So confused with dates, but this was going to be my 21st December advent fic – better late than never. This one's a Maria/Steve fic, cos I'm half convinced they've got the hots for each other, especially in AOU (the jacket!). Anyway, I hope you like it and thanks for reading. As per usual, I own nothing to do with Marvel.
U: Use Somebody – Kings of Leon
Use Somebody
Maria, as a general rule, didn't need anyone.
She was able to work in a team of course when required, could take orders, give them and work in sync with other. That didn't mean it was her favourite thing.
She had learned the hard way that if you wanted something done and done properly, it was better to rely on yourself than others. It was that mentality and fuckton of hard work that had gotten her to her position as Deputy Director of Shield and she was quietly proud of her achievements.
Then Captain America had come along with a plan to tear it all down around her.
Hydra.
The level of deceit and pain buried in that one name was ridiculous, and she could only be glad that Fury had included her in his suspicions before they could gain complete control of Shield and its resources.
So she had done what she had always done: she had listened to Rogers' half-formed plan of tearing down Hydra and she began to put concrete ideas in place. How to strike, how to regain control of the helicarriers, how to shut down Project Insight and how to expose Hydra to the world – Maria thought of them all and developed a strategy for them to use the next morning.
She had even decided that she would be the one to finish it all. She would allocate all the details of who would complete what to her team and then she would be the one to press that button that would tear down her world for the last twelve years.
Then it was done. Shield had fallen. Fury had disappeared to hunt down the rest of Hydra in Europe, seeing as officially he was still dead. The hearings on the Capitol were finished.
Maria was out of a job and left to rely on herself once more.
Getting a job at Stark Industries coordinating all Avengers operations post-Shield was easier than she thought…as was passing the polygraph test that HR made her take. Stark was honestly too nosy for his own good sometimes.
It was difficult. She still preferred to complete most of her job alone, but here, despite her competence, everyone wanted a say in how things were run.
Stark couldn't stop himself from interfering, wandering into the base of operations and rifling through her paperwork before announcing that he'd changed his mind about how they'd handle any future international incident. Romanoff and Barton would listen intently to whatever strategies were in place and then promptly ignore all of them. Banner would lurk in a corner and shut down any and all ideas of using the Hulk more proactively and Thor would genially agree to everything Maria said, but then propose his own strategy based on battles he had won hundreds of years ago.
It was so frustrating and at times she wanted to strangle them all.
Strangely enough though, she gained an ally in managing this unconventional team: Captain America.
He coaxed and coerced his teammates into listening, reprimanded them when they got out of control and ensured that even if things didn't go according to plan, they at least vaguely followed the strategy agreed upon and wrote up everything got changed, missed out and blown up so she could keep some semblance of order in the reports and invoices she submitted to Stark Industries.
Compared to the others, he was a godsend and almost against her own will, Maria slowly began to rely on him.
Sometimes it felt like they were the only two sane people left in this building, and that was considering the fact that she was an ex-deputy director of a secret agency and he was a 90-year-old super soldier. Despite their beginnings, where she wasn't quite sure what to make of him, Maria liked him. He was smart and thoughtful and was able to listen to her opinions on missions and tactics and add options that she hadn't thought of to the table without pushing his ideas on her. He was attractive too, of course, but Maria wouldn't allow herself to think of him like that. It wouldn't be professional, but more than that, it wouldn't be good for her sanity. So she ignored that and focused instead on how she could utilise his military experience to best effect.
Still, if she caught herself staring at his ass a couple of times as he left the room, who could blame her. They made his jumpsuit so snug-fitting these days that it would be a crime not to look.
Slowly it began. She trusted him and she relied on him.
She wasn't sure when it began exactly. All she knew was that one day, she left a review of the latest situation in Guatemala for Rogers to read through, and waited for his analysis before deciding how to act. She knew what tactics she favoured for the mission, but reasoned with herself that it was always helpful to get a second opinion.
It wasn't until she went home that evening that she realised what she had done.
She was planning… with a team mate… instead of making the decisions herself and then presenting them for the team to review. She was relying on someone else to help her make decisions.
She was relying on a man to help her make decisions.
Her?
She didn't rely on anyone! She had never had to in the past and was slightly horrified that she was starting to now.
She drank a good amount of a bottle of red wine that night and went into work the next day feeling a little worse for wear and determined to begin clawing back a little bit of the control she had given up without realising.
What she hadn't anticipated though was the way Rogers avoided eye contact with her, ducking his head and blushing every time she entered the room. She didn't know what was up with him. He seemed to have gotten over his initial hesitation at reporting to her months ago, so why his eyes were dropping to the floor the second she entered the room, she didn't know. What she did know was that something had clearly happened given that Romanoff kept smirking at her knowingly.
Finally, she managed to corner the Russian in the lounge.
"Alright, what gives?"
