Title: sum of the angles
Fandom: Marvel/Avengers
Rating: PG-13
Length: 235
Author notes: For fan-flashworks for the prompt Triangle.
Summary: Steve/Natasha/Clint. Steve is still figuring out how they all fit together.



Steve knows they’re trying to make him comfortable. They don’t hide that the two of them have a history, a language of their own. They never quite invite him in (maybe he just has trouble learning the code), but they never make him feel like he’s pushed to the sidelines either.

Before they were together, he assumed that Natasha would be the one to handle any problems. She would notice everything, keep things on track. It turned out it was Clint who was able to make things right; Clint’s gift was to help people without making them feel like they’re accepting help, and once Steve realized that, a lot clicked into place (about Natasha, about Natasha and Clint… about himself too).

Natasha surprised Steve also (but then, when has Natasha ever not been surprising?). She wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable, to be warm, and it almost made Steve feel guilty that he once assumed she would be.

They act like colleagues in front of the team; what they have is theirs alone. But behind closed doors, they fall into each other, slow but easy. Even after months, Steve still sometimes feel like he has no idea what’s going on: what they want from him, or even what he’s looking for in them. But lying in bed between them, both nestled up against his chest, breath warm against his skin, he can’t imagine being anywhere else.