Monday morning came in the blink of an eye, yet Ana couldn't find it in herself to be disappointed at the weekend's abrupt end. She was one of the rare individuals of the world that absolutely adored her job. After all, what person doesn't want to spend the day looking at the stars and chit-chatting with her friends. Of course, there was a bunch of science stuff thrown into the mix too, which Ana loved just as much. She would have majored in astronomy, too, had her university offered it. But she loved art equally as much as the stars, sometimes even more.

Her true passion laid in the stories behind these things, the mythology intertwined with the constellations and the legends associated with the paintings. She had always been a dreamer, something she had in common with her sister, to a point. She was practical when it mattered, where Sarah was a bit less worried when it came to the less fun realities of adulthood.

Hearing her phone ring, Ana smiled at the name on her caller ID. Speak of the devil.

Sliding the green button, Ana happily greeted her caller, "How's my favorite baby sister?"

"She's great. She's also your only sister, so..."

"Still my favorite."

"Yeah, by default," Sarah replied.

"Even if we had a thousand sisters, you'd still be my favorite."

"Sometimes it disturbs me how sickeningly nice you are," Sarah replied, her tone of voice revealing that she did not hate it in the least.

"Aww, aren't you just the sweetest. What's up?" Ana twirled around on her kitchen barstool, ending by crossing her right leg over her left and leaning back against the small granite island.

"Not much. Well, that's not true. There's very much up. Everything is up. All of the things are up!" Sarah sounded excited about such things, piquing her older sister's interest.

"Would you care to expand on one of those things?"

"Eh. Not really," Sarah snickered into the phone. "Okay, promise me you'll hear me out before you make any judgements."

"Oh God, what did you do? Do I have to get that bail money I set aside for you?" Ana joked into the phone.

"No, not yet. That plan is still in phase one."

"Ha! Okay, shoot."

"Okay...well, why did you move out?" Sarah sounded like this question was leading into another, but Ana had no idea where her sister was going with it. So instead of trying to guess, she just answered honestly.

"I moved because I was about to murder Mom and Dad," Ana grumbled into the phone. She was joking, of course. She loved her parents dearly. But the longer she lived with them, the easier the decision to move to New York became. Their quirks started to become a little too quirky and their constant attention became stifling.

"Yeah...see, that's kind of where I am now, too," Sarah huffed into the phone. "I love them. I love them so much. But sometimes they're just so them that I can't take it. I'm turning into a 50 year old, I swear to God. We've started going to early bird dinners to avoid crowds. I got excited over a new vacuum the other day, Ana. A vacuum," Sarah lamented, her increasingly loud voice sounding ashamed, desperate, and partially sad.

"Don't laugh! You know what it's like! And they're so nice that I can't get mad at them. I feel guilty for even having this conversation with you after everything they've done for us. But please, I beg you, I need to live with a young person. Preferably a female young person, brunette, eyes like the Mediterranean, shares my DNA," Sarah ended in a voice so sweet, it would give you a toothache.

"Sarah...," Ana started.

"Yes?" The word came out as a squeak.

"Do you want to move in with me?" Ana was smirking to the room, a feature that she was sure could be heard in her voice.

"I mean if you're asking me…"

"Sarah!"

"Please, Ana? Please, please, pretty please! I'll be the best roommate ever, and we can go out on the town, we can go to diners at 3 AM! Oh my God, what's it like to be able to get takeout at 4 in the morning? I bet it's amazing. I'll be super neat, too! I promise I'm not as messy as I was when we were kids. I won't cramp your style either, I promise! If you wanna have a guy over, I'll chill at one of the aforementioned diners! Oh, Ana, we'd have so much fun!" Sarah sounded genuinely excited about the prospect, and while Ana had grown accustomed to her solitary ways, sometimes she thought she had become too accustomed.

She was in a rut, going from work to home and back again with the odd walk around the park or trip to a movie theater in between, if she was feeling adventurous. The highlight of her week had always been her volunteer work on Sundays.

