”I know just the girl.”
* * *
“No. Steve. Just no.”You repeated when Steve, and all of his buddies appeared at your doorstep. You knew who they were of course. Tony, the billionaire playboy otherwise known as Iron Man, the guy who built the huge penis monument to his ego in Manhattan. Thor, the Norse God, with dreamily large muscles and a tendency to speak far too loudly for his and the world’s own good. Bruce, otherwise known by his alter ego The Hulk, but still a really nice guy if you don’t make him angry. Clint, the underappreciated archer, who was actually pretty cute, but also taken by the fantastically intelligent and sexy Natasha Romanoff, otherwise known as the vicious Black Widow, who ain’t gonna take anyone’s shit.
And then there was Steve. Gorgeous, Intelligent. Loving. A brilliant artist. Freaking Captain America. You had met him a couple of months after he woke up. You were a bartender and Steve often talked to you while you worked. He told you all about his life and the war and the people he had lost, and you told him the same. Your mother disowned you at a young age, and your father died when you were around 16. You were sent to live with your closest family friend, who happened to own the bar you worked in. You also told him of your hacking tendencies, of how you’ve always been good with computers. When your father died you learnt how to protect yourself; self-defence, martial arts, parkour; you even learnt how to fire a gun.
And here Steve was begging in your apartment for help. He needed a hacker, to decrypt some government files or something. Apparently you were the person for the job.
“Oh, come on (Your Name), please. I really need your help.”
“I told you that was behind me. I’m just a bartender now.” You insisted, not really wanting to get in the middle of government affairs.
“Please (Nickname). We really need you. I’ll do anything.” Steve begged, holding his hands together.
You considered it, before sighing. “Can you ensure me that Benny and the bar are gonna be safe?”
Natasha spoke up and responded, “We can get the best SHIELD agents on round the clock supervision.”
Steve nodded. “Yeah, and you’ll be safe too. No jail or anything.”
You looked at Steve, and the rest of the Avengers before hanging your head and sighing. “Fine. What do I need to do?”
Steve’s eyes lit up happily. “Oh thank you. I owe you so much, (Nickname).” He handed her a USB drive. “We need this decrypted.”
“Yes, you do Steve.” You joke, wiggling your finger for the people to follow you. “Why couldn’t you just get SHIELD to do this? I know they have great IT specialists on staff. I mean none are as great as me but still.”
“We need to keep this on the down low.” Clint added.
“Random bumping of my origin point it is. Don’t touch anything.” You pointed at Tony as you guided them into your computer room. There were 4 monitors on the large desk that wrapped around half of the room. The rest of the wall was covered by bookshelves and one particularly comfortable couch. You had two 32 inch TV screens mounted on your wall above your desk that were currently showing that you were watching Netflix, while scrolling through Tumblr. You picked up the beer bottle by the side of your main laptop and plugged the USB in. You minimised your current windows, and pulled up your code writing software and got to work. Most of the Avengers camped out on your sofa, but Steve and Tony stood by your side as line by line of code was written out.
“Woah, you’re really good at this.” Tony commented offhand. You weren’t really listening, trying to focus on the decryption.
“Thanks.” The virus you’d written was already working its way through the security on the drive. “Who ever wanted this stuff on here went through some pretty extreme to keep prying eyes out.” You took a sip of your beer, before stretching and clicking your fingers and continuing. “Luckily I’ve had about 12 years of experience, and HYDRA isn’t gonna stop me from getting in here.” Your statement shocked everyone, Steve included. He never told you anything about Hydra. You looked at them and rolled your eyes. “Jesus Christ, I’m not thick. I can recognise German coding from here. Plus I learnt about HYDRA in school.”
Your computer beeped. Someone was tracing the signal back, or at least was trying to. “Shit, shit, shit, fuck.” You swore as you crashed the keys in time to bounce the signal faster. It was like a game of cat and mouse, only you were the mouse. You hated being to mouse. Cats were just that much fluffier. Luckily, them looking for you left them open to hack into them. Makes the decryption process a hell of a lot easier when you can get the code straight from the source.
After about an hour of jumping from decrypting the device to bouncing the signal around, you were done. You pulled the now accessible device out of the socket and handed it back to Steve. “There you go. Have fun. Never come to me to do that again.”
