#cabbles

Prompt submitted by Windriding.

 Rainy Days and Mondays

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Pepper would have teased her for the melancholy look on her face as she sat in a window with both arms wrapped around her knees.

But Pepper wasn't here... Well, she was- But it wasn't her Pepper... This one was more prone to fleeting, pitying, glances. The sort adults gave her for years after her parents had died; 'Oh, there's the Stark girl. Poor thing!'

She'd always hated that.

Natasha leaned her head back against the window frame and watched the misting rain, humming in a distracted sort of way.

What I've got they used to call the blues...

Her hands twisted together slightly as she breathed the next line of the song aloud without thinking.

"Nothin' is really wrong. Feelin' like I don't belong... Walkin' around, some kind of lonely clown..." A shaky breath. "Rainy days and mondays always get me down..."

"It's Wednesday."

The voice from the doorway made her jump, but she kept her balance and just looked over, trying not to look as distressed as she felt by who she saw standing there.

Funny, but it seems I always end up here with you...

"Yeah? Well, you know, thirty two years out of place- What's a day or two?..."

She accepted the large hand that was offered to her and let him help her down from the window, trying to ignore the familiar feeling of his fingers as they curled around her palm.

"I think I know what you mean..."

When Captain America(She couldn't bring herself to call him Steve...) smiled at her she ignored a brief pang of hurt(How dare he not be Steve...) and examined the genuine sympathy, the desire to make her feel better, so plainly etched on his face.

It made her want to cry.

Nice to know somebody loves me...

He wasn't Steve... He just looked like him, spoke like him, and was huge and warm and probably fucked like him if she ever felt like testing that- no... She shouldn't... He wasn't Steve...

Natasha squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus on something that didn't involve any of the phrases 'close enough', 'blowing off steam' and 'not really cheating'.

Her fingers had tightened around the Captain's and she'd barely noticed the arm wrapping around her shoulders until she found herself close to a broad chest.

Funny, but it seems that it's the only thing to do...

She looked up at him from under her eyelashes and once again saw sympathy- No pity, no coddling, only the sad understanding of the veteran seeing the newly wounded- And something else she couldn't put her finger on.

Natasha didn't think about it as the Captain tilted her chin up and leaned his down, or how her hands wound up on his shoulders and grasped at the rough scalemail.

The kiss was deep, slow, and her arms had snaked their way about the man's neck by the end of it.

"Steve..."