Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 2

Don't Let Me Get In The Way (Rogers x reader)

Whenever anyone would ask how it came to be that you were dating Captain America, you would tell them that you fell into his arms like it was a dream, and right when their eyes would gloss over in imagination of the romance in that statement, you'd crush it with a snicker at their gullibility. It was definitely like a dream, alright; but more like a nightmare, being chased across your apartment by some disgusting alien as it shot at you, pushing you towards the window of your tenth floor home until you crawled out onto the ledge and prepared for your own end at the mercy of Park Avenue's asphalt. As if it were planned, or at least by miraculous intervention, Steve was fighting his own group of alien assailants, hearing you from above just in time to turn and catch you as you jumped.

You literally fell into his life, and he loved telling the story as much as you hated to remember it.

From that day on, Steve was your protector, even when you assured and reassured him that it was a role that he didn't need to take on; being reborn into his Captain role after being gone from the world for so long was pressure enough, and alien attacks were actually pretty rare. He had plenty of trouble adjusting to modern times, but with you there to help, he picked up the information fairly quickly. After the loss of the first cell phone that you had given him, he was much more careful to empty his pockets each day, aware of what could and couldn't survive going through the washing machine. He would also never forget that the chocolate that he would sneak from Nick Fury's desk should never, ever go into the dryer. Ever.

When he joined SHIELD, it was a momentous day for him, and he felt like he was beginning to find a sense of normalcy in his life with the routines of service that he longed for. You were supportive, of course, and he was careful to let you know how much that meant to him. When he was home from missions, he would plan dinners out or dates at the movies, always appearing at your door with a new color of flowers in hand and a smile that would instantly melt you into his arms just as he had hoped. It didn't take long for him to realize that the biggest part of why he was doing so well in this time was because he had you, and when SHIELD betrayed the core of his trust, he relied on the stability of you more than ever.

Tony Stark had invited him to move into the Avengers tower not long after that, and Steve knew that it was the perfect time to ask you to move in with him. He had to endure weeks of Tony's ridicule and teasing, agreeing over and over to the rule that if Stark was giving him a room, then Capsicle and his girlfriend had better use it for things that he didn't want to have to see or hear. Tony had become one of your friends almost immediately, his sarcasm and blunt honesty refreshing to you after being around Steve for the last several years; he actually enjoyed finding you to commiserate with, and used you to give him new material with which to annoy your boyfriend to no end.

But then Ultron happened, and the life around you began to fracture. You stayed in the tower as the team chased him around the world, waiting for them to return so that life could go on again, but it was never really the same after that. Tony had taken too much responsibility on himself and wasn't the man you had come to know; he was darker and tired, choosing to leave the Avenging life behind for a while. Steve had decided to take a step up in his role to lead the team, which now included a few new faces for you to learn; with his increased demands came a decreased amount of time to spend with you, but you understood.

What you didn't understand was how you got to where you were now.

The team that was your family was divided, spread across the world to avoid each other after Steve and Tony's fight, with Steve and those who had sided with him forced into hiding. You went with him, of course, despite his urging for you to stay behind at the compound where it was safe and stable; having you with him and on the run was the last thing that he ever wanted for you. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was failing not only the team that relied on him, but worse than all of that, he was failing you. You had tried to convince him that he was wrong, but now, as you sat alone once again, waiting for him to meet you as he promised to, you were beginning to think that he was right after all. It was becoming more and more common for you to be waiting for Steve as the pressures around him grew nearly insurmountable.