And what about this big case you've been working on?"

"Well, we know who killed the guy but we were hopin- actually I was hoping we'd get something that could link this case to Rogers but we have nothing. And now Tony's pressuring me to arrest the bad guy so I'll wait 'till Carol gets better and we'll do as the Captain asked."

"Have you localised this Rumlow guy yet?"

"Nope. No luck on that either."

"I don't know much about Rogers and his gang but I know the victim, Curvus Glaive. He was a mad Titans right?"

"Yeah that's it."

"Well I know a guy who has, you know 'connections'," she air quoted, "and I think he could get me an address or a name that could be useful to you."

"That would be great, thanks Wanda."

"No problem, I'll come back to you if I get any info."

~~~

It took Wanda four days to get what she wanted from her asset but she got it.

"Nat, Carol, wait!" she said running after the duo.

"Hey Wanda what's up?"

"I got it, your guy, Rumlow, I know where he is. Actually, where he will be. And there's more" she replied, breathing heavily to catch her breathe. Her last word intrigued the blonde and the redhead.

"Alright, this can wait." Carol said "Tell us everything."

~~~

"Let's go get this son of a bitch!"

"Wait!" Carol yelled, grabbing her partner's wrist to stop her, "It really looks like a trap. You're aware of that Nat?" She asked. Natasha was thrilled by what Wanda told them.

"I know but we could get both Rogers and his first Lieutenant at the same time and catch a murderer!" The joy in Nat's voice wasn't hidden, arresting Steve Rogers, James Barnes and Brock Rumlow all at once would be the best catch of the decade and get the duo a big promotion.

"I trust you on this but before we go we should talk to Stark." Even if she agreed, the worry in Carol's tone was here. She wasn't scared of three guys with guns but the fact that this was probably a setup made her think twice before running into it.

"Right! I'll talk to Tony, you get prepare." Nat said as she left to Tony's office.

"You guys got this right?" The brunette asked.

"I hope so."

Natasha stepped into Tony's office, a big smile on her face "Guess who's making an arrest tonight!"

"Ah! You finally decided to go after the murderer you found A MONTH ago." he insisted on a month just to remind Nat how understanding he has been with her and her quest against Steve Rogers and his gang.

"I'm not just catching Rumlow, Maximoff got an info, apparently Rogers knows we know who killed Glaive and he's unhappy with the fact that Rumlow is still walking the street. He and Barnes planned to execute Rumlow themselves."

"That sounds like a trap to me, to get you." Natasha knew her Captain and her partner were right but even if it was a trap, they could turn the situation to their advantage.

"You and Carol are just spoilsports."

"She agrees with me, genius."

"Oh stop it "

"You know, I didn't say you shouldn't go and get them. I'm okay with it but please be careful."

"We will, don't worry."

Chapter Text

The ride to the location Wanda gave the duo was quiet, Carol seemed very focus, loading and unloading her glock repetitively. Natasha, on the other hand, was excited. The fact that she could get her revenge on Rogers gave her an adrenaline rush the second they got in the car.

"Here we go. We have to go on foot now." Nat said stopping the car. They both stepped out and went to the trunk to take their stuffs, bulletproof vests and cartridge clips for their guns, just in case the situation goes sideways.

Natasha could see how tense Carol was, she knew the blonde didn't like the idea of going to that place but she did anyway because she trusted Nat's gut and the redhead was grateful for that.

"Hey, it's going to be fine." She tried to cheer her up but it didn't affect the younger woman, she just glared at Nat for a while and then spoke up, "I really hope you're right." Her words put pressure on Natasha, they could not fail tonight.

"Eh, careful with your vest blondie!" Nat pointed at a not clipped tie of Carol's vest.

"Oh thanks!"

"Alright, let's go."

They walked into the parking lot as discretely as they could, already hearing yelling from a man. Nat did a sign to Carol, telling her to go to her left while Natasha want right. They stopped for a few seconds, stared then nodded and split.

Nat went pretty fast to where she was suppose to be, she had a perfect view on the three criminals. She heard Rumlow dumbly said "They don't know shit about me."

"You bet your ass we do," she murmured to herself.

"You idiot really think they haven't find you yet?! If it wasn't for Romanoff you'd already be in jail!" Steve replied angrily, giving a slight tap on James Barnes' shoulder who then took a knife out of the sleeve of his sweater. The second Natasha heard her name, she stood up, totally in sight of Rogers and his guys, "Someone's talking about me?" she teased.

"Romanoff! It's been a while, how have you been?"

"Fine I guess, especially now that I can charge you for attempting murder." She took a few steps forward, her hands in her back, doing signs to Carol, telling her to aim for Barnes.

"So what do you think about that, we give you your murderer and you let us leave."
Nat chuckled at the criminal's dumb proposition.

"You assholes think I'm going to surrender to the police!" Rumlow yelled at the men in front of him and took a gun out of his back pocket. Natasha didn't think twice, took her own gun and fired three shots in Rumlow's chest and then hid behind the nearest car.

She knew the bad guys were running away but leaving her hiding place would be dangerous, they were armed and could be watching their back.
A few shots fired and the running stopped. Carol had tried to stop them, successfully apparently.
Natasha walked closer, still hiding between cars but she wasn't sure where Rogers and Barnes were exactly.

Everything went silent all of a sudden, none of the police officers neither the mobsters were moving. The second the redhead heard the sound of the footsteps again she decided to take her chance at a shot. Her gun in hands, she stood up.
In the blink of an eye, her whole body was sore, a sound she could not quite control came out of her mouth and her world went black.

Chapter Text

Carol's nervousness was growing higher and higher as the duo drove closer to the parking lot Barnes and Rogers were suppose to meet Rumlow. She has been reloading her gun five times at least while Natasha was driving. She knew the redhead was existed and she didn't blame her. Rogers had spend his whole time at the head of the avengers making Natasha's life a living hell, taunting her everytime he ran away with any crime he ordered. Carol also did some research. Of course she believed the stories Nat told her but she wanted to know more, from another point of view. It led her to the same conclusion Natasha gave her; Steve Rogers was an asshole as well as a criminal. The car suddenly stopped.

"Here we go. We have to go on foot now." Nat said. Carol stood out of the car, opened the trunk and gave Natasha her bulletproof vest. "Hey, it's going to be fine." Natasha sounded nice and reassuring yet the blonde took a few seconds to reply, staring at her partner in the process, "I really hope you're right."

"Eh, careful with your vest blondie" Nat said pointing at Carol's shoulder where a tie wasn't clipped.

"Oh thanks!" she replied as she attached it, "Alright, let's go."

They walked into the parking lot as discretely as possible, already hearing yelling from a man. Carol saw Natasha doing her a sign, pointing in a direction with two fingers. Before following the order, Carol stopped and stared at Nat, the redhead did the same and they then split in opposite direction.

Her glock in hands, she walked step by step toward the spot Natasha showed her. She was walking very slowly to do the less sound she could. Getting closer to her arrival point, Carol could distinctly hear three different voices and she recognized Steve Rogers' one, "You idiot really think they haven't find you yet, if it wasn't for Romanoff you'd already be in jail."

"Someone's talking about me?" she heard a woman voice on her right. She looked that way and saw Natasha standing there, her gun back in her holster. Carol's eyes widened.

"Romanoff, it's been a while, how have you been?"

"Fine I guess, especially now that I can charge you for attempting murder." as the redhead said that, Carol noticed a knife in Barnes' hand and then the sign Natasha was making behind her back toward Barnes and Rogers, telling her to aim for one of them, but she didn't know which one because from her eye sights the lieutenant was standing just in front of his leader.

"So what do you think about that, we give you your murderer and you let us leave."

"You assholes think I'm going to surrender to the police." Rumlow yelled at Rogers and took a gun out of his back pocket. Before Carol could even react, he was laying down on the floor, with bullets in his chest. She looked toward where Natasha was standing a second before but there was no sign of her. Carol panicking until she saw red hair again. Meanwhile Steve Rogers and James Barnes tried to run away but Carol shot some warning shots to make them stop, which they did. The two police officers, walked closer to where the bad guys ran. Carol was focus on not losing sight of Barnes, knowing that Natasha focus would automatically go on Rogers.

Everything went silent all of a sudden, none of the police officers neither the mobsters were moving. Carol has her eyes on the last localisation she saw Barnes. She sneaked to a car closer to it and heard footsteps again. She localised where they came from but before she could even think to warn her partner about what was in Rogers' hand, an assault rifle, a shot fired.

Carol heard a big scream of pain coming from where the redhead was, and an order from Steve Rogers' mouth, telling his lieutenant to leave. Carol wanted to run after the criminals but her will to see how Nat was doing was bigger. As she walked toward her direction, she saw Barnes and took a shot, which ended up in his leg, stopping him from running away. The blonde did not care about what the two bad guys would do, she just ran as fast as she could to Natasha.

The first sight of the redhead was awful, there was blood all over the upper part of her body and the bullet hole just under her left collar bone was impressively big. The blonde had to fight a sob that wanted to come out and to keep her it together. She kneeled next to her partner and reached two fingers to her pulse point. She let out a gasp when she felt a rhythm, Nat was alive. Then, with one hand, she put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding and with the other hand she took her phone out of her pocket and called her station's despatch. Explaining the situation, she realised that, just like hers, Nat's vest wasn't clipped on the left shoulder. She blamed herself for not seeing it when the redhead did for her.

Thoughtlessly, after she put her phone back in her pocket, waiting for the ambulance, she said reassuring words to an unconscious Natasha. "Medic are on their way, they'll take good care of you, I promise" she said running her now free hand through Nat's hair. When the ambulance finally arrived, Carol stepped in it, her hand glued to Natasha's.

Arriving to the hospital, she had to let her go so the surgeons could do their job. She watched them running to the OR, a tear streaming down her cheek, until she couldn't see them anymore.

Chapter Text

When she came back to reality there was a big pressure on her left shoulder. She tried to move but her body didn't respond, neither did her vocal cords when she tried to make a sound. Her whole senses weren't working as they were suppose to, except for her hearing. A familiar voice hit her eardrums, "We're on the 55th in a parking lot," she heard. Slightly opening her eyes, she saw Carol's silhouette next to her. Her vision was way to blurry for her to be sure it was her but she recognized her voice, she could recognize this voice anywhere.
She closed her eyes again, the effort of trying to keep them open too painful to her the achieve it.

Now that she knew Carol was there, she couldn't stop thinking about her and how she liked her, a lot, maybe too much, for a woman she knew for two month and a half.
She suddenly felt something on her head, caressing her hair softly, she figured it was Carol, or maybe she was just hallucinating.

~~~

What Natasha wanted, what she wished, was that the blonde felt the same way she did for her but Natasha knew it was very unlikely, Carol was not that kind of person, falling in love that fast. Carol was clever, every choices she'd make would be wisely think beforehand and falling in love with her partner is the opposite of a wise choice. And Natasha didn’t even know if Carol was interested in women.

Nat was use to fall in love with the wrong person at the wrong time. Her bad experiences made her cold and somehow heartless when it came to a relationship. She was more the type of girl who breaks hearts, who had five ongoing "relationship" at the same time (if fucking without talking is a relationship).
There was this one time, not a long time ago, she slept with a new girl from the former precinct she and Tony worked. The girl got attached way too quickly and fell very hard when she caught Nat making out with a guy in a bar. Hopefully for Natasha, Tony was there to fix the problem, he took Natasha with in and left for the 11th.
Ever since it happened, Nat didn't have sex with anyone and almost talked to anyone, interacting only with Tony, Carol and sometimes Wanda.

~~~

The adrenaline running all over her body began to disappear, the pain was growing bigger and bigger. Hopefully, the way Carol was caressing her hair made the redhead relax a little, she concentrated her full attention on the fingertips going up and down through her red strands to her forehead, to try and forget the pain. The feeling of the blonde skin on hers was what Natasha had been dreaming of for the past month, since she realized she might like Carol more than she was suppose to even though the circumstances were not the best, Natasha would obviously prefer to feel that touch in a more romantic way, she appreciated that Carol was willing to make her more comfortable.

"Medic are on their way, they'll take good care of you, I promise." she wanted to smile but the pain she would earn to do so was too big too even try.

Waiting for the ambulance, she passed out again after fighting it for quite a while.

Chapter Text

Carol was sitting in the waiting room, her right leg couldn't stop moving because of the stress she was under. She felt guilty for what happened to Natasha and not knowing what was going on in the operation room was to much for her to stay still. After a couple of hours, Tony joined her. The blonde hugged her Captain the second she saw him.

"Tony!"

"Carol, hey! Sorry I took so long to come." He replied, his face in her golden hair, a bit surprised by the embrace. Yes, the two of them had been talking, mainly because Nat was his best friend and, obviously, because he was Carol's boss but they also had a drink once, when Tony walked pass by the bar Carol was often and entered when he saw her.

"I'm so glad you're here. I'm so sorry, I should have seen her vest wasn't clipped, you know those vests are so hard put on and I didn't see it. She saw it for me but I didn't for her, it's my fault." Carol started to cry.

"Eh hey, it's not you Danvers. You're not the one who took a riffle and shot her. Don't blame yourself, it's all on this son of a bitch that Rogers is." He said softly, squeezing her tighter in the hug.
After a while, the blonde let Tony out of the hug, she sat back on the chair she's been on since she arrived with the ambulance and the Captain sat next to her.

"So what do we know so far, did someone come to give you news of what's happening back there?"

"No, not yet. They ask if she has family they could contact but I didn't know so I told them I'll call you."

"The only family she has is you and me basically." The word of the older man warmed up Carol's heart, she liked Natasha, a lot, for a woman she knew for something like two months. Tony took a hold of Carol's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Exhaustion eventually caught Carol while they were waiting.

~~~

"Good evening, Miss Danvers."

"Oh, hi Captain Stark!"

"Please, we're out of work, call me Tony."

"Alright, Tony, wanna take a seat?"

"Yep, I need a drink after this week, maybe a dozen." He sat down the stool next to Carol and called the bartender.

"You have nobody to join at home?" The blonde asked, intrigued to see Tony there.

"Tonight, no. My wife, Pepper, has a meeting and my best friend is babysitting my daughter."

Carol's eyes widened, "You have a daughter, I wanna see her, do you have a picture?"

Tony took his phone out of his pocket and searched for a picture, when he did find one, Carol’s surprised face turned into a grin, "Oh my god, she's so cute, what's her name?"

"Morgan, she's five" he swiped to another picture “and that’s my wife.”

The conversation escalated rapidly from casual talk about life to the most unbelievable fun facts about their lives. Tony explained how he became Captain by reporting his corrupted Captain and what he had to do to get his wife to accept to go on a date with him the first time they met. Carol shared some dirty stories quite fast.

"So I walked past the guy, went to his girlfriend and kissed her as dirty as I knew I could do. Then I went back to him and said 'first, douchebag, hitting on someone when you're taken is quite an asshole behaviour, second, you're ugly and third I prefer your girl' and there the girl stood up, walked to me and said 'ex girlfriend' with so much pride the LGBTQ flag was shining through her eyes and she walked out with me." The both couldn't stop laughing, alcohol kinda helped Carol's story to be funnier than it originally was, of course for Carol at the time it happened it was fun but when she tells it the audience is usually less receptive.

"Wai wai wait! Did you sleep with her?" Tony asked out of breath.

"Yeah, I mean, obviously. I drove her home and she asked me to come in, what did you want me to do? Say no?" She said, taking a sip of her beer.

"I don't blame you, I would have done the same honestly. It's too bad Nat's not there, she'd love to hear that story. And she has some good one too"

"Come on man, you can't tell me that when you know I won't hear them!" She shouted at him, louder than she expected.

"Well call her!"

"Yeah sure, good idea 'eh Natasha, I don't know if we're here in our relationship yet but I wanted to know your worst and best sex experiences'"

Tony raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean by 'I don't if we're here in our relationship' ?"

Carol took a few seconds to order her thoughts before answering her boss, "Well it's just that I asked her a few time to come with me here after work and she never came. I dunno, maybe she doesn't like me or something."

Tony gave her a comforting pat, "Trust me, she likes you. If she didn't you'd already ask me to be switched with Wanda. When Nat doesn’t like someone she is the worst person with them! "

"Okay, that's good news but she doesn't show it. Or perhaps it's me, perhaps I like more than a shou-" she stopped herself but she said enough for Tony to understand what she meant.

"Danvers?" He exclaimed with his most not-that-surprised tone.

"Dammit!" the blonde said, shaking her head in her hands.

"By more than you should you mean what I think you mean?"

"I'm not sure... it's just uhh-" she groaned, "her eyes her so hypnotising and she's smart and funny and insanely beautiful . I know we can't be together anyway so there's nothing to talk about."

"Carol, you're 29 and you have a crush on your partner, how cute," the Captain teased, "crushes are for teenagers!"

"Shut it, Tony, there's people from the precinct in here." she shouted, punching him in the arm.

"They don't care and Nat doesn't talk to them so there's nothing to worry about." A silence fell on the two police officers but Tony couldn't let it last for to long, willing to hear what he wanted to hear from Carol, "So you have a crush on h-"

"Okay! Yes, I do, can you stop now?"

"Alright, I won't talk about it anymore. But you know I could totally play Cupid and talk to her."

"What's the point? Even if she feels the same way, which is impossible, we still can't be together."

"That's a good point."

"Let's agree on that : we don't talk about it until I'm a Detective as well, okay?"

"Seems fair enough to me." there was another silence, Carol finished her beer slowly so she couldn't answer to anything Tony would ask her.

"What is it with you and your girl punching me when you're mad?"

The blonde threw her finished glass of beer on the table in front of her "Tony what the fuck!"

"Calm down I was kidding!"

~~~

A hand shaking Carol’s shoulder woke her up, "The surgeon's there Carol."

She quickly got on her feet, standing next to Tony, "How is she?" she mumbled.

"She'll be okay. However there was a little complication during the surgery, a blood clot formed in her left arm stopped the blood that was supposed to oxygenate her hand for a couple of minutes. We don't know if there'll be damages to her hand and we won't know until she wakes up." The news made Carol's heart ache, she fought a sob that wanted to come out of her mouth, grabbing Tony's arm with her two hands "Okay, can we see her?"

"Yeah, I'll show you the way but you have to know, she might take a few days to wake up. If you have things to do or if you want to go home to have some sleep now is the best time." The blonde and the brown-haired man looked in each other eyes and agreed to what to do without saying a word "We stay!" They both said as they followed the doctor to Nat's room.

Chapter Text

Pain. That was what Natasha felt in her whole body when she woke up. Her whole body except her right hand. Her right hand was warm and it felt really sweet. She tried to move but the pain she felt grew stronger in a second and the whimper she let out unintentionally made her stop her trying.

"Hey!" she heard. Suddenly another part of her body was feeling warm and sweet. She felt a soft caress up and down her cheek and tilted her head into it. It took her a few seconds to recognise the voice, "hi C."

The sound of a relief gasp made her smile, even if smiling hurt. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been shot" she replied weakly.

Carol chuckled, "Yeah, I figured." the comment made the redhead chuckle too, chuckle that made pain run through her whole body even more than what she felt constantly since she woke up two minutes ago. Carol gave Nat a gentle squeeze as she saw the straightening face of Natasha.

