Natasha Romanoff X Carol Danvers - SEVEN STEPS TO SUCCESS
Synopsis: Falling in love with someone doesn’t just happen over night, it can take a few important steps to get there. Set at the beginning of endgame (I say this because I’m not sure there’s any spoilers and dude you should have seen it by now, what are you doing? But it does centre around the plot of the movie in places)
800 FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION POST
Thank you all of you wonderful angels for the love. Have some Carolnat, the content of the gods. Hope you all enjoy, can’t wait to hear what you think ✌️❤️
Looking back on that day Natasha knows that if it hadn’t been for the severity of what was happening, she would have taken it all in differently. She would have noticed her breath catch in her throat at the sight of this literal fire ball of a woman as she landed on earth and looked at her for the first time. She would have savoured the way Carol’s hand had felt in her own as strong fingers gripped her palm and she introduced herself. If she hadn’t been so hopelessly distracted by the relief that flooded her system when the other woman brought Tony home, maybe she would have taken in that it was more than gratitude she was feeling.
Standing inside the compound as they discussed their next move, Natasha was too focused on the seriousness of the task at hand to take in that the new arrival had given her something she had craved for so long now: a sense of hope that maybe, everything was going to be okay after all.
The sheer lunacy of the fact she had boarded a space ship was far too consuming for Natasha to notice how her heart skipped when Carol tilted her head to laugh quietly at the bewildered faces of The Avengers. She probably should have taken in that the sight of Carol in her suit, pushing her hair out of her face as she focused on preparing for the impending fight, was something she enjoyed in a way that was definitely more than just admiration.
If she had been paying attention, Natasha might even have noticed that the other woman was looking at her in exactly the same way.
A pile of takeout menus landing on top of her desk caused Natasha to near enough jump out of her seat, having been to consumed in reading through paperwork to pay attention to the fact that someone had approached her.
“What the hell?” Snapped Natasha, looking up from what she was reading to see who had interrupted her.
“If you’re gonna eat crap, at least do it properly.” Explained Carol, slipping into the seat opposite the red head. Dressed in a pair of grey sweat pants and an old band t shirt, Carol looked unusually casual and the sight had actually thrown Natasha. She allowed herself to scan over the blonde for a second as she propped her feet up on the desk and crossed one leg over the other. Natasha’s jaw clenched involuntarily when she saw the muscles in Carol’s neck and shoulders work as she shuffled herself into a more comfortable position, her hair tied up into a messy bun making it easier to admire than usual.
Looking down at the menus and then back up at the other woman, Natasha blinked and eventually kicked her brain back into gear, “What are you talking about?”
“If I see you eat one more peanut butter sandwich, I’m gonna throw it at you.” deadpanned Carol, nodding her head towards the plate on the desk.
“I like peanut butter sandwiches.” scowled Natasha, hand reaching towards the food on her desk.
Before she could grab her sandwich, Carol lunged forward and pulled the plate across the surface of the desk and out of Natasha’s reach, “I mean it, I’ll throw it at you.”
Natasha’s jaw slacked, staring disbelievingly back at the blonde as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair, “Are you honestly holding my sandwich hostage?”
“No,” started Carol, dragging the word out slowly as she stood from her chair and picked up the food on the desk. Taking a few steps to her right, she tipped the plate on it’s side so the sandwich fell into the trash can at her feet, before looking back at Natasha. She was unable to hide a grin at the woman’s stunned face, “I’m offering to buy you dinner.”
Carol left not long after that but you could forgive Natasha for not noticing the effect of her absence immediately. Not long after Carol left, it was Steve that moved out. He wanted to be back in Brooklyn, making a difference and helping people. Captain America couldn’t fix what had happened, but maybe Steve could help people move on. After Steve it was Bruce. He explained he had a lot of things he needed to figure out and he couldn’t do it at the compound. Natasha didn’t need any further explanation.
Slowly everyone seemed to be moving on, months went by and people tried to rebuild, change and adapt.
Natasha didn’t know how to do anything else. She kept things going in the compound, the loneliness only allowing her to fall even further into what she was doing. Even if all she was doing was communicating with everyone else and looking out for future threats, that was something right?
