Guardian Angel | Steve Rogers

2

"Seven secure." Nat confirmed.

"You guys do anything fun Saturday night?" Nat asked her and Steve.

"Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so, no, not really." Steve joked.

"Steve Rogers doesn't look like the type to have fun." Arden teased him.

"Coming up on the drop zone, Lee." The pilot informed Arden, and she hit the button to open the back hatch, walking away from them both.

"You know if you ask Kristin out from Statistics, she'd probably say yes." Nat suggested to Steve as he clipped on his helmet.

"That's why I don't ask." Steve said back loudly.

"Too shy or too scared?" Arden asked.

"Too busy." He answered.

"Keep up, Cap." Arden shouted to him before dropping backwards off the jet.

He shook his head, looking back at Nat.

"If saying no is your thing, she would definitely say no if you asked her out." Nat teased him.

"Too mysterious." Steve commented before jumping off himself.

Without a parachute, Steve quickly landed on the side of the ship, climbing on board, he didn't see any signs of Arden. Sneaking behind a mercenary, he puts him in a headlock, dragging him backwards and down as he knocks him out.

Running towards the end of the ship, he throws his shield at two mercs, making his way towards the other end of the ship knocking out mercs as he passed by. Fighting a few more without exhaustion, but when a French merc points a gun at him from behind, he freezes.

A silent gun shot goes off, and the merc drops to the ground, Steve turning around seeing Arden holster her gun.

"Thanks." Steve surprisingly thanked her.

"Yeah, looked like you needed help." She joked, looking at the hurt and knocked out men on the ground.

He smirked, then with perfect timing, Natasha, Rumlow and the rest of the team landed, taking off their parachute. Steve walks off with Natasha, Arden following behind.

"What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you? She seems kinda nice." Nat asks.

"A nurse seems like his type." Arden comments.

"Secure the engine room, then you can find me a date." Steve scolds Natasha.

"I'm multi-tasking." Natasha defends, climbing over the rail, leaving Steve.

Arden follows her down, spotting a man near a phone, they slow down behind a box.

"He's not going to be happy about your little side mission." Nat brings up to Arden.

"Yeah, well, I work for Fury not Rogers." Arden reminds her.

Nat nods at Arden, cuing them to ambush the mercenaries, taking them out, using each other to help.

"Targets acquired." Team 3 leader whispered into comms.

"S.T.R.I.K.E. in position." Rumlow added.

"Natasha, Arden, what's your status?" Steve asked.

"Status, Natasha." Steve repeated.

"Hang on!" Nat replied.

Arden swung her legs around the merc, flipping him onto the ground as she threw a knife at the other, making him collapse.

"Engine room secure." Arden informed the team, letting out a breath.

"Go." Nat said to Arden.

Arden nodded, parting ways with Nat to find the communications room. She listened as she heard Steve take point of the hostage rescue while she rushed into the communications room. Taking out a flash drive from her pocket, inserting it into the modem.

"Hostages en route to extraction. Lee missed the rendezvous point, Cap. Hostiles are still in play." Rumlow informed Steve.

"Snitch." Arden said to herself, typing on the keyboard.

"Lee, Batroc's still on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages." Steve ordered, and Arden rolled her eyes, hating hearing him talk to her and she couldn't respond.

"Arden." He repeated, she couldn't tell him what she was doing.

As she encrypting the security, the door rammed open from Steve tackling Batroc, landing them both on top of the door on the ground.

"Well, this is awkward." Arden grabbed his attention, smirking at him.

"What are you doing?" He asked sternly, getting up and walking towards her.

"Backing up the hard drive, it's a good habit." She teased him.

"Rumlow needed your help. What the hell are you doing here?"

"He had Natasha." She brushed it off.

He walked over to her, looking at the large screen in front of the room.

"You're saving S.H.I.E.L.D. intel." Steve noticed.

"Whatever I can get my hands on."

"Our mission is to rescue hostages." He scolded her.

"No, that's your mission." She replied, pulling out the flash drive, looking up at him. "And you've done it beautifully, Captain."

She began to walk past him, but he grabs her arm quickly, stopping her right next to her, hovering her with furrowed brows.

"You just jeopardized this whole operation."

"That's a little dramatic." She countered.

The sound of Batroc getting up, turned their attention, Steve quick to react when Batroc threw a grenade, hitting it with his shield to deflect it away from them. He turned opening his arm to Arden as she wrapped her arm above his shoulder. Jumping over the computers, Arden shot a glass window, shattering it right before they went through, pulling themselves against the wall as the grenade went off, exploding everything in the other room. They both groan, breathing heavily, Steve peeks through the window to see to see an opening for an exit.

"My bad." Arden apologizes.

"You're damn right." Steve replies quickly, getting off the ground and leaving her.

She sighs, shaking her head, knowing that she partially just gave a reason for Steve to not like her when he was already on the line about her.

"Fuck." She cursed to herself.