Work Text:
You weren’t meant to be assigned with the Avengers in the first place.
You’d been with SHIELD long before it fell and had garnered enough of Nick Fury’s trust, mainly due to your inaffable disposition as you never beat around the bush to save someone’s face. That honesty gained you more enemies than friends, but along with that reputation followed the understanding that you could get your work done.
Though you weren’t a jack of all trades in the looks, fighting, and hacking departments like Black Widow, you still made sure to be the master of one in your ability to work with technology. Not necessarily engineering-wise, but rather the manner of which you could handle copious amounts of information at the rates of a computer and the fact that you both knew how and could probably work an entire tech station by yourself while providing the intel and assistance when needed.
Which is why you landed yourself in the position where you were, in a helicarrier with Captain America himself with a couple other Avengers of wide renown. While most people would be ecstatic to be you right now, your indifference to the Avengers’ popularity gave you little joy to be in a team in general compared to the prospect of glorious alone time decoding the ancient Hydra files you helped Black Widow leak.
It didn’t help that they were just so loud either, so you resigned yourself in the corner of the vehicle, tapping away at your tablet to ensure all the most updated details of the mission were readily available. Though you couldn’t help but get distracted when you noticed the failed furtive glances sent your way by both Captain America and Black Widow as they muttered something you couldn’t care less about. You were just about to tune out of the world when you found your earbuds when the Man With a Plan began striding over to you, assuming his team leader stance.
“Have you gotten any updates on the status of the mission so far?” You could almost feel the exasperated look Widow gave at that opener. You decided to humor him.
“No, the target is still expected to arrive on time, about 8 people are dispatched around the location to ensure the success of the delivery, not including the body guards he’ll have on him for extra insurance.” You stated in a rather monotonous tone allowing you to watch as the initial enthusiasm he had coming into the conversation drain from his demeanor.
You continued, “Vehicles are readily available if they need to escape and traps are more than expected around the area which is why we’ll be landing a couple miles away so we don’t alert them. All of which you already know, and should anything come up, I’ll be sure to inform the whole team.”
You finally looked up at him, faintly surprised to find that his eye-color was not the perfect shade of blue the textbooks always read him out to be. Otherwise, he fit the description perfectly; tall, strong, conventionally attractive… Your eyes already fell back to your screen as you began to put your earbuds in. He scrambled out a small, “Thanks” as he left, getting the hint that you did not want to be bothered.
Other than again, the furtive glances, you were thankfully left alone for the rest of the flight.
. . .
To be certain, you were not a field agent.
That was more.. well, literally anyone else’s but your thing. Yet fate decided otherwise when the target managed to call for backup and they happened to notice the helicarrier. As expected, they chose to shoot it down.
You barely caught wind of the situation before you grabbed onto something for support as the first impact struck the ship, causing the whole thing to jolt which threw you off your feet as it began spiraling down to the ground. You scrambled to save your tablet and grab a weapon before again trying to anchor down before you could be thrown off the ship entirely.
So as any normal person would do, instead of fearing for your own safety, you decided to inform the others.
“Avengers, the target called for backup and they found the helicarrier. It’s going down and they’re coming your way.”
Some explosion went off in another part of the ship, rattling you to your core, but you managed to hang on this time. A buzz in your ear reminded you that someone was speaking through the comms.
“Hey, are you okay? Are you still on the carrier?” The voice sounded familiar, and through the incessant ringing from the explosion, it was Captain America’s.
“Yeah, I think s-” The final crash once again threw you off your feet.
. .
“ No bleeding ”, you faintly thought as your eyes opened. “ Then again, it could be the adrenaline speaking for me ” But when you were finally able to get ahold of your bearings, you were indeed fine and sound.
Despite the ship coming down, the internal structure managed to hold up well enough, at least to prevent any debris from crushing your body which you were more than thankful for.
When you tried to get up, you felt aches run all over your body and you knew for sure there’d be a hell of bruises the next day. You sighed, but took inventory. You still had the gun you found, and amazingly, your tablet was still intact, but the sting in your ear alerted you that your comms were down.
Though it was still sparking, it was a miracle that it didn’t take your right ear down with it. You checked your tablet then.
The screen flickered for a moment, growing unease to your stomach, but it managed to hum and boot up as red dots appeared over what seemed to be some formation of a compound. With that you knew where the Avengers were at least, though faintly noting that one seemed missing. But you knew that with larger compounds comes the fact that signals are more easily intercepted.
The crunching of metal underfoot caught your attention from the outside, reminding you to stay low and alert. You followed their pace, going to find yourself a better vantage point before they could find you. From the sounds of it, it seemed they only sent one to check on the remains of the crash. So you weren’t too worried when the guy finally decided to peek in and you shot him square in the face.
You looked back at the tablet and sent a signal to Iron Man to inform him the location of the backup that at least showed on your screen as well as your own to inform your living status. With that handled, you went about trying to catch up with the others. Though the helicarrier was stable for now, you didn’t trust it to stay that way.
. .
It was a shadier compound that you had imagined, and was way farther than you expected. You truly weren’t a field agent. By the time you got there you were panting and out of breath, so you decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a moment to catch it while leaning against a tree. To your dismay, that wasn’t the only thing that was caught. You heard the click of the gun before you even felt the cool metal press against your temple. Cursing under your breath for being so careless, you raised your hands in following your captor’s orders before promptly disarming to his demands.
"Didn't know the Avengers got a new recruit." He examined you to the point of uncomfortability, before promptly crushing your tablet under his boot. The action caused you to cringe.
“That’s a shame,” You said with more steadiness that you thought you could muster, “the data in that little thing there was more valuable than anything you could offer your boss.”
