Chapter Text
Steve barely bothered to knock anymore, and it was driving her crazy.
Sure, maybe 5 years of desperately trying to hold a crumbling world together, preventing several catastrophic, potentially world-ending events before that, and working alongside him when she could trust no one else had taken their toll on her. She was only human. Despite the fact that their relationship had degraded a few of the boundaries Natasha prided herself on keeping, this one was never any less annoying.
He’d teased her about it one day after she grumbled at him for the millionth time.
“I thought you were the greatest spy who ever lived, Agent Romanoff?”
“It’s the principle, Rogers.”
He’d frowned then, and Natasha could practically feel how he was just too much a gentleman to avoid worrying if she was at all serious.
The elbow playfully poking into his ribs helped, and as she walked out of the room, she’d tossed out “kidding.”
She had no idea why this was the boundary he liked to poke, maybe it was because he knew she’d always hear him coming regardless. Something safe, harmless, because he knew she was more than capable of handling her own privacy. Or maybe that was her fantasy. Either way, it was nice, to see the more mischievous side of him that he was so reluctant to let out. Always the leader, always responsible.
She’d only been able to think of his carjacking abilities when she saw him for months before she told him, and he’d muttered something about his reputation around here.
“It’s ‘language’ all over again, I’m never living this down either.”
She ignored the way the memory made her insides clench now.