Steve travels to Europe twice in the following year: first to meet Natasha in Russia and second for the World Championships in London.

It's his first time in Russia and when she meets him in the airport, he knows he'll be coming back very soon. If he didn't know better, he would say she had been bouncing eagerly up until the very moment he rounded the corner. She had spotted him first, but Steve had noticed her a split second later. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough to set down his bag before she was crashing into his arms.

"You are here!" 

She's still bouncing in his arms and Steve's pretty sure her face has to hurt from smiling so wide.

"I told you I was coming," he teases, picking his bag up from where he had dropped it. "Did you think I lied?"

"I didn't think you would make it."

She grabs his free hand and pulls him out of the airport before he can reply.

When they arrive at her small apartment, she shows him where he can put his bag and then points out the makeshift bed she had created for him that morning. He's tired enough that he almost takes her up on her offer to take a nap, but he doesn't want to miss out on a single day with her.

"Show me the city," he says instead.

It's the right thing to say because Natasha lights up and soon they're on their way outside.

He stays for two weeks before he has to go back to the States. Even though Natasha shows him everything she can, he's still sad to go. He has a sinking suspicion that it has nothing to do with the city and everything to do with her. The only reason he actually gets on the plane is because he knows she'll call him as soon as he's back home.

She doesn't. The flight is long so he thinks maybe she forgot when he was supposed to land, but she never calls him. He texts her nonetheless, letting her know that he made it back safely and is looking forward to visiting again.

It's days before he receives a response.

Call me

Suddenly, he's terrified. He's in the middle of game night with a few of his teammates—Bucky and Sam included—but he dashes out of the room without a word. The phone doesn't finish ringing even once before she picks up.

"Steve?"

"Natasha, holy—Are you alright? What's wrong?"

He knows something wrong because her voice is a little softer than normal. Plus, the fact that she hadn't texted him until now makes a pit form in his stomach. 

"Your friend that speaks Russian," Natasha says over the phone, "is he with you?"

Her accent is thicker than he's ever heard it before and the pit in his stomach grows.

"Yeah," Steve says softly, already turning around to search out Bucky. "Are you okay?"

"It is not—easy to say."

Steve yanks Bucky out of his seat without an explanation and hauls him out of the room. His teammates shout in protest and Bucky swats at him, but Steve doesn't stop. When they're away from the others, he puts his phone on speaker.

"I found him," he tells her, glancing up at Bucky. "Now what's wrong?"

He knew that she'd speak Russian, but he still feels a bit left out when she rushes into it. Bucky frowns immediately but Steve only picks up a few words. He'd been trying to learn the language for almost a year now, but it's difficult to understand when Natasha speaks so fast.

Bucky cuts her off so sharply that Steve finds himself glaring at him.

"Repeat that," he demands in Russian, ignoring Steve's scowl.

Natasha does and Steve picks up a bit more of what she said.

"Your coach?"

Natasha falls silent. 

"He's unhappy," Natasha says in Russian. Steve doesn't miss the way her voice shakes a bit. "He doesn't like that you came to visit and—" 

He doesn't understand what she says after that so he looks at Bucky.

"He's threatening her."

"No, he is not!" Natasha protests, this time in English. "I may be removed from the national team. He does not threaten me."

"It sure fucking sounds like it."

Steve's a little blown away by how furious Bucky suddenly sounds. As far as he knew, Natasha and Bucky had only talked a handful of times and they had only been as friendly as expected. Now, though, Bucky sounds ready to fly to Russia himself.

Natasha sighs. "Your friend is not helping."

Steve sends Bucky away with a glare.

"Can you tell me what's happening again?" Steve asks. "In English, this time."

Natasha starts from the beginning, speaking slowly and stumbling over a few words. Fortunately, Steve understands enough words now that when she can't find the right word in English, he can often understand the Russian one she uses.

The short story is that her coach was furious. While Steve was in Russia, she had cut down on her practice. He'd known as much. What he hadn't known, however, was that Ivan had started surveying her and was threatening to remove her from the national team if she continued to communicate with him.

"You are a threat to his program," she tells him, but she doesn't explain what she means by program.

There's a long moment where neither one of them says anything and a trickling sense of dread starts to grow in Steve's chest.

"What are you going to do?" Steve asks eventually.

He counts the seconds before she answers.

"I will talk to him," she says softly, "but I will not talk to you until Worlds."

The words knock the breath out of him. Worlds are months away.

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

She tries to assure him that she'll fix it by then, but Steve isn't convinced. He's never met her coach (who, apparently, is also her father), but Natasha has never looked happy around him. If he'd thought about it at all, he would have been amazed the man hadn't tried to interfere sooner.

"Text me if you ever need to," Steve finds himself saying. It's stupid because he knows she won't, but he still offers. "Even if it's something stupid, alright?"

She agrees, but he knows it's only for his benefit. She has no intention of talking to him again and he hears it in her voice when she says goodbye.

* * * * *

Natasha spends months convincing Ivan that Steve is safe. She works twice as hard at practice and even when she partially tears her Achilles tendon on the vault, she continues pushing herself. By the time she lands in London for the World Championships, Ivan has accepted her friendship with Steve. There are about a dozen new rules for her to follow and a handful of special conditions, but she'll take what she can get.

It's not until the second day of the championship that Natasha sees Steve. He wins bronze and although she knows he wanted to do better, she's still proud of him. She proves it by tackling him in a hug the second he's away from his team.

"I'm so proud of you!"

She tells herself that the reason she's hugging him so tightly is that she's happy for him and not because she missed him. When he doesn't hug her back right away, though, she begins to doubt herself. She starts to pull away only to be yanked back into a bone-crushing hug.

"You're okay."

His voice is so soft yet so familiar. She's worried that when he pulls away, he'll take that familiarity with him. It's a good thing that he doesn't.

"Did you lose your spot on the team?" he asks worriedly. His arms are still around her. "Are you alright? Really, you can tell me."

Natasha shakes her head with a smile. "We have an understanding. I'm okay."

Steve frowns but doesn't let her go and doesn't push her for answers. Instead, he says something in Russian.

"Huh?"

"Go out with me," he repeats in Russian. His cheeks are red, but his pronunciation was almost perfect and she can't help but stare at him in awe.

"You learned Russian," she gasps. She reaches up to cup his face and bites back a smile.

"Bucky taught me when you couldn't," he explains.

She wants to be annoyed that someone else taught him her mother tongue, but she's mostly just amazed that he continued to learn without her.

"Say it again," she tells him.

He does and she kisses him for it.