Natasha rubs at the back of her neck, sweaty and sore after her workout. She steps into her room and hears her phone buzz where she'd left it on her night stand.

She was supposed to be getting a mission briefing soon… but she really wants a shower. Her eyes flick to her phone as it buzzes again and then to the bathroom door.

She ignores the phone as she steps into the bathroom.

—

Her phone buzzes again as she walks back into her room, soft shirt in hand, drying her hair.

She rolls her eyes. Tony was too impatient sometimes. Actually. Make that ALL the time. Ever since Cap's been out they've all been picking up the slack. She laughs, she doesn't think Tony realized just how much of the boring sides of the mission Cap did. He usually strategized, connected with the higher ups, contacted whatever local officials or whoever they could and then helped organize and help with the cleanup afterwards.

They've only had two missions since he'd gotten hurt, but they'd been organizational disasters because they didn't realize it was Steve taking care of all the little details.

She gets dressed and finally picks up her phone. It buzzes in her hand and she blinks at the screen. What the….

Text messages from the team were all there, and… Twitter notifications? She had an account. PR had set one up for each Avenger, but she hadn't really used it. But she could see she was being tagged and mentioned and messaged… a lot.

Fear suddenly grips her stomach, had something happened? She taps the screen and pulls up the app, only to have her phone light up with a phone call.

She doesn't recognize the number but for this phone that wasn't unusual. She clicks answer, and holds it to her ear.

"Hello?"

A gasp, "Oh my GOOOOOOOOOSSSH!" A woman's voice squeaks, "It's you! It is you! When I called them for your number I didn't know if it would really be you, but it is!"

Natasha felt her brow furrow, "uh, what?"

The voice took a deep breath. "Sorry, sorry! I'm such a big fan, didn't mean to get ahead of myself! I'm Jenny Higgins, PR for the Giants. We would love for you to come down to the stadium! We had no idea you were such a big fan and honestly we're so stoked and excited about it! We're having a special jersey made up for you and everything!" Was this woman speaking English? "When would be a good day? I was talking with your PR guy, and he said you'd love to come visit as soon as possible! When can I put you down for?"

Suddenly her mind comes to a grinding halt. Giants. Stadium. Jersey.

She narrows her eyes. "Giants. The New York Giants?"

There's a pause, "yes… We saw the picture on twitter and instantly knew we wanted to contact you to come on down. We are having a day with some local schools if you'd be interested in coming down then?"

Her voice is tight as she responds. "I'll get back to you."

"Oh, okay! Can't wait! Thank you!"

She hangs up and pulls up Twitter.

Picture.

She clicks the mentions and finds herself staring at a picture of her screaming and cheering, wearing a Giants jersey, covered in face paint. She doesn't have to look at the original handle to know just who put this on twitter.

Steve.

She shoves her phone in her pocket and slams the door behind her as she leaves her room.

—-

Peter is sitting at one of the chairs in Steve's room, the little table pulled up to serve as a workspace as he does his homework.

Steve's laying there, kinda sleepy and Bucky is lying asleep on the couch in the corner.

He smiles. Steve's walking now, shaky and stumble-y, but he's walking. And Peter finally feels a sense of relief at the fact that he didn't break Captain America permanently.

Suddenly Steve sits up, on wide-alert. "Bucky."

The man keeps sleeping. Steve huffs and looks next to him. He grabs his cup of ice chips, selects one, and throws it at Bucky. It zips off his arm and Bucky looks up. He doesn't even reach for a knife which Peter knows is a big thing.

"What." Bucky says grouchily, voice gravelly in sleep.

"She's coming."

Bucky takes one second to process this and then smiles, asking, "from where?"

Steve pauses, and Peter listens with him. She's walking… no, stomping down the hallways.

"Hallway." Peter says.

Steve looks over and the grin he gets makes Peter feel a spark of excitement, like he's in on the joke, which is funny because he has no idea what's going on but he's loving it.

"Queens is right. She's not happy."

Bucky grins and nods, falling back against the couch and pretending to sleep. He watches as Steve leans over, opens a drawer grabs something— Peter almost gasps, the compass, the legendary compass! He's never seen it in person before, just on the old news reels. Steve pops it open and holds it gently in his hand. Peter watches the door as Steve slumps against the bed, closing his eyes and evening out his breathing, letting his hand with the compass rest gently in his lap.

