Steve stood on the balcony of the Avengers tower, lost in thought while looking over Manhattan. Inside, Tony's celebratory party was in full swing – everyone was socializing and eating, except him. Steve wasn't in the mood to socialize with others – his mind was elsewhere.
"You've been standing outside for so long that I'm pretty sure you're not just admiring the view anymore," Natasha walked next to him, crossing her arms and leaning over the railing. "What's got you so quiet tonight?"
"Nothing, I'm just thinking." He replied shortly, turning his head to face Manhattan again.
"Don't give me that crap, I know you and I know when you're acting weird. What's got your panties in a twist, Cap?" She smiled at him.
"Nat, I swear, I'm fine." Steve remained expressionless.
"Look, if you're thinking about-"
"I am not thinking about her." He cut her off.
"So you are thinking about her, then." Nat smirked.
Steve sighed in defeat. "Tony said she'd be here, and it's almost midnight and she hasn't showed up yet."
"She'll show, trust me." Nat placed a hand on his shoulder.
"What if she doesn't?"
"Then you wore this new blue shirt for nothing." Nat turned around. "I never thought I'd live to see the day when Steve Rogers got nervous over a girl."
"I am not nervous!" Steve argued.
"You keep telling yourself that, Cap." With that, Nat walked back inside the building. Steve turned around to face the party guests; everyone seemed to be having a great time. A circle had formed around Thor, who was probably telling some story about Asgardian affairs. Tony, Maria and Bruce were most likely discussing something related to science, while Sam was sitting on a couch, talking to other women. Steve normally loves parties like this - all the talking, laughing, meeting new people; tonight, however, she seemed to occupy his thoughts completely.
Steve Rogers first met Allison Lane through Sam Wilson – she was over when Steve and Natasha showed up at Sam's front doorstep.
"Ally, you might want to make double the bacon and eggs. We've got company!" Sam had yelled into the kitchen, and from there she emerged, catching Steve's attention almost instantly. Her shoulder-blade length brown hair was braided, and she pushed her black glasses up her nose bridge.
"Black Widow and Captain America are joining us for breakfast? Sweet. I'm Allison Lane. S.H.I.E.L.D. agent." She introduced herself while taking out a pair of place mats.
When Allison vanished back into the kitchen, Natasha had asked Sam, "Are you two a thing?"
"Nah, we used to work together as field agents before I went into counseling and she got tested on by S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, she's a desk agent with telekinetic powers."
"You hear that, Cap? She's available."Nat gently nudged his shoulder. Steve brushed off the sentiment at first, reminding himself that he could worry about finding a girl later, his focus was to be solely on the mission.
Boy, was he wrong.
Allison did the planning for the rest of the mission; she was the brain of the operation, calculating every step and figuring out a way around every obstacle. Steve began to spend more time with her as they got nearer and nearer to executing their final plan to infiltrate HYDRA and take out Alexander Pierce.
"Why can't we enter Headquarters through the West quadrant?"Steve had asked her one day.
"Because unless you want to take out 120 Hydra soldiers who are waiting for your return in a minute, we're not going through there."Allison retorted.
"I can take 120 men." He defended.
"I'm sure you can."
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"It's not that I don't believe you, Rogers. I'd kill to see it happen - hell, I'd totally help you take down those men, but taking out 120 men in under a minute seems like a rather unrealistic expectation to set for yourself."
"Allison, in case you couldn't tell, I'm very strong. I can guarantee you, 120 men will be a piece of cake for me."
"Rogers, these 120 men are probably carrying weapons you've never been exposed to before. Hydra has been working on a lot of weaponry recently; things even I can't understand. If we expose you to them, who knows what will happen."
"How are you so smart?"He looked at her as she scribbled something on the board.
"Telekinetic abilities heightened my brain capacity."
"What exactly can you do in the field?"
"As much as I'm a sucker for getting into fights, my days in the field are over. I'm a desk agent now, I watch the action happen from the stands."
