Steve was back to work from 9 to 5, leaving you at home to occupy your days alone. Of course, you had some obligation within meeting the various women who were married to investors Steve wanted, but that was getting less and less frequent as Steve was now only dealing with serious and extremely wealthy investors face to face. The less prominent ones were sent reps from the company.

But that left you time to experiment more with cooking and to redecorate some of the penthouse. You first did the kitchen. While the build of the large area was beautiful, you wanted new appliances. And of course, Steve had new appliances that were barely used, but they weren't top of the line restaurant-grade as you wanted.

"Hey, Steve?" You went and asked him, he was working in his home office. But he never hesitated to put his work down if you needed his attention.

"Hm?" He hummed in response, moving his glasses off his face to look at you.

"I was wondering if maybe I could get new appliances for the kitchen?" You asked, scanning his face for any indication of an answer.

"Sure." He lightly smiled, handing you his card. You took it, slightly surprised.

"Y-you sure?" You asked, reluctantly accepting it.

"Yeah, of course." He said returning to his work, "If it'll make you happy, consider it yours." But what he clearly didn't understand, was how that would affect him.

Every Thursday and Saturday night now, you two could be found together in the kitchen making something. Steve was reluctant to it at first, not sure how to act or respond to anything when it came to making food, but every time he got better.

"Here, give me the knife." You said, walking over to where Steve was after you had instructed him to cut garlic. You took the small garlic, pressing the knife down to get the skin off and beginning to slice it thinly. "You wanna try?"

"Mmm," He hummed, "No." He lightly smiled, standing right behind you so your back could lean on his chest, his hands finding your hips for support, "I'm fine right here." He mumbled in your neck and you giggled. "Pass me my wine." He reached over grabbing you glass and taking a quick swig, "Hey," You snapped, "You have your own."

"Fine," He handed the elegant glass filled with an even more elegant liquid to you, grabbing his own from the counter behind you. Just then you heard his phone ring. You lightly turned around, seeing him sigh and pull it out, looking quickly. "Sorry babe, I gotta take this." You gave a light smile reassuring him it was okay.

You continued cooking while he walked into the other room to talk, you could hear his voice faintly, everything sounded like mumbles. It internally pissed you off when he had work calls after work. Most of the time he didn't, and to an extent, you knew you had become entitled to him during after work hours. But you also knew he hated taking those calls just as much as he hated having to take them.

"Hey, doll." Steve crept up behind you, placing his hand lightly on the small of your back. "Sorry about that."

"No, it's fine." You lightly smiled. He sighed, rolling his eyes.

"You know I know that means you're not fine." You sighed this time.

"It's just, you know I don't like it when you take work calls, especially when it's a few hours after work," You continued to stir some of the ingredients in the pan, "But I know you have to."

"Trust me, sweetheart, I don't like to either." He sighed heavily, "There's just a lot of shit going on, per usual." You turned around to face him, knowing he usually felt some degree of guilt when he did have to work during his off time. You walked to him, taking his cheeks in your hands and giving him a long kiss.

"I love you." You said, pulling away.

"I love you too." He smiled.

-Quick tip skip-

"You have everything packed, right?" You asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. Steve lightly smiled and shook his head, picking up his two bags.

"Yes, sweetheart, I do." He kissed the top of your head, "If you can believe it I was going on business trips alone far before you came along." You had to roll your eyes.

"Well, now you're extremely reliant." You stood up, following him to the door front.

"I always have been," He sighed, "Just now it's more on you." You stood on your toes to kiss him. "I'll miss you."

"Stevie, it's three days."

"Yeah, well, three days without you." You gave him a peck on the cheek.

"I love you."

"I love you too," He said, "Just don't go out without any of the guards, alright?"

"Yes, Steve." You rolled your eyes again.

"Hey, this isn't funny." He said, "There are people out to get me, and if you're a means by which they can place themselves closer to me, they will."

"Fine." You said, ultimately knowing he was right. Guess it came along with the lifestyle.

"Just stay safe."

"Steve," You said, "I think you forget where we live." You looked around at the countless security cameras and occasional bodyguards in the corners of hallways.

"Right." He said.

"But I promise, I will be safe." He sighed with relief, kissing you on the head before walking out the door, waving, and being off down the elevator.

You walked your way back to the bedroom, where you went to the ensuite and ran yourself a bath. You slowly sink into the steaming water, sighing as the bubbles sculpted your body, your hair tied up in a messy bun.

You relaxed, even more, each second that your body was within the water. You loved Steve and adsorbed every moment with him. But some occasional downtime by yourself was great, that was your independence showing.

Once the temperature of the water had died down to a lukewarm, you got out wrapping a towel around your body, and wandered into your walk-in closet. You grabbed some pajama pants before choosing to wander further into Steve's closet and grab one of his hoodies.

You placed it on, skipping back to the bedroom and sinking into the California king bed, under the plush covers. But instead of a super-soldier beside you, it was just you. Turning on the large TV, you skimmed through the channels. You finally found one that was interesting and sat back relaxing.

