THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT THE KISS AFTER THAT. Not that there's any reason to. Thankfully, they pretty much went back to nagging the other soon after, and Natasha didn't have to worry about any uncomfortable silence.

It wasn't long until people started leaving since it was getting late, and before they knew it, the party was already over.

"So, here we are." Sarah says, directing them to a large, elegant room. "This is your bedroom."

"Wow," Natasha says in awe. The place was gorgeous, it could easily pass for a hotel room. Maybe even more. "Wow, this is, um, beautiful. And the view."

The windows stretched to a wide view of the seaside. It was like living in a castle.

"And here's the bed." Gammy motions to the king-sized bed.

"Oh, wow. Exquisite bed." Natasha comments, dreading to ask the one question forming in her mind as she feels knowing the answer to. "So, where's Steve's room?"

"Oh, sweetie. We're not under any illusions that you two don't sleep in the same bed." Sarah remarks, laughing sweetly thereafter. "He'll sleep in here with you."

Natasha laughs along, proving that her gut's right again. "Oh, great, 'cause we love to snuggle. Don't we, honey?"

Steve's still pacing back and forth, looking around the room like he's trying to find something. Or assessing something. Thankfully, he's not that all distracted yet. "We're huge snugglers," he echoes.

Then she hears the sound of an animal barking and heading her way. "Oh my God! What is that?" Natasha shrieks, completely frightened, even clawing on Steve's arm.

"Whoa! You are so cute!" Steve gushes, crouching down to rub the dog's face and drown it in kisses. "Who is this?"

"That's Dodger." Sarah says, also joining in to rub Dodger's side. "I'm sorry, Natasha. We just rescued him from the pound and he's still in training. Sorry."

"You don't like dogs, Natasha?" Gammy asks her.

"I'm more of a cat person, actually," she admits, keeping her distance from the dog.

"Cats are nice too." Sarah remarks, going over to the cabinets on the side of the room. "By the way, there are extra towels and linens and things in here if you need them."

Gammy walks over to pull something from the far back. "If you get chilly tonight, use this. It has special powers." She gives them a thick blanket that sports a design similar to what you'd find in a carpet.

"Oh, what kind of special powers?" Natasha asks curiously.

Steve takes it from Gammy. "I call it the babymaker," she wiggles her eyebrows.

Natasha's cheeks start turning the same shade as her hair. "Okay, well. Then, I guess we'll be extra careful with that one."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna..."

She tries to stop him. "No, don't throw it on the bed!"

Steve tosses it onto the bed.

Sarah chimes in, heading towards the door. "Well, we better turn in. It's been quite an evening. So, good night, everybody."

"Good night, mom."

"Good night, Gammy."

"Good night."

Gammy keeps throwing a glance their way while walking towards the door, grinning mischievously. "Good night."

"Good night, Gammy. Thank you so much." Natasha says with a smile, this time, not forced. "Sweet dreams."

"Good night, Gammy. Bye bye now." Steve says.

As soon as they hear the door shut, both breathe a sigh of relief.

"Finally," Natasha says, going over to the bed to sit down and take her heels off. She winces when she sees a blister forming on the back of her ankle. "Shit."

Steve removes his jacket, hanging it over the rack. Back still turned to her, he asks almost uninterestedly, "What?"

"I think I hurt my foot."

"Yeah, because you walked in a pair of ten inch heels all day, what'd you expect?" he sassed.

Natasha didn't respond, only wincing and grunting in pain when she sees the blister more clearly now. Fortunately, her left foot hadn't suffered the same fate, but it was still pretty sore. She hisses, throwing her heels to the side.

Steve comes back from the bathroom with a bunch of stuff in his hands.

"What is that?" Natasha asks, glancing up at him.

"Disinfectant."

She scoffs, shaking her head fervently. "No."

"We have to clean that or it will only get worse. Did you bring other shoes with you? One that isn't ten inches tall?"

Natasha fights the urge to roll her eyes. "I brought my boots if that counts."

"That won't do. Really, a weekend in Ireland at my parents' house and you bring clothes you'd wear to a fashion gala?" Steve arches an eyebrow, kneeling down on the floor. "I told you these people wouldn't care how you look."

"Says the guy in plaid."

He pours some disinfectant from a clean cotton pad, and gently grabs her blistered foot. "Now, stay still." But before the cotton could even touch her skin, she backs her foot away. "Wha—"

"I'm sorry, I just—it hurts."

"It hasn't even touched your foot yet."

"And yet it already hurts."

"It will hurt more if you keep moving." Steve reprimands, grabbing her foot again and placing it on top of his knee. "Don't be such a baby. You've been through worse things."

She's squeezing her eyes shut the entire time and, for some reason, that made him find her annoyingly cute.

A hissing sound similar to a snake escapes her lips as soon as she feels the sting spreading from her ankle up to her leg. "Ow," she mutters, face scrunching in pain.

"Sorry," Steve says, glancing up at her. "It's your fault for being so stubborn."

"Can your lectures wait until after this?"

Steve chuckles, for real this time, and finishes patching up her wound. "There," he says, placing a band-aid over the blister. "You can just borrow a pair of sneakers from my mom tomorrow. You're not going to last a whole weekend wearing what you just brought."