It wasn’t until four months after Carol had left that Natasha noticed how much she missed her. Logging into a conference call, the sight of her usual companions greeted her with one noticeable exception. Her stomach had dropped when her eyes had fallen on the area where Carol would usually be standing, seeing nothing but a dark, empty spot staring back at her. In that moment there was nothing she longed for more than to see the blonde smiling back at her.
It was over a month before she heard from Carol again. With every conference call that went by, Natasha was unable to stop her eyes from darting straight to the other woman’s usual place in the group, and every time she had to hide her disappointment at her absence.
When Carol finally did connect to a call, she was greeted warmly by the others around her. It surprised Natasha that her initial joy at the sight of Carol was almost immediately replaced with annoyance. So she thought she could just disappear for a month and then waltz back in as if nothing had happened? She thought she could just ignore everyone and then appear again with that same wide smile like it was all okay? It was safe to say that Natasha’s irritation didn’t go unnoticed.
As the meeting ended, one by one the rest of the team disconnected but Carol remained, placing her hands behind her back and taking a step forward, “You okay?”
Natasha looked up from her desk in surprise. Having assumed that everyone had already ended the call, she hadn’t expected to see Carol’s hologram still standing in front of her. “I’m fine.”
“Clearly.” muttered Carol, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Natasha closed her eyes and exhaled slowly in an attempt to not just blurt out the first words that came into her head, “Its been over a month.”
“I’ve got a lot on my plate Nat, there are problems all over the universe.”
“And you couldn’t just let me know? You couldn’t take ten seconds to tell me you were going to be missing for a month?” Asked Natasha, dropping her hand from her face to look up at the other woman, “I didn’t know if you were alive or if you were planning on coming back. How would you like it if that was done to you?”
Pursing her lips in thought, Carol shrugged “You’re right, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t like it if I thought something had happened to you.”
Seeing Natasha’s brow quirk at her words, she quickly continued, “Or you know, if something happened to anyone.”
Natasha hummed in response, pushing some papers around her desk for no real reason other than for something to look at and to stop herself from just grinning at Carol like an idiot, “And there was me thinking you had a soft spot for me.”
“Hey you’re the one who’s been pining for a month.” teased Carol, shooting the read head a smirk.
Picking her pen up from her desk, Natasha launched it playfully towards Carol, both women breaking out into laughter at the fact she had just thrown something at a hologram, “Get out of here already.”
“I’ll speak to you next week okay?” assured Carol, the smile on her face one of someone trying to convey sincerity, “I have a little something in the pipeline that might come together, can’t really confirm anything yet but ... we can talk about it properly when I have a better idea of what’s going on.”
Nodding her head in mock understanding, Natasha batted her hand dismissively, as she turned her attention to her paperwork once more, “Yeah, yeah sure we can talk about it later once you have a clue what you’re saying.”
“Oh and Nat?” added Carol, waiting to continue until the red head looked back up at her, “I missed you too.”
Working out had always helped as a way to calm Natasha down when she was feeling anxious or stressed. Unfortunately that was all she seemed to feel recently and the gym had become something of a home for her. She could spend hours just running on a treadmill, headphones in and eyes trained on the wall in front as she tried to focus on the burning of her muscles rather than the ache in her chest.
She had just finished wrapping her wrists, tearing off the end of the tape with her teeth and pressing it down before going to put her headphones in when she heard her.
Her head had snapped up at lightening speed, scanning the gym for the source of the question when her eyes finally settled on the warm, brown ones looking back at her. There was Carol leaning nonchalantly on her shoulder against the door to the gym, one leg crossed over the other and a wide grin on her face. She had obviously been back at least a little while, already changed from her suit into a pair of black leggings and a baggy vest. She looked tired but her smile didn’t falter as she stood up straight and started to walk further into the gym.
“What are you doing here?” Asked Natasha, hands falling to her sides as she stepped around the punching bag to face the other woman properly.
“There’s a couple of things I need to sort out.” explained Carol, taking a few more paces forward until she was standing just in front of Natasha, “I’ve been following a lead for a few weeks now, that’s why I’ve been so busy. Didn’t think it was going to lead me back to earth.”
