Summary: Natasha and Steve get bored of being cooped up in the apartment and decide a night on the town would do them good. Unfortunately, Natasha's plan doesn't go how she expected (or does it?).

"It's official!" Tony announced, throwing his notebook on the ground in front of him. "Professor Patterson hates me and wants me to fail."

"How'd you come to that conclusion?" Bruce mused, pausing his reading of Science Weekly to entertain Tony for a few short minutes.

Up until his loud exclamation of woe, Tony had been working studiously on an assignment in the middle of the living room, having spread his textbooks, notebooks, and pens everywhere much to Clint's chagrin.

"He wants me to explain thermonuclear astrophysics as if I was talking to a five-year-old but it's impossible," he said, looking between Bruce and Clint with wide eyes.

Bruce shook his head and returned to his reading.

"It's totally unfair!  Just because he doesn't understand my thought process, I have to pretend I'm talking to his grandkid just to get a passing grade."

"Well, your essay was all over the place," Bruce admitted.

Tony frowned.

"Not helpful," he grumbled, returning to his notebooks in an attempt to rewrite his essay.

Bruce shrugged and returned to his magazine as the front door opened and Natasha stepped inside. Tony groaned loudly and fell backwards onto the floor. While she did raise an eyebrow at him, she didn't say anything as she trudged through the door, struggling to get inside with little more grace than a one-legged elephant on a scooter.

Stumbling into the kitchen awkwardly, Natasha kicked the front door shut with her foot and nearly toppled over. There were more than a dozen grocery bags hanging from her arms and she could feel them all slowly cutting off her circulation. It had been her turn to go shopping and seeing as she tended to put it off until it absolutely could not wait, she was often left with more bags to carry than normal. She was pretty sure Clint liked to wait until it was her turn to remind her they were out of milk, but she always liked to mention she needed more tampons whenever he went, so she supposed it was only payback.

"Need a hand?" Steve asked, stepping off the last stair and going to help Natasha unload bags from her arms.

"Thanks," Natasha muttered, shaking her arms in hopes of helping them recover sooner. "Pretty sure Clint and Tony wait until it's my turn to put all the heavy things on the list. Why can't they ask for bread and cilantro or something?"

"You could take more than one trip," Steve pointed out.

Natasha looked at him as if he'd sprouted an extra head and Steve chuckled.

"Or not."

Steve helped her put away the groceries, both of them ignoring Tony's occasional whines coming from the living room. Once everything was put away where it needed to be, Natasha wandered upstairs and to her bedroom. She wasn't surprised to find Maria sitting on her bed, earphones in as she worked on her laptop. She glanced up when Natasha walked in and gave her a small smile. Natasha grabbed her own laptop and sat on her bed to start on an essay due tomorrow morning, tuning out Maria and her loud music which could be heard even though she had earbuds.

Natasha didn't get up from her bed until her essay was done. Maria had left halfway through her three hour work time and hadn't returned upstairs since, but Natasha wasn't worried. Maria tended to leave the house in the evenings to visit her sister just out of town. It wasn't uncommon for someone to spend the night elsewhere, but Maria always managed to be in her bed when Natasha woke up in the morning. How she got into the room without waking Natasha up, she'd probably never know.

A light knock came from her bedroom door and Natasha jumped. When the door wasn't immediately opened seconds later, she knew it was Steve and called for him to come in. Of all her roommates, Steve was the only one who knocked on her door. Maria and Clint never bothered to and Tony generally just barged in right after announcing his presence. If they needed her, Bruce and Thor had the decency to knock then ask politely if they could come in.

"Come in, Steve," she said, setting her laptop aside and turning to face the door right as Steve stepped into her room with a grin. "What's up?" she asked, patting her bed.

Steve shut the door and walked across the room to her bed, sitting down on the spot she'd indicated was his.

"Nothing," he said, laying down and throwing his feet in her lap. She frowned. "Tony got annoying so I decided to seek out the one person who could keep me from punching him in the face."

"For what it's worth," Natasha said, grinning at him and closing her laptop. "I'd love to see you punch him in the face."