The door opens and Natasha strides inside. She looks at the two sleeping soldiers and she narrows her eyes. She walks over to Steve and jabs him in the chest. "Hey, wake up!"

Steve puts on a good show, groggily blinking awake. Peter feels a shock when the voice that comes out of Steve's mouth is tired and almost… young. Like sounds really young, and weary and vulnerable and wow… Holy heck Captain America's an actor.

"Peggy?" Peter sees the hesitation in Black Widow's eyes. He watches her look down at the compass in Steve's hand as he sits up, and looks at Natasha, rubbing at his eyes. "Oh.." Peter almost chokes at the full-on blush that crosses across Steve's face, and he watches as it morphs into something sad and resigned. "Hey 'Tasha. Sorry, what's up?" His voice sounds a bit wobbly and sad and if Peter hadn't witnessed the soldiers minutes before he'd be on the floor heart shattering. Natasha looks at him and she's fighting something inside and then she frowns. Steve makes a show at trying to hide the compass, to slowly close the lid only to wince at the click it makes which draws Natasha's eyes back down to it. She looks up at his face, which is still red and her shoulders relax.

"I'm getting breakfast, do you boys need something?"

"No." Steve says softly, "I'm not hungry. Queens?"

Peter can't find his voice, just shakes his head. Natasha sighs and nods, "okay. I'll be back later. There's something I need to discuss with you."

Steve blinks sleepily at her and nods, already laying back against the pillow.

Natasha leaves and Peter watches as Bucky's eyes open and he stares at Steve.

"You're a little shit you know that?"

Steve just opens his eyes back open, fully awake and he smiles, a big beaming proud smile that has Peter straight up laughing. "Oh my— her face! How did you do that?!"

Steve chuckles, "people forget I had to do those USO shows for months. I got a lot of practice in. A lot of those girls wanted to be actresses so I would run lines with them for auditions."

Bucky scowls, "hopefully not with the ones who took advantage of you."

Steve grimaces, "don't ruin this moment for me, Buck." He grins, "can't believe that worked. She's such a softy. I gotta use that against her more." Peter chokes out a surprised laugh and Steve smiles at him. "What do you think Peter? Convincing performance?"

"Heck ya!" He crows, "I almost felt sorry for you! How did you blush on command?"

Bucky's eyebrows raise, "you blushed? Damn, you're getting better at this."

Steve grins, "figured out it's another thing I can control, since my memory recall is so strong, I just think of something, usually a memory that made me blush and 'voila'."

Bucky squints an eye at him. "And what'dya think of this time, huh?"

Peter watches as Steve blushes again. "Geez." Steve says, "it's actually crazy how well that works." He glances over at Bucky and a shit-eating grin crosses his face. "You remember the time, after the bar, with that bus stop in Paris?"

Bucky's eyes grow wide and he nods, "geez, Steve. What a hell of a thing to remember."

Steve chuckles, "I wanted to make sure it would work."

"What happened in Paris?" Peter asks, his voice betrays him and he squeaks the question out.

Both super-soldiers look at him, and Bucky frowns. "No way."

"Maybe when you're older." Steve says hesitantly. "Like. A lot older."

He huffs in annoyance but he can't stay grumpy for long as he listens to the soldiers talk about their next move.

—

It's hours later and Natasha hasn't returned. Peter hears Bucky tell Steve it's because they had to leave on the mission sooner than expected.

Bucky disappears to get food and Peter is lying with his eyes closed on the couch, trying to take a nap. Tony's coming for him in a little bit, but the numbers keep swimming before his eyes so he's decided to take a break.

He hears a sigh. So soft, and so light that if he didn't have enhanced hearing, he would have missed it. He barely, barely just opens his eyes, keeping his heartbeat and breathing steady (he's learned that's what tips Steve off when someone's awake). He looks at Steve who is sitting on the bed, knees pulled up and the open compass resting, balanced on the top of one.

Peter feels a twinge in his heart. Because the look of sadness and longing on Steve's face is definitely not an act.

—