Seren walked silently down a crumby hallway that looked on the verge of falling apart. Three more agents followed closely behind her. Her eyes scanned the environment with each step she took, wanting to make sure she didn't miss anything. They were warned that while the building held no life signals, there were various traps set around them.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had been informed that a laboratory in Florida specializing in biological weaponry had gone rogue. That wasn't a shocker for anyone. They needed to clear off the weapons that the lab had already made and whatever ingredients they still had in the lab. They were warned that no scientists remained at the building, for they had gotten wind that their work was out.

Seren stopped at an intersection coming up. She couldn't decide which way would bring them to the designated weaponry room. She brought a hand to her ear where her comm. piece was tucked in. "Romanoff, did you reach the lab?"

"Yeah, and there's plenty to take," Natasha gave a low wolf-whistle.

"Great," Seren straightened up and glanced back at the agents with her. It appeared that their mission would be a short clean one and that was a rare sight. She might even get to go home earlier this time.

"You headed for the weapon storage?" Natasha promptly asked a moment later.

Seren nodded as if Natasha was there to see it. "Yeah. These buildings are so tricky though, the plans we have didn't have all these hallways."

"They're outdated."

"Yeah, thanks, I noticed." Seren sighed and motioned to the Agents to follow her. She had chosen the hallway that seemed the most chaotic. If her experience as a SHIELD agent had taught her anything, it was that the bad people always hide their stuff in the hardest-to-reach places.

"Stardust?" One of the female Agents had come across a beaten down metal door. "I think this may be it."

Seren hurried over with the rest of the Agents. She noticed the control pad beside it was shattered. "Looks like somebody tried to get in before us. Stand back."

The Agents took a few cautious steps away from her. Seren raised both of her hands and held them at the door. A series of glowing colorful particles came to life around her hands before they were fired at the door. The door had no choice but to fall inside the room after the stars eliminated a good portion of its hinges.

"We're in," Seren was happy to report before stepping inside the room. The other agents followed as well.

The room was dark but they could see the shiny metal of some of the weapons on their shelves. It was definitely the room they were looking for. The Agents took a few steps further inside but were forced into a stop when they heard a low grumble on the ground.

Seren quickly looked around for the source while the Agents primed themselves for a fight. "Romanoff, are you feeling that?"

"What?" Natasha's tone was clearly clueless which meant whatever was happening was only affecting the room.

"It's a trap!" Seren exclaimed. "Out! Out! Get out!" She barely turned around to usher the agents out when the entire room shook with all its might until the ceiling fell on them.

~ 0 ~

Four days later.

It had taken days but Steve had finally managed to get through to Fury. Chloe hadn't been able to come back from her mission in so it'd been up to him to climb up the ranks in S.H.I.E.L.D. to Fury. He might be a little bit on the bad side of a few S.H.I.E.L.D. employees now but Steve honestly didn't care. He was angry. He was properly angry.

"I could have helped with that mission! Agent Hill said something about a weapons laboratory? Did you forget I fought in a World War!? I could've helped!" He was raging against Fury in a lone room. Fury had said nothing so far, only watching Steve go on and on. "I know everyone thinks I'm going to snap because of what happened but people's lives are in danger! You need to tell me where Seren is and how I can help get her and whoever else is with her back!" Steve finished with some heavy breathing. He hadn't even realized it until then.

"Are you done, Captain?" Fury's easy tone only made Steve angrier.

"With all due respect—"

"Stardust and her team were rescued this morning from their location," Fury's lips quirked into a half smirk seeing Steve unable to decide what to do with himself at that moment. "She sustained some injuries but she'll make a full recovery just like she always does."

Steve's head was nodding slowly as the words truly settled in his head. "Hold on," he paused, "Stardust?"

"Agent Soul has a codename, just like you do, Captain. That didn't come up in your conversations during her many check ups on you?"

There went that pit feeling in his stomach again. Steve felt terrible when he realized that he didn't actually know Seren. All this time she had focused primarily on him and helping him adjust to his new reality. He had given her small snippets of his past but even then, all the conversations had been about him. He never bothered to ask about her. What did she do outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Did she live nearby? Did she have a middle name? Did she have a family? Was she married? He knew nothing about her.

"No," he answered in a low voice. He had no idea who Seren Soul was, much less this 'Stardust'.

~ 0 ~

It was a nice apartment building that Steve walked into later on that day. He followed the instructions up to the third floor, to a cream colored door marked C7 in gold. After a while, Fury had taken pity on him and gave him Seren's actual address. It was another thing that Steve realized he didn't know about Seren. He was unbelievable.

That apology monologue was about to get bigger.