Natasha sighs. "Okay, fine."

Steve nods, standing up. "Get some rest. I'll sleep on the floor."

She wants to say thank you, but the words get stuck in her throat. She feels that the timing is still off yet, and she's certain that he feels that too. She never said thank you to anyone before, and it'd be weird to suddenly say it now.

So, she settles for a small nod instead. "Okay."

"Okay," he repeats, clearing his throat. "Uh, you can use the bathroom first."

"Nah, it's fine. Go ahead. I, uh, still have a lot to do. You know, removing my makeup and everything," she says. When he still hasn't made a move to go, she ushers him away. "Go."

Steve slowly backs away to the direction of the bathroom. "Uh, yeah, okay."

After he's done cleaning up and whilst Natasha's in the bathroom, he takes the time to lay out a bunch of blankets (including the babymaker) on the floor so it'd be more comfortable to sleep in. He grabs two pillows from the bed as well.

"So, uh... you haven't been home in a while." He hears Natasha say from the bathroom, the door ajar so he can hear her voice clearly.

"What makes you say that?" he replies, laying down on the floor to test his new bed.

"It just feels that way, I supposed," she reckons, "and your family's really happy to see you."

"Yeah, well, I haven't had a lot of vacation time in the last three years."

He could almost see her roll her eyes. "Stop complaining." A pause, followed by a sigh. He doesn't catch what she says next because her voice comes out muffled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

He doesn't pry anymore, but when the door swings open, he can't help but spare a glance. And boy, did he make the wrong move because what Natasha's wearing was definitely showing too much skin that was basically a warning sign for him to avert his eyes.

And he does that, but maybe a little too late because she's already caught him. "Did you just check me out?"

Steve feels the room suddenly becoming hotter. "No," he lies.

Natasha's smirking, her voice on the borderline of teasing. "You totally did."

He turns on his side, away from her so she can't see how red he is. "No, I didn't."

She only laughs, clearly not buying his lies. "Okay."

She emerges from the bathroom and walks over to the bed, purposely looking over at Steve. She wasn't even wearing that all revealing, it was just a satin sleeveless top and shorts. "You know, I'm not mad that you looked. I was just starting to think that the bumbling tadpole in you disappeared completely."

"Would you stop calling me that?" Steve grumbles, face still flushed. He turns the cards on her. "Those are the pajamas that you decided to bring here in Ireland..."

"Yes, because I was supposed to be in a hotel alone, remember?" she returns.

He ignores her jab. "Can we just go to sleep?"

"Fine."

"Great."

The first night they slept in the same room together was horrible.

Natasha snores like a car engine, and Steve was tossing and turning all night trying to cover his ears from the awful sound. On the other hand, Natasha was being woken up every now and then by the sound of the bathroom door being shut, followed by the toilet being flushed. Steve has the bladder of an old man.

So, yeah, their dreams of being roommates got flushed down the toilet in that instant. Literally.

.・゜-: ✧ :-

The next morning, Natasha is woken up by something ringing. Still dazed, her hand reaches out to her side, thinking it's her bedside table, to silence the alarm.

Only, she remembers that she isn't in her apartment in NY, and she's in Ireland, in a bedroom at Steve's parents' house.

Oh, right, Steve.

"Steve. Phone." she murmurs, already half-awake.

Yet the phone keeps ringing.

"Steve!"

Ring. Ring.

"Crap." She gets up, still seeing black spots in her vision from sitting upright too fast. Her hands desperately try to find her phone on the bedside table, only to grasp nothing but air. "Steve, Steve! Phone!"

She hears Steve's groggy voice respond, "Yeah... right."

Son of a bitch.

She gets out of bed, trying to find her phone under the covers to no avail. "Steve, where is it?!" she demands.

"Purse. Side pocket."

She leaps over the bed and lands on the floor to grab her purse, clawing inside its side pocket to fish out her phone. She answers the call without even checking the name. "Hello?"

It's Nick.

"Nick! Nick, darling. Hello. Good morning." But his voice on the other end keeps getting cut off with static noises. Shit. "Nick, are you there? Hello? Hello? Oh, crap. I have horrible service, Nick. Give me just one minute."

"Oh, my God!" Steve glowers, shooting her a glare as he clearly wants to get back to sleep. "Natasha!"

Thankfully, she lowers her voice down. "One... one minute. Nick, hold on just a second." She hurries to grab her bathrobe from the rack before heading out the door.

"Nick, I'm sorry you feel I pressured you into doing Oprah, but... of course, I want you to be happy. Yes, yes. Nick, it's going to be fine. We've already gotten a lot of art pieces lined up for the spring edition. Wanda Maximoff's in, and we're just waiting for the rest of her submissions as well," she explains, too caught up in their conversation that she forgets to close the front door.

She doesn't notice that Dodger's followed her out the front yard as well.

