Summary: The first time best friends Steve Rogers and Duchess Natasha are separated is when Steve decides the servant's life is not for him and he'd rather make a name for himself. With limited options, he turns to piracy and quickly becomes one of the most notorious pirates to sail the Seven Seas. It's only a year later when he returns for a short time and returns to the sea with none other than the Duchess herself.

Natasha couldn't say she was surprised when Steve told her he was going to run away. The desire to leave the palace had weaved its way into his eyes years ago and she'd known it was only a matter of time before he followed it. He'd begged her to come with him, reminding her how much she hated the formalities of royal life but she hadn't had it in her then to turn her back on the duty her father had ingrained in her for years. She remembered yelling at him that he didn't know her and it had only gotten uglier from there. At the moment, she hadn't felt bad about slamming the door in his face and letting him go, expecting him to come back and say goodbye before actually leaving. When she'd discovered he'd left that night instead, she hadn't been able to forgive herself.

In a way, burying herself in her own royal duties and doing everything Ivan, her father, demanded acted as a good distraction. On the other hand, though, it made it so some days, when she did remember what had happened, felt worse. Days like today, listening to Ivan list off her failures of the past week, really made her regret not disappearing with Steve when she had the chance.

"—embarrassed me in front of the Grand Duke! What were you thinking?" Ivan growled, glaring fiercely at her. Natasha stood in front of him unfazed which seemed to only fuel his anger. "Were you even thinking at all?! No! No, you weren't thinking!"

Natasha remained silent, knowing it was better to just let him vent than to try and defend herself. He wouldn't take her seriously and she'd be in more trouble after it all than if she just let him scream at her for a while.

Luckily for Natasha, a knock came to the door in the middle of a particularly vulgar slur he threw her way and he was forced to regain his composure quickly in order to attend to whoever was at the door. It was a maid who stood on the other side, Wanda, a girl Natasha had grown fond of over the few years she'd been working at the palace.

"The King demands your presence, Duke," she said, bowing lowly in front of him.

Ivan inhaled sharply, giving Natasha a warning look before walking out of the room and leaving Natasha to her thoughts. Wanda left as well, leaving Natasha well and truly alone to either dwell on Ivan's most recent outburst or attempt to distract herself until he returned.

Be it unfortunate circumstances or foul luck, another knock came to the door. Natasha begrudgingly opened it, resisting the urge to slam it in front of the young Duke's face when she saw him. Nonetheless, she smiled sweetly and asked what she could do for him. Ivan should have been proud.

"May I come in?" was the first thing Alexei said.

Natasha held back a breath of annoyance and stepped aside so he could enter the room. She shut the door then turned to face him, stopping short when she noticed he looked visibly annoyed.

Deciding to just go with it, Natasha asked, "What's wrong?"

"I know you don't like me," he said bluntly. Well, he certainly didn't need to tell her that. She was well aware of that particular fact. Alexei didn't look too excited about unraveling one of her mind's not-so-great secrets and continued on to say, "But I don't care. In two days, we will be wed and you will be forced to listen to me."

"I listen to no man," Natasha seethed, struggling to keep her rising anger in check. The last thing she needed was to lash out at Alexei after what had happened earlier this afternoon with their fathers.

"You will listen to me!" Alexei said, a look of warning flashing across his face. "You will respect me and after our wedding, you will do what I say without protest or risk the consequences."

Natasha clenched her jaw and balled her fists up behind her. She hated Alexei and his sexist expectations. Of all the men in court Ivan could have arranged for her to marry, he'd chosen this spoiled brat of a boy.

"There's still time to call off the wedding," Natasha warned. Even as she said it, she knew that wouldn't happen. Ivan was too excited about her marrying the soon-to-be Grand Duke; he wouldn't call off her wedding no matter what happened. Alexei was just as aware of this as she was if his grin was anything to go by.

"You have two days to enjoy your freedom," Alexei snarled, grabbing her arm when she tried to walk away. He forced her to face him as he said, "Two days before you're under my control. Enjoy it while it lasts."

