Steve sips his beer, and Skye nervously fiddles with her coke's straw. She is sitting next to Steve Rogers. As in Captain freaking America. He's taller than she even expected, and she knew he would tower over her. He seems to radiate heat, and even though he's quiet and solemn, she can imagine what he would look like smiling and warm.

"So how long have you known Coulson?" his voice's strength surprises her. He sounds like he knows what he's doing, at least, and that's reassuring. Kind of like Coulson, or Ward.

Ward.

She's not going to think about that bastard, so she instead focuses on his question. "Geez...um. I guess almost a year."

"He's a great man," Steve says, and she nods, smiling. "He says the same about you. You're like, his hero."

Steve looks a little embarrassed. "Yeah, I, ah..." he laughs nervously. "I'm sorry. It's still kind of weird people think of me that way."

"Really?" It's just kind of strange in her mind America's golden boy doesn't like attention on him. "Avoiding the spotlight especially now, I bet."

"Yeah, you'd think after I dove into the Artic for America, the government would show a little more appreciation, instead of making me a fugitive."

"And the Battle of New York."

"And the Triskellion."

"And didn't you get shot, like three times?"

"Four. And stabbed."

"Stitches too, right?"

He points to both his scars. "Yep. And a concussion. And a few broken ribs."

"Jesus, how are you still walking?"

"With a slight limp," he jokes, but his bright blue eyes are tinged with darkness.

"I bet that wasn't the hardest part," Skye says.

"No," he says softly. "How much do you know?"

She laughs harshly. "Next to nothing. I know about HYDRA, though. That they were deep in SHIELD. My- my SO was HYDRA."

"Oh, that's rough," he mutters. "You were close?"

"Yeah." She runs a hand over her hair. "I really trusted him. That went to hell, huh?"

He sighs. "I understand what that's like."

"It must be harder for you, I mean, so many people who you worked with."

"I wasn't close with most of them, but it's still crazy to think I was surrounded by people who worked for what I thought I'd killed seventy years ago." He shakes his head. "I don't know what I would have done without Nat and Sam."

It's so weird to hear him casually mention the SHIELD legend that is Natasha Romanov as Nat.

He stirs his beer, looking troubled. "So Coulson didn't tell you guys the rest, then?"

"There's more?"

"Well...not to most people, since SHIELD is gone. For me, for Fury, for Hill, for Natasha, for Sam, yes. I'm not sure who else knows."

"Oh, God, HYDRA isn't going to go full-scale Nazi on us, right?"

He smiles grimly. "Nothing like that. Yet. I'm sorry, I'm not sure I can even tell you. Shouldn't have brought it up."

They fall into silence for a minute.

"So what are you and Sam doing now?"

"Um...that's kind of part of what I'm not sure I can say."

"Be nice if SHIELD stopped with all the secrets," she grumbles.

Steve laughs. "Damn right. I was never good at all the politics and the secrecy. Then or now." He swings a sip of his drink. "You were starting to look at your SO differently, weren't you?"

"You're perceptive," she admits. "Yeah. I thought...well, I didn't realize, I didn't ever think he...yeah."

His eyes rest sympathetically on her, and he lays his hand over hers. Their eyes meet, and he suddenly blurts out, "My best friend tried to murder me because HYDRA got to him."

He sees the alarm in her face and grimaces. "That's what I wasn't going to tell you. I just thought you should know that I understand."

"Wait, your- what?"

"The Winter Soldier," he says, and she remembers the strange figure in black filmed almost successfully assassinating Fury before the media got screwy and you couldn't trust it anymore. "He used to be James Buchanan Barnes, the best pal in the world. Bucky."

"Yeah, I've heard of him. Only Howling Commando to die in the line of duty? Wait, he- he's dead."

"You'd think so, after he fell five hundred feet into a frozen ravine." Steve's voice is a mixture of resentment, sadness, and relief. "But HYDRA found him. They made him the Winter Soldier. I don't know everything, really, but they did everything they could to kill Bucky Barnes. They tortured him and froze him and for God's sake, he doesn't even know his name-" Steve stops, shaking. "He doesn't remember who he is at all."

"He's forgotten you?"

Steve nods, a small, pained motion.

"Jesus. I'm so sorry. That's...wow, that's actually the most awful thing I've ever heard."

"That's probably classified," he sighs. "Well, oh well."

"So he's the one that-?"

"Yep."

"Because they told him-?"

"Yes."

"And he doesn't-?"

"No. I don't know. Maybe. He...I fell into the river. I was unconscious, I would have drowned, I was kind of planning to, but someone dragged me out. And it was just me and him out there. He was gone when I woke up."

"You're going after him."

Steve laughs. "You're perceptive too. Yeah, I'm chasing after him. He needs me. He's probably confused and scared, if he's starting to realize what's happened. I hope HYDRA hasn't found him again."

