CHAPTER SEVEN:

UPGRADED SHIELD

THE OCCASIONAL CHATTERS could be heard all throughout the base full of soldiers and other workers. The next day had gone by since Captain America had recruited his team to take down Hydra and ended up witnessing another performance from the woman he had found himself pining over for the past couple months now.

At the moment, in the usual uniform he had started wearing after he had saved hundreds of soldiers from the Hydra base, Steve found himself venturing in the direction of a woman who had he seen worked for Colonel Phillips. The blonde had her back facing him as she read the words on the newspaper she was holding.

"Excuse me. I'm looking for Mr. Stark." Steve speaks up when he reached her.

"He's in with Colonel Phillips." The woman tells him without looking up from the paper.

The super soldier only gives her a silent nod as he glances around, wondering what he should do. Sensing he was still here, the woman looks up at him before back down at the paper. However, she quickly looked back up when she noticed who it was speaking to her and a smirk made it's way to her red lips.

"Of course, you're welcome to wait." The woman adds, making her voice seductive.

Giving her a small, thankful smile, Steve moved his hand as he gestured to the desk to his right, showing he'd just wait right there. He moved a couple feet before leaning against the desk, glancing around while feeling her eyes still on him.

"I read about what you did." The woman comments as she holds up the front of the paper.

"Oh, the... Yeah." Steve mumbles, nodding in realization. "Well, that's, you know. Just doing what needed to be done."

"Sounded like more than that. You saved nearly four hundred men." The woman reminds.

Neither of the two say anything as they seem to look at one another. Steve only shrugged with a little smile, clearly wanting to be friendly. Within the silence, he noticed the woman looking him up and down with a smirk on her face and he wasn't sure how to feel. He wasn't used to women's attention before.

"Really, it's not a big deal." Steve states.

The woman stands up, slowly moving towards him. "Tell that to their wives."

Steve crosses his arms, uncomfortable. "Uh, I don't think they were all married."

"You're a hero." The woman points out, stopping right in front of him.

"Well, t-that depends on the definition, really--" Steve argues as he uncomfortably scratches his forehead.

The woman grabs his tie, making him stop. "The women of America, they owe you their thanks. And seeing as they're not here..."

She trails off as she pulls on his tie, making him get up to his feet while pulling him to stand with her behind a bookshelf. Next thing Steve knew, she was pulling him in till their lips met and she began kissing him. Steve felt his body freeze as his eyes closed, silently wondering what he should do about this.

He felt himself bring his hands up, uncomfortably placing them on her waist since he didn't know where else to put them. Even though this woman he didn't know was kissing him and moving closer to him, he still couldn't help but think of a certain singer and imagining that this was her right in front of him.

Neither of them registered the click of heels venturing in their direction just as Peggy was coming out from the other side of the bookshelf, clearly looking for the super soldier. The agent felt herself stop at the sight of the man she knew her sister was pining over kissing another woman and she felt her jaw clench in annoyance, the protectiveness of her sister taking over.

"Captain!" Peggy calls out.

At the sound of the agent's voice, Steve was immediately pulling away from the blonde woman as her arms fell back down to her sides. Peggy noticed the look of annoyance on the woman's face, yet she didn't care as her mind only went on to protecting her sister.

"We're ready for you, if you're not otherwise occupied." Peggy tells him before walking off.

"Agent Carter, wait." Steve calls to her, rushing after her. "You're not gonna tell Y/n, are--"

"You should be lucky if I won't tell her." Peggy interrupts, not looking back at him.

"Agent Carter, that's not what you thought it was." Steve assures.

Peggy shakes her head. "I don't think anything, Captain, not one thing. You always wanted to be a soldier, and now you are, just like all the rest."

"Well, what about Y/n and Stark? How do I know they haven't been..." Steve begins in question. "...fondue-ing?"

Peggy turns around to narrow her eyes on him. "You still don't know a bloody thing about women."

And with that, she turns around and walks off, leaving him to watch her leave in confusion. In his mind, he found himself silently praying that she wouldn't tell Y/n about what had just happened, not wanting things to go south with the woman he really liked and was silently hoping that she liked him like that as well.

