Christmas of 2012 was one I'd never forget.
The awkwardness, to begin with, was way too much for me to take. Lewis was super off with me, trying to avoid eye contact, while I was trying to force conversation to escape the awkwardness.
To make matters worse, Lewis had pinned mistletoes under every doorframe in the apartment, so both of us were actively trying to run in and out of rooms away from each other to avoid having to kiss each other.
Luckily we didn't have to spend too much time around each other as I had spent most of it cooking Christmas dinner in the kitchen, while Lewis twiddled his thumbs somewhere in another room.
I did however soon find out that Lewis was FaceTiming his family while he sat in his room. It honestly made me feel like a bitch. Lewis obviously thought we'd be spending Christmas together as a couple, but instead, we were spending it like we half hated each other—which we did.
Brock Rumlow and Natasha loved that story when I returned to work after New Year.
"Wait, so you actually thought Christmas Day was the best time to dump your boyfriend?" Rumlow repeated, trying to stop himself from laughing.
I rolled my eyes as Natasha asked afterward, "Did you guys even open the presents?"
"Lewis decided that his gift to me was 'no longer appreciate' now we weren't together anymore," I revealed and they both burst out with laughter again.
"He probably had to return and engagement or something," Rumlow joked again but I took a sharp breath at that statement.
"Puh-lease, I am not ready for engagement. If he was going to propose he wouldn't have gotten the answer he was looking for anyway," I sassed.
"y/n, you seem way too hard to impress," Natasha noted which irked me a little bit.
"I am not hard to impress," I argued as the pair of them looked at each other and giggle before turning back to me. "Yes. You are," Romanoff repeated.
"Receipts or it's not true," I told them, folding my arms waiting to hear their cases against me.
"Okay, so you've got this guy who is completely besotted by you, and had been groveling for you for—what is it—three years?" Rumlow dropped his first point, which wasn't valid enough to accept.
"I'm not taking that because 1) he didn't grovel at all. I wanted him to get a job and pay some bills and he refused and 2) if we're being extremely specific it was a year and eleven months because we were one and off a lot of time between those three years," I corrected him, "Nat?" I said, wanting to hear her argument next.
"Our uniforms department has made two designs for your new suit and you haven't approved of any of them," Natasha claimed, which was true.
"Okay...better, but the first one had no pockets and I specifically asked for a suit with good storage. The second one had red accents on it. I told them I wanted a more neutral color like purple. It's not red and it's not blue," I defended my choice to reject the two previous suits that were presented to me.
"The doesn't change the fact that your standards are unnecessarily high," Rumlow concluded.
I raised my brows, "Unnecessarily high?" I questioned.
"Don't listen to his ass, Y/N," she said to me before she turned to Brock, "It just means she doesn't take shit from anyone. She doesn't settle."
"Regardless, I think Cap had a worse Christmas break than you did," Rumlow snickered, but I had no idea what he meant.
"Oh, God," Natasha giggled as Rumlow got a video clip from his phone and held it out for me to see, "You're gonna love this."
"Introducing, Rappin' with Cap!" Rumlow sang as the video began to play.
On the screen, a small intro began to play; the American flag was displayed with the words "Rappin' with Cap" on the front of it.
Soon the scene changed to Rogers, who was dressed in his gear, in front of a poorly edited background. A picture of fireworks stood behind him as he folded his arms and began reciting a scripted message.
"Hi, I'm Captain America. I love celebrating this great nation on the 4th of July, but trust me, there's nothing patriotic about illegal fireworks," he preached as the backdrop changed to the image of a fire that was presumably caused by the use of illegal fireworks.
"So just remember," he continued, "If you're on fire, stop, drop, and roll. One more time—say it with me, now—stop...drop...and roll."
Before the clip could even be finished I was curled over, laughed so hard I was almost pissing myself. Rumlow and Nat did the same, even though they had probably watched these videos over a hundred times.
"Please, who let this happen?" I wheezed as I tried to withhold my laughter.
"It's something they have to show in schools. Y'know disciplinary PSA," Rumlow told me, wiping a tear from his eye.
"So your tryna tell me that kids have to watch this video every 4th July?" I asked in amusement.
"Yep. But that's not the only one. The puberty one is my personal favorite," Natasha revealed before the three of us began to giggle again. At the same time a voice came from behind breaking up the fun.
"What are you three so amused about?" I heard a deep voice say. I twirled around and saw Captain America himself standing in the doorway.
The sight of him instantly reminded me of the PSA and I dropped the ground laughing again. He really didn't look too impressed, his face straighter than ever, "I don't get what's funny. We've got training in five, so whatever it is you need to forget about it."
"I'm sorry but that's not gonna be possible, Cap," Rumlow admitted as he snickered slightly.
Rogers stood there with his hands on his hips, his eyes darting between the three of us before Natasha finally told him what happened, "We showed her the video."
"What video?" He asked, sounding genuinely oblivious.