Without another word, Alexei stormed out of her room, slamming the door behind him. Natasha grabbed a pillow from the nearby couch and screamed into it, trying her best to keep the sound quiet enough Alexei wouldn't hear how frustrated he made her. She had to get out of this stupid palace.

* * * * *

Steve wasn't too sure about this whole idea anymore. Up until the moment they actually docked, he'd been certain things would go well. He could avoid Natasha, clean out the palace treasury, then disappear, finally leaving this place for good. If his crew hadn't robbed the wrong guys last week, he would never have come back to this horrid city. He'd gotten sick of it years ago and leaving on a ship last year had been the freest he'd felt in a long time. For what it was worth, his job hadn't been the greatest and he'd been mistreated his entire time as a servant at the palace, but Natasha had been a good friend and she'd been the one thing he'd missed. Despite the longing to make sure she was okay, he didn't want to see her in case she was angry with him and gave him up.

He shook the thought from his head. Natasha would never betray him like that, he knew her well enough to know that no matter how upset she was, she wouldn't put his life at risk. He still couldn't risk it. Entering the palace was going to be tricky enough; he didn't have time to worry about running into Natasha when being spotted by a servant (a much more likely problem) could send him straight to the gallows. Becoming one of the most notorious pirates around had its perks, but it also had its risks and Steve rather liked his neck as it was.

"You sure you don't need help gettin' in?" Sam asked.

Steve shook his head. He knew all the secret servant passageways and it was easier getting one person through without notice than trying to take a couple of his soldiers along as well. That wasn't to say he'd be doing it all on his own. No, Sam would lead a group to the edge of the palace where Steve had shown them one of the passage exits was located. From there, they would all take the treasure back to the ship and leave (hopefully) without being spotted.

"See you on the other side," Steve grinned. Sam nodded and watched as Steve disappeared into the crowded pier before returning to the ship to make sure everyone was prepared to take off at a moment's notice. Steve may have been sure nothing would go wrong, but Sam wasn't above being overprepared.

* * * * *

Natasha had had enough. Ivan had returned from his whatever only to scold her more and she was done. Done with Ivan and his expectations and done with royal duties. She knew she wanted to leave, but packing a bag and walking out the front doors was out of the question. Anyone she passed would tell someone and she wouldn't make it to the front hall before someone else stopped her. Luckily for her, she was probably the only royal who could easily navigate the servant's tunnels and as desperate as she was to escape this fancy hell, she didn't think twice about it.

Most of her dresses were much too fancy to go galavanting around tunnels in and, unfortunately, she didn't have anything much better. After a quick chat with Wanda and a lie about wanting to go into town unnoticed though, she was wearing one of the maid's simple town dresses and getting ready to crawl into the tunnel. Just as she was pulling the secret door open, though, a knock came to her front door. Not wanting to answer any questions about what she was wearing, she scrambled into the tunnel, closing the door behind her.

Pitch darkness was what she had expected, but not what she got. Instead, little lights lined the walls, illuminating just enough she could see where she was going. Clearly someone had been through here recently. She tucked that bit of information away, not sure what she'd do if she did run into anyone, and started down the narrow hall. The lights led her the entire way, stopping shortly in front of a door she'd never been through. Curious, she decided to poke her head in.

Alarms echoed through the room as soon as she did. She yelped in surprise, about to close the door when a large body came tumbling in with a huge pack on their back. Natasha blinked, staring at the figure as they hastily closed the door. As soon as they turned around, both of them froze.

"Steve?" Natasha asked at the same time Steve said, "Natasha!"

"What are you doing here?" Natasha demanded, still reeling for the collision and the shock at seeing him.

"Robbing the treasury," Steve said plainly, looking over his shoulder as he spoke. He turned back to her and asked, "Are you gonna stand in my way or what are you doing?"

"Going with you," Natasha decided.

Rather than play a million questions while alarms rang through the palace, Steve just nodded and pointed down the hall. He handed her a torch, adjusted the straps on his pack, and said, "Run."

Natasha didn't need to be told again. She tore off down the hall, following Steve's directions on where to turn and what doors not to ever touch. It felt like both seconds and hours before she was pushing open a door and tumbling onto the grass a meter below. She looked up at the sound of voices to see Steve handing off his large pack to two others guys before reaching down to help her up.

