Aaaaaand it's time for their first mission together! Gotta admit I had a lot of fun writing that. Hope you enjoy it! xx

Chapter 8

Shuri is so badass, Sharon thought as she boarded the quinjet that would take them to Russia. Rather, it wasn't a quinjet like the one she'd seen the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D agents using, it just looked like one. According to Shuri, it was actually much more advanced and could withstand battle against any aircraft due to its vibranium shell, but they preferred to keep a more low-profile look in case it was seen by a civilian.

They were all using a suit designed by her for undercover missions. It felt like a second skin once you put it on, like a thin metallic shell made malleable. It could hold a bullet and was resistant to fire and extreme temperatures, and it adjusted itself to warm the body when it was cold and vice versa. It was supposed to be used with pants and just a tee on top – with a jacket, tops – and Sharon wore it gratefully. Russia wasn't known for its mild weather.

Each Avenger – whether they were still calling themselves that or not – had a comm and microcomputer attached to their wrists, all capable of finding the bomb they were looking for. Shuri would help them disarming it, and she instructed them to stablish communication as soon as they found it. Sharon and Wanda were the ones assigned to do it, since Wanda could use her power if necessary and Sharon was the one with most training on how to handle bombs. It wasn't knowledge she'd expected to use anytime soon.

They met up at midday in casual clothes, according to Steve's instructions. All of them preferred to use a jacket, and Sharon thought it looked badass to see all of them with their leather jackets on, ready to take on the Russian mob. And Steve looked even more handsome than usual, she couldn't help noticing. Wanda put on a black wig and Sharon dyed her hair brown for a disguise. Steve had grown a beard during the months they were there, but It wasn't like the guys could hide their muscles, and wearing caps at midnight would draw attention, so they just went with it.

After final instructions from Shuri and a reminder to please call her as soon as they find the bomb, the team boarded the quinjet and left Wakanda. Sharon took her time staring out the window as they flew over the stunning buildings and fountains spread across the country. It had been a surprise to leave the infirmary and head into the city to find a technological paradise. She still wasn't used to the architecture, but it was growing on her.

The quinjet was quite comfortable on the inside, as it was made for T'Challa's trips to the outside world. There were a couple of benches typical of military aircrafts, but at the front of the jet were two huge leather seats Sharon and Wanda didn't hesitate to take, as the guys would be flying the jet the entire trip. Sharon doubted Steve would ask her to move, anyway, the gentleman he was.

"Anyone wondering the same thing I am?" Sam said as soon as they left Wakanda airspace.

"What?" Steve turned to face him, the sunlight catching his eyes and making them look pale.

"That we might find Nat there. She may have the same intel and decide to act on it."

"I don't think so. The report Okoye found was highly encrypted, and only Shuri could access it. I doubt Nat has the same level of technology we do." Steve said, rubbing his chin in a thoughtful way. "Can't say I wouldn't like to see her, though. Just to make sure she's fine."

Sharon felt the same. Nat would occasionally send letter and encrypted messages to ensure them she was fine, but she never once told them where she was or what she was doing. Sharon hoped it'd only be for a short period of time, but so far, no sign of the Black Widow. Steve was growing restless with every message sent.

"I hope we find her soon," Wanda noted. "We could use her help with this."

Steve nodded, and turned ahead to help Sam with coordinates. Sharon knew they'd take a long time to go to Russia, and that nothing out of the ordinary would happen. Shuri made sure the jet had a cloaking mechanism, so they'd be invisible for most of the trip. Since she hadn't slept last night because of nightmares, Sharon took the opportunity to lay back on her seat and just enjoy the scenery outside. Steve and Sam's quiet voices discussing what they were doing, and the jet's rumble beneath her were enough to make her sleepy not long after, and she gratefully fell asleep.

Sharon awoke sometime later and was surprised to see it was dark outside. They had to have flown for at least 8 hours for it to be almost evening. Steve's jacket was wrapped around her, and it felt like being hugged by him, his scent all around her. It's no wonder I slept like the dead, she thought. "What time is it?" she whispered, having seen Wanda napping next to her. Steve looked back at her and smiled.