He knocked on the door and waited patiently for someone to open. As soon as he heard the doorknob turning, he readied himself to start that apology. "Seren, I'm so sor—" He stopped when he saw not Seren but an elderly woman on the other side.

She arched an eyebrow at him but there was a trace of a smile ghosting her lips. For a moment, Steve wondered if he'd gotten the apartment wrong. He double checked the scrap of paper Fury had given him.

"You're here for my granddaughter," the elderly woman said. "Seren?"

"Yes, ma'am," Steve nodded. "I'm Steve Rogers, a, uh…" He wasn't really going to finish that sentence with 'friend', was he? Because he had proof that it wasn't true.

The elderly woman's smile was now visible on her face. "Yes, I know. My name's Atria." She held a hand out to shake. As Steve shook hands with her, Atria gave him an odd smirk like she knew something that he didn't.

"Is Seren alright to see visitors?"

Atria nodded. "Of course. My granddaughter is very strong. She'll be up and about soon. Come in." She stepped aside and motioned him to enter.

As soon as he walked in, he took note of the sweet cinnamon scent that filled the air. It fit with the personality of the apartment, as well as the owner. The walls were cream colored and a stark orange-brown. There was a decent-sized living room to his left. It had a long couch against the wall and a smaller one to its side. A glass coffee table with two mugs sat in front. It was spotless clean too. From a glance, the kitchen seemed to be the same story.

It was a marbleized small kitchen with its standards cabinets over the sink and counter. There was a circular mahogany table with four chairs around it. There was something cooking on the stove and though Steve had no idea what it was, it smelled pretty good.

"Seren?" Atria called. "You have a friend."

Up in the air, Steve thought. He heard a door opening from the hallway up ahead, followed by a voice that truly made him relax on all levels.

"Who? Natasha?" Seren appeared several seconds later, dressed in green and white flannel pajamas. "Steve?" While she smiled in surprise, Steve couldn't say the same.

His eyes were drawn to the sling her left arm was in. She'd broken her arm? Dislocated it!? There were several cuts on her forearms and Steve imagined that there were more hidden under the three-quarter sleeves of her pajamas. There was a final cut, a much deeper one, on her left cheek with stitches.

"It's really not that bad," Seren made a motion with her free hand for Steve to stop thinking whatever he was thinking.

"Not that ba…" Steve ran out of air; his steps were small. For a second, he was back in the war witnessing his team getting hurt. "Seren, what happened to you?"

Seren rolled her eyes at him, something he wasn't expecting. "I'm alright. Grandmother, give us a moment?"

"Of course," Atria agreed and headed for the hallway. "Watch the pot," she made a nod towards the kitchen before disappearing.

"How did you find me?" Seren asked Steve once they were alone, the thought only just now hitting her. She was bemused. She went for the couch and suddenly Steve was trying to help her get there. "I'm okay," she laughed and swatted his hands away. "This isn't the 40s, you don't have to help a...what did you say your friend called us?" She snapped her fingers until it came to her. "Dame! I'm not a dame," she pointed at him. "Sit, Captain." She made her way to the couch and sat down then patted the spot next to him.

Steve did so, but silently. He kept looking at her injuries and for the moment Seren would allow it. He had to get the full scope before she would explain things. "I was really worried," he started a few minutes later. "I kept calling you...left a series of voicemails."

Seren bit her lower lip as a chuckle threatened to slip through. He was being serious. She'd listened to all of the voicemails once she was settled at home. It was sweet of him.

"I even called Chloe…"

"Oh yeah, she called me. She's not that happy with you right now," Seren scratched the side of her head. "Something about hanging up on her?"

"Adding it to the list of apologies," Steve murmured before turning to face her. "Seren, what happened? You said it was a two-day mission…"

"Those were the plans," Seren shrugged. "But sometimes missions don't go as planned, right?" She gave him a sharp look. He would know that better than anyone. "There was a trap that we didn't see in time and the entire room fell on us. I tried my best but...one of the damn chunks fell on my arm. It managed to break a few bones. I was stuck and worst of all, so was my team. I would be fine but...they were in danger."

"And so were you," Steve said like she was crazy. "You just said that part of the room fell on you."

Seren pursed her lips together. Not telling him the truth wasn't going to work anymore, she could see that now. "I'm going to be fine, Steve. All this…" She made a pass at herself, "It's going to be gone in like 2 days, maybe quicker."

"What? Are you mad?"

"Yes, actually, mad that I didn't see that trap. We're lucky that they were able to pull us out eventually. It wasn't that nice," Seren shuddered remembering it. Her body had been squished under a cemented chunk of ceiling. Usually, she would be able to get herself out of something like that but this time both of her arms were incapacitated, not to mention one of them was broken. Her hands were the primary way she uses her abilities. Plus, she felt like she couldn't breath every now and then. "It was definitely not one of my best missions."

