Chapter 15.

Skye started as the elevator door opened. She'd felt jumpy and on edge since arrival; she'd slowly grown used to the Bus's comforts but this level of luxury was like nothing she'd ever experienced. Typical Tony Stark, splashing cash like water. She hadn't expected to like Pepper Potts, but Iron Man's girlfriend was lovely, warm and charming, putting them all at ease. What on earth could a woman like that see in Stark?

The man himself emerged from the elevator then, being practically shoved along by a woman Skye recognised from photographs as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow herself. She wasn't as tall as Skye was expecting, only an inch or two taller than Skye herself, and Stark was surprisingly short too. Short-guy syndrome, Skye diagnosed instantly, watching as Stark walked up to Pepper, who had stood at his arrival, and had to reach up to kiss her. Even without the five-inch heels Potts might well be taller than him, Skye assessed.

"Dinner is in five minutes, Tony, go clean up," Pepper said warningly, stepping out of range before his greasy mechanic's overalls made contact with her smart suit. "And no, I'm not going to introduce you to everyone until you do."

Tony sighed, turned, swept a comprehensive glance over all of them and smiled. "Well, I already know Jane and Taser Trouble here. And I spoke earlier to Leo Fitz, engineering prodigy. You must be Jemma Simmons, brilliant bio-scientist and a lot more beautiful than I expected, hello-o gorgeous."

Jemma blushed at the flirtatious remark and looked down, but Tony had already moved on. "And you must be Agent Hacker Chick."

"Skye," she said, rattled. It was the smile. Stark practically radiated charisma. Even with everything she knew about the egotistical pain in the ass, she found herself still wanting his approval, wanting to see that smile again.

"I'd shake your hand but I'm filthy and I also don't like to touch people, except Pep. So let's just agree to be best buds and go hack HYDRA together later, mmkay? Back in a minute. Katniss, pour more champagne, Skye's glass is empty."

Pepper was laughing as Skye, Jemma and Fitz all gazed open-mouthed at the door through which Tony had just exited. "People always ask me why I put up with him. Until they meet him."

"And those of us who know him well still ask why you put up with him," Romanoff said wryly, heading for the bar and accepting the glass of vodka Clint immediately poured for her.

Pepper gave a very private little smile. "Do you really want me to tell you, Natasha?"

"No, thanks, we don't need to hear about your and Tony's sex life," Clint said. He shuddered theatrically, and introduced Natasha. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were all in awe of her. She was a legend in the agency; even Skye had heard a hundred stories about her from Coulson and Ward. The latest crazy rumour was that she had supposedly hacked HYDRA from an Apple Store. Which had to be bullshit, but on the off chance it wasn't, Skye really wanted to pick her brains.

Natasha saw Skye coming, read her intent, smiled politely and moved immediately away to talk to Jane and Darcy. Frustrated, but not wanting to be rude, Skye took a turn around the penthouse, pausing to look out the glass walls at the incredible view. She ended up back near the elevator, studying a huge aquarium filled with rare tropical fish, when the elevator pinged open again and the embodiment of every one of her teenage fantasies stepped out.

Skye felt herself flush from head to foot as the perfect specimen of manhood stood before her. All six foot three of him, dressed in an open-necked white shirt and smart grey slacks. His blond hair was combed immaculately back, his blue eyes glowed and his face – well, it was beautiful enough to have been chiselled from solid granite by a master sculptor and displayed in the Metropolitan Museum.

"Hi," he said cheerfully. "I'm Steve Rogers." He held out a big hand to shake.

"Uh, Skye," she said eloquently, putting her hand in his.

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Skye," Steve responded.

"Just Skye, please," she remembered what Clint had said about him. "It's nice to meet you too, Steve."

Captain America smiled delightedly as she called him by his first name only. A pretty girl, Steve thought a little clinically, with her dark hair and midnight eyes. Awfully young, early twenties at most, though her eyes were older. Another one who's seen too much in a short life, he thought a little sadly. He offered his arm politely and escorted her back to her friends.

Skye felt as though she was living in a fairytale, being escorted across this luxurious room on the gallantly offered arm of Captain America. Jemma grinned and winked at her, and Skye was suddenly horribly reminded of the remarks she'd made about Captain America's ass a couple of nights ago. Goodness, and she hadn't even sneaked a look yet! She got her opportunity a couple of minutes later as Steve released her arm to be introduced to Fitz and Jemma, and to greet Jane and Darcy. Yum. Yes, perfection.

