Steve Rogers was exhausted. He hadn't lied to Fury when he said that after sleeping in the ice for nearly 70 years that he'd probably slept enough. Especially since now sleep was an enemy that even Captain America couldn't defeat. More often than not, falling asleep resulted in flashbacks of being in the Valkyrie after he had crashed, lying there in pain as snow and icy water covered him, the pain and cold slowly causing everything to fade to black.

Even if he managed to exhaust himself enough to essentially pass out at night, the dreams still came. Most nights he was back on the HYDRA train, straining to reach Bucky and watching in horror as his best friend fell to his death screaming in terror. He'd wake up covered in sweat, unshed tears filling his eyes as he reached for a friend that wasn't there.

Other nights he dreamed that Howard had found him in time for Steve to make his date with Peggy at the Stork Club. Peggy was always dressed in the red dress that had captivated him from the moment he saw her wearing it. She would teach Steve to dance and somehow he'd manage not to step on her toes. He'd lean in for a kiss and then wake up to a dark and empty room, swearing he could still feel her warmth in his arms and smell her perfume wafting through his apartment.

On a good night Steve might manage four or five hours of sleep. Bad nights might seem him not managing to get any rest at all. Now after everything that had happened with Loki and the Chitauri army, all Steve wanted to do was go somewhere and collapse. Instead he was at the Shawarma Palace at Tony Stark's insistence.

Looking around at his fellow Avengers, Steve was struck by what an amazing group of people he had been privileged to fight beside. Thor had fought against his own brother to protect a people not his own. Bruce had turned the worst part of his life into something that could be used to protect people rather than just cause destruction. Rather than giving into the pain and the doubts caused by being under Loki's spell Barton and managed to channel that into helping stop the invasion that he had (unwillingly) been a participant of. Natasha had refused to give up on anything, whether it was Clint Barton or closing that portal despite the fact that none of this was something that her training could have hoped to address..

And Tony had put Steve to shame. Despite the flippant face that Howard's son showed the world, it only masked the heart of a good man who was willing to lie down a wire to protect those who could not protect themselves.

With his shawarma lying untouched in front of him Steve Rogers propped his face on his hand and realized that while these people weren't the Howling Commandos, this was a team that he felt honored to be a part of. And as he started drifting into sleep, Steve realized that for the first time since he woke up in this loud, fast and overwhelming time he felt safe, content and warm.