"Not your first time huh?"

"Nope." She exhaled heavily as if it would make the soreness of her core leave instead of the carbon dioxide. "It's funny though, last time I was shot on the back, under my left kidney and this time in the shoulder but the pain is exactly the same" she added.

"So how long I've been out?"

"Only a couple of days," Carol replied softly, "You scared me Detective Romanoff." she added, Natasha didn't answer, she was enjoying the touch of Carol on her skin, eyes still closed. They stayed like that for a few minutes.

"Maybe I should get the doc here" Carol said as she walked away from Nat's bed.

"No!" Nat squeezed tighter her grip on Carol's hand to hold her back "Please stay with me a little more." she added in a whisper. There was no reply but Natasha knew her demand was accepted when the warm feeling came back, this time on her jaw. She wasn't sure of what she was hearing but the grating noise of a chair confirmed her that Carol was staying. Natasha could feel the stare of Carol on her face but it was actually nice to know someone was taking care of her.

"You'll come back right?" Nat asked with a worried tone.

"I'll visit you tomorrow if that's okay for you, I need an actual night of sleep in a bed. Those chair are the opposite of comfy"

"Hmm yeah sure" Carol walked out of the room to call Tony and came back a few seconds later, "Guess who I found" she chuckled. Tony was there, "My instinct told me you were back in our world Romanoff"

"So I'm leaving the two of you alone, I see you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow." Natasha waved at the blonde with her mobile yet sore arm. Carol walked out of the room, leaving Natasha alone with a smirking Tony Stark.

"You are so in love with her." Nat's eyes widened "What the f- Shut up, she might be able to hear you."

"I've seen you in love Natasha, remember? You are acting exactly like you did wi-"

"Don't even dare to say this name." she cut him off, the mask on her face back to hide her emotions.

"Alright, I'm just telling the truth."

"Don't you think I know? I know damn well what my feelings are Tony but we can't be together and you know it."

"Yeah police hierarchy, I've heard of that. You know I could change that. I'm the Captain, I do what I want."

"Yeah, sure, change the 11th policy because your best detective who also happens to be your best friend is in love with her partner, yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me."

"Of course when you say it like that!"

Nat groaned and turned on her side so she could not see Tony's face.

"You know I can walk and you can't. If you want to hide from me you gotta have to lay on your chest and that's something we both know you can't do." Tony said, trying to get something out of Natasha but the redhead ignored him.

"Alright if you wanna act like a child I'm just going to leave you alone." he added, kinda threatening her.

"Please do." she responded. The man did as he said and left his friend.

Chapter Text

After an actual dinner, not the snacks from the hospital's vending machines, a hot shower and an eleven hours of sleep night, Carol was ready go back to Nat's bedside. But before that, she had to go to the 11th to get Wanda's notes of James Barnes' questioning.

All eyes' attentions on the precinct turned to the blonde when she stepped in, she heard whispers coming from her colleagues' mouths and blushed, knowing they were talking about Natasha and everything that happened in the parking lot. Hopefully, the reassuring face of Wanda appeared in her eye sights.

"C'mere," the brunette said, arms opened, ready to give Carol the warmest hug, hug she needed tremendously. Carol wanted to cry, to let go of all the guilt she felt, all the feelings she has been stuck with since Nat had been shot but the glares on her kept her from doing so, she kept her emotions inside even though she knew she'd have to let them all out one day.

"How is she doing?"

"She's alive, that's the good news. The doc said something about her hand, it might be damaged, I don't know, I stopped paying attention when he said she was alive." the blonde said, letting out a nervous gasp.

"Alright now, how are you doing?" Wanda replied, insisting on the you, a concerned look in her eyes.

"Well, I've been better, I guess. I'm just really worried for Natasha, I feel like I have to take care of her, you know." she shrugged.

"Maybe you do, but who takes care of you?"

The comment earned the brunette a quick chuckle from Carol who realised she hadn't let go of Wanda's hand during the whole conversation. It really wasn't Carol's style to be tactile with people, and certainly not with someone she barely knew like Wanda, yeah she liked her, she was a nice girl, she might become a good friend one day but it wasn't the case yet. It became clear for Carol that she needed to let go a bit but she couldn't do it right here with all her co-workers around.

"If you need to talk about anything, Carol, I'm here."

"Thanks Wanda, I really appreciate it," she answered, giving Wanda's hands a gentle squeeze, "Anyway, I'm going to visit Nat, she asked if I could bring Barnes' files and your notes."

"Oh! of course," she leaned down to the lowest drawer of her desk, opened it and took the files off of it, "there you go."

"Thanks, I owe you one."

"You owe me nothing, now go see your partner. You'll tell her I said hi."

"I will, have a good day, Wanda. Bye."



Awkwardly enough, Carol felt relief when she stepped in the hospital, knowing she was going to see Natasha. That's all she wanted since she left her side the day before.

Not sure if the redhead would be awake or not, she knocked discreetly on the door. No answer came out from the inside so the blonde decided to walk in, without permission. As she entered, she found Natasha asleep, laying on her right side. Not willing to wake her up, Carol tiptoed to the chair she had been sitting on for the past two days, took out the files Wanda gave her and started reading it. She tried her best to keep her focus on the paper on her lap but her attention was pulled out by the redhead's face. Even though she looked tired, there still was this thing on Nat's face that Carol loved, this kind of confidence she had, even when she was asleep apparently.

"Seems like I have a stalker!" The voice of sleepy Natasha caught Carol in her thoughts. The blonde shook her head and leaned forward to cup Natasha's cheek

"Hey there, how are you feeling?" She wondered, giving the injured woman a warm smile.

"I am totally, completely, a hundred percent high on meds right now," Nat giggled, the nurse had to give her morphine because she couldn't sleep due to all the pain her body was still fighting, "You know, I really like when you do that, it's very comforting." She added softly, her head tilted into Carol's touch.

Carol had to fight the urge to lean closer and close the gap between their lips. It was the right time though, especially with Nat high on meds.

"Hey stalker, I can hear you thinking, what's going on?"

"Uh. Sorry, it's just the case, I went to see Wanda at the precinct before coming here, she gave me her notes from Barnes' questioning, it's really not helping." She sighed, handing the papers to Natasha. The redhead struggled for a bit to sat up, using her only working arm. She wanted to ask for help but she didn't want to look weak in front of her partner, the bandage and cables that were connected to her were already making her like she was made of glass. She managed to sat properly and started reading.

"Why would he only want to talk to us, it doesn't make any sense."

"I know, right! I didn't get it either and we won't be able to do so for a long time."

"What do you mean?"

"Nat, you're not on duty anymore, not until you are back to full capacities."

"This is bullshit, I can lead an interrogation from another country with only a mic to talk to the prisoner, I don't need both my arms."

"I know, I'm not the one who decided Natasha, Captain's orders."

Nat rolled her eyes "Of course."

She opened Barnes' files and read out loud. "James Buchanan Barnes also known as Bucky, 37, lieutenant of the Avengers gang. It's really a shame this guy is a mobster because he's very attractive, in another life I would totally have sex with him!" They both laughed but Carol's face went fast to her usual mask.

"What? You don't think he's attractive?"

"Yeah, he is cute. Not me type though."

"Oh yeah, and what's your type Danvers?" Natasha asked with a smirk. The response she earned wasn't one she expected "Women."

The redhead blushed slightly, she didn't know Carol's sexual orientation and she never asked because it was none of her business. Even when she started having feelings for her, she didn't think about asking, she'd rather be in ignorance than knowing Carol could, potentially, like her back.

"Oh, well, I can't blame you. Best sex I ever had was with a woman." She finally replied, feeling the heat in her cheeks lowering.

"I get that very often." Carol said with a provocative voice, almost offering her services to Nat here and now.

"Danvers are you hitting on me?" the older woman asked with a flirty tone.

"I don't know, do you want me to?" Carol flirted back, not sure if it was Natasha's usual behaviour or the meds that was making her talking like this. The redhead didn't reply, instead, she started an eye contact war with her partner, smirking back at Carol’s one. They stared for almost a minute before they heard a knock on the door. Tony stepped in with a little human on his arms.

"Hey Morgan look who we found!" He said with a childish voice.

"Auntie Nat!" The child yelled across the room, now down on the ground.

"Hey baby girl, get those cute little cheeks of yours there, I wanna eat them." Tony took his daughter back on his arm to bring her to Natasha.

"No daddy, she wanna eat me, help!"

"Alright, kid, careful with Auntie Nat, she's already broken, you don't wanna break her more." The young girl, on her feet on the bed, walked cautiously to Natasha and threw herself into the redhead who couldn't help herself but grinned into the embrace. She looked at Carol, who had been watching the whole scene from afar, just smiling at how adorable it was.

"Hey sweetie, I want you to meet someone." The girl glanced in the direction Nat was pointing.

"This is Auntie Carol, she is a friend of your dad and mine and she saved my life."

"Hey!" Carol said shyly. She gave Natasha a thanking look, the redhead made the meeting between her and the little girl much more easier.

"Super Auntie Carol saved Auntie Nat, you must like her a lot!" The child said loudly waving her hands to ask Carol to take her in her arms, "I do." she replied quietly so only Morgan could hear her.

"Alright, ladies, as much as I love watching this moment I gotta get this young lady to her favourite babysitter so Daddy can go to work. Yeah, because not all of us are on sabbatical!" he teased with his childish voice again, "Say bye to your aunts Morgan."

"Bye Auntie Nat, bye super Auntie Carol!" The child waved excitedly at the women.

"How can a man as annoying as Tony Stark have a daughter that sweet, that's not fair." Carol said after making sure Tony had left the room and was far away.

"Yeah, she is a blessing."

A silence followed their little exchange, for the pleasure of Natasha. She loved that kid, she really loved her, but she was still a kid, loud and clumsy. They fell back to their case, reading every single infos they had.

"Ballistic report confirmed Rogers shot you, the gun Barnes had on him wasn't a match."

"Well this son of a bitch literally get under my skin this time." Natasha noticed a change in Carol's expression, she wasn't quite sure but the blonde seemed far from okay to her.

"Hey Carol, what is it, you look sad all of a sudden."

"Hmm, no it's nothing really."

"Danvers, don't ever lie to me," Nat said firmly, "hey heads up super Auntie Carol!" she added, trying to get a smile out of the other woman, but when she did look up, the only thing Natasha was seeing is Carol's eyes was sadness. The redhead move her body to seat on the side of the mattress, close enough to the blonde to put her hand on her shoulder.

"Carol, talk to me, please." Natasha begged.

"It's just hmm, you shouldn't have take this bullet." The younger woman muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"Y-your vest, just like mine, it wasn't clipped and I should have seen it." Tears were falling down her cheeks but Nat's thumb quickly wipe them off.

"Don't you dare take the responsibility for that, it's not your fault C, okay? You couldn't have known." The blonde just nodded with a half smile, "Come here, let everything out, it's okay." Nat said gently, offering her hand to Carol to come and sat next to her. She sat down next to Nat, on her right and wrapped her arms around Natasha's waist, resting her head in the crook of her neck. Nat kissed Carol's hair line, saying comforting phrases as her valid hand caressed the blonde's back.

"I didn't know I scared you that much."

"Well, I have a tendency to lose my partners so." She stopped herself from telling more even if she wanted to share her story with Natasha.

"Does it have something to do with the air force thing you can't talk about?" Carol nodded to reply, her head on Nat's shoulder.

"I'm sorry C." She said softly, pulling the blonde in another hug. Carol carefully wrapped her right arm around Nat's neck, in case she hit Natasha's aching shoulder unconsciously. As she did, the redhead whimper in pain, the blonde immediately apologised.

"It's not you C, I tried to move my arm, I forgot I couldn't." Nat looked down, she had forget for a few minutes her situation, Carol made her forget. Someone knocked on the door and entered, the two women turned their head to see a nurse with medical stuff under her arms.

"Good morning, Natasha! Oh and you're Carol right?" An old woman, surely close to retirement, said joyfully. Carol nodded, she remembered this woman, the nurse who gave her a blanket the first night when Carol was freezing. The next morning, she gave the breakfast intended for Natasha, it tasted like crap but it allowed the blonde to stay with her partner all day.

"How was your night, did you sleep with the meds?" The woman asked preparing bandages and other medical thingy.

"Yeah, it really helped, thank you very much, Edith."

"Nice then. Alright time to change your bandages."

"You mind helping me taking this off." Natasha asked Carol. The blonde stood up and gently removed Nat's arm from the splint that was keeping her limb still against her stomach. The redhead sat to rest her back on the mattress of the medical bed. As the nurse did her job, Natasha kept her eyes on her partner standing next to the bed, her hand on top of the other girl's who gave her compassionate smiles. The nurse started to clean the wound under Natasha's collar bone.

"The wound is healing fast and the surgeon did a really good job with the sutures, there won't be a scar"

"Well, I'm more scared for the exit wound on my back, it hurts like a mother fucker!" Nat swore. She leaned forward to give Edith an access to it. Carol, still holding Nat's hand moved closer to allow the other woman to rest her head against her chest. The detective tried to hold a whimper as the nurse cleaned with a gauze. Instinctively, Carol's free hand went to Natasha's head, stroking its fingers in the red locks.

"You okay?" She whispered and smiled when she felt the redhead nodding against her chest.

"Alright, I'm done. Another nurse will do it tomorrow."

"I hope she'll be as nice as you are Edith."

"Don't flatter me Natasha, I'm bad at taking compliments. You two take care of each other okay."

"We will, bye."

"I’m pretty sure she thinks I'm your girlfriend," Carol joked. It seemed like the nurse was thinking exactly that, though.

"And what would be wrong with that?" Carol blushed, she didn't expect this answer from the redhead, "I was joking, Danvers! Damn girl, where's your humour?"

"Sorry, hmm. I guess I'm just tired."

"Yeah, you definitely look like you are. Actually, you look exhausted, you should go home, I'm fine here."

"Nope, that's not gonna happen. I slept for almost twelve hours, I'm fine."

"Does it compensate the two nights you almost didn't sleep?"

"I guess it doesn’t but I don’t care, I wanna stay with you! I'm not working today nor this weekend so I'll be there with you, no point arguing." The blonde replied firmly yet she was gently running circles with her thumb on the back of Natasha's hand.

"Alright, sleepy girl, help me put this back on and sit with me, we still have a case going on." Carol did as Nat asked, she helped her with the splint. They then sat together on the bed and worked for hours. Around 5 PM, exhaustion caught the blonde who fell asleep on Natasha's shoulder. The redhead didn't wake her up, instead she let herself relax as well and dozed, her head pressed against Carol's. She opened up her eyes when she heard the door creak. Her best friend stepped in silently, he saw the police officer next to Nat and so waved at Nat to greet her instead of talking loudly as he planned to do.

"Hey." The redhead whispered. Tony gave her his usual smirk, amused by the situation Natasha was in.

"You two are cute like this." The sound of the man's deep tone echoed in Carol's ear and woke her up. The bright lights made it hard for her to open her eyes, she rubbed them to try and see better.

"Oh! Hey Tony." She greeted the Captain, her head still resting on Nat's shoulder.

"You should go home, C, get a good night of sleep and you'll come back tomorrow, okay?" Natasha said softly.

"Yeah, Danvers, go home, I'll take it from here."

"Alright,” she said as she stood up from the bed, “I'll be back before you know it!" She replied and gave a wink to her partner.

"I count on that." She winked back at the blonde.

"Don't even start with your comments Stark." She pointed at Tony threateningly after Carol left the room.

"I didn't say anything, but you were cute."

Nat rolled her eyes. "I gotta tell you everything that happened today, take a seat and open your ears.”

Chapter Text

The doctor let Natasha out of the hospital after a two weeks and a half, both the exit and the entry wounds had heal. It was still hard for the redhead to move her arm though, she could feel it from her shoulder to her wrist but the only joint she could move properly was her elbow. She had a splint on her hand to hold it still and rest the damaged nerves in addition to the one keeping her arm against her stomach.

Carol came to see her every day she was at the hospital. After the first weekend she had to go back to work to give her statement but Tony had been really comprehensive with her and gave her additional days off so she could rest and be with her partner.

Tony drove Natasha back to her place, he insisted to drive her when she said she could go on foot. Searching for her keys, Natasha heard noises coming from her apartment. She stopped in front of her door and turned to her best friend, "That's my niece, isn't it?" The man shrugged so Nat decided to try the doorknob. The door was, indeed, opened. The first thing she saw was a small human being running toward her, "Auntie Nat! I missed you," the child shouted, her arms wrapped around Natasha's knees. She squatted down to be at Morgan's level, "Hey sweetie, I missed you too."

"Super Auntie Carol is not with you?" The young girl asked innocently.

"No, unfortunately she isn't." She replied softly, with a little bit of disappointment in her voice. In fact, she asked Carol to come but the blonde found an excuse, that Natasha didn't totally believed. 'I missed my last three training sessions to be with you, if I miss another one my coach will kill me.' She remembered the girl telling her. Tony gave her an emphatic pat as he pass by her and caught his daughter, "Let's see what mommy has done for dinner tonight."

Natasha stepped in her kitchen and saw Pepper, overwhelmed with pans, "Ah finally! Tony you take care of this and I will talk with Natasha." She ordered her husband.

The two women walked out to the living room, "I'm glad to see you, Natasha. Sorry I couldn't make it to the hospital, I really tried." the woman said giving a greeting hug to Nat.

"I know, Pepper, it's fine. And I had pretty good company."

"Yeah, beside of Tony!" Pepper joked. The redhead couldn't hold a laughter.

"So, how are you and Carol doing?" the older woman asked with mischief in her eyes.

"Of course he told you." Natasha rolled her eyes, she knew her best friend would talk to his wife about the whole situation but she hoped I didn't.

"Oh come on, you better talk to me than him for this sort of things."

"He has actually some good advices. Don't tell him I said that." She confessed with a wink.

They both sat down on the couch. Natasha took a few seconds to decide if she should answer Pepper's question or change the subject. She chose the first option, "Well, we have become close, closer, I should say, the past two weeks. I- hmm. I really like her and I think she likes me. I hope she does."

"She's a fool if she doesn't."

"It's not like we can be together anyway." She shrugged by habits but her body sent her a reminder that she was still injured, "Fuck!" she cursed quietly so the five-year-old playing on the ground could not hear the bad word.

A voice from the kitchen cut them off of their conversation, "Ladies, dinner is served!"

Natasha did her best to avoid the Carol subject for the most part of the dinner, asking casual questions to Pepper about her job, to Morgan about school, if she had good grades. When it came to Tony, she knew he would turn any questions she would asked into something to talk about Carol, so she left the table to go to the bathroom, avoiding the imminent and surely awkward conversation she would have with the couple anyway.