"What the hell is happening?" Natasha asked, falling into step beside Steve as the small group ran down the hill toward the ocean.

"I'll explain on the ship," Steve said vaguely, gesturing to said ship just off the shore. Natasha nodded and hurried after the boys in front of her. She'd ask more questions later.

* * * * *

Natasha was escaping an arranged marriage, Steve now knew. It had only seemed fair to both of them that they each share their own story, so after securing the treasure down below and finding open sea, they had both hidden away in the Captain's quarters to talk. Whatever Steve had been expecting her to say, it hadn't been that. He knew Ivan was controlling and power-hungry, but he'd met the Grand Duke's son Alexei. The boy was no good and Steve honestly didn't like the thought of him being around Natasha so much. Nevertheless, she'd escaped and without a plan. He supposed it was lucky for her they'd run into each other when they had.

"Now what about you, Pirate Boy?" Natasha teased, snatching a piece of chicken from his plate. The ship had recently docked and restocked their food so for the next two days or so, they'd be eating like kings before going back to their regular diet of bread, beer, and the occasional apple.

"Needed some money," Steve said simply and really that was the whole story. The short version, of course, but he would tell her the long version as well. "Some of my men messed with the wrong guys the other week and we had a time limit to repay them. Problem was, my men had already spent it. Only place I knew of nearby on short notice was the palace."

"You still keep men like that around?" Natasha asked. Steve shrugged. One of them had been a newbie; he'd only wanted to prove himself to the others. The other one had done stunts like that before, so Steve hadn't had any guilt about getting rid of him. "Ruthless," Natasha grinned. Steve smiled back.

"It's good to have you back, Nat," he replied softly. Natasha's gaze softened to match his as she reached across the table to take his hand.

"It's good to have you back too."

* * * * *

It didn't take long before Natasha was at Steve's side, ordering the crew around with just as much authority as he had. Sam, one of the boys that had met them at the edge of the palace, had grumbled for a couple of days about being replaced as Steve's number one guy, but Steve had quickly dismissed that by saying Natasha had always been above him anyway, he just hadn't realised it until she'd come aboard. Sam had grumbled even more about that, but Natasha slipped him some of her chicken that night and everything had been fine between them after that.

The rest of the crew, on the other hand, didn't dare speak up if they felt upset by the new co-Captain. After seeing Sam grumble, one of the kids, someone who decided he wanted Natasha's spot in the chain of command, had loudly announced she couldn't tell him what to do as she was first a girl and second not even part of the crew. Steve had fumed at that, but Natasha hadn't wasted any time in giving him what he deserved. When the kid was nursing his bruises half an hour later, Steve paid a visit and gave him a few more. No one else bothered her after that.

"You know what we need?" Natasha asked a week and a half later, munching on some potato sticks and wishing they had more salt. Steve just hummed, too distracted by a map and his own food to look up. "A bonding night," Natasha said. Steve did look up at that, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"I think the last thing these guys want is to sing songs around a campfire," he told her. Natasha rolled her eyes and tossed a slimy green bean at him. Steve scowled as it landed on his map, but he didn't say anything.

"I meant like a night to just be carefree," she clarified. Poker and drinking, she went on to tell him. She listed off idea after idea, commenting on each one as she said it. Partway through, Steve looked away from his map to listen to her talk about how they could try that stupid new dance Ivan had insisted she learn right before she ran away. "It's truly horrid, but I think we can figure it out after enough drinks."

"I think it sounds like a great idea, Nat," Steve said. Natasha beamed, stuffing her mouth with more of those strange potato sticks. "I'll let you tell the guys."  Natasha scowled at that and Steve laughed. Before she could tell him just why that was a horrible idea, Steve tossed the slimy green bean back at her and said, "I'm just kidding." She relaxed, pushing the green bean off her plate before glaring at him when he said, "I'll make Sam do it!"

* * * * *

Steve didn't want to admit either out loud or to himself just how much better things were now that Natasha was aboard the ship. That's not to say things were bad before she came; no, Steve had never felt more free than when he was on the sea. There was just something about having Natasha nearby now that made things seem all that much better.

