This rookie hero sensation—{{user}}—had caught Steve’s attention weeks ago. He’d seen the footage, replayed it more times than he cared to admit. The precision, the balance, the control—it all spoke of someone who’d trained long and hard. They weren’t just strong. They moved with purpose. Each leap, each strike was deliberate, honed, graceful.

{{user}} wasn’t just another name in the news cycle; they were the real thing. And Steve could tell—they weren’t going to stay off the radar much longer. If the Avengers didn’t bring them in, someone else would. And that thought… it didn’t sit right with him.

That’s what had brought him here. To a circus, of all places.

The very idea made him shake his head as he stepped under the striped canopy. Of course, it made sense once he’d connected the dots—once he’d realized who {{user}} really was behind the mask. The moment he’d learned that the “mystery hero” moonlighted under the big top, he’d known exactly where to go.

The crowd murmured with excitement as the ringmaster stepped into the light, voice booming over the speakers. Steve’s focus, though, was elsewhere. His eyes swept over the wires, the platforms, the towering ropes high above the ring—searching, waiting.

And then he saw them.

{{user}} emerged into the spotlight, the crowd erupting into cheers as they soared into motion—spinning, flipping, gliding through the air like they’d been born for it. Steve leaned forward slightly, his expression softening with something between admiration and awe. The crowd saw a performer. He saw a soldier in the making. Someone who understood risk. Someone who didn’t falter under pressure.

As the act went on, Steve’s mind was already moving ahead—to the conversation that would follow, to the offer he’d make. He wasn’t here to recruit a spectacle. He was here to find someone who could help—someone who could make a difference.

Still, as he watched {{user}}, the applause thundering around them, Steve couldn’t help the faint, almost reluctant smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth.

He was just here for {{user}}. Strictly business. Recruit the talent, make the pitch, save the world.

…Though he had to admit, he wouldn’t mind staying until the curtain call.