As for the men situation, she had never been as comfortable discussing her love life as much as Sarah had been. Mostly because she didn't have one. She would never admit this to anyone, but she had never even been on a date. She was shy throughout high school, and in college there had never seemed to be enough time for it. Studying had been her main focus at the time and she never went to parties, the atmosphere making her too uncomfortable. She moved to the city immediately after graduating, and her job was always the sole subject of her attention, no matter what it was. Quite honestly, she was perfectly okay with that. She had much more interesting pursuits to go after than those of the romantic kind and she was more than capable of handling her sexual needs herself. She had never been the type of girl to pine for a boyfriend or to plan her wedding at the age of nine. She was perfectly content on her own.

Until recently, that is.

It's not that she longed for a man, or even the dating scene. No, what she longed for was simple companionship, since most of her friends had been absent from her life lately, busy with their own forays into adulthood.

Maybe having Sarah around wouldn't be such a bad idea, after all. It might break her out of her routine, and even if it didn't, she was sure her sister's company would stave off some of the loneliness that had begun to creep in these past few months.

"Okay, you can live with me. But you're the one telling our parents, I am not breaking their hearts with news of an empty nest."

Ana had to hold her phone away from her ear when she was answered with a high pitched squeal of excitement.

"You're the friggin' best! I love you so much! If I wasn't a broke recent college graduate, I would so buy you something nice. Like really nice. Like some fancy shit."

"Well I appreciate the thought of buying me some fancy shit, Sa. So when did you wanna move in? I need to start looking for a two bedroom place as soon as possible. And I don't want to be the practical, bitchy sister, but what about rent?"

"I haven't really thought that far ahead yet, I didn't wanna get too excited. I honestly thought it was going to take a lot more convincing. I'll text you and we can iron out the details. It can't be that hard to get a job in the city, right?"

"I'm sure you'll be able to find something," Ana assured. Although, in all honesty, it was hard to find something in the city. But now was not the time to dull her sister's enthusiasm.

After wrapping up their conversation, Ana looked around her apartment from her space at the kitchen table. It wasn't large by any means, and technically it was only a one bedroom, but she supposed the "office" could be turned into a second one. It wouldn't be as large as her own, maybe a little over half the size, if she were being completely truthful. But it would save her the trouble of having to search for a two bedroom within the building (and probably out of it, too). Plus, it would give more time for Sarah to find a job, as Ana could comfortably pay the rent for this unit on her own. She had been for the past three years, after all.

Relieved that she wouldn't have to go apartment hunting anytime soon, Ana began to get excited about her new roommate. It had been a long time since she had seen her sister, and she could use the unrelenting positive energy at this point in her life. She just hoped Sarah wouldn't be disappointed with how uneventful her life actually was.

Finishing up her breakfast, she grabbed her bag from its place on the living room coffee table and jetted off to the Tower.

The first few days of the week passed without much ado, Ana's routine bringing her from one day to the next.

On Wednesday afternoon, however, tension was brewing in the air between Tony and Jane. On the surface, they were arguing over the details of Jane's upcoming presentation to the board regarding her research on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. That would be business as usual around here.

But the tiny, sharp jabs each party was making towards the other and the tone in which the entire conversation was held revealed a deeper, more personal issue at its core. A wise man would bet that issue revolved around Thor.

Darcy had plugged her headphones in, her amusement in the argument turning into exhaustive boredom around the first hour mark. While their volume had been civil at first (the only civil thing about this argument), it had now reached a new level, like how the hiss of a firework becomes louder as the fire nears its target.

And Ana didn't want to be here when it went off.

She shot a text to Darcy asking her if she wanted to take a stroll around the building with her to escape the inevitable explosion. Darcy replied in the negative, saying that that's exactly what she had been waiting around for.

Rolling her eyes in amusement (because, really, that was classic Darcy), Ana quietly stood from her desk and slid out the door, texting Darcy to let her know when it was okay to come back.

The heels of her tall grey boots echoed on the floors of the hallway as she hastily made her way to the break room. After all, the quicker she could get away from World War 3, the better. The sunny glow of the mid-September day took her by surprise, as it was in such perfect contrast to the storm brewing inside the four walls she had just departed from.

Stepping into the break room (she really needed to come up with a better name for it, as the term "break room" made her feel like she was still working at Target, and those memories were best left to her high school self), she was surprised to find one of her weekend lunch companions occupying the chair at the furthest end of the dining table.