Bruce Banner arrived a couple of minutes later, obviously freshly showered and changed, and once introduced proceeded to monopolise Jemma's conversation talking about ICERs and dendrotoxin, obviously much to Clint's annoyance, as Hawkeye grew rather tight-lipped.

They were just sitting down to a fabulous dinner, as prepared by Tony Stark's personal chef, when May arrived. And Skye got the shock of her life as Natasha leapt up from the table, practically sprinted across to the elevator, clasped May in her arms and kissed her thoroughly.

"Holy crap," Skye looked around the table after a moment. All of the Avengers obviously knew, as did Potts. Jane Foster arched an eyebrow, but said nothing. Darcy, Fitz and Jemma were obviously just as shocked as she was. Jemma's eyes were huge; she sneaked a glance at Barton and then looked back at May and Romanoff, who were still making out like the world was ending.

"Well, that I did not expect," Skye said, and opposite her, she saw Steve Rogers give a small, rueful smile.

"Caught me by surprise the first time, too," he said, and there was something in his voice that made Skye think perhaps he'd had hopes in Romanoff's direction. She'd heard that the two of them had been partnered during the Winter Soldier hunt and the HYDRA/S.H.I.E.L.D. collapse. And then she thought about the era in which he had grown up and realised he was probably very uncomfortable with public displays of affection between same-sex couples.

"I guess as long as they're both happy, that's what's important," she offered gently, and Steve gave her a small smile after a moment.

"Yes. I think you're right, Skye."

Natasha and May finally separated and came to the table hand in hand, almost glowing. Skye had never seen May smile like that, her eyes soft. Skye stood up. "I'll sit somewhere else, A.M., so you can sit with Agent Romanoff."

"Thank you, Skye, but please, you must call me Natasha," the Black Widow said.

"There's a seat here by me, Skye," Fitz called down the table.

"That's for Thor…" Jane Foster said, on the other side of the empty chair.

"This one's not," Steve said, gesturing to the empty seat beside him at the end of the table. "Please, Skye, I'd be honoured. You can tell me all about what you do."

Skye accepted the seat with grace, moving her plate and glass, and Steve stood and held her chair for her. It was the first time she could ever remember anyone doing that for her. Even Coulson wasn't that much of a gentleman. "Thank you," she murmured, a little pink-cheeked. And then, when he pressed her to talk about what she did, she hesitated. "Well – I don't mean to be rude. But how up are you with modern technology?"

"More than Stark pretends," Steve said with a wry grin. "I know how to use the Internet. And a bit more besides."

"Well, I'm a hacker. I used to work for a group called the Rising Tide, who are a group of activists who seek to expose secrets they feel should be made public. I was working against S.H.I.E.L.D. and ended up getting recruited by Agent Coulson."

"Ah, Phil," Steve shook his head exasperatedly. "I still don't get why he tried to keep us in the dark about his not being dead for so long. Natasha and Clint are two of the best spies in the world, and with Agent May on his team…"

"Yes, well, I don't think Phil thought that through," Skye said with a snort. "I'm assuming Phil knows about you two?" she said across the table to May and Natasha, who were quite blatantly holding hands.

"Of course," May said. She grinned suddenly. "He introduced us."

"Technically that was me," Clint said from further down the table.

"Ah, no," Natasha corrected, "what you did was say 'Widow, this is May. I want to set up a fight between you two'. Phil actually performed the proper introduction."

Skye had to cover her mouth to keep in the giggles. "Did you ever have that fight?" she couldn't resist asking. "And if so, who won?"

"As if we'd tell," Natasha gave her a wink.

They were interrupted by booming thunder and flashing lightning outside the window, heralding the arrival of the Thunder God, and for the second time dinner was interrupted by a makeout session as Jane Foster flung herself into Thor's arms and he very happily caught her.

Well, Thor certainly did have magnificent arms. May was right about that. Wait a minute, May… Skye looked across the table into her team leader's eyes and realised May was silently laughing at her. Goddamn it, May had known all along about this possible scenario! She'd got Jemma and Skye drunk and forced them to talk about which Avenger they were attracted to, starting off herself by claiming Thor who was of course taken…

Skye looked down the table and saw Jemma's face. Yes, Jemma had clearly come to the same conclusion and was giving May a dirty look, somewhat mitigated by Clint's arm thrown casually around her shoulders. Skye glanced at Fitz to see how he was taking this development, only to discover him gazing at Darcy, who was regaling that end of the table with the story of how she once tazed Thor. Huh. Maybe Fitz was attracted to a woman who might actually be interested for once. Skye had seen Darcy listening to Fitz with an admiring look on her face as he talked science on the Bus.