Looking down at the ground, Carol looked almost bashful for a second before shrugging and meeting Natasha’s eye again, “I wanted to see you.”
The words seemed to hang in the air for a second, a comfortable silence settling over the pair of them at Carol’s honesty. Finally a content smile settled over Natasha’s lips, allowing herself to give into what she was feeling just long enough to reach forward and brush her hand against Carol’s. Her thumb traced the length of the blonde’s palm before travelling up and over the top of her hand and down the length of her fingers. The action was quick and light but it had said enough to Carol; Natasha was glad she was here.
It turned out that Carol had more than a couple of things to work out. Criminals all over the universe had been takin advantage of the mess that the snap had evoked. Theft was rife everywhere but it was the larger problems that had brought Carol back to earth. Preventing another war in all of the chaos was pressing.
In the most selfish way possible, Natasha was grateful. In the years leading up to the snap she had found herself surrounded by people she could trust and people she cared about. They worked together as a team and they were about as close a group of people you could find. Her time on the run with Steve and Sam and cemented her bond with the pair of them irrevocably and she had found herself feeling empty over the past few months in her solitude. Having Carol around had changed all that and she even felt a sense of purpose again. The blonde had asked for her help in her mission and Natasha had been only too happy, desperate to do anything that would be a help.
But it wasn’t just the working alongside someone that was making her feel whole again. It was everything that Carol had brought into her life. Having coffee together on a morning. Sitting quietly on the sofa and reading a book or watching television. Having someone to talk to about something as trivial as the weather. No longer eating dinner alone every night. Helping one another with training in the gym.
And the things about Carol that Natasha couldn’t get enough of? The sound of her laugh when Natasha would make a stupid joke. The way her eyes would crinkle closed sometimes because she would smile so wide. How sometimes Natasha would pass by the room Carol was staying in and she could hear the sound of the other woman singing. The way Carol always remembered how she liked her coffee. The tingling feeling she would get every time Carol left a lingering touch on her leg or her shoulder. How easily the two of them could fall into idle conversation and that there was never uncomfortable silences.
But the thing that Natasha liked the most about Carol, was that she never felt like she had to be anything other than herself. In the midst of a global tragedy it was unsurprising that things could get tense. Both women were guilty of sharing one or two harsh words in heated situations. The only thing that rivalled Natasha’s stubbornness was Carol’s ability to push her buttons so it was no surprise that they butted heads every now and again. But when things calmed down and the work was done, Natasha could still walk into the kitchen and find Carol pushing a mug of warm tea into her hand with a smile that said everything was okay and nothing needed to be said. She had never felt so completely and utterly understood by someone and the realisation that Carol wasn’t going to stick around forever, was something that Natasha couldn’t help but feel sad about.
Of course Carol noticed Natasha’s slight change in behaviour. Her smile didn’t seem as bright and her eyes didn’t shine with the same sparkle that they used to. Something was playing on her mind and Carol intended to find out what it was.
“Wine tonight?” Questioned Natasha, padding into the living room and gratefully accepting the drink that was being presented to her by the woman on the sofa, “What happened to our humble cups of tea on an evening?”
Carol shrugged, “I guess we’re celebrating kind of.”
Nodding her head, Carol took a sip of her wine as she watched Natasha collapse down onto the cushions beside her, “Mission’s nearly finished.”
Almost immediately Natasha stiffened and it was only in that second that Carol realised what had been bothering her recently. Letting out a long sigh, she reached to the side to place her wine down on the coffee table before shuffling closer to the other woman, “You think I’m just going to disappear again?”
Carol wet her lips, “If it helps, I don’t want to.”
“Definitely doesn’t help.” Muttered Natasha quietly, raising her glass to her mouth.
The blonde breathed out a laugh, “Can I just be blunt?”
“I’ve never known you be anything else.” answered Natasha, shooting a smirk over the rim of her glass.