After about a minute or two of just standing there, Steve moved from the spot he was planted on and in the direction she had walked in. It wasn't too long until he had met up with Howard, who eventually held an amused smile on his face as he listened to the super soldier explaining the situation that had just happened.

"Fondue is just cheese and bread, my friend." Howard informs.

Steve furrows his brows. "Really? I didn't think--"

"Nor should you, pal. The moment you think you know what's going on in a woman's head is the moment your goose is well and truly cooked. Trust me, I know. Miss Y/n and I had a little thing a while back, but then she decided she just wanted to be friends and that's what we are." Howard tells him.

"So, you guys did have a thing." Steve concludes.

Howard nods. "Yes, we did. But trust me, I don't feel anything for her now, other than platonic. Now, I concentrate on work, which at the moment is about making sure you and your men do not get killed."

The blonde found himself looking down at his feet as he walked side by side with the rich man, contemplating the words he had just told him. He felt his heart break a bit at the sound of Y/n having been with someone he considered better than him, but then again, they hadn't known each other at the time. Howard stops at a table as he looks down at some of the stuff on it.

"Carbon polymer. Should withstand your average German bayonet. Although Hydra's not gonna attack you with a pocket knife." Howard states just as they move by Steve's shield, to which he pats on the metal. "I hear your kind of attached."

"It's handier than you might think." Steve replies.

"I took the liberty of coming up with some options." Howard announces while they stop at a table covered in shields and the rich man points at one of them. "This one's fun. She's been fitted with electrical relays that allow you to--"

"What about this one?" Steve asks.

After being cut off, Howard watches as the tall blonde man bends down and grabs a shield that had been at the bottom of the table. When he stood back up, Steve held up the plain silver and circular shield in his arms.

Howard shakes his head. "No, no, that's just a prototype."

"What's it made of?" Steve questions, ignoring him.

"Vibranium." Howard replies, watching as the blonde twirls it around in his hands. "It's stronger than steel and a third the weight. It's completely vibration absorbent."

Steve furrows his brows. "How come it's not standard issue?"

"That's the rarest metal on Earth. What you're holding there, that's all we've got." Howard states.

"You quite finished, Mr. Stark?" Peggy's voice calls.

At the sound of the woman's voice, both men look over to see her walking into the room with Y/n trailing behind her. At the sight of the younger agent, Steve's eyes stayed on her as his grip tightened on the handles of the shield. He felt himself gulp at the frown on her face.

"I'm sure the Captain has some unfinished business." Peggy adds with a glare to the super soldier.

Steve holds the shield up, giving a hopeful smile to Y/n. "What do you think?"

The younger woman had moved to stand beside her sister as she glanced between him and the shield he was holding. It was clear to them that she had been given the news of the situation from the clench of her jaw. Noticing a gun beside her on the table, Y/n reaches over and grabs it before aiming it at the shield.

At the sight of this, Steve's eyes widen while he quickly puts the shield in front of his face just as she was pulling the trigger on the gun a couple of times. Many people in the room flinched at the sound and Howard ducked behind the table he had been standing at. Peggy was the only one who didn't seem scared as she took a couple steps away to not get hit herself.

The bullets seemed like they didn't do any affect to the shield as they all fell down in front of Steve's feet, the shield not looking destroyed at all. When he didn't hear the gun anymore, he slowly lowered his arms as he peaked out from behind the shield while Howard slowly stood up from his ducked position behind the table.

Y/n sighs, forcing a smile on her lips. "Yes, I think it works."

Placing the gun down, she walked by him as the smile faded while her eyes narrowed on him before she had her back facing him. Peggy had also left the room and Howard moved to stand beside Steve as the two of them watched them walk off, Steve's eyes on the girl who shot right at him.

Steve grabs a piece of paper from his pocket, holding it out to Howard without taking his eyes off of her. "I had some ideas about the uniform."

"Whatever you want, pal." Howard replies, taking the paper from him without looking at him.