He scoffed, “I think the boss will be more than pleased to have an ally of the Avengers as a hostage. Besides, we can't have you alerting any of your superhero friends just yet now can we?"
He grasped your arm hard enough to bruise and forced you to follow him, but you noticed a glimpse of red, white, and blue amongst the trees. You complied for now, allowing him to lower his guard.
“Wait for your boss to be disappointed, because I’m not someone close to the Avengers. I’m just the tech guy.”
He sputtered, loosening his grip enough for you to quickly duck down at the sight of America's frisbee flying at you both. It easily hit and knocked out the man who slumped forward onto you, but not before a gunshot rang in your ears.
You opened your eyes to Stars and Stripes, his own eyes alarmed as he looked over you to survey the possible damage.
"Are you alright?" You did your own checking.
Arms and legs still intact, no view of red from your viewpoint, until you felt a sting on your cheek. You reached up, but he beat you to the punch as his hand lightly hovered over your cheek while his brows furrowed in concern.
"Just a graze. Hardly a bullet in my skull." At least you assumed, but found yourself consoling him before you could question it. He nodded, helping you shove the man's unconscious body off of you. You salvaged what you could, taking his gun and knife and finding yours on the forest floor as well.
"Has the target been captured yet?" You asked, shaking off any twigs that hung off your body before tossing him the extra gun. He seemed surprised, but caught it with a grateful look.
"Not yet, and from the looks of it, hostiles will be closing in on us soon. It’s best if we regroup with the others and work our way from there.” He picked up his shield from the ground, already leading the way.
Until you stopped him, lightly tugging his arm and he didn’t miss the way your brows furrowed at his plan.
“Since the others have already infiltrated the compound it’s better that we assist them here; fighting off the backup and giving them enough time to get to the target. Considering they needed backup, there shouldn’t be too many in the compound and I’m sure they can handle themselves as long as we stall for time.” He seemed reluctant at the idea, and you knew the reason when he glanced down at your singular pistol. You scoffed.
“I’ll strip any fallen guys for more weapons if I need. Besides, I’m not going to be the one they’ll focus on. ” You gestured to the obnoxious American shield, and he rolled his eyes but gave a hesitant nod.
“Alright, just.. stay safe.” His eyes met yours, earnest, uneased. He was the one that was missing on the map, you realized. He must’ve gone looking for you after your abruptly cut off message.
You gave him a smile to try to reassure him.
“Got it, Captain.” So you both went to assume your positions.
. .
It was all over for the extra troops by the time you got your hands on a sniper, but even before then the situation was surprisingly, perfectly under control. While Captain America was on the ground and confronting soldiers head on, you had his back literally by shooting down any goons that got too close to it. And this time, you made sure not to get caught in an unlucky position and held hostage again.
By the time he got the signal that the target was apprehended, more men were down than had gotten through, and he didn’t even have a scratch on him. You made your way over, watching as he took off his helmet to cool off but you noticed a glint of metal past his shoulder.
He jumped as he heard the bullet zip past his ear, barely turning in time to see a man collapse to the ground from the hit. You took one more look around the area to make sure there weren’t any more threats.
“Guess we’re even then?” He smiled, the kind that made his eyes crinkle to show genuine delight. “We make a good team.” It was contagious as one spread across your face as well.
“I suppose we do, Rogers.” His eyes softened at the mention of his name, albeit his last. You heard the soft hum of a voice sounding through his comms, and he nodded to you when it went quiet.
“Tony says he has our location, so all we have to do is wait.” You made a sound of acknowledgement as you started to put away your gun. He seemed he had more to say by the manner of which he watched your action, but decided against it as he found his sweaty helmet more interesting.
“A date.” His eyes shot up to yours way too eagerly, you tilted your head and smirked in amusement. “That’s what you wanted to ask on the helicarrier, yes?”
You got a taste of the boyish charm of Steve Rogers when his cheeks reddened with a tinge of pink. He was a good leader, but rather shy when just a man. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, but nodded.
“If you’re free later tonight, after washing up we can get to know each other over some dinner. Does that sound good?”
“Good, yes. Great, actually.” You finally let out a laugh at that, but he seemed all the more pleased.
“See you then, Rogers.”
. . . .
He didn’t formally meet you until this mission, but he knew who you were before. When SHIELD was falling, Nat was able to contact you to be the inside man for the job and transport any intel you could gather that would help them. It was the easiest way for her to infiltrate the building and get access to as many Hydra files as she did. He knew your voice however, and found that he didn’t all mind your straightforward nature that many took offense to. Especially due to the fact of how much you helped them and wanted to bring Hydra down despite risking your own life.
When he finally saw your face, it didn’t take him all too long to associate it to the voice he met before. You seemed confident, though closed off, and he found himself appreciating you as a teammate all the more; although Nat did try encouraging more than that. But even now, he was never good with handling anything in the romantic aspect.
Yet when he fought alongside you then, he never felt more in sync with another person since, well, Bucky. It really made him want to consider more, but he couldn’t find the words for it. But you did. You read him so easily it almost scared him, but instead, it brought him at ease.
He always has to be the quiet one unless giving instructions, he is the leader and all. There’s no room for doubt when you have his position, so the fact that you could know his feelings without having even expressed them, it was one of the most relieving realizations he’s come to in a long time.
He felt seen.
Later that night he brought patches to help with the graze on your cheek in case you hadn’t fixed it up yet. You gave him a smile that made butterflies run wild inside of him.
He hoped this time he would finally find the words to express himself, but somehow he had a feeling that you would be able to understand him regardless.