Steve's view
I rolled laboriously out of bed and dressed as quietly as possible. Smiling, I watched the sleeping Bucky. We had our own room for two, where we had simply pushed the beds together overnight so that we could sleep in one bed. I kissed him goodbye on the forehead, which he acknowledged with a grumble and turned on his other side. I smiled and left the room and made my way to the secret base from yesterday, where Mr. Stark's laboratory and workshop were located. I asked my way through to a long corridor. Everyone I met treated me like I was a hero or something. I had saved those men because it was what anyone would have done, I hated that everyone made such a big deal out of it. I found myself in a small anteroom with a bookshelf and a desk. Behind the desk sat a woman holding a newspaper. "Excuse me, I'm here to see Mr. Stark," I called out.
But when the woman flipped the paper back, I would have liked to turn and run away. For the woman sitting behind the desk was none other than Marry Luise. She smiled at me and I felt a chill run down my spine, exactly the same smile she had always given Bucky.
She pointed to the newspaper "Quite impressive."
I peered briefly at the front page "Captain America frees soldiers from German clutches!" the headline jumped out at me.
"I was just doing what anyone would have done." I tried to brush her off.
But I was her prey and Marry Luise wasn't giving up that easily. "Don't be so modest Steve." she got up from the desk and walked towards me. "You have saved over two hundred men from certain death." She stood close to me and started playing with my tie.
"Um yeah like I said, it's all nothing." I pushed her away from me determinedly, but she probably didn't understand clear signals and came towards me again. In such a case I would have preferred a Nazi, whom I could have simply knocked unconscious, but I couldn't knock a woman unconscious. Even if she was a terrible person.
Fortunately, at that moment the door opened two metres away and Mr. Stark stuck his head out. "Rogers, I've been expecting you, come on, we've got a lot to do!" he saved me from Marry Luise.
"It was nice to see you again but I have to go now." I hastily said goodbye and slipped through the door which I slammed behind me.
"Thank you Mr. Stark you saved me."
"Just say Howard." Howard grinned "I don't say things like that often but you should stay away from that woman."
I smirked slightly "Might be hard when she's on your doorstep."
Howard raised his eyebrow in agreement "That's why I'm concentrating on my job and that's to make sure you and your men don't get killed." The inventor walked over to some sort of chain mail "This will withstand an attack from a German bayonet, though I highly doubt the Hydra will attack you with a pocket knife." He went on to the table on which was lots of incomplete stuff, lots of metal parts and some plans. "I hear you have a certain preference." he tapped my old dented shield with a dull sound.
"Something like this is a lot more practical than it looks." I justified myself.
Howard smiled "I took the liberty of thinking of some alternatives." he pointed to some square metal blocks and started rattling off their features.
But I wasn't listening to him at all because a round piece of metal had caught my attention "What's that?" I asked, pulling out the piece of metal.
"No, no, no that's just a prototype," Howard tried to talk me out of the sign.
"What's it made of?" I asked, ignoring his objections.
He sighed resignedly, "Vibranium. It's stronger than steel and weighs only a third of it. Besides, it absorbs any shock."
I strapped it to my arm to try it out "Why isn't this becoming standard equipment?"
"Because it's the rarest metal on Earth, what you hold in your hand is all we have."
I swung the sign through the air for a test. Satisfied, I put it back, "That's perfect. Then I held out a piece of paper to Howard on which I had roughly sketched out my uniform "I've been thinking about the uniform."
Howard skimmed the note "That can be done mate."
After running from Marry Luise I made my way to the strategy room where everyone else on the team had gathered. Tim and Jim looked badly hungover. I shook my head at them with a grin and dropped into the last empty seat next to Bucky, who was sitting next to Jack and just joined in with him in ragging on Tim. "I'm surprised you even got out of bed today with all the beer you drank yesterday." Jack laughed.
"What about him?" Tim pointed at me "he drank as much as I did."
I laughed, "My metabolism works four times as fast as yours."
We all fell silent as Cornel entered the room, Peggy Cater in tow. "Good morning gentleman!" he unrolled a map on the table in front of us, showing all the known Hydra bases.