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October 2013, NYC
THE STARK TOWER is under construction, everyone in NYC knows that. It nearly done, everyone in NYC knows that, too. What many of them don't know is that it's no longer going to be named Stark Tower. No, Tony's a team player, it's now going to be the Avengers tower.
''It's huge!'' Thor laughs as he enters the room where most of the Avengers are seated in.
''That's what she said.'' Clint
mumbles, not looking up from the television. Stacia and Nat let out a laugh as they turn to the God.
''I meant the tower.'' He replies.
''I didn't know you were coming.'' Bruce says with a light smile.
''Yeah. Did you come all the way from Asgard for this?'' Natasha asks, her eyebrows slightly knit together.
The Avengers don't often hang out, definitely not casual. Mainly because they all lead such busy lives and live far apart and are constantly gone for work. And, at the end of the day, they're also just kind of colleges.
Natasha, Steve and Anastasia now live in Washington D.C, near SHIELD's headquarters.
Clint's altering between solo missions, work with Strike Team Delta with Nat and Stacia and being at home with his wife and kids.
Secret - ! - wife and kids is worth mentioning.
Bruce and Tony still live in NYC and are busy with their own lives, while Thor is back in Asgard.
''Or he's here to see Jane!'' Clint sing-songs, dragging out her name with a shit eating grin.
''No, I'm not!'' Thor defends a little too quickly.
''Have you still not seen her yet?'' Tony asks as he walks in with a cup of coffee. ''Seriously, you're the God of Thunder and you're scared of a woman.''
Thor rolls his eyes as he sits down on the sofa next to Anastasia.
''I'm not scared, it's better like this. I'm here for the great opening of the Avengers tower!'' He says, a smile reappearing on his face.
''That's not today. It's not done for, like, a few weeks? I don't know, it's Stark's business.'' Clint says, leaning further back into his seat.
''Oh,'' Thor deadpans. ''Well, I'm here for something.'' He shrugs, looking around the room.
''You're here for the gala.'' Bruce says, flipping through his book.
''Right! The Gala!''
''Speaking off, I was wondering if there is some way we can, like, not go to that.'' Natasha says, pointing to Tony.
''We have to go. I'm funding half of the company.'' He replies, shaking his head.
''Then why do we have to come?'' Clint whines like a little child.
Natasha rolls her eyes as she throws the remote his way, making Barton scoff and narrow his eyes at the redhead
''Because it's a very important event and very important people requested that you guys come with me.'' Stark says.
None of them verbally protest, but God knows they're not looking forward to it.
''How'd that mission in California go?'' Clint eventually asks both Stacia and Nat.
Before either of them can answer, Tony quickly cuts them off.
''Speaking missions. Where's Cap?'' Stark asks, his eyebrows slightly knit together.
''He's finishing up a mission evaluation with Fury.'' Anastasia replies, grabbing the remote Clint's lap - the one Natasha had thrown at him minutes ago.
''In DC?'' Clint mumbles, seemingly uninterested.
''Fury's in NYC for the weekend.'' Natasha replies as she shakes her head.
Then, the sound of the elevator opening makes the 6 avengers turns their heads.
Bursting out comes Rogers, dressed in casual jeans and a T-Shirt and a few light cuts and bruises on his face.
Even though they already look week or two old, Anastasia's sure those are from Thursday's mission.
Damn super-soldier-healing.
''Speak of the devil.'' Stark mutters.
''Hey, Cap. How'd your mission- what's that?!''
Clint's mouth falls slightly agape, his eyebrows furrowing as he watches walk towards them.
When he does, though, Barton notices his bloody knuckles. And so does the rest.
''I thought you came back from that mission in Iraq two days ago?'' Natasha asks, turning her head every-so-slightly as she inspects his fists.
''I did,'' Steve replies unknowingly ''came straight over here after the evaluation.''
Bruce's eyebrows now also furrow. He is the doctor, after all.
''With your serum, wouldn't that have healed up a bit more by now?'' He asks.
''There's dried blood on that.'' Stark points out.
That should've been washed off by now.
Rogers seems to notice what they're talking about, and he quickly hides his hands behind his back.
He quickly looks at Anastasia, before his eyes flicker to the coffee table.
