The Shield and the Rose || S. Rogers

Coffee

Every day at noon, Steve Rogers found himself eating lunch at a small restaurant near the Avengers Tower. Always ordering the same thing, he would sit in the outdoor seating and draw in his small journal. Every day, the same pretty brunette sat exactly two tables away from him, working on papers of her own. 

Despite finding her pretty, he never said hello and certainly never let her catch him admiring her. He knew that if Natasha Romanoff had been beside him, she'd have been encouraging him to go and speak to the girl. She had, after all, been trying to convince him to ask out many of the women that worked at S.H.I.E.L.D. to no avail.

While his lunch sat on the table next to him, Steve focused on the sketch in front of him. As he always did, he was sketching the Avengers Tower. He'd gotten quite good at drawing it, having done so every day. He supposed he may have even been able to draw it with a blindfold or even by memory. 

"Shit!" he heard someone say and as he looked over, the pretty brunette was chasing her papers as they were carried off in the wind.

Without a second thought, Steve quickly stood from his seat and helped catch the papers as they drifted by. He had no clue what order they may have gone in originally, but he quickly took them back to her. She offered a grateful smile as she took the papers from him.

"Thank you," she smiled.

"You're welcome," Steve grinned in return.

Neither moved for a moment. Part of Steve thought that he may have made the moment awkward. Instead, the brunette nodded in the direction of his lunch and gave him a smirk.

"Is your lunch as good as it always is?" she grinned.

"What?" he asked in surprise.

"Your lunch," she repeated. "You always get the same thing. I was asking if it's as good today as it usually seems to be."

"Oh, uh, yeah," Steve gave a small chuckle. "Absolutely."

"Ah, then it seemed you fared better than I did," she grinned as she leaned in slightly. "Mine was a bit burnt today."

"That's a shame."

A ringing came from her phone and as she took it out of her pocket to look at the screen, she gave a sigh. Giving him one last smile she turned back towards her remaining belongings at her table.

"I need to get back to work," she said. "Thank you again."

"Of course," Steve nodded.

"Same time tomorrow?" she asked with a grin.

"As always," he smiled in return.

"I look forward to it," she said with a wave as she left.

Standing in place, Steve let it settle in his mind that he had just spoken to the pretty brunette, and he hadn't even gotten her name.

*＊✿❀○❀✿＊*

Just as they had said, both Steve and the brunette woman were sat at their respective tables at the small restaurant the following day. Steve had snuck a quick glance in her direction as she began her daily work on the papers in front of her, waiting for her lunch. 

He didn't know it, but she snuck glances at him too. After all, any person could look and admit that he was easy on the eyes. Continuing on her work, she didn't notice as Steve softly smiled at her. They may not have talked for very long the day before, but they had both left feeling just a little bit happier. There was a brief moment before she finally decided to speak up to him.

"It's a nice day today, don't you think, Cap?" she smiled and he looked over to her with a smile of his own.

"Yeah, it is," he grinned.