"Seren…" Steve hated how casually she took these injuries but at the same time, he couldn't blame her. If roles were reversed, he would do the same and back in the war, he did do it.

"I'm fine," Seren promised him.

Steve wasn't convinced at all. "Listen, Seren, I want to apologize to you for being so rude to you in the past."

Seren almost laughed. "What!? What are you talking about?"

"All this time, you've been making sure that I'm okay. You've listened to me whenever I had something to say, you've prioritized me and learned everything about me that I've shared. Meanwhile I don't know anything about you."

Seren nodded, puzzling him since she looked like he'd said something she already knew. "Uh, well…" She smiled politely, "I intentionally didn't share anything about me because it wasn't pertinent to the situation. You didn't need to know about me."

"And you didn't need to listen to me either. I'm pretty sure that's not listed in the assignment description, was it?" Steve stared at her until she sighed and agreed.

"No, but...it was the human decency thing I talked about, remember? I'm big on that. Plus, you're Captain America. Who wouldn't want to know about you?"

"Seren please…I'm sorry. I bet that you have a lot of stories to tell and I haven't asked about a single one. I don't know anything about you." Perhaps he intentionally did it in the beginning. He wasn't so crazy about having a personal Agent looking after him and the only reason he tolerated it was because he got to choose who that agent was going to be. From the start, Seren had proved herself to be different and at the same time comfortable. She put the effort to provide him with something familiar — in her case it was her adapting to his war vocabulary. She made the effort. He didn't. He was closed off, he knew it, and Seren tried — she tried her damn hardest — to get him to open up. She always focused on him and he didn't see it until now.

Seren watched the as the guilt filled Steve's eyes, his entire face. "Steve, don't be so hard on yourself. I promise you I'm not upset about anything."

"I need you to know that I'm here if you ever want to share something about yourself," Steve said, "You've made yourself my friend and it's about time I do the same for you. Anything you want to tell me, whenever, I'll listen, okay?"

Seren nodded, her smile softening. "Thank you for that." Her eyes fell over her sling encasing her arm. Maybe this is the time to come clean. The idea made her heart race. Still, if Steve wanted to be actual friends with her then he should know who this friend really was. "Um, Steve, I think before you say you're my friend, you should...know something about me first. It's something we've been putting off talking about."

Steve immediately knew what she was talking about.

"And the reason I haven't been brave enough to talk about it is because I never talk about it. I prefer not to scare people or...lose people." Seren barely met Steve's gaze but it was still enough for Steve to conclude that right now, she was the one afraid. "You might not want to be friends anymore."

"I really doubt that," Steve said, offering her an encouraging smile. "I have seen many things in my life, Seren, and I am confident that you are nowhere near the awful things I saw in the war."

"Don't be so sure," Seren swallowed hard. "Um, have you heard about...Stardust? In S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Steve nodded. The name was familiar alright. Fury had used it to describe her instead of the usual 'Agent Soul'. "Yea, actually. Once. Fury called you that. He said you had a codename like me."

"I do," Seren nodded, clearing her throat afterwards. "It's a literal name of what I can do. It's the alias I use when I'm out on the field. The reason for that is because I'm not exactly...normal."

"Neither am I," Steve was happy to remind. "I know you're enhanced, Seren. I've known that ever since we met. Believe me, that is nothing out of the ordinary for me."

Seren chewed on her bottom lip hard enough to start tasting blood. "I'm not enhanced, Steve."

"But I've seen—"

"Forget what you think, or what you saw," Seren said softly, "Because I'm not enhanced, I swear."

With those kind of words, Steve naturally grew puzzled. "Well, if you're not enhanced, then..."

"I'm..." Seren was forcing herself to speak because if she took the easy way out, she was sure to avoid the subject altogether until it blew up in her face. "Steve, I'm not entirely human."

"What…?" Steve had to go back and make sure that he had heard correctly. She just said she wasn't entirely human. That...that would mean she was a...a…

Seren was fiddling the fingers of her injured arm. "There's a part of me that's sort of…not human?"

"Like a…"

"Alien," Seren said and before Steve did anything, Seren raised her uninjured arm to show him colorful particles dancing around her fingers. They glowed magnificently in the air, at her will.

Without thinking, Steve jumped from the couch. His eyes were wide in alarm as the particles swarmed around her hand. Seren wasn't that surprised with him.

"I don't mean to harm," she said, closing her hand and making the particles disappear. "It's part of my biology. I inherited it from my mother who inherited it from her mother."