''What'd you do?'' The Red Widow asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
''Nothin'..'' he mumbles, looking away to the ceiling.
''Steve.''
Anastasia narrows her eyes as she looks up at him. He's still standing.
Steve turns around and walks towards the sink. He cleans up the dried blood from his knuckles, only to reveal the clear punching bruises on them.
''Don't walk away now! It just got interesting!'' Tony exclaims with a grin on his face.
''Who did you punch today?'' Thor asks.
''No one.''
They all either shake their heads or roll their eyes.
''Rumlow's an asshole.'' He finally mumbles.
''You punched Rumlow?!'' Natasha exclaims with a grin, making him awkwardly look away.
Rumlow's always been a dick. He's selfish, jealous and he's.. suspicious?
So, yeah, Steve doesn't like and trusts him. And that says a lot, because Steve likes a lot of people.
So, when Rumlow made yet another inappropriate comment about one of his female colleagues, Rogers snapped.
He turned around and before the Captain fully knew what he was doing, his fist was collided with Rumlow's face.
The man fell to the ground unconscious as blood dripped from his nose and mouth.
''Yeah. He's an asshole.'' Steve repeats slowly, looking anywhere but his teammate's faces.
''Why?'' Clint asks, his mouth still slightly agape.
''Did you hit him hard? Did he, like, scream in pain after.'' Natasha says, definitely a little over-exited.
''He was out cold.'' Steve mumbles.
''He passed out?!'' Bruce exclaims, his eyes wide in horror.
Natasha's grin only grows.
''I'm not proud of it!'' The Captain exclaims, putting his hands up in defeat.
''Why?'' Clint repeats, his eyes still wide as ever.
''He just doesn't know when to shut up.''
With that, Steve walks to the kitchen to get himself a drink.
Anastasia, Thor, Clint, Nat, Bruce and Tony all turn to one another and share some confused glances.
Eventually, the Red Widow gets up and makes her way towards the kitchens.
She ignores the burning stares of Nat and Clint as she walks away.
''Why'd you do it?''
Steve turns around, a cup of coffee in his hands. He sees Anastasia leaning against the kitchen island in front of him.
''He kept saying all these horrible things about our colleges, and I just.. snapped.'' He sincerely replies.
Anastasia nods slowly, sitting down in front of him.
''It was about me, wasn't it?''
Steve's eyes shoot up towards her and he shakes his head.
''No.'' he manages to croak out, very unbelievably.
''Steve. What did he say about me?''
''It wasn't about you!''
Her eyes narrow. ''Steve..'' she says, her tone dangerously warning.
''He called you a whore.''
His voice is soft, barely audible, he stumbles over that last word. But Anastasia hears him good and well.
It doesn't effect her.
''So you just knocked him unconscious in the hallway?'' She states sarcastically.
He shamefully looks away.
''That doesn't bother me, soldier. Really.
Steve shouldn't be surprised, he really shouldn't. Hell, after all he's seen her do, this is nothing. But he is.
Rogers awkwardly nods.
''Don't let him get to you, Steve. He's just jealous a whore's got a higher ranking than him.'' She casually says.
''Don't call yourself that.'' Steve sternly says.
''What? A whore?''
He noticeably tenses as she repeats herself, his fingers grip his cup just a little bit tighter.
''If you call yourself that, it only makes it okay for guys like Rumlow to call you that.'' The Captain softly says, his eyes glued on hers.
''It's true.'' She shrugs, still seemingly unbothered.
''It's not.'' He sternly says.
For a moment it's quiet. Steve wants do say something, anything. But his mind seems blank.
And Anastasia still seems unbothered.
''What did Fury say?'' She asks with a side smile.
''Something along the lines of...Rumlow might be a pain in my ass, but you sending a fellow agent to the infirmary is an even bigger pain in my ass.''
Anastasia can't help but chuckle as she listens to his words, his voice slightly imitating Nick's.
''That sounds like him.'' She mumbles.
They share a small smile, a comfortable silence talking over as Steve sits down at the other end of the kitchen island.
''Hey, Stacia, you wanna go get ready for the gala?'' Natasha exclaims as she walks into the kitchen.
''I'm coming!'' Said woman replies as she watches her older sister walk past her and to the elevator.