She went to the sink to refresh her face with water, it was harder to do it with one hand she realised. She looked at her reflection for a long time, starting with her left arm stuck against her own body. Her gaze stopped first on her hand, which she still had a hard time to feel completely, she had this sensation of pins and needles in it but she couldn't move and her surgeon specifically told her not to try. Her next stop was on her shoulder, actually on the scar she had from the bullet and the other, two or three inches on the left, from the surgery, "I said bye to bikinis a long time ago anyway," she murmured to herself. The doctor told her they would disappear, or at least fade with time but Natasha didn't care, scars are part of a person, of their story. She then watched her face, the shadows she had under her eyes, she thought she looked like she had been brought back from the dead. Carol would probably disagree on that. The woman had been so kind with the redhead, telling her she was gorgeous, even passed out on the ground she had joked. Natasha wished Carol was there. If the blonde was there, Tony wouldn't dare to talk about their relationship, he never did and Natasha asked him not to. She took a deep breath to prepare herself for Tony's questioning, hoping Pepper would be on her side.

She walked in the kitchen and it was only Pepper there, she let out a discreet sigh of relief, she had a minute, maybe two, before the big talk.

"Morgan was tired so Tony is with her in your room until she fall asleep, I hope it's not a problem."

"Of course it's not a problem. He paid for this apartment, you guys can do whatever you want."

~

When Lieutenant Anthony Stark met Agent Natalia Romanoff, she was living in a hotel not far from where she worked. The man quickly discovered it and offered to accommodate her, him and his fiancée, at the time, had a spare room uninhabited. Natasha obviously said no, she wasn't, and still is, not the kind of person accepting charity. After three years of friendship, Tony offered a key for Natasha's birthday, "whatever it is, Stark, a car or anything else, you can keep it," she told him. But when she stepped in this amazing apartment, with a view to Central Park from the bed room, she admitted it was quite tempting to live in it. She wasn't a material kind of girl but the park had always been her weak point. After a month she accepted Tony's present, even though Manhattan wasn't the closest way to her work place. (She was closer now that she worked at the eleventh).

~

When Nat's best friend came back to the kitchen, the two women were back at their seats, a cup of coffee in hand for Natasha and one of tea for Pepper.

"So, Madam Secretary is asleep and I think I will be too very soon if I don't steal this coffee from you, Romanoff."

"Be my guest, Stark. I shouldn't be drinking coffee honestly. What I need is an actual bed and three days of sleep," she stood up and walked to the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" The man asked, an eyebrow raised.

"My bedroom. I keep the child, you'll get her back tomorrow."

"N-no-no! You stay there, we have something to talk about."

Natasha rolled her eyes, "There we go. Make it quick, please, I'm really exhausted."

"Alright! Do you know everything about the dating rule at the eleventh?"

"I know the rule for the NYPD, there's one specific for our precinct?"

"In fact, yes. The eleventh has an additional point of the rule applied for every single precinct in New York. The two people dating have to sign a paper to formalize their relationship so nobody can break it if one of the two rank up."

"So that's a good news for you, when you think about it." Pepper said in support.

"Yeah I guess. But Carol still has to become Detective and that's not that easy."

"Arresting Rogers should be enough."

"Would it really?"

"I mean, yeah, if she takes full credit for it." Natasha gave Tony a surprised look with a quirked eyebrow, "You expect me to step out of the case?"

"No, of course, no. You just take your name out of the paperworks. The definition of giving her all the credit, Nat."

The redhead rested her chin on her hand, to think properly. First they had to find a way to arrest the guy, which, she knew by experience, wasn't easy. If they managed to do so, she had a choice to make : she could let her name on the files, see if even with that Carol could rank up and if she didn't, they would have to wait longer or accept to put her name out. It sounded easy at first but Natasha still had an ego, and it wasn't ready to give up its credit for this arrest in particular. Natasha had worked so hard for the most part of her career to demolish the Avengers and Steven Rogers, she didn't know what to do.

"I, uh, have to think about this."

"What do you mean 'think about this'?" Pepper asked, intrigued.

"Oh come on Romanoff, I know Rogers is your nemesis and arresting him would be very satisfying but wouldn't be with Carol being better?"

"I don't know! I'm not even sure she likes me," she said, almost screaming.

"Oh trust me, I'm 'CarolNat' biggest fan, she does."

"You gotta be kidding me, you said that like-"

"Like you and Rhodey say 'Pepperony', yeah, I know. Annoying, isn't it?"

"A little. But, wait, how do you know she does?" Natasha came to realisation of what Tony actually said. Carol did like her. She couldn't distinct the next words the man told her, her brain was overwhelmed with the news. Fingers snapping in front of her face brought her back to reality, "Natasha, you didn't hear a word I said, did you?" The woman hummed to reply, "Carol told me when I had a drink with her the other time, she said 'perhaps I like her more than I should'," he air quoted. Natasha face turned to a lost expression, the two women felt the same to one another. She didn't expected to find it out, she thought she would, as usual, hide her feelings until the other person would confess their feelings or she would leave before they had the possibility to do so.

"You look surprised, Natasha, why is that?" The business woman asked, worry obvious in her tone. She knew Natasha wasn't use to happiness.

"Yeah, I mean, with what I walked into the other day, I don't understand your reaction. You are that oblivious about it?"

"I guess l was, yes." Nat admitted, her green eyes looking down at the ground, "What are you talking about? What did you walked into?"

"Carol and you, asleep in your hospital bed two weeks ago." Tony replied, an annoying smirk on his face as he winked at his best friend.

"Aww you didn't tell me that." Pepper said with her usual high pitched voice.

"I wasn't asleep. She was but not me."

"Doesn't change the fact that you were cute." A silence fell on the three of them. Pepper could tell Natasha had something in mind but didn't dare to cut her in her thoughts. Tony wanted to talk but Nat talked first, "I feel like nothing should happen until it can really happen, you know. It would just be frustrating, for both of us."

"So you'll keep it for yourself so you'll be the only one hurt and frustrated." It wasn't a question, Tony knew the red haired woman, she was the most selfless person he had ever met and that's one of her best qualities. The man told her thousands of time to think about herself sometimes but she never listened. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"It's not really healthy for you, Natasha."

"You're right, Pepper, it's not, but what would I look like if I tell Carol I like her and then tell her we have to wait."

"Okay, that's a good point."

"Plus, I'm good at keeping secrets and hide my emotions, I'll be okay, don't worry for me." The redhead stood up and walked to the exit of the room. She stopped her path at the door and leaned against its frame, "I'm sorry but I have to ask you to leave, I'm very tired." She said amused tone, she liked to kick Tony out of an apartment he bought.

"Of course, I'm gonna wake Morgan up." Pepper gave Natasha a hug to say goodbye and left the kitchen, let the Captain and his favourite Detective alone, "You sure you'll be okay?" He asked.

"Always." She nodded as she replied. She wanted to sound convincing, as much for Tony than for herself, she wanted to be fine but she knew she wasn't.

"Alright then, good night, Natasha." He walked to her and hugged her tight and the woman hold into it. They were not the kind to show their affection to the other but at this moment, they both knew Natasha needed it. As they walked out of the hug Natasha gave Tony a quick kiss on his cheek, "Good night Tony."

Chapter Text

Natasha had been doing her physical therapy for two months and it was going great, well, not from her point of view. Just like the surgeon anticipated, she felt like her therapy wasn't going fast enough. She had regained full mobility of her shoulder very quickly, the therapist was impressed by how fast she recovered, but she was still struggling with her hand. The feeling of the limb was back but she had a hard time using it, her grip was weak and the hand shaky.

After two months of therapy, at least three times a week, almost three months since she had been shot, she was bored like hell. The days she didn't have to go to the doctor were the same day she wouldn't see Carol. The woman was there for every session of the therapy but couldn't miss more work days than she already had just to be with Natasha the days she stayed home. Those days were also the most boring, obviously. Because she was left handed she couldn't write and so, work. Tony allowed her to come to the precinct to do her paperwork but she just couldn't and didn't want to ask Carol to do it for her, the blonde herself had enough work to do.

On those free days, Natasha tried several different activities to distract herself. She learned how to cook muffins, which was not that easy with one hand but she managed to make it and the results was satisfying. Tony had try one when he came to Natasha's place and said they tasted better than Pepper's, (which is a big victory considering that Pepper is known for her muffins in their group of friends). The redhead also tried to paint but it didn't turn out to be her hidden talent, her canvases were just colourful messes with no sense at all.

Even though she had some good time doing these activities, when she was done she still had three or four hours to kill before her bed time had come. It was at these moments she sat down on her sofa and looked towards the direction of her turned off TV and thought for long dozens of minutes about her favourite human on the planet, Carol. Every time they saw each other the blonde was more joyful than the time before. Whenever she had the chance, Natasha would take it and look, stare, at her partner when she couldn't see her doing it. She loved everything about her body, her long messy gold hair, her hazelnut eyes, the soft skin she would feel sometimes when Carol would take her hand to help her stand up and even the blonde's muscles, abs and biceps, that Nat had the chance to see this one time Carol didn't had the time to change after a session at the gym.

But today was not a boring day. Today she had a therapy appointment, she was going to see Carol which was the best part if she was being honest. The redhead arrived early, some things never change, and sat in the waiting room. She was looking in the direction of the front door, expecting a cute tall blonde to enter any second. In her surprise she wasn't there when the therapist came to welcome Natasha. She followed him, looking back in case her partner showed up but she didn't.

Natasha’s shoulder had heal completely so the therapist focused his attention on her hand, the objective was to give Natasha a hundred percent mobility back. They had come up with a plan and established a succession of exercises: finger stretching, lifting, and fingers to thumb, grip strengthening with a plastic ball and finally wrist flexion and extension exercises. Those were the things she hated the most about therapy, she rather do the arms exercises, even though it was painful, than the hands', it was repetitive and dull. However, she had to take it seriously if she wanted to be back to work.

"Your friend is not here today?" The man asked, helping Natasha put on the weird device on her hand that made resistance when she pulled.

"She's supposed to be, I texted her, maybe she'll show up soon." She shrugged. The redhead started with the first exercise, she had to keep her fingers stretched against something for a period of time. Usually, it was Carol's hand but this time she did it with her own. These exercises were the opposite of interesting but when Carol was there she had at least someone to talk to. She did one exercise after another, sighing every few minutes because of the boredom that was invading her mind.

After half an hour and two series of exercises, the door opened and let appear the figure of a well known policewoman, "Hey, I'm so sorry, I'm late. My coach wouldn't let me leave the session. I even ran to come here because she didn't want to drive me so I didn't have the time to change." The blonde apologised, breathless, proof that she had been running.

"It's okay, you're here now!" Nat gave the blonde a soft smile and sat back on her chair. She finally noticed what Carol meant by didn't have time to change, she was only wearing a jacket above her sport bra, "Eh! you'll get cold with that, take this, I don't need it." She stood back up, took off her hoodie and handed it to the girl. It wasn't like she wanted Carol to cover her body, she'd rather keep it in her sight actually, Carol's sculpted muscles were one of the best part of her day so far but she also didn't want for the other girl to get sick. Carol accepted Nat's hoodie with a smirk, put it on and gave Natasha her lather jacket, "There, you wouldn't get cold too."

They started the exercises again but this time Natasha was enjoying her time. Carol told her what she did during her day, at the gym and in the morning.

It was shoulder and back day, her favourite. She arrived late so her coach let her quit late to compensate. She was late because she went the precinct in the morning, to take some of her paperwork to finish it at her place. When she did, she found a big pile of files onto Natasha's desk, "Great! I'm not back but I'm already drowning under papers."

"I could bring it to y- shit, I'm sorry. You still can't write." The blonde looked down at her feet in shame. How could she forget that? She cursed herself in her head. "It's okay C. I myself forget about my situation sometimes. But yeah, this hand is still not working like it should." she raised her left hand and showed its shaking. It wasn't that big of a shaking but when she was holding a pen or anything, it would heighten. Carol hand took a hold of Nat's and gave a gentle squeeze, "Those things takes time, you know. But I'm sure you'll be fully healed very soon." She could feel the shaking fade away a little under her touch.

The redhead responded with a weak smile and stared down at the wooden floor, starting to think about the what-ifs, what if her hand never heal properly, what if she can't ever be in the police again, what if... A hand raising up her chin stopped her thoughts, "Eh eh, don't think about the worst, okay. You'll be fine, I know you will." The blonde stood up from her chair and sat against the arm of Natasha's chair. She pulled the redhead against the side of her chest and ran her fingers through the red locks. Natasha melted into the embrace, letting out some tears.

"You need a proper hug, stand up baby."

She followed the order and almost jumped from the chair to Carol's arm, her head tucked under Carol's chin. The redhead held tight around the blonde's midsection while Carol was tracing circles with her thumb in the back of Nat's neck. Carol eventually pulled out and it earned her a discreet whine from the other girl, complaining for the sudden lack of contact. Carol gave her a kiss on the forehead in compensation before making eye contact. She fell deep into the emerald gaze and couldn't fight the urge to rest her forehead against Natasha's. She wiped away a tear from Nat's cheek, brushing slightly her bottom lips doing it. The breathing of the smaller woman was hitched, she didn't expect that much closeness and wasn't ready for it. Her exhaled and inhaled pace fastened even more when she settled her eyes on Carol's lips. She wanted them so hard, so hard that when Carol finally leaned forward and linked her lips with Natasha's, the redhead froze. She couldn't believe it was actually happening. Her lips were so soft and warm and sweet, it was overwhelming. The kiss didn't last long and as they broke apart, Nat's hand fell off of Carol's body.

For Carol it felt like the right thing to do at the moment. She saw the redhead’s eyes on her lips and just gave in. She lost herself against Natasha's lips for a few seconds until she noticed she wasn't kissing back. She also realised Nat loosened her grip a bit. The blonde broke the kiss and took a step back, "I- i shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry." She walked backwards a few more steps as she apologised to Natasha who didn't respond, no word, no expression on her face.

"I think I should go." She stated and left the room. Carol cursed herself again as she walked out of the medical centre.

Natasha stood there, petrified as if someone cast a spell on her. Carol just did what Natasha never dared to do for a month. Since she had been shot and after everything that happened at the hospital, there was some tensions between the two of them, physical tension, but neither women had done the first step, yet. Her thoughts got cut by her therapist coming back in the room, he told her something she didn't quite listen to, he was saying she could leave she thought, so she nodded and the man left the room again.

She finally moved from where she had been stunned, the very location Carol kissed her, and gathered her stuff, took off her therapy device and grabbed her bag. Looking at herself, Nat remembered she was wearing Carol's jacket and the blonde left with her hoodie. Before leaving she looked back at the chair she was sitting on, touched her lips with her fingertips and murmured to herself, "She kissed me."

Chapter Text

Two weeks and five therapy sessions had passed and Carol didn't show up to any of them. Natasha didn't know what to do about it, she tried to call the blonde, left a few text messages but her partner didn't respond to any of those. She didn't even know if Carol was going to work, she hadn't seen Tony and Wanda in weeks, she only got texts from them, none were about the blonde.

Since that day, Natasha's therapy had been way faster. In fact, at her last session, her therapist told her she could try to pass the shooting test. In his opinion, and his medical expertise, Natasha's hand was healed. The redhead didn't feel that way though, she had struggled so much with this hand that the sudden speeding up of her recovery was suspect to her.

She went to the test thinking she would fail. She arrived at the shooting range and waited for Tony. She still hadn't told him what happened with Carol and didn't know if she had the courage to. Because she hadn't seen him in weeks, the man had a police station to roll after all, when he approached Natasha from behind, scaring her with a loud ‘boo’, she didn't even protest and hugged him, "Damn, can you believe it, I missed you."

"Weird, I missed you as well. We might be sick." Into the hug, the man noticed the jacket Natasha was wearing and could swear it wasn't hers, "New jacket?"

"Uh, yeah! You like it?" She hesitated in her response.

"I mean, yeah, it's nice. Kinda Carol's style though." He said as a joke, not getting it was actually Carol's jacket. The chuckle that came out from Nat's mouth made the man noticed something was going on in his friend's head, "Hey, are you.. okay. You seems like you're not."

"I.. don't really know. My therapist said I was ready to be back but I don't feel like it and-"

"Are you scared Romanoff? Of coming back to work?" Tony unwillingly cut her off. I knew it was more than just the test that was worrying the redhead, of course she was going to pass this test, she'd nailed it.

"No, that's not that. I, hmm, haven't see Carol for uh, a couple of weeks now and she's not answering my calls nor my texts." the redhead confessed with a sad tone as she looked down. "Do you have any idea why she would avoid you like that?" The man was surprised, of course he had noticed that Carol wasn't missing work days anymore but he thought she was going at the sessions on the weekends.

"Actually, yes. I'm pretty sure I know why."

"Go on then, tell me, I'm no telepath."

"She kissed me, Tony. She kissed me the last time she came with me to my therapy appointment and I just- my brain melted. I couldn't believe it, I just stood there, said nothing while she apologised when the only thing I actually wanted to do was grabbing her hoodie and kiss her again, the hardest I could."

"Oh wow! I didn't expect that, hmm." Tony took a few seconds to process the information, "Why didn't you tell me sooner, I mean, it's kind of a big deal, you're crush kissed you!" he added as he walked back and forth as if it would help him figure out the situation.

"At first I didn't want to talk about it and then we just didn't manage to see each other."

"When was that?" The redhead shrugged, not understanding the question, "The kiss, when was it?"

"Oh!" she glanced up to the ceiling to remember the date correctly, "I, uh, it's been two weeks this Wednesday."

"Yeah, make sense. Now I know why Carol didn't miss a day of work since Wednesday." He laughed briefly, of course Carol would have missed more work if it wasn't for this particular reason. Natasha let out an amused gasp, she thought for a moment that Carol had totally vanished from the surface of the earth but she was just working. However it didn't explain why she didn't answer her phone, "Anyways, if everything goes well today, fingers crossed, I'll be back to work next week, so we'll talk. We'll have to."

"Actually, I'll have to ask you to talk to her before you come back, I don't wanna be the witness of this conversation, it's gonna be awkward." He said, separating and insisting on the two syllables of the word awkward.

"Fine, I'll drop by her place during the weekend, only if I succeed at the shooting shit."

"Well, prepare yourself for the big talk! I know you, Natasha, you can't fail at a test, especially a shooting test." As Tony stated about Natasha's skills, a woman came out of a room and called Nat's name. The redhead started walking toward the person, "I kinda hope you're right and hope you're not at the same time, it's weird." she turned to see her best friend face.

"Yeah, that's the threat of happiness, you're scared to be loved back by her." he teased her with his usual smirk.

"Shut it." She shout at him before walking into the room she would have her exam, "kill 'em all!" he yelled in support.

Natasha stepped out of the shooting range, a big smile on her face and a paper in hands, Tony was waiting her in his car. She went to his window and knocked, "Guess who's back!" The Captain cheered and applauded as the redhead walked to the passenger side.

"Wanna call a special someone to tell them the good news?" The man asked with a smirk as he started the car.

"We talked about this, she won't answer. What's the point? Hurting me?"

"Call Wanda then. Ask her to tell Carol, they are both at the precinct."

"She's not my messenger, Tony!" Natasha had a point but Tony wanted to push her to tell Carol, he was bored with the situation. He wanted for his best friend to be happy and Carol was the one that would make her, "Call Wanda or I'll call Carol" he threatened.

Nat rolled her eyes at him and sighed, "C’mon Romanoff, you have ten seconds, choose wisely."

"Alright, I'm calling Wanda." She showed Tony the screen of her phone and then put it at her ear, "I didn’t miss you, Stark."

"Liar!"

