Chapter 8

(Steve POV, narrator)

Steve drove up to the compound on his motorcycle, he nodded to Rhody as he walked by. He was smiling as he looked around at everybody hard at work.

"Hey." He said cheerfully.

"...Hey." Both Natasha and Sam said at the same time.

"Someone is in a good mood." Sam replied.

"Yeah, I am in a good mood, it's a good day." Steve smiled.

"So, where did all this cheerfulness come from?" Natasha said.

"No reason, it's just a good day is all."

"Oh my god, you met someone didn't do." Natasha figured out, "No." Is all Steve could say.

"I told you that your a bad liar, who is she?" She said excitedly.

"Nobody, yes I did meet someone but we're just friends."

"How did you meet? What do you mean your just friends? What's she like?" Natasha asked too quickly for Steve to process it all. "Slow down. Again we're just friends, her name is Iris."

"Well...is she pretty?" Natasha asked with a little bit of an evil smile, Sam shook his head at her. Steve was not answering her. "Steve, is she pretty?" She asked again a bit more forcefully.

"She's gorgeous okay!" He blurted out while Natasha gave that evil grin again.

"Wow, I thought you were just going to say yes or something, but gorgeous."

"Okay, I will admit it. She is very beautiful but again that doesn't change the fact that we are just friends."

"You like her, don't you?" Sam chimed in.

"No I don't, I barely know her, we have only known each other for a four days. It would never happen with her anyways, she doesn't trust men, she is constantly saying I'm conspiring some sort of scheme, she told me all men are the same. I told her we could be friends so she could finally see that men can be good and honestly she can drive me crazy sometimes." He blurted out in one long breath.

"Man, you got it bad Cap." Sam breathed with a chuckle.

"Yeah, if you didn't like her, why bother being her friend or helping her out?" Natasha chimed in.

"Because like i said she thinks all men are bad and...I don't know when she talks like that I look in her eyes and see that she truly believes that and I see this credible sadness, loneliness and pain that I can't help but want to help her out of." He confessed.

After a few seconds of both Natasha and Sam a bit speechless, "Well, I guess it's not enough for Captain America to save the world from aliens and robots anymore" Natasha finally said half joking but half not. "I guess not." Steve replied with a little chuckle back.

"Come on, the new recruits are waiting." Sam said trying to end the conversation, not wanting Steve to lose the good mood he was having.

He had been noticing ever since Sokovia that Steve didn't smile very much...to come think of it he was trying to think of a time he truly smiled or laughed before then too. The only thing Steve would do is be Captain America, come to the compound, go on missions if there was one, look for Bucky as much as he could and work out. It was nice seeing him smiling and he had a feeling that this girl was what Steve needed. Even though he knew deep down that Steve did like her he was going to let him figure it out on his own.

While the three of them were walking to train the recruits Steve's phone went off, he had a text message, he looked down at it and Sam noticed the slightest smile on his face.

"What is it?" Natasha asked trying to look at his phone which made Steve put it back in his pocket.

"Um, Iris, it was just Iris, she just sent me a text." He answered trying to sound nonchalant. Both Sam and Natasha looked at each with a slight grin. They opened the doors to the recruits already in line waiting for them.

"Okay, shooting practice today, Agent Romanoff will be assisting you" He told them, while she was walking them to the shooting range he took out his phone and pressed the call button, it rang for a few seconds.

"Hello?" He heard her voice on the other end.