Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Marvel except my dvd's
A gentleman will open doors, pull out chairs, and carry things. Not because she's helpless or unable, but because he wants to show her that she is valuable and worthy of respect.
Maria Hill had spent the majority of her life proving her independence. She took the more difficult routes, and had to work twice as hard to prove herself as a capable soldier, agent and now deputy director. She was no stranger to the whispers that plagued her along the halls of the SHIELD facilities she frequented, hell, she started a couple of them herself. Agents turned and went the other way when she came down the halls, when she did eat in the cafeteria she ate alone; she was the first to meetings and the last to leave. This was her routine now, she had come to expect these things, looked forward to them most days.
Steve Rogers changed everything.
They had only interacted a couple of times when the events of Loki in New York changed everything. Almost seven months after the invasion, she was back at the Triskelion full time. Fury had put her in charge of teaching a group of new recruits some basic self defense moves when he showed back up at SHIELD.
"Anyone want to volunteer to show off what you already know?" she started by asking the group of 20 newbies.
She let out a sigh as she watched them look around at each other. "Someone, anyone."
"Can I help ma'am?" came a voice from sidelines.
"Will no one step up? You are here to be Agents. Agents of Shield do not let Captain America fight their battles."
She could tell a few of them wanted to say something, but smartly refrained from opening their mouths.
"Pathetic." She turned to Steve, "Come on over Captain."
Steve made his way to the mats, nodding at the group of recruits before taking his place in front of Maria.
"Steve Rogers, ma'am."
"I know who you are Captain, let's show these weaklings a thing or two."
"Yes ma'am."
"I want everyone to split into partners and practice exactly what we just showed you. We're going to be moving among you, correcting as needed." Every stood still. "Now." She smirked when they jerked into motion.
"Captain, a word." They stepped off to the side.
"Ma'am?"
"Next time we do this, I don't want you to go that easy on me. I can handle it."
"I thought the purpose of this was to teach them the motions to defend themselves?"
"It is, but…" she paused.
"But you don't want to lose your tough imagine."
She fixed him with a stare before flicking her eyes to the left of him, "Robertson! What did we just go over?" she walked away from Steve who turned and started observing the other recruits.
"So how's the new job?" Melinda May asked her.
"Good."
"Maria."
She gulped some of the bottle of beer in her hand. "What do you want to know?"
"How's the new job? I see news reports of the Avengers of course, but you're not in the spotlight. What gives?"
"I'm not an Avenger, Mel."
"I know, but what do you think about them?"
"They're mostly good at what they do, now if we could get them to stop destroying property every time they get in a fight with someone, my job would be so much easier." She grinned at her friend.
"They fight evil, even this ragtag group on here can't stop from tearing things up when we let them loose on land."
"Yeah, I saw where they blew out the side of the bus."
"Well they saved Coulson, so…" Melinda offered up a half shrug.
"They took a 'team' trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania after Thor discovered hershey's kisses."
"Seriously?"
"It was actually Banner's idea, he didn't factor in them going to ZooAmerica and Thor wanting to set the animals free."
"Video?" Melinda asked while laughing.
Maria silently handed her a flash drive.
The two friends opened new beers and settled back in to continue catching up.
"So how are things with the Captain?"
"About the same."
Melinda just stared at her and lifted one eyebrow.
"It is, he still acts the gentleman any time we are around each other, and it's annoying."
"Have you told him that?"
"Of course I have, he always apologizes, but it doesn't change things."
"Do you really want it to?"
"Yes."
Melinda gave her another arched eyebrow.
"I can open doors for myself, I can drive myself around, hell I can fly myself around, I know how to maim someone, I can work a gun and a knife, I excel at hand to hand, although…" she trialed off.
"Although what?" Melinda prompted.
"It's nice having him show up to meetings early, since Tony is always late, I can send Steve to get him."
"It's Steve now." Melinda observed.
"He likes to drop by with lunch sometimes. He says if he didn't I wouldn't take a lunch break."
"That's true." Melinda agreed. "You're dating Captain America."
"I am not, we're just…"
"Uh huh."
"It's a weird relationship, I'm not technically his boss, but I do give him and his team job assignments, I guess its co-workers."
"You don't sound sure of that."
"Shut up."
"Good afternoon, Maria."
"Hey Steve, give me one moment." She typed away on the keyboard for a bit before clicking around, he assumed to save whatever she had been doing.
"Sorry about that, how can I help you?"
"Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?"
"What?"
"Would you like to go on a date with me tonight, for dinner?"
"I don't think –"she was cut off.
"I'll accept your no, and never ask you again if that's what you want, but don't turn me down because you're still trying to hold on to your SHIELD imagine."
She let her lips twitch in a half smile, "I was going to say, I don't think I can do it tonight, but what about tomorrow night?"
"Tomorrow?" he looked a little shocked she said yes.
"Yes as in the night after tonight."
He broke into a grin, "Sounds wonderful." He made to leave her office. "I'll pick you up at 6:30."
"Looking forward to it." She returned his grin.
After he left her office, she immediately called Pepper. "You won't believe what just happened."
"What did they do now?"
"I have a date tomorrow night."
"Yay! With Steve?"
"Why would you assume Steve?"
"Because I've seen the way you interact with each other." Pepper said slowly, like she was talking to a child.
"As a matter of fact it was Steve."
"Oh my god, I'm excited for you. So, what are you going to wear?"
The next night at dinner they were chatting away like the friends they had become.
"I have a question."
Maria took a sip of her wine, "okay?"
"For the first couple of years we knew each other, I had the impression you didn't like me very much. Was I just crazy or was that a sound deduction?"
"I guess I was a little cold to you back then."
"A little?" he laughed.
"Was I really that awful?"
"I wouldn't say you were awful, just cold."
"Because that's so much better." She said.
"It just made me more determined to get to know you."
"Which just irritated me more." She admitted.
"Why?"
"You were being you."
"I'm sorry?"
"It's not a bad thing." She started explaining, "You were being a gentleman."
"And that made you mad."
"Sort of, I spent my whole life trying to become the best I could be. I joined Shield with the goal of one day becoming director. I worked harder than everyone else around me to prove that I could do the same job better than them. I had been doing things for myself for so long, that when you can around and started trying to help, it aggravated me. I'm not proud of the way I acted back then, and I'm sorry it took me so long to drop the act and just accept that you weren't going anywhere."
"Apology accepted."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that." He tilted his head, shrugged his shoulders, and grinned at her.
She laughed.
A/N: This totally got away from me and ended up not being what I had in mind for this prompt…sorry.