"Yeah, we're on our way Nat." ... "Okay bye. ... Come on Jade, hurry up." 

 "Geez, Big Bird." I say walking behind Clint to pick up my duffle bag off my bed, from changing. 

 "Ready?" 

 "Ready." I confirm huffing my bag up and onto my shoulder. As I pass him though, Clint stops me and hands me my book, taking the bag off my shoulder. I sigh as he walks out of my room. We pass through the living room and realize I left something. "Wait." I say walking over to my desk. I open the main drawer and grab my glasses case. I walk back to Clint and unzip the bag while putting my glasses in. 

 "You really weren't kidding about your eyes?" Clint asks. 

 "Yes...?" I say as he opens the door for me and walks out behind me.  

 "How did that happen? I mean, how were you able to be an assassin?" Clint says in a slightly hushed tone while I lock my apartment door. 

 "The fumes had messed up my eyes from all the tests, but HYDRA, I guess, had been able to temporarily take it away. When I was 21 though, my eyes started to go again." 

 "And how old are you?"

 "Twenty-four." 

 "Huh, if Cap had been born this generation, you and him would be about the same age. But he's not, he's I think 94." Clint says as we ride the lift down. Whoa, Steve's only, physically 24? He seems so much more mature... It sucks he was taken down in his prime. That he never got to live his life the way it was intended. "Yeah, I guess, but... I don't know, he's done a lot of good here. It seems like he's meant to be here." Clint says. I don't comment on the fact that I thought aloud, but am silently grateful for his response, rather than teasing me. The thought of Steve creates an itch in the back of my head and it's simply because, I didn't see him today. 

 "Clint?" I ask as we walk out the elevator. He looks to me in response. "Where was Steve this morning?" 

 "He usually goes out for runs." Clint tells me. I nod as he pulls out his phone. I look at the ground confused, because that itch still hasn't been scratched. My thought process is cut off as Clint wraps his arm around me and maneuvers me towards a cross walk. We walk across the striped pavement, Clint somewhat protectively guiding me, and I look up at him, then back to Avengers tower to my right. Clint sees the confusion on my face, and leans down slightly so I can hear him over the noise of New York. "Nat texted me saying she wanted coffee, and I wouldn't mind some either, so we're making a quick Starbucks stop." I nod to him as we walk back to the sidewalk, Clint's arm still draped over my shoulders. 

 "It's not, my first time walking in New York, you know." I say, referring to him still guiding me. He raises his hands in surrender and places them back at his sides. I smile up at him, but as soon as I look forward again, there's a cyclist torpedoing down the cement. Resisting the urge to simply kick the bike out from under this jackass, I think of another escape that wouldn't lead to me being a jerk too. I run out of time so I sheepishly skirt to the side and into Clint, actually clinging to his shirt with his arm quickly going back around me. 

 "Watch it!" I hear behind me. 

 "Says the asshole who nearly ran me over!" I shout over Clint's shoulder. Clint laughs and I join him at the irony of what just happened. He gives me a side hug with his arm around me and I wrap my arms around his torso in return. Soon we get to the Starbucks and walk to the counter. 

 "Hi, what can I get for ya?" A boy in his 20's with brown quiffed hair asks. I stand next to Clint, drumming my fingers on the counter, while he takes out his wallet and addresses the barista. 

 "Yeah, could I get, a large double chocolate chip frappuccino, a medium iced chai tea and..." Clint pauses. He then nudges my with his shoulder. I look up from the girl who just walked by. 

 "Oh no, nothing for me." Wait, why did I say that? Whatever that girl had looked delicious. I don't know what it is, maybe a caramel macchiato. Mmmm that sounds good right now. 

 "And a medium iced, caramel macchiato." Clint finishes. 

 "17.43." Clint hands the man a 20 while he asks, "Name for those?" 

 "Clint." He grabs his change and we walk over to the waiting area. 

 "How did you know?" I ask referring to him getting me the drink I wanted. 

 "Lucky guess, and you kept eyeing that girls drink." Clint said with a smirk. I roll my eyes at him and look at the workers making the chocolate frappe. 

