Longing (Steve Rogers x reader)

Kevlar

For the rest of the week, you remained on edge. Steve's team didn't check in, but seemed to be in a mess of a base. Tony was monitoring them closely with the vital tracker in their suits. You went over their mission docket, and it was a larger base they were taking on. You wished Steve or Nat would have taken the time to explain that to you before they left. You figured they didn't want you to worry, but you were worried regardless. It took a while, but you finally got it out of Tony you were supposed to be on that mission with them, but Steve had you removed when you found out you were getting Roxy and Tom. You thought that was sweet of him, but you were still able to do your job. You didn't want to admit it to yourself, but you missed Steve's presence a lot. Bruce and Loki would join you for tea in the evening after you walked Roxy, but it just wasn't the same. Sam even joined you for your evening walks, and offered to join on the morning one too, but you knew he liked his sleep and politely declined. By Friday you were suffering. You wanted nothing more than to see the entire team in the compound again. You had spent every evening in the main living room, with Roxy up behind your legs and Tom on your hip. You continued to wear Steve's sweater everywhere when you weren't working out. You were worried it was starting to smell, and Friday night took the time to wash all your clothes, and took the time to wash his sweater as well. That night when you took Roxy outside, she didn't even need her leash, she trotted along while you walked with Sam and did her business. When it was time for bed, she actually jumped up onto the bed and cuddled into you this time. Just as you were about to fall asleep, a text came through. Steve was on his way home.

Steve didn't like this mission, it was taking much longer for them to infiltrate the base then they originally thought it would. They spent the first two days taking turns and watching the guard detail that was tricky to get past. Steve knew it was his own fault. If they had had you on the mission, you would have gotten in easily. It would have been significantly less time, which Nat, Bucky and Clint pointed out to him several times. They knew you had been on the original mission docket, and they could have been home by now. Even having Pietro or Wanda would have been in their favor. With it being a bigger base, they couldn't just storm it. They had to be careful on how they got in and out. Friday morning they finally caught a break. Security was down a team or two by the looks of it. That worked in their favor. That meant the inside wouldn't be as guarded as well. Clint used a few of his trick arrows with sleeping gas and aimed it at the front door, and Bucky moved in quickly to take the five guards as prisoners. Steve was confident he would be back holding you again by tonight. He made his way into the building with Natasha, using his shield against the wave of Hydra soldiers that came at them. Nat was so precise with her gun, not killing them, but rendering a majority of them wounded and unable to fight back. They started taking more prisoners, getting Bucky to come in and collect them while Clint monitored the outside and continued to gas out some of the guards that started to make their way to the front door that they were using. As much as Steve tried to focus, in the back of his mind he was wondering if you were okay. The last morning you had spent together had been all that had gotten him through the last few days. It was such a simple thing, to spend the morning in one another's arms, but he loved it. He had waited so long for it. He longed to smell your floral perfume again, and he was itching to run his fingers through your hair again. They had all been so busy over the last few days, especially with him taking point on the mission he didn't have time to check in with you. He knew he promised to only do it when he got to Shield, but he wanted to talk to you and hear your voice again. He knew he had it bad, and it was only going to get worse. He felt like he was in a drought, and you were the only source of water, so close and yet so far.
Nat led the way into one of the labs and quickly started diving in to get the data while Steve watched the door. He turned a few times to check on her status, but it was taking a while. She was always good with computers, and he figured she was also leaving behind a virus so they would lose the data that they did have and causing them to have to start from scratch again.
"Someone's been a very bad boy" Nat chuckled darkly as she continued to transfer the files.
"What's that?" Steve turned to look at her again.
"They are experimenting with making abilities for their agents. Tony and Bruce are going to be very interested in this data" Nat told him, her voice soft not wanting to alert anyone to their presence. It was bad enough they had to fight to make their way into one of the central rooms as it was. She was sure that the entire building was looking for them, and so was Steve. Steve went to look back at the door when it burst open. Two gunshots rang out and he felt the hits on his chest, hitting the Kevlar. He fell back and grunted in pain. Nat easily turned around and shot both agents at the door in the chest. No one messed with her family. They weren't bleeding, meaning they were wearing Kevlar as well.
"Steve" Nat ran to him looking a little panicked.
"I'm fine, they just hit the Kevlar" Steve winced as he sat back up. That didn't mean he wasn't in pain though.
"Thank God. Those are kill shots" she looked over at the two downed agents. "Bucky" she hit her comms. "I have two more for you. They almost took out Steve" she added with a hushed whisper.
"I'm fine Buck" Steve hit his comm to reassure his friend. They heard a menacing growl on the other end of the comms, letting them know that Bucky was pissed. Nat got up and went to inspect the two agents. Both of them were out like a light. They were likely going to stay that way when Bucky got his hands on them.
"Are they dead or wounded?" Bucky finally asked over comms.
"Kevlar, they are knocked out" Nat quickly responded.
"They are lucky I don't kill them" Bucky growled and they heard him making his way back into the building.
"I'm fine ya jerk. They hit Kevlar. I wasn't paying attention" Steve admitted.
"What the hell are you thinking, punk. You are in the middle of a mission" Bucky sassed him as he made his way down the hallway. Steve didn't want to admit his heart wasn't in this mission. He felt like he left half of himself back at the compound. Now that he had you, he didn't want you out of his sights. Even if it wasn't official yet, he wanted it to be. Bucky suddenly made his appearance after a few minutes and grabbed both agents and carelessly threw them over his shoulders like they were rag dolls. He looked at Steve worriedly, but Steve got up off the ground and grunted at the effort. He knew he would heal quickly, but it wasn't helping the amount of pain coursing through his chest at the moment.
"I'm coming back and taking your spot" Bucky warned him. "Natalia, try to hurry it up. That punk is going to give me a heart attack"
"Well, you are at the ripe age" Nat joked, and went back to her computer. Steve rubbed his chest, and wondered how you would react to this. He rarely got hurt on missions. He knew how he reacted badly to seeing you get hurt. He wondered if it would be the same for you. He almost hoped for it, to see that you cared, but at the same time, he didn't want to put you through that pain. Steve stood vigilant, trying not to think about you while he watched the door again. Bucky came back in and Steve made his way back outside. Clint looked him over and jerked his head towards the jet. Steve nodded, knowing it was protocol to pull out any injured personnel. He got back to the jet and slumped down in his seat. Most of the hydra agents were still passed out, and that suited him just fine. He pulled up his phone and looked at some of the saved pictures he had of you in his phone. They were mainly screen shots from your Instagram that he preferred. It was just pictures of you. He knew it would be a risk to use his data to check to see if there were updates, or to reach out to you or even Tony. He had to wait for the mission to be over, and back safely at Shield to give any updates.