OneShots and OffCuts

Gold Rush

Gold Rush - Taylor Swift

In which Anna, the girl behind the bar, gets lost in the gold rush that is Steve Rogers when he visits a hole in the wall bar in a small costal town after a mission gone wrong, but will it be the start of something beautiful or will it end before it even begins?

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Word Count: 2,750

Content: SFW, a little fluffy.

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Anna stood with her back to the bar, polishing the last of the glasses brought back out front by the new busboy. He was young and he was keen to work hard. Truthfully she quite liked the boy, but she also liked to keep her head down and get the job done. So she stood, her back to the bar and her mind wandering to adventures beyond the confines of the small town she knew she would never escape.

That's when he came in.

"It's a quiet bar." Tony walked in first, heading straight to the corner booth that was left unoccupied, far from prying eyes and listening ears. "Trust me when I tell you there aren't many of those left in New York. It's why I like these out of town missions. Do you think this little hole in the wall has The Macallan Fine and Rare 1926? I kind of doubt they do. Those bottles are hard to find."

Steve ran a hand over his face, brushing off the sadness and exhaustion, as he slipped into the booth opposite Tony and sighed.

"Then drink something else Stark," he grumbled.

His chest was aching as he sat opposite the ever so chipper Tony Stark and the stoically silent Bruce Banner. It was another mission failed for them all. It was another day without a lead, without an answer, without his best friend for Steve. Of course Tony had no idea what Steve was doing on his time away from the team and Banner, although intrigued by whispers that came from late night conversations with Natasha, didn't dare to ask in case he was given less information than Bruce would need but more than the big guy would want. Steve was alone in his misery. Well, almost alone.

Sam Wilson stood at the bar inspecting the bottles on the shelves, Tony's black card hot in his hands as he chewed his lip and squinted at the labels.

"Let me guess," the blonde bartender sighed with a soft smile as she raised her eyebrows at him, "you have no idea what your friend is going to approve of?"

He furrowed his brow as she laughed and nodded over to Tony.

"Oh," Sam chuckled, "so you figured it out?"

"If what you mean by figured it out was 'noticed the notoriously pompous ass that is Tony Stark strut into the bar like he owned the place' then yeah, I figured it out." She smiled and Sam nodded slowly. The girl was pretty with deep hazel eyes that seemed to take up most of her face and a smile that crinkled her nose. She was maybe twenty-five and it struck Sam that she was incredibly relaxed for someone who just witnessed Iron Man, The Hulk and Captain America all stroll into her place of work. He was impressed.

"I'm Sam," he held out his hand for her to shake and smiled at her.

"Anna." Her handshake was firm. "So, need some help deciding, Falcon?"

"Ahh so you -"

"Already know who you are? Yeah. You were in Washington."

He grimaced a little before breathing out a soft chuckle and Anna shrugged. She quite liked the way he spoke to her as if they were on the same level. She doubted any of the others he was with would do the same.