"Sleepy Beauty awakens," Sam joked. "It's past ten. We'll be there soon."

"Thanks for the jacket", she said, even though she didn't feel like returning it anytime soon.

"Keep it until we land. You looked quite comfortable with it."

She blushed and shrugged off, laying back on her seat but still looking at him. "Can't say I wasn't."

The flight was faster than any of them anticipated. With the jet's advanced tech, it took them only ten hours to reach St. Petersburg, which meant they had two hours to spare before going to the station. As Sam landed the invisible jet in a soccer field not too far from the station, Wanda woke up and yawned. "I could get used to flying like this," she said, her voice adorably sleepy.

They took their time grabbing their gear and reviewing the mission details, being careful to plan for all scenarios, with and without hostile encounters. Since they had a couple of hours before the station closed off completely, they would use it to scout the area around it, and grab a bite to eat, since Wanda and Sharon had spent much of their flight sleeping, and they hadn't thought to bring any snack along with them. Wanda would go with Sam, and Sharon with Steve. It would be easier to pretend being a couple rather than a group of friends, especially with Steve and Sam's profile. Sharon agreed, even if to spend a little time with Steve alone.

As they walked in the city after splitting up from the others, Sharon and Steve came up to a huge street market. As they asked for some coffee and pizza, Sharon noticed he was staring at her from the corner of his eye. "What are you looking at?" she asked half-jokingly.

"Nothing. It's just come up to me I'm in a mission with an Agent Carter again."

She blew out a breath. "Well, let's hope you don't end up in the ice after we're done. I heard Russia's not a good place to be in Winter."

"You're right," he said, laughing before taking a sip of coffee. "I just can't ignore the coincidence. And to think we lived as neighbours for two years and I had no idea you were a Carter."

"We don't come with a name tag," she noted. They hadn't really talked about when they lived together, or about the fact he'd asked her out before knowing she was an agent. She guessed that fell into relationship territory.

Steve put his coffee back on the counter before accepting the pizza from the booth attendant. "No, but you're all the same. Stubborn to a fault, proud, but the best agent you could have beside you on the field."

She looked at him closely. "Do you really think that?"

For her to listen to Steve Rogers saying she was on the same level as Peggy Carter was an honour she'd never expected to have. Peggy had been as beloved as she'd been respected, and Steve's history with her – all of it – made him love her probably more than anyone else. And that was part of the problem for Sharon. She felt immensely proud of herself at that moment for Steve's praise, but her heart wrenched at the thought she'd never be good enough for him like Peggy was.

She shouldn't even be thinking about being good for him.

"Yes," he said, taking her hand. She laced her fingers through his and squeezed. "We never talked about what happened before you ran off. Under the bridge, I mean."

She swallowed, her heart feeling like it was being kicked into high speed. "No, we didn't. And we're not doing that – not now, I mean," she quickly added. "We're kind of in the middle of something."

"You're right," he said, straightening and turning his attention back to his food. Sharon hadn't noticed they'd moved closer together and took a small step back. "But we should talk about it."

She thought about it for a while. If she said they didn't have to, she'd be blowing him off in a delicate way. In fact, it would be perfect. She could blame the kiss on the stress and attraction she felt at that time for him, and simply tell him to be friends. In fact, it would be better for both.

But despite knowing what was right, she also knew it'd be impossible to take Steve Rogers out of her head – and out of her heart. Being in a team was going to bring those feelings up at some point. And once they did come up, it'd hurt both. Sharon couldn't do that, and she couldn't ignore how right it felt when they were close, how well she slept with his scent wrapped around her, and how important he was to her. So, she just answered "Ok," and left future Sharon to deal with it.

She'd regret it later, for sure.

