The Guide To Moving On

Chapter 23 - Camping

Steve's POV

I sat on my bed and admired my packing efforts. I think I have everything, well at least the essentials anyway. Tony had already organized tents, bedding, and food, so the majority of it was already done.

To be honest, I am surprised that Tony agreed to our plan yesterday. Especially when he doesn't seem like the outdoor camping type. But yet, he continues to surprise me every day. All of the rest of the team also agreed to the idea with similar enthusiasm.

Nat and I agreed that we would tell them everything about the plan apart from the fact that it was a teambuilding exercise because our teamwork sucks. We thought if we did that, they would take it the wrong way and not do anything about it at all.

"Steve, hurry up, everyone's waiting for you!" Nat called through the door to me. Oh yeah, I have to get going. I grabbed my bags and opened the door and walked out to a very impatient Natasha Romanoff.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," I said and walked down the hallway, Natasha 2 steps ahead as per usual.

"Anyone would think the dangerous Black Widow was excited about going camping with her team." I quipped as we rode the elevator up to the roof.

"No, I am not." She retorted coldly, yeah right I thought.

"Nat, it's me, you are allowed to be excited," I said calmly, hoping that I might be able to break through the thick walls that she has built around her heart.

"Excuse me, Rogers. Am I only allowed to show emotions that you approve of? The only emotions you think the dangerous Black Widow should have!" She shouted angrily crossing her arms.

"I- N-no, Nat, that-that's not-" I started but she cracked an evil smirk. I just looked at her confused at her reaction, was she mad at me or not?

"Chill Rogers, I'm just playing with you! And for your information, I am a little excited." She said cooly as she strutted off the elevator leaving me behind. Wait, what? I took a deep breath to calm myself. How did she always manage to leave me a blushing stuttering mess all of the time?

I got a grip on myself and rushed after her, meeting up with the rest of the team.

"Took you long enough, Capsicle! I was beginning to think you had a heart attack, old man!" Tony quipped and I rolled my eyes.

"Haha," I said sarcastically as I strode past them and place my luggage into the jet. Gosh, he could be quite the pain with his 'jokes'.

After Fury had a quick word to us with the whole 'if you somehow get killed, I'll come and kill you personally', we all piled onto the jet. Makes no sense, I know, but he says it to us all of the time. We are too valuable to the world to lose, and he is probably right.

We all strapped in and prepared for take-off. This time Nat was flying and Clint was in the co-pilot's chair. This is probably because other than me, she is the only one who knows exactly where we are going.

We refrained from telling the others where we were going exactly, we told them we were going camping, but we thought an element of surprise would be a good thing.

*Time Skip to landing at the camp*

We exited the plane, I took a deep breath, scanning the location. It was every bit as beautiful as Nat described it to be, a beautiful wood surrounded by mountains. There was a lake right next to us, the water almost still and there was a lovely little grassy area next to the lake that would make an amazing camping ground.

I breathed in the cool fresh air, this was so much nicer than New York, with no smog, dirt, and fumes, only fresh air and nature to surround us.

"Wow, this place is nice! Ok, so where is the internet?" Tony asked as he waved his phone around in the air. He had shown me what it was before we left, I am impressed with this whole modern technology thing.

"There is no internet Tony! We are in the middle of nowhere, of course, there is no internet!" Nat stated as she dragged some bags out of the jet.

"Yeah no, this is not part of the deal. I agreed to come camping, not once did you tell me it would be in the middle of nowhere with no internet! I am leaving!" Tony said as he started walking off aimlessly causing the rest of us to smirk.

"Tony where are you going to go? It is a 5-day walk to the nearest town, you can't fly the jet and you have no way of contacting anyone to come and get you! Face it, you are stuck here for the next few days that we are here!" Nat called out to him causing him to stop. She was right, there was no way he was getting out of here.

"Fine! I'll stay!" Tony sighed as he made his way back over to us.

"Good, now who is going to help me set up the tents?" Clint asked as he grabbed one of the tent bags. Bruce agreed to help him whilst Nat and I went to collect sticks to make a fire. Tony, well, he sat on a log and complained the whole time.

Nat and I quickly gathered sticks off the ground to make the fire, trying to ignore all of Tony's complaints.

"I take it you have been camping before?" I asked Nat as we carried the third armful each of sticks to the fire. Sure, we had probably collected enough sticks to make a bonfire rather than a small campfire, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Ah, kind of?" Nat replied as she picked a rather large log off of the ground as we walked a bit further into the forest to collect sticks.

"What do you mean kind of?" I asked her as we walked along with the trees.

"Well, you know, I have been out, in the woods. Umm, fending for myself and killing people on missions and whatnot, but I don't think that is quite the same as the camping we will be doing." She admitted quietly as we walked deeper into the forest.

"Oh." That was all I said in response, well if she had never been proper camping before, I was going to make sure that this one is particularly memorable.

"You know, this will be fun, Nat. Even though it isn't what the team expected, especially Tony." I added with a smile, "It will be good and I think our team will benefit from it greatly." I finished, looking towards her. She smiled softly and gathered a few logs, I could tell she was a little unsure about the whole thing after the stunt that Tony pulled earlier.

Nothing was going to get in the way of me making it a memorable trip for all of them, especially for Nat.