"Steve no." Elizabeth pouted, grudgingly following his quick steps regardless of her obvious annoyance. She had been perfectly happy this morning, wrapped in her comforter and enjoying a surprisingly restful slumber until Steve had insisted on waking her so that they could go for a run. Elizabeth had practically bitten his head off at the suggestion but Steve had always been able to convince her to do something, usually employing his signature 'sad eyes'.
A chuckle sounded from before her then, snapping her back to the present, resonating from Steve as he strode purposefully ahead of her. "Running's good for you, Lizzy." The tone he used was full of his usual zest for life and American spirit; it did nothing but aggravate Elizabeth further.
Smiling despite herself, she replied. "Yeah but…" she paused momentarily, attempting to think up some form of a snappy comeback and failing entirely. "I swear running doesn't even effect your fitness anyway– you could just stop moving forever and you'd still be fit as a fiddle." The whiny tone she used was reminiscent of a child's, but she didn't care.
Another chuckle sounded ahead of her. "Yeah that's me though, not you Lizzy." And, without another word or even waiting for a likely disjointed reply, he took off running.
She groaned before taking off after him, running quite significantly slower than he. Wistfully, she remembered a time when Steve could barely run more than three meters without having to stop and catch his breath. "Slow down!" There was certainly no point in yelling for him to wait, he was likely out of earshot entirely by now.
As Steve's figure practically ran off into the sunset, she caught sight of another running man. Speeding up just slightly to reach this new figure, she set her pace beside him. The man seemed to share her aggravated glance towards Steve's rapidly repeating figure and she guessed Steve had passed this man. "Hey." The man almost jumped out of his skin at her introduction as his head whipped towards her, almost dangerously fast, in surprise. "Sorry," she told him almost timidly, trying not to laugh.
"Nah, it's fine." He told her with a smile. Still running, he held a hand out for her. "Name's Sam."
Clasping his hand awkwardly for a moment before letting it drop, she replied. "Elizabeth."
"Well," he began, looking ahead, "nice to meet you." Then, gesturing forward, he asked, "he with you?"
Barking out a laugh she nodded with a smile. "Unfortunately, yeah."
"So," he seemed unsure whether or not he should say something. She guessed that he had figured out who Steve really was and wasn't quite sure whether or not he should bring it up.
"Yeah?" She pushed him, doubting that he was about to say anything vastly offensive.
He gestured forwards again, obviously towards Steve – despite the fact that he was likely already behind them once more – and spoke. "I'm guessing, Steve Rogers?"
Laughing she nodded. "What gave him away?" Was her sarcastic reply.
"What didn't?" Elizabeth was quickly deciding that she liked Sam, he seemed down to earth and she felt as though they would get along rather well. It helped that he wasn't fan-boying too intensely over Captain America, something that Elizabeth had been forced to endure almost every time she met new people. "So, that would make you Elizabeth Barnes, right?"
After all these years, her heart still clenched painfully. "Uh, it's Boscoe… not Barnes." Elizabeth could have kicked herself, her voice sounded so small. Seventy- five years and a single name still managed to stop her short.
Sam quickly seemed to pick up on the fact that he had hit a nerve and thankfully didn't push the subject further. "Oh yeah, of course." They fell into silence after that, as Elizabeth suddenly lacked the required energy to make light-hearted conversation.
Thankfully, Steve interrupted their silent jogging by coming up on their left. Opposing his normal routine of simply running past her and saying something aggravating about how slow she was by comparison, he actually slowed right down to run beside her. Looking towards him, a dubious expression taking over her features, she raised her eyebrows. "Err, you alright Steve?"
"Why don't we give it a try?" As he asked he looked down at her with a reassuring smile but his words made her feel anything but calm.
"I don't know Steve…" she told him, her eyes darting around while her hands clasped together awkwardly.
Elizabeth hadn't even noticed that the trio had stopped running as she panicked over what was being asked of her. "There's no one around Lizzy, it's now or never."
"Well Sam's here." She noted quickly, hoping to get out of what he was suggesting.
Sam then threw his hands up defensively. "My lips are sealed." She could see the curiosity sparking brightly in his eyes and realized it had been idiotic to think he would help her avoid Steve's request. She guessed that he had some knowledge of her ability, after the trouble with Loki in 2012 almost everybody seemed to know far too much about her.
Huffing in annoyance, realizing there was almost no chance of her getting out of this, she grumbled a reply. "Fine."
Closing her eyes for a brief moment, breathing deeply to settle her nerves, she concentrated hard on the muscles of her legs and Elizabeth opened her eyes once more. This time they were glowing white. Distantly, she heard Sam utter a surprised noise but she barely even noticed. Concentrating on the movement of Calcium ions within her muscles and on just generally pushing her legs to move faster, Elizabeth began to run.
