Let me start off by saying that 2020 so far for me hasn't been really good. It took me a while to find the will to write something again bc I wanted to write something that's really worth the read.

Thankfully, I found that will to do it again! Hopefully, this would be more entertaining to read than the previous chapter xD

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"Try this one."

"Eh, I really don't think red's my color. Besides, my hair's already red."

"Point taken." Pepper agreed, putting back the gown. "What color would you want?"

"I guess anything other than rainbows and red is fine." Allie asserted, grumbling, "Why can't I wear a dress instead?"

Pepper kept looking through the gowns without batting her an eyelash. "Because it's a formal event, and dresses aren't really that formal."

"It's just going to be held at the compound jeez." She complained. As much as she enjoyed shopping, she think that it was ridiculous that she still had to wear a gown. "I can wear a dress and still look classy."

"Well, it's your choice." Pepper gave in.

"Yay."

Sharon piped in, "Did Tony invite other... you know... other important people?"

"Knowing Tony, probably." A gasp escaped her mouth as soon as she saw the perfect gown for her to wear, "Oh, this is gorgeous." She held it up for the ladies to see, "What do you think?"

It was a gold, backless, long-sleeved gown. Both ladies mirrored her expression.

"It's perfect, Pep!" Sharon squealed, "I bet it's going to hug your curves perfectly."

"Yeah, no doubt Mr. Stark's going to have his jaw dropping at the sight of you." Allie added with a grin.

Pepper turned to Natasha, who was looking at the gown with a lost look in her eyes. "Nat? What do you think?"

It took her a while to snap out of her daze. "It's beautiful, Pep. I..." She smiled, though Pepper could see right through her. "You should try it on."

Her excitement was quickly replaced with a look of concern. "You okay?" She noticed that during the whole shopping trip, Natasha had been awfully quiet. And she knew the spy, she may be reserved and quite the mystery type, but whenever they were together, she was usually a blabbermouth just like her.

Natasha nodded, shaking off her feelings with a subtle smirk. "Of course I am, we're going shopping using Tony's credit cards anyway. What could be more fun than that?"

Allie sighed, knowing full well that her mom wasn't fine at all. She's being a stubborn one as usual.

Pepper rolled her eyes, smiling at her. "Wait here," She turned away only to quickly come back, "Uh, Sharon, you think you could help me zip this..."

Sharon quickly followed on, "Sure, come on. You could help me zip up too."

And there left, Natasha and Natasha's mini-me.

Natasha broke the silence before it could lace any awkwardness, "You think I should experiment trying on a different color than black?" She browse through the gowns and dresses, "Because I've always worn black in almost everything."

Allie looked surprised, raising an eyebrow, "You're going to give up your signature color?"

Natasha sighed, agreed with a click of her tongue, "You're right..."

"No, no! I meant, it's just, you know, black and red has always been like... you." Allie interjected, placed her words carefully, "it's just a surprise for me, a good one though."

"I don't know..." Natasha murmured, looking through the same rack. A look of displease quickly settled on her face. "These look too girly."

Allie laughed, shaking her head. Of course, mom, that's what you say to every color other than black. "Let's see..." She got out an emerald-green evening gown. "This?"

"Eh. Too leafy."

A silver one with rough diamonds. "This?"

"Too shimmery."

"How 'bout blue?"

"Aqua doesn't really blend well with my hair."

Allie groaned, taking out the last one in the rack. "Well, if none of these pass your standards then I guess we'll just have to tell Ms. Potts that-"

"Wait, wait, wait, stop." Natasha interrupted, holding out her palm, "Let me see that."

Allie raised an eyebrow, "This?"

Natasha nodded, ushered her hand with a give it to me gesture, "Hand it over." She held out the dress, inspected it for a moment, and walked towards the mirror. After a few seconds of consideration, she nodded, "I'll take this."

Allie gaped at her, "Really? That?"

Natasha looked her way, gave a sly smile, "Yeah."

"Oooooh," Well, it seems like she doesn't know too much about her mom's taste in clothes before. She's probably trying out something different. "Okay, let me help you try that on—"

"Nah, it's fine. I got it covered."

"Wait, what?"

Then she went straight to the counter and paid for the gown in cash.

  —————————————————————————————        

"Does this make my ass look flat?" Clint asked, craning his neck to take a look himself.

"Your ass has been flat since you learned how to shoot arrows, Katniss." Tony remarked.

Clint glared at him. "Hey! I do not!" He took another glance at the mirror, "It's probably because of these pants."

"Dude, that's the finest fabric they have here and I doubt it's the problem." Tony nodded at James's direction, "Our boy here got nothing to worry about that, right, James?"

James shot him a look, embarrassed, "Mr. Stark!" He tried to cover his butt. 

Clint scoffed. "Puh-lease, if we're talking about asses, no one still beats America's ass."

"Hey!" Steve's interjected, eyebrows knitted, "How did I get dragged into this?"

"I don't know... Thor seems to be catching up with that record." 