Steve’s friends all made their way out of the apartment leaving you two alone. You smiled awkwardly before waving as Steve said goodbye and exited. Once they were out of ear and eyeshot, you shut your door, subsequently slamming your head against it. You like Steve, a lot. But you knew he’d never like you back like that. He’s Captain America for Christ’s sake, he could have anyone he wanted. “Why would he ever want me?” You said to yourself as you made your way to bed, exhausted from code writing.
* * *
A few days later, you were working the usual evening shift at Benny’s bar. The regulars were in, thankfully they were mostly nice and didn’t try to make a pass at you every time you served them drinks. It wasn’t too busy and luckily there was a waitress on hand so you didn’t have to walk much, So you were simultaneously working on a project while pouring drinks. When your back was turned, you heard a cough behind you. You hoped to God that it wasn’t going to be some stuck up idiot and turned on heel, placing the sketchpad on the back bar, to serve them.
Only to find Steve Rogers sitting in front of you. He smiled, “Hey.”
“Hi.” You smiled back, happy he wasn’t going to give you any hassle. “Uh, what do you want to drink?”
“Uh, beer please.” He replied, as you moved to grab his favourite type. As you popped the cap you placed it in front of him and smiled. You could see another customer waving for her the other end of the bar and stopped Steve as he moved to get his wallet out.
“On the house. I’ll be right back.” You walked the length to get the order before fulfilling it, looking in the corner of your eye at Steve. The customer handed her the cash and walked away to his table. You kept an eye out for the other waitress, seeing her talk with Benny and smiled before making sure all the guys sitting at the bar were fine, before returning to Steve.
“I forgot to say, thanks for decrypting that USB. We couldn’t have done it without you.” He acknowledged, looking over at the sketchbook behind you. “What’s that?”
“It’s fine Steve, don’t worry about it.” You smiled tapping the wood with your rings, it was a habit, but it stopped you from biting your nails. You followed his eye line and sighed. ”Huh? Oh yeah, it’s just a thing that I’m working on. Technically I’ve been working on it for 6 years.” You explained as you picked up the sketchbook and placed it in front of him.
On the page was a detailed sketch of a girl riding a horse bareback. They were galloping, mane and hair flowing freely in the wind, grass shifting in the breeze. The horse was beautifully drawing, completely correct in perspective. Every detail looked like it was photographed. The girl was just a basic sketch though, like the artist couldn’t picture the rider like she did the horse.
“This is amazing.”
“Thanks. Can’t quite get the girl right though.” You poured another lager for a customer, and placed it on the bar, moving to the till and adding it to his tab.
“Wow. I’m surprised.” He could barely make out. You didn’t see why he was so shell shocked. Returning to Steve, you leaned against the bar.
“What? Didn’t think I had anything to do other than hack?” You jabbed, watching his face change into embarrassment.
“No, no I didn’t mean it like that (Nickname).”
“I know, I’m just messing with you.” You chuckled, scratching the back of your neck. Steve chuckled before frowning.
“Why can’t you do the girl?”
You sighed, you knew the answer. The drawing was of a photograph of you when you were younger, riding your horse. You couldn’t draw yourself because that’s not how you saw yourself. You pulled your phone out of your pocket, unlocked it and searched through your photos to the photo. Placing it by his side, you left to serve a customer.
He picked it up, noticing just how detailed the horse was and how accurately it matched the sketch. When he zoomed in on the girl he recognised you. Then it clicked to him. You didn’t like drawing yourself. You had self-esteem issues when it came to your physical appearance.
He smiled as he placed your phone back on the bar top and pulled his out. A message from Tony, asking him why he wasn’t at movie night. When you returned, Steve stood up. “Hey mind if I take this with me? See if I can draw you?” He’d already sent the picture to his phone. And added your number.
Confused by the strange request, you nodded. “Sure, knock yourself out.” You picked up your phone and pushed it back in your pocket. You smiled sadly as he dropped some cash on the bar, and walked away.
“You’re in love.” Benny sing-song behind her.
Smirking you, rolled your eyes before playfully punching him in the arm. “Shut up.”