The Heart Thaws In Its Own Time (Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff)

Chapter 5 - Washington D.C.

After landing at a private, secluded air strip in Pennsylvania, they were greeted by Maria Hill, who quickly ushered them onto a helicopter.

"You don't know how glad I am to see you guys," she said as the helicopter raised off the ground.

"I'm sorry it's not better circumstances," Steve said.

During the short ride, Maria prepped them with brand new information that had been gathered. She told them they were going to land in Virginia and go straight to a hotel to get started. It had been arranged that they would not have to check in. Maria had done anything possible to not let them be seen.

Walking through the hall of the 8th floor of the hotel, the team was silent. Steve watched as his feet hit the patterned carpet over and over. It was rhythmic and it distracted him from thinking about how uncomfortable this all was.

Maria rapped on a door and said "Did you order room service?" They all realized she was using a code for whoever was on the other side of the door.

The door opened and there stood Clint. He quickly ushered them inside and held a finger to his lips, pointing out Natasha with a headset pressed to her ear. As Clint finished closing the door behind them, Steve reached out to shake his hand and leaned in to whisper "Clint. Glad to see you."

Clint whispered back "It's good to see you too. I think your buddy's been missing you, she's been a little off."

Steve realized that Clint had meant Natasha had missed him. He felt a wave of heat wash over his skin as he looked over at her, sitting there in a black t-shirt and jeans, her newly blond hair pulled back into a ponytail and one of her knees pulled up into the chair with her. Just then she looked up from the tablet she'd been furiously scribbling in and smiled at him with raised eyebrows. She pointed at her own chin questioningly and mouthed "beard?" Steve shrugged and laughed silently to himself and looked away so she wasn't distracted from listening to her headset.

Natasha put up her index finger to everyone to signal that she was almost finished. After a few seconds passed, she took off the headset and said "I think that's all the chatter for now. Hey everyone." She looked around the room. "I think we have their location nailed down."

They talked and got caught up for a few minutes and were about to get to the business of planning their attack when there was another knock at the door. Clint motioned for everyone to step back so they wouldn't be seen from the door and he put on a baseball hat backwards. He looked through the peep hole and then opened the door partially. It was a pizza delivery man. Clint tipped him and took no less than ten pizzas from him and he stepped back in to start closing the door with his foot. "Dinner is served, gang."

"Excuse me," said a familiar voice from the hallway as Clint was closing the door. Everyone realized it was Vision. Clint stepped back and a hand opened the door wider.

"HOLY CRAP," Clint said and his mouth fell open. As Vision stepped inside the room, he was dressed in street clothes and he was... human. He was a blond human with skin.

"HOLY SHIT," Natasha uttered as gasps were heard from around the room and Sam shook his head and said "Damn."

Wanda's eyes widened and she quickly stood up from where she was sitting on a bed and walked to him with her arms out. She started to say hello to him when a different voice came from the doorway. "Were you trying to start the party without me?"

Tony walked into the room and past Wanda and Vision, past Clint, looking at everyone. "What's with all the faces?" he asked. "Oh, is it Malibu Vision over there? That's just a little something we've been working on to help him blend in." Tony walked to Steve and held out a hand, "Cap."