They just chitchatted for the rest of the meal and walked around the marked while it wasn't time for the mission. As it was, St. Petersburg wasn't famous for night markets but this one had quite a few things going for it. The art collection was nice, and they found themselves staring at the paintings for a long time. Sharon remembered Steve was appreciative of art, despite everything, and endured the time he took admiring the paintings, even though she wasn't a fan herself.

When the clock struck two in the morning, Sharon and Steve met the others at a park close to the station. After reviewing the mission one final time, they went through the south gate, used only by employees. It looked like a regular building from the outside, with no signs whatsoever marking it as an entrance to a subway station. They walked down an escalator and corridor that led to different changing rooms, and soon emerged on the entrance of the station, where dozens of turnstiles stood.

Jumping those, they turned on Shuri's tracking device, and slowly moved through the hallway leading to the platforms. As it was common in Russia, there were decorations and gold details throughout the place, and Sharon thought it felt much more like a palace, rather than a public transportation system.

They turned right to a couple of stairs, but before Sharon could take a step, Steve froze, an arm reached out to stop the others. She could see the outline of four heavily-armed men patrolling the station in silence. Had they walked a bit faster, they'd run right into the hostiles.

"May I?" Wanda whispered, and Steve nodded. She concentrated for a few moments, and raised her hands, faint streaks of red flying around them. The men didn't stand a chance as they were raised in the air and choked with Wanda's power. After losing consciousness, the Scarlet Witch gently lowered them to the floor, the only noise being of the guns dropping to the ground. Steve nodded in praise, and they walked down to the platform with weapons raised. There were no other sounds that Sharon could hear, and when it was clear there'd be no attack, she relaxed and turned to the device.

With the others around her still in full attention, she followed the blue dot on the blueprint to an electric box under the last seat at the platform. Opening it, she left out a breath and signalled the others over. The bomb was the size of a mailbox, and she could see no timer or familiar structure whatsoever. "I've never seen anything like this," Sharon said, starting a call to Wakanda. "I hope Shuri knows how to do deal with it."

Shuri answered on the second ring. "Show me," she said as greeting in a heavy accent. Sharon enabled the camera and felt her stomach drop when Shuri mumbled "Oh, no" on the other side.

"Don't say that," Sam said. "I hate it when people say that."

"What is it?" Steve moving closer.

"This isn't a regular bomb. It's connected to another device somewhere close. If we disable it, the twin device will bring it back up."

"Why not just move it to a remote location?" Steve asked.

"If we move it away from the twin or even touch it, it'll go off immediately. You need to find the twin device and destroy it before touching the bomb."

"Sounds good," Sam said. "What's with the 'oh, no'?"

"The device isn't explosive, so my computer can't find it. You have to do it the old-fashioned way," Shuri said. "Find it and call me back. I'll work on disabling this bomb to speed things up."

They looked at one other as the call went dark. "Can you find it with your power?" Sam asked Wanda.

"It doesn't work like that," she said.

Sharon was going to suggest they start looking when a shot fired from somewhere behind them almost hit her on the shoulder. Another immediately followed, and another. Sharon's instincts took over, but before she could run behind the column to their right or even take out her gun, she felt Steve's enormous frame covering her while screaming at them to find cover. After getting over the initial reaction that Steve was protecting her with his own body, she got out her gun and fired blindly at the stairs they had come from.

Wanda and Sam were already behind the column when Sharon and Steve stumbled together, Steve's arms still around her. She quickly got out of the embrace – if you could call it that – and crouched down. "Five coming down the stairs at least, possibly more," Sam reported. "Those idiots almost blew up the bomb."

"They weren't aiming at it," Sharon said, looking over at Steve for any sign of injuries. His eyes were doing the same thing to her. If he'd gotten shot for her, she'd kill him.

Wanda and Sam took warning shots to anyone moving closer, but their attackers hadn't moved from their position at the start of the platform. "You're either too brave or too stupid to come down here in the middle of the night and attack my men." the one standing in the middle called out. "You're not leaving this station alive."

