By the end of the World Championships, Steve has her number and email scribbled on a torn piece of paper. He'd stumbled into her two more times (not on purpose) after their initial meeting and she'd smiled through both of their very short conversations. Before he could be pulled away by his team, she had stuffed a crumpled note into his hand and wished him luck. It wasn't until he'd returned from practice that he had read it.

He texts her that very night and when he returns to the United States, he's met with a phone bill that's high enough he decides texting might not be the best form of keeping in touch with her. He writes her an email to let her know.

You are hopeless, she writes back. Steve still grins. Download WhatsApp.

That's her entire reply and Steve is so upset about it that he downloads the app just to see why it's so important. Once it's finished downloading, he stares at it in confusion. What does he do now?

As if she had sensed it the moment he downloaded WhatsApp, a text appears on his screen. It's from her phone number, but the message arrives on his WhatsApp screen and not his iMessage one.

Welcome to the real world :)

And thus begins a whole new era in Steve's life.

He texts her for hours after that. She doesn't always reply immediately, but when she does, Steve jumps to read the message. Every single thing she writes makes him grin and he's suddenly glad that Sam and Bucky had to bail on their plans. They hadn't missed the way he'd stared at Natasha during the Championship and they weren't dumb. It wouldn't take long for them to connect the dots if they saw him grinning at his phone.

What time is it there?

It's nearing dinner time for him and while he's not sure what the time difference is, he knows it's much later in Moscow.

1am

It's the first text from her that makes him frown and he types out a reply before he even thinks about it.

You have practice tomorrow, don't you? You should go to sleep.

She starts typing as soon as his message sends which is a pleasant surprise. Normally he has to wait a while to hear back from her.

I will

When?

Steve's almost embarrassed by how quickly he sends the message, but he isn't given a second to worry about how it came across because suddenly his phone is ringing.

He fumbles his phone for a full second and a half, nearly dropping it, before hitting the blue button and holding it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"You worry a lot." Her accent is just as thick and beautiful over the phone as it had been in person.

"I'm told it's one of my fatal flaws." Somehow, his voice doesn't shake even though the pounding in his chest is making his fingertips buzz. "You shouldn't overwork yourself, though."

"I do not." Steve almost argues but decides not to. She's speaking again before he can anyway. "I was chosen for the Russian Olympic Team. We practice more."

"Holy shit!" This time, he does drop his phone. When he finally recovers it, she's laughing on the other end. "That's amazing!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!" Steve nearly shouts. "You—I'm so proud of you!"

And goddammit, he is. He's only known her for a handful of weeks, but he's pretty sure he's never been this proud before.

"My father is the Olympic team coach," she reminds him. "If I had not been chosen, it would have been—"

She loses the word after that and they spend a few seconds trying to figure out the right one. Steve attempts to help, but she gives up shortly after and simply says the word in Russian.

"I don't speak Russian," he tells her.

Natasha hums. "You will."

He's not entirely sure how to respond to that. His mother had taught him Gaelic growing up, but that's his only experience with foreign languages and Russian does not seem particularly easy to learn.

"You should really go to sleep," he says in reply.

"You want me to go?"

"No!" She laughs and Steve's neck feels warm. "But you should go to sleep."

"I am not even home yet."

Well.

He stays on the phone with her until she assures him she made it home. He tries not to think about her walking through the streets of Moscow alone at night, but he doesn't have to when she is talking in his ear. Hanging up thirty minutes later still sucks.

After he's sure she's home safely and is going to bed, he sets his phone aside and finally starts making himself dinner. It's about an hour later than he normally eats, but he wouldn't consider his time talking with Natasha a waste.

Later, when he finds his phone again and the TV is playing quietly in the living room, he sees he missed a text from her. It's in Russian and there's a winking emoticon beside it. When he copies the message into Google translate, he realises she'd simply been wishing him goodnight.

He creates a new notes page and copies the text and translation there. For the next several minutes, he listens to Google read out the words and repeats them to himself until he's happy with the pronunciation. If she was determined to teach him Russian, then at the very least he should try.

Two weeks later, when he makes the American Olympic team, he types his message into Google translate before sending it to her. She responds with a wild array of exclamation marks and emoticons before promptly calling him.

He's with Bucky and the last thing he should do is answer the phone, but his body moves before he convinces himself it's a bad idea.

Immediately, Natasha bursts into a flood of Russian that makes Steve's head spin. Beside him, Bucky's eyebrows shoot up before a sly grin takes over his face.

"I, um, don't know what you're saying," Steve mumbles into the phone. "I'm also with a friend."

"Then why answer the phone?" She's teasing him and Steve knows it.

"You called me," he says simply. "Now, what were you saying earlier?"

"Oh!"

She doesn't talk nearly as fast, but Steve still feels like he doesn't understand her. Her accent gets thicker the more worked up she gets and every now and then, he's pretty sure she slips in a Russian word instead of trying to find the right one in English. He does, however, understand the words "Google translate" and "fucking horrible".

"You're getting the clean version," Bucky tells him.

It's only then that Steve remembers that Bucky speaks fluent Russian and Natasha had been yelling loud enough he could her hear.

"Is that your friend?" Natasha stops scolding him for just a second. "Did he tell you to use Google translate?"

"He would never," Steve assures her. "I just wanted to try and impress you."

"Google translate is not impressive."

Steve knows that.

"Making the Olympic team is impressive," Natasha says. There's a hint of pride in her voice and Steve grins despite Bucky still smirking at him. "I will see you there?"

"Of course," Steve promises.

Leaning close enough to Steve's phone that Natasha can hear him, Bucky asks, "Should I go?"

"No!" Natasha exclaims. "I interrupted. I will go. Congratulations, Steve. Tell your friend I am sorry."

Steve turns to Bucky and without covering the phone speaker, he says, "Natasha's sorry."

"Good."

Natasha hangs up shortly after that and Steve feels the loss immediately, but Bucky smirks knowingly and it's all Steve can do not to throw something at him.

There's a long moment where Steve worries that Bucky is going to tease him or tell him there's no possible way for him and Natasha to be more than just friendly competitors. Instead, however, his smirk changes into something unreadable and he stares at Steve long enough to make him uncomfortable.

"So, she's teaching you Russian?" he asks eventually. Steve nods carefully. "Want any help?"

It takes Steve a second to realise what Bucky is offering. When he does, he can't believe his ears and nods so fast his neck begins to hurt.

Once Bucky stops laughing at his reaction, they make a plan and Steve is suddenly much more excited for the upcoming Olympics.