Something To Marvel At :||: Steve Rogers

3.2 'Don't Hold Your Breath'

Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow

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SHIELD Headquarters, also known as The Triskelion, was located on Theodore Roosevelt Island. A giant but plain building that commanded the attention of everything and everyone around it. It may be slightly obnoxious, but whoever expected different from SHIELD was kidding themselves. 

Steve stormed into Fury's luxurious and spacious office, striding across the shiny polished floor. His entire body radiated anger as he threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "You just can't stop yourself from lying."

Fury, who had been staring out the floor-to-ceiling glass windows deep in thought, sighed as he drew himself out of his daydream. Turning to the two of us standing in front of his desk with arms crossed, he barely contained his annoyed scowl.

"I didn't lie," He defended. "Agent Romanoff had a different mission to yours."

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share?"

Obliged to share? I side-eyed Cap. No one speaks like that anymore. 

"I'm not obliged t do anything," See, even Fury was mocking him. 

"Those hostages could have died," Steve drove his point home.

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen."

"Soldiers trust each other," Steve planted his fist on Fury's desk.

"Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with," The Director finally admitted. 

"Steve is not a child," I snapped. "And he's not an idiot when it comes to the way of the world. How come you didn't tell me?"

Fury inclined his head, raised an eyebrow and bounced his eyes from me to Steve and back. I drew back in surprise. "Excuse me? Steve and I aren't together."

"Your loyalty is to each other and everyone knows it."

"You don't get to change the way I operate based on what everyone else 'knows'! How dare you, you've changed the way I do my job and you've changed the terms of our professional relationship. You're my boss, I work for you because I'm supposed to be able to trust you," I scoffed and turned away. "I can't believe this."

I heard footsteps echo in the hall, following me as I stormed out of the room. "Iz!" Cap's voice called for me the same time I rounded the next corner. "Iz, hold up, come on."

Finally, I stopped and felt his hand on my shoulder, urging me to face him. I did and my eyes almost watered at the attentive expression he regarded me with. "I understand why you would be upset about that. It's never nice when people start rumours about you, and–"

"I'm not upset about that! I couldn't care less," I shrug it off. "I do not appreciate, however, the fact–"

"That you're being treated differently at work?" Steve calmly and patiently filled in, pausing a moment for my nod of confirmation. "I know, I wouldn't either." He watched me carefully, using his index finger to tilt my chin upwards to meet his gaze. "Can we talk about what happened on that ship?"

I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. "And what happened exactly?"

"Don't play dumb with me, you're supposed to be a genius, remember?" He replied sassily and I found myself grinning up at him. "What happened out there? You were just out of it. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You wouldn't be lying to me now, would you?"

"Are you sure you're not the one lying to me?"