Summary: The 5 times Steve and Natasha find themselves taking an unplanned road trip and the 1 time they actually planned it.

ONE

Natasha was absolutely fuming in the driver's seat.  Steve figured it was best to just stay quiet and let her mumble angrily in Russian as they drove through Ukraine.  After their mission (literally) blew up in their faces, they were left 506 kilometres away from their extraction point.  They'd had to walk 13 kilometres to get to the nearest town, bloodied and bruised from the battle that had occurred before the building had been blown to shreds.  Natasha had hotwired a car on the side of the road and they'd been driving in it ever since.

Steve felt slightly responsible for the whole ordeal—which was partially why he kept silent—and had decided that when they explained what happened to Fury, he'd take all the responsibility.  It was the least he could do considering Natasha probably had a broken knee, at least twice as many bruises as he did, and a pretty decent laceration across her forehead, but was still the one who was driving.  Since all the road signs were in Russian and Steve was pretty lost when it came to anything other than English or basic Gaelic, Natasha had to be the one to drive.

"Are you hungry?"  she asked, interrupting his thoughts.  He hadn't even noticed her angry mumblings stop.

"What?"  Steve asked, more as a reaction than an answer.  She glanced at him and he winced at the sight of fresh blood trickling down her cheek.  She must have stretched her face strangely and caused the wound to reopen.  It had stopped bleeding an hour into their walk between the mission site and the nearest town, but clearly it wasn't done yet.

"We're technically still on a mission so everything would be charged to SHIELD,"  Natasha told him, glancing between him and the road as she spoke.  "I know it's practically midnight and nothing would be open, but we could find somewhere to pillage."

"Does SHIELD condone breaking and entering just for the heck of it?"  Steve asked.  Natasha rolled her eyes and parked their stolen car on the side of the road.

"It wouldn't be 'just for the heck of it' if I'm starving,"  she told him.  She unbuckled and opened her car door, glancing down at Steve.  "Besides, I think we deserve something good on this mission."

If Steve was going to try and call her off for breaking into a local restaurant, it was before she turned back around and happily told them they had orange juice and pancakes.  She was walking inside the restaurant seconds later, no alarms announcing her presence, and Steve decided the safest thing was to stick together.  Besides, getting orange juice and syrupy pancakes because staying together meant joining her in a restaurant she'd broken into didn't sound like a bad idea.  (They collectively agreed to not mention it in any official report, though, just in case Fury did make them pay SHIELD back for the money they left behind).

TWO

Steve had never been more thankful he'd stolen something in his life.  After getting Natasha out of the destroyed bunker and escaping the SHIELD search team, he'd managed to find a parked car he could hotwire and drive out.  Unfortunately, the truck he'd grabbed earlier had been destroyed in the bombing, but the white Honda civic he'd found would be better at keeping them on the down low.  Hopefully, this one wouldn't be destroyed and the owner could eventually get it back.

Natasha had been unconscious for the past half hour and he was beginning to get nervous she had more severe head trauma than he'd originally thought.  He was considering stopping at the next hospital to make sure she wasn't going to die before they could get back to Washington when she groaned and reached up towards her head.  He turned to look at her and almost drove off the road.

"Tell me we're on our way to the Tower and everything that just happened was a bad dream,"  she moaned, slowly opening her eyes.

"Sorry,"  Steve said, giving her a weak smile.  Natasha let her head hit the headrest behind her as she closed her eyes.

"I've had worse dreams, I suppose,"  she admitted.  She peeked open one eye before closing them again.  "Where are we going?"

"I have a friend in Washington,"  Steve told her.  He'd already thought that far ahead.  "He's new, so SHIELD—HYDRA—wouldn't know about him.  He'll keep us safe."

"Steve, the last thing we should do is put someone else's life at risk,"  Natasha said.  Steve knew that, but he also knew they were both in bad need of a shower and a bed.  Besides, Sam had been in the military, so at the very least he knew how to handle a gun.

"It'll be okay, trust me,"  he assured her.  He didn't expect Natasha to just take his word for it, but she did.  She stayed silent, eyes closed as they sped down the highway towards D.C.  The car was silent for a good four minutes before Natasha opened her eyes and reached for the radio.

"Does Jersey have any good music stations?"  she asked, beginning to flick through the channels aimlessly.  Steve just smiled and kept driving.  Clearly, she was fine, so he discarded his thought about stopping at a hospital.  They had much bigger issues than possible head trauma: finding a radio station that didn't have horrible music.

