hi! could i have a steve x reader where she is recruited/abducted by SHIELD because they are convinced that she has some sort of power she can't control and he's assigned to work with her even though he doesn't want to, but they end up getting close anyway? there can be smut too but tbh if there's fluff I'm happy :)
Characters: Steve Rogers, Reader, Natasha Romanoff, Bucky Barnes, Nick Fury
Warnings: swearing, self-loathing, arguing, kidnapping
A/N: There isn’t any smut in this and not a whole lot fluff to be honest, but I really like this one. I just started writing and it got away from me so I hope you still like it.
“Whoa! Whoa! Hey, buddy watch where you’re putting those hands!”
You couldn’t believe you were in this situation, all those years of cleverly evading the authorities had ended here with you being ambushed at the all night diner you worked at by twelve heavily armed guards. One of those guards was currently getting a little too grabby with his grubby hands as they pulled you through the diner door.
“I said; watch where you put your hands!” You warned last time, using your strength to slam your foot into his knee, breaking it. With one down you turned to the remaining eleven guards, easily taking them down. Sometimes you loved your strength although it is what got you into this mess.
Your power had developed suddenly, as a teenager you had the usual amount of teen angst bullshit on your plate, but simply rebelling wasn’t an option for you like it was for other’s; you got super strength. That day had ended with your annoying brother along with other five people being injured, a very pissed and slightly horrified of set of parents, and a town square in shambles. You were sixteen then and too afraid to accept the consequences you fled, moved to New York and stayed in hiding. SHIELD agents, like the ones that were currently trying to abduct you, had made an appearance one too many times since the unveiling of your powers. You thought you had kept a low enough profile with your shoe box apartment, shitty, low paying job, and lack of friends, but apparently not.
So that brought you to your present predicament; trying to outrun SHIELD agents at 2 a.m. while creating shoe-sized potholes with the force of your steps. It wasn’t ideal.
Glancing behind you, you noticed three agents managed to recover and were tailing you. You swerved quickly to your left down the dark alleyway, looking for an escape.
That’s when you felt a splitting pain in your temple and your vision went black.
“What the fuck?” You murmured groggily, tugging at the cuffs restraining you to the bed. The restraints had cut off your circulation, rendering movement impossible so breaking free wasn’t an option. Your mouth was sticky and everything was entirely too fucking bright. With blurry eyes you scanned the room; it was full of fancy equipment, it looked like a government hospital room, and standing by the door was a lone man.
“Nice to see you awake and not running away.” he said, pulling a chair to your bedside.
“Well, I didn’t really have a choice did I?” you snarked, “Kidnapping, Nick? I never thought you’d stoop so low.”
“Well, I didn’t really have a choice did?” he reiterated loudly, “You’ve been a hard woman to catch, Y/N.”
“But enough of this bullshit,” Nick relented, “Let’s talk business. The way I see it you have two choices; you work for SHIELD, learn to control your powers, and not cause any trouble, or you can say ‘fuck no’ to option one and you spend the rest of your life as a lab rat for the United States government.”
Leaning against the back of his chair he finished, “So, what’s it going to be?”
More than anything, you wanted to say no to both options and leave for your slightly sad, but normal-ish life, but that clearly wasn’t on the table for discussion. The choice was basically between life and death, and no matter how sad or difficult your life was you knew you weren’t ready to die.
“Option one,” you pouted, “But I am not wearing a dorky-ass outfit like Captain Tights, okay?”
Rolling his eyes, Nick stood up from his seat to leave, “That can be arranged.” He motioned to the woman who stood in the doorway beside him, “Dr. Cho will release you and allow you to get ready.”
“Then you can meet the rest of your team.” He smirked at your anguished groan. Before walking out he turned in the doorway to look at you, “And that’s Director Fury to you.”
Slumping even further into the bed, you sighed heavily at the prospect of meeting the rest of the team. You had no intentions of being apart of the team, you didn’t like the idea of it all, it only left room for caring. And with caring, came worry, and with worry came heartbreak. You’d lost enough at your age and didn’t intend to lose anymore. So right then, you decided to keep your distance and learn to control your powers, while planning your escape.
With that last thought you pulled yourself from the cot and rubbed at your arms, muttering a small ‘thank you’ to Dr. Cho.
She smiled and handed you a duffel bag, “There are clothes and a few other necessities, you’ll need.” Opening the bag you found a set of comfortable clothes and some toiletries.
“Thank you, Dr. Cho.” You said with a small, forced smile.
“Oh, please, call me Helen.” She replied kindly, “Everyone does.”
You nodded trying to seem a little pleasant, but you were never very good at that. A few moments went by in silence as neither one of you knew what to say. Suddenly you piped up, “Is there a restroom I could use?”
