Nadia

There were many thoughts running through my head at the moment and I just couldn't get them all out. Tasha's words, Carter's persistence, and most of all the time I spent with a certain super soldier. I was never like this after that certain mission happened and this sudden change in my behavior was scaring me. What was happening to me?

I had been trying to figure this all out since I left Carter a while ago. Nothing was making any sense to me and this was just making me more confused. Right now, I was just staring blankly at nothing in particular because thinking about all of these was just making my head hurt.

"Nadia!" Uncle Tony's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I jumped in my seat and yelped, "What?"

Uncle looked at me with knitted brows while worry was etched on his face. What? Did I get lost in my train of thoughts again?

"You okay, kid?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Definitely sure he wasn't convinced. Well, I couldn't blame him at all. After all, Uncle Tony was the one who comforted me during my dark times. You could say that I broke down quite a lot during that time.

"You look like something's bothering you."

"Just tired from training." I reassuringly smiled at him, making him raise a brow at me.

"Okay, come on. What is it?"

"It's nothing. I'm just really tired and this crazy alien invasion looming over us is not helping."

His eyes narrow slightly as he looked at me with suspicion. "Really?"

"I swear, Uncle." I let out a short laugh. "It's really nothing."

Uncle Tony looked at me suspiciously, still not convinced by my blatant attempt at covering up my problem. Then, Dr. Banner continuously scanned Loki's scepter as he caught our attention and said, "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But, it's gonna take weeks to process."

Thank Banner for being a life saver! I definitely couldn't get out of that one because Uncle Tony was too persistent for his own good. Uncle gave me a look that told me that I still wasn't off the hook, making me softly groan.

He then went back to the monitors and continued what he was doing before he snapped me out of it again. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."

"All I packed was a toothbrush." Banner chuckled as Uncle Tony walked towards him.

"You know you should come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R and D. You'd love it, it's candy land."

Moving closer to them, I laughed and smiled at the doctor. "Yeah, you definitely should. You'll love the toys and be all science bros with Uncle Tony. A word of warning though, he can be quite annoying and sarcastic." My uncle playfully glared at me while I merely smirked at him and shrugged.

Banner just shook his head in amusement and chuckled. "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke…Harlem."

I actually pitied him because he never asked for any of this, but it all just happened. Now, he had to live with an alter ego, who he couldn't even control.

"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises." Uncle suddenly poked Banner with a small electrical shock device.

"Ow!" The doctor yelped in pain and looked at Uncle in confusion while rubbing his side.

On the other hand, I looked at my uncle like he grew another head. What was he thinking? Wait, never mind. Scratch that! Was he out of his mind?

"Hey!" Steve walked into to the lab, making me mutter a curse under my breath. Oh boy, this was not going to end well at all.

Uncle Tony just closely looked at Banner before saying, "Nothing?"

"Are you nuts?" The super soldier glared at my uncle but apparently, the latter just ignored him and continued to inspect Banner.

"Jury's out." He glanced at Steve before turning back to Banner. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Uncle, please just drop it," I pleaded and heaved a sigh but as usual, he just ignored me.

Steve narrowed his eyes at Uncle Tony and fumed, "Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are."

I resisted the urge to groan because Uncle was not making the situation any better, very typical of him. This was why a lot of people were so annoyed with him most of the time because he always liked to pick fights.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." Steve then glanced at Banner. "No offense, Doctor."

"No, it… It's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Banner turned back to his work.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Uncle then pointed the small electrical shock device and walked away from the doctor.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve narrowed his eyes at my nonchalant uncle.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now?" Uncle took out a small packet and opened it. "Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve knitted his brows, glancing slightly at me.

This was something I had to agree with Uncle. Fury was definitely hiding something and I was never informed of any of the operations with the cube. That was definitely sketchy as it was. What the hell was he doing with the cube anyway?

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Uncle Tony popped some blueberries into his mouth before pointing at me and nudging his towards Banner. "It's bugging them too, isn't it?"

Banner slightly tensed as he tried to get himself out of this controversial conversation. "Uh… I just wanna finish my work here and…"

Steve looked me before turning to the tensed doctor. "Doctor?"

Heaving a sigh, Banner took his glasses off and began, "A warm light for all mankind to share, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it." Steve crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Banner pointed at Uncle Tony and took some of the blueberries that the latter offered to him. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…" Steve stopped for a moment after seeing the looks that Uncle and I were giving him. "Building in New York?"

A frown crossed my face as I narrowed my eyes at Steve Rogers. I helped in making that tower and that was our baby. No one was allowed to say that it was ugly or throw insults at it when I was around.

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"

"That's just the prototype." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. Blueberry?" Uncle offered me some blueberries and I smiled at him, taking some and popping them in my mouth.

Banner gestured to Uncle Tony and me. "So, why didn't SHIELD bring them in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"That's exactly what I've been wondering since." I heaved a sigh as they all looked at me. "I didn't hear anything about this project until they brought me in because of a psychotic Asgardian on the loose."