Chapter Text

Two weeks and five therapy sessions had passed and Carol didn't show up to any of them. She couldn't, she felt guilty for kissing Natasha when she was vulnerable. The redhead did call her twice and texted but she didn't respond, instead she dived into all the paperwork she had to do.

"Carol! Hi" The blonde turned around and saw the usual overjoyed face of Wanda.

"Hey, Wanda, how are you doing?"

"I'm great, thanks." she paused for a few, looking at the blonde, twitching her lips in her thinking, "Isn't it Nat's hoodie? I'm ninety five percent sure I saw her wearing that once."

"N-no it's not, it's mine." Carol replied hesitantly, her cheeks turning red. The other girl dropped the subject but kept talking about the red haired Detective.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the medical centre with her today?" Carol wasn't in the mood for this conversation, she knew it, but she still tried to be friendly and replied, "I am not supposed to be anywhere, plus I have work to do." She waved at a big pile of files on her desk.

"Those files where on Nat's desk, why are you doing her paperwork? Do you have something to make up to her? What have you done Danvers?" The brunette asked, half joking, half serious. She was right though, Carol was doing Natasha's paperwork to apologise in a way. But of course she wasn't going to admit it.

"What? No. I'm just being a good partner, you wouldn't know."

"Oh, is that right?" Wanda tried not to sound offended but she was.

"It's not like you were doing your paperwork, you don't know how boring it is because Tony does everything, doesn't he?" Even if it was the truth, being teamed up with the Captain meant that Wanda didn't have to do her paperwork, because Tony loved to do it, she might have gone too far with this comment, but she didn't care, she wanted to fight. Wanda face turned to into an expression she had never seen on the young woman face before.

"At least I still have a partner," Wanda snapped at Carol. She took a few files on her desk and started to walk away. Carol realised that she, in fact, might have gone too far, "Wanda, wait! I'm sorry, I'm just tired, I shouldn't have talk to you like this."

The other girl let out a sarcastic gasp. "Are you really? Every time you are an ass to me you say you are tired. I feel like it's just another of your excuses and that you are actually just an ass."

Carol jaw dropped. She had never heard Wanda say such things. She was obviously mad at Carol and the blonde couldn't blame her, she had been an ass.

"Wanda, please." She stood up and tried to grab Wanda's wrist but the other girl anticipated it and dodged Carol's hand.

"Have a good day Carol." Wanda said aggressively, not really thinking those words and left the precinct. Carol was feeling awful, Wanda had been such a good friend with her and Carol rewarded her with an asshole behaviour. She sat back at her desk and thought about a way to apologise to the brunette while doing her apologising gift to Natasha.

Later the same day, Wanda came back at her desk, with a closed expression and typed on her computer, "Oh! By the way, Nat called and asked me to tell you she was coming back next week. Apparently you don't know how to pick up your phone." She spoke up, focused on the screen in front of her.

"That's great. Thanks for telling me." the blonde replied softly with a big smile.

"Why wouldn't I?" Wanda said, an eyebrow raised, keeping the conversation going to hear more from Carol, hoping she would get an apology.

"Well, I've been a jerk to you earlier when you've been an angel with me for weeks so I thought you might be mad at me."

Wanda chuckled, her comment worked and made Carol want to open up to her, "Is it supposed to be an apology? Because if it is, it sucked." She teased the other woman who didn't get the joke.

"Uh, i-" she stuttered, looking away from the dark green eyes.

"I'm kidding, Carol. I was mad at you for like an hour, maybe two, but then I just got over it." The brunette gave a reassuring smile and Carol smiled back.

The both turned silent for a while, working on their own stuff but something came up to Carol's mind and she couldn't get a rid of it. "You were right, by the way." Wanda looked at Carol's location and twitches an eyebrow, "I'm always right!" She said with a smirk, even if she still had no idea what the blonde was talking about, "about what?"

"Natasha, I'm trying to make it up to her, with the paperwork. I don't think it will work though." The blonde confessed, glancing away from Wanda's eyes again.

"Depends what you've done to her." Carol could tell Wanda's interest in her voice, she wanted to help, "I, uh-" Carol hesitated for a few seconds. What was the point to tell Wanda she was trying to apologise if she didn't tell her why she had to, "I kissed her, at the medical centre."

"Oh!" The brunette didn't know what to say but wanted more details. She decided to let Carol tell her what she was willing to share, "I don't know why I did that. The second before it felt like the right thing to do but when I did everything went south. She felt bad, was vulnerable, I shouldn't have but I did. When I apologised she didn't say anything so I left. That's why I haven't been there for two weeks."

Wanda could see how Carol was lost in her tone and her facial expression, "Why don't you go find out what she thinks instead of hiding? She tried to reach you several time based on what she told me, maybe she's not mad at you." Wanda said as she stood up and walked to Carol's desk.

Making eye contact, the blonde shrugged, "I feel so bad I can't face her."

"You'll have to, eventually. She's coming back next week, you should go see her so it won't be weird when she'll be back."

"I'll think about it, thanks Wanda."

Chapter Text

It was late in the day, somewhere around 9:40 pm when Carol's doorbell rang. The blonde was taken by surprise, she was reading her favourite book for the hundredth time, wearing a tank top and a short as her pyjamas, laid down under a blanket on her sofa. The sound of the bell made her jump, it was late a Sunday night for someone to visit. She walked to the door, taking and putting on a sweater in the process and open the door.

"Natasha! Hi." she said with an over-high-pitched voice.

"Good evening, C. Sorry if I'm bothering you b-" Not in purpose, the blonde cut off Natasha, "No-no it's okay, I was just reading. Mmh, so, why are you here?"

"Well I thought since I'm coming back to work tomorrow and considering that we haven't talk for like three weeks I should come and see if you haven't drown in your bath tub or something." They both chuckled, Carol more nervously than Nat, the younger woman still felt guilty for kissing Natasha without asking and even if the redhead didn't say it, she knew that was why Carol was avoiding her. Carol kinda invited Natasha to come in, moving away from the door letting her partner step in.

"So, why are you avoiding me Carol?" Natasha asked abruptly.

The blonde's eyes widened, and she had a hard time articulating correctly, "I - uh, had a lot of paperwork to do, I mean, being with you during your recovery, I fell behind with all of it, the arrest of Barnes and all, you know," She found an excuse but she saw the redhead wasn't convinced so she added, "I had to leave at some point and I knew you were doing well so I thought you could uh, you know, do it without me."

"Doing well, sure. The last time you saw me I was crying but, yeah, I was doing well."

"I-"

Nat had stare at her her whole monologue with a smirk growing bigger as she heard the story, "Why do I feel like you're more trying to convince yourself than me huh? It's like you know I won't believe you. And I don't, believe you." Carol is speechless, of course Natasha knew and, yes, Carol wanted to convince herself.

"I don't know what to say then Nat." she said quietly, shrugging.

"What about the truth, dumbass." The way Nat cursed at Carol was weirdly soft and full of support, so the blonde didn't even protest.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure you know why."

"I think I do." There was a long silence, Nat was still staring at Carol while she, on the other hand, did her best to avoid eye contact.

"Danvers, look at me!" The redhead ordered firmly and the younger woman obeyed, "Do you think I would be there if I felt uncomfortable with what happened? I wouldn't. It's okay C."

"Really?" Carol sounded like a child who did a stupidity.

"Yeah. And actually, I am not here just so it won't be awkward tomorrow morning," she laughed, "I wanted to show you something!" Natasha led Carol to her sofa her hand gently pushing the lower back of the blonde. Carol sat down and watch Natasha squat down in front of her before sitting on the coffee table.

"Hands up, Danvers!" Carol did as she was asked, both hands rose up at the level of her shoulders. Natasha intertwined the fingers of her right hand with Carol's left hand's.

"What are you doing?" Carol asked, a brow rose.

"You were not there when I finally achieved my goal so I'm showing you that I can keep my fingers stretch for 30 seconds." It was a part of her physical therapy, a part where she had to do her best not to touch Carol’s hand with her own, even if it was what she wanted, very very badly.

"Uh i- okay, show me." Nat raised a left hand to Carol's, both hands a few centimetres apart, so close that they could feel the warmth of each other's body. Their other hands were still attached, Natasha not letting the blonde escape from her grip. The thirty seconds felt like decades, the only thing Carol wanted was for this to stop so she could get a rid of Natasha's look on her face, this proud look she always does when she is in control of the situation, this annoying yet stunning dark green stare served with her typical smirk.

Nat lasted more than thirty seconds, just because she wanted to make Carol suffer a little by there closeness. She stared at the blonde's eyes during the whole thing while the hazelnut eyes were glancing from Nat's lips to the ground to the redhead's lips again. When she stopped, Natasha lowered her arm and landed her hand on Carol's thigh. The touch sent shivers through Carol's body, she was, in fact, not in control of the situation and had no way to take it back. Did she even had it at some point since she opened the door to her partner?

"So, do you trust me to be your partner again?" Nat asked softly.

"I always trusted- I have and always will trust you to be my partner, Natasha." she stammered as a response, feeling the face of the older woman getting closer to hers.

"Nata-" Before she could say more, Nat's lips were on hers, her left hand on the back of Carol's neck. At first shocked, she quickly pulled herself together and kissed her back passionately. Natasha stood up from the table and straddled Carol's lap. The blonde's hands pulled Natasha closer, their body pressed against the other's. They eventually had to break the kiss in need of air, both smiling and panting.

"I suppose I understand why you didn't feel uncomfortable." Carol giggled, for the biggest pleasure of the redhead. She loved this baby face Carol had when she laughed and enjoyed the view, her smile turning into a grin. They stayed there, staring, smiling, foreheads resting against each other's for a couple of minutes.

"You know the NYPD’s policy about dating right?"

"Unfortunately yes, I do."

"So we'll have to find a way to make you Detective asap! I'm not sure I'll resist your charms any longer."

"Yeah! Because you obviously managed to resist until now!" Carol laughed, waving at Nat's position to prove her point, Natasha couldn’t resist.

"Oh, shut it!" the redhead replied, leaning forward for another kiss, more heated this time as she took advantage of her position to slip her tongue into Carol's mouth.

"I think I love it when you resist to my charms." Carol smirked, she was taking back control but Nat didn't let her, "Okay, I think I should go now." Natasha stood up and walked to the door but Carol grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Wait!" Natasha turned back to face the blonde, "Stay please."

"Carol it's not a good idea."

"Please, we won't be able to be together for a long time after tonight so let's enjoy every moments ‘til we can't anymore. I've missed you so much." Carol said with a puppy face to try and touch the redhead.

Natasha let out an amused sigh, "You're lucky you're cute," she sat back on Carol’s lap and wrapped her arm around the blonde’s neck and gave her a chaste kiss, "I missed you too." Natasha rested her forehead against Carol's, her deep green eyes falling into the hazel ones in front of her. She shook her head, realising she has been staring and grinning at the other girl for a while.

"So what are your plans, Danvers?" she spoke up with a smirk, imagining a few things they could do, here and now on Carol’s sofa.

"Just cuddles, of course. Otherwise you'll never leave my bed!" Carol teased as she stood up, carrying Natasha in her arms to her bedroom. Natasha yelped in surprise and giggled into the blonde’s hair.

"Do you have clothes more comfortable to sleep in, I love this jacket but it's really not comfy." At this moment, Carol finally noticed that Natasha was wearing her jacket, the one she gave her the last time she saw her at the medical centre, "Yeah, sure." Carol replied, getting her sweater off. "That's a start."

"Alright, you’ve got my hoodie now I have your sweater, we’re cute." she smiled. "I don't need a short with this, damn it's so long."

"Yeah, I mean, I'm taller than you." The blonde teased with a shit eating smirk on her face.

"Uh-huh, well, miss taller than me, turn around, I don't give you the right to see me in my underwear!"

Carol raised her hands in defeat "Alright, I'm not looking."

The redhead got her pants off first, then threw her shirt on Carol, letting her know she was only wearing bra and knickers for and few seconds.

"Don't tease me Romanoff, I'm the irresistible one!"

There was no answer, Carol began to think Natasha sneaked out, she turned back to her bed and saw Natasha already lying there.

"Get your ass in bed irresistible one!" she spoke up, patting the bed sheets. The blonde nodded and climbed into her bed and laid down on her side next to Nat, face to face.

"You have to many nicknames, Carol, I should pick one and stick with it." Nat said softly, running her fingers up and down Carol's bare forearm.

"Yeah, I think you gave my twelve nicknames already!"

"Alright, let’s keep one for now and the eleven others for later, maybe for specifics situations!" Natasha winked with mischief in her eyes.

"I do have a favourite nickname between all the ones you used."

"Yeah, I guess ‘irresistible one’ is quite flattering!"

"Not my favourite."

"Oh!"

"Yeah, I prefer ‘C’ much more," the comment made Nat smile from ear to ear, "I know it's quite simple for a nickname but you're the only person to ever call me that way and I have to admit, I love it!"

"You're making me soft Danvers." she whispered, rubbing her nose against Carol's. The blonde blushed knowing it was a way for Natasha to compliment her but she was still in a teasing mood and so replied with a smirk, "I love it when you're soft."

She got a quick laugh from the redhead in response, "You're such a pain in my ass."

"And you love it!"

"Yeah I do." Nat's hand slid up to cup Carol's jaw and pulled the blonde closer, she moved closer as well so she could kiss the younger woman.

"Good night C!"

"Good night Nat."

Chapter Text

Nat's alarm rang at its usual setting, 6.15 am. It took her a few tries to find her pants, in which her phone was resting. She turned it off and turned back to the person who was holding her tight with their arms around her waist, "When is yours?"

The blonde yawned, her face hidden by her hair, "6.33." Nat let out a brief laughter and slid Carol's hair behind her ear, "thirty three, that's very specific!"

"You'll get it eventually." Nat hummed against Carol's cheek before giving it a kiss, "So, we still have eighteen minutes to kill." she whispered and rolled over Carol to be on top of her. She grinned at the woman under her body, leaned in and kissed her. It was slow and full of passion. The blonde's hand roamed on Natasha's back, one slid under the sweater Carol lent her and the other landed at the junction between the redhead's lower back and butt. Carol's fingertips slipped their way up, following the spinal column underneath them. Nat's hands were firmly fixed at their spots, one in Carol's hair and the other cupping her jaw. Neither of them rushed to deepen the kiss, they were just enjoying the slowness and softness of each other's lips. When Carol's tongue finally brushed lightly the redhead's lower lips, the other woman responded with a clenched fist, nails stabbing the skin of Carol's neck and a moan swollen by her mouth. Natasha groaned at the feeling of the blonde's tongue in her mouth, which made Carol smile into the kiss. She broke apart to see the face of her lover, "If we keep going like this we won't be able to leave this bed. We have Barnes' questioning today." Nat groaned again and leaned in for another kiss. This time, she took control quickly, biting the bottom lip of her partner. It sent shivers through Carol's whole body, her grip strengthened against Natasha's skin. Satisfied with what she just achieved, Natasha left Carol's mouth and focused on her jaw, went down to the side of her neck, all along her collarbone and back to the other side of the neck. She placed open mouthed kisses every now and then until she found the right spot, bit softly and then sucked the skin. Carol moaned loudly as the redhead was working to leave a mark on the bottom of her neck. Her breathing was shaky and she could feel she would want more really soon, "Na- Natasha, stop! We don't have time f-or that."

Nat chuckled against her skin, kissed the mark she just made, sat up, straddling Carol's hips and looked at the clock she spotted when she walked in the bedroom the previous night, "You sure? we can take five more minutes. I can do a lot of things with five minutes." She had her usual smirk on her face as she teased the blonde under her, her hands following the lines that were forming Carol's abs. Carol sat up as well, the weight of her body supported by both her arms. Her face now at the same level as the one of the other girl, "you are such a bad girl, Romanoff!" She whispered, brushing Natasha's lips with her own as she spoke. Carol looked right in direction of her clock, smirked and kissed chastity Natasha one last time before her alarm rang. Nat sighed as she heard the sound of a soft music coming from the night stand, her forehead resting on Carol's shoulder. They stayed that way in the bed a little more than they should, both well aware that it was their last intimate moment for a long and unknown period of time. Carol kissed Nat's hair, reaching a hand to rise up her partner's head. When she did, Nat was half smiling, a bittersweet look in her eyes, "Hey, I know it's gonna be hard but hopefully with today's questioning we'll get things on Rogers. That would be a big win for you right?" Natasha nodded, her eyes closed as she leaned forward to rest her forehead against Carol's. She closed the gap between their lips, her hands reaching up the blonde's cheeks. It was with big regrets that she broke the kiss and stood out of bed.

"Come on, Romanoff, we're late!"

"We are not but I understand what you mean." Carol was pulling Natasha, gripped at the sleeve of her jacket, (it was actually Carol's) as they entered the precinct, "I told you you'd get why I wake up at 6.33!"

"Okay, yeah, I got it. Now can you let go, if anybody sees us like that they might have suspicion." They both looked at themselves, they looked like teenagers bickering. Carol let go of Nat's sleeve just so the other woman could catch her hand as it fell off to be back at its natural place, straight against Carol's body. Carol smirked, they were in a hallway nobody used anymore, and it needed a special key to enter, key only a few people had. Of course, Natasha got the key thanks to Tony and was really grateful at this very second, she could held Carol's hand without being caught. The blonde stepped forward, looking down at their laced fingers and smiled. She wished she could do that whenever she wanted to. With her free hand, Carol reached Natasha's jaw and traced lines with her thumb. It didn't take long for the redhead to lean forward, pressing hardly her lips against Carol's. It was their last kiss, they knew it, they agreed on it on the way to work. Natasha had told Carol about that secret entrance and her mind directly realised they would have one last moment all alone. It didn't last long but it was the most passionate kiss they had ever exchanged, all their upcoming frustrations channelled into one quick touch. They both grinned as they parted, Natasha let go of Carol's hand and they walked into their work place.

They went separate ways, Natasha had things to sort out with Tony while Carol would prepare James Barnes' questioning.

"Morning, Captain!"

"Ah! There is my best Detective! You're late by the way!"

"I'm not, I just arrived later than the usual."

"Yeah, and why is that huh?" He asked, suspiciously, he knew Natasha was supposed to talk to Carol during the weekend and he wanted to hear about it, "I walked into Carol on my way here, I asked if she wanted to talk over a coffee, so we talk."

"And?"

"And we are all good. The best duo back on duty."

"And personally speaking?" Natasha didn't answer right away, they agreed on not telling Tony or Wanda about last night but Natasha didn't think of a lie to tell her best friend. It was even harder because he knew her by heart, "Let's say we are just friends for now."

"That's it?" The man scratched his scalp, he expected more, he thought Natasha would tell Carol her feelings, she did but he didn't know, "Yeah, I told her it was fine, that I kind of, sorta needed it at the time and that she should not feel guilty for it." The lie came out so easily from her mouth that Natasha wasn't sure it was herself talking.

