"Well done!" Steve charged through the avengers' tower, slamming the door shut behind him.

Stark stalked after him, anger dominating his minuscular feeling of guilt. "Hey don't go blaming this whole thing on me, pal!"
The rest of the avengers strolled behind them, their heads bent as another argument descended between the group.

Steve began pacing furiously, his hand itching at the back of his neck as the past mission plays over in his head.

Flashback

Chaos erupts around Cap as his orders are blatantly ignored. "Stark! I told you, shut it down." No response.

In the distance Hulk smashes a shooting plane - which had been stalling Thor for the last 5 minutes - from the sky and out of the corner of his eye, the soldier spies Black Widow ducking behind a truck for cover as both the burning aircraft and Hulk plummet towards the ground.

Using his shield efficiently Captain America charges to defend isolated children escaping the knocked over school bus, Hawkeye falls like a feather to assist.
Whilst their backs are turned numerous soldiers creep behind them, each one shot down quickly and successfully by Romanoff who calls through their connected ear-piece "We can't keep holding them off, Cap! Sooner or later someone's going to get..." a grunt as she kicks the roof of a destroyed car to help protect the saving boys, dashing off into Thor's outstretched arms as her cover is blown and Thor and Widow shot off into the air. "HURT!"

Rogers' knows she's right, but they can't leave without Stark; as tempting as it seems.

"STARK! We need to leave, now!" Again no response, double checking the bus is evacuated Hawkeye climbs down from the smashed window and calls to Cap, pointing out a unattended child running around in the destruction of tall towers, crumbling cars and ferocious flames. He was screaming. Hurriedly Cap skids across the street, sweeping the child into his arms and throwing him, as carefully as he can, into Widow's protective hands as she helps shelter the children alone with Thor under a strong structured garage.

Just when Cap was giving up on Stark, he responds on his comm "Alright old man! I'm back, what's goin...whoa!" Awe fills his voice, Hawkeye releases arrow after arrow. Stark actually chuckles "Ahah, you guys really missed me huh?" Several well-chosen responses are ushered by the defensive team.

End of Flashback

"Don't!" Steve shoves Stark's outstretched arm off his hunched shoulders, Stark stumbles, in an attempt to look cool he struts as if he was about to punch Cap. Before his hand even moves from his body Rogers' catches it.

"You risked the lives of every civilian remaining at that Hydra base!" The words shattered into tiny pieces of overlooked glass as Stark goes to retrieve a beer from the fridge.

"Chill out! The mission was a success: we shut down the Hydra base and I retrieved the Intel, FURY asked for."

He does a double-take at the beerless fridge and spins on his heel, accusing each avenger - except for Cap - in turn. "Where are all my beers?"
Banner who was now lying on the sofa with his head in his hands replied "Fury confiscated them, remember? You're not legally allowed to drink alcohol yet, Tony."

Stark sniggered. "Are you serious? I save the world more times in a week, than Fury gets up from his chair in a month. Do I not have rights?"

Anger pounced like a tiger inside Steve. "That doesn't matter!" Both the lack of alcohol and the interpreted success of the mission.
"What matters is that you ignored a direct order in the field! And need I remind you that Fury said retrieve Intel IF the hostages and civilians were evacuated and we still had time. Which we did not!"

Stark now rested on his lounge chair - he called it 'The King's throne' which had caused a little stress between Stark and Thor - rubbing his temples.

Silence mocked the sulking teenagers as it danced through the empty gaps between their bubbles of tension.

Out of the miserable cloud of blue, spoke JARVIS's robotic voice "Director Fury is online 1 waiting for a debriefing and to give you a new mission."

Stiffly, almost like the group didn't want to leave this damp atmosphere - more like they didn't want a new one to unfold following a unrevealed mission - the gang walked to the technology centre. This was only regularly used by Romanoff and occasionally Banner.
Nat, the most familiar with the technology, sat at the screen and opened up a waiting video of Fury frowning at them.

"What in the dang hell happened?" Fury's wining voice was too pitchy for Steve at this precise moment, but he answered anyway, gritting his teeth at the blame he'd receive from Fury for not being able to 'control' his team! - Stark

Instead of dobbing him in like Tony expected Steve would, Cap's response left little room for the truth. The swiftness of his lie was...inspiring. If you'd not been able to witness it with your own eyes you would have thought it had either come from one of the two trained spies.
"There was a misuse of communication and I mislead my team to believe we were gathering Intel as well as extracting hostages. It's my fault the mission was jeopardized and delayed, it won't happen again sir."

Fury glared at Rogers in extreme concentration for several pressurised minutes until he swiftly moved on. "I hope not, otherwise your leadership will be rethought and replaced Captain." Steve's head fell and he stared at his shiny, combat boots. "I understand sir."

The sight was sore to the eye and Natasha had to quickly look away to avoid a confession racing from her lips. She stared at Tony, of all of them he should be the one confessing, but of course he was daydreaming into the distance.
Oblivious to his surroundings.

