Thrown Into Secrets

Steve meets Astrid and then gets all depressing

Love the Russian lesbian or surrender your kneecap privileges.

Do please remember that some chapters have very sad content. It is up to you to decide if I actually cried or not while writing about Steve and Tony's depressive episodes.

NOTES ^^^

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He looked towards the door to see half of the blonde woman peeking around the doorframe shyly. She startled a bit at Steve's reaction and then stepped out fully, obviously realizing how busy he had been and how she had surprised him. "Sorry Grant, it's just me. Astrid. I just wanted to know if I got the name right." She stepped into the room a bit, nearly tripping on the clunky work boots she wore. "I know that you don't like talking about it much since there is still a chance that he isn't your brother, but I just wanted to know if I got the name of the Captain America fellow correctly. I was talking about him with Natalia and Yvette earlier today since he interfered with our mission a bit and Natalia was still confused on the whole first name, middle name switch thing going on, so I came in to ask if his name was Steven." The blonde- Astrid- smiled a bit, looking a tad awkward and out of breath. "It's just a bit confusing for some of us still that you could possibly have a twin brother that is an American." Steve swallowed nervously past the lump in his throat and calmed himself down, letting the panic fall away.

Taking a deep breath, Steve looked back to the open journal, somehow knowing for a fact that the person who wrote it was his brother. "Yeah. His name is Steve. Pretty foolish, right?" He grinned up at Astrid, unable to bring up the walls that hid his emotion from the blonde. He could feel her eyes soften as she took in the pain that he had been too slow to hide effectively. 

Astrid walked towards Steve and placed a hand on his shoulder kindly. "Yeah. Steven is a foolish name. Who in their right mind would name a perfectly beautiful baby Steve? I mean, why not call him Stove while you are at it?"

Steve chuckled at Astrid's laughing tone and smiled genuinely at the blonde. "Thank you Astrid. I needed to get out of my head a bit." Steve softly marked his page and closed the journal, sliding to a corner of the desk. "Going through your whole life in a matter of hours sort of takes the fun out of reading. Especially when you read about all of the mistakes you never really apologized for properly, not to mention all of the pain and fear of things when they hit you like a ton of bricks."

Astrid nodded quietly, leaning her tiny body against Steve's back, chest resting on his head comfortably. She gently gestured to the journal. "None of us except for Klaus has ever seen that even though he talks about it a lot. Whenever something interesting happens, he always says that dumb line. 'Put that one in the book.' It's sort of like a legend, keeping all of your deepest darkest secrets inside. According to the stories Klaus tells, it includes everything that you don't write in the official mission reports and I am very curious to see what it is you keep from us." Steve hummed a little, wondering where she was going on the topic. "You know, I was wondering if you would let me see a few entries?"

Steve laughed, not expecting the trained spy to ask so outright. "Of course! You can read the first few pages if you want. I just wasn't quite expecting you to ask, maybe sneak into my room when I was asleep or read over my shoulder, but this is a nice surprise."

Astrid scoffed disapprovingly. "I would never. Natalia definitely would have, but I like to think that I have a little more class. Also, I'm not quite as adept as her when it comes to manipulation and seduction. But I guess that you wouldn't be too swayed by her tactics because she isn't really your… type."

Steve noted the audible pause and turned his head a bit to look up at the blonde that was still leaning on him. "What's that supposed to mean? So what if tall French ladies aren't my type , I could like shorter women. Or brunettes. Or maybe girls that have more of a soft disposition. I could be attracted to you for all you know."