Uncle Tony snorted as his lips quirked up into an amused smile. Shrugging my shoulders, I raised a brow at him while he shook his head. He then walked towards the super soldier and took out a small tablet from his pocket.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

"What?" I looked at my uncle with slightly widened eyes. "JARVIS has been hacking into SHIELD's files? Since when?"

"I'm sorry, did you say…?" Steve couldn't even finish what he was saying because Uncle cut him off.

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He then pointed the bag of blueberries towards Steve. "Blueberry?"

Steve looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

"He has a point." I cut in, making the super soldier turn to me. "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?"

It might not be the brightest idea but it was the only way of finding the answers we wanted. Clearly, we wouldn't get anything out of Fury even if we interrogated him.

"Historically not awesome," Uncle added as he munched on his blueberries.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."

This was really bad. I had to stop this somehow because if I didn't, things would just get messy. "Both of you that's enough."

Apparently, Uncle Tony just ignored me and shoved blueberries into his mouth. "Following is not really my style."

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve narrowed his eyes at my uncle, clearly starting to get more frustrated and annoyed than he already was.

"Of the people in this room, which one is: a, wearing a spangly outfit and b, not of use?"

"Uncle!" I hissed and frowned at my uncle's snide remark.

"What?" He gave me a look and shrugged his shoulders, making me roll my eyes.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Banner intervened, making the soldier look at him.

"Just find the cube." Steve then angrily walked out of the lab, making me sigh for the nth time today.

This was what I was trying to prevent but apparently, these two just wouldn't listen. Heaving another sigh, I slowly stood up and headed towards the exit but my uncle stopped me.

"And where are you going?" Uncle Tony crossed his arms over his chest while raising a brow at me as I turned back to him.

"I'm gonna follow him." I pointed out like I was stating the obvious.

Uncle Tony's eyes quickly narrowed as he questioned me, "And, why exactly are you gonna follow him?"

"To apologize." He looked like he was about to complain so I cut him off, "No, Uncle, I'm not changing my mind."

I quickly left the lab because I didn't want Uncle Tony to pry any further. Now, where would that super soldier be? Then, something came into my mind because I might just know where he was going. On my way to the training room, I spotted Steve walking in the hallways and he seemed to be in deep thought.

"Hey!" I jogged towards him as he turned to me.

"Nadia." He tilted his head in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

He might have calmed down a bit but I could tell that he was still mad. Biting my bottom lip, I sighed and said, "I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" His furrowed brows matched the frown that crossed his face.

"For what Uncle Tony said and did. It was out of the line."

"It's not your fault, Nadia."

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. "I know. It's just that I know him too well. Uncle Tony is a nice guy but he's too stubborn to accept the fact he's wrong or to apologize so… I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Steve gave me a small smile but it clearly wasn't a genuine one.

"You're lying." I crossed my arms over my chest and slightly furrowed my brows. "It's bothering you."

His shoulders slightly tensed. "It's really not…"

"Don't bother. That's not gonna work on me. Do you want to talk about it?"

Steve shook his head, trying to avoid my eyes. I really felt bad for him. Even though I saw myself in him, he was still going through a different thing, which was clearly worse than mine. He didn't even have a shoulder to cry on unlike me. He had been through a lot and something like this, he didn't deserve it.

There was just this urge in me that wanted to help him or at least ease his pain a little bit. My gut was telling me to do it so I did before thinking it through. Stepping forward, I took both of his hands in mine and slightly squeezed them, startling him. A smile graced my face as he looked at me in shock.

"You're not useless, Steve. You being here is already making a big difference. Heck! You're trying to save the world from a lunatic demi-god named Loki, who is hell bent on conquering it. That says something." I scrunched my face while talking about that maniac. Apparently, this just made Steve shake his head in amusement as he laughed and it was very nice to hear it.

I couldn't help but let a wide grin grace my face, just hearing and watching him laugh at that. "Don't let my uncle's words bring you down. You're one of a kind, Steve Rogers. Don't ever doubt that."

Then, I saw them again in his eyes. They were showing me those emotions that confused me so much. What exactly were they? Squeezing my hand, Steve just stared into my eyes without saying a word at all. The smile on his face was long gone and for some weird reasons, I couldn't look away from his eyes that had a breathtaking shade of blue. His eyes had this mystery in them that just seemed captivate and pull me into their endless depths.

All of a sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks. What the hell did I just think? Why was I acting like this when it came to him? What was happening to me?

Biting my bottom lip, I tried to snap him out of his thoughts and stammered, "Why aren't you saying anything?" No answer. I then looked at him with slightly wide eyes. "Steve, did I actually say something weird? I don't really do these kinds of stuff so you're probably thinking I'm weird and not making any sense."

"Nadia, it's okay." He chuckled while looking at me with amusement in his eyes. "It's not weird. You're not weird."