 Before I can ask Clint about the drink someone calls out "Iced americano!" I let out a laugh. 

 "Like Steve." Clint and I both break out in laughter. "Didn't know you were a chocolate nut." I say as we both calm down and my eyes travel back to the drink. 

 "I'm not, Tasha has a bit of a sweet tooth." Clint answers. I smile at his response. Those two are such good friends. I'm sure they both make the other laugh, know how to comfort each other. Reminds me of Peter and I. It also reminds me of this morning when Natasha stormed off and then how Clint calmed her down. That's when that itch comes back.

 "Clint, can I ask you something?" 

 "You just did, but shoot." He responds. I suppress a smile at his unintentional pun and ask my question.

 "This morning, when Natasha was upset, what was that about? What were you going to say?" Clint sighs and turns to lean against the counter and look at me better, before answering. 

 "Last night after you went to bed, we kept talking about you, because Pepper was curious. All good, I promise, but Steve, he didn't say much, but what he did say was admiration. He had this spark in his eyes. Kinda like when Peter talks about you. And so Tony and I started to tease them about it. Nat and Pepper didn't really find it that funny, so they had us stopped, but..." Clint pauses.

 "But..." I push him on. 

 "I really didn't mean to come off as a jerk. I really think you two would be good for each other." Clint finishes sheepishly. I've never really thought of anyone romantically since Luc, so hearing this is... strange. I mean, I know a hot person when I see them, and it's not like I wouldn't mind spending a night with them, but that way of life was never appealing. And I most certainly never thought of Steve or Peter like that. Although, now that I think about it, either of them would be good boyfriends. Gwen certainly looked happy with Peter... But Peter doesn't feel like that, we're completely platonic, plus he deserves better... And Steve... I doubt I'm anything like the woman he wants, and I'm so messed up, I'd feel pity for anyone who wants to be with me. That's why Luc and I worked so well. We knew exactly what the other went through, and we helped each other through it. If I were to be with anyone now, I'd just be a burden, and I wouldn't wish that on them, let alone my friends. 

 My irrational thoughts are interrupted as another one of the baristas speaks up.   "Herbert, you really have to work on your handwriting." She says to the guy who rung us up. He walks up to her and takes my drink in his hand. 

 "Oh, sorry Clint..." Herbert, apparently, says. Clint looks at the cup, while Herbert hands it to me, with an unamused face. 

 Barely getting it out through my laughter, I say, "No, Herb, I think this is wonderful."    

*Steve's POV*

 "You are truly entertaining, Man of Flame. My apologies for mistaking you for Steve." I hear as the elevator doors open. I'm able to discreetly go to the kitchen and get a water bottle while everyone including our new house guests, but Clint, Jade, and Pepper occupy the couches. 

 "Speaking of our patriotic friend." Bruce says noticing me. 

 "Good run?" Natasha asks as I walk over to them. I give her a nod as I swallow my first gulp of water. I now Pepper most likely went into the office, but before I can ask where Clint and Jade are, Tony stands up and drags me next to, who I believe to be Johnny Storm. 

 "You know, I was doubting you guys, but I see it now." Tony says stepping back with everyone looking at us. 

 "Before we get into this, why don't we introduce our selves?" A blonde woman says. "Hi, I'm Susan Richards, this is my husband Reed, our friend Ben Grimm," She gestures first to a tall man with slightly greying hair, and then a... a large, orange, rock... man... If this century starts to get any stranger I may just have to take up Tony's offer on building a time machine, although, it is fascinating. 

 I try to suppress my shock as I shake hands with first Reed saying, "Mr. Fantastic?" He nods in response and I move to Mr. Grimm. "The Thing?" He gives a gruff "Mhm." in response and to ease the tension I attempt at a joke. "Well son, it appears you have a skin condition." The right side of his moth tugs at a smile, but before he can say anything, the man I was standing next to speaks up. 

 "You're telling me." He walks over to me and holds out his hand. "John Storm." 

 "Steve Rogers." I say taking his hand. 

 "Captain Rogers, this is my brother , Johnny." Susan says. 

