one

Steve Rogers was a man of routine.

Despite learning that the agency he had pledged his allegiance to (and then later took down) had bugged his apartment and despite learning that his neighbour had only been assigned to be friendly to him, he did not want to pack up and move into a new home.

It was the first place he really felt at ease since waking up in this century, so instead of leaving, he hired contractors to fix the damages that the attack on Fury had created and continued on with his routines. The only thing that seemed to be missing were his run-ins with his (not-so) friendly neighbour (not named) Kate.

The first time he saw her since their encounter at S.H.I.E.L.D she's all guns blazing and nothing like the nurse from across the hall.

He and Natasha had been holding the fight against HYDRA agents on the ground while the rest of the Avengers took to the sky. They were outnumbered but it wasn't anything that a super soldier and ex-assassin turned spy couldn't handle, that is until the bombs started going off.

Steve couldn't help but do a few double takes whenever Agent Thirteen came within his line of sight. She had similar combat moves as Natasha and her aim was always dead on her target. It was difficult for him to reconcile the nurse he had offered his laundry machines to in exchange for coffee with the woman before him.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you Thirteen, but this isn't exactly the backdrop for CIA. What are you doing here?" Natasha had inched her way over to where Agent Thirteen had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Let's just say that your organization and my organization have a common interest at the moment. I need to get into that building and secure an artefact before HYDRA gets its hands on it." She was reloading one of her handguns. "They've rigged every entrance and the only way to get in there without lighting the sky on fire is through this section you two have managed to secure."

Steve couldn't help but scoff. "You're basically here on your own mission. You're not here to help us."

Agent Thirteen lifted an eyebrow and instead of trying to refute the accusation she merely nodded and agreed without hesitation. "There are snipers from my tactical team around the perimeter they'll help keep HYDRA at bay."

And with a mock salute directed at the Captain she turned on her heels and ran off, firing at anything that came her way.

He caught his shield having knocked three men down with it. "I thought you said she was nice," he said glancing over at Natasha who looked bemused despite being attacked from all angles.

Later, when HYDRA had pulled back and the dust and debris were beginning to settle, Steve half expected Agent Thirteen to be running back towards them with whatever artefact the CIA needed to secure. He checked out the perimeter for signs of the snipers she had spoken about only to realize that they were all gone.

They came and left without as much as a trace.

"Spies don't stick around and wait for the press to roll in." Natasha stood beside him and glanced around as well.

"They also don't seem to care for anything much else other than their mission."

He meant for it to be a jab at the agent, but the words were out before he really thought of the weight they carried. By the look on Natasha's face he knew it had been a low blow. The two of them had come so far since that night on the boat when they were sent to rescue the group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents being held captive earlier that year.

"I didn't mean – "

Natasha just waved her hand as if to dismiss it. "You know she could have easily gone into the building undetected but chose to help us out first. I think you should reconsider the meaning of nice."

She slipped away just as the first news van of many pulled up, ready to get their interview with Captain America. One of the problems with being such a public figure was the media raucous that surrounded it. Unlike Tony Stark, who thrived off the attention, Steve Rogers just wanted to do his duty and return home unnoticed.

He didn't have time think more on Natasha's parting words as he mentally prepared himself into becoming the 1940s Captain America tv personality he had perfected before he went on to lead the troops through war.

As the barrage of questions came in, Steve couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to live and operate in the shadows.

Agent Thirteen was a codename that Sharon Carter wore with pride.

Ever since she had been a child hearing about her great-aunt Peggy's adventures with S.H.I.E.L.D. she knew she'd make a name for herself and have her own adventures. Not very many people knew about her relation to the great Peggy Carter and Sharon had kept it that way because she wanted to stand out on her own merit. She gave her first name only in introductions and when other agents called her Thirteen she never corrected them or offered up her given name.

The dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a hard shock to everything she thought she knew and everything she grew up believing.

She didn't plan on joining the CIA outright. The truth was that they had initiated contact with her, wanting to recruit her before she joined up any other organization.

As a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, she had been on their radar and once news broke that the organization she once put everything of herself into no longer existed, the CIA didn't bide their time in trying to snatch up the best agents available on the market, Agent Thirteen being one of them.

She fit right into the environment being a trained spy after all. The only difference was that she wasn't working with superheroes anymore, which made stealth missions all the more dangerous because getting caught certainly meant torture followed by death without hope on the horizon that Fury would be sending in one of his trusted Avengers to save the day.

Sharon shook her head glad to be done with all of that, her run-in with the Black Widow and Captain America excluded.

Her mission had been to retrieve a chemical compound concocted in the 60s that was locked away in a bank vault, not to stop and lend a hand to the Avengers. When her handler debriefed her, she mentioned that it had been her only option and that revealing herself to the Black Widow and Captain America didn't compromise her since she worked with both operatives in the past (though her work with Captain America mostly consisted of her greeting him in their shared apartment building).

She was well aware that she had fibbed in her report.

The truth was that Agent Thirteen could have easily gotten in and out of that situation with the compound intact without so much as a glance from one of the Avengers and that should have been the end of it.

But when she saw them being circled by HYDRA agents she knew she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something had happened to them. So she ordered her team to standby and shoot anything that looked like HYDRA while she went in and completed her mission.

Big mistake.

Sharon opted to walk home from the office needing to blow off steam and berated herself for her actions. A small part of her wanted to be redeemed in the Captain's eyes for having deceived him while she was on orders to protect him. Although brief, he had been so openly hostile towards her at their last encounter in the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters and it never sat well with her afterward. Not that he had been any less hostile towards her today, but at least she knew that she wouldn't be making that same mistake twice in trying to get him to warm up to her.

No, Agent Thirteen knew that out on the field the mission was all that mattered, personal feelings be damned.

By the time she reached her apartment, the sun had set and it was well past dinnertime. She still lived in the same apartment complex on the same floor as Captain America. Unlike when she had been on assignment to protect him though, she didn't go out of her way to make herself known to him anymore. She had been surprised when he decided to stay there after the attack on Fury.

When he wasn't away on a mission, she knew his schedule by heart. As Kate, she timed her "laundry days" so that it seemed like a coincidence whenever they bumped into each other.

As Sharon, she avoided him like the plague.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts about the day that she hadn't stopped to consider the fact that Steve Rogers usually went for his nightly run at that time.

He was stepping out just as she was unlocking the door to her apartment.

Sharon glanced over at him noticing that he resembled a deer caught in headlights. He seemed genuinely surprised to see that she still lived there and normally she would have found that amusing but she was still slightly annoyed at him for assuming the worst of her earlier. So when she managed to get her door open she swiftly stepped inside and closed the door without so much as a word towards him.

All she cared about was having a hot bath and a couple glasses of wine to erase the day's events from her mind.