Ever since he had first discovered Elizabeth's abilities, back in 1925, Steve had struggled to wrap his head around the sight. Elizabeth's normally bright blue eyes had been replaced with an eerie, almost glowing, white color and her legs had been almost entirely surrounded by a faint black shadow. If he looked closely enough he knew that he would see the smoke-like substance pushing at her legs to move faster.
When he had first encountered her after being awoken from the ice the surprise that he had felt had been unimaginably huge but, as the original excitement had worn off, he had discovered that she was quite different. Her personality was largely unchanged but he had noticed how she seemed more harsh and unforgiving, almost always feeling some sort of anger at the world as a whole. The power she held had also dramatically increased, she had gone from performing parlor tricks; moving objects a few feet, to the ability to infiltrate the mind with enough concentration and energy.
While he had learned much about the progress in her abilities and the subtle, but somewhat stark, changes to her personality, she had told him practically nothing of her time while he was on the ice. There was almost an entire seventy year span that she refused to speak about. One of the few things that he actually knew was that Shield had recruited her in 1986 and that she had worked for them ever since.
"Wow." The man beside him was watching her run, faster than should be physically possible, with wisps of black smoke ghosting over her entire figure. Her golden hair, still insanely long despite being tied back, was floating on the wind behind her – as though it simply couldn't keep up with her speed.
Finding himself smirking, feeling somewhat proud of Elizabeth – as though she were a younger sibling having just mastered the art of riding a bike, Steve glanced towards the man who was watching her with distinct awe. Clapping a hand on his back, Steve smirked before running after his old friend. "C'mon man!" Sam's noisy complaint behind him caused a chuckle to escape his lips before he caught up with Elizabeth.
She had maintained her run for much longer than she had thought she could, she was decidedly surprised with herself – and secretly rather pleased. She had been expecting a nosebleed, a blinding headache and a faint within the first minute. It seemed she had come much farther than she had realized. Although, Elizabeth knew that she could do far more than run faster using her powers – back at Hydra, Elizabeth had been doing far more but somehow, those complex abilities had left her when she had escaped their clutches.
After the run, in which both she and Steve had lapped Sam several times – much to his aggravation, they had found him once more. It seemed that Steve wished to learn a little more about the guy, not that Elizabeth really had an issue with that – she too was curious.
They chatted for a while, learning a bit more about who Sam was. He informed them that he used to be a para-rescue, but now worked at the VA and he and Steve seemed to bond over shared army experience. As had become clear, he already knew who the two of them were but he seemed to be a little more understanding and reserved than most. She found his attitude a welcome change.
Tuning back into their conversation, Elizabeth felt suddenly annoyed. "Food's a lot better, we used to boil everything."
"Hey!" She complained, slapping his arm lightly. "I used to cook for you all the time! My food was excellent." Proudly finishing her sentence, Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at him – awaiting response.
"Okay," he conceded, rolling his eyes, "with the exception of Lizzy's food, the food's a lot better." Sam was chuckling at Steve's words and Elizabeth felt a little miffed. The number of times she had invited him over and cooked him a huge, loving meal in the hopes of fattening him up a little and here she was, finding that her efforts had been entirely underappreciated.
"Internet, so helpful." She had to agree there, the internet was a gold-mine of incredible information. "Been reading that a lot, trying to catch up." Hiding a smile, she thought back to how clueless Steve had been when he had first woken up and how far he had come from them. To begin with even the concept of the internet had been near impossible for her to explain to him.
"Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack." Sam explained, causing Steve to pull out his adorable notebook of things to catch up on. "Everything you missed, jammed into one album." Elizabeth pulled her eyebrows together; 1972… that would be something she had missed as well.
"I'll put it on the list." As Steve wrote the words scruffily, Elizabeth looked across to read through a few of the things on the list. Moon Landing, Thai Food, Nirvana … God he was still very much a man out of time. Elizabeth herself had been overcome with confusion and wonder upon entering the real world after her decades spent in small dark rooms.
Simultaneously, hers and Steve's phones chirped. Quickly checking the message, she huffed and looked back up to Sam with an almost genuine smile. She couldn't even have one normal morning. Steve shook his hand firmly, teasing him slightly about how slowly he had run, before Elizabeth grasped his hand more delicately. "See you around Sam."
His, much larger, warm hand shook hers slightly. "I hope so."
Smiling kindly, Elizabeth nodded before moving towards the car behind them.
Hi! Thank you for reading the first chapter of this story! I know it's a little short but I didn't want to overload in the first chapter. Please let me know what you think and I should upload a second chapter at some point this week! :) xx