 "Thank you all for coming to help with Jade Leiton. I assume you know our predicament?" I ask. 

 "Yes, we are aware that Ms. Leiton is an ex-criminal. And we had the pleasure of meeting her this morning." Reed says. 

 "Oh, so she is awake, where is Jade? And Clint?" I'm finally able to ask. "Clint took Jade back to her apartment to get some clothes." Peter tells me. 

 "Yeah, yeah, Frenchy and Legolas went out and about, now stand here." Tony says pushing me and Johnny back slightly. 

 "Stark what are you doing?" I ask slightly aggravated, crossing my arms. 

 "Yeah, I don't like being man handled." Johnny agrees. "By other men." He adds on. Well, now I know that all the talk about him being a ladies man is true. 

 "You two look exactly alike." Tony explains. I turn towards Johnny, and actually... We're eerily similar. Before we can say anything, the elevator dings, causing everyone's attention to snap there. 

 "Guys you have to see how they wrote... Clint's... Whoa..." Jade trails as she walks up to us, Clint following her and dropping a duffle bag on the couch. As Jade walks up to us, Clint walks to Tasha and hands her a drink. "Okay, I know I mixed you up this morning, but wow, this is creepy." Jade says standing in front of Johnny and I. She's wearing jean shorts, a black cardigan, black converse, and an army green tank top with the insignia from my fleet. I want to ask her about it, but I can't help but notice Johnny practically undressing Jade with his eyes. 

 I want to push Jade behind me, so he'll stop, but then Johnny talks again. "Yeah, he does look just like me. Except I'm hotter." Then he starts poking me, as if I weren't real. 

 "Can you please stop poking me?" I say. 

 Tony walks up to us saying, "Well he does look just like you, Capsicle. But I have a feeling he'll be more fun." Johnny beams at that, but continues to keep poking me, while I try not to grow too irritated with him. 

 "So what if they both look like Ken dolls, I could smash both of them." Ben says, which earns a chuckle from Jade. 

 "I bet I could do better." Bruce mumbles. Thor lets out a throaty laugh while clapping a hand on Bruce's shoulder. 

 Johnny, still poking me, I turn to him to see if he'll stop but he continues as Thor says, "Yes Banner, we are aware you can smash." 

 At Thor speaking, Reed seems to remember something and turns to him. "If my facts are right, then that means you're actually Thor from Norse mythology?" Thor nods to him and Reed bursts with a smile. "This is a scientific breakthrough! I have to research this!" 

 As if rehearsed, his wife gives an agitated  eye roll and sigh, saying "Can you not talk about science for once?" 

 This is when Natasha decides to chime in.  "Can everyone just not talk in general?" 

 "Calm down Nat. If they don't stop talking I'll just put arrows through their eyes." Clint says. 

 Johnny incredibly unphased by everything mumbles, "This guy is ripped!" as he continues to poke me. Jade turns to us chuckling along with Peter at everything that's going on and I can tell she's not amused by Johnny either. 

 "Stop poking me!" I say, uncrossing my arms and turning to Johnny. He finally stops and raises his hands in surrender as if he hadn't been annoying me. 

Jade grins at us and says, "Well you are buffer than him." She then pokes his chest a couple times and then mine. She continues to poke my chest and I can tell by the smirk on her face as she idly sips at her drink, that she's teasing me. I'm about to ask her to stop, but notice the name on her cup. 

I grab her hand to stop her poking and look down at her drink. "What's on your cup?" 

Jade snorts as Clint groans and she says, "Oh yeah, the guy messed up Clint's name." She holds the cup up to me and Johnny leans over to read it. He bursts out laughing and I can't help but to release a bit too. 

Johnny walks over to Clint and says, "Oh, my friend, that is unfortunate." 

Clint rolls his eyes and says, "So what if the guy wrote the L and the I too close together?" 

"What?" Natasha says, and snatches the cup out of Jade's hand. Everyone gathers around her. Each of them releasing laughs, and chuckles of their own while Clint sulks on the couch, sipping out of his own drink. 