The corner of Carol’s mouth curled as she reached forward to take the drink from Natasha’s hand, moving it to one side to join her own on the table. She shuffled a little further forward, sitting just an inch in front of Natasha so they were face to face. There was a pause where the red head genuinely wasn’t sure what was going to happen next and Carol wasn’t actually certain on what she was going to do, before she decided to just go with her gut. Pressing her hand to the side of Natasha’s jaw, she tightened her fingers against the back of her neck and leaned forward enough that she could press their lips together.
Natasha couldn’t help but sigh, allowing Carol’s grip on the back of her neck to pull them closer together as she parted her lips and deepened the kiss. It was soft and slow but somehow it felt greedy all the same, like this was something they had been deprived of for too long. Pushing herself further into the other woman, Carol nearly toppled the pair of them backwards and Natasha had to throw her hand out against the arm rest to keep them upright. The action caused both women the giggle, breaking the kiss as Carol sat back up properly but kept her hand pressed to the side of Natasha’s jaw.
“Long overdue.” finished Natasha.
Carol laughed, nodding her head in agreement, “You’re right.”
Resting her hands on top of Carol’s thighs, Natasha tugged her legs towards her and smirked playfully, “Come back here and kiss me again then.”
Laughter increasing at Natasha’s words, Carol allowed herself to be pulled forward, settling properly into the other woman’s lap with her legs either side of her waist. Gripping Natasha’s face in her hands and reconnecting their lips, Carol decided that maybe their conversation about what was going to happen next could wait. For now, they had this.
Four long weeks passed after that. Carol had only been able to stay another couple of days before business took her off elsewhere and Natasha was once again left alone. Of course this time Carol called and left messages but now it was different. The sound of her voice wasn’t enough anymore when she now craved so much more. The feeling of Carol’s lips on hers, tongue slipping into her mouth, teeth nipping at her skin and bare flesh rubbing against her own was like a drug and Natasha needed more. Her body ached for the other woman in a way she hadn’t thought possible and she wanted nothing more than for each conversation they had while Carol was gone to be ended with a kiss or just a gentle touch, all the while knowing it wasn’t possible. Every time they spoke she wanted to ask when Carol would be back again but she never did, knowing that asking it would only make it harder for the both of them.
It was a quiet afternoon where for once Natasha had nothing to busy herself with. All of her paperwork was done, she had worked out until she was sore and she had done just about as much housework as she could face. She was just about to make herself a drink when she heard it. That loud, powerful sound that made her heart race at the possibility it could be her.
Natasha was moving before she could even think about anything else. Legs moving of their own accord despite the throb from her workout in the gym earlier. She took the stairs two at a time, hopping down the last four and breaking into a run at the bottom to head for the glass doors to the compound. In her haste she almost ran into the person she was looking for head on, the other woman already inside the building and standing in the foyer with much the same excitement written on her face.
She was still dressed in her suit, looking a little like she had travelled the world over in five seconds just to be here. But she broke into a broad grin none the less, opening her arms and tilting her head to one side, “Please tell me you missed me as much as I missed you.”
Natasha didn’t care about how pathetic she might have looked to an outsider, bolting forward in record time to wrap herself around the blonde and jump into her arms. Carol chuckled quietly, lifting the other woman off the ground with ease and snaking her arms around her waist.
Gripping onto Carol’s shoulders tight, Natasha pressed a lingering kiss to the other woman’s lips before leaning their foreheads together, “You have no idea.”
“I’m never being away from you for that long again.”
Natasha shook her head from side to side, moving her hands to grip either side of Carol’s face, “We can figure all of that out later, all that matters is you’re here.”
Smiling back at the other woman fondly, Carol raised her hand to brush her thumb over Natasha’s lower lip before moving to tuck a strand of hair out of her face, “You want me to show you how much I missed you?”
“You better.” Chuckled Natasha, tightening her hold on the blonde as she started to carry her further into the building and towards the stairs.
There was going to be a lot to figure out and there was still so much to fix. The world had it’s problems and they weren’t going to disappear overnight. Natasha knew that and so did Carol, both women more than aware that things were no doubt going to be complicated. But as Natasha wrapped her legs further around the other woman’s waist and felt Carol grip her harder in return, she realised that she didn’t much care if things were going to be difficult. As long as they had this, maybe she was right all along and things were going to be okay after all.
