White | B. BARNES

Chapter 1

📍 Camp Lehigh, New Jersey | January 2014

As soon as Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers knew of the death of Nick Fury, they decided to look for answers about the flash drive given to Steve.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha asked Steve with a hint of teasing.

"Nazi, Germany," Steve replied, which received a hum from his friend.

"And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash," Steve added while Natasha took her feet off the dash.

"Alright, I have a question for you, oh, which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?" His female companion said.

"What?"

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" The redhead asked, referring to their kiss in the escalator. They need to escape the people who were following them at the mall.

"That bad, huh?" Steve said.

"I didn't say that."

Steve insisted, "Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying."

Which made the woman defend herself, "No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had."

Steve argued, "You don't need practice."

"Everybody needs practice."

"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead," Steve admitted, still looking ahead of the road.

"Nobody special, though?" Natasha queried.

Steve scoffed, "Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"Well, that's alright, you just make something up."

"What, like you?" He turned to look at her briefly.

"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I," she replied.

"That's a tough way to live," Steve noted.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Natasha said, looking out Steve's window.

Steve said, "You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is."

"Yeah," the woman agreed before asking, "Who do you want me to be?"

Steve suggested, "How about a friend"

It earned a soft laugh from Natasha, "Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."

Eventually, both of them pulled up outside an abandoned military base where the signal led them to.

Steve spoke, motioning to the building, "This is it."

"The file came from these coordinates," Natasha said.

"So did I."

That night as they walked around the base, trying to pinpoint where the signal came from, Steve mentioned, "This camp is where I was trained."

Natasha asked him, "Changed much?"

"A little," he replied as he got brief visions of his former, smaller self-running past him as he's getting trained with other soldiers.

Sergeant Duffy commanded, "Pick up the pace, ladies! Let's go! Let's go! Double time! Come on Rogers, move it!" Steve stopped to stare at his younger self then to who he is now. "Come on! Fall in! Rogers! I said fall in."