"I don't think he messed up, Clint is a bit of a cunt." Tony says. Clint picks up a coaster on the coffee table and chucks it at tony, hitting him square in the forehead. tony backs up a bit with a bewildered look on his face while we all laugh. Jade turns, though, so she's standing next to me, but I still have a hold of her hand. She doesn't seem to notice, but I still let go. Peter takes the drink from Natasha and takes a sip from it, which immediately is followed by Jade walking up to him and taking it from him. The cup slides off the straw and the liquid that Peter had sucked up the straw spills out and onto his shirt. We all let out laughs as Jade takes the straw from Peter's mouth and sticks it back in the cup as Peter looks at the coffee mess on his shirt. He looks at Jade, pretending to be infuriated and Jade quickly runs back over to me and hides behind me. 

I smile at her antics as Peter booms, "You're going down!" I feel Jade grip my shirt and I lift my arm to look down at her as she smiles. 

"Yes, go through the super soldier all because you stole my coffee and spilled on yourself." I chuckle at her taunt. Peter's about to run at Jade, but I quickly pull her in front of me and out of Peter's path causing him to trip over himself and onto the couch. I hold Jade as she laughs along with everyone else. 

She turns back to Tony and says, "See, he can be fun." I smile down at Jade, but she's quickly taken away from me as Peter shoots his webs at her waist and pulls her towards the couch. Jade let's out a small squeal as she falls back to Peter, but makes sure to hold her drink up to keep it from spilling. Peter laying on his side wraps his arms around Jade and pulls her to him to keep her from getting up. They both laugh as Peter tightens his grip in a hug and Jade places her arms over his seeing as her upright back is to his lopsided chest. Peter lets go of Jade and she stands up and offers him a hand up. As Peter swings an arm around Jade's shoulders they face us all again. 

"Okay well, since I have my own clothes to train in , why don't we get this party started?" Jade says. 

"Sounds good to me." Susan says looking around the group as we all nod in agreement. Jade looks up at Peter and he looks down at her. 

"You smell like coffee." Jade says taking a sip from her drink. 

"Gee I wonder why?" Peter says, sarcastically. 

Jade walks past us all, picking up the duffle bag as well and says, "It shall forever be a mystery." I smile as Jade walks down the hall to her room and quickly remember I wanted to ask about her shirt. 

"I think I'll go change too." I say walking around the couches and to the hall. I walk to Jade's room and see her place the duffle on her bed through the gapped door. I knock on it to notify her I'm coming in. I peek my head around the door and see her turn.

"Hey." She says unzipping her bag. 

"Hi." I say idly stepping in and walking to her with my hands in my pockets. 

Not turning to me, Jade asks "What's up?" 

"The sky." I attempt to make her laugh. She stops what she's doing and turns to me with a raised eyebrow. 

After a couple seconds, she lets out a dry laugh and says, "Nice deduction, Sherlock." She continues unpacking and after about a minute asks, "Really, what's going on?" I'm at a loss for words at the moment. Could I ask her about her shirt? Would she take it the wrong way? I look back to her and her expression has gone from waiting to concerned with a furrow of her brow and a turn of her smile t the absence of me speaking. She takes a step towards me and places her hand on my arm. "Hey, you can talk to me." Jade says looking up at me. 

"No, I know." I say nodding my head and looking at the ground. Her beat up, black converse look so different compared to my clean running shoes. Her shoes move closer to e in a single step and I see Jade looking up. 

"Steve...?" She asks, her hand beginning to rub my arm. I take a breath before answering. 

"Your shirt." Jade looks down at her shirt and smiles.

"Oh, yeah." She unbuttons the cardigan she was wearing and straightens out the shirt. "Does it seem familiar to you?" She asks looking back up at me. I smile at her.

"Yeah, where'd you get it?" 

"My dad. Well it was actually just at my house. I obviously trimmed it a bit to fit better and cause it had some holes, but yeah, it was my dads." I look back at her shirt and see it is faded slightly and some of the ink for the white insignia is gone. Jade still holding the shirt out, I take the hem of it in my fingers. It's still soft, like it's not 70 years old. I think back to when I got a shirt of my own, just like it. "Memories resurfacing, Grandpa?" Jade coos with a smile. 

