On Your Left

Nicole Skylar was out for one of her morning jogs. The air was cool, crisp, and refreshing, and it felt so much like a Tennessee morning that as soon as she came back in from her balcony earlier that morning, she changed into running sneakers, jeans (because she wore jeans just about everywhere except to bed and formal occasions and days when she woke up and it was 7 degrees out.

She went to Central Park, ran the big loop that started and stopped at the entrance. She enjoyed how close it was. She heard footsetps coming up behind her. Fast, heavy footsteps. "On your left," the runner panted, and Steve Rogers passed her by and left her in the dust. Nikki chuckled and kept running. Several minutes later, he passed her again. "On your left." She chuckled again.

She stopped chuckling around the 5th time he did it, stopped smiling around the 15th time he did it, and started sighing around the 20th time he did it. By 25, she got fed up and shouted. "Don't say it!"

"On your left."

"Argh!"

They were hauling boxes of files up and down the stairs in the Triskelion. Some reorganization job that the Avengers got stuck doing for annoying Fury one too many times that week. Nikki grumbled under her breath about Clint and Pietro and their pranks, sure that was what it was.

She was in the middle of hauling a particularly heavy box up the stairs when someone approached her from behind. "On your left," Steve warned as he jogged up the stairs carrying two boxes. Nikki smiled and shook her head. He passed her on his way down a few minutes later.

She was walking down the stairs and saw him jogging up the stairs with another two boxes. "Maybe I ought let you handle it, huh?" she joked. He chuckled and she went down to retrieve more boxes. Once again, he passed her on the way down, then again on the way back up with two more boxes. "On your left."

"Yeah, my left," Nikki replied. He passed her as she was getting through the door to the floor she was delivering the boxes to. She placed them outside the conference room, then went back down. The process repeated a few more times, with Rogers passing her on the stairs with two boxes and calling out "On your left" as he jogged past.

Nikki was starting to get why Sam hated that phrase.

Several 'on your left' situations later, Nikki swore to herself that if he ever tried to do it again, she was gonna hurt him. Her chance came not too long after the vow. It was another of Tony's ill-thought dares - which he was losing miserably - the pacer test.

Nikki had never heard of it, but it was a sprinting type thing. Run to the other painted line before the beep. Steve, as usual, rocked it. He aced running, and he aced sprinting. Nikki was second, though. Tony dropped out who knows how long ago - Nikki definitely wasn't paying attention - and it was just him and her.

And every time he passed her, head on or from behind, he said "On your left." Nikki was getting fed up, and when he started his approach from behind, the perfect idea flashed in her mind. She knew not where it came from, nor what triggered it, but it was perfect. The stuff of legends. And what she did next would become a SHIELD legend.

Steve approached. She could see the grin. She readied her arm for it - stopping 200+ pounds of super soldier wasn't something you do with one arm and not get a bruise from. Althought she figured she might get lucky. She counted off the seconds. 5, 4, 3, 2...

"On your-" WHAM! Nikki stopped on a dime and slammed her left arm out. Steve ran straight into it and got clotheslined in the gut. He doubled over, clutching his to be burised stomach and sunk to the floor. "Ow..." The whole room went silent.

Then Nikki stepped over him. She leaned down and whispered - just loud enough for it to carry across the room but quiet enough that it carried the effect - "On your left." She straightened, controlled her breathing, stepped over him, and walked away, throwing a triumphant swing in her step. Everyone watched wide-eyed and slack-jawed as she walked out without looking back.

To this day, Steve has never said "On your left" to her outside of Mario Kart.