Tony made a face Natasha didn't expected, he seemed disappointed, almost sad. The redhead tried to reassure her long time friend, "Tony we talked about this, I never planned on telling her I love her now. When Rogers will be behind bars, maybe, if your plan works. Speaking of which, I have a questioning to lead."


~~~


Carol walked to her desk and waved at Wanda to greet her, "Hey, Carol, I'm I dreaming or Natasha's wearing your sweater and jacket?" Carol couldn't believe it, Wanda remembered that sweater, the blonde had wore it once a month ago and never wore it at work after that. She managed not to blush and hummed before her answer, "Yeah, that's my jacket, we run into each other on our way here, we went for a coffee and she was cold so I gave her my jacket." They had agreed on that lie because of course Tony and Wanda would ask why the arrived at the same time. She decided to ignore the sweater fact, hoping the young woman would forget it and she did.

"Oh! So you two talked, that's great!"

"Yep, she said it was okay and I promised it would never happen again."

"But why didn't you tell her what you feel?"

"You don't know NYPD's rules, do you?"

"I don't, what's that?"

"You can't date a 'subordinate'" she air quoted and added, "'till I'm just an officer and her a detective we can't date, I'll have to rank up."

"That sucks, sorry for you Carol."

"It's okay, I knew it anyway. I just have to work my ass off and get that goddamn promotion and arresting Steve Rogers might help! Barnes is here already?"

"Yeah, and I, uh, did that for you," the brunette said shyly as she handed Carol a paper with a list on it, "that's all the crimes Barnes took on himself to cover for Rogers."

Carol took the paper and nodded to thank the younger agent. As she walked to the interrogation room she saw the redhead stepping out of Tony's office and smiled at her, she received a smile back. Without a word she gave her partner a copy of the file and they both stepped into the room.

"Morning Mr. Barnes, how's the leg." Carol teased loudly as she opened the door, letting Natasha enter first and then slamming he door closed, "I don't know, how's the arm, Detective? I heard there was some complications." Natasha smirked at the question, it wasn't the first time she interrogated Bucky Barnes and she could have see the comment coming.

"You'll get infos on my arm when you'll give me everything I want on Rogers."

"Alright, then, tell me about your arm, because I'll tell you everything you wanna know, from the most little teenager we hired to deal drugs to his classmates to the biggest quadruple murder you guys never discovered."

Carol and Natasha looked at each other, both with an amazingly surprised face, did Barnes just said he would give them everything? "Surprising, I know, I can explain if you want." Carol was speechless and Natasha wasn't sure what to answer, she finally managed to stammer some words, "uh, yeah, explain it and then we'll take your full deposition."

The criminal cracked his knuckles and sat up on his chair, to put himself ready to tell his story, "Okay, so, I met Steve when we were like, really young. We did everything together, even joining a gang. He quickly rose to the top, a hundred percent invested in becoming the new face of the gang when I wanted to get an actual life, job and all. At his twenty fourth birthday he became the leader of the gang after the leader at the time got shot to death, I'm pretty sure you both heard of that." Carol nodded and Natasha was to focused in the story to move a muscle. Barnes cleared his throat and picked his story up again, "He renamed the gang 'The Avengers' because he wanted revenge for the dead guy, who he had seen as an adoptive father, I mean, the guy gave the keys of his empire to a newborn mobster, instead of giving it to one of his long time Lieutenants."

Bucky took a sip of the glass of water in front of him, getting his thoughts in order in his head, "uuuh, after that Steve forced me to join full time, saying he would turn me in if I didn't so, like the idiot I was at the time, I did. I never regretted that much a decision in my life. He have been running my life for twelve years now. I have a boyfriend he doesn't know about and if he ever find out he will kill him. I'm done covering for his damn ass when he's never done anything for me."

"Okay. Now, what do you want in exchange for what you know?" Natasha asked, knowing exactly what the guy wanted, "Total immunity, of course, for everything that I've done. I wanna start over, I wanna get the life I wanted fifteen years ago, be a teacher, move in with my boyfriend and cats and for that I need full immunity. I know you, police person, you say immunity and then you find a way to twist the system and throw me in jail too."

"Trust me, it's more than just Rogers you'd give me with your testimony, imma give you what you want right away." Carol rose an eyebrow, she thought Natasha would want to do just like Barnes said. Natasha stood up and the blonde followed her out of the room to the two-way mirror room. It was dark, even with the light coming from the interrogation room, "Natasha, are you serious? You're giving him full stop immunity?"

"Yes, I am, you'll get why eventually." She copied the words Carol said to her earlier, hoping the blonde would understand it had something to do with her, with them, "Alright, I trust you on this." What Carol said made Natasha's heart melt, she had to fight the urge to hug the blonde to thank her for trusting her.

"I'm going to see Tony for the papers, go back with Barnes." They both stepped out and went their own way.

Passing by her desk, Natasha winked at Wanda, notifying her the questioning was going well. She entered the office, trying to hide her smile, "I need an immunity paper for Barnes."

"Alright, I give you the you're-not-that-immune paper I guess." he chuckled.

"Nope, the full on immunity thing." The man shook his head, did he heard correctly what she just said. It wasn't Natasha's style to allow a criminal like Barnes to get away with all the things he did, "Are you certain? It's Barnes, Nat. What does he give you for that?"

"Rogers, the whole gang and a girlfriend!" She couldn't hold her smile any more and her face turned into a big grin when she said the word 'girlfriend'.

"Wait, he has motives to give you all of that?"

"Yep, I'll tell you later." She waited for Tony to give her what she asked, standing there, not minding that he took all his time. The Captain stared at her while searching for the papers in his drawer. He kept staring, a smirk growing up on the corner of his mouth, not letting go of the paper that was now held both by Nat's hand and his, "You giving it to me or what?" she asked with an amused tone.

He let go of the sheet and chuckled as the woman left his office, "Happiness is coming for you Romanoff. Be careful, it might suit you very well!"

Chapter Text

Carol and Natasha were in the armoury with Bucky Barnes, getting ready to go and arrest Steve Rogers. They had a whole plan sorted out, thanks to Bucky. He had agreed to play the bait to make Rogers leave his hiding place. They had a warrant for him and searched at every places he might be, without success.

"Why did you wait so long to give us all of this? I arrested you at least four times and I know you have been in jail more than that, what changed?" Natasha broke the silence, out of curiosity.

"Nothing changed, I always planned on giving you Steve but I wanted to have everything and believe it or not, even if I am, was, Steve's best friend, he is very cautious with his business. I couldn't just give you some things, I wanted all of it, the whole gang and now I do have it all. That's why I only wanted to talk to you, I knew you'd believe me." The voice of Bucky was calm and sounded genuine. Natasha had made her mind the week before during the questioning but still wanted to know more. How could someone spend twelve years of their life in an organisation they hate? Natasha was amazed by Bucky's willpower to bring Rogers and The Avengers down.

"Alright! Bucky, you won't have a gun, of course, but we'll be communicating via earpiece. You remember what you have to do?" Carol gathered the troops around a table with a map of the location they were going. She was focused and her tone was cold, which was very not her style.

"Yes, ma'am! I talk to him until he says he ordered Rumlow to kill Curvus and then you'll intervene."

"Great! Let's go."

"Actually, Barnes, you mind waiting us in the car, I have something to say to Carol." The blonde looked at her partner, surprised, her mouth slightly opened but unable to form words, "Yeah, sure." Bucky nodded and went for the garage.

"You're nervous." Nat said from her side of the table. The blonde didn't look up from what she was doing and muttered, "I- no I'm not."

"Carol look at me," Nat reached her partner's hands and stopped her action to get a hold of them, "it's gonna be fine, I promise. We got this!"

"How can you be so confident after what happened the other time?"

"I'm confident because I have you by my side." Carol tilted her head, looking at the woman she loved with adoration. She wanted to hug her, to kiss her but she couldn't, she just could say was she felt and hoped nobody would hear it, "If I wasn't already falling for you I would be after that." Natasha answered with a breathy laugh followed by a grin and a squeeze on the hands she was holding. They stared for some times, smiling stupidly at the other until someone entered the room, Natasha removed her hands from Carol's and cleared her throat, "We should go, you don't want us to miss our window, right?" Carol nodded and put her gun back in its holster.

The ride to the meeting point wasn't quiet, Natasha and Bucky exchanged a lot of anecdotes about Steve. The redhead was almost enjoying her time with the brunet, which made Carol kind of jealous. She had been staring at her partner the whole time, not listening a word they were saying, just looking at Natasha's lips, eyes and neck. It reminded her of the love bite the redhead had let on hers the week before. She wanted her revenge for that, for that awkward moment when Tony noticed the mark when Carol had took off her scarf. It had made Nat laughed of course, she was proud of her doing and the embarrassment it earned the blonde when she stammered through her lying reply. She wanted revenge for this moment when Natasha past behind her and brushed in purpose her lower back with her hand, smirking as she did. She wanted revenge for all the flirty comments the redhead had said, making the blonde more and more frustrated. She flirted back but it seemed to have less impact on Nat than it had on Carol. She wanted revenge and she wanted it now, she wanted to embarrass the other woman in front of her new friend. They were talking about how the earpiece worked, quite a boring conversation in Carol's opinion, so she allowed herself to interrupt it. Actually, she made Natasha interrupt it by staring even harder as she turned on her seat to be looking directly at her with a smirk, the side of her head against the headrest. The redhead rose an eyebrow, glancing from the road to the blonde, "What?" As she spoke up, Barnes stopped talking and understood the incoming conversation would not include him, he started to look outside at the building.

"Go on a date with me." Natasha's cheeks turned red as she looked into the rearview mirror, eyes wide open, at the guy on the back seat who started whistling, he gave Nat an amused glare before saying, "I'm not listening, keep going." He whistled again and Natasha attention turned to the blonde. She chose the right moment, they were at a crossroads and the traffic light was in her favour, red and not going to change to a colder colour anytime soon. She had a proud grin on her face, she finally managed to make Natasha blush. The two or three first attempts to talk failed in a weird hesitating sound coming from the bottom of her throat.

When she finally answered, her voice was over pitched and wavered at almost every word, "You're really asking that right now?" Carol nodded, she had now a shit eating smirk on her face that had quite the affected on the redhead who felt the her heart pounding faster. She was hitting the wheel with her fingertips as she waited for the traffic lights to turn green, trying to ignore the woman on her right. It took thirty seconds for the damn light to let them go and Carol couldn't stop laughing at the gasp of relief Natasha let out when it finally did, "Don't you think I'm letting you get away without answering me, Romanoff!"

Natasha threw a glare at Carol that she tried to make scary but it didn't work on the blonde, "okay, uh, i- can I give you my answer later?"

"Okay, fine, later." She winked and the car stopped, they were arrived.

Natasha had parked the car in an alleyway, it was quite dark in there, even though it was 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the sun was still high in the sky. Bucky had rendezvous in a parking lot he and Steve used to play in when they were kids, he knew Steve would agree to meet up there, the cops had never heard of this place, or at least until now. Barnes went alone, the policewoman had to wait for Bucky's signal to take their places, he had to tell them if Rogers was already there or not.

As they waited, Carol noticed Natasha straight face, she had never seen her like this before, she was actually nervous. She gave the smaller woman a gentle tap on the shoulder and squeezed it, "Who's nervous now?" She whispered, teasing the redhead. Natasha was about to reply when the both of them heard a voice coming from their earpieces, "Late, as usual." They exchanged a last look and went separate ways to the spot they had decided when they studied the map of the area.

Steve Rogers had a reputation to always be late and he stood by it. Bucky had told him 4:15, it was already 4:35 and there was no sign of the blond mobster. Natasha's stress level was at its highest and she started to think the guy wouldn’t show. A few seconds later, Steve appeared and Bucky notified it with a loud 'AH'. He stepped forward and gave the man a friendly hug, "It's so good to see you again, Buck."

"Same here, man."

Carol and Natasha were far enough from the action to talk via their communication devices without being heard by Rogers, it might bother Bucky though. The guy kept the conversation going, fully aware of what he had to do. They chatted for long minutes and they were nowhere close from what the detective and the officer wanted, Rogers' confession about Rumlow. The more time it took the more Natasha worried, something was wrong, she could feel it, "What is he doing, he should be gloating about his success by now." she said as she left her position.

"Nat, stay in position!" Carol warned her but she didn't listen, "There's something wrong, Carol. I gotta check it out."

"Natasha, stop." Carol voice was desperate, it was just like the other time, Natasha did what she wanted, following her gut, "Dammit!" she muttered to herself, keeping her position.

~~~

Natasha walked down the parking lot to an abandoned building. It had a full view on the floor Barnes and Steve were. She looked at the windows and spotted a sparkle at one of them, she was right, there was someone watching from up there, "Bucky, don't step any closer to Steve. C, be ready." She gave her orders and ran into the building, more and more discreetly as she approached the floor where that watcher was. She was ninety nine percent sure it was one of Steve's guy posted with a sniper rifle, ready to shoot the brunet. She tiptoed until she saw him, a tall guy, long black hair straightened back. She stopped a few steps away from him, her gun pointed at his heart and said calmly, "Put down the rifle, now and don't try to make noise." The guy seemed to execute, lowering his weapon from his target as he glared at the woman behind him. He smirk and tried to outsmart Natasha, taking his gun out of his holster and turning to point it at her. He wasn't fast enough though and received two bullets in the biceps and fell down in pain.

~~~

"Keep going, Barnes, you got this." Carol tried to motivate her asset, he had been talking with Steve for half an hour and there was nothing to get out of it. Carol was worrying for Natasha and she couldn't ask her what was happening on her side, not willing to disturb her and Bucky more than she already had. It felt like decades for her to listen to Steve’s and Bucky's chat. She noticed the blond guy doing something weird, he was talking steps back and making Bucky steps forward, "Bucky, don't step any closer to Steve. C, be ready." She heard at the same time as she thought that. 'Ready, ready for what?' she murmured to herself, what signal was going to give Natasha.

She didn't had the time to think more about it when she heard two fire shots coming from outside the parking lot, where Natasha went. She didn't hesitate and ran towards Steve and Bucky, her glock pointed at the Avengers' leader, "Don't move, down on the ground!" She yelled at him and he executed, looking at Bucky with disappointment.

"You son of a bitch," he said, both his knees on the cold asphalt while Carol handcuffed him, "Sorry man, I've never really been part of your organisation."

A few other police cars joined the parking, taking care of Rogers. The man allowed himself for one last tease, "How's your partner, officer? Is she dead?" He smirked before he was pushed into the car. Carol didn't know what happened back there, why those fire shots, and who fired them? She worried even more when she looked for the redhead and couldn't find her. Bucky walked to her and pointed at a silhouette in the distance, "That's who you looking for."

She gave him a thanking look and ran toward the redhead, "Goddammit, Natasha, don't ever do that to me again." She didn't hold herself from giving Natasha a hug, even in front of their colleagues. The older woman chuckled before hugging back, on her tip toe as the blonde was almost lifting her from the ground, holding her as tight as possible.

"Yes." She whispered through the golden hair, "Yes for what?" Carol pulled back with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, I'll go on a date with you."

Chapter Text

The famous duo walked into the precinct deafened by the sound of the clapping of all their colleagues. Natasha was leading the way, followed by Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, handcuffed and held by Carol. She threw him in the interrogation room and let him to two officers. "The Captain might wanna see us." Natasha told her two partners of the day.

Tony was, indeed, waiting for them and popped out the cork of a champagne bottle, "CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!" he shouted and the whole building could hear him, "and Barnes." he added as he saw the guy entering the room as well. He poured three glasses of champagne, giving the glass that was supposed to be his to Bucky.

"A toast, to the team that brought Steve Rogers down," Natasha said, discreetly glancing at Carol with a small smile, "I thought I'd never see him in jail, guess I was wrong!" they clinked their glasses and Tony joined them with the almost empty bottle, "Cheers!!"

"Tonight is your night, I hope you're ready for more celebration drinks, I’m taking you out and I'll pay for everything. It's us and Wanda!" At the word 'us' Bucky wondered if he was apart of it, an almost imperceptible nod from Carol confirmed him that he was.

"Alright, gather your stuff, am gonna get Maximoff." The three executed Captain's orders, finished their glasses and Natasha and Carol went to their desks. Bucky, not quite sure where to go, followed them, "Eh, Barnes, what would you think about becoming a police officer? It would suit you I think." Bucky didn't know what to respond, he had always pictured himself as a teacher and had no other ideas but this one might be a good one, "Uh, I don't know. If being a teacher isn't that great maybe I'll change career to policeman." He received a smile from both woman. Who could have guess this, an ex-mobster friend with a couple of policewomen and the Captain of one of the biggest district of the New York Police Departments.

"I guess our date will have to wait." Natasha murmured at Carol's ear as she stood next to her. The deep voice of the redhead sent shivers down Carol's spine and made goosebumps appeared all over her arms. Natasha noticed and leaned closer, her chin resting on the blonde's shoulder and her fingertips running lightly on the bare skin of her arm, "I know something we have to talk about, I'll tell you later." Carol bit her bottom lips at the sound even deeper than before. She watched her partner walk away, unable to say or do anything, just dreaming to touch the body she was staring at, to feel Natasha’s warmth against her skin, her thumbs running up and down her cheeks like the redhead loved to do.

A voice caught her staring and stopped her in her thoughts, "Danvers, come on or you'll pay." She ran toward her group of friend and they all left to Shield bar.

They entered the bar, already laughing out loud at Tony's and Natasha's dirty jokes. Carol didn't know that side of her partner and was pleased to discover it. She had spent an enormous part of her days with Natasha since she met her but never really outside of work, it was there or at the hospital or the medical centre in which they basically talked about work, or Carol was talking and Natasha was listening. Even if, at first, she asked Nat out to annoy her, she deeply wanted to go on a date with her, to discover who Natasha Romanoff really was, she wanted to know her past, her dreams, her fears and all the most casual things that made Natasha who she was.

They stepped inside and both Carol and Tony greeted the owner, shouting his name. Surprised, Nat turned to face the blonde and leaned closer, that way she didn't have to yell to pass over the surrounding sounds of the people's conversation, "You know the former Chief of the police, how? You weren't even there when he left." Carol chuckled at the question as the two of them sat at a table on a leather bench.

"Yeah, I know Nick, I'm kind of a regular customer here." Natasha came to realisation, Carol had asked her a dozen of time to come with her in a bar after work but she never figured it was the ex-NYPD chief's bar she was going.

Carol and Natasha were sitting next to each other, Natasha's thigh pressed against Carol's. The two of them hesitated a few times to break the contact between them, moving their legs slightly, but came back to the touch in the end. It was good to feel the other's warmth. Tony was taking the orders, Bucky went to the bathroom and Wanda was to focused on her phone to notice the tension between the blonde and her partner. The Captain came back to the table with two drinks for each one of them, Bucky quickly followed.

In the middle of a conversation about Bucky's and Wanda's love lives, Natasha sat up, putting weight on Carol's thigh. When she finally found the right position she let her hand on the blonde's body. This other contact between them made Nat's heart pounded faster than its usual, she felt it in her chest and could swear Carol could hear its beating every half second. The touch formed a knot in Carol's stomach, which she didn't find a way to get a rid of, it was like the knot was a locked door and she needed a key to be relieved. And this key was Natasha's hand. The knot disappeared when she felt the softness of the fingertips on her skin. She looked down discreetly at hers and Nat's hands, the redhead's one on top of the blonde's, and smiled. She moved her hand and allowed herself to lace her fingers with Natasha's and the other woman grinned. They were in the dark, at the opposite of where the only light in the room was shining and their hands under the table so their friends wouldn't see them.

"Round number three time! What do you want?" Tony asked louder than he wanted to, the alcohol already affecting his behaviour. Natasha and Carol asked for the same, vodka, Wanda past for this one the go to the bathroom and Bucky, not quite sure what to order, followed the Captain to take a look at the possibilities.

It left the duo alone. Their gazes met before Natasha leaned down to rest her head on Carol's shoulder. It didn't take long for the blonde to reach Natasha's head and kissed her hairline softly while she was tracing circles on the back of Nat's hand, "What was it you wanted to talk about?" The question brought Nat back to reality, she had lost herself in the touch, relaxing against Carol's body.

"Hmm, it's about us." She sat up properly, keeping their hands linked and looked directly in the hazel eyes, "I might know a way to make you Detective soon." Carol didn't know what to expect and made a face that showed her lack of understanding. The redhead inhaled deeply before speaking up again, "You could get promoted to Detective if you take all the credit for Rogers' arrest, which means I'd have to put my name off of the paperwork."

"You'd do that, for me?" The ex air force pilot didn't want to sound that much surprised but her over pitched tone gave it away.

"If it makes you my equal and so, makes you able to be my girlfriend, I'd do that thousands of times. I want you, Carol and I'm done with Rogers dictating my life." Carol's heart fluttered at Natasha's words, she wanted her to be her girlfriend. Her eyes settled on the redhead's lips and she couldn’t fight the urge to lean in, her free hand reaching Nat's cheek as she kissed her. Natasha wasn't even surprised her words affected the blonde that way and was glad it did, she was dying for more contact with her partner and a kiss was definitely contact enough. She kissed back slowly, enjoying every second of the fast kiss they exchanged. Carol was the one to pull back, her brain taking back control and reminding her the were in a public place with their friends not far. Her hand fall back on Nat's thigh and her gaze locked in the dark green eyes, "Maybe I shouldn't have done t-" a finger came up to shush the blonde, "Can you stop apologising when you kiss me, Danvers, I really don't mind." Nat said and leaned back in, her hand firmly cupping Carol's jaw. A soft moan was swallowed by the redhead’s mouth as Carol didn’t expect this another kiss. It lasted longer but was still chaste, both not willing to make out here and now in this bar and in front of their friends. As they parted, Natasha gave Carol a soft smile before her face turned into a smirk, "I hope you're ready for Tony's comments because he saw us." Carol turned and saw Tony raising his glass in their direction.