Skye returned her stare to May. She really never would have picked the other woman for a matchmaker. Especially not for Skye, not when she knew about Skye's disastrous romantic history! First Miles, then Ward – men who couldn't be trusted…

May cut her eyes at Steve, and then looked meaningfully back at Skye, one eyebrow raised. Natasha was staring at her too, and Skye suddenly got it. Steve was Captain America. Perhaps the one man in the world who could be trusted never to let her down. And she – why would they have chosen her for him?

She thought about that, sipping at her champagne. Phil had always said that she was good at getting through to people. Mike Peterson perhaps the best example, although Ward possibly fell in that category too. She glanced sideways at Steve, who was eating steadily, obviously needing to fuel that insane metabolism. He still looked sad. A man who'd lost everything he once knew and a girl who'd never had anything to lose; perhaps they were perfect for each other.

Skye waited for Steve to look up, which he did fairly quickly, obviously sensing her eyes on him. And when he did, she gave him a gentle smile. Not flirty. He probably wouldn't have any idea how to deal with modern-day flirting, it would send him straight back into his shell. She would need to befriend him first.

"I'm sure you've been catching up on modern culture," she said, "so tell me, what's your favourite movie so far?"

Steve smiled, obviously a little surprised. "That's tricky. You're right, I've been watching one or two every night. Sometimes marathons on long flights on the way to missions, but I hadn't really thought about it." He sat back, picking up his water glass and taking a long drink, gathering his thoughts.

"Well, do you like comedy? Adventure? Drama? Action?"

"I've liked something in every genre. JARVIS gave me a list to catch me up decade by decade, so I wasn't too overwhelmed with the advances in technology. I'm still in the early 2000's," Steve apologised.

"Hey, nothing wrong with catching up slowly. You've got some wonderful movies yet to watch."

He was smiling now at her genuine interest, and Skye wondered how long it had been since he just talked to a girl like this, about something unimportant and non-life-changing.

"I've really enjoyed some of the comedy, especially the comedy action," Steve said after a bit of thought. "Things like Indiana Jones and The Mummy and Ghostbusters."

"Classics," Skye agreed, grinning at a sudden stray image of Captain America striding into battle shouting 'Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!'.

"But I think the movie that's stayed with me most is probably Saving Private Ryan."

"Oh," Skye sobered at once, and couldn't help but put her hand over his where it grasped the edge of the table. "I guess that one struck a little close to home, huh?"

Steve nodded silently, but he didn't shake her hand off. Skye pressed lightly on his fingers for a moment – noticing how ridiculously huge his hand was compared to hers – and then lifted her hand away.

"A lot of soldiers did get to go home and live full lives because of what you did, Steve. I work with the grandson of Gabe Jones, who'd never have been born if you hadn't gone in and pulled the Howling Commandos out of that HYDRA facility."

"Really?" Steve turned back to her, a smile touching his mouth again. "Gabe's grandson? Does he look like Gabe?"

"Quite a bit," Skye said encouragingly. "He doesn't tell many people who his grandfather was, he's not the type to brag. I'd known him for weeks before I found out. I'm sure you'll meet him at some point. I'll be sure to introduce you."

"I'd like that," Steve said enthusiastically, and then picked up his fork and started to eat again.

Skye smiled to herself. Well, that was a good beginning. She caught Natasha and May's approving glances across the table and lifted her glass to them in a silent toast.

"You'll have to watch The Monuments Men," she said in a stroke of sudden inspiration. "You probably knew some of them and I'd love to know the real story!"

So I'll revisit Skye and Steve later – probably every 3-4 chapters there will be one specifically featuring them. Skye's obviously well aware that she can't rush Steve, much though she'd love to jump him and grab on dat ass. The major thing I've noticed about Skye's character in AoS is how empathetic she is; she's very good at getting through to people. (This is obviously how Ward fell for her despite his conditioning).

Anyway, I'm back to Clint and Jemma for now. We'll see plenty more of Skye and Steve soon.

Was May and Nat a surprise for you? LOL it kind of was for me until I realised I'd been thinking that way all along – note May's preference for expensive vodka way back in Chapter One!