I-95N, heading to New Jersey, Sunday evening

[heroic_jawline]

After doubling back to the hospital, retrieving the flash drive (and yelling at Natasha, still at the hospital, for having already retrieved the hard drive...apparently Steve's stealth-work needed, well, work), tracing where the flash drive came from and avoiding Rumlow again, that taser-wielding asshole, Steve and Natasha were now on their way to New Jersey. Ugh. New Jersey. He kept his eyes on the road and tried not to dwell overly much on the...diversion...Natasha had inflicted in order to make sure Rumlow didn't notice them.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha finally drawled, smiling over at Steve.

"Nazi Germany," Steve replied. "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash."

Natasha moved her feet. "Alright, I have a question for you, of which you do not have to answer," she said. "I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

Steve had a bad feeling about where this conversation was heading. "What?"
"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" she asked.

"That bad, huh?" Steve said wryly.

"I didn't say that," she replied.

"Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying," Steve said as his mind whirled. Maybe that was why he and Tony had been doing the dance of aggressively not talking about that kiss that night? Was he terrible at it?

"Nobody special, though?" she asked, watching his face. He wondered what he might be giving away.

"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience," he said, chuckling.

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

"What, like you?" Steve said, sounding a little harsher than he'd meant to.

"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 said.

"That's a tough way to live," he said.

It's a good way not to die, though," she countered.

Steve drove in silence for a while as his mind sorted through the events of the last day: Fury, Pierce, Rumlow, Natasha last weekend on her own assignment...and finally said, "You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is."

"Yeah," Natasha said with a small smile."Who do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Steve asked earnestly.

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers," she said, smiling in reply before turning back to the kiss. "And no, I didn't say you were bad at it. I just wondered how much practice you had."

"I don't need practice," Steve said, frowning at the road.

"Everybody needs practice," Natasha said.

" It was not my first kiss since 1945," Steve finally huffed. "I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead."

He glanced down at the console and made a face. "There's no way I'm getting back to teach class tomorrow. I need to call Tony and let him know."

If Natasha's eyebrows arched up slightly at a transition from kissing to Tony, Steve didn't notice it.

[OOC: Open for calls!]

Comments

[imafuturist]

Well, speak of the devil and he... would call to check in? That didn't quite work, but that's where they were.

It was better than stalking Steve via satellites or something, right?

[heroic_jawline]

Steve turned the phone onto speaker. "Tony!" he said. "I was just thinking about you."

That was possibly Natasha snorting softly to herself there, Tony.

[imafuturist]

You hush yourself, Natasha. It was all normal stuff.

"That must be why my ears were ringing," he replied. "How is your thing going?"

[heroic_jawline]

"I've had better weekends," Steve vastly understated. "Looks like I'll miss class tomorrow. Nat and I are heading to New Jersey."

Which Steve pronounced like he really meant Hell.

[imafuturist]

"Ouch. You must have upset someone real bad to get sent there," Tony replied. "Apologies to you both."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve took a deep breath. "Fury was killed last night," he said quietly. "We're tracking some intel down--it's taking us to Jersey."

[imafuturist]

Tony sucked in a breath, going silent for a moment.

"I don't want to sound callous, but are you sure? It's Nick."

[heroic_jawline]

"He flatlined," Steve said, voice going unemotional so he could talk about this at all. "Shot three times in gut by someone Nat says goes by Winter Soldier?"

[imafuturist]

Well, the silence coming from Tony's side of the line probably spoke some volumes when it was followed by a quiet, "Shit."

[heroic_jawline]

"That bad, huh," Steve replied. "What can you tell us?"

You'll probably regret that phrasing later, Steve.

[imafuturist]

"I, uh, I hoped he wouldn't exist there," Tony said rubbing the bridge of his nose at the sudden stress headache. "He was created by the Red Skull where I'm from."

Evade, evade, evaaaade.

[heroic_jawline]

"Metal arm?" Steve checked.

[imafuturist]

"Metal arm." God, he couldn't just leave this for Steve to find out in a dramatic battle. That would just fuck up his fragile psyche or something. "If he's anything like the one I know, he's incredibly dangerous. To you specifically."

[heroic_jawline]

"I'll be careful," Steve said. "...actually careful," he added after a slight pause. "I don't think he's going to be in Jersey, though."

[imafuturist]

Right, right.

"Are you driving?"

[heroic_jawline]

"Yeah," Steve said. "Natasha's navigating. Why?"

[imafuturist]

He couldn't not tell him, could he? No, not with how his Steve had reacted to the man.

"I think you should pull over."

[heroic_jawline]

"One sec," Steve said, putting on his turn signal and moving off to the side. "Okay," he said. "What's the problem?"

[imafuturist]

"Um." Well, now came the hard part. "Back home, the Winter Soldier's real name is James Buchanan Barnes, Steve."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve went absolutely silent.

"...but he's dead," he finally stammered.

[imafuturist]

"We thought so too." Thanks, Cosmic Cube. Maybe. It was seriously debatable what it actually did in that situation. "He fell just before Steve went into the ice. And it turned out that he was... recovered by the Red Skull."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve rubbed at his eyes. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit."

[imafuturist]

"I thought maybe it wouldn't happen for you," Tony said a lil' desperately. "The odds are insane."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve didn't think he had that kind of luck, really.

"I've gotta go," he said. "Talk to you later, Stark, okay?"

Distance, distance, he needed distance.

[so_hawkward]

Clint was still trying to wrap his head around everything he'd been hearing from Natasha--which he knew wasn't everything, and that made it worse--so he was close to his phone when she let him know he could check in thanks to I-95 traffic. "Tell me you guys are okay," he said, before adding, "I'm kind of offended you're having so much fun without me."

[heroic_jawline]

"Clint!" Steve said. "We're fine. Heading to Jersey."

He was New Yorker enough to add, "On purpose, even."

[so_hawkward]

"No one should ever have to head to New Jersey on purpose," Clint said. "But if you need some backup, I could be willing to venture to the turnpike."

He couldn't not offer to help Steve, no matter what was going on.

[heroic_jawline]

"Appreciate it," Steve said sincerely. "Let's see how our intel search goes. We might need you back in DC." He took a deep breath. "SHIELD's been compromised. We don't know how high it goes."

[so_hawkward]

Clint moved the phone away from his mouth a little so Steve wouldn't hear as much of his swearing (it was just weird to swear in front of Captain America, okay?) and sighed. "You know I'm on your side, right? Whatever side that is?"

[heroic_jawline]

"Of course I do," Steve replied immediately. "It's been a really busy...God, 18 hours," he said, glancing at the clock again. He let out a low sigh. "Clint? Fury died."

[so_hawkward]

There was a long silence from Clint's end of the phone. "He... are you sure?" he finally asked.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve sighed again. "Yeah. Natasha, Hill and I saw the doctors call it. Three slugs in the chest."

[so_hawkward]

Okay, now Clint couldn't really hide the swearing, sorry Steve. "This isn't supposed to happen. We're the ones who are supposed to make sure this doesn't happen," he said. "Please tell me you guys are being careful. I know you're awesome but you're not bulletproof."

[heroic_jawline]

"We're being very careful," Steve promised.

...he'd have to finesse how the encounter at the military base went later.