The Red Woman stands up and quickly makes her way towards the door.
She turns around, the right corner of her mouth tugged up into a light smile.
''Thank you, Steve. That's one of the kindest things anyone's ever done to me.''
Before he can reply, or even do something so little as react, she's gone.
''Pretty low bar of being nice you've got.'' Steve mumbles as he looks into his cup.
He can't stop the smile spreading up on his lips, though.
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''Well,'' Clint deadpans as he looks around the room. ''I'm gonna need atleast 8 drinks in me before I'll socialise with these people.''
Anastasia and Natasha both chuckle as they look in front of them.
He's not wrong, the room is crowded with heads of company's, important citizens and even more important politics.
''Where are the other guys?'' Natasha asks, leaning forwards to look at both of them.
''I don't know.'' Anastasia replies. ''You'd think all of Stark's drivers would drive the same speed.''
All three of them happen to let out a deep sigh at the same time, making them chuckle slightly.
''We better scatter. Good luck.'' Natasha says, before walking away.
Clint and Anastasia nod and they start moving their way towards she crowd.
Her black gown is tight in all the right places, it hugs her curves perfectly. The dress has a slit and flows out a little at the bottom and the Red Widow's not ashamed to say multiple people's eyes - bringing to men and women - have slightly widened when they saw the low cut of her dress.
She's wearing these beautiful, shiny red high heels that click with every step she takes, while the bottom inches of her dress flow over her legs and heels.
The super spy shakes her head and grins when she sees Barton immediately walking towards the bar.
Just when she wants to make her way towards the people, someone grabs her attention.
Steve.
Anastasia can identify even the back of his head in a heartbeat, - she has good memory, it's part of her job and she just knows Steve, but then again, his inhumanly large physique is not one you can miss anyway.
''Hey, soldier!''
At the sound of his nickname, Steve turns with a smile.
His eyes widen and his lips part as he not-so-subtlety stares at Anastasia. At her face, her hair, her dress and heals and back to her face again.
''Stacia.'' Rogers manages to breath out.
The side of her lip curls up into a small smile as she watches him practically drool over her.
As you can probably guess, Steve looks just that same jaw-droppingly beautiful way, but Anastasia knows how to hide her amazement.
''You- uh- you look.. beautiful.'' Steve mutters in disbelief as he walks over to her.
She looks up at him with a smile, before scanning his suit. It's a pretty basic suit, the colour's pretty through; a dark navy blue. Really.. Steve.
Not to mention it's tight in just all the right places.
For a moment, Anastasia wonders if his suit would rip by his arms and chest if he'd move too sudden.
''You don't look to bad yourself, soldier.'' The Red Widow smirks.
Steve's silent again, his eyes still running over her dress, her beautiful curves and the way it flows out at the bottom.
''Have you talked to anyone yet?''
Her voice makes him snap out of his trance, and Steve immediately curses himself for it.
If his mother was here, she would've smacked Steve for staring at a woman.
Funnily enough, it's not the first time he's had to remind himself of that fact while being around Anastasia.
''Not really, just greeted some people. They're not really interesting.''
Anastasia can't help but chuckle. ''I know.'' She replies with a smile.
''Not to mention they're not interested in me. Just... Captain America.''
She thinks back of the last time he said something like that, somewhere in August.
When she scolded him for being appalled to change - bad move, she knows that - and he said he didn't want change, that he was alone and wanted to go home. When she replied that he had the whole world that loved him, and he muttered something like ''they love Captain America.''
''I'm interested in you. We'll talk to some people together.'' She replies, keeping her gaze forward.
Oh, how times have changed.
They're standing side to side, and Steve's head flings to down to her. His gaze burns on the side of her head.
A smile creeps up on his face.
''Thank you.'' The Captain replies.
''It's nothing.'' Anastasia says as she now also turns towards him.
''I ment for everything, for helping me those six months, for helping me in New York and for still helping now. It's not your job anymore, you know?''
For a moment, she thinks about what to answer. Her mind can calculate perfect lies in a matter of seconds.
But this time, the Red Widow decides to go for the truth. She goes for the truth a lot when she's around Steve.
''I know, but I want to do it.''
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