"You're clearly not a desk agent, Allison. You can literally control things and people with your mind; I don't think that skill should be restricted to a desk," She stopped writing and looked at him. "It should be used on the field."
"I appreciate your sentiment, but I'm not restricted to the desk. I chose to be there."With that, she walked away from him, leaving Steve Rogers speechless for the first time in years.
A few days later, she had a proper interaction with him again when he, Natasha and Sam hid in the safe house for a few days. Steve had stumbled into the monitor room, slightly dizzy and bruised after his encounter with the Winter Soldier.
"Long time no see," He spoke, loud enough for her to turn around and see him in his bloodied suit.
"Holy crap, Rogers, what happened?" She rushed to his aid, taking his arm and walking him to a chair.
"You should see the other guy." Steve attempted to laugh, but winced instead, "Hydra and the Winter Soldier ambushed us before we could get to HQ." He sounded drowsy, like he was about to pass out.
"Have the nurses seen you?" Concern was laced in her words.
"Nat was shot, so they're treating her first. Besides, it's nothing I can't handle."
"Okay, I'll grab some ice and a first aid kit to bandage your wounds. Stay here, no matter what. We can't move you in this state."Allison ran out of the monitor room to the infirmary, and grabbed a kit. She sprinted back to see an almost passed out Steve. "Alright Rogers, I'm going to need you to get out of the suit."
"If you wanted to see me naked so badly, you could have just asked me directly." Even though he was in pain, Steve couldn't hold back a smirk and a cocky comment.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed a part of his suit, "How do you get this thing off?"
"Whoa, Allison, I don't think our relationship is at that stage yet."
"Shut up, Rogers." She suppressed a laugh.
As Steve walked her through the removal of his suit, he couldn't help but notice how she subconsciously bit her lip when she was concentrating on a task - something he found adorable. Alison's eyes widened at the sight of his left arm, which had a deep cut running down the side of his bicep.
"How did you get this cut? Isn't the suit supposed to be impenetrable?" Allison asked as she touched around the slash.
"The Winter Soldier's pocket knife went deeper than I'd thought." Steve winced as she pressed down a little too hard on his arm.
She muttered a small apology before grabbing a bandage. "I'll try to bandage this up. I'm not an expert on nursing or anything in that field, so I'm relying on the stuff S.H.I.E.L.D. taught us to do during training." As she wrapped the bandage around his arm, he couldn't help but wince in pain.
"Sit still, Steve." She clipped the bandage onto itself, and he froze. Allison looked up at him and asked,"What?" "So?" "You normally call me Rogers." "That's a part of your name.
"You just called me Steve."
"It's not my first name, though. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're supposed to call people by their first names, Allison - not their last."
"I will not have pointless arguments with you when you're about to pass out. I'll go grab you a shirt," She turned around and walked to the door. Before she exited, Allison looked at him over her shoulder and said, "Don't call me Allison, Steve. I go by Ally. Stay put and don't move, no matter what happens."
"Yes ma'am."He'd muttered, amazed at her ability to leave him speechless after every conversation.
Ever since then, Steve hadn't interacted with Allison Lane. Sam had kept him updated on her whereabouts, though - he told Steve how she was back in the field, like he'd suggested. He told Steve how she'd successfully taken down an entire Hydra base in France by herself, and how she and Natasha had gone on a rescue mission to Nigeria not too long ago. However, their paths never crossed.
"I can't believe the famous Steve Rogers isn't inside, sharing some story about a mission like Rhodes is. I've read the reports - you used to be quite the party animal back in the day."
He could recognize that voice anywhere. Steve spun around, only to meet the eyes of the girl he'd been waiting for all night wearing a small smile upon her lips. She'd changed a lot in the past four months - her hair was much longer, and she wasn't wearing glasses.
"Well, what can I say? I'm a bit distracted tonight." He carefully observed her as she sauntered over to him, her black dress accentuating her curves with every step she took.
"I can't blame you, the view from up here is incredible. I'd kill to live here."