"Or the Hulk."

Bruce sent the both of them a flat look.

James let out an exasperated sigh, he couldn't be any redder. "Can we stop comparing asses? I thought girls only do that?"

"Fine, fine. Sorry." Clint apologized, "Anyway, I still don't get why we need to get a new coat and pants just for the party."

"It's going to be the party of the year!" Tony exclaimed with a grin, grabbing a new set of tux. "You think I look good in Dolce? Oh wait, I look good in anything."

James rolled his eyes, a subtle smile forming on his lips. Typical Uncle Tony. 

"It seems I have made a clear choice on what to wear for tomorrow's gathering." Thor stated, holding out the suit for everyone to see. "What do you think?"

Bruce blinked. "It's... glowing."

Thor grinned. "Yes! It sparkles like tiny diamonds."

Clint inspected the outfit like he couldn't believe such an outfit even exists in the first place. "Indeed it does." He leaned over to Tony to whisper, "I'll take care of this." 

"Please do." Tony whispered back.

Clint and Bruce convinced Thor to take another look at some of the tuxedos on the other side of the store. That left James, Tony and Steve alone to make final decisions on what they were going to wear.

"You found something already, Jamester?" Tony asked.

James nodded, "Yup," He held out a simple yet fine suit. It was set of white polo, black coat and trousers, and a black bow tie patterned with white polka dots. "Is this alright?"

"Nicely done." Tony praised, "Try it on so we can get it checked out with the others."

"Cool. Thanks, Mr. Stark!" James smiled, proceeding to the fitting room, but not before shooting a look of concern to where his dad was sitting. They both knew that Steve had been awfully quiet than usual, and they needed to find out why.

Tony nodded as if to say, I got this.

As soon as James was out of sight, Tony took the chance to lighten up the mood a bit. "You know, on second thought, I think you'll bring justice to this suit way better than I would."

Steve raised an eyebrow at the suit. "That's highly unlikely, Stark."

"Uh oh. We're back to addressing me by my last name huh. Damn. Either I must've done something really bad or I must've done something worse." Tony said.

Steve chuckled, shaking his head. "No, you didn't."

"Whew. Thank, God—I mean, thank, gosh." He corrected himself, remembering how particular Steve was when it comes to watching their "language".

The captain rolled his eyes, then held out his hand.

Tony looked at it confused, "What?"

"Well, hand me the suit so I could try it on." Steve reminded, "Check if there's another size up."

"Right, sorry." Tony said, looking through the rack. After going through all the sizes, he found nothing that could fit Steve. He sighed in frustration and went to call for assistance. "Excuse me, could we have this suit in the size to fit him?"

The guy smiled, "Of course, Mr. Stark. I'll see if there's anymore in stock."

Steve scrunched his face, feeling a little guilty about this whole shopping trip. "You know, Tony, I could just use the suit I have back in my room—"

Tony held out a hand to interrupt him midway. "Don't even think about it, Rogers. This is going to be the third party I've held since we've moved to the compound, and I'm telling you, you can't keep wearing the same thing for photo ops."

"I don't really care if people saw me again in the same suit, Tony. You know how I feel about spending money."

"And you know how I feel about making everything look cooler, and that includes you, Cap." Tony said, then added, "No offense."

"None taken." Steve said flatly.

"Good." Tony grinned. When Steve didn't say anything after that, he wasn't going to let awkward silence ensue between them. "You think the ladies are done with their own shopping?"

Steve scoffed as if it was a rhetorical question. "I think we both know what the answer to that is. Knowing women, it's closing time before they even get their stuff checked out. And I found about that the hard way."

"Tell me about it." Tony agreed, "Though I didn't know Natasha could be such a girl too."

Steve raised an eyebrow, "She is a girl, Tony."

Tony recalled all the ways that she could describe Natasha to be, and he certainly couldn't associate her as someone being so engulfed in something as dress shopping. "Oh, you know what I mean."

As if Steve was reading his mind, he let out a small chuckle in agreement. However, even though he was smiling, Tony couldn't help but notice that his smile was different. It looked troubled, or forced, or strained.

Bottom line is, Steve doesn't look genuinely okay at all since this morning.

But how was he going to ask him that? Are you okay? It sounded too weird—

"What?" Steve looked at him.

Oh, crap. Did he say that out loud? Well, it looks like he did. There's no turning back right now. Tony cleared his throat. "I said, are you fine? Because, to be honest, you look more miserable than you do as usual."

Steve shook him off. "I'm fine, Tony."

"You sure?"

He nodded curtly.

Tony wasn't one to pry so he simply let it go. He knew how much Steve hated to be nagged all the time. He pat his shoulder, "Look, I know it's not any of my business, but if you ever want to talk about it, I can always lend an ear."

Steve blinked, looking at him suspiciously. "This is strange."

"What?"

"You being nice."

"Oh please, I can be nice if I want to."

Steve raised an eyebrow, laughing in disbelief. "Okay." Well, at least his laugh sounded real enough, even if it was more of an insult to him. "Thanks, I guess."