~~~

"Hey, Nick, we'll take the same less the gin and tonic!" Tony shouted as he slammed a fifty dollars note onto the bar, "Don't talk to me like I've never been your boss, Stark." Bucky laughed at the face Tony made, he looked like a child that his dad just scolded.

They waited a minute before Fury brought them the two first glasses and Tony looked back at their table, seeing Natasha and Carol really close, "They are adorable, I can't wait to see them being actually together." Bucky choked on the end of his second drink. He cleared his throat and asked, "Are you that oblivious about them? Carol asked Natasha out earlier, they are kinda already a thing." As he said that, Tony's eyes widened at the sight of what was happening at the other side of the bar, Carol and Natasha were kissing. He looked back right at Bucky and nodded, "Seems like you're right." he pointed at the two women, "They are good liars in my defence." he said, raising his glass at the duo.

~~~

The two men and Wanda, coming back from the bathroom, walked toward their table with new drinks in hands, "So, how long has it been going on, huh? Since when have you two been lying to me?" The brunette tilted her head in uncomprehension, "What did I missed?"

"Nothing!" Carol and Natasha shouted in unison. It made Bucky laugh and Tony tried to keep a serious face as he watched Wanda trying to figure out what happened. She sat down and looked at her two friends, a raised eyebrow, wondering what the two women could have been doing. When her eyes past on the linked hands she chuckled and turned back to Tony, "Told you they lied to us, you owe me fifty bucks, Stark!"

"You knew?" Both Natasha and Carol asked, eyes widened, they thought their lie had worked, well, it did work on Tony but Wanda hadn't been fooled by it, "I wasn't a hundred percent sure. I just thought it was weird that you didn't took back your jacket, your favourite jacket, after you said you gave it to Natasha because she was cold. So girlfriend of you to let her wear it."

"Eh! We're not dating... Yet!" Natasha rolled her eyes at her not-girlfriend-yet's poor defence.

"Yeah, you don't look like you are." Wanda said sarcastically, waving at their hands.

"We're not, we are just enjoying each other’s company until we're allowed to do more." Natasha tried to help Carol's argument but knew she failed when she saw Tony's smirk.

The Captain knew what his best friend meant but wanted to annoy her a bit more, "By more you mean s-" Tony didn't have the time to finish his question before Natasha acquiesced with him, "Sex, yeah that's what I mean. Now can you all be grown adults and forget the fact that we are holding hands and talk about something else?"

"Wait up! Allowed to do more what is that supposed to mean?" Bucky asked, not aware of all the police rules. Natasha explained it to him and the face he made translated perfectly what I was going to say, "This is so fucked up, how can you find someone you can date that aren't in your precinct, y'all are leaving there!"

Tony could prove him wrong but at the time he met Pepper there was no such thing like those rules, he was just lucky to meet someone outside of his job. Natasha wanted to agree but she knew it was a working rule and she decided to keep her mouth shut. Carol on the other hand, "The idea is good until it happens to yourself, you know. Abusive bosses exist and I think I'd be grateful for this rule if I was in this kind of situation but, yeah, right now I hate it." she quickly glanced at Natasha to find out if the redhead agreed with her and the smile she saw on her face let her know she did.

Bucky wasn't quite convinced, "I know it's not exactly the same circumstances but I wasn't allowed to date someone, in uh, you know, especially not a man and, Oh my God, I would be so dead if he had found out. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, in the end, you two, just like I did, aren’t following the rules," Carol was about to protest against what Bucky was implying but he cut her off, "What I mean is that you shouldn't even be holding hands right now or you shouldn't have kissed earlier, but you still did it because you two trust each other and know what your relationship is about to be."

At those words, the look on Natasha's eyes softened and she stood up to give her new friend a quick hug. She didn't know what to say but she wanted to say something and the only thing that went out as a whisper was a 'thank you'. Bucky didn't know why she thanked him but appreciated the gesture.

As they parted, Tony stood up and wrapped an arm around Bucky's shoulders, "Alright! Time for round four and five, come and help me get it?" The brunet nodded and they walked to the bar.

"It's gonna be my last ones."

"C, why? The night just begun."

"I know but it's been a hell of a day, I've been stressed out as fuck and the alcohol is not helping getting it down." Natasha sat down and took the blonde in her arms, pulling her the closer she could, "Kinda my fault, huh?" She asked as Carol pulled out of the hug. She gave her partner a soft smile and replied weakly, "I blame it on my feelings for you." Natasha giggled, bringing Carol's hand to her mouth and kissing gently its back.

Wanda watched the whole scene, amazed by how adorable her friends looked together, "You two are the cutest, my heart can't handle so much cuteness."

The duo turned to look at the brunette, they had totally forgot she was there and their turning-pink cheeks were not saying otherwise. Wanda laughed and stuck out her tongue like a child before Bucky and Tony came back with their drinks. Carol took her two glasses of vodka and drank them down in one. Natasha watched her doing it and did the same while their three friends jaws had dropped on the ground by surprise, "We are leaving, thanks for the drinks Tony." Natasha said as she stood up. The blonde followed her and they left the bar. Tony muttered a 'goodbye' he wasn't sure they heard before they disappeared.

They ran out of the bar on the street, arm in arm, giggling like idiots, the alcohol affecting their bodies in a euphoric way. Neither of them knew how but they ended up lips linked, Natasha pinned between Carol and a wall. They kissed sloppily until Carol's brain restarted and she realised the situation they were in. She broke the kiss with a straight face, the other girl a dumb smile on her face, chuckling.

"I'm getting us a Uber to mine, I can't let your drunk ass alone in New York." Natasha wrapped her arms around Carol's neck, "Fine by me" she held tight, her face in the blonde locks. Carol struggled to get her phone out of her pocket as the redhead was keeping their bodies pressed as much as she could. She finally managed to order their drive and five minutes later they were in the car.

Natasha fell asleep a few minutes before they got the Carol's place so the blonde had to carry her upstairs. She slammed the door shut behind her with a foot and went directly to her bedroom to lay her partner down onto her bed, the 130 pounds of muscles were still quite heavy to carry after climbing stairs to the fifth floor. She took off the redhead's boots before undressing herself, shoes, pants and jacket, now only wearing a tank top and knickers. She settled herself under the sheet next to the sleepy girl and stared at her adorable face, a hand reaching Nat's cheek for a soft caress, she leaned in and kissed her forehead, "Dammit, I love you." she whispered before closing her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

A piercing noise awoke Natasha. She was lying on her belly, her face in the pillow, mouth slightly opened, dribbling. She groaned as the sound made her feel like her ears were bleeding. She finally reached out the alarm clock and turned it off. Her eyes still closed, Natasha felt paper where her hand was resting on the night stand, she slowly and carefully opened one then the other eye and read the note.

Sorry for the alarm, I hope it wasn't too loud. I'm at the gym right now, I'll be back before lunch so make yourself home.

Love, Carol

PS: there's aspirin in the cupboard next to the fridge, just in case

She smiled at the post scriptum note and let out an amused sigh, Carol knew the redhead would be hangover and affected by a severe headache. Natasha rubbed the sleep from her eyes to try and see better and noticed she was still in her clothes, only her boots were on the floor next to the bed. She whimpered in pain as she rolled to lay on her back, her whole body sore from the too much alcohol she had had the night before.

Natasha usually handled vodka pretty well, Russian genes, but her recent tiredness from getting back to work made her more sensitive to its effects.

It took her a few attempts but the redhead finally managed to crawl out of Carol's bed. Her first steps were unsure as every time her feet touched the ground the sound resonated in her ears and her head span. She reached the kitchen and walked directly to the cupboard Carol had indicated her, the glasses were their as well as the aspiring she was looking for. She swallowed the medicine, filled up the glass with water and drank to make its absorption easier. She sat down on one of the chairs around the table and held her head in her hands, rubbing her temples to make the pain go away. She allowed herself to lay on the table, her head in her crossed arms, to rest her eyes, 'I just need a few more minutes,' she thought as her mind drifted, her vision blurring until she couldn't even see.

A soft pressure on her shoulder and a familiar voice brought her back to the living world, "Hey there, don't you think the couch would be a better piece of furniture to sleep on." Natasha hummed as she opened her eyes slightly, just enough to see the blonde face, "Hey!" She whispered at the woman standing next to her and sat up on her chair. Carol proposed a hand that Natasha reached and put her weight on to help herself stood up. The meds she had took worked but she still felt soreness in her body and stumbled toward Carol. The blonde wrapped her arms around Nat's waist to steady the redhead, pulling her close to her own body.

"How do you feel?" Natasha groaned against Carol's chest and felt the girl chuckled, "What if you go take a shower and I'll cook you something?" Nat didn't reply but hugged tighter, she held on the woman she loved, as long as the other woman let her and it lasted an eternity. They just stood there, enjoying each other's hold, Natasha taking deep breaths of the blonde's scent, her head under Carol's chin and arms wrapped around her neck. She could hear the heart of her partner beat in her chest, hitting her ribcage and she was hypnotized by the sound of the regular and slow rhythm. She lost herself in thoughts of the future the two of them might have one day, as soon as possible she hoped. And there her brain shifted to thinking about the worst and she broke the hug, looking at Carol with worries in her gaze and the blonde didn't understand what was happening in her partner's head, "Bucky's right. Even if we aren't actually dating we are still breaking the rules." Carol tilted her head to look into the emerald eyes and inhaled deeply, "Do you think we should stop, doing that?" She asked looking around at her apartment and back at Natasha.

"We've been so reckless doing what we've done recently, I mean, what if we get caught? Tony won't give us away but some other might and I don't wanna lose our partnership." She took a few moments to think properly about the next words she want to use, "I really like you, Carol and I really like working with you, I don't want it to stop. So, yeah, if that's what it takes to be your partner and later also your girlfriend then we should stop stealing those moments and behave. It might take two weeks or six months but the result is worth the wait."

It was Carol's turn to take a deep breath, she tried to think about their other possibilities but she came to realisation that Natasha was right. The fact that she wouldn't be able to kiss Nat, to hold her like she was doing at this second made her heart ache. She nodded, eyes closed and tighten her hold around Natasha's waist, pulling her closer than ever. When she finally decided to talk, her throat was dry and her voice wavered, "It was our last sleepover then." She wanted to sound joyful and strong but it came out bittersweet and full of sorrow. She glanced down at the smaller woman with tear in her eyes and Natasha couldn't help it and leaned in to kiss her. She pressed her lips hard against the blonde, not minding that their noses were crushed. When they pulled away, the redhead wiped the tears that had fallen off of Carol's eyes and were rolling down on her cheeks. The other woman’s sad face made Natasha heart ache, and she decided to open up about her feelings, she was giving the blonde her words, that whatever time it would take, they would be together in the end, "I love you, C." She whispered and the blonde's face turned into the softest, most beautiful, pure and genuine grin Natasha had ever seen, "I love you, too."

Natasha gave Carol one last kiss on the lips, one on her cheek and pulled out of Carol's grip, her gaze not leaving the hazelnut eyes as she walked out of the kitchen, until the wall that was separating the room from the other parts of Carol's flat forced her to.

Carol followed her from afar, knowing that the closer she would get the more she would want to grab the redhead and never let her go. She leaned against the door frame and watched her partner putting on her boots, "Hold on the offer of a lunch, I'd love to try Carol Danvers' cooking skills." Carol chuckled, "You still owe me a date, you'll get your lunch after that."

Natasha walked past Carol to the front door and stopped there, a hand on the handle, and exhaled sharply, "Congratulations on Rogers arrest, Danvers."

Chapter Text

Ranking up, that's something an officer with only one year of experience couldn't dream of, even Wanda, with her almost three years in the NYPD, didn't think she had the experience necessary to achieve it. And yet, there was Carol, a year and two months after she graduated from the police academy, waiting and hoping for her Detective application to be validated. She had a good profile, according to Tony and Fury, the former NYPD chief, but her lack of seniority was the bad point in her curriculum vitae. Carol still kept high hopes, asking once a week to Tony if he had news. It had been two months and a half since she gave her dossier for examination, with all the case she had solved, her perfect records and, of course, Steve Rogers' arrest credits. The latter was what made Tony think she would made it to Detective but he didn't expect the process to be this long, it usually takes maximum two months for an application to be approved or not and the fact that they didn't have infos yet worried him a bit.

Natasha tried not to think about it, because thinking about the possibilities would make her think about Carol and it was already hard not to when she was seeing her ten hours a day, five or six times a week. She usually had really good control over her feelings but being around the blonde so often made it hard. There was this one time they were both in the precinct's bathroom, nobody else in the building than the two of them as they had arrived early and Natasha thought for a quarter of second that she would jump on Carol and kiss her until the blonde would beg her to stop. She dreamt about Carol's hands on her body so many times, waking up with a start as the touch felt so real and she had to actually check if the blonde wasn't in bed with her. She wanted to feel Carol’s body against hers, her soft hands slowly sliding up her back under her shirt, her warmness, damn she missed her warmness so Goddamn much. She knew the wait would be frustrating but she didn't expected it to be that much unbearable, even the most casual smile or look from the blonde were a trigger to her feelings.

Carol, on the other hand, was doing great after the anxiety she got when Nat and herself decided to wait. Of course, sometimes, she caught herself daydreaming, staring at the redhead's curves or face when the other woman wasn't looking but she wasn't that frustrated, she just acknowledged the fact that things like rank up applications takes time and that she'd have to wait whether it's validated or not, therefore she tried and succeeded to ease the bad feelings.

Exactly three months after she filed the demand for promotion, Tony called her in his office when she stepped into the precinct. The blonde entered and closed the door behind her. The Captain, a pen held between his teeth, showed her the chair in front of his desk with a sign of his head, inviting her to sit down. Carol executed and waited for him to finish whatever thing he was doing. She watched him going through tonnes of papers, lost in the mess he created. She crossed her arms against her chest and started beating the rhythm of a song she had in her head with her foot. She stopped when the man finally spoke up, "Aaah, found it!" he said, the pen still in his mouth. The blonde cocked a brow, wondering what her boss was about to tell her.

"Alright, I thought you might need this," he handed her a sheet of paper, "now that I've got some good news!" he added with a smirk growing up at the corner of his lips. Carol took a look at the document he gave her and gasp in disbelief of its content, her eyes widened, "Are you being serious right now?"

He laughed, "Of course I am, I would never joke about that, especially when my friends are involved."

The woman couldn't believe what she had in hands, it was a copy of the Human Resources sheets Natasha and herself had to sign, informing the police department they were dating, it was Tony's way to tell Carol she had been promoted, "I gotta tell Natasha!" she exclaimed and stood up, heading to her partner's desk.

"Wait up!" Tony shouted, stopping her in her pace as she already had open the door and almost leave the room, "you have to wait 'til next week to sign and give it back to me. Next Monday at the same time, you'll be officially promoted as Detective but in the meantime you're still officer Danvers."

Carol threw him a glare that would have killed him of Carol's eyes were guns, what was the point of giving her the paper of she couldn't sign it now, she thought. For a second she wanted to throw the paper in the bin to show him how angry she was but the man didn’t mean to harm her so she held back herself and lightly hit the metal door frame with the palm of her hand. She twitched her lips, looking down as she thought about the right way to express her feelings. She turned back to look at him and chuckled, "I guess I'll have to wait another week to ask her out, huh," It wasn't a question and her tone was meant to make Tony understand it. She sighed and rolled her eyes, her hand on the door knot, ready to close it, "but thanks, Tony, I'm really happy to be your new Detective." the Captain nodded and she left the room.

She walked to her desk and wondered if she should tell Natasha the news or not. She didn't have the time to think more about it, her partner stepped in her eyesight and greeted her with a soft smile, "What did Tony wanted from you?" Of course she had seen her going in his office and now she hadn't a backup solution, she had to tell her. She decided not to rush it though and led her partner to her seat, her hand finding the lower back of the redhead.

"Tony, uh, give me this," she showed Natasha the paper, far enough so the other woman could not read what it said, even if she tried, squinting her eyes in case it would help her see better, "which means, in Tony's language 'congrats Carol for your upcoming promotion'."

"Y- for real? That's great, Congratulations Carol!" Natasha stood up from her chair and gave Carol a hug that the blonde didn't returned. When Natasha pulled out, she noticed the frustration on Carol's face and took a look at the paper in her hands. Before she could realise what it was, Carol spoke up, "Don't look at that, we can't sign it yet."

Natasha took a step back and raised an eyebrow, "We?" Carol gave her the paper and she hummed as she read the first few lines. When she looked up at her obviously-frustrated partner she tried to cheer her up with her typical smirk, "It's just five days, C!"

Carol couldn't hold the smile that had been threatening to grow on her face during the whole conversation as she saw the joy in Nat's eyes. She was right, they managed to wait three months, they could wait five more days easily.

"I know, it's just, uh. I really wanna go on a date with you and when he gave me the paper I thought I could but then he told me we still had to wait and, I just, aaaahh, I hate that feeling." Natasha giggled at the sight of her partner rolling her eyes at her own feelings. She reached out Carol's hands and traced lines onto their backs, "Yeah, frustration, I'm quite familiar with the whole thing if I'm being honest." Carol looked down at their hands and back in the green-eyed gaze, she saw them sparkled and were well followed by a grin.

"I could totally ask you out now, honestly, as long as we contain ourselves until Monday, I don't see what would be wrong."

"You can ask me out now for next week so we won't have to contain ourselves." Natasha winked mischievously and it sent shivers through Carol's whole body. She freed one of her hand, took her phone out of her jacket's pocket, keeping a hold of Natasha's other hand and check out her schedule, "You're free a week on Saturday?"

Natasha smirked as she saw Carol's features softened, "for you, darling, always!"

