The Shield

Written for the prompt 'Shield' on my Avengers Table

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The Shield

Steve was surprised when he first saw the shield that Howard had made. He was drawn to it; eyes catching on its sheer form, the lines and grooves mesmerising. It was nothing then to what it would become, painted just for him.

He hadn't expected how it would feel braced on his arm, like an extension of who he is, who he wants to be. For an instant he wondered if that was how King Arthur had felt when he wielded the mighty sword Excalibur. Steve had grown used to Bucky's reprimands about being rash and foolhardy and taking on opponents so much out of his league, but it had never stopped him before, so why would it once he'd got this new body, new strength and finally someone had begun to listen and believe that he can be good for something?

Steve had loved the shield the first time he saw it. He wondered if Howard had ever imagined just the volume of ways he would begin to use it, the risks he would take with it, the ways it would save his and so many other people's lives.

The first time he saw it with its painted glory, he wasn't quite sure what to think. It wasn't that he wasn't patriotic. On the contrary, he had fought and suffered, tried lying and cheating, just for the chance to serve his country. He agreed to be party to an experimental process just to be given that chance to serve and to do what he believed in for justice everywhere. But the shield now was not exactly subtle. It was declaring him as Captain America, magnifying the persona exponentially.

There was a foolish naïveté to it. It was not like shields were part of a regular soldier's attire in that time. Shields were a thing of the past for the most part and yet, it was part of his costume when he was nothing more than a joke, a character on stage and maybe that was where the security of having it on his arm came from. A shield had been with him from the start. Or maybe it was the metaphorical that it was what he was, a shield for the people round him, a weapon to send in first, to be used to protect the more vulnerable. Or maybe he was just over-thinking it all.

It didn't take long for it to be as much a part of him as the rest of his 'Captain America' garb, no regular uniform for him any longer and he found himself striving to be more than just a regular soldier, trying his damnedest to live up to Erskine's dreams; trying to save the world and keep it free and just.

Back from the ice, the dead really as far as the rest of the world is concerned and Steve feels more than just out of time. Out of place and wrong for this world. An anachronism. He's alone and adrift and everyone who could anchor him has gone. He doesn't know how to 'be' anymore.

And then they give him a new uniform, they make him into Captain America, who has always been so much more than Steve Rogers. It isn't until they give him a shield that he knows he can do this again. He can be so much more and he's getting a second chance to prove it, to live it, to be everything Erskine hoped for and more. He's getting a second chance to be everything he wanted to be.

He can't ask for more than that.