"What, Nick? A new line? But yours and Wanda's are already enough to open the Spring edition. I don't think we need one more line. But—" She pauses when he cuts her off. "Yes, Nick. I'm listening to you. Of course. But I'm not sure if we can find another artist willing to step in last minute—"

She jumps at the sound of an animal barking. Turning around, she almost curses when she sees Dodger sitting across from her. "No, stay!" she tells him, pointing her finger. "No, not you, Nick. It's the dog, sorry. Listen, Nick, I really think it would be a mistake to add another line to this. If you want, we can include another in the next one but the Spring edition is good as it is for Oprah. And I just want you to get the recognition you deserve because that night is dedicated to you!"

Dodger just continues to bark at her.

Natasha shushes him once more.

"I think it's time that the world gets to see your works again. It's not too late to remake your name. I mean, new artists like Wanda will make it, for sure, but you've got a passion that I think we should all be privy to. What? But—" She sighs. "Fine, I'll try to find one if that's what you really—"

Then Dodger completely lunges at her, and she shrieks so loudly that she loses her grip on her phone. She lands on her back, Dodger on top and licking her face. "Oh!" she tries averting her gaze and pushing him off her. "No! Down, boy! Stop!"

And the next thing she knows, Dodger grabs her phone from the floor and starts running around. She quickly gets up and chases him. "No! Give me my phone! Bad dog!"

From the porch, Natasha fails to notice that Sarah and Annie were watching her with amusement, thinking that she was just playing with Dodger.

"Look at this." Gammy says, laughing, "Is that cute or what?"

"I know!" Sarah agrees, taking a sip of her coffee.

Just in time, Steve appears from the hallway and sees them. "Morning, everyone. Have you seen... ahh..." His words die down as soon as he realizes what his mom and grandma were finding so amusing.

Sarah giggles. "She's playing with Dodger. We thought she didn't like him, but to our surprise."

"Yeah, real surprise." Steve agrees flatly.

Fortunately, Gammy doesn't detect his sarcasm. "Will you go get her, Steven? We have a whole day planned for her, and she needs to get ready."

"Yeah, tell her we have a big surprise for her." Sarah says with an excited grin.

Oh, boy.

He goes out the door to get her, still confused as to what she's exactly doing, because there was no way in hell that Natasha Romanoff is playing with that dog. Maybe in another universe, but not in this one.

"Look! Just give me my phone. Come on. Please, just give me my phone." He could hear her say the nearer he gets.

He whistles to get Dodger's attention. "Hey, boy, come here." The dog obediently follows and sits down in front of him. "What do you have there, buddy?"

Natasha's panting as she walks closer to where they are. "Oh, thank God. He's got my phone."

Steve takes the phone away from Dodger's mouth, all slimy and sticky. He tosses it in Natasha's direction. "Here."

She catches it but quickly lets go once she feels the slime and saliva sticking to her palm. "Oh my God, that's disgusting."

"Yup, you might want to clean that one right away." Steve says nonchalantly.

"It doesn't matter, the screen's broken. Oh, God. What am I going to do? And Nick, oh my God, Nick's on that phone and your dog completely killed him."

Steve knits his eyebrows. "Are you drunk?"

"What? No, I'm serious." Natasha claims, sounding upset. "Nick's calling me on this phone and now it's broken."

"Relax, all right? We'll order another phone, same number. We'll go into town tomorrow and get it." Steve assures her.

"We can?"

"Yeah."

"But I don't have any money."

"I'll take care of it."

Natasha was about to make a sarcastic joke when she remembers that he's actually fucking rich this whole time so it wasn't a big deal.

"Anyway, you have to get ready." Steve suddenly says.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "For what?"

"You're going out with mom and the girls."

"What?" Her jaw almost drops. "I don't want to go out."

"Shopping, sightseeing, and a surprise."

"I hate shopping."

"You'll love it."

"And I hate sightseeing."

"You're going."

"No, I don't want to go!" Natasha whines, the dread inside filling her up slowly. She can't even remember the last time she went shopping for fun.

Steve looks like he couldn't care any less. "You're going."

Natasha shakes her head stubbornly. "I'm not going. I'm not going."

"Yes, you are. Now, give me a nice, big hug. We don't want them to think that we're fighting." Steve says, knowing that his mom and grandma are still watching them. He holds his arms out to her. "Come on."

She isn't in the mood for this. "Oh, really, now you want to touch me? You couldn't even look me in the eye last night when I caught you checking me out—"

"That's different."

"I'm not hugging you."

"Either you hug me or I hug you."

"No, Steve, I don't want to touch you—"

"Come on. Hug time."

"No, I don't want to."

Steve tugs her gently towards him and engulfs her in a big, fake embrace. "There we go." He nuzzles his face in her shoulder and rubs her back soothingly.

"If you touch my ass, I'll cut your balls off in your sleep."

He feels the blood rushing to his ears again. "Why on earth would I touch your ass?"

"Beats me. You're the one who checked me out."

"Why do you keep bringing that up?" They both pull away, with Natasha ignoring his rhetorical question. "All right. So, uh, I guess I'll see you later."

"Yeah, sure." Natasha fakes a smile, reaching out to cup his cheek. "Such a good fiancé."

Then she slaps him lightly.

"Ow."

This is going to be another long, long day.

.・゜-: ✧ :-

we're making progress little by little

also, more gif's from the movie