THREE

Steve couldn't believe how horribly wrong their mission had gone.  First, they'd been discovered in the first ten hours of being in Michigan, then they'd been captured and imprisoned for seven hours.  Steve wanted to say it hadn't been that bad, but he knew that wasn't necessarily true.  Natasha had been the one to break them out, but before that, they'd been separated for four hours.  He knew she'd been interrogated just like he had, but clearly, they'd used a different tactic.

Natasha barely had a scratch on her body.  Of course, her catsuit covered most of her body so he couldn't see any bruises, but she hadn't seemed to be in pain.  When he looked at her face, though, he could tell they'd done something.  Her face was blank, but not in the way it was when she purposely hid her emotions away.  It looked empty.  He couldn't decide if her eyes were empty as well, or full of... something.  It looked like guilt, but he didn't know what she would feel guilty about.  He knew she'd never give away vital intel no matter how brutally someone treated her.

"Nat?"  Steve asked softly, glancing at her from the driver's seat.  Once again, he'd stolen a car.  This time, it had been an unmarked car belonging to the people that had captured them.  After taking off the plates and replacing them with ones from a car on the side of the road, they'd started their drive from Michigan back to headquarters.  The entire time, Natasha remained silent.

Instead of verbally replying, Natasha just turned her head to look at him, letting him know she was listening.  Her arms were wrapped around her abdomen and she was slumped down in her seat as if to avoid being seen from outside the vehicle.

"What's wrong?"  Steve asked.  Natasha just blinked at him and he looked back at the road.  "I know they did something to you; you have this haunted look in your eyes."  Natasha looked away, frowning and probably scolding herself for letting Steve see her without her guard up.  "You don't have to hide everything all the time.  You can talk to me."

"I know,"  Natasha mumbled.  She looked out her own window and for a moment, Steve figured she'd shut him out again.  "Remember when I released everything from SHIELD onto the internet?"  Steve nodded.  "Well, they did their research; knew exactly what to say and how to say it."  She didn't elaborate and Steve didn't push for answers.  They still had seven hours of driving to do and Steve didn't want to make Natasha uncomfortable by forcing her to talk.

"You're not a monster, Tasha,"  he told her gently.  Natasha glanced up at him again and he gave her a small smile.  "You did what you thought was best and that's all anyone can do.  Monsters make it their life goal to destroy and ruin other people; that's not what you do."  He glanced at her again to see her eyes watering.  He reached across the center console and grabbed her hand.  She gripped his hand back tightly and returned to looking out the window.  Neither one let go of the other's hand for the rest of the drive.  Even when Natasha fell asleep in the passenger seat, curled closer to Steve than the window and holding his hand in both of hers.  Even when Steve's nose itched for five minutes straight and he was about ready to sneeze, his hand remained firmly in Natasha's.

FOUR

Tony really needed to get better at planning.  Either that, or he needed to let Pepper know of his every plan so it wouldn't interfere with something already on the schedule.  He had forgotten to let her know the new Avenger's Compound would be completed the same day he had a meeting in South Korea.  Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but he'd been planning to go up and walk through the building, making sure everything was correct before closing the deal with the construction crew and sending them off to their next project.

"I just need you guys to look around, make sure no wall's missings, then sign the contract,"  Tony told Steve.  He was in the middle of flying to Korea and had only just remembered he was supposed to be in Upstate New York in four hours.

"Fine,"  Steve agreed, glancing across the living room where Natasha was sprawled out on his couch, reading some book in Russian.  "But I'm not responsible for anything that could happen because I didn't notice an error in the plumbing or whatever."

"Deal,"  Tony agreed.  He told Steve he'd send him the address and copy of the floor plans so Steve could make sure they hadn't forgotten to make three bedrooms instead of two.  "I'm sure they're fine, but it was a big project and I just want to make sure."

"Alright,"  Steve said.  "Is that all?"

"That's it,"  Tony nodded.  "Good luck."

"Thanks,"  Steve said dryly.  He hung up and looked at Natasha as she put down her book and looked at him.  "Did you listen?"

"Yeah,"  Natasha admitted.  She sat up and put her bookmark in her book.  "Let's go check out a Compound."

The drive wouldn't be the longest one they'd been on by far.  In fact, Steve didn't mind the two hour drive at all.  It was a little unplanned for and did take half their day just to drive there and back, but he and Natasha hadn't made other plans anyway.  After checking out the Compound and FaceTiming Tony when Natasha thought he'd need to be the one to give his lab the okay, they were driving back to Steve's apartment in Brooklyn.  They took their time, exploring the countryside and stopping at a small, locally owned restaurant just outside of the city.  By the time they made it back to Steve's apartment, it was pitch dark out and nearly midnight.  So much for a half day trip.