"At least they made him. I mean, he didn't choose to become a killer," Skye says, staring into her glass.

"Your SO...he chose it."

"He did. And I can't figure out why. How it was so easy for him to pretend he gave a damn about any of us when the whole time-" She clears her throat. "It just makes me wonder if anything he ever said was real."

Steve dips his head. "Coulson told me a little about what you did. That was incredibly brave. You're a good agent of...something. SHIELD is kind of off the table, huh?"

"I wish Coulson would get the memo," she grimaces. "He's taking it hard."

"Well, yeah," Steve shakes his head. "You get into this young like him, you die for it, it's your whole life- it must be one hell of a shock."

She sneaks a peek at Coulson, who is grinning at Hill.

"He looks alright," Steve says gently. "As much as anyone can be." She hears beneath his words the pain he must be in. God. She can't imagine having your best friend since childhood try to murder you without the courtesy of even remembering your name.

"I have a friend," she says. "Mike Peterson. HYDRA got to him. He's a tool to them now. But I have hope we can save him. I believe that. And I believe you can save your friend."

He looks up. "Thank you," he says quietly. "Everyone thinks I'm chasing a ghost. But he's in there, and I'm not going to let him down again. I made a promise I intend to keep."

Promises are fragile, fragile things, she thinks, and there's something touching in his determination not to shatter the glass.

"Again?" she asks, and he bites his lip. "Have you ever read anything about me? They make me into the American ideal and gloss over any time I've ever screwed up. Bucky- when he fell- I didn't get there in time. He was reaching for me. They always say, 'Barnes gave his life for his country', they never say the truth- that he was only there because I asked him to, and he only fell because I was too slow."

His shoulders seem to lower under that weight, and he avoids her eyes.

"You can't keep blaming yourself."

"That's what my SHIELD therapist always said," he quips. "I don't think I can ever forget it. Especially now."

"Is that why you're going after him? To make it right?"

"Maybe," he admits. "It's the right thing to do. It's what I have to do. Hill's not happy about it. She wants me close."

"To hell with that," she tells him. "What do you owe SHIELD?"

"Not a damn thing," he agrees. "I told her as much. More tactfully, of course."

She laughs, imagining him apologetically throwing around words like 'integrity' and 'duty' and 'loyalty.'

"So are you still sticking with what's left of SHIELD?" he asks.

She frowns. "I'm sticking with Coulson."

He nods. "You can trust him. I don't know about SHIELD right now."

"What about you?" she asks.

He shrugs. "Sort of. I'm sticking around as a unifying symbol, mostly. A 'You can trust Captain America, so SHIELD can't be but so bad even though there was a Nazi division infiltrated in their ranks' kind of thing. Hill needs all the help she can get now. I get that. Besides, leaving SHIELD means leaving the Avengers, and I'm pretty sure they'd kill each other without me."

"Earth's mightiest heroes," she quotes. "That must be crazy."

"Absolute insanity," he agrees. "All the time. I just hope we don't have another alien invasion anytime soon."

"Me either," she grimaces. "But the Battle of New York indirectly got me into SHIELD, actually."

"Really?" he raises his eyebrows. "That sounds like a story."

"Yeah, I guess it is one," she says, and the look on his face prompts her to start telling it.

"So, uh, yeah," she finishes at last. He's heard almost everything, now, because once she started talking it was impossible to stop. It's the first time she's gotten to weave all the things she knows now into the gaps they weren't able to piece together before, and it seems so obvious.

"You're blaming yourself too," he points out. "You couldn't have known. You were a level one agent, for God's sake. I bet you've never even been to the Triskellion."

"No," she admits.

"I was level eight. Nick Fury was level ten. And neither of us figured it out." He looks at her. "Explain to me how you could've."

She laughs, a little embarrassed. "You're good at the pep talks, huh?"

"It's my number one asset as a leader," he quips, and he actually grins.

"The super soldier stuff has nothing to do with it, right?" She teases.

"It helps sometimes," he smiles. He really does have a nice smile, she thinks.

"So what was Bucky like?" she asks, and his eyes mist over with remembrance.

"A jealous, loud, aggressive pain in the ass," he laughs. "The best pal in the world. Funny, funniest guy you'd ever meet. He always had a smart comment. Reckless. Brave. Loyal. Smart. Great with dames- girls. Sorry. Still have trouble with old slang. If he were here, he'd be all over you. He was a real charmer. Stubborn. I couldn't get him to ever listen to reason. He did things his own way. He was always there for me. We took care of each other."

"You can get him back," she says gently, and he replies, "Maybe one day we can get everything back."

So not long after I watched The Winter Soldier (my god, the perfection/feels of that movie) I was catching up on my Agents and realized the similarities of Skye and Steve's situations. This is not meant to ship in any way, but I could definitely see a friendship developing. This is set post Winter Soldier, pre season finale of SHIELD. I'd love to see you drop a review.