I had just managed to catch my breath and steady my laughter when Rumlow said the name and set me off again, "Rappin' with Cap!" He spat as he chuckled again.
"God, Romanoff, seriously?" He hissed, his cheeks turning pink in humiliation, "Where did you even get those?"
"Uh, YouTube. Everything floats around the internet, Rogers. You gotta be careful if you don't want things getting out," she teased.
Steve's nostrils flared, "Fury wants to meet with you in his office," he pointed her out and she left immediately, leaving me with the two men.
"Sorry, Cap we were just having a little bit of fun..." I tried to excuse our behavior, but Steve wasn't having it.
"There's a time a place for fun," he hissed before saying, "We've been asked by Fury to train in the training room."
I sighed loudly, "Did you forget to say that I lost my air-blade in Miami? Yeah the stupid Mandarin took it from me and I never got it back."
"Yeah, we'll your just gonna have to make do without it," he snapped and began leading Rumlow and I to the training room.
"Rumlow and Y/L/N, you hop on first," Steve instructed.
I did as I was told and walked onto the mat that was located in the middle of the room.
"Just hand-to-hand combat. Sometimes there are gonna be circumstances where you lose your weapon or run out of bullets, so punching and kicking is gonna be your best friend," Cap lectured.
"Go!" He ordered and Rumlow and I began tiptoeing circles around each other. Both of us had our fists out ready to fight, but for a while we continued to eye each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.
"I don't want to hurt you, little girl," Rumlow finally spoke up.
"Oh, don't worry about that. You can't hurt me," I teased, adding a little smirk to shake him up a bit. This pumped Rumlow up even more. He knew if I beat him it would spread around the Triskelion that he was beaten up by a female. I made my mission to make sure that it spread around like a wildfire.
Cap stood there with his arms folded, waiting for a move to be made. I still stood by my decision to let Rumlow make the first move. I felt it would be easier to turn a defensive move into a counter move before going in with a full attack.
The move was sudden. Rumlow came through with a punch straight to my face. The force was more than I was expecting. The fact that this was just training, Rumlow didn't waste anytime or energy for that matter. The blow sent me straight to the mat, the back of my head hitting the ground first.
I felt the pain shoot straight through my head and to my eyes, making them difficult to open fully. And even when they were open, my vision was obstructed by black dots.
Although my vision wasn't at its best, I could just make out Cap's blue suit running towards me as I lay on the ground. I just about see Rumlow's black shirt standing above me too.
"Hey, hey, Y/N. Can you hear me?" Steve's asked, his voice all soft and full of concern.
"I'm good, honestly," I lied, the pain was bad, but I didn't want Rumlow to get the satisfaction of nearly killing me with one punch.
"Do you need a medic?" Steve asked, his hand sliding behind my back to help be sit up straight.
"I said I'm fine," I groaned, as sitting up made the pain worse.
"Rumlow get a medic for us," Cap demanded, ignoring the statement I'd made prior.
"Don't, Rumlow!" I called out. I knew he would make a big deal out of it and I would never hear the last of it.
"Are you sure?" Steve asked, his ocean blue eyes staring deep into mine.
I nodded, the pain causing my eyes to water, but I was adamant about my decision, "I'll just walk it off."
Rumlow stood in the corner of the room with a barely detectable smirk on his face, which pissed me off. I'd like to think that Rumlow and I were good friends, but his ego was threw the roof. He also seemed to lack respect for women which I often looked past because I thought it was just his sense of humor. Now, I see that it isn't all a joke to him.
I glared at him while I said, "What a bitch." It was quiet enough to that only Steve could hear. If Rumlow could hear past his big ego he could've heard it too, but of course he could not.
"Rumlow, Fury wants a meeting with the STRIKE team later, if you don't mind telling him your ready to go," Steve informed him making him leaving the training room immediately.
"Are you okay getting up by yourself?" Steve asked.
"Yes. I'm a independent woman. I'm sure I'll be fine," I said, slowly making my way to my feet. Steve stepped back to give me some space as I got up off the floor. I took a step before spark of pain shot through my body, casing my legs to go numb and give it out.
Steve was quick to come through and catch me before I hit the ground again. He then scooped my legs up and carried me over to the bench bridal-style, setting my down, so I was propped up against the wall for support.
"What was all that about?" Cap asked me. He looked really mad as if someone had tried to make a move on his little sister.
"Rumlow and I are friends and all but he can be a dick at times," I explain, "He just doesn't know how to respect women."
Steve looked down, clenching his jaw tightly, deep in his own thoughts. He looked straight back up once I winced in pain as it only started to get worse.
"So, do I have to stop, drop and roll to get rid of the pain?" I joked which made Steve chuckle a little bit before his expression dropped again.
"I'm no professional, so I think you need to see a medic," he concluded.
"Fine," I agreed, "But make sure Rumlow doesn't see me," I instructed and Cap nodded, placing his hand on the small of my back and helping me to the medical room...