"Nikki!" Steve bellows at me, my right arm jerks out, and he grasps my hand tightly and swings his body weight to land behind on the bike.
I push my bike to go faster, "How did you get over the barrier, Nikki?" Steve wraps his arms tightly around my waist as I weave my way through traffic, trying to get us to a safe place. "Oh, that was easy. I just jumped it." I tell him while pulling into a random ass parking lot.
"Okay, hold on. One, how did you jump that? And two, what are we doing here, S.H.I.E.L.D. is probably tracking us." Steve rush at me as we both hop off my bike.
I take my bag off of my shoulder, "Yeah, I know. Here," I pull out two sets of clothes from my duffle, "These should be in your size. Go change." I motion to a dark spot for him to change, "What about you, Nikki?" I roll my eyes and hold up my clothes for him to see.
"I'm changing too. Relax." I began taking off my clothes, unbothered by the fact that Steve is five feet away from me. My clothes wholly changed and I throw them in a nearby trash can, I finally look at Steve and see his cheeks with a bright red tint. I chuckle at him lightly, "Come on. I'll get us a car." Steve follows me without question, I find a car and begin picking the lock. I peek over my shoulder to see Steve standing guard while also checking on me now and then.
The door opens with no alarm, and I unlock it, "There. Get in." I slide into the driver's seat and begin hot wiring the car while playing it off as I am looking for something. The engine kicks in, and everything lights up on the inside, "Ta-da!" I sing to Steve with a teasing smile on my face as the car pulls away from the curb.
"Do I even want to know when you learned how to hotwire a car?" Skepticism is ringing loud and clear in his voice. I snort before my lips move to respond, "Cap, I learned how to hotwire a car when I was five." Steve's eyes widened in shock at my admission. I keep my eyes on the road and keep it all as inconspicuous as possible, I pull into the hospital parking lot and Steve, and I jump out of the car. I wipe it down quickly, removing all traces of evidence. Steve heads in while I make sure no one has followed us.
I walk towards the doors that open once I get close enough, I see Steve roughly gran Nat and shove her into an empty room. "Where is it?" I hear Steve growl at the red-haired Russian, "safe." She says monotony. "Do better!" I walk into the room and shut the door behind me.
I raise an eyebrow at the peculiar sight before me, "You two good?" I ask, seeing that Steve trapped Nat against the wall. "Where did you get?" She inquires Steve while watching his reactions, "Why would I tell you?" I roll my eyes at their little quarrel and keep my eyes at the door, making sure that no one comes into the room.
She realized something, "Fury gave it to you, why?" The look on Steve's face confirmed her suspicions, "What's on it?" he turns his attention to me as I stayed at my position. "We don't know," I mutter, he sighs loudly before grabbing my waist and slamming me against the wall next to Natasha. "Stop lying!" He growls at me; I push his body back a couple of steps while Natasha retaliates, "I only act like I know everything, Rogers. Why aren't you questions Nikki, she has higher clearance than both you and me."
I glare at Nat as I move my jaw from side to side, "I bet you knew Fury hired those pirates, didn't you?" I shrug before nodding in affirmation. "It makes sense, the ship was dirty, and Fury needed a way in, so did you." Nat points at me while I make the point to the Captain.
Steve grabs my shoulders and pushes them against the wall; I grunt lowly as they make contact, "I am not going to ask you again." His lips are barely moving as he grits his teeth at me. My throat constricts as I murmur, "We know who killed Fury."
"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him The Winter Soldier. He is credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."
Steve pushes himself away from the redhead, "So he's a ghost story." He concludes and pushes himself a decent amount away from her.
I begin gnawing on my lip; my thoughts are trailing to all the times I had to go head-to-head with the soldier. All training sessions with him were brutal, always turning to bloodshed. The most prominent memory, I am twelve years old and am staring directly into the eyes of the Winter Soldier, a Russian command rings through the air, and the Soldier jumps into action, and that is all I can remember.
"Nikki!" I snap out of the memory and find myself looking directly into sapphire eyes. "Are you okay?" Steve's eyebrows furrow in concern as he looks over my figure.
"Anyway, Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye, bye, bikinis." Nat pulls up the end of her shirt and reveals a scar on her lower left abdomen.
I raise my eyebrow while Steve says, "Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now." The joking in his voice causes me to look at him in shock.
"Steve! Did you seriously make a joke?! Steve Roger. Captain America!" Amazement and teasing ringing loud in my voice. A joking expression is covering my face, along with a smile.
Steve drops his head, chuckling at me before peeking up, "Shut up." He says in a light tone before placing his hand on my back and guiding me out the door.
