Distressed // Steve Rogers

3 - First Encounter

She heard him before she opened her eyes. Natasha had left her to get some rest with the promise that she'd return with food as soon as Bruce said it was okay and honestly, Talia didn't expect to have any visitors before Nat returned. So, as she lay there, adjusting to the musical buzz of the noises around her, his footfall and the steady rhythm of his breathing had kind of caught her by surprise.

She smirked as she listened to the sound of his breathing mixing with the whirs of the machinery she hadn't managed to convince Nat was unnecessary. If she opened her eyes she'd probably see him assessing whether or not she'd be a threat to him in this hospital bed - could the wires be used to injure him? Could she overpower him even with a gunshot wound? Was she still groggy from the medication? After all, it's what she would be doing if a stranger, clearly fresh out of a fight, suddenly crash landed in her life.

"Going to come in or just lurk in the doorway?" Her voice was softer than he thought it would be, but there was a cut to it. Sarcasm was a clear defence for her.

She opened her eyes to see him leaning against the doorframe, his hands in his pockets, his mouth turned down into a small frown. Her eyes traced him from head to toe. He was taller than she thought he would be. When she'd watched her sister on the news - fighting off alien invasions in New York City or taking down helipads in the middle of Washington - she'd noticed him of course - everyone noticed Captain Steven Rogers - but she'd always thought he was shorter somehow. In reality he was the picture of perfection: the chiselled jaw line, the greyish blue eyes, the perfectly placed blonde hair... Talia bit her lip as she took him in. This, she thought, is going to be fun.

Steve paused for a moment, considering if sitting with her worked in his favour or not. Her head tilted slightly when he hesitated. It struck him that Natasha did the same thing when she was trying to suss someone out. She looked very much like Natasha. They each shared the same auburn hair, although Talia's was longer and fell in waves around her face where Nat kept hers short and straight, and both women had doe like eyes that seemed to see everything. Unlike Natasha whose eyes were a forest green with flecks of grey and gold, Talia's eyes were an almost crystal sea green, strikingly pure in their colour, calculating in their nature.

"So, you're Nat's sister?"

Talia nodded and shifted in her bed. Steve watched as she grimaced, holding herself up slightly as she tried to push her pillows up behind her. She couldn't seem to get comfortable.

"Need some help there?" He forced a small smile as he walked towards her.

"Nope." Talia lifted her legs one by one, leaning back onto the pillow that now propped her up, and placed her feet on the small table beside her bed. This position was worse. Much, much worse. "So Ice-pop. What can I do for you?"

The casual use of a nick-name irritated him, but Steve smiled sweetly, trying to appear calm and collected. Trying to appear to be someone she could trust. Talia watched carefully as he worked to control his reaction. He was good, she'd give him that. If it wasn't for the tiniest hint of his jaw clenching ever so slightly she might have even thought his friendly response was genuine. As it was, she was quite content knowing she irritated him. He irritated her more.

He smiled sweetly at her as he pulled up the chair Nat had been in earlier and sat close to her bedside.

"I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself. We're short on rooms here so Tony decided that we'll be bunking together for now."

"Why can't I stay with Nat?" Talia pushed. She didn't trust him and she knew he didn't trust her so sharing a room seemed like a disastrous idea to her.

"Nat and Banner share. Trust me, you're not going to want to be in with that." Steve let out a small laugh, nervous and short.

"So Nat and The Hulk? Nice." Talia wiggled slightly, trying to lower herself into a less upright position. The pain meds had been waring off for a while now and the sting of surgical wounds ran deep.

He grinned at her response. When she put it that way it was actually pretty humorous. "Yep. They're good together. But anyway, I figured we should speak at least once before sharing a bedroom, you know. Try to make it less uncomfortable for you."

Talia laughed, causing another wave of pain to rip through her. She made a mental note to ask Doctor Hulk for more morphine when he checked on her next.

"Oh, I'm plenty comfortable Ice-pop," the acidity of her sarcasm was palpable.

"Mhm. Sure." Steve raised his eyebrows as he offered her a hand and she reluctantly took it, letting him lift her slightly with one arm and shuffle the pillows behind her with the other. "So, hi. I'm Steve. I also go by Captain America but that seems a bit formal for the situation. Fancy telling me anything about yourself? I'm all ears."

Talia sighed as he lowered her back onto the bed. She hated to admit it, but he'd managed to get her into the first comfortable position she'd been in since she woke up. She looked away from him. Despite the fact she appreciated being comfortable his overly friendly act wasn't fooling her. She'd been running long enough to know when someone was being genuine and when someone was trying to get information. She took a moment to think. She had come here for help. Not his help, admittedly, but help all the same and she knew that Nat was part of a team, so if she wanted Nat's help she was going to need to be open with them all.

"Talia Romanoff, born October 1993. Trained in The Red Room from the age of three. Ran from The Red Room December 2009 and didn't look back. Managed to lay low for eleven years until two days ago when someone showed up at my door, gun in hand and shot me in the stomach. Killed him. Patched myself up, badly so it seems, and made my way here. So yeah... anything else?"

She flashed a smile at Steve as he sat back in his chair. He knew she'd been through the mill these last few days, Nat had said a little about the situation after speaking with her and Tony had shared the file he had on her earlier in the day so he knew a little about her past, but he hadn't expected her to blurt it out so casually on day one. If he was honest he was a little relieved. If she was sharing this much so soon spying on her would be a little less difficult and a lot less intimidating an idea. He sat, stoic, absorbing the silence for a moment before she spoke again.

"Oh, and I know you're Captain America. I was on the run, not in the ice like some."