"Something like that." I say, letting go of her shirt and smiling. 

"So ready to watch me kick the Fantastic Four's butts?" Jade says pretending to punch me in the stomach. She rests her fists on me and does something like a push-up before turning back to her bag and pulling out clothes to change into. 

"We'll see." I say turning away from her and to the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jade smiling at me as I walk out and into my room. I close my door and tug off my shirt as I walk to the bathroom. I take a quick shower, not wanting to miss Jade's training. I'm not doubting Jade, but she will be going up against 4 people with powers, by herself. So yes, it will most definitely be entertaining. Especially with Johnny there. I have a feeling he'll underestimate Jade, and Ben might too. But Reed and Susan are obviously smart enough to have done their research on her. I turn off the water and step out of the shower, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my waist. My plan was to change back into my sweats and t-shirt, but they're kinda ripe from my run. So I toss them in the hamper and walk out of the bathroom and to my closet. I grab my new set of clothes and throw them on my bed, preparing to change, but stop when I hear the door knob turns. 

"Hey Steve, do you wan-" Jade peeks through the door, but then releases a squeak/scream sound and slams the door. I drop my shirt and rush to the door, worrying over why Jade screamed. I open the door to find Jade gasping and falling back, as it appears she was leaning on the door. I let go of the door and catch Jade with both of my arms. She looks up at me with wide eyes and scrambles to get back on her feet. 

"Are you okay?" I ask concerned, as Jade seems to compose herself and face me. 

"Yep, peachy, grand, 100% a-okay." Jade rushes out, looking at the ground and refusing to make eye contact with me. I take a step towards Jade and pull her chin up, so she'll look at me. 

"Jade, are you sure?" She seems to gaze at me as her expression softens.

"You're fine..." she says sweetly as her eyes seem to travel back down to the floor. My confusion grows as her eyes dart back up to mine, wide again. "I mean, I'm fine! Er, um I'm not fiiine, but I'm okay. And you're okay, well you're more than okay, but what I mean is everything is okay." Jade scatters out and I see her cheeks grow red. Is... is she embarrassed? Why? 

"Alright, Handsy, Capsicle, let's doo -oh... I'll come back later." Jade and I both snap our heads down the hall to see Tony smirking at us. And that's when I remember I just showered. And am still in a towel. I let go of Jade and take a step back. 

"Oh, no, no I was just-" Jade tries to explain, but Tony interrupts her. 

"Now, if I recall, didn't this exact same situation occur not too long ago? roles were simply switched?" I can feel my ears and cheeks heat up while I rub my neck and Jade crosses her arms and looks at the floor. After neither of us answering, Tony turns and says, "Right, well see you down there." Once Tony's gone, Jade turns to me, but continues to look at her shoes. 

"Sorry, I wanted to check with you if you'd like to catch the same lift down." 

"No, no, it's okay. We'll... We'll consider it payback." I say looking down at her. She smiles and finally tilts her head up. 

"Okay, deal... I suppose I should head down." I watch Jade walk down the hall and right before she turns the corner, she looks back at me and smiles.

A/N: Okay, I'll be the first to admit it, not a fan of the new update. Mainly because I've had to go over the format of this like three times and have officially given up. So sorry if there are typos and no spaces or if format is off in the second half of Steve's POV. I swear I redid it three times and it still reverted back to stupidness. 

Speaking of Steve's POV! What'd ya think? What did you think of the entire chapter? Let me know, please!! No picture this times, cause well a bunch happened in this one! You may not realize it other than jokes and such, but believe me. There was a lot. 

Oh, and I know I've been putting off Jade and the Fantastic Four's training, but it'll be worth it I promise. Why don't you give me some predictions as to how it'll all go down? How do you think Jade is gonna beat 4 super humans? Why do you think she's so confident in doing so? Or will she crash and burn, rather literally depending on how she fight Johnny?

Okay talk to you in the comments!! Love each and every one of you!!

=_= {}:"?>