"I could say the same to anyone on Bratva," Steve answered. "But you probably fall on the stupid side anyway."

Steve looked at Wanda, and she nodded. They'd agreed early on that if it came to a conflict, their best chances would be Wanda ripping their guns away and focusing on hand-to-hand combat. Steve didn't fancy shooting unarmed men, even hostile ones.

Wanda concentrated, and at her signal, the other three started shooting to cover her movements. Wanda took a step away from the column and with a grunt brought down her arms. Screams of surprise ran out on the other side, and eight guns dropped at their feet, three more a few seconds afterwards. "Some of them had extras", Wanda mumbled.

Sharon smiled savagely at the Scarlet Witch and ran away from the column, free to fight her opponents without risk of getting shot. She could clearly see eight men spread out on an eagle formation, with the bulky one who'd spoken square in the middle. She left that one to Steve and focused on the two at the far right. Sam took the left side, and Steve flung himself at four of the attackers.

Four to one? They'd be vastly outpowered.

She ran over to her own assailants, one a tall lanky guy with crooked teeth, and the other surprisingly attractive. She smiled at the first one and aimed a roundhouse kick – her signature move – followed by a high jab on the other one. Hearing a woosh, she dropped down right before a punch connected with her head and kicked out blindly behind her. A scream told her she'd hit the knee of the first guy dead-on, and after knocking him out, focused on the pretty one.

As they circled each other, she could see he didn't seem like the typical mobster, but a regular guy you'd ask out. She kicked up to his stomach and then to his shoulder, which he defended easily. As he went on the offensive, she cursed herself for not sparring with Steve more often and for not being used to defending such strong hits. Her forearms were burning after a combination of uppercuts and jabs that took all her attention to defend. As he tried to bring her down by grabbing her, she quickly deflected and mounted on his shoulders as his torso went down from the momentum of the attack. As he turned around and tried to smash her against anything that'd bring her down, Sharon used her legs and arms to choke him to unconsciousness. It took every bit of strength she had to withstand being thrown against the wall and moved around but finally, after a few seconds, he stopped struggling and went down against a door. Sharon untangled herself from him, aching all over, and looked over to where Steve and Sam's fight was coming to end with Wanda's help.

As Steve knocked the last one unconscious, Wanda looked at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sharon answered. Something didn't feel quite right with all of this, but she couldn't put her finger on what. She watched as Steve fumbled in the leader's pockets and took a device that looked like an upgraded ipod. Sam hadn't had much trouble with his opponents, and they lay a few feet away from them.

"Call Shuri, and ask her if that's the device," Steve said, panting.

Sharon nodded absentmindedly and did as he asked. Shuri answered on the first ring. "Yes, that's it," she said as Steve showed her what he'd found. "You look beat up. Did you find hostiles?"

"It's fine. How do we disarm the bomb?"

"First, destroy the twin device. It shouldn't be too difficult."

Wanda closed her fist and the ipod crunched until it was nothing more than a pile of dead metal. "Good," Shuri said. "Now go back to the bomb".

After checking the bomb's model was identical to the one she'd researched – Sharon didn't even know there was such a thing as bomb models – Shuri gave her detailed explanations on how to disarm it. It took both Wanda's careful manoeuvring of the metal parts around it and Sharon's knowledge to finish the job, but after a few minutes, the bomb gave off a beep and simply went dark.

Sharon let out a long breath and closed her eyes.

"It's done," Steve mumbled. "Thank you, Shuri."

"You're welcome. Now come home, I want to hear about the fight."

"Don't wait up, kiddo." Steve touched the screen on Sharon's arm to end the call and closed the energy box. "Grab everything you need, and let's move. Someone might have recognized us."

Neither Steve nor others commented on the fact Shuri had referred to Wakanda as their home, but as they retrieved what was left of the bomb and left the station, Sharon couldn't help feeling relief at the mission being over. And as they boarded the quinjet, it indeed felt like that's where they were headed.

Home.