"Don't mention it. Seriously, don't." Tony warned, "I don't like it when I get all mushy on people."

"I get it. I get it." Steve smiled, but it quickly faded as soon as he remembered what was bothering him so much. "Actually... there is something."

Tony kept quiet, but had his full attention on Steve to let him know he was listening.

"It's about... Natasha."

Of course, it was about her. Tony furrowed his eyebrows. "Natasha?" He asked, pretending to be confused.

"Yup." Steve continued, "She...well—I... I mean..." He didn't have the nerve to say it out loud. He didn't want to think it happened, but it did. And there was no point in denying it anymore. 

"Spit it out, Capsicle."

He sighed. "We sort of... well, no, kind of... but it was an accident! We...well, we kissed." He said the last part in more of a whisper that it was barely audible, but Tony heard it loud and clear.

Tony staged his jaw-dropping expression as soon as the words were out of Steve's mouth. "You what?"

Steve pressed his hands to face. "I know. I messed up. I can't... When I think of Bruce and—and Sharon... but it was an accident and we both didn't know what..."

"Wait, hold up, hold up. Rewind for a sec there." Tony interjected, "Could start with how it started? How the hell did this happen?"

Steve took a deep breath, still remembering the details all too well than he thought he would. "It happened right after the last mission we went to. Everything was fine, really, we were in the plane, but we got caught up in something in the air that made the plane turn over." He continued, "some stuff fell in the back compartment so me and Nat took care of it. We were alone... and—uh, well, let's just say the plane shook again and caused Nat to fall on top of me—why are you smiling?"

Tony snapped out of his daze, he didn't even notice he was. "Oh, sorry, I was visualizing."

A crease appeared on his forehead, he went on, "Anyway, the next thing I knew she was already kissing me."

"Okay," Tony nodded at that, "What did you feel?"

He looked at him weirdly as if it was an inappropriate question to ask. "I don't know—"

"Psh. Come on, that kiss would've triggered something. It's either you felt something or you felt nothing."

"I can't believe that's what you're picking up from what I just said." Steve said in disbelief.

"Well, what did you expect me to say?" Tony asked.

Steve shrugged, "I don't know, maybe lecturing me about how messed up this whole thing is?" He said with sarcasm.

"Don't get me wrong, it is. But I'm just getting to that part." Tony remarked, "So, did you kiss her back?"

"What?"

"Did you kiss her back?" Tony repeated.

Steve couldn't believe what he was asking. "What's that got to do with this?"

"Everything!" Tony exclaimed, "Look, it's a simple question—did you kiss Natasha back or not?"

"Tony—"

"Steve." 

The Captain sighed in defeat. He realized that sooner or later, the reality of the situation was going to slap him straight in the face, and he wouldn't be able to deny it any longer. "Sort of. I mean, I was going to but she pulled away before I could."

He was surprised when Tony wasn't judging him for his choices, considering that Bruce was technically his best friend and he wasn't beating Steve up because of what he just told him, it felt relieving to tell someone about this. Even if that someone was Tony.

"So, what are you going to do about it now?" Tony asked him.

"This is usually the time where you give me advice so I can think about considering it." Steve retorted.

Tony laughed. "I'm flattered that you think I'm a man who can give relationship advice. I'm just as clueless as you are, Cap."

"Figures."

"But..." He started, "if there's one thing that helped me at all to keep my relationship with Pepper, other than her being the understanding one of course,"

"Of course." Steve agreed without question.

Tony ignored him, "I think it's to be honest, I guess. You don't hide secrets from each other."

Steve sighed, agreed, "I know that... so I guess it's an indirect way of you telling me to tell Sharon about this, huh?"

"Hey, your call, old man." Tony said, "I'm just telling you what I'd think I'd do."

Steve fell silent.

Tony smiled. "You always let your mind tell you what you think is right, I think now's the time to give this a chance." He pointed at his arc reactor.

Steve followed his hand, and when he saw what he was referring to, a small smile etched on his face. 

It was time for him to make things right.

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Hey, everyone, before I give any last comments about this chapter, I just want to address the serious issue the whole world is currently facing right now.

I'd like to express my grief and sympathy to everyone who's affected by the pandemic virus, COVID-19. Here in my country, we're currently being quarantined for a whole month (which means suspension of work and classes), and it's becoming really hard to take in especially with the rising number of cases everywhere.

I hope each and everyone of you is safe out there. I know we can get through this. I pray everyday for God to put an end to this outbreak soon (if you don't believe in God, please disregard this sentence, sorry!). 

Please keep safe everyone! :( Practice safety measures to prevent the virus from spreading any further.

I don't know if I made the right decision of posting this chapter at a time like this, but, I guess, if I could lessen the panic for one of you even for just a short time, I wouldn't miss that chance. I hope this could light the mood temporarily.

I love each and every one of you! I promise I'll be back to update soon! :)

Stay safe, my dear readers!