A/N: Please read and review!
I walked out of my little meeting with Magneto, realizing there was much more going on in the world than I realized. It was what my grandma feared would happen when she left active S.H.I.E.L.D. duty in the early seventies. Mutants would be taken to be their greatest weapons, and nobody would care. All because they're Mutants.
It looked like there was going to be another part to what I was working on. I needed to call my grandma and tell her. My trip to New York City was much more enlightening than I could have ever guessed.
Steve gave me a look when he was able to see me when I left the meeting room.
"are you okay? He asked me. he sounded very concerned for me.
"Yeah," I told him. "I'm alright. Just thinking about something."
"Why did he want to talk to you?" He asked me.
I shrugged. "I can't read minds. ' I paused for a moment. "I might tell you sometime later."
"What?" steve asked me with some confusion. "Either you know or you don't."
"Let me talk to my grandma," I told him. "And, ask her if I can tell you."
He gave me a strange look, and he wasn't happy about what I told him.
"Why?"
"You mean -" I shook my head. "She's been involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. in her own way since she graduated from St. Olaf in the early sixties. Ask around. . .then you'll see why I needed to ask my Grandma first."
He pressed his lips together and shook his head, and I could tell he still wasn't happy.
"What are you planning?" He asked me.
"Survival," I told him. "You should know that."
"Why do I feel like you're lying to me?" He quietly asked me.
"Because. . ." I told him, and I felt a little, showing Steve what I was really feeling, and he could tell I felt horrible and conflicted. "It's not just. . .it's not really my secret to tell. I need the permission and stuff."
Steve shook his head again. Steve trusted me enough to believe me when I told him he would know everything when the time was right.
He gently squeezed my hand before we left the building. "I'll hold you to that."
I snorted. "I know you will." There was a long pause. "What did Tony want to talk to you about?"
"About us," Steve told me. "and, how we'll move forward with S.H.I.E.L.D. not wanting our group around."
The way he said that, I could tell that he didn't really trust S.H.I.E.L.D., no matter how much he would really work to make it possible again. It had been a long and difficult two years for him, as well.
"Still do it," I told him. "People need us."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't want us," he said us.
"They don't know everything," I told him, earning another look from him. "They're a very bureaucratic system, and they take much longer to agree about what they're going to do. You can take advantage of that."
"That's what Stark told me," Steve remarked.
"I didn't really tell you this," I told him quietly, so Natasha or Fury wouldn't be able to hear me. "there are groups out there who do take advantage of the bureaucratic system." I paused a moment. "And, it's not just me or my friends."
"Is that why you're here?" Steve asked me when we were in our own car.
"My cousin needed my help," I told him. "And, I kinda helped."
I caught a red and blue movement out of the corner of my eye, and I sat back in my seat. Steve also noticed the movement.
"Stark and Banner talked to this prisoner," he explained to me. "They said he was a scientist until recently."
"What happened?" I asked him, not really sure if I even wanted to know what had happened.
"He was desperate to find something to grow his arm back When he thought he found the solution, he tested it on himself."
They way he told the tragic story, I could tell that he felt a lot of pity for the scientist. That made me like him even more.
"It didn't really go well for him," I muttered. "What was his name?"
"Dr. Curt Conners," he told me, and I made a mental note about that name. I was going to look into that name
We completely changed the subject, then. It became too serious then, and I think Steve realized there were some things I refused to really say anything more about what I was working on. I rested my head on his shoulder, my eyes closing a little. They could barely stay open. I couldn't fall asleep the night before.
"How late were you up last night?" Steve asked me.
"I don't know," I told him. "Actually. . .I don't really remember even falling asleep. . ."
Steve rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you cut back on all of the soda you drink, you'll be amazed at how easily you can fall asleep."
"Pop's like water to me now," I told him. "But, that's not it. New York's too loud. I don't like it."
"You'll get used to it."
"I don't wanna."
"Give it a chance," he quietly told me.
I looked up at him, giving him a smile which he could only focus on. "For you."
Steve actually looked a little shocked at what I told him. His eyes widened a little, and, probably without even realizing it, he lightly squeezed me closer to him.
He just as quickly snapped back into reality. "What?"
"I'll give it a chance," I told him, still smiling for him. "For you."
He lightly brushed a couple of his fingers across my face, making me close my eyes. When the vehicle stopped, he went to give me a light kiss of goodbye.
"I'm going to Washington soon," he quietly told me. "Easier to work with S.H.I.E.L.D."
"And, easier for me to see you," I said. "I'll be doing my internship and a few classes there this year."
"I know." He gave me a light laugh.
When I walked back to my plane, I noticed that Natasha was giving me a close look.
"What?" I asked.
"You and the Captain seem to be pretty close," she remarked, giving me a knowing look.
"Yeah," I replied. "So?"
Natasha studied me for a moment, and a part of me was tempted to make a face at her.
"I would tell you to tread very lightly," Natasha told me. Almost like a warning to me.
"Meaning?" I asked.
"Meaning most people would take advantage of that," she told me, and I rolled my eyes at her. "Of course. . .you aren't that type of person."
She didn't really see how close we were. Natasha just thought this was a budding friendship, and I was known to be both incredibly shy and fiercely loyal to the people I decide to trust. she had no idea that whatever me and Steve had went much deeper than that, and we were much closer than she probably even realized.
I think I was admitting what I truly felt for Steve in that moment.
I looked back at Steve, him being back a ways and watching the two of us. He wore a mysterious expression on his face. I felt there was something behind that expression that really made my stomach flip around. My feelings were pretty strong for him, and they blinded whatever common sense I had. I wanted to think his feelings for me went just as deep as mine for me. Wishful thinking, maybe.
Because of who I am as a person, I started second guessing the things that happened between us.
He only came to see me because we were friends, teaching me how to defend myself now that my powers were gone. I was the great-granddaughter of the two people he used to know, so I probably reminded him of an era long gone. Excuses after excuses.
If I truly opened my eyes, I would've seen the obvious. Steve would always make me see the good I could and did do for the people around me, instead of that untrue and twisted version of myself. He believed in me and what I could do, no matter what did or would happen. It was pretty obvious, though that twisted version of myself refused to even believe it, that Steve had feelings for me as well.