"Your...your grandmother," Steve swallowed hard and glanced at the hallway where Atria was. "She's...she's an alien?"

"A refugee," Seren corrected. "She was born on a planet called Celessia. She came to Earth many years ago and she started working for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"What, and they never found out about her?"

"No," Seren shook her head. "My grandmother didn't have the abilities that I do. They manifest differently in each person. Her powers are more of the mind. She can literally see and sense things. My mother's powers are focused on her eyes. Never get on her bad side. Mine are more physical. I can manipulate cosmic stars and their elements, hence my codename Stardust. It's who I am when I'm out in the field. I've been Stardust for a very long time now but I promise you that I have never used my powers wrongly. I wouldn't…"

Steve said nothing for a while. He was trying to think of everything she had said. She wasn't human? That was possible!? He had dealt with all sorts of things back in the war but...aliens? Those were real?

He suddenly reminded himself that Chloe, while human, did have a piece of alien tech inside her head. Maybe it wasn't that far-fetched. It was knowing Seren was actually an alien...part alien, he reminded himself again.

"I knew it would change things," Seren sighed in resignation. Growing up had been an utter struggle as she battled to keep her manifesting powers under control. If anyone found out what she was, they would lock her up and prod her like an experiment. It was why working for S.H.I.E.L.D. was more liberation than anything. There, no one was afraid of her. No one looked at her differently. They were used to handling aliens and their tech. They saw Stardust as someone who was capable of helping them out and upholding their security. But when it came to the public, Stardust had to be sealed away.

Seren Soul was a quiet, reclusive woman to her neighbors. She always greeted people but never invited anyone to her apartment. Hardly anyone visited her except for odd grandmother and occasionally parents. No friends stopped by except for one redhead and a snappy blonde.

"It's fine, Steve. You can leave if you don't want to stick around anymore," Seren motioned towards the door. "I can let Fury know you need another Agent to help you out. Maybe they can get Chloe."

"That's not...I don't need that," Steve said slowly. He was obviously still trying to process things but he knew straightaway that he wasn't afraid. Why would he be afraid of Seren? She had never given him any reason to fear her. She was blatantly kind, it was actually hard picturing her as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent fighting criminals. So a part of her was an alien, so what? That didn't change her personality. She was helping people, she was helping him...she was still a friend.

"I think you do," Seren said quietly, gesturing to him. "You're like a mile away from me."

Steve realized he had walked several feet from the couch while he'd been thinking. "Sorry, I'm just processing. You're right, I'm from the 40s and there are still some things from this world that I'm just not used to." He watched Seren's face fall with his words so he quickly went on to explain, "But that does not mean that I fear you. If anything, honestly, it just means I have a lot of questions." Hearing his own words struck him that it was a bit forward. His hands suddenly raised, shaking to backtrack. "Not that you have to answer! You don't owe me anything. I owe you a lot, not the other way around." He was getting this, he was…

"You're not afraid?" She asked him.

Steve returned to the couch and promptly sat down next to her just like he had before she told him anything. "Of course not. You're still Seren, right?" He gave her a crooked smile that eventually made her smile back. "Seren — do you have a middle name?" He was about to use her entire name to make a point but, just like he realized before, he didn't know that about her.

A laugh slipped through Seren's lips at the sudden question. "No, I don't. It's just Seren."

"Alright then, as I was going to say: Seren Soul, I can't be afraid of you. From now on, I'm going to start acting like a real friend to you. I have lost my home, my best friend, other important people...and when I heard that you were hurt, I thought the same thing was going to happen again."

"What? That you would sleep for another 67 years?" Seren tried making some humor in the conversation to avoid the reality that there was an unusual warmth in her stomach hearing Steve say those words.

Fortunately, Steve seemed to miss the diversion tactic as he chuckled. "No, I just didn't want to lose people again. I don't know a lot of people in this new world but I certainly want to have you around." Like Seren, he would actively try to ignore the weird feeling he had after saying those words.

It only got stronger when he casually invited her to try that curry she'd told him about earlier that week.

A/N:

Eee! Seren finally told Steve what she really was and Steve finally realized how one-sided their relationship was. It's the true beginning of their friendship! I'm so excited for the next chapter because we're getting the introduction of another canon MCU character's story. (We've just had Natasha last chapter). Does anyone want to take a guess who it'll be? Of course, the timing will be a little skewed to make it work!

So, just a note, I have been offered the opportunity to go back to school (for free, I'll add) and I'm so happy about that. So, if I sort of lag even more on my updates, this is why. I'll be working full time and going to school for the next year!