Brooklyn, New York 1933

"This garbage is getting old," I mutter as I stomp my way across the street. The busy streets of New York were forgotten to me as I had one goal in mind: get to that damn alley.

It wasn't that I spent my time lurking in dark alleys in Brooklyn.

I was simply observant and happened to see a real suspicious fella following a woman into that alley. Call me paranoid but a lot of things happen around here that I'd rather not think about.

I jump in surprise as an automobile honks at me.

"Get outta the way, girl!" A man with a bushy mustache yells at me as he waves his hand around, motioning for me to get away.

"Not even a please these days," I move out of his way and continue on my way to the alley where I can hear thumps and crashes. "Gotta keep moving."

Pushing past people going about their day, I struggle to make my way to my destination. My mission, however, was interrupted when a hand wraps themselves around my upper arm.

"Excuse me, miss?" The hand belonged to a young woman with pinned up blonde hair and a nice floral dress. "Would you mind helping me find this diner? I've been walking around and I'm afraid I still can't find it."

Noticing how fidgety the woman looked already, I sigh, smile, and look at the name of the diner. "Ruth's Diner huh? Keep going this way, turn right where the newspapers are, continue walking, and turn left to cross the street, keep going straight that way and you'll find the diner. Now, I'm really sorry but I need to go. Good luck!"

I spin around to rush to where I was previously headed. The woman looked confused at my actions but nevertheless continued walking.

The louder the crashes sounded, the harder I pushed people out of the way.

"Excuse me!"I keep repeating as I nearly begin to sprint. My harsh pushes earned me glares along with some shouts but I was beyond caring. If I got there too late to help that poor girl I would never forgive myself.

My heart is pounding in my chest as my body pushes itself to go faster. My dark green coat flaps behind me as my boots hit the ground.

The only thing I'm focusing on are the pleas of help coming from the alley. Can no one else hear them or do they just don't care?

Breathing heavily, I turn the corner to see the poor excuse of a man fumbling with the shirt of the woman. Her eyes are panicked as she struggles in his grasp and yells for help.

Anger builds up in me and I sprint towards them.

"Hey, pal! I think the lady here doesn't want you putting your grimy hands on her!"

The man turns towards me, one hand still tightly holding the woman's shoulder. He looked quite young with his blonde hair and built figure. He also looked quite rich due to the quality of his suit. "The lady here is even lucky that someone like me would touch her."

I raise an eyebrow and scoff. "Someone like you? As in, perverted?"

The man's brow furrows in anger before he shouts at me. "Get lost, kid."

"Not happening. Let the lady go and maybe I won't kick your ass."

The man scoffs. "As if though you'd beat me. Look at ya, you're smaller than me and a woman. How hard do you reckon a woman can hit?"

"Why don't you test it out?" I take off my jacket so it wouldn't get ruined. It was Christopher's after all. He would kill me if he found out I had gotten blood on the dark green fabric.

Setting it gently, on the side, I barely look up on time to see the man was rushing towards me with his fists clenched.

I stumble out of the way and point accusingly at him. "Hey, that wasn't fair!"

He doesn't respond and throws another punch. I dodge it and land a swift blow to his cheek. I would be lying if I said my hand didn't hurt from the impact.

Sadly, my punch didn't knock him out. It did, however, seem to make him angrier. Why can't my life be simple for once?

I notice a vein protruding from his temple and make a face. "You've got a little... ya know..." I motion to his temple. That thing's weirding me out.

Yuck.

My distraction caused me a punch to the face, causing me to fall on my ass. I gingerly touch my lip to find it split. I have to get up, fast.

The man's pulling his leg back, ready to throw a kick but I roll over and aim a kick to his knee. I didn't get the force I wanted but it still made him stumble back. Perfect.

I scramble to my feet and get into a fighting stance. I rush towards him with a determined face and throw a punch as hard as I can.

It would have gone great, really. If he hadn't pushed my hand aside and used that to punch me in the face. The blow disorients me and suddenly, there are punches being thrown at me repeatedly. I can't focus on anything but I faintly hear a woman screaming and a man's voice.

The hand holding me let's me go, making my body fall on the ground painfully.

Did I win?

I definitely won.

After few seconds into simply staring at the ground, warm and gentle hands settle on my shoulders.

"Oh sweetie. Look at what he did to you, that monster. I can't thank you enough for what you did." I sluggishly look up and see the woman who the man had been harassing with a concerned expression. She hurriedly looks through her back and takes out a sort of handkerchief then begins cleaning the blood off of my face. From what I could feel, it was mostly around my mouth. And maybe a cut on my eyebrow... And maybe a couple of bruises all over my face.

"Where...?" I mumble in question.

"A young man happened to be walking by and stepped in." She explains as she was still focused on cleaning me up. "I'm afraid he's not doing so well either."

Looking around, sure enough, the guy who stepped in was also getting beaten up.

The guy didn't look like much. He had blonde hair from what I could tell and he was skinny. Like, really skinny. There was no way this small scrawny guy ever had a chance against this built man.

But who am I to talk? I too like to fight people out of my league just for the hell of it.

I groan as I struggle to get on my feet, even against the protests of the woman. Her thinly drawn in eyebrow raised in surprise as I finally managed and took steps towards the fight.

She steps in front of me with her hands on her hips. "Haven't you had enough, sweetie?"

I grin as I pick up a random wooden board. "Doubt it. Now if you'll excuse me. I have a skeleton to rescue."

I drag the board behind me as I walk towards the men fighting.

"When are you kids gonna learn to stay out of other people's business?" The pervert snaps as he keeps throwing punches.

The guy bravely tries to throw a punch but it was easily countered. Closer, I hear him say, " When people like you stop being assholes."

I gotta give it to him. Guy's got balls.

I sigh as I sneak up behind the man and raise the board above my head. I let the board fly through the air and hit the man on the head. He falls on the ground like a sack of potatoes, groaning.

"I had that under control." The blonde guys says as he dusts himself off and wipes a drop of blood from his lip. He looked young.

I laugh. "Sure you did, pal." I turn around and thank the woman for giving me my jacket from the ground. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Please, Dolly." She smiles gently and extends her hand out to shake. "I really can't thank you enough. Both of you."

"It was no trouble." I smile. "I don't like bullies."

"Well, that's one thing we can agree on." The young man says as he approaches us. "I'm Steve. Steve Rogers."

"Well, Dolly and Steve Rogers," I salute as I turn around and start to walk away, "it was a pleasure. I'll see you guys around."

Dolly once again thanks me before going to pick up the rest of her stuff from where they fell.

As I almost reach the end of the alley, running footsteps echo and suddenly, the gu- Steve is next to me. "I didn't catch your name."

I look at him suspiciously before shrugging. "Y/N."

"Y/N." He repeats with a smile. "Will we see each other again?"

I think for a moment before turning to look at him with a smirk on my face. "It's likely. I'm always running around here. See you around, Steve Rogers. "

And with that, I pull my jacket closer to my body and blend in with the people walking past.