The rest of the crew seemed to feel the same way after they'd gotten used to her having just as much control as Steve. The crew wasn't unused to women aboard; they'd had a small group of women with them since the start. Maria, a girl Sam had insisted come along, was the highest-ranking woman among them before Natasha. Natasha had immediately bonded with Maria as well as Pepper, their onboard chef and the only one who could control that Tony kid that had followed Steve out of the castle. Sharon hadn't wasted any time in pestering Natasha with pointed questions about her real intentions, gaining Natasha's respect and a bit of annoyance in response.

Nevertheless, the crew seemed to move together better now that Natasha was there to assist or command (whichever she decided). Steve tried not to think about how that could just be his brain trying to deceive him, but he'd asked Sam and Bucky who agreed things had changed since she'd joined them.

"You're less annoying," Bucky said, smirking when Steve scowled. Sam laughed, but the stomping of heavy boots on the deck drowned it out.

"That's not what I meant," Steve grumbled, shooting a small smile Natasha's direction when she met his eyes.

She grinned wildly before spinning away with Clint, one of the cabin boys, and berating him for stepping on her bare feet. Just like Natasha had suggested, they'd stockpiled their alcohol supply and Pepper had convinced Tony to steal a fiddle from some poor townsperson. Now they were sitting in the middle of the sea while Pepper played her new fiddle with skills Steve thought had to be supernatural while most of the crew danced wildly around the deck.

"Nah, she's good for you, mate," Sam said, nudging Steve after he'd finished laughing.

Steve was about to point out that she had been his best friend a year ago, but suddenly Natasha was in front of him and pulling him further onto the deck to dance with her. Sam burst into laughter again and Bucky started clapping along with the fiddle while Natasha attempted to explain what he should do with his feet.

"Just follow me," she said a second later, already giving up on him. Steve grinned and did as she said, letting her pull him along as she skipped and twirled like Maria and Tony who was somehow dancing with Clint now.

The dancing continued for hours. When Pepper's fingers hurt from playing the fiddle and she decided she wanted to dance, Clint, Sam, and Tony created their own music from strange chants and banging on the wooden deck. It wasn't quite the same as the fiddle, but the crew continued to dance nonetheless. At some point during the night, Natasha stopped dancing to finally eat something, chugging a bottle of rum so quickly in the process that Steve worried she'd passed out. When she turned back to him without seeming the least bit tipsy, Steve made a mental note to ask her about it later. He'd never known a royal to hold their alcohol so well and clearly Natasha was no stranger to rum.

"Aren't you going to dance some more?" Steve asked when she moved beside him.

Natasha shrugged, dropping onto a stack of fishing nets they kept around in case they ran out of food. She still had a wide smile on her face as she watched the rest of the crew do a weird sort of line dance she'd never seen before. Tony's horrific voice floated across the ship as he made up words to a song Clint and Sam beat out for him.

"Maybe in a bit," she replied, biting into the chunk of bread she'd grabbed. "Even I need a break sometimes."

Steve snorted and turned his attention back to the dance in front of him. After a while, he turned to look at Natasha but she was asleep. Leaning against the fishing nets and curled slightly toward him, she looked completely out of it despite the hooting and hollering nearby. With a small smile, Steve pulled off his jacket and laid it over her before focusing back on the crew in front of him. Pepper was sitting on the steps up to the wheel looking a little tired as well. The new kid, Peter, was fast asleep beside her and it looked like Sharon had already gone below deck to sleep. It didn't take long for the rest of the crew to die down and once they did, Steve helped clean up what little food they had left before returning to Natasha.

Just as when he'd left her, she was fast asleep and curled in on herself. He gently picked her up, trying not to wake her but failing. She opened her eyes and blinked up at him. Before he could apologise, she curled closer to him with a soft smile and closed her eyes once more. Steve smiled to himself and carried her down to the sleeping bay. Her hammock was at the very end, but Steve didn't mind the few extra steps. As he laid her down, he made sure to tuck her blankets up to her chin so she wouldn't get cold. Just before he turned to leave, he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"Goodnight, Nat," he whispered then turned and went up the stairs to his own Captain quarters.