FIVE

By now, Steve had become accustomed to hotwiring cars.  They were in the middle of Poland, driving south as fast as they could without being illegal or looking suspicious.  Being on the run from 117 countries was hard without committing at least a few crimes.  When Natasha had found Steve, Sam, and Wanda in Paris seven months ago, things had gotten a lot easier.  She had enough safe houses across Europe for them to stay in they didn't have to worry about finding a rundown motel and leaving through the window without paying.  Right now, though, things weren't looking good.

Natasha had gotten word six hours ago that Ross knew where they were.  A local had given up their location in Lithuania and Natasha's contact that was keeping an eye on Ross had barely gotten the word to her before he'd arrived in the country.  They hadn't wasted any time in packing up and leaving even though it had been 10:30 PM.  Wanda had been in her pyjamas, half asleep against Steve as he read on the couch when Natasha had burst into the living room, telling them they had fifteen minutes to pack and be gone.  Now it was almost 4:30 AM and they had just passed through Warsaw, Poland.

Wanda and Sam were fast asleep in the back.  They weren't wearing their seatbelts, but Steve didn't really care.  Wanda was using Sam's lap as a pillow, one hand clutching his sweatpants as she slept.  Sam's head was laying back on the seat and would definitely give him pain when he woke up, but for the moment, he looked at peace.  Steve had watched the two become closer over the nine months they'd been on the run.  They were practically like siblings now; Sam would get antsy whenever she wasn't with them and she would get annoyed with his constant teasing about her and Vision.  It seemed to work for them, though.

Natasha was tucked in the passenger seat beside him.  She hadn't fallen asleep during their drive, but she looked like she would soon.  Her legs were pulled up under her and she was leaning against the car seat towards Steve.  He offered her his hand and she happily took it.  She held it in one hand and ran her fingers over the back of it with her other.  She kissed each of his fingers, then contented herself with holding his hand in her lap with both of her hands.  Steve smiled to himself and when he looked over five minutes later to see her sleeping soundly, his smile grew.  As they sat in front of a stop light, he leaned over and kissed the top of her head.  Yes, being on the run from 117 countries was hard, but being with Natasha made it seem easy.

PLUS ONE

Natasha wasn't exactly sure how they came up with the idea to drive from Nice, France to Barcelona, Spain.  She knew the original plan was to spend their honeymoon on the Mediterranean coast somewhere, then it had turned into how they could stay off the radar during that time.  Obviously, if any world-ending event occurred, they would come home early, but until more aliens appeared or a world war was going to start if they didn't go on the mission, they wouldn't respond to any calls or go on any mission for two weeks.

"At least we didn't have to steal this car,"  Steve joked, pulling out of the rental shop in Nice.  Natasha smiled and pulled the hair tie from her hair.  She'd braided her hair back for the flight, wanting it out of her way, but with the warm air hitting her face as they drove through downtown Nice, she decided to let her hair free.

"That's still an option,"  she pointed out.  Steve smiled and shook his head, unconsciously reaching across the console for her hand.

"I think I'll stick with the convertible,"  Steve told her.  She grinned and looked out over the city as they sped through.

"You do know how to read French, right?"  she asked as they passed a sign.  Steve hesitated and she laughed.  "I thought you said you knew French!"

"I don't know road signs!"  he defended.  Natasha laughed more and he couldn't help but smile.  "Who thinks it's sexy to know how to say 'Speed Limit: 80 kilometres an hour' in French?"

"God, Steve,"  Natasha laughed.  Steve rolled his eyes and brought her hand up to his lips to kiss it.  "I can't believe you're driving and can't even read the road signs."

"That's what you're here for,"  he told her.  Natasha shook her head and smiled, reading out the next road sign they passed even though it was just a list of gas stations ahead.  "I only need to know what the important ones say."

"That is important,"  she replied cheekily.  "If you need gas, you know where to get it."

"You know what, Romanoff?"  he replied.  She smirked and twisted her hand in his so he could see her ring easier.

"It's Rogers, actually,"  she corrected.  Steve chuckled as he remembered the reason they were in France—headed to Spain—in the first place.  It wasn't a mission or some diplomatic gala they had to attend.  They were on their honeymoon and he'd be damned before he let a lack of French interfere with his desire to have a good time.