"Trust me, once you wake up to it enough times, it's not that spectacular. My bedroom overlooks Manhattan as well; at first, it used to be amazing to look at, but now, it's just boring."
"Really? I don't believe you for a second." She smirked.
"You'll just have to see it for yourself, then." Steve replied.
She laughed, and put both her arms on the railing. "Maybe I will." The two fell into a comfortable silence.
"I hear you're back in the field," Steve broke the silence, "When did that happen?"
"Three months ago. Barton unexpectedly recruited me for a mission in Belarus. I almost died, but when is that not fun?" She joked.
"That's good."
"I'm assuming Sokovia went well?"
"Yeah, Barton got nicked but he's fine now. Besides that, no major damages done to our team."
"That's good."
"You know," Steve began, "The team could really use someone with your brain and your abilities."
"Rogers-"
"No, please just hear me out," She turned to face him as he spoke. "Sure, Sokovia was successful, but we all barely survived. What we're fighting is bigger than anything we've dealt with before. There are these two twins who have enhanced abilities who are test experiments from Hydra, and we don't know what they're planning. They've done something to Stark - he's been acting different for the past three days. When I was in Stark's position four months ago, you patched me up and helped me back on my feet. You reworked the plans, and you ended up saving a lot of people from those helicarriers with those chips. If you used your brain and your powers together for the greater good, I can only imagine how strong our team would be. We could wipe out Hydra and any new threats completely, Allison. We'd be invincible."
"Steve, I'm nothing compared to the Avengers. I may be able to do some cool mind stuff, but you guys are still a team. I'm just a desk agent who got experimented on, I'd be dragging you down."
"I don't believe that for a second."
"It's true, Steve. I can't fight like you, I don't have the skills or training for it."
"Please, Allison." He placed his hand on top of hers. "We need you on this team."
After thinking for a few minutes, she sighed. "One mission."
"What?"
"I'll help you on one mission, that's it. If it works out and the rest of the team doesn't mind me, I'll stay. If not, I'm gone."
Steve grinned. "I knew you'd cave eventually."
"What can I say? I'm distracted tonight." She smirked. "Do we know something about the next mission yet?"
"We're not certain, but whenever the whereabouts of the Maximoff twins are revealed, we'll probably try to capture them."
"Sounds fun."
"We're already trying to plan how to catch them, and we'll need you to help us with that."
"Why not just wait for them to come to us, and then spontaneously attack them?"
"The team doesn't do well with spontaneous attacks, Allison."
"The mission Barton took me for was organized hours before being executed. That sounds pretty spontaneous to me."
"Alright, fine, I don't do well with spontaneity. I prefer to think before striking."
She leaned forward and stood on her tiptoes until she could reach Steve's ear. Softly, she whispered, "Thinking is boring, Rogers. Do something spontaneous in your life for once. Live a little." She leaned back with a smirk on her face and spoke, "We should go back inside, it's getting kind of chilly out here-"
Before she could finish her sentence, Steve grabbed her waist, tugged Allison to him and crashed his lips onto hers. She instinctively put her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her.
In that moment, the only thing that mattered to Steve Rogers was the fact that Allison Lane, the girl who had occupied most of his thoughts for the past four months, was in his arms. He felt timeless, and he loved every second of it.
As he backed her up against the railing, Allison deepened the kiss as she ran her hands through Steve's blonde hair. After a minute, she reluctantly pulled away slowly and rested her forehead against his, breathing heavily.
"This is me," He breathed, "Living a little."
"Steve Rogers is finally loosening up." She grinned.
"Yeah, someone important told me to be spontaneous for once." He wrapped an arm around her waist and began walking towards the door to come inside.
"Well, for your first spontaneous decision, I think it worked out pretty well."
"I think so too, Allison."
"Y'know, it's really unfair that you call me by my full name, and I don't even know yours."
He laughed. "Steven Grant Rogers."
"Your middle name is Grant?" She looked at him, "Incredible. What a strong, powerful name for a strong and powerful man."
"Don't mock me, Ally. It's a nice middle name."
She smiled. "Whatever you say, Steven."