* * * * *

"En gard!" Natasha yelled before throwing herself and her sword at Steve.

He quickly ducked, narrowly missing a cut to his cheek and barely blocking her next attack. Ever since Natasha had joined his crew, he'd been teaching her how to sword fight. Of course, like everything else she did, she picked it up quickly. Now, just over a month later, she could beat most of the crew and those she couldn't beat were those who never attempted to spar with her.

"Are you trying to take my head?" Steve asked as he blocked another vicious blow.

Natasha gave him a wild smile and he barely managed to sidestep yet another attack. Growling, he stepped forward to return the attacks but was just as soon blocked.

"You're losing your touch," Natasha teased, stepping around him to grab hold of the wheel from Sam. He gave them both annoyed looks and shoved Natasha away from him. She stumbled, but that didn't stop her from trying to stab Steve in the knee. Steve blocked her, forcing her to step down the stairs backward while also blocking his attacks.

Natasha frowned, moving her sword swiftly to block every one of Steve's hits. Their swords weren't sharp, but that didn't mean a hit wouldn't cut her. Steve would never purposely cut her with a sword, but he was moving quickly and one mishap on her end could lead to blood.

"Looks fun," Tony said, walking past and momentarily distracting her.

The split second she wasn't paying attention was all Steve needed to disarm her and thrust his sword at her throat. Her own sword went flying across the deck, nearly hitting Clint as he nibbled some bread. Fuming, Natasha raised her hands in defeat and Steve grinned victoriously.

"Better luck next time," he told her. Natasha barely managed to resist the urge to punch him square in the face. When he shot her a sweet smile and handed her sword back, she found she couldn't do it and cursed every deity she knew of.

"If Tony hadn't opened his goddamn mouth, I would have won," she argued, sheathing her sword at her side and falling into step beside him. Steve just grinned and opened his cabin door for her, following her inside where his desk was scattered with maps and trinkets. "What's going on here?" Natasha asked, going straight to his notebook while Steve poured himself some rum.

"I'm tracking those goons we heard about," Steve told her. Natasha frowned, twisting his notebook around so it was right side up. A strange, eight tentacled creature glared back at her but Natasha didn't need to ask what the symbol was.

Last week, they'd docked for the night in Beirut and overhead some men speaking Italian. Between Natasha and Maria's knowledge of the language, they'd translated to Steve and Sam what was going on. The strange armbands had caught their attention and only shortly into the eavesdropping did they understand why. Two of the men were recruiters for a group called HYDRA, another pirate crew that Steve had only sort of heard of. Natasha had done her own research later that night by talking to some very drunk and rather eager men.

As it turned out, HYDRA was in the business of killing entire ships they came across and sending both ship and crew to the bottom of the sea. As far as any of the drunks knew, there wasn't a reason other than pure delight in the chaos it brought.

"Have you found them?" Natasha asked. Based on all the scratches he'd made on the map, he had at least a few leads. One mark was north of Naples, two were on the southeastern coast of Africa, another was on Cyprus, and the last one was in Bengazi.

"I've found a few of them," Steve answered. Natasha frowned. What was that supposed to mean? "They're bigger than we thought. There's an entire fleet of them, but luckily for us, they all travel alone."

"So we hit them individually and hope the word doesn't spread too quickly?" Natasha clarified. Steve nodded. That's exactly what they were going to do.

* * * * *

HYDRA was much more prepared for them than Steve had originally thought. He'd heard their base in Bengazi was weak, so they'd struck there first. Thankfully, it hadn't been too difficult to sink that ship and turn the crew over to local authorities, but the next two bases in Africa had proved much stronger. The first one they'd raided had at least been surprised, giving them just enough of an upper hand they were able to overthrow them. The second one had been prepared and they'd barely been able to fall back with minimal injuries.

Sam was limping and had multiple cuts across his arms from where he hadn't been able to block his attacker in time. Bucky's entire left arm was cut up so bad Steve was worried it might not be fixed. Tony and Clint were both battered and bruised worse than usual; enough it made both of them quiet. Maria was relatively unharmed, but she'd joined only halfway through the battle and was good at evading blades. Steve himself was limping as well, bruised more than he'd ever been before and already thinking up an apology for when Pepper saw the state of his ripped up shirt. Natasha seemed perfectly fine. He didn't even try to find out where she was injured until they were alone in his cabin and no one was around to listen.

