A/N: This is my first baby step into writing for the Marvel fanfiction! :D

Natasha sat up and slowly opened her eyes. Seconds later, her alarm came on, Seals and Croft's 'Hummingbird' playing loudly in her ear. As much as Natasha loved the song, she slammed her hand down on the alarm, silencing it. It was too early for music.

Wait a minute. What was that sound? She could have sworn that she heard a bark in her yard. The red head rubbed her eyes and yawned, stretching her arms out. Then there was that bark again, only this time, it was much louder. She pulled back the covers and grabbed a jacket, zipping it up as she walked out of her room. There was another bark and another. Natasha froze when she got to the kitchen and opened her window blinds.

"No, no, no! Not the tomatoes! Augh!" She yelled in anger and unlocked the door, running outside to her backyard. The little tomato garden she had planted months ago was now utterly destroyed. The vegetables she had worked so hard planting were strewn all over the backyard. It was a tomato massacre.

Natasha scowled as the source of the barking and clearly the tomato garden vandal ran up to her. He was a cute little German Shepherd with black fur, tail wagging as he smiled up at her. Natasha's eyes narrowed and she wondered if anyone would notice a missing dog. Seriously. She loved tomatoes and after all the hard work she put into her garden, this little dog had completely screwed up her long hours of toil. Not cool.

Natasha closed her eyes and sighed, centering herself. It really would do no good to blame the dog for his wilful destruction of her property. The owner was clearly to blame since he or she didn't care to train their dog poperly and teach it not to go around messing up people's gardens.

The dog yipped at her heels and she smiled a little bit. "Well, let's see what your name is, huh, boy?"

She picked up the dog and looked at his collar. The tag said 'Bucky'. She wrinkled her nose and absentmindedly rubbed the top of the puppy's chin. "What kind of a name is Bucky for a dog?" She mused to herself.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. I have to go through this garden and see if there's anything worth salvaging here. I'm chaining you to the fence, though, Bucky. Just in case your owner comes around looking for you. Okay?"

The dog barked and gave her a happy smile. Natasha shook her head as she went back inside her house. It didn't take long for her to find rope - who kept chains around their house anyway? - to tie Bucky to the fence with. Once she was sure that Bucky was safely secured to her fence, Natasha went back inside her house to change her clothes and eat a quick breakfast.

While she was preparing her breakfast, she glanced out the window. 'Maybe Bucky is hungry too,' she thought to herself. Let it not be said that Natasha Romanov wasn't a hospitable person. She went to the refrigerator and pulled out the big flank steak she'd been planning to eat later today.

"I could cut half of this up, cook it for a little while and give it to Bucky to eat. Dogs can't eat cooked food, but eating a completely raw steak isn't good for a dog either..." She mused. What a funny turn of events. First, she woke up and found that a dog destroyed her tomato garden, now she was about to make him some breakfast.

Amazing.

Natasha ate her breakfast first and afterwards, began cooking Bucky's steak. Once she was certain that it was cooked perfectly - well, for a dog anyway - she put it on a plate and brought it out to the canine. Bucky smelled the food and started barking excitedly. It was impossible not to smile as she put the plate down in front of him.

Bucky tore through that steak like he hadn't eaten in days. Natasha just sat there, amusedly watching the dog gobble down the food ravenously. When he finished, he jumped into her arms and barked happily. She rubbed his head again and smiled softly. Crazy dog was beginning to grow on her.

She began to search for any tomatoes that hadn't been mauled. Surprisingly, she found a good amount. Bucky hadn't caused as much damage as she believed he did. It just looked that way on account of the tomato pulp spread all over the backyard.

A grin on her face, Natasha turned to the dog and laughed. "You must really like tomatoes, huh, Bucky? Well, I'll give you this much, you may have messed up my garden, but you left enough tomatoes for me to make a couple of salads with. Probably a few dozen sandwiches too."

The dog merely gave her a big, cheesy grin and barked a few times. Natasha just shook her head and kept working. Her basket of tomatoes was getting fuller by the second. At the rate she was finding tomatoes, Natasha could probably share some of these them with a neighbour or two. There was be no way she could eat them all by herself.

Suddenly, Bucky began barking wildly and pulling at the rope. Maybe there was a squirrel or some kind of animal that he wanted to chase. Natasha ignored his barking and continued with her work. Still, Bucky would not relent and he kept barking until she thought she would go crazy. Finally, Natasha stood up and walked over to where Bucky was standing.

"What are you looking at, boy? Hmm?"

She then noticed a man walking towards her house. He was physically fit with blonde hair and when he came closer, Natasha noticed his impossibly blue eyes that she could find herself getting lost in if she weren't careful. Snapping out of her reverie, she shook her head lightly and gave the stranger a smile.

He smiled back. "Hi."

"Hey," she replied. "Is there something I can do for you?"

He scratched his head and looked at Bucky. "Oh, ha. Funny, I was going to ask you if you'd seen my dog, but here he is with you. Lucky coincidence. Hey, Bucky. Why'd you leave the house, buddy? I was worried about you."

As the man bent down to talk to his dog and give him a rub on his head, Natasha gave him a quick once-over. He was wearing a pair of rugged jeans and a white t shirt, with a pair of sneakers that had the American Stars and Stripes on them. Hm, so he was patriotic and attractive to boot. That was a plus.

"So you're his owner, then?"

He looked up at her and smiled again before returned his gaze to his pet. "Oh, yeah. By the way, I'm Steve. Steve Rogers." He straightened up and shook Natasha's hand warmly. Nice, firm handshake, he had. Not that Natasha cared.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Natasha. You can untie him since he's yours. Bucky here got into my tomato garden either last night or early this morning. I'm not sure what you feed him, but you should know that he has a passion for tomatoes. He spilled a lot of pulp over the backyard."

Steve's grimaced as he just took notice of the upturned backyard. He gave her an incredibly apologetic look and shook his head at his dog.

"Ah, Bucky, why did you do that, huh? I'm so sorry he ruined your tomatoes. See, I just moved into the green house at the end of the street this week and I'm still arranging things. The fence around my yard isn't complete, so I just had to tie Bucky to the post and hope that he wouldn't go off exploring...which he obviously did."

Natasha's previous disposition to blame Bucky's owner for laziness and negligence with his dog was quickly washed away. She couldn't believe it but she actually felt sorry for Steve. It wasn't his fault that his dog was restless.

"Hey, it's okay. Your dog was probably just excited to be in a new environment. I hold no ill will towards you or Bucky. In fact, how about a housewarming gift to celebrate your buying a house?"

Steve hooked his fingers through his belt loops. "Sure, what did you have in mind?"

This guy was kind of cute. Natasha grinned and pointed to the basket of tomatoes. "The fruits of my labor, of course."

His blue eyes flicked down to the basket and a laugh sounded from his lips. "Well, it's kind of you to offer, but I don't think I should. After all, my dog did just destroyed your tomato garden."

"Oh, that doesn't matter. Water under a bridge. I don't mind sharing with you, besides, even though he did mess up my garden, there's still a lot of perfectly fine tomatoes here. I think I planted too many, and even though I really like tomatoes, it's not like I can eat all of them by myself..." She gave him a pleasant smile with just the right bit of sweetness.

It was obvious that Steve was going to concede. Natasha could tell by the quirk of his lips and the relaxed shift of his body. She was a silent observer of people and her knack for guessing how others responded to her tended to be correct.

His blue eyes met her green ones and they both chuckled. "Yeah...alright. Why not? Who am I to turn down perfectly good vegetables?"