"Hey, Steve," she greeted brightly, genuinely pleased to see him. He looked up from his food (was that a...oh, god, you poor, poor man. You save the world and they make you eat Lean Cuisines?), giving her a polite smile as he chewed through what she could only guess had been a sad attempt at meatloaf. "Tony cutting back on lunch expenses?" She asked, the mirth in her voice belying her rhetoric intention.

"Hmmm?" He looked confounded for a moment before she nodded towards his lunch. "Oh, this," he seemed almost embarrassed and she instantly felt bad for the question. Will I ever get the hang of talking to this guy? Steve continued, "The opposite, actually. There was so much food in that meeting, it could have fed Brooklyn during the Depression. Although I think people would have still declined it," he gave her a small, almost wry smile. "Sushi is something I can definitely cross off my list."

"Still, the cafeteria must have something better than bland cardboard."

Steve tilted his head, conceding her point. "Probably. But it's always so full of people, it can be a bit overwhelming sometimes. I found this," he gestured towards his empty container, "in the freezer. I hope it wasn't yours," his eyes got wide for a moment before Ana quickly reassured him that it was, indeed, not hers.

"You can't possibly be full from that. I don't even get full from those and I'm not a super soldier, if you can believe that," she said with a slight smirk. She opened the stainless steel refrigerator and took out the ingredients for her lunch. "I'm making myself a buffalo chicken wrap, would you like one? There's plenty of stuff here."

Steve looked like he was about to refuse out of either politeness or habit, but then gave it a second thought before accepting her offer. "That would be great, Ana. Thank you." The way he said her name sent a strange sensation down her spine, and she didn't think her heart had been beating this fast a minute ago.

"No problem, kiddo." Kiddo, Ana, really? She ducked her head, busying herself with arranging the ingredients on the counter and pretending she didn't see Steve's raised eyebrow and pointed smirk. Own it, Ana. Own your idiocy. Deciding to not let herself be embarrassed around this man anymore, Ana raised her head and looked him directly in the eye. "That's right. Kiddo." She gave him a determined look and went back to assembling their wraps.

"It's better than Capsicle, I'll give you that," Steve said in a joking tone, but there was a somber note to it that made Ana think the nickname really did bother him.

"Ugggh. Please, just ignore Tony. He's an ass to everyone. Case in point, he and Jane are at each other's throats right now. Their bickering got so bad it ran me out of the office in search of sanctuary. I swear my ears are still ringing." She wrapped up the sandwiches (she made Steve two, just in case) and put them on plates before bringing them to the table. Steve thanked her again when she placed his plate in front of him. Grabbing two waters from the fridge, Ana sat down in the chair next to Steve, the rectangular table allowing a ninety degree angle between them. They ate in silence for a few minutes while Ana tried to think of something to say. One would think it'd be easy, talking to a superhero. Only she didn't want to get to know Captain America, she wanted to get to know Steve Rogers.

"So, Steve, what's your favorite pastime? You know, besides the saving the world business," Ana twirled her finger around in a circle, indicating said world. Her white lacquered nails complimented her blush cable knit sweater as the edges of both things met on her hand. Maybe buffalo chicken was a bad idea today, she didn't want to get sauce on her favorite sweater.

She had a tendency to spill.

Steve looked surprised by the query, almost as if no one had asked him the question in the six months since he came out of the ice. "Well, I used to enjoy drawing, although I haven't done much of that lately. Mostly I've just been working out a lot, you know…" He trailed off and shrugged, as if apologizing for not having a more interesting answer. Contrary to his own belief, Ana found the first part of his response fascinating. She never would have guessed him to be an artist.

"Wow, that's great. What kind of stuff did you like to draw?" Her genuine interest must have showed, because Steve seemed more willing to expand on it than he had a moment ago.

"It mostly depended on my mood. Sometimes it would be a landscape, sometimes it would be people. Sometimes it would be nonsense," he raised his eyebrows and smiled, a genuine smile she hadn't seen on him before. He started in on his second wrap, swallowing before saying "This is delicious, by the way."

"Glad you like it." There was a brief pause before she continued. "Well, if you ever take up drawing again, I'd love to see some of it," she assured with a smile. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she was hesitant to read what it said. "Sorry, one sec," she apologized to Steve as she took her phone out.