~~~

"Hello!"

"Buchanan!"

"Carol, what the fuck! Call me Bucky, even James if you want but not Buchanan! What do you want?"

A little offended by Bucky's tone, she replied shyly, "I, uh, need advice."

"Okay, and what's that about? "

"I .. hmm.. have a date.. tomorrow with, uh.. with Nat."

"That's great but don't you have Wanda to give you advice on that, I'm sure she knows Natasha better than I do." His voice had softened and the blonde felt more comfortable talking to him.

"Yeah, no, hmm. Natasha’s not the problem."

"What is it then?"

"I'm so fucking nervous, James, I don't know why. It's like I've never been on a date before and i- uuuuh, I can't handle it, my heart gonna stop I know it."

"Okay, stop. First of all, breathe. Second, it's not like it was the first time you did something romantic with her, I mean, you guys looked like an actual married couple the other time at the bar, it's not that big of a deal."

"I know all that but I'm so fucking stressed I feel I'll pee my pants before the main course during that dinner."

"Wow, that's classy."

"Sorry, I'm just so nervous that every things my brain thinks come out of my mouth."

"Well don't do that during your date!" She heard him trying to hold a laughter.

"Stop it, this is not funny, Bucky!"

"Okay, uh, do you think you dread being public with her or something?"

"I, uh." She stopped talking, thinking about her last relationship and how long it had been since she went on a date with someone. "You know what Bucky, you might be right."

"Well, now you just have to figure out why and everything will be good."

"I think I do know. Thank you Bucky."

"No problem, anytime!"

Carol hung up the phone and it hit her like lightning, the last time she went on a date she still was an air force pilot and the last time she dated someone was even more earlier in her life. Her last relationship that lasted, more than two months, was in freshman year of college, she dated a girl from the half of the first semester to the end of the year. The girl broke up with her when she left for another university. Then, she had had a few sex friends from time to time, relationship that always ended up with the other girl having feelings for Carol, that she didn't reciprocate, and she had to stop seeing them. Her last date had been a set up by her best friend with the mother of one her daughter's friends. She had spent a lovely evening but nothing had happened when she brought the woman home. Ever since she only had one night stands until she met Natasha.

This meeting was unexpected and, at first, Carol tried to avoid what she was feeling for the redhead but she quickly came to realisation that she would not be able to, because she just had met the love of her life and there was no point avoiding it. It didn't scared her though, well, not until their relationship was about to become concrete, she knew all along that if something had to happen it would. Of course she had doubts sometimes but, in the end, her gut was right and Natasha was feeling the same way about her.

~~~

Getting ready to her date, Natasha heard her phone ring, she smiled at the sight of the contact name on her screen, it was kind of childish but it reflected exactly how she felt around the blonde.

[C 🥰]

Hey Nat, you mind picking me up at the gym instead of my place? My session will last longer than I thought.

She rolled her eyes and chuckled at Carol's lack of organisation, it was the third time the blonde had a longer-than-expected gym session. The first two time were because she was late at them and Natasha knew it was the same this time. The redhead wondered how she was always early at work but often late for everything else. She made a mental note to ask her about that before taking her phone to reply.

[Nat ❤️]

Of course, C, no problem. I guess you'll need to change after, right?

Natasha was sure her partner would need to change, she couldn't go on a date in a fancy restaurant wearing only a sports bra and a pair of leggings (she would if Natasha dare her to).

[C 🥰]

Yep, you got it! I'll be quick I promise 😇

The emoji made Natasha's heart flutter, it was Carol's favourite and she didn't use it for everybody, only for the important ones she once said.

Natasha finished getting ready, freeing her wavy red hair from the ponytail they had been stuck in all day and put on some perfume, the one she wore when she and Carol first met. She grabbed her purse and climbed on her heels, that outlined perfectly her curves, and walked down to her building garage.

Arriving at Carol's gym, Natasha felt a little bit of nervousness, apprehension in a way. The fact that she was, finally, going on a date with Carol had more impact on her than she thought it would. She took an additional minute to breathe and get herself together before stepping out of her car. As she did, she saw her date in deep conversation and laughing with who was surely her coach, a tall, brunette woman, quite gorgeous, Natasha had to admit. After a dozen of second, that felt like an eternity for the redhead, Carol noticed Natasha was parked and waved at her, a big grin on her face, grin that made her eyes disappear as they were almost closed. The blonde exchanged a few last words with her coach before running toward Natasha. From the inside of the building she hadn't noticed how beautiful Natasha was in her V-necked jumper and her tight black leather jeans and froze when she realised it, "Oh, wow, Natasha.. you are.. stunning." She managed to stammer as she walked to her. Natasha replied with her typical smirk and leaned in to kiss the blonde's cheek, "Thanks." she whispered in Carol's ear, her lips brushing slightly the warm skin as she did.

"Shall we?" She asked, opening the door to the passenger seat, "you wouldn't be late to our reservation." Carol shook her head a sat down, closed the door and buckled up while Natasha was walking her way to the driver seat.

The discussion went smoothly as Natasha drove the both of them to Carol's. As usual, the blonde talked about her session at the gym and how bad her body felt at the very moment. She didn’t complain that much though, knowing that after what Natasha had been through, her little pain from too much exercise was ridiculously nothing compared to what her partner must have felt. As usual, Natasha was carefully listening to every single word the blonde was saying, not willing to interrupt her, she knew she would have her window to speak and ask her what she wanted. When they got to the blonde's place she told Nat to wait in the car and that she would not take more than ten minutes to get ready.

Ten minutes, what was it in a lifetime, nothing, but when you're waiting for the woman you love, it can feel like decades. And that was exactly how Natasha felt as she waited, looking every half minute at her phone to check the time. After a couple of minutes she turned off the engine, thinking she didn't really need the heating system to be on, her excitement already keeping her warm. Another five minutes past and Natasha was starting to think Carol had chickened out. Or did ten minutes meant ten minutes to get prepared, plus the time to get to her place and back to the car, or...

Natasha didn't have the time to think more when she heard a knock on her window. Standing there, Carol was wearing her classic leather jacket above a large white shirt and black skinny jeans. It was a simple outfit but it was still different than what Natasha was used to see her partner wear and her dropped jaw couldn't tell otherwise. She watched as the other woman walked to her side of the car, her heart pounding at the sight of Carol's body. She managed to gather herself while Carol was sitting properly in her seat, she put back on her proud smirk and stated, "Quite stunning yourself, Ms. Danvers."

"Thank you, Ms. Romanoff!" Carol mirroring her turn of phrase made Nat chuckled as she started the engine. Quickly, her mental note came back in her mind but it's another question that came out of her mouth, "The woman you were talking to when I arrived, she's your coach, right?"

"Yeah, Minnerva!"

"I thought your coach was a boring dude"

"It was, he left about a week after your accident. I had no coach for almost a month ‘til Minn came."

"She's cute, you slept with her?" The question took Carol by surprise, the woman was good looking, Carol couldn't disagree, but she didn't even thought for a second to sleep with her. She figured Natasha was kind of jealous (she was) but she wasn't going to tease her about it, it was adorable of her and it was the perfect moment for the blonde to prove to Natasha that she was fully committed in their relationship. She hesitated a little before she found the perfect answer, "I could've, honestly. She did hit on me the two or three first sessions but I told her that I wasn't interested, that I have feelings for someone else and I didn't want to screw up anything, even if there was nothing going on at the time."

Natasha felt her heart racing under her ribcage, she felt like she could stop the car, right here, right now, just to hold Carol in her arms, the tighter she was able to, as her words were tremendously soft and genuine. Instead, she rested her hand on Carol's and gave it three quick squeeze and they both knew what she meant by it.

They finally arrived to the restaurant, right on time for their reservation. They stepped in, Natasha leading the way, and stood at the front desk, casually chatting until a waiter came to show them their table. They were sitting at an isolated table, close to a widow from where they could see the liveliness of the city that never sleeps. The duo ordered the same dish, vegan lasagna, known to be the best of New York City.

The redhead, after a quick hesitation, shared the story of her ex, Maria, another policewoman, who used Natasha to climb the ladder on her back. Natasha was so madly in love with her that she never saw her shenanigans. When the woman got what she wanted, she broke up with Natasha, telling her the truth, that she never loved her and that she used her, breaking the redhead's heart in millions of pieces in the process. Natasha had a very hard time trusting anyone in a romantical way after that, until she met Carol.

The name of Nat's ex made Carol's heart ache, it was the name of her late best friend, Carol had lost in the accident they were in when she was still at the air force. At those thought, her coping mechanisms came back and she didn't even try to fight it.

As they ate and talk, Natasha noticed a little detail in Carol's behaviour, she was pinching the palm of her right hand every time before taking a sip of her red wine, Natasha had never seen her partner do that and it worried her. The blonde also suddently sounded nervous, and Natasha had a hard time understanding why. After the waiter had came to clear up their plates, Natasha took her chance a grabbed Carol's hand, softly tracing lines on her palm, where the blonde was hurting herself. Carol looked away from the green stares the second she felt the warm skin on hers, not stopping the redhead in her touch though.

"Hey, C, what's going on?" The blonde glanced back towards Natasha's direction but still avoided her eyes. The redhead was more and more worried at the sight of her partner's sad features, she squeezed one time to try and get her attention, "Talk to me, sweetie, please."

"I just.." her throat was dry and it hurt when she tried to speak, her eyes, on the another hand, were wet and red, "I just hate that I can't share with you the most important story of my life." A tear rolled down her cheek and Natasha leaned to reach it and wipe it away, "What if we get outta here, come at mine and we'll talk, okay? Nobody will ever know what you want to tell me back there."

"Okay." the blonde nodded and sniffed.

"Alright, I'm gonna pay for this, you go to the car." Natasha watched Carol walked away as she waited for the waiter to give her the bill. She didn't know where she was stepping into with this mysterious story but she was sure as hell she wanted to be there for Carol and she would do anything to make her feel better.

Chapter Text

This time the ride was completely quiet as the duo drove their way to Natasha's flat. Carol was anxious, she wanted to explain everything to Natasha so badly but she also had this little voice in her head reminding her it was forbidden and that she might get in trouble if she did. She wasn't sure yet whether she would tell her or not and was grateful Nat's place was far, it gave her more time to think.

The traffic was heavy, horns were resounding nearby and Natasha had a hard time keeping her calm down. When the car just on her left beeped she clenched her fists around the wheel, making the leather it was made of squeak.

"Fuck it, I know a shortcut," she muttered and turned to the right in a very small alley they couldn't quite see the end of. Carol yelped as the closeness her door was from the wall of the building, the least swerve in any direction would throw them into a red brick wall. She sat up properly and looked at Natasha, who was focus in not killing them. They finally got out of the alley and Carol gasped in relief relaxing in her seat. Natasha parked and reached out the blonde cheek, "I'm sorry I scared you, I get kinda claustrophobic in traffic jams." Carol kissed the inside of Natasha's hand, her eyes closed as the redhead was softly tracing lines on her cheekbone.

"If that's okay for you we can go on foot, my place is only a few minutes away." Carol nodded and they stepped out of the car. They walked on the pavement, side by side and Carol had no idea which part of New York they were in, it seemed fancy and there was something that made the air smell fresher, cleaner than the usual Big Apple's scent.

On a zebra crossing, the blonde felt a finger tickling her palm before it was joined by others, intertwining with hers. She kept her gaze straight but smiled and noticed in her peripheral vision that Natasha was smiling too. A quiet giggle followed and there they stopped, in front of an early 00' building, "Alright, let's get upstairs."

The atmosphere was heavy when they walked into the lift, Natasha, obviously more claustrophobic in there than in the middle of a traffic jam, held tighter onto her grip, getting closer until she could press her forehead against Carol's shoulder, frowning, and tried her hardest to control her breathing. The blonde reached Nat's head, slowly stroking her hand in the red locks to calm her down. It became clear into both their minds that they needed the other, desperately, to feel good and safe, whether it was Natasha or Carol who needed attention. The machine finally stopped and the doors opened, freeing Natasha from her fear, they stepped out to face a single wooden door.

"Are we at the top floor?" The blonde asked innocently and Natasha replied by simply getting the door opened and let her see by herself.

The place was a wonderful penthouse with a breathtaking view of Manhattan. Carol walked towards the window, dumbstruck by what her eyes were seeing. Natasha joined her and slid her hands around Carol's waist from behind, kissing the blonde's neck gently. "I didn't know you could afford a place like this, Romanoff!"

"I can't but Tony does, he bought me this earlier in our friendship." Carol turned in Nat's hold to face her and smirk, "It must be cool to be friend with him sometimes."

"Yeah, he has his moments!" Carol faked astonishment at her partner's comment and giggled. God knows how much Natasha loved that sound, the sound of pure joy that Carol felt at this particular moment. They stood there, staring, grinning, neither of them willing to break the comfortable silence they had buried themselves into. It was nice, being able to just be, not doing anything more than just breathing and living. But unfortunately, being never stopped the brain from thinking, and that's what made Carol's smile fade away as she was reminded of why Natasha brought her here. She wasn't ready for this conversation, she wanted Natasha to confess her a part of her life before she did and there she heard herself saying, "I didn't know you were claustrophobic."

"Yeah, it's a fear I've been fighting my whole life, quite effectively actually, until I got shot." She breathe sharply, looking back in the hazel-eyed gaze, "Being stuck in a body that didn't wanted to do what I asked, it brought back this fear and I didn't manage to get a rid of it this time."

"You should have told me."

"I know," Natasha whispered, tucking her face in the crook of Carol's neck, "I didn't want you to worry more."

"You should go see a psychologist, I'm sure it would help you get better." The redhead nodded against the warm skin of Carol and exhaled heavily, thankful she had the blonde as her partner.

She glanced up at the other woman for a few seconds and smirk, pulling her to another room of her flat, "You gotta see this." she said and Carol cocked an eyebrow.

She opened a door that led to her bedroom. For a second Carol thought they would finally have sex but then she looked through the window and completely forgot the idea. Opposite to Natasha's bed was a panoramic window that gave a full view of Central Park. Carol didn't know why she was surprised, of course one of the side of Nat's place had a view of the park but she didn't expect it to be this amazing to watch. Natasha sat at the edge of her bed a pulled Carol to her, looking up as the girl was standing in front of her, "I know it's hard for you and I'm not gonna push you if you don't wanna talk about it but I take my chance," Carol closed her eyes, fully aware of the subject that would follow whatever Natasha was about to ask, "can you tell me more about the air force?" The blonde inhaled sharply as the words hit her eardrums, looked down at Natasha who had a half smile on her face, somehow comforting, and sat down next to her. She locked her eyes on their laced hands, not sure where to start. Natasha waited, she would wait forever if that was what it would take to make Carol open up to her.

"Okay, hmm," she attempted to start sharing her story but her voice wavered already, she cleared her throat and tried again, "I joined the air force when I was, uh, twenty two and there I met this wonderful human being named Maria." Saying her name made her stomach ache and her heart flutter, it had been a year and a half since she last said this name. Natasha understood at Carol's first words why she changed behaviour at dinner and cursed herself for telling this story about her ex.

"She and I became really close, really fast. She was my best friend and even the only person I had." Carol was already tearing up yet the hardest part hadn't even started. Natasha said nothing, not pushing her to speed up, she just sat there, letting Carol take the time she needed, "Two years ago we met this woman, Dr. Lawson. She, uh, built a plane that was the fastest ever and myself and Ma-... we had been assigned to test it."

Flashes came back to her memory and she couldn't stop the tears they were bringing out as well. She sniffed and wiped them out with her knuckle, got herself together to finish her storytelling, "We were not thrilled by the idea and asked our boss not to do it but this son of a bitch didn't care, he forced us to test the goddamn plane because the government had founded its building so 'what could go wrong.' " she air quoted and took her hold of Natasha's hands back right away.

"The doc told us this plane would help stop the wars all over the planet, that it wouldn't just help fighting them but it would finish them. And of course when you talk about peace Maria rush into things," Carol chuckled, remembering the very words her best friend said, "'If there are lives at stake, I'll fly the plane' she said. Big hero moment for her. I was still sceptical and tried to told her out of it but she had made her mind and she promised me everything would be alright."

~~~

"Danvers, can you trust me, I got this!"

"Oh please, Maria, you know damn well I trust you! It's the plane I don't trust."

"Why? We examined it together, you said it was all good, it was the most impressive engine you had ever seen and yet, there you are, trying to talk me out of it. What is it, huh? Are you jealous? You wanted to fly it and now you gotta watch me doing it."

"Okay, you're insane, go fly your shit, I don't care."

"Fine!"

