romanogers || one shots

"I miss her..."

She falls asleep with Wanda on the couch to a marathon of Friends, and it's hardly the first time for this to happen. Natasha doesn't mind it as much as she thought she might, because she's lived with Wanda and Pietro for a while now and it's kind of hard to act as if she doesn't like the way that Pietro always holds the door open for them and starts massaging their shoulders when they get a second to sit down, or the way that Wanda always leaves little notes around the apartment that has her name signed with a smiley face at the bottom and brings a blanket over to cuddle up next to Natasha on the couch.

She knows it's a vision as soon as she's in it, and no, this isn't the first time to happen, either. Wanda doesn't do it on purpose, and her control has gotten a lot better since joining The Avengers and having them to help her navigate through things. But she can't always help it when she's asleep, and Natasha has experienced these visions enough times to not be startled when she's pulled into one.

"Steve."

Natasha blinks, the room blurring into focus, and she finds herself standing in the middle of a dark hotel room. There's a pang in her chest as she recognizes Steve sitting at the table in the corner, his elbows on his knees, gripping a glass of some kind of dark liquor in one hand as he runs his other hand over his face. Sam is standing across from him, lips pressed together tightly.

"I couldn't find you anywhere, man," Sam says. His tone sounds like he wants to be annoyed, but it comes out worried, instead.

"I'm sorry." Steve rubs at his neck, shakes his head. "I needed to get away."

Sam's expression smooths into understanding, and maybe a little bit of sympathy, too. "You saw her?" he asks, but it doesn't sound like a question.

"Thought I did," Steve answers, blowing out a breath as he sits back in his chair. He shakes his head, glancing away. "You think I'm going crazy, Sam?"

Sam shakes his head, walking over to sit down in the chair across from Steve. Natasha can see it in the way Sam is eying Steve, the forced nonchalance in his expression: he's seen Steve like this before. Natasha's chest squeezes at the realization, because she remembers Sam mentioning it once, how Steve had been a little distraught, a little lost, in their time searching for Bucky. In the time she'd walked away and disappeared. Sam had told her that Steve was different, but seeing it sort of breaks her heart, and she knows that the guy wouldn't have said anything unless she asked, and couldn't have asked if she didn't know the details, but… She didn't realize it had ever been this bad.

"You think you're seeing her because you miss her," Sam says. "There's nothing crazy about that."

"I do miss her." Steve swallows, hard, hand gripping the glass so hard she thinks she hears it starting to crack under the pressure. "I miss her so damn much, and it's killing me that she's gone." He brings his other hand up, wipes at his eyes. Sam ducks his head, curling and uncurling his hand atop his knee. He wants to say something, she can tell. But he's not going to. Sam knows when to push and when not to. "It just sucks, you know? I thought that we had…" He shakes his head again. "I thought there was something there, but I guess whatever it was, it wasn't enough for her to want to stay."

Natasha blinks, feeling her eyes sting.

It was enough. He is enough. He's why she came back.

"She's coming back, Steve," Sam says. "I was watching you two. I saw you two the whole time, and what you have is enough for her to want to come back."

Steve breathes out an empty laugh, taking another gulp of scotch.

If he says something to Sam after that, she doesn't get to see it, because then she's blinking her eyes open again, vision blurring back into focus through the fog of sleep, and she groans a little as she wakes up. She feels the couch shift beside her, feels Wanda's hand in hers, squeezing her fingers a little, and she turns her head to meet Wanda's bright eyes. There's an apologetic smile on her face, and Natasha gives the girl a bit of a smile in return.

"You okay?" she asks.

Natasha nods, brings a hand up and pushes Wanda's hair from her face. "Yeah," she says. "I just… I'm going to make a phone call, alright?"

Wanda's smile brightens, squeezing their fingers again as she nods, and Natasha sits herself up and stands, grabbing her phone off the coffee table. She glances back at Wanda as the girl tucks the blanket up under her chin. "Tell Steve I say hi," she says, and Natasha rolls her eyes, smiling as she walks away.