"What's hurt?" he demanded.

Natasha immediately sagged, nearly collapsing in front of him. A hand shot to her abdomen and Steve lifted up her tunic just enough to see it was badly bruised. Her entire side was black and Steve worried she might have broken some ribs. She refused to bother Pepper and Bruce, though, so Steve used his own tattered shirt to act as a wimpy brace around her ribs. Once he was certain that particular injury was alright, he asked if she had any others.

"My head hurts like a royal bitch," she moaned, bringing her hand up to rub her temples. It was then Steve noticed the cuts on her forearms, but she beat him to it by saying, "And my arms are pretty cut up."

"Anything else I should know about?" Steve asked, already moving to clean up her arms. Natasha shook her head, sinking down onto his bed and letting him fret over her. When he was done with her arms, he sat back and looked down at her. "Maybe next time you should stay back with Pepper, Bruce, and Peter."

"No," Natasha immediately protested. "I'm okay, Steve. We were caught off guard, now we know HYDRA's true power. I'll be okay next time."

Steve just nodded numbly. Before he could get up to get her water, Natasha's hand wrapped around his and pulled him back down to her. He stumbled, nearly falling on top of her and looking confused when he realised she'd done it on purpose.

"You deserve rest too," she murmured.

Steve sighed and awkwardly climbed into the bed beside her, favouring his injured leg and trying not to bang it around too much. Once Natasha was satisfied and sure he wouldn't try to leave, she closed her eyes and curled toward him as best she could. Steve gently wrapped an arm around her and kissed her forehead. Smiling to herself, Natasha snuggled closer and was soon fast asleep.

* * * * *

This was honestly one of the worst times Steve could be doing this, at least in Sam's opinion. Bucky seemed to agree with him for the most part, but he'd been dragged away to go slay more of those obnoxious HYDRA dudes and couldn't stick around to watch Steve and Natasha lovingly argue over whether now was a good time or not. As previously mentioned, Sam thought it was horrible timing. Natasha seemed to agree with him, but Steve was adamant there was no better time.

"We are in the middle of a fight!" Natasha yelled, stabbing one of HYDRA's men to emphasize her point.

Steve lunged toward her but before his sword could deter the person sneaking up behind her, she twisted her sword and thrust it behind her into the man's gut.

"I'm gonna agree with Tasha," Sam replied, almost too distracted to say anything. He had been set to keep men from climbing the stairs to the wheel where Steve and Natasha were busy both arguing and killing the men who appeared by other means than the stairs.

"So is that a no?" Steve asked, taking a moment of rest when none of HYDRA's men dropped down on them.

Natasha sighed and stepped toward him, raising one hand to gently cup his face. It was short because a group dropped from the mast to attack them, but Natasha pulled his lips down to hers and kissed him.

"It's a yes, just maybe wait until we're done," she said. Steve watched in awe as Natasha spun around to face the men as they landed behind her. She didn't even break a sweat as she beat them all up, tossing one into the sea, throwing another over the rail onto the deck, and slitting the third one's neck.

"Sam, you hear that?" Steve asked, an untameable grin stuck permanently on his face it seemed. Sam grunted in response and tossed a man over the ship. "You're officiating a wedding in five minutes!"

Sam and Natasha both turned at that, staring at Steve in confusion until they realised what remained of HYDRA was quickly scurrying back to their ship. Less than half of the original crew was left but that didn't keep them from cutting lines and trying to sail away as quick as possible. Down below, Maria was ordering cannons be fired and with each blast, Sam could feel the deck under his feet rumble. Before Sam could watch the HYDRA ship fall completely apart and sink to the bottom of the sea, Steve called for his attention.

"Goddamn, do we have to do it right now?" Sam complained when he saw Steve hugging Natasha tightly. Based on what Sam could see, she wasn't even injured so why Steve looked so worried he couldn't tell. Instead of a proper response, Steve just gave him a hard stare. With a sigh, Sam said, "Natasha, do you promise to love and cherish Steve for however long you live and whatnot?"

