bulletproof

1

A/N*sorry about reupdating and reediting it a day after publishing this...my sister (who's a menace to society and the one who's been leaving sarcastic comments on Assembling the Avengers for Tea and here) was being judgy and annoying and whined until I edited this...she helped slightly though she claims that she helped a lot...*

The floor was grimy with dirt, snow, and blood, and there was a cold wind breezing through from the bashed in doors. There was a faint smell of gunpowder and something metallic, and the air was dirty with the fumes of the ammunition.

Lying on the floor was a woman, a gunshot wound in her abdomen, but it was almost impossible to pinpoint the exact location from where it entered as blood had blossomed over her body and on the floor, mixing in with the melting snow. Crouched on either side of her was another woman with fiery red hair and a man dressed red, blue, and white, though the colours were indistinct now, covered in grime.

The woman was trying to staunch the blood flow with her hands, talking rapidly through a comm, panic edging into her voice as her efforts weren't working, "You need to hurry up, we're in the east wing of the base, Y/L/N's down, Y/L/N's down..."

As she repeated what she had said over and over again, the man was talking to his bleeding colleague, trying to reassure her and gripping onto her hand, trying so hard to be soothing, "You're going to be fine, Y/N. It's just a small wound, you'll be up and at 'em in no time at all..." He choked out, his heart panging as he imagined this was the last time he'd see her.

Y/N smiled sadly up at him, her breaths shallow and the world blurred slightly. She felt like the world was set on an angle and it was like she was having an out-of-body experience. She lifted a shaky hand and placed it gently on the man's face, wiping away a tear he hadn't noticed, "It's okay, Steve," she said, quietly, "I'm not scared of dying."

His body shook as he saw the look of defeat in her shiny eyes, and he took her hand from his cheek and clutched it with both hands, holding it to his chest. He hung his head low before looking to his partner, frantically conveying her message over and over again, not even stopping to take a breath, "Natasha..."

The woman stopped for a moment, her eyes meeting his with an exhausted expression, "They're coming...we just have to wait for two more minutes." She went to Y/N and repeated what she'd said, her voice calm and relaxed, the opposite of what it had been three seconds before, "Can you hold on for two minutes?" she asked gently, taking Y/N's other hand and clasping it.

Y/N swallowed, her body felt like it was on fire, but she nodded, she could bear two more minutes. Her eyes were swimming with tears, the pain was almost numbing, and she felt an iciness creep into her pores, starting in her toes and slowly travelling to her chest. She gasped as she shifted, trying to stop the cold from reaching her heart. The world was getting more and more fuzzy and she knew death was coming soon.

"If..." she croaked out, "If they don't...arrive in time...I want you guys to know I love you so much, yeah?"

Steve and Natasha's hopeful expressions fell at those words and Natasha's strong demeanour broke down, sending a wave of sadness crashing down. Dry sobs echoed through the ruins and Steve just stayed stock still, he couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. It was like he had no control over his body any more.

"Steve? Nat?" a crackle came through the comms and Steve forced his mouth and voice to start working again, he couldn't feel anything as he watched his bleeding friend lie on the floor, her eyes glimmering as she fought back death.

He cleared his throat and answered back, "We're still here...but hurry up, I'm not sure how long we've got before..." he broke off before he completed the sentence, he could see black dots in his vision and knew a panic attack was creeping up on him.

"Keep it together, Steve, we're close."

It took everything in him to prevent himself from screaming that he was trying. That however close they were, they could be too late. That he didn't want to see another one of his best friends die because of him.

"How close?" Natasha had taken a few deep breaths and continued to communicate with them, "Where are you?"

Steve drowned out their voices, focusing only on Y/N and trying to distract her from the overwhelming pain. He'd been shot in the shoulder just before she had received the fatal wound, but he couldn't feel it.

"Steve..." her voice was laced with concern, "You're bleeding..." she looked at his shoulder, which was turning a scarlet colour, but he waved it off.

"It's nothing," He assured her, "I can't even feel it anymore..."

She grimaced and breathed, "That can't be a good sign"

Steve chuckled defeatedly under his breath, shaking his head, "Probably not, but it's not too bad, it doesn't need as much attention as..." he cleared his throat and averted his gaze away from Y/N, "We've got bigger things to worry about."

"Always such a worrier," Y/N teased, trying to lighten the despairing atmosphere, a pained smile formed on her lips, then it fell off, her eyes darting all over his face before resting on his own, "I have something to tell you...in case I don't manage to tell you later..."

"Uh huh," Steve sounded like he was being strangled as he heard her insinuation, he couldn't bring himself to give her any more false hope.

She took a deep rattling breath that broke his heart and murmured speedily, "I like you, really like you" she avoided his eyes at her admittance.

Steve felt stunned, he couldn't comprehend the idea that maybe Y/N of all people liked him more than a friend . He tried to come up with something relaxed and off-handed, but he wasn't Tony, "I...I...you do?" he sounded as incredulous as he felt.

"And it's okay," Y/N added, coughing, droplets of blood leaking from her mouth, fear over losing her best friend over her feelings shooting through her, "I don't mind at all...I just... I thought, just in case..."

Steve cupped her head with his gloved hands, cutting her off with a look, "I meant, I like you a lot too."

Y/N smiled weakly at his reply, her focus was completely off of her wound and was centred around Steve and her feelings.

He looked forlorn as he whispered to her, out of earshot of Natasha who wasn't listening anyway, one of her hands still compressing the flow of blood and the other holding onto her earpiece, as if it would speed up her teammates' arrival.

Y/N made a face, "You're not just saying that because I'm dying, right?" she questioned, worried.

He shook his head vigorously, "No, I liked you more than a friend the moment you beat me on the mat in training," he recalled the event from a few months ago, when she had trapped him on the mat, practically straddling him with fire in her eyes and his arms trapped above his head, her hands holding them in place, pinning him down.

Her eyes shone with amusement at the memory, remembering how her mood had shifted intensely from a willing to prove herself to a desire she had had to hold back with all her will.

"It was so hard to stop myself from kissing you right there," Steve admitted, almost reliving the moment, where she had licked her lips and he could feel her breath on his neck, sending involuntary shivers through him, "That was when I realised I like you more than a friend."

He looked into Y/N's eyes, seeing her staring up at him as she smiled from the event, "That was fun," she whispered, and he nodded through teary eyes as he saw how weak her grip on life was getting.

"Yeah, it was" his voice cracked slightly, and she focused back on him, her eyes getting fierce again, almost exactly like how they were that day on that mat.

"Steve," she mumbled, an eerie-ness set in it, "I don't want to die before I get to kiss you."

His lips trembled from her statement, noticing how much fainter her strength was getting, "They're getting close, we'll be able to fix you all right," even he sounded false to his ears and she sent him a sympathetic look.

"We both know they won't get here in time."