“Oh! Yes, of course, sorry. It’s right through here.” she said motioning towards a door to your left, “If you need anything left me know.” She added before scurrying out of the room.
Slinging the duffel bag onto the counter you tried to make yourself look a little less dead and a little more presentable. Halfway through scrubbing at the blood on your temple, you stopped and stared at yourself in the mirror. How did you get here? Who even were you? You felt completely and utterly lost; here you were, life had thrown you another curve ball and this one was sincerely fucking you over. You didn’t know if you had what it took to be an Avenger, you weren’t righteous like Steve Rogers or a genius like Tony Stark- this would never work.
You shook your head and got dressed, not allowing yourself to think anymore. You took one last deep breath and walked out of the bathroom and into your new life, the hope of getting the hell out here the only thing keeping you together.
Nick had given you a week to become acquainted with everyone on the team, before beginning your training. During that week you’d mostly kept to yourself or at least kept your distance when you were forced to be with the group. For the first few days you barely even left your room, and when you were forced to converse with any member of the team you kept a tone sarcastic. Despite this, the majority of them didn’t bother, except him. Steve Rogers, the most insufferable man you had ever met in your whole entire life. Your personality had gotten under his skin pretty quickly and his holier-than-thou attitude grated on your nerves to no end, resulting in screaming matches. Like the one you two were currently having now.
“You can’t be serious, Fury!” Steve protested, “I am not training that- that brat!”
“Oh, I’m a brat!? Says the man who started an argument over the goddamn toaster yesterday!” You screeched at him from the chair next to him.
You two sat in Fury’s office like a pair children called into the principals office. You didn’t care if you sounded childish, he was a total prick.
“That is enough!” Fury screamed, slamming his fist down onto the table, “You-,” he said pointing towards Steve, “-are training her, because you are the only one available with enhanced physical strength. You have the most experience and I know you can handle it, Rogers. Besides, with anyone else she’ll be holding back, but with you- she’ll never pull her punches.”
“Damn right.” You whispered under your breath.
“That’s enough, Y/L/N,” Nick reprimanded with a roll of his eyes, “My decision is final- now get the hell out of my office.”
You both exited Fury’s office with little incident, too caught up in the idea of having to spend even more time with each other, that you barely insulted each other when you accidentally brushed shoulders. Turning to the right you made a beeline for the gym, hoping to relax a little. Only the idea of pummeling Steve into the ground made you feel better as you let the punching bag have it.
Steve wasn’t fairing much better. He too was heading to the gym to blow off steam, only to find that you’d taken his place. Stomping out of the gym he made his way to his best friend Bucky’s room. Without a hello, Steve slumped onto the foot of his bed with a sigh.
Bucky looked up from his book sensing his friend’s sour mood, marking the page, he sat the book aside, “What’s up with you, kid?”
“Y/N,” he spat, “She’s got super strength so that means I have to train her. I don’t know why you can’t do it,” he said hopefully.
“Steve, buddy, you know I can’t. Fury wants you to do it, right?”
“Well, yes,” admitted Steve, “but you’re a really great fighter and you don’t want to throw yourself off a bridge at the mere thought of seeing her. I think you’d be perfect.”
Bucky snorted, “You think anybody, but you is perfect for the job.”
He continued, “It’s not going to be that bad. Just do what you’re assigned to do and then leave. Ignore any of those snide little comments, and refrain from making your own,” he said with a knowing look, “I know you, Rogers, you gotta smart mouth on you.”
Steve knew he had to train you, there was no getting out of it, so he decided he was going to be as professional as he could and let your attitude roll off his back. Standing up he told his friend he was going for a quick run before breakfast.
“Oh, and you’re right,” he paused at the door, turning to Bucky with a smile, “I am pretty smart.”
“Get the fuck out, Steve.”
It was the morning of your first training session and you were already pissed. Steven fucking Rogers had pissed you off in record time this morning by insisting on treating you like a child.
“I know how to lift weights, Rogers!” you yelled while slamming the weight back down.
“Obviously not, Y/L/N. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be saying that, now would I?”
“I don’t know, Rogers, you can be pretty fucking dumb sometimes.”
During your quarrel you hadn’t noticed how close you’d gotten to each other’s faces. You could see his jaw clenching, you were so close.
“Forget the warm up,” he said, stepping backwards, “Let’s just start with sparring.”
The majority of your training session began like that; you two fighting like cats and dogs, getting too close and silence overcoming the two of you as you stared into each other’s eyes, until it’s broken by one of you. You weren’t sure who started to first, but over time you had stopped arguing as often. Your snarky comments weren’t as serious and your heart just wasn’t in it when you two fought, everyone could see it. But the real change occurred a few weeks after your first day of training.