"Oh…" I muttered, making my mouth form into an 'o'.

Steve then flashed me the brightest smile. "Thank you, Nadia."

"It's, uh, nothing." I gave him small smile while biting my lip. My gaze drifted to our hands that still held each other. "Uh, Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"Hands."

After realizing what I said, Steve quickly let go of my hands as a light tint of pink dusted his cheeks. "I, uh… uh, sorry."

To be honest, this was quite funny and amusing. I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing because I couldn't help it. "It's okay." I softly chuckled, making him blush harder. "So, were you going to the training room?"

"No, not really. Just walking aimlessly."

My eyes slightly narrowed in suspicion as I looked at Steve, who looked slightly tense. Avoiding my eyes was just fueling my suspicion. He was hiding something, judging from his actions.

"You're hiding something." I crossed my arms over my chest as he looked at me with a surprised expression on his face. "Care to share?"

"I have a bad feeling in my gut. Something's not right." He heaved a sigh.

"Well, me too. I hate to say this but I agree with lunatic Loki. Fury must have been doing something with the cube that caused all of this mess." As I looked at him, something seemed to have dawned on him. Like a light bulb was suddenly lit. Was he actually thinking of that? I tilted my head to the side. "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

A smirk made its way on his face. "Follow me and see."

Steve then led me to a few hallways until we reached a storage room with the words "SECURE STORAGE 10-C" written on the door. No one was here because people rarely came to this part of the Helicarrier and to be honest, I barely went here too. Hopefully, no one would come because we would be in big trouble.

"Unlike the rest, this storage has a security code lock." I examined the lock beside the door while trying to figure out how to unlock it. "I can hack it and use a decryption code to–" The sound of scraping metals caught my attention as I turned to the source while murmuring, "…Unlock it."

Steve slid the heavy iron door open before turning to me as I looked at him with my mouth slightly hanging and uttered, "Or we can do that too."

Steve had a wide grin on his face as a short laugh escaped his lips. "Come on."

Both of us cautiously walked into the room and the first thing we noticed was this room was filled with metal crates, that contained God knew what. What the hell were all of these anyway? What was Fury even hiding?

"What do you think is inside these crates?" Steve looked around the room with knitted brows.

I examined the crates before glancing at my companion. "I don't know. But whatever these are, they're giving a bad feeling in my gut."

Looking up, the super soldier leaped up to the second level and then grabbed ahold of the catwalk's railing. He then pulled himself up and landed on the catwalk before motioning me to follow him. I heaved a sigh and jumped on a crate before jumping again and grasping the railing. Steve gave me an amused smile as I swung myself over the railing and stood beside him.

"What?" I tilted my head in confusion.

He then shook his head and grinned. "Nothing. I'm just impressed."

"Well, I did beat your ass."

"Language."

My eyes widened slightly as did his. I then snapped out of it and smirked at the super soldier. "Really, Cap? Language?"

"Just slipped out?" He smiled sheepishly while flushing in embarrassment.

"Really now…?" My smirk just grew bigger, watching the super soldier blush a darker shade of red.

"You're not gonna let that go, are you?"

"Nope." I was quite enjoying this, messing with him. He pursed his lips into a thin line but I could see that he was slightly amused by all of this. "Okay, I was just kidding."

He let out a sigh of relief but that didn't last long because I just crushed his hope. "Definitely not."

I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from laughing as he groaned, "Seriously?"

"Seriously." My answer earned another groan from Steve while I then nudged my head towards the crates. "Come on, soldier."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I told you to stop calling me that."

"Right. Sorry, Nadia." He smiled sheepishly as an idea popped into my head.

I then smirked at the already embarrassed super soldier. "And, that is why you should watch your language, Cap."

This time I couldn't stop myself from laughing as he groaned for the third time and murmured, "That's not gonna go away anytime soon."

"You bet, Rogers." I laughed again while walking ahead of him. It took him a second or two to follow me. I just couldn't help it. It was fun to mess with him especially when he got all red and flustered.

After a while, I reached another room that was filled with more crates. My curiosity was getting the best of me again. I walked towards a crate and examined it. It was the same as the rest so these crates probably contained the same thing. Slowly removing the lid, I couldn't believe what I was seeing at all. What the hell?

"Steve!" I called as his quick footsteps rang in my ears. "You better see this."

"What's wrong?" Steve tilted his head in confusion before obliging. Once he saw what was in the crate, pure anger quickly flashed in his eyes. What were these anyway? I looked at the file on the lid and it all dawned upon me why Steve was beyond mad. Phase 2. What the hell was SHIELD doing?

I'M BACK WITH ANOTHER CHAPTER! I'm so sorry for the long wait! Thank you guys for reading and for the follows and favorites. There are more Stedia scenes on this one and I just love seeing them interact with each other. Shoutout to kawaiixkisses for the lovely ship name, thank you so much! ;) So, what do you guys think about this chapter? :) Until next time~~! :D

- Sylkes