"I do," she replied, smiling at Sam before turning back to Steve. At least someone was being nice to him about this whole thing, Sam thought to himself.

"Good," Sam said. He turned his attention to Steve and said, "Steve, do you promise to love and—"

"I do."

"—cherish Natasha for however long you live?" Sam finished, glaring at Steve for the interruption. If Steve wanted him to be their wedding officiator, he had to listen to everything Sam was going to say. "Then congrats, you're married."

Without being told and right when Sam looked away, Steve pulled Natasha closer and kissed her deeply. They didn't have fireworks, but they did have the exploding HYDRA ship in the background that pretty much acted as the same thing. When they finally pulled away, they heard soft clapping and looked down at the deck to see Peter shyly applauding for them. Before Natasha or Steve could tell him to quit peeping in on other people's moments, Tony and Clint loudly joined in. Steve sighed in annoyance as that drew the attention of everyone else and soon Sam was telling story after story about how Steve had almost forced him to officiate the wedding in the middle of the battle.

* * * * *

The docks were quiet when they pulled into port. Natasha had expected as much. After all, it was Duke Alexei's wedding hardly a year after her disappearance. It was always a kingdom event when a royal got married, something Natasha had never looked forward to. Seeing as Alexei was in line to be the Grand Duke, it was an even bigger affair. Of course, word of the event had spread all around the Meditteranean so it hadn't been long before they had found out about it as well. As Natasha had pointed out, it offered a great distraction for the royal guards and that had quickly hatched a plan to steal from the royal treasury once again.

With Natasha and Maria in tow this time (upon their own insistence), Steve, Sam, and Bucky climbed off the ship, leaving the rest of the crew with the order of making sure they were ready to sail at a moment's notice. It wasn't hard slipping through the city unseen with everyone attending the royal wedding. Getting into the palace was easier than expected, but Natasha should have figured they wouldn't be guarding the royal passageways.

Sam and Maria stayed outside, prepared to help carry the treasure when the other three came rushing out. Just like last time, Steve was the one to open the treasury and Natasha was surprised no alarm had gone off. Steve slipped through the narrow door and Bucky followed close behind. Once both of them were through, Natasha climbed in as well. They made quick work of the gold, shoving it into bags and tossing the bags into the tunnel. They were very nearly done when the treasury doors opened.

Escorted by two armed guards, Duke Ivan, Natasha's father, walked inside. He froze at the sight of them, his eyes landing on Natasha and staying there. It didn't take long for his face to morph into one of horror and rage.

"What are you doing?" he growled, looking her over from a distance. "And what are you wearing?"

"Trousers," Natasha answered, grinning at the sight of her father so upset. She could hear Bucky tossing the last few bags into the tunnel and before she could blink, Steve had knocked both guards unconscious.

"Where have you been?" Ivan demanded, reaching out to grab hold of her. Steve caught his wrist inches away from her arm, but Natasha hadn't flinched at the movement. Ivan looked up at Steve, frowning when he recognised him despite the warning glare Steve was giving him.

"Don't touch her," Steve warned quietly. Ivan didn't respond. Instead, he turned his attention back to Natasha.

"You ruined my plan," he told her, "Now the Grand Duke is marrying his son off to another girl and her family will gain the power! You ruined me, you wretched bitch!"

Natasha stepped in front of Steve before he could pummel Ivan. This time, the Duke did have the decency to look worried, but he quickly masked it when he realised Natasha wasn't going to let Steve attack him.

"I'm not your bitch anymore," she growled, her grip on Steve's hand tightening behind her back.

Bucky was urging them to hurry up and leave, but Natasha was finally in a position where she could say whatever she wanted to her once father. Unfortunately for Ivan, she wasn't in the mood for words and her fist found his face three times within the second. He howled in pain, stepping back to cup his now broken nose and bruised jaw.

With a wicked grin, Natasha kicked him in the groin hard then said, "I'm a pirate."

And with that, both Steve and Natasha hurried to join Bucky in the tunnels and disappear back to sea.