"What was that for?" Steve questioned, in an accusatory tone. At the same time, little Hydra squeezed her eyes shut, stuck her face in Steve's chest, and clung onto him like a koala.
"Steve you are the only person who could find a kid in the middle of an abandoned factory." She sighed, half already done with this situation, half trying to hide her shock.
"You've never found a kid on a mission?" He retorted, his feet slightly sinking into the amber sand, creating a valley of footsteps as he walked to the humming quinjet.
"No, actually, I haven't," Nat admitted, before sighing, turning away from Steve, and strolled up the ramp.
"Do you have any ideas about what the protocol is if there even is one?" Steve asked, following her lead.
"Well, I'd assume that we could find out if she really is related to someone in this sudo-hydra cult, and if she had anything that we need, and once that's done, hand her over to the state and let them deal with it." Natasha sighed, going straight to the pilot seat. "And when I say we I mean not me" she called, grinning.
"Very funny" He sarcastically chuckled and walked over to one of the air-conditioned benches. To him, being in the brisk air was at first refreshing, a glorious release from the heat of the desert and the factory. On the other hand, though, the chill currents made his hair stand on end, remembering the last time he was in extremely cold temperatures. He had lost everything that day, yes he had saved the world, but he lost bucky, his only family, Peggy, and his comprehension of the world around him. How, after all that, could he possibly like the cold?
Hydra seemed to like the cold even less than Steve. Within 2 seconds of entering the quinjet, she started shivering. Her shivers began in small bursts, like a bird ruffling its feathers. Quickly, however, it progressed into her entire body even more curled up than before, furiously shaking, with her teeth writing a symphony.
"Do we have a blanket or anything on here?" Steve quickly inquired, moving his arms and adjusting her once more. Now she as sitting sideways on his lap, her tiny feet barely dangling off of his right leg. He put his arms around her like a hug, trying to cover as much surface area on her as possible, in a futile attempt to keep her warm.
"Unless you want to try the paper towels in the bathroom, then the answer would be no." Natasha plainly responded, taking the quinjet into the air.
Steve was about to ask if in that case could she turn on the air conditioning, but thrust into the air caused little Hydra to scream as if she was being murdered.
"Hey, it's ok!" Steve frantically tried to comfort, rubbing her back with his hand. It dawned on him that if she had never left the factory before then this was Probably her first time ever on something that moved.
"NOOOO!" she screamed, burrowing into Steve's uniform.
"It's only for a little bit!" He replied, and quickly tried to figure out what to do. Every so often, little kids would see him and get scared of his height and build, but usually, the parents were there, and they would something pick up their kids and hug them to make them better.
"OUCHY!" she shrieked, and Steve immediately loosened his grip on her, a horrible slime like feeling rushing through his body. He had only hugged her a tiny bit tighter than he had the entire time, but it was too far. He never wanted to hurt her, yet he had, so he let go with one arm, and loosened the grip of the remaining one.
"STEVE!" Nat snapped, spinning her neck around. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble could you get your kid under control!"
"I'm trying!" he acknowledged, trying to rise above the volume of Hydra's cries. They were gigantic sobs, each shriek letting out a waterfall of tears that left giant blobs of clean on her face. He could barely see her face, however, because she kept trashing her head around every which way.
"NO LET GO!" she cried, and grappled onto Steve's uniform with one hand, and covering the side of her head with the piece of cloth.
"Ok, ok, I won't let go." He promised and went back to hugging her, but it didn't stop her sobs. "Hey, what's wrong?" Steve requested.
"EARS!" she sobbed, and her strange head motions made sense now. Steve had gotten used to the strange popping that happened in his ears over 70 years ago in the army.
Steve rapidly slid his arms around, covering her ears. He knew it wouldn't really help the problem, but maybe it would make her feel better.
"Is that better?" He hopefully inquired.
"A little." She whimpered, snuggling into Steve, her sobs regressing to sniffles with a side of occasional tears."It's c-c-c-cold." She pointed out.
"I know it's cold, and trust me, the ride will be over before you know it," Steve promised her. "Hey Nat, what's our ETA?"
"Well since you've somewhat calmed down the shirking banshee, I'll tell you." She bantered, grinning. "3 more hours to Avengers tower."
"Can we turn off the air conditioning?" He requested.
"Don't want to turn into another capsical?" She sarcastically smiled.
"It's more this girl I'm worried about." He sighed. Yes, he knew her name was Hydra, and even though she couldn't control what her parents had named her, it made Steve's skin crawl even thinking that someone name their child after that."She shaking and I don't think she's ever been in cold temperatures before."
"What's the magic word?" Nat joking interrogated.
"Just turn off the damn AC Natasha!" He exclaimed.
"All I was looking for was a please." Nat reasoned, before switching the AC off. "And it wasn't that cold."
"Thank you, Natasha." He smiled. "Are you still cold?" He asked the little girl.
She shook her head, looked up into his eyes, and her mouth morphed into the tiniest of smiles.