She was beautiful when she smiled. The thought surprised him. Not that she was beautiful. He had seen several beautiful women in his lifetime. No. He just thought that after Peggy, he wouldn't be able to look at another woman. Not the way he was looking at Lieutenant Hill. She was a hard woman to get close to. Just as hard to talk to. He knew most of the other Avengers didn't like her. She could be cold and he knew she didn't trust any of them and that smarted a little. Still that wasn't the reason that he couldn't talk to her. Whenever he got near her his stomach tied itself in knots and his hands began to shake. He couldn't even look her in the eye without blushing and stumbling over his words. Maria Hill made him nervous and as smart as she was, she didn't seem to realize it, yet. And for that he was eternally grateful.He didn't notice her at first and that was probably a good thing. It wouldn't have boded well for him or his team if he was mooning over her when he should have been concentrating on more important things, like saving the world from the Chitauri. When they had been introduced he had smiled politely and shook her hand. He'd felt a strange little shock when their hands met but he'd shrugged it off. She was the same as always, coldly polite, perfunctory, and without the trace of a smile on her face. When he smiled at her, her eyes seemed to turn colder. The moments they spent together had been brief and to the point. She gave him an update on the search for the Tesseract or relayed a message from Nick Fury. As always, she called him "Sir" or "Captain". He'd told her once to call him Steve. The look on her face, a mix of incredulity and shock, had made him want to take back the offer. She was unfailingly polite in her refusal to do so. She stated that it was inappropriate and left it at that.