"Anyhow I've got a new mission; there will be a briefing package for each of you by tomorrow morning. R.E.A.D it thoroughly and you're jet will arrive Sunday at 8am. Any questions, call me. Oh and Cap, don't fail me this time!" With a hard glance he dismissed them all, except Steve.

Fury spoke quickly and clearly to the lonesome soldier "Rogers I don't know what's going on up there but you need to sort it out. The last we need is our team falling apart right before they're needed for a nuclear war or something! And I don't know what you're not telling me but something smells fishy and it ain't my sushi." He massaged the bridge of his nose before continuing.

"Steve, you're a good leader for many reasons. It's obvious to anyone how much they trust you, because otherwise one of your teammates would have spilled what you were hiding just then. Just don't let me down, I'm counting on you."

And with that pressurising statement resting heavily on Steve's shoulders the screen went black; he turned to leave and jumped at the sight of Natasha. He'd been so wrapped up in Fury's criticism that he hadn't even noticed the spy had stayed, that's why she was one of, if not the best in the business.
He didn't know what he expected Natasha to say and he wasn't even sure if she knew what she was going to say, so they stayed in silence.

Steve liked Nat, although she scared the hell out of him there was something...unthreatening about her. She was regularly quiet, but not because she didn't care or anything, because she used her head more than her mouth. She was an observer.
But she seemed friendly enough; she clearly shared a strong bond with Barton. Everyone else she was professional with left their relationship open for work and only work.

Nonetheless she followed him back to his room and when he walked in she closed the door behind herself. For a second she stood their awkwardly staring at his belongings, he didn't have much. If anything the room was exactly how he'd found it, after being dished out of the ocean 2 years ago.

Finally she spoke, neutralising the momentary thought were Steve contemplated whether she had lost her voice. "You okay?" Steve nodded and Natasha took that as an invitation for her to sit on the edge of his bed, a short distance from him.

"Fury was quite hard on you."

Steve left little room for conversation in his tone. "I'm used to it." But Nat keep talking.

"It's only because you're better than the others." He cocked his eyebrow at this, leading Natasha to explain. "You're the leader, clearly that points out that you're the best to lead the team, therefore the best."

Steve felt mildly uncomfortable and modestly refused to believe that, "No, Stark's much better with his suits and Banner with his sciencey things and you...No I'm definitely not good at any of those sorts of things."
Natasha smirked at him. "That's not what I said. I said you're better, not at the digital side of things. Or even in the field." There was a thick layer of confidence over her tongue when she mentioned the battles.

"You're better at making the hard decisions and clearly you're a better person because you covered Tony's back when he definitely wouldn't have for you." Steve ignored the compliment and instead focused on Stark.

"Would you have not done the same?" Natasha sniggered; it was a rather endearing sound. "There's not a doubt in my mind, I would have left behind at the Hydra base."

Steve was startled with the certainty of her voice. "Why did you cover for him? You basically just put your own arse on the line for somebody you don't even like."

Steve's mouth perked up at the corner "Is it that obvious?" He questioned about the latter of her statement. She smiled at him, her tongue dripping with sarcasm "No, I'm just that good of an observer."
After a shared laugh Steve answered her question, it was surprisingly bothering her. Natasha did like Steve, despite her desperate attempts not to. He was really hard not to like, she had expected him to be shallow and self-obsessed - somewhat like Tony - thinking his whole patriotism was just a front, a strong source of propaganda. But she had been wrong.

She'd also been open for the leader position of the avengers and when Fury had given it to Rogers she had been anxious to know why. From the very beginning of their team being assembled she'd watched, hoping to pin-point the attraction he held over her for the position. It hadn't taken her long to locate it; he was simply a better person than she was. And it took some time, but she was okay with that.

Steve spoke to the floor, his cheeks slightly reddening as he justified his reasoning. "I'm the team leader, so doesn't that make any failure - small or big - my fault. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if Tony dropped an atomic bomb on America, if I'm his leader and he's my responsibility I'm the one who would get the cut."

Nat couldn't help but smile brightly at him; he'd just proved how much better a person he is than her. To try and lighten the mood Natasha said "In all fairness if Stark did drop an atomic bomb on America I'm pretty sure we'd all get cut."

"Well then" Steve finally made eye contact with her "we better pray he doesn't." At the same time they stood to face each other, Natasha a good few inches shorter than him. After an extended use of eye contact, where blue and green moulded to one Nat moved to leave and just before the door shut behind her petite figure Steve called "Thank you, Natasha." He was hesitant on using her first name, but happy after he'd done so.

She curiously glanced at his distinctive features "For what?"

For a wild second Steve panicked, his mind gone blank. Somehow he managed to regain control of his mouth and said, confusing himself as he did so. "For just...being here."

She smiled her killer smile and shut the door softly behind herself, almost as if she was scared that shutting it too loudly would break the hidden connection the pair had begun to build.

As Steve fell asleep that night the last thing he heard and saw was Natasha's red lips telling him "...you're a better person..." For the first in a long line of disturbed slumbers Steve sleep soundlessly as he finally let the demons from the day wither away.