“What are you doing?” a stern voice said from behind you.
Quickly, you dropped your bag and kicked it underneath the couch as Steve approached you.
“What do you mean? I’m not doing anything.” You said coolly.
“Are you going somewhere? At,” he questioned, looking at his watch, “3:30 in the morning?”
He bent down by the sofa and picked up your bag, “Then why is a bag of-,” he unzipped the bag, shaking his head at its contents, “everything you own doing underneath the sofa?”
You huffed, “I may I act like I do, but I don’t know everything, Steve.”
“We’re on first name basis now?” he asked with a crinkled brow and faint smirk, “How sweet.”
“You’re such a dick,” you growled, grabbing your bag from him, “I’m going to bed.”
You spun on your heel to face him, a bit aggravated.
“I know you don’t want to be here.” he said sympathetically.
“Wanda told us.” he said answering your questioning glare, “I just- I want you to know that we care and that, we want you here.”
You blinked at him, arms crossed, “We?”
His eyes bore into yours, with surprisingly not hatred. Not even close, affection maybe? You let a barely noticeable and genuine grin grace your face at the thought of Steve wanting you around. You shook it off, no, you thought, I will not become attached.
Catching himself, Steve rolled his eyes, “Yes, we, now stop trying to run away. We want you here.”
While Steve stomped his way back to his floor, you stood there puzzled at the recent developments- Steve wanted you in his life and you were happy about it. Slowly made your way back up to your room to unpack, deciding it wouldn’t be so bad to stay a little longer.
It took a few more weeks and several training sessions after that day for it to finally hit you. You were having a horror movie marathon with Nat and Buck when you shot up out of your seat, causing the two to flinch.
“What the hell, Y/N?” Natasha grumbled, picking popcorn out of her hair.
“Are you trying to give us a heart attack?” asked Bucky with a glare.
Your tone had both Avengers worried. Being at Headquarters for four months now, the team had only seen two emotions from you; happy and angry. If you were worried, they knew it was serious.
Setting the popcorn bowl on the table, the two teammates turned their full attention to you.
“What’s wrong?” Natasha asked solemnly.
“It all makes sense, but it doesn’t.” You whispered to yourself, bringing a hand to your lips in shock.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about, sweetheart, what doesn’t make sense?” Prompted Bucky as he gently pulled you down on the couch again.
“Steve,” you trailed off, looking at the two people you now called friends, “Steve and I… care about-,” You couldn’t even finish, “Oh, god!”
The two friends looked at each other with a knowing smile, “So, you finally figured it out, huh?” smirked Natasha.
“It only took you a little longer than him.” Bucky said emphasizing the word ‘you’.
Your eyes widened as you looked into Bucky’s eyes, “What do you mean it took ‘you longer than him’?”
Natasha grabbed Bucky’s hand, pulling him off the couch with a shake of her head, “I think you need to go find, Steve.”
All alone now, you looked up a little as you addressed the A.I., “Um, FRIDAY?”
“Where is Steve?” you asked tentatively.
“In the training room, ma’am.”
“Thank you,” you said, quickly running from your spot on the couch to the training room. You didn’t know how to address whatever you were feeling, but you sure as hell weren’t going to admit it first. In your rush to talk to Steve, you didn’t realize that he was right in front of you until you slammed into his broad chest.
“Jeez, Y/N, what’s the rush?” exclaimed Steve, gripping your shoulders as he steadied you.
“Oh, hey, Steve,” you said meekly avoiding his concerned gaze in favor for the hallway floor.
“What’s wron-,” began Steve before you cut him off.
“I like you, I think. I’m not really sure, but I was watching a movie with Buck and Nat and it just hit me- I don’t really hate you and it’s scaring the hell out of me, Rogers. What the fuck?” You babbled, tears welling in your eyes, “Ugh, I feel so dumb.” You huffed, blinking your tears away.
Slowly, a wide grin made its way across Steve’s face, he said smugly to himself, “Huh.”
“Shut up.” You said turning away, feeling stupid. If he was going to make fun of you and your dilemma, you were leaving.
Feeling a little guilty, Steve placed his hand in yours and pulled you back to him, “Hey?”
“What?” You mumbled, still not looking at him. You were too embarrassed to even be alive. You let yourself care, become attached- you should have left when you had the chance, happiness be damned.
“I really don’t hate you either.” He whispered as he leaned closer to your lips, “I might even like you.”
A blush rose on your cheeks as you played along. Trying to hide the pure joy you were feeling, you smirked gazing into his eyes, “Well, that’s too bad ‘cause I can’t stand you, Rogers.”
“Now that you mention it-”
