Soldier Boy

On your left

I sat on the couch looking out the window at Steve's apartment in Washington, DC. It was around 5am. I sighed.

"Are you okay?" I heard Steve ask softly. I looked over at him. He was only wearing black sleeping shorts. I couldn't help but look at his bare chest. I've known Steve for 2 years now and I've never seen him shirtless before.

"I-I'm okay." I said, looking back at his face.

"Why are you up so early?" He asks.

"Force of habit, I guess." I said looking back out the window. "You can take the dame out of the army but not the army out of the dame."

"Dame?" I can hear the smile in Steve's voice. I felt a dip next to me. I looked over my shoulder to see Steve sitting next to me. He had on a small smile.

"I'm trying your 40s slang." I said. He let out a soft laugh. "Am I doing it right?"

"You're legit killin' it." He said.

"Oh, god." I laughed.

"You're slaying it." His smile grew.

"Please, stop." I turned to him.

"What? I thought it was pretty tight." He chuckled and I covered his mouth.

"Please, don't ever say those again. Your 40s slang is better than this." I laughed harder. I uncovered his mouth as I leaned against him still laughing.

"I'm guessing that wasn't good slang." He said. I pulled away from him and whipped my tears away.

"It just doesn't suit you, Soldier Boy." I said.

"What does suit me?" His eyes softened.

"Helping people." I said just above a whisper. "Being old-fashioned. Not just because you're from the 40s."

"Yeah?" He connected our eyes.

"Yeah." I said. We just looked at each other for the next minute.

"I'm...I'm really glad you're here." He said softly. "I'm glad you came to visit. I missed hanging out with you." We hung out a lot after New York. Then a few months ago he moved here and joined S.H.I.E.L.D.s DC office.

"It's your fault for moving." I joked.

"You're more than welcome to stay." He said.

"You want me to stay?" I asked. He was about to answer when our phones went off. I leaned over and grabbed my phone off of the coffee table. We both set alarms to go running at 5:20. I pushed the stop button and looked at Steve. "I'm going to go for a run if you want to join me."

"I would love to. Plus, I don't want you going alone." He said.

"Okay. I'm going to change." I said and got up. I went into the guest room and changed into black leggings, a white sports bra, and an army green tank top. I slipped on my socks and black running shoes. I left the room to see Steve waiting for me. He gave me a smile as I walked over to him.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Always."

5:58am.

"On your left." Steve said.

6:23am

"On your left." I said.

"Uh-huh. On my left. Got it." The man said.

6:38am

As the sun rose more into the morning sky we saw the man again. He noticed us coming again.

"Don't say it. Don't you say it." He said.

"On your left." Steve said yet again to the guy as we ran past.

"Come on!" He yelled and ran a little faster. We continued our run. Once we finished I saw the man from earlier trying to catch his breath as he sat down against a tree. I pointed him out to Steve and we walked over to him.

"Need a medic?" Steve asks as we made our way over to him. The man laughed.

"I need a new set of lungs." He says. "You both just ran, like, 13 miles in 30 minutes."

"I guess we got a late start." I said.

"Really?" He chuckles. "You should be ashamed of yourselves. You should take another lap." He says and looks away then back at us. "Did you just take it? I assume you just took it." I noticed his sweatshirt.

"What unit are you with?" I gestured to his sweatshirt.

"58th Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA." He says and brings his right arm up. "Sam Wilson."

"Steve Rogers." Steve says as he helps up Sam.

"Mason Perez." I gave Sam a small smile.

"I kind of put that together." Sam says as he was panting and then looked over at Steve. "Must have freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing." Steve sighs.

"It takes some getting used to." Steve says. "It's good to meet you, Sam." Steve added and we started to walk away.

"It's your bed, right?" Sam calls out. We stopped and looked back at him.

"What's that?" Steve asked.

"Your bed, it's too soft." Sam continued. "When I was over there, I'd sleep on the ground, use rocks for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed, and it's like-"

"Lying on a marshmallow." Steve cuts him off. "Feels like I'm gonna sink right to the floor."

"Not knowing if I can get back up." I added. "How long?"

"Two tours." Sam says to me and looks over at Steve. "You must miss the good old days, huh?"

"Well, things aren't so bad. Food's a lot better. We used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot, trying to catch up." He names off.

"Marvin Gaye, 1972, 'Trouble Man' soundtrack. Everything you missed jammed into one album." Sam says. Steve nods as he pulls out his notebook.

"I'll put it on the list." Steve says and writes it down. I looked over at his list.

"We are finishing 'I love Lucy' this weekend." I told Steve.

"And we are trying Thai food tonight." Steve says and his phone starts beeping. He pulls it out and reads the text. "Alright, Sam, duty calls. Thanks for the run." Steve shakes Sam's hand. "If that's what you want to call running." Steve joked. I smiled.

"Oh, that's how it is?" Sam smiles.

"Oh, that's how it is." Steve smiles.

"Okay." Sam laughs. "Any time you want to stop by the VA, make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk, just let me know."

"I'll keep it in mind." Steve nods. "I'll see you when I get back." Steve says to me. I give him a small smile and a nod as a black car pulls up to the curb in front of us. The window rolls down to reveal Natasha Romanoff.

"Hey, fellas, Mason. Either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil." Nat asks. I laughed.

"That's hilarious." Steve says to her as he walks to her car and gets in. Nat looks over at Sam, who was squatting.

"How you doing?" Sam flirts.

"Hey." Nat says. "Didn't know you were in town." She says to me.

"Just visiting for the week. Got in last night." I told her.

"Let's do something before you leave." She says. I smiled and agreed.

"Can't run everywhere." Steve says to Sam.

"No, you can't." Sam smiles and with that they took off.