Smiling Face
(Steve POV)
Steve drove up to the compound on his motorcycle, he nods to Rhodey as he walks by. He was late and normally he's the first one there and he doesn't even seem to notice or care. He's smiling as he looks around at everybody hard at work. He goes to the locker room to get ready for training.
"Hey." He cheerfully spoke.
"...Hey." Natasha and Sam repeat in unison, they look at each other confused by what they're seeing, Sam gave a look and shrug that said "I have no idea" while Natasha took a double take of the clock on the wall. "Your late?"
"...Sorry, I suddenly had to do something this morning."
"Someone is in a good mood." Sam pointed out.
"Yeah, I am in a good mood, it's a good day." Steve smiled.
"So, where did all this cheerfulness come from?" Natasha confusingly asked, "And plus your late and your never late...in fact this is the second time you've been late." She folded her arms with a raised eyebrow.
"No reason, it's just a good day is all." He shrugged, "And I told you, I had to do something this morning...and the other morning." Natasha knew there was something else going on, Steve never walked into work like this. He always came very serious and focused, almost like he was ready for a battle. Suddenly it dawned on her, there was only one reason why a man smiles like this and is late!
"Oh my god, you met someone didn't you?" Natasha figures out, she's grinning from ear to ear while Sam gave him a stunned and hopeful look.
"No." Steve could only say, avoiding looking at them...especially Natasha.
"I told you that your a bad liar Rogers, who is she?" She demanded.
"Nobody, yes I did meet someone but we're just friends."
"How did you meet? What do you mean your just friends? What's her name? What's she like?" Natasha asked too quickly for Steve to process it all. Natasha is so excited! For years she's been trying to convince him to ask someone out. Even though he never said it she knew he was lonely and she wanted him to have a life outside of the fight, she just wants her friend to be happy and it looked like finally that might happen!
"Whoa, slow down. Again we're just friends, her name is Iris."
"Well...is she pretty?" Natasha asked with a big smile on her face. Steve was not answering her, "Steve, is she pretty?" She asked again more forcefully. "Rogers!"
"She's gorgeous okay!" He blurted out while Natasha gave an evil smirk.
"Wow, I thought you were just going to say yes or continue dodging the question but gorgeous."
"Okay, I will admit it she is very beautiful but again that doesn't change the fact that we are just friends...it just would never happen...like ever."
"You like her, don't you?" Sam suddenly chimed in with a smirk of his own.
"No I don't, I barely know her, we have only known each other for a six days. Like I said it would never happen with her, she hates and doesn't trust men, she is constantly saying I'm conspiring some sort of scheme, she told me all men are the same and I told her we could be friends so she could finally see that men...and people can be good and honestly she can drive me crazy sometimes." He spoke in one long breath. "Man, you got it bad Cap." Sam breathed with a chuckle.
"Yeah, if you didn't like her then why bother being her friend or helping her out?" Natasha questioned.
"Because like i said she thinks all men are out to get her and can't be trusted...and no one should go through life having so much hate and anger inside them...I don't know when she talks like that I look in her eyes and see that she truly believes that and underneath all that anger and rage is this incredible sadness, fear, loneliness and pain that...I just want to help her out of." He confessed. "And...I think she just needs a friend that she can turn to...one she could call if she ever needed anything...I didn't have that growing up other then Bucky...and I want to be that for her."
Natasha and Sam are a bit speechless for a few moments, not knowing what to say next. "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 simply responded.
"Do you ever think she will?" Steve looks at Natasha confusingly. "Call you if she needed anything."
"...Probably not..." He answered kind of sad, he really didn't think she would ever call him...and that perhaps this whole new friendship wasn't really going to help or go any further. I mean so far he's been the one to come to her and she never seems that happy to see him...maybe this was never going to work.
"Come on, the new recruits are waiting." Sam brought up trying to end the conversation, not wanting him to lose the good mood he was having. Sam 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 he would do is 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 smile, looking happy 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 and Natasha noticed a smile on his face.
"What is it?" Natasha asks 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's trying to sound very nonchalant but failing miserably. Both Sam and Natasha looked at each with a smirk. They opened the doors to the recruits already in line waiting for them. For hours they did drills, "okay, good job so far, we're going to take a break from this today and now it's shooting practice, Agent Romanoff will be assisting you" He told them. They all sigh in relief that they get to take a break from training.
While she was walking them to the shooting range and Sam was headed to the locker room Steve looked around to make sure he was alone and took out his phone and pressed the call button, it rang for a few seconds and he exhaled waiting for her to answer...he never thought he would get this excited about getting a text message, it gave him a little bit of a flutter in his stomach when he read her text and now even more with the anticipation with talking to her!
"Hello?" He heard her voice on the other end.
What did she say? Why did she text him? I guess we'll have to find out! And let's face it he's in denial, he's already hooked!