We all hop in the car, Steve in the driver's seat, me in the passenger seat, and Nat in the backseat. I lean my head against the headrest and watch cars pass. My thoughts keep trailing back to all of my fights with the Winter Soldier, I look down at my arms, and I can still see the scars that are caused by his various weapons. I am very immersed in my thoughts of HYDRA; I didn't even realize that the car stopped moving, and Nat left the vehicle.
I snap out of my thought when a gentle hand grabs my shoulder, "Hey. Are you okay?" I look intently at Steve's face before nodding. Before he can even open his mouth, I spin to the door and hop out of the car.
We all make our way into the mall, dressed in new disguises. "The first rule of going on the run is walk don't run." I chime from Steve's side as he continuously looks around anxiously.
"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off." Steve pipes to me quietly, I snicker under my breath at his admission. We strive towards the computer store that is in the mall; we make our way in and hover over a small computer.
"This drive has a level six homing program, so as soon as we boot up, SHIELD will know exactly where we are," Nat warns Steve, and he silently hands her the thumb drive quietly.
"How much time do we have?" Steve inquires as we watch Natasha begins to plug in the drive.
"About nine minutes from," she places the drive into the computer, "now." I watch as Nat tries to open the files that are on the USB, but she is unable to gain access.
"Fury was right about the ship; somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI; it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands." Nat says while Steve looms over her shoulder.
"Can you override it?" Steve hurriedly asks Nat and me as we all stare at the computer screen.
"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly." Nat informs us, and I snort as she tries to defend her IQ, "I'm going to try and run a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, then maybe we can try and see where it is coming from."
An Apple employee walks up to us and asks, "Can I help you guys with anything?"
"Oh no, my sister was just helping my fiance, and I find some honeymoon destinations," I say as I wrap my arms around Steve's waist and cuddle with him.
Steve wraps his arm around my shoulder and gently squeezes, "Right, we're getting married."
"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking of going?" The employee asks us as we effectively block the computer screen.
Steve quickly glances over my shoulder and glimpses at the screen, "New Jersey."
"Oh." The employee stares at Steve for a moment; his eyes are never glancing away from the super soldier's face. I can feel the nervousness beginning to radiate over his body; my hands slowly tighten around his waist, trying to assure him that I got it covered.
"I have the exact same pair of glasses." Finally, the man says, bringing ease to both of us.
I hear Nat's sarcastic reply, "Wow, you guys are practically twins." I snicker lightly and turn my face into Steve's chest to try and hide my amusement.
The employee snickers, "Yeah, I wish... specimen." He waves his hands in the air that surrounds the front of Steve. "Uhh, if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron." He raises his ID badge to show us his name before awkwardly stepping away.
I keep my face firmly in Steve's chest as my shoulders are shaking from laughter. "Stop it." Steve's breath brushes my ear, and I feel chills run up and down my spine.
"You said nine minutes, come on," Steve says while glancing around anxiously, I pull myself away from his chest and watch the door.
"Stop worrying, okay, I got it," Natasha says, and Steve and I lean over her shoulders to stare at the small screen.
"You know it?" I question Steve when I notice the look across Steve's face.
"I used to. Let's go." We quickly pull the thumb drive out of the computer before exiting the store.
As we make it out of the store, I see multiple SHIELD agents walking around the mall, "Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, two coming straight at us. If they see us, I'll engage, you two head to the south escalator to the metro." Steve explains to us, Nat and I share a look before continuing walking.
"Shut up, put your arm around Nikki and laugh at something she said," Nat commands quickly in a hushed tone.
"What?"
"Just do it," I whisper harshly at him.
Steve takes his arm and wraps it around my shoulder, I lean into his heat and Nat, and I begin laughing at each other while leaning into a small half-circle. Steve's chuckle is more forced and nervous as he places his face into the side of my neck, my hair covering half of his face. The agents pass us without a second glance, and we continue walking.
We head toward the escalator, Nat in the front, I am in the middle, and Steve is close behind me. Nat notices Rumlow coming towards us on the escalator. She pulls her hood up and looks out into the mall.
"Kiss him," Nat whispers at me as I finally notice the STRIKE member heading towards us.
"What?" Steve asks me while his chest presses against my back.
"Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable," I inform Steve while understanding Natasha's point.
"Yes, they do." Steve agrees with the redhead. I sigh before reaching my right hand up and grasping the back of his neck. My lips come in contact with Steve's, the feeling of his lips encasing mine are enough to bring a shiver down my spine. His hands wrap around my hips and pull me closer to his body, my neck tilting back to gain better access to his lips.
"Alright, you two." I am brought out of my stupor at the sound of her friend's voice.
"Still uncomfortable?" Natasha asks us as we make our way down the elevator.
Steve sighs before guiding me down the machine, "That is not exactly the word I would use." I smile slightly to myself as I try and contain my emotions.