Daybreak | Steve Rogers

Chapter Eight: Fallen Friend

My eyes fluttered open and I winced, trying to sit up. "Hey, you okay?" I turned to see Rogers sat next to me, watching me anxiously. 

I grunted in response, swatting the medic away as they tried to dab at my head with a wet towel. "What the hell happened?" I asked, watching Rogers with narrowed eyes.

"We fixed the engine and then... you passed out, that head injury was a little worse than you thought"

"What else? Loki?"

He sighed heavily, "He got out. Thor and Banner disappeared, Barton's been captured, and..."

I frowned, "And what? What is it?"

"It's Coulson... he's gone"

——————

I couldn't stand to be in that room for another second, ignoring the advice of the medics and making my way back to the bridge. Rogers, Stark and I were sat at the meeting table as Fury spoke to us. He held up a few blood soaked trading cards, "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket, I guess he never did get you to sign them" he remarked as he tossed them onto the table. I watched with a blank expression as some of the blood spattered the clear surface.

"We're dead in the air up here," the Director continued, "Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor... I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye, maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark and Mitchells know this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more, to see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea... in heroes"

Stark suddenly got up and left in silence, leaving the three of us alone. "Well," Fury shrugged, "It's an old fashioned notion"

——————

"How're you doing?" Rogers asked me, slowly approaching me in the training room.

I shrugged, aiming a strong blow at the punching bag, "I'm fine"

"You sure? Maybe you should take a break, get some sleep"

"I did sleep" I argued, kicking the bag as I tried to address my anger.

The man chuckled and steadied it for me, looking at me in concern. "You passed out, there's a difference. Look, I just think you work too hard. You just lost a friend"

I shook my head and avoided his gaze, "He wasn't my friend, he was my colleague, my superior"

"Do you actually have a life of your own, or are you just completely absorbed in your job?"

"This job is my life. Besides, I don't need friends"

"Why, you got hurt before?"

I finally paused to make eye contact with him, his sky blue eyes freezing me in place. "I'm not the one who gets hurt," I said after a while, "I'm never the one who gets hurt"

His gaze softened even more, "Maybe you could do with some"

There was a pause before I realised what was going on, "No, don't even think about it"

"Think about what?"

"I told you, people get hurt. As soon as I stop to care about someone, they get hurt"

He frowned, "What about Agent Romanoff? You two seemed close"

"That's different, she'd kill me if I froze her out. As for you... well, I don't think you'd dare"

"Now, that's not fair," he said in a teasing voice, "I could totally kick your ass"

I shook my head and lunged around the punch bag, aiming a punch at his face. He dodged, grabbing my arm and twisting it until I fell to the ground. There was a pause. I waited long enough for him to let down his guard and turn away from me, suddenly leaping onto his back and wrapping an arm around his neck. His fingers gripped at my skin, the surface seeming to tingle with electricity. I was brought out of my thought by him flipping me over again.

I landed on the floor with a loud thud, the air being knocked out of my lungs. "You put up a decent fight" he taunted as he stood over me, offering me a helping hand.

"Thanks" I murmured, gripping his hand for a second before yanking him down to the ground, rolling over so that he was pinned to the floor. I smirked down at him, my hair falling in my face, "If you hadn't acted so cocky, you might have won that"

"Really?" he asked. We stayed in silence for a moment, realising how close we had become. I shivered slightly when his hand moved up to trace the thin scar that ran across my cheek, hesitantly stroking the pale skin.

He began to raise his head closer to mine, but the moment was interrupted when my earpiece beeped. "Drop whatever you're doing," Stark ordered, "We need to talk"

——————

"What do you want, Stark?" I huffed as we entered one of the main corridors. 

"Look, Loki made this personal. Don't you wanna know why?"

Rogers frowned, "Not really. What's your point?"

"That's the thing. It's not my point, it's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart?" I suggested.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience"

The Captain nodded as he figured out what Stark was getting at, "Right, I caught his act in Stuttgart"

"Yeah, that's just previews. This is opening night and Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." Stark trailed off as his eyes widened in realisation, "Son of a bitch"

There was a pause and I folded my arms across my chest, "What?"

He sighed and gestured to himself, "Who has a massive tower in New York with their name on it?"

I gasped, "Holy shit!"

"What's going on?"

I turned to face Rogers with an irritated look, "Stark Tower"

——————

The door to Barton's holding cell slid open to let us enter, immediately gaining Nat's attention. "Time to go" I said, my voice softening a little when I saw how stressed she looked.

"Go where?"

"We'll tell you on the way," Rogers replied, "Can any of you fly one of those jets?"

The bathroom door opened and Barton stepped out, looking a lot better than he had been when I visited him earlier. "I can" he said, waiting for Nat to give us a reassuring nod.

"You got a suit?"

"Yeah"

"Then suit up"