Everything was going great, as much as you missed Steve you could easily occupy three days alone. The relaxation and lack of stress about being alone were melting into your skin, your minding drifting off and into the show, you were watching.

But your trance was snapped by a sudden sound, one that was eerily close to a gunshot. You sat up in the bed, only a second later the doors in the bedroom and windows locking up with metal plates. Steve had warned you about the security system but never had it gone off.

"Fuck," You muttered, swinging your legs over the bed and putting slippers on, you rushed to the door, but of course the large steel wall that now covered it did nothing but showed you a distorted reflection. The lights were dimmed and the TV shut off automatically. You heard nothing, which seemed to freak you out even more.

You stood by the wall, your leg bouncing up and down for a few moments before your body moved to pace you around the room, trying to relieve your anxiety despite the fact you had no idea what was happening. "Y/N?" You heard a faint feminine voice on the outside of the walls. Don't respond, Steve had told you, never respond. You stayed absolutely silent and stood in place in the center of the large room. "Y/N?" The voice called out again.

You slowly walked to your nightstand, where Steve had hidden a gun in the bottom drawer he had told you about. You slowly crouched down, placing your hand on the wood handle, and gracefully pulled it open, your shaky hand grabbing the handgun and pulling it out.

A few beeps came from outside the wall, which your assumed was either a keypad or a bomb. You cocked the gun, pulling it up so it was directly in front of you aimed at the door. Within a few seconds, the wall came up and the door opened, revealing another woman you had never seen with short red hair.

You noticed her extremely slim figure, all-black outfit, and strong facial features. She was beautiful, you had to admit, but she could also have been your enemy. "Woah, now." She said, "Put the gun down."

"Who are you?" You snapped at her, not moving the gun and slowly backing away as she slowly approached you.

"Jeez," She picked up an ID from her pocket, you aim the gun at her hand. "I'm Natalia Romanoff, head of security for Steve." You noticed the bright blue lettering on her card, so you slowly lowered the gun. "Put the gun down, I won't hurt you. I promise." You reluctantly placed the weapon on one of the sideboards in the room. "I'm here to help, okay?"

"Okay." You responded almost silently.

"Steve's on his way back, by the way," She sighed, "He was already alerted."

"Of what?" You asked.

"Of all this." She sighed, "Someone tried to get in, with a gun, so ya know."

"Yeah," You responded, still slightly confused.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah I am." You said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, "Just a little shocked."

"Understood," She said, sitting next to you. "I haven't met you yet, have I?" You shook your head, "Well I'm Natalia, everyone calls me Nat." She lightly smiled.

"I'm Y/N." You responded.

"Yeah," She stated, "We all know. It's kinda hard to miss you when Steve goes all lovey-dovey eyes for you." Your eyebrows shot up, "Oh don't pretend like you don't notice it either. The man goes from having a black heart of coal to practically being a puppy in about a second when he sees you." You lightly smiled. You knew very well you had a strong effect on Steve. "I'm just glad he found a mate who's not a bitch."

"Thanks?" You lightly laughed and she did too.

"You're welcome." She tightly smiled.

"So how do you know Steve?" You asked, studying her familiar face.

"He and was Avengers together," She said, "We've been close forever. So when he became one of the top leaders in the world and asked me to be his head of security, there was no way I could say no. He may be the only truly loyal person I've ever met, so I had to be loyal to him too." You nodded knowing exactly what she meant.

"This may be dumb, but can I ask which Avenger you were? You don't have to answer-"

"Black Widow." She said and your eyes went wide.

"THE Black Widow?" You asked, she nodded. You lightly laughed, "You were a huge inspiration for a lot of young girls."

"Yeah, I know." She stated, "But that was also quite a few years ago."

"Well you still are," You told her, "I don't think they stop teaching about you guys. Lots of little girls still look up to you."

"Well, maybe," She said, "But I would prefer to humble myself with the potential that everyone's forgotten about me. Get away from the fame." The conversation continued and gradually lightened up as well. Nat even told you a few stories of Steve being a dumbass, which you couldn't deny were hilarious.

"Y/N?" You both heard Steve's voice as he ran into your room. He sighed as if he was holding in a breath for hours as you stood up. He ran up to you, grabbing you in a huge hug and kissing the top of your head, "You're safe." He caressed the back of your head, his large hand going over your hair.

"I'm fine Steve, trust me." You reassured him. You then looked over to Nat who tightly smiled at him.

"What the hell happened?" He asked her, his demeanor changing as she had previously told you it did.

"Someone managed to get in," She sighed, "The guys are figuring out how right now, reviewing every piece of tape from every camera within a block of the building, and within the building." She continued, "He didn't get beyond the first hallway though."

"Why did he come here?" He asked even more firmly, it was next to a growl.

"Yeah, about that." She said, picking a bag out of her jacket pocket, "This is who he works for." Steve grabbed the clear bag and looked in it. It was an ID, a man's face on it. At the top in solid red lettering wrote the word "Rumlow".