Natasha walked up to the flight deck, her booted heels clacking against the granite. Fury sent her to welcome Captain America when he landed and escort him to the interior of the ship. It was almost a babysitting job, but she didn't complain. She had never told anyone, not even Clint, but she was a bit fascinated by the superhero.

In the Red Room, she was taught much about the American Captain. He'd been a living nightmare for them in the forties because he fought for truth, justice and freedom, not backing down when he came up against intolerance and evil. When he crashed into the ice, many in her home country had rejoiced - but not all. The man was revered by many, albeit secretly.

Natasha was an admirer of him too, but she didn't dare tell Coulson. Knowing him, he'd probably try to recruit her for his Captain America fanclub. She may admire Cap, but she wasn't that much of an admirer.

She frowned as her soul mark started tingling. That was odd. It never did that before, so why now, unless...she was going to meet her soulmate on the helicarrier? She felt equal parts excited and apprehension. Whoever the guy was, he was pretty formal. The soul mark on her lower stomach was the first word he'd ever say to her. Ma'am.

No one called her that, not really. At the most, she'd been called miss or mademoiselle, but ma'am was a word that hadn't been uttered in her direction, save for a few times and by strangers. Natasha was not expecting anything too incredible.

Once she got closer, Coulson and Cap walked off the quinjet together. Natasha fought back her desire to smirk.

I wonder what he'll think about the outfit Coulson helped create, she thought mischievously. It wasn't ugly per se, but if she'd been the one in charge of designing it, she would've made the colors a shade darker and kept it similar to his original uniform from the forties.

She approached both men and Coulson introduced them to each other. Steve nodded politely and said, "Ma'am."

Holy shit.

If she hadn't been a master of disguising her facial expressions, Natasha would've gasped in shock. Captain America was her soulmate?

The skin on her stomach began to burn, but she masked her surprise. "Hi," she replied as casually as she could. She took note of Steve's eyes when they widened. Turning to Coulson, she said, "They need you on the bridge for the face trace."

Coulson exited and then, it was only Natasha and Steve standing there. She licked her lips, feeling like her defenses were about to come crashing down. Already, the attraction between them was crackling and she had to step back to embolden herself.

"It's you?" Her voice came out incredulous.

"You don't have to sound so disappointed," he replied, bemusement on his features.

"I'm not. I mean, I am seriously confused right now, but I'm not disappointed." She scoffed and ran a hand through her hair. "Come on, you're Captain America! Every girl would kill to have you as her soulmate."

"Including you?"

Oh, you walked right into that one, Romanoff.

Instead of answering, Natasha changed the subject. "I guess it's jarring for you to suddenly find me after all those years of being frozen in the ice. And you've been back to the land of the conscious for little less than a year."

"This is the most bizarre thing that's ever happened to me, yeah." He chuckled.

"More than being injected with the super soldier serum?"

"In my book, it is. There was science involved with the creation of the serum, but having a soulmate? That's entirely predestined by fate. And honestly, I didn't pay much attention to my soul mark in the forties because most women who said hi to me back then were either running away from me because I was skinny or chasing me because of my muscles."

Natasha cocked her head to the side and frowned. Were the women of his time really that cold hearted and shallow? How pathetic. It was unavoidable for her to not feel pangs of sympathy for that young, skinny, sickly Steve Rogers. She knew parts of his story, but hearing this intimate knowledge from his lips made her soften inside.

"You got used to so many insincere women that you decided to focus on other things. It made the reality of never finding your true soulmate less painful. It shielded you. I would've done the same in your shoes." Natasha sighed as she saw a curly haired middle-aged man walking around, looking lost. Steve followed her line of sight.

"Isn't that-"

"Dr. Bruce Banner. I recruited him two days ago." There was a grimace on her face that disappeared as quickly as it came. "Better go bring him inside." She touched Steve's arm. "We'll have to talk later."

He nodded. "I understand. You've got a job to do."

"We both do." She smirked and together, they walked over to the scientist.

Natasha felt Steve's eyes watching her as Fury spoke to Stark on the bridge. Her insides were jumping and there was a faint tingling from the soul mark on her stomach. He probably had a thousand questions and so did she, but they'd have to wait. Right now, she couldn't play hooky with her duties and sneak off with Steve so they could talk on more intimate terms.

She rolled her eyes. Intimate. Where had that word come from? For a woman like her, intimacy was a fairy tale. Not that she minded. Being a spy meant you couldn't have a normal relationship with a person unless they understood the kind of job you had and could handle the crazy work hours.

Secretly, she admitted to herself that if she could find a man like that, she'd be happy, but it had to be her soulmate or not. She had dated a handful of times when the fear that she'd never find her soulmate got to be too much. But each relationship had ended in failure. Natasha never got the magical feeling she'd heard many associate with meeting their soulmate for the first time.

She also realised fate was a picky asshole that determined how, when and where she met her soulmate and dating just for fun was not fun at all. So she turned down any and all romantic offers from her coworkers - the ones who weren't frightened or disliked her, that is - and strangers. She was determined to wait for her destiny.

Little did she know that her destiny would turn out to be a literal superhero who'd been buried in ice for decades. An older man. Natasha chuckled. Well, she had lamented to Clint and Laura many times about men her age mostly seemed to be idiots and didn't know or care about what she wanted in life. Was it any wonder that she was fated to be with a man born in almost a completely different century?