«Star Shadows» A Night Angel Sequel

CHAPTER XXIII - WHAT IS PHASE 2?

April 2012. 08:34. S.H.I.E.L.D's Helicarrier. Somewhere in the sky.

Third Person POV

After the shared but un-aknowledged intimate moment between Sophia and Steve, none of them felt awkward about it. It was weird, both thought as they walked through the halls, that after their "encounter" none of them seemed to be uncomfortable around the other.

It was as if it was almost... Natural, they thought. Their closeness, their nerves but also the calm they felt when being around each other, it was as if it was something they were used to. Like it was meant to feel like that.

Unbeknownst to the other, both of them shook their heads slightly, trying to get rid of the thought, both of them dismissing it completely.

Steve couldn't think of that. He knew Sophia and he appreciated everything she had been doing for him in the last 8 months, she was his friend, but having feelings for her? And not just feelings as a friend, because the thought he had when he held her close to him was anything but just friendly. He wondered why his mind had suddenly imagined those things and why his heart beat erratically at the thought of them. Why did he feel those things? Why did it feel like his whole world had stopped and the only ones in it were him and her? Why did he feel the sudden urge to just pull her close to him and never let her go? Or why did he feel the urge to just run his fingers through her hair and make her smile, looking at him with her big brown hypnotizing eyes?

He had only experienced those things with one person and it had been almost seventy years ago.

Peggy Carter.

His mind instantly pictured Peggy and Steve felt guilt consuming him. She was the only one he had ever loved and the only one he could think about. She was the only woman he had ever felt something for and that had bewitched him completely. He shouldn't be thinking of Sophia like that, because there was one and only one woman that conquered his mind and his heart and that was Peggy.

Right?

Sophia's mind was trying to play tricks on her. She has known Steve for the last eight months and she had never felt what she felt mere minutes ago. But then again, they had never found themselves in a situation like that one before. They had shared hugs, yes, but just a few. They had been standing close before, yes, but never like that. Something about the way they were, the way Steve held her and the way he looked.

His eyes were fierce and filled with determination, his sudden doubt about everything going on had ignited something in his eyes, something Sophia was eager to know what it was. She had felt her knees going weak by the way he looked at her.

She had been pressed between the wall and his body and she could feel the heat radiating off of him, his enhanced senses and qualities because of the serum made his body, somehow a lot warmer than the average body. Or so Sophia assumed. That was the only logical explanation to her.

What she couldn't pinpoint was why did she feel her heart flutter at his touch? It was like their bodies had sparked with electricity at the contact and it made her stomach swarm with butterflies. The closeness of his face and the urge she felt to run her hand through his hair and relax his frown, made her question her entire existence.

She hadn't felt something like this since Michael. And just as she thought of him, her heart hurt. She felt like she was betraying the memory of her late fiancée by starting to feel things for the Captain. She felt like it was too soon and it was wrong. So she decided from then on, to do what she did best.

She pushed the feelings aside and the thoughts of Steve, discarding them completely. She decided to forget about them, because for starters they were not even there, not even real. It had been the heat of the moment.