CODE RED. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. - D

Oh, shit, Ana thought. Darcy and her had come up with "Code Red" to warn each other to stay out of the office when Jane was in a bad mood. It had only been used once in the time she had worked for Jane. Apparently that time of the month + Thor leaving +Tony bitching = one insane Jane.

If Darcy was issuing another Code Red, things were getting bad in that office. Her face must have showed the direness of the situation, as Steve asked, "Is everything alright?" in such a concerned tone that she genuinely felt bad for worrying him.

"Oh, yes, everything's fine. With me, anyway. Darcy was just warning me to stay away from the office for a bit while she tried to cool things down in there," she placed her phone on the table with a thud. "So, if you have any of those questions I told you about, it looks like we've got a few minutes," she said teasingly.

Steve looked at her phone on the table and she could see the question forming in his mind. "I do have a question, actually," he began. "What, exactly, is the 'cloud'?"

Ana nodded her head in sympathy. "Steve, I'm gonna let you in on a secret." She looked at him intently. "I have no idea what the cloud is." Steve laughed at the mock seriousness of her expression, and Ana promised herself she would do everything she could to hear it again. "I'm serious!" She leaned over in her chair, placing her forearms on the table in front of her, gesturing with her hands. "I have no idea what it is. Is it one big cloud? Is it multiple clouds? Does everyone have their own cloud? Do we all share the cloud? Is it, like, an actual, physical cloud? It could be, for all I know!" She shrugged her shoulders with her arms half raised in the air.

"I probably should have clarified that I'll answer any questions except technology-related ones. Those are best left for Stark, as much as I loathe to admit it. Actually, on second thought, go to Bruce. He'll teach you just as much without making you feel like an incompetent toddler." She huffed out a laugh, noticing that the usual awkward air between them had dissipated.

"Thanks for the advice," Steve said in amusement.

"Anytime," she said, the last quiet chuckle leaving her with the word. "Honestly, Steve, I know I wasn't around back then, but I can't imagine the world's all that different from how it was." Ana looked Steve in the eye, her tone turning reflective. "People are just living their lives, one day at a time, trying to get through each one as best they can. Civil rights happened. Women's rights happened. Gay rights happened. All important milestones in this country's history. But when you get down to it, people still just want love and acceptance. Maybe a little joy, wherever they can find it," she finished with a soft smile.

Steve looked pensive, overturning her words in his mind. He caught her eye again, "If all that's true, you're right. It hasn't changed much at all."

They spent the next half hour idly chit chatting. The conversation flowed smoothly, only halting when Steve was called by Natasha for what Ana surmised to be some superhero business. Steve gathered their empty plates and placed them in the dishwasher, even though Ana protested that he was much too important to be doing such things. "You have places to be, kittens to save from trees. I'm sure I can handle cleaning up a few plates."

Steve just ignored her, collecting their dishes and smirking as he said, "Do you think that's what I do? Save kittens from trees?"

"I'm sure there's a boy in a well every now and again," she replied wryly. He huffed out a laugh as he closed the dishwasher. He began walking to the door before pausing, seeming hesitant to leave. He turned around to face Ana, and she noticed his gaze had turned back to the intense emotion she couldn't name the first time they met. All of a sudden she wanted to shrink away, make herself smaller so she could avoid the intensity of his attention.

"Thank you, Ana. This was...nice." As he left, Steve seemed both forlorn and nostalgic, as though part of him regretted their interaction because it reminded him of something he had lost.

Maybe it had. After all, how many people in his life had he lost? Dozens? Hundreds? Maybe a friendly conversation for her was an ugly reminder for him, bringing to his mind all of the faces he would never see and voices he'd never hear again. Maybe he didn't want a friend because he had lost too many, and couldn't bear to lose any more.

Maybe this silly endeavor of friendship was selfish of her. Well, what were you supposed to do, just sit there in silence? It's not like you tracked him down. Oh God, what if he thinks that's exactly what you did? What if he thinks you're a stalker? Ana shook herself from her thoughts, rationalizing that no one would stick around, let alone speak to, someone they thought was crazy enough to stalk them. He probably just remembered someone, maybe your company distracted him from his situation. Maybe it was a good thing.

Through all of her messy thoughts, Ana was too distracted to notice the war veteran's attire. The familiarity of his brown leather jacket was something she would consider much later in the day, right before drifting off to sleep.