Natasha arched an eyebrow at her, but looked entirely too smug to not know what she was talking about. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
Maria scoffed. "You and Rogers. You've been twitchy around me all day."
Natasha bared her teeth in a mockery of a smile. "Me and Rogers? Don't you mean you and Rogers?"
Maria's blood ran cold. "What?"
The warped smile grew even more gleeful. "You don't remember." Natasha laughed. "I should have known. You didn't sound like yourself on the message."
"Message?"
Fuck. Maria vaguely recalled hanging up the phone right before she fell asleep the night before, but had no clue who she had called or what had been said.
"Your lovely message to Steve?" Natasha prompted.
"Urgh." She collapsed onto the sofa and buried her head in her hands. This was great, perfect even. She was judging from the Russian's expression that it hadn't been her finest moment. "What did I say?"
Natasha sat delicately opposite her. "You don't know?"
"I don't even remember making the phone call," she admitted, running a hand tiredly over her eyes.
They fell into silence.
"It wasn't that bad," Natasha eventually said. "I think mostly Steve was just confused because it came from you. He gets those sorts of rants from Tony usually."
Maria winced at being compared to Tony Stark of all people.
"Mostly you just went on about how you didn't need him, you had never needed him and so he needed to stop helping you."
The sorry fact was Maria could picture herself saying it. That feeling had been building all of last night when she reached home, so she wasn't surprised by that part of the… conversation.
"And then you ordered him to stop distracting you with his fuck-hot body…"
"I did not!" Maria jerked upwards at Natasha's words. She hadn't, had she?
No. Even drunk, she was certain she would have locked down her…physical…interest in Rogers.
The Russian woman shrugged. "Okay, no you didn't. I made that up, but it doesn't mean you're not thinking it."
Maria glared at the shorter woman, but it had no impact. Natasha had produced a file from somewhere and was focused on evening up one of her nails, completely oblivious to her irate friend opposite. Maria ran her hands impatiently through her hair.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
Maria sighed. "I must have said something, otherwise you both wouldn't be looking at me like that."
She had Natasha's attention then. "It wasn't so much what you said to him," she began, "it's what the answer machine caught you muttering as you hung on."
"Oh God."
Natasha seemed to be enjoying her misery. "Just before you put the phone down, after you finished leaving your message, you might have said something about how you didn't need a man to help you, even if he did have a cute butt."
"Seriously?" She couldn't believe it. It was terrible. She had actually said that? To him? Maria vaguely consoled herself that it could have been much worse with some of the thoughts she had had about Rogers in the last six months.
Natasha raised a shoulder delicately. "If it's any consolation I'm pretty sure Steve thinks you have a cute butt too… Not that he'd say anything about it, of course, but I've seen him watch you as you walk out of the room."
Maria covered her face with her hands again, trying to think about how she could get out of this. She ignored what Natasha said about Rogers. She was just causing trouble, and Maria definitely didn't need any more of that.
Instead, she need to concentrate on how to twist this situation to suit her better.
Embarrassment!
Not hers - his. It was the only way.
Rogers was too much of a gentleman to bring up the issue with her, so all she had to do was act normal and hopefully the whole sorry business would be forgotten.
Natasha thought the plan was stupid and that she was an idiot, but then again, Natasha thought everyone was an idiot.
But the plan worked. Mostly. For the next week anyway.
It worked right up until the team were due to attack a Hydra base in Poland and the only person who could provide accurate intel on the layout of the base was the man who'd invaded it once already, albeit seventy years earlier.
She hated to call Rogers for help, especially since he had heard her message where she had effectively told him she didn't want his assistance in anything. He came when called though and helped, and Maria felt a little bit better that despite running her mouth off, she hadn't damaged their working relationship at all.
Until he was about to leave, having sketched out a map of the subterranean levels of the beach, and she glanced up at him just as he turned to leave.
"Thank you… for the map, Rogers. I appreciate it." It was sincerely meant, but she couldn't help the twist of her mouth that came with the words.
Rogers turned back and smiled at her – a strange, knowing smile that seemed more like an expression she would expect from Stark than him.
"It's no problem," he reassured her. "I'm always happy to help, Maria."
She frowned, certain that was the first occasion he'd ever called her by her first name.
He nodded and turned back to the exit, making it halfway through the door before delivering his parting shot. "And I'll do my best when we're working together to keep my 'cute butt' from distracting you."
Maria's jaw dropped and she heard his soft laugh echo through the hallway before the door shut, cutting off the sound.
Okay then. Screw whatever she had thought before. Steve Rogers wasn't a gentleman, he was a total troll and he had just bested her at whatever weird game they were playing.
Maria didn't like to rely on other people – it was one of her defining character traits. Still, Steve Roger was soon going to have to face the other dominant facet of her personality.
Maria hated to lose.
And she would take Steve Roger down – and probably enjoy it – if she had to.