"I'll be in the control tower, in case you finally come to realisation that this is a bad idea."

~~~

"Lawson wanted to be there for the first flight so I was in the control tower while they were up there. I could hear everything, I heard everything, from Maria's screams of fear when the engine started to fail to the sound of the plane crashing onto the ground." She stopped, a sob escaping her mouth. She wasn't fighting the tears any more.

For the first time, Natasha glanced away from her partner, trying to hold her own tears. What Carol was telling plus the blonde herself, face full of sorrow, tears streaming down her cheeks, made it nearly impossible for the redhead to do so, her heart ache so much in compassion with Carol that she didn't manage to keep them any longer. Hearing Carol's sobs were unbearable and her instinct came back, she wrapped an arm around Carol's shoulders and pulled her close against her chest, whispering comforting words to the blonde's ears, "I'm so sorry baby."

Carol was holding tight at Natasha's midsection, her body trembling at the pain the memories had brought out. She wasn't done talking and fighting with herself to sat up and looked into the dark green eyes, "It took, uh, about three days to find them and I had to ID the bodies. It was the worst experience of my life, seeing her inanimate body, lying there, partly burnt by the explosion of the engine. I could still see the pain in her slightly opened eyes, it was like she was begging me to stop her, over and over again, asking me why I didn't insisted more, why the last thing I said to her was that she was insane instead of telling her I loved her." She knew what she was saying was not in order but she didn't care, she wanted to let it all out and Natasha was there to help her go through it. The redhead shush her, discreetly, knowing Carol couldn't endure any more pain for tonight and pulled her back in her arms. She laid down on her side with Carol, holding tight yet gently as the blonde was crying her eyes out.

And they laid there for hours, Carol not stopping to cry even with Natasha's soft words and touch. One of the redhead's hand was running up and down Carol's back while the other was stroking the golden hair. Carol was grateful for Natasha's gesture and wanted to show it to her but she couldn't stop herself from crying and sobbing. In the end, exhaustion caught her and she fell asleep into Nat's arms. The redhead managed to crawl to her pillow, took off her and Carol's shoes and top, just to make themself comfortable, not waking Carol up as she did and fell asleep as well.

The first thing Carol felt when she woke up was a light touch on her bare arm, fingertips running up and down, tickling her and making her shiver. Natasha noticed the goosebumps on the pale skin and stopped, "Keep going, please." the weak voice of Carol made Natasha grinned and she did as she was asked.

"Good morning, C," She whispered as she leaned down to kiss Carol's cheek. The blonde groaned, feeling her body ache as she laid on her stomach, the side of her head pressed flat against the mattress, "how are you feeling?"

She could have said the very truth, tell Natasha she felt like shit but it wouldn't be fair for the redhead who took care of her the whole night before, for hours when Carol was just a sobbing mess, "Better, I think, thanks to you." she finally answered as she opened her eyes to see the tired face of Natasha. A smile grew up at the words and Carol couldn't help but mirroring.

"Good."

Natasha leaned down again and leave a trail of kisses onto Carol's bare back. The blonde didn't remember how she ended up with only her bra on but she didn't mind and enjoyed each and every one of Natasha's kiss on her skin. When she reached Carol's lower back, Nat stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Carol alone and without any explanations. The blonde rolled on her back and her eyes fell on a chair where her shirt was nicely folded. She rubbed her eyes and when she opened them back Natasha was standing in front of her, wearing a dressing gown, with a tray in her hands, "Breakfast is served!" she said with an unusual cheerful tone. She sat next to Carol on the side of the bed and gave her the tray, on it was a glass of juice, seemed like apple juice, a few jam toasts and a cup of tea.

"Thank you, baby!" Carol said, leaning in to kiss Natasha.

The redhead watched her eating, hearts in her eyes at the small smile she could detect at the corner of Carol's lips. The blonde finished eating and put away the tray to give Natasha space to sit properly next to her. As she did, Natasha wrapped an arm around Carol, foreseeing that the woman would need it in the next few minutes, "Can we talk about what you told me yesterday?" she asked softly yet it made the blonde pout.

"I guess, what do you want to know?"

"Why couldn't you tell me all of this? Why is it all redacted in your files?" Carol remembered the first day they met, Natasha was reading her file and must have had access to the report of the accident, or what was legible.

"It's, uh, because the government are covering their asses, they founded the whole thing and it turned out to be an immense failure and it killed two people in the process."

"Did you get anything from them, in compensation for keeping your mouth shut?"

"They paid for the police academy and for the apartment I live in, but those assholes didn't manage to give me custody for her daughter, they said I had to choose, whether staying in Louisiana and get custody or coming here and I'd have visits right from time to time in her foster family."

"You chose New York because you couldn't stay in the city you use to live with her."

"Yeah. The judge said it was better for Monica to keep her daily routine but I couldn't. Being in her house, our home, without her, I j- I tried but I couldn't. So, for once, I chose myself over someone else and I came here. And the worst part is that I've never seen any attempts from them to give me visits rights, they consider me a stranger to her when I was kinda co-parenting with Maria, I don't even know where she is living now." Carol glanced down at her hands, kind of ashamed that she abandoned her niece. Mechanically, she started pinching the back of her left hand with her right hand, "Eh, hey, stop doing that!" Natasha said loudly but gently, preventing Carol from hurting herself even more.

"Sorry, it's just, when it happened I started doing that as if it would wake me up from the awful nightmares I was stuck into."

Carol's words hurt Natasha. If Carol was doing it again then it meant she wanted to wake up from where is was, with Natasha. The blonde noticed the change in Nat's feature and immediately spoke up, "Hey, no that's not what I- it's not that any more, I just do that when I'm over stressed now, it's my coping mechanisms."

She cupped Natasha's jaw with her hands and looked right into her emerald eyes, "I don't wanna wake up from this, okay? This is the life I was looking for when I chose to come to New York. More than a job, I was looking for friends and family and I found it, with Wanda, Tony, Bucky and you. They are the friends I wanted and you are the family I had never had, you're my home Natasha, you make my days brighter, you are the best part of my life, the best part of me. I love you more than anyone."

"I love you, too." Nat whispered and hugged Carol, her face buried in the blonde hair. Carol kissed her hair and pulled out, her eyes locking with Natasha's again, "I'm sorry, I cut you, what were you saying?"

"I was finished, you know everything, there's nothing more to say, really."

"Okay!"

"Now, let me ask you something, why is it that I discovered on your mailbox that your first name is actually Natalia?" Nat gaped, how did Carol saw her letterbox when they walked into her building, it's not like they stayed there for a long time.

"I, uh. I don't really use that name any more, only for administrative purposes. Officially, in the US, I'm Natalia Romanoff, that's why it's written on my mailbox but I stopped using it in my daily life a year after I landed here."

"Why?"

"I don't like what it reminds me." Carol looked at Natasha with insistence, she wanted to now more. Natasha hesitated but eventually decided it was her turn to share her past, "My childhood in Russia wasn't that bad, I'm not gonna lie, but it was very strict and it became even harder when I lost my mother. My father never cared about me and my sister so when I had the means to leave I took a flight here and I never went back."

"What about your sister? Where is she now?"

"She's somewhere in Russia, I think. I haven't talked to her in years and, for what I know, she doesn't want to talk to me so.."

"I'm sorry, Nat."

"It's okay, C. She might be my family by blood but you and Tony are my actual family, the one that matters."

"We are soft this morning, it's really confusing." Carol said, letting out a breathy laughter.

"I know, right! Don't stop though, I love it when you're soft."

"I won't." A silence fell between the two of them. Carol had an idea, maybe one that Natasha wouldn't like but she had to take a shot at it, "Eh, baby?" Natasha hummed, her head resting on Carol's shoulder, "would you mind if I called you Natalia? It's such a beautiful name, I think it's sad that nobody is using it any more." The redhead didn't take time to think, "I suppose you could get the honour to be the only person to call me that way."

"You sure?" The blonde asked and Nat nodded in agreement and close her eyes, relaxing against the warmth of Carol's body. The blonde kissed Nat's hairline and slid down to lay under the sheet, Natasha's head falling onto her chest, almost already asleep, "I guess I could use a nap too." she murmured, letting herself drift into sleep as well.

Carol spent the whole afternoon at Natasha's or, actually, in her bed, and not sleeping. By the end of the day, the question of her staying for the night hadn't been needed to be asked, the two women just acted like they were dating for years, Carol cooked the meal she had promised Natasha she would and Natasha set the table before joining Carol to help her.

After dinner, they settled down on the sofa and put on a film. Around about the one hour mark, Natasha was more focus on getting Carol's attention than on what was happening on the screen. The blonde was so absorbed in the story she didn't notice Natasha staring at her yet the redhead was quite insisting, she was seated in Carol's direction, her chin pressed against her knees, softly smiling. She patted her girlfriend's thigh with her foot but she didn't react, after a few more attempts, the blonde glanced towards Natasha with an annoyed face and looked back at the TV. She kept poking Carol but this time when their eyes met she laughed at the goofy face Natasha was making, "You are such a baby!" she giggled and threw her a cushion. The redhead dodged it and jumped on Carol, ending straddling the hips of a now lying Carol.

"A baby with some moves you haven't seen yet." Natasha's smirk was in place and it directly turned on the blonde. "More than what you showed me earlier? I'm listening."

Natasha chuckled and her eyes filled up with mischief, "Very well Danvers, tonight you're mine."

The night was short and the couple was running late to work, not actually late, more like just-right-in-time-but-late-for-Natasha-Romanoff late. They stepped into the precinct, hand in hand and walked to their desks, "Romanoff, a word." Tony said, his head sticking out of the door.

"'Course." she threw a quick look to Carol with a wink and handed her her bag before entering his office.

Carol went to her desk and ploughed into Wanda, "Get your head out of the clouds Danvers."

"Oh, hey Wanda! I didn't see you here."

"Yeah, sure, thinking about your girlfriend, huh?"

Carol giggled like a schoolgirl, "Well, you're not wrong." she put Natasha's bag on her desk and sat on her chair, next to Wanda. The brunette moved her chair closer to Carol, "So, how was the date?"

"Overwhelming but certainly one of the most relieving moment of my life."

"Good, I'm happy for the two of you!" Wanda gave Carol a warm smile and the blonde returned it, "I see you didn't leave her place, that's her clothes, I recognize this shirt." she added, pulling the lapel of Carol's piece of clothing.

"Don't you think it was a sex marathon, it wasn't, till last night." Carol smirked which made Wanda gaped and raised an eyebrow, "I didn't ask for details but I guess that's even better."

"You damn right!"

~~~

Natasha walked into Tony's office and the man wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leading her to a chair, "I wanna hear everything about your date." he said as he walked to the other side of his desk and sat down. Natasha chuckles, she had thought he called her for something work related but, of course, it was about Carol and her.

"Well, it was not what I expected but I learnt a lot an-"

Tony cut her off, "Okay, now, how was the sex?"

"Tony!"

"What? Did you really expect me not to ask?" he said very seriously.

"I thought you'd have the decency not to."

"She stayed at yours last night, right? I noticed she's wearing a shirt I bought you."

"Yes she did, is that a problem?" Nat asked, starting to be exasperate by his questions.

"No no, just wondering if you had a good night of sleep, you look tired." he replied with a smirk, implying something sex related.

"Oh, my god, you're unbelievable!" she stood up and walked towards the door, "Is that another of your bet with Wanda or you're just being annoying?"

"I'm just making sure you two are fine, I don't see what's wrong." Natasha sighed amusedly, he always had a strange way to take care of the people he loved, and that's what he was doing now. She stopped her pace and turned back to her best friend, "You are the worst, you know that?"

He stood up and stepped closer, "And yet you love me."

"Yep, that, I do." They both smiled and he took her in his arms, "Thank you, Tony, for everything."

"Give yourself some credit, Romanoff. Like 12%."

"You are such an asshole." she stated, pulling out of his embrace.

"It's Captain."

"Alright, Captain Asshole, I have work to do!" she left, not even listening to Tony's half offended reply, and walked to her desk where Carol was seated, laughing with Wanda.

"Girls, fun time is over."

"She's right, back to work ladies, we're working together for this one." Tony said as he joined the trio at their desks, Natasha sat on Carol's lap and Tony gave them the files of their new case.

That's how work was going to be from now, a couple and their friends working together.

Chapter Text

The two love birds had known each other for a bit more than a year, been dating for six months and living their best lives.

Every weekend they met at one of their places, one week at Nat's, the following at Carol's and so on until they only met at Natasha's. The blonde loved the place and it was closer to the 11th than hers. Every Sunday night she slept at Natasha's and they went together to work the next morning. Half her stuff was at the Manhattan flat, clothes, a toothbrush and even two of her mugs, one with the air force logo and the other with the eleventh logo, had made their way to the cupboard of Nat's kitchen.

She also coaxed her lover in her routine, being only twenty minutes early to work, instead of an hour. It had a good effect on Nat's sleep, the redhead felt better and it gave her time to go to therapy to deal with her fear of small spaces. Carol was also seeing a psychologist to talk about the traumatic experience that had been the death of her best friend. Their appointments were at the same time, at the same office, they went together and left together, sometimes talking about what they told their doctors, sometimes not, but aware that if one needed, the other was always there to listen.

They were in such a wholesome relationship it made their friends kinda jealous, especially Bucky, who had a hard time with his boyfriend recently. He often talked about him, on their weekly meeting at Shield Bar, with Tony and Wanda, but they never met the guy. Carol and Wanda did ask Bucky a few times to bring him along for one night, saying they would be nice with him if he'd come but the brunet always avoided the subject or muttered excuses for his boyfriend's non-presence. However he promised his friends they would meet him one day.

Wanda had met a man, a computer engineer named Vision. Nat caught her once with him and, of course, she told it to their friends during a night at Shield. She brought him with her two times after that and the whole group liked him, he was a very good person and he seemed to make Wanda happy. She also introduced them to her twin brother, Pietro, who was an athlete, an actually pretty well known runner in the US, who almost qualified for the 2020 Olympics. He got along well with Carol, they exchanged numbers and often texted about training, sometimes went to the gym together, he was kinda part of the group but couldn't always show up on the Thursdays night, his tournaments frequently being on Fridays.

Tony also incorporated a monthly dinner in the group of friend habits, at his place, every third weekend of the month. It was a good way for Natasha to see her niece and her friend, Pepper. It happened one time, the last time they met up, that Natasha had to host the dinner at her flat. She took the liberty to invite Vision, Pietro and Sam, only the latter couldn't make it, schedule issues according to Bucky. It was an excellent evening and the redhead sworn she would host again.

This month, unfortunately, no one was able, nor willing, to organise the meeting. Tony was out of town with his family at Pepper's parents', Wanda and Vision were with Pietro in Seattle to support him at the national championships and Bucky had work to do, his final exam to become a teacher approaching.

It gave Carol and Nat a good opportunity to spend a full third-weekend-of the-month together, they usually met at Tony's, or whoever's would host, on the Saturday and then went to one's place instead of going to one another flat directly after work the Fridays.

The couple was supposed to go at Carol's this weekend but as they left the precinct, Natasha heading for her place and Carol for the gym, "I'll be home in two hours, see you there." She kissed Natasha's cheek and left in her car. Carol just said home, speaking of Nat's flat. It gave an idea to the redhead, she had something to ask her girlfriend and she was excited to. She walked home, smiling and greeting everyone who looked at her, in the best mood ever. She walked into her place and went for the bathroom, took a hot shower before going kitchen and started cooking their dinner.

She had just put the lasagna in the oven when Carol came back from the gym, "Baby, I'm home." It was the second time she said home in the same day, she had never said it before and it made Natasha even more sure of what she had to do.

The redhead joined her girlfriend and hugged her, "How's Minnerva doing?"

"She's fine, the same pain in my ass she usually is!" They both laughed, Natasha met Carol's coach a few months back when she went with her to one of her sessions. The woman was funny and a really good teacher, it motivated Natasha to sign up for the gym but her schedule was overbooked with work, her therapy and her friends, she didn't know how Carol managed to add gym in it. It struck her how hard working the blonde was there and it made Natasha even more proud of her.

"She killed me today, I can't feel my back anymore," Carol looked at her partner begging her to make her feel better, "You could just ask for a massage instead of making that face, Danvers!"

"It worked didn't it?"

"Yeah,” Natasha admitted, “but dinner is almost ready so you'll have to wait a little bit longer."

"Fine! It smells very good," she sniffed like a dog looking for a bone, "is that lasagna?"

"It certainly is," Natasha confirmed and the blonde smiled from ear to ear, "you're the best, baby."

They ate casually, Carol talking about the weird exercises Minnerva created just to make her suffer and Natasha was just there, chewing and listening to her girlfriend. The redhead couldn’t stop thinking about the way Carol called her place home and wanted to talk about it with her but the blonde was on a roll and wouldn't stop talking.

After dessert Carol walked directly to the bedroom and threw herself onto the bed, her back still hurting. Her face was hidden by her hair and her head resting on her crossed arms. Natasha tiptoed to join the blonde and slid her hands under the fabric of her shirt, raising it up at the level of the hook of her bra, she unhooked the underwear and let Carol remove both items of clothing. The cold of Natasha's limbs sent shivers through Carol's back, making her tremble and hurting her even more. The redhead settled herself sat on Carol's butt and started rubbing the sore body, her thumbs climbing up, following the spinal cord until they met her shoulder blade and went back down to her lower back. The blonde tried to hold her moans of relief, clenching her jaw as she felt her body relax under Natasha's touch. Nat's slow pace had quite the expected effect and she could feel the muscles eased under her hands. After what was a fifteen-minutes-long massage, the redhead leaned down to Carol's lower back and left a trail of kisses onto Carol's bare back, when she reached her neck, she whispered some filthy words to the blonde's ear and, in her biggest surprise, she didn't responded. Intrigued, she stroked the golden strands of hair that were hiding her girlfriend's pretty face and discovered she was asleep. Nat laughed discreetly, her hand holding the sound that was willing to escape her mouth and laid next to her, "I guess I'll have to wait ‘til tomorrow morning to ask." She murmured to herself and close her eyes.

It wasn't the best sensation that woke Carol up. She opened her eyes and a bright light hit her retina, causing her to instantly close them off. She groaned, rubbed the aching eyeballs, and slowly opened them up, her arm blocking the sunbeam to reach her eyes again. She sat up and stretched, finding herself half naked as the bed sheet fall off her shoulders. She looked down at the mattress, looking for a red haired woman and smiled when she settled her sight on her. The blonde leaned in, her smile turning into a grin as she saw that Natasha was deeply asleep, she cautiously removed a strand of hair off the sleepy face of Nat and gave a soft kiss to her temple.

It was that moment of the day when the sun was enlightening Central Park, giving the green lung of New York its best look. Carol walked to the window and stood there, arm crossed against her chest, contemplating the beauty of Manhattan. She realised she loved being here, the place was great and of course Natasha was living here, which made it even better.

A gentle hand sliding up her arm cut the blonde in her thoughts, she glanced away from the breathtaking landscape and found her girlfriend standing next to her, a bed sheet around her chest, hiding her body and curves that Carol loved so much, "Morning, sunshine!" Carol said joyfully as her lover held tight around her midsection in a passionate hug. Natasha hummed against Carol's chest and the blonde felt it on her skin, the deep sound of Natasha's voice vibrating in her throat. Carol reached out the sheet, tied it off her girlfriend's body it and enveloped herself and Natasha in it. They stood in front of the large window of their bedroom, wrapped in the bed sheet, their naked bodies pressed as they were holding tight, Carol's arms around Natasha's shoulders and the redhead's hand as on the blonde's waist. They were both looking through the glass, Natasha resting the side of her head under Carol’s chin, her ear hearing her heart beating in her chest, until she suddenly glanced up at her girlfriend, smirked and said with a weak tone, "Move in with me."

"W-what?" Carol replied stuttering even if she had totally heard what Natasha told her, her eyes now looking into Natasha's direction, "Please, C, move in with me. You love this place, you can't say otherwise, you love every single room of it, especially this bedroom in which you love yelling my name by the way!" Carol chuckled briefly at the memories that came in her mind, "It's closer to work, it's even closer to your gym,"

"For three minutes," Carol allowed herself to cut Natasha and the redhead didn't mind, "for only three minutes, yeah, but still. You're practically living here already so why not make it official?"

Carol didn't answer, her brain was still processing the informations, "Come on, baby, you can't say no to that view!" Natasha added, looking through the window to the green woods that was Central Park. Natasha's affection for the park had grown in Carol, they very often went on a stroll there, exploring every inch of it.

"I really don't care about that view, I only need this one," Carol finally replied, giving Natasha’s nose a gentle nudge with hers and stared into her dark green eyes. The older woman raised an eyebrow, completely lost about what the blonde just said, "Is uh, that’s a yes or, uh?"

Carol just leaned in and kissed Natasha passionately, pulling her closer than ever, "Of course it's a yes, dumbass!"

She kissed her again, deeply, eagerly until they both needed air, "I love you Natalia."

"I love you C."