"Yeah, but that's not what I meant," Steve chuckled.

Natasha rolled her eyes then patted his legs.

"Wanna go out?" she asked casually.

Steve almost choked on his own breath, but before he could panic further about what she meant by that, she clarified, "Get out of the house and leave Tony in Bruce's care."

"Sounds like a great idea," he replied with a smile.

Natasha shoved his legs off her lap and grabbed some shoes. She hadn't changed out of her lazy day clothes even when she'd gone shopping, so she was still in athletic shorts and a hoodie Steve couldn't recall her taking from him.

"Let's go," she grinned, leading the way out of the large apartment and toward the elevator.

* * * * *

Steve had always admired Natasha and the way she lived. From the way she teased him to her raw existence, she was everything he wanted to be and more. She'd mentioned one time early on in high school that she always felt a little out of place and as if people didn't like her, but Steve had been quick to assure her anyone who thought that wasn't worth her time. The topic had never come up after that and as much as Steve wanted to say she hadn't doubted herself again, he knew that wasn't true.

Right now, though, watching her talk her way into a bar they were definitely not allowed to be in, he was pretty sure there was no one on earth who didn't love her. Of course, he could just be biased if the way his stomach fluttered every time she looked at him was anything to go by.

Before he knew it, she was ducking under the bouncer's arm and pulling him into the bar. Steve ducked as the bouncer lunged for him, eyes widening as he realised Natasha was pulling him deep into the back of bar. Here, the crowd was thicker, making it easy to hide in.

"Natasha, we're not supposed to be here," Steve hissed, yelping in surprise as she tugged him around a corner and pressed him against a wall.

His mouth clamped shut as she pressed her body against his then slowly peered around the corner. He had definitely not expected to find himself pinned between her and a wall at any point during the night.

"He's coming this way," she said, taking Steve's hand again and tugging him up the stairs.

Steve followed without complaint. They raced down the hall then stumbled into an empty room. Before they could relax about narrowly escaping the bouncer, they discovered they weren't actually in an empty room.

"Oh god!" Steve exclaimed, covering his eyes at the couple lying naked together on the bed.

Natasha squeaked then shoved Steve out of the room and into the hallway, slamming the door behind her.

"Gotcha!" the bouncer snarled, grabbing Natasha from behind.

Steve reached out to grab her back, not liking the way the man's hands were wrapped around her. However, before he could make any move toward them, Natasha threw her elbow back and nailed the man in the jaw. She pushed his hands away then darted down the stairs. In shock and awe, Steve followed close behind her and out of the bar.

They didn't stop running until they had turned a corner and were no longer within sight of the bouncer or the bar.

All of a sudden, Natasha stopped running and burst into laughter. Steve stopped beside her, smiling as she laughed to herself and soon joining in.

"Let's never do that again," he said, panting from both the laughter and the sprint down the block.

Natasha nodded, smiling wide.

"Yeah," she agreed, standing up straight and slowly stopping her laughter. "Next time, we'll just go through the window."

* * * * *

By the time Steve and Natasha returned to the apartment late that night, everyone else was asleep. They quietly snuck through the house, tiptoeing over the floor to avoid making loud sounds. Steve helped Natasha silently jump over the two creaky stairs, going ahead of her then grabbing her hand and pulling her up. When they came to Natasha's door, she waved goodbye with a smile then silently slipped inside. Steve stayed in front of her door for a few seconds, smiling to himself as he thought of the short night out they'd had, then slowly made his way to his room.

Clint was fast asleep in his bed, sprawled out and drooling on his pillow. Steve quickly stripped down to his boxers and quietly climbed onto his bed. He'd just pulled the covers over his body and relaxed when Clint shifted on his bed.

"You know," he whispered, surprising Steve. "Next time you two go on a secret date, let us know so we don't spend an hour searching the apartment complex for you."

"It wasn't a date," Steve whispered back, thankful the room was dark and Clint couldn't see the growing blush on his face. He heard Clint scoff.

"Sure," he replied, "And Tony isn't the world's youngest multi-billionaire."