Here it is, everyone! My second fic! I'm planning to make this a series of one-shots, so advice about the other Avengers is always welcome!
Disclaimer: I am a poor teenager who owns nothing.
Steve
Pepper tapped into the tower. It was a saturday, and she glad to be going inside away from the wind and the freezing sleet that was beginning to overtake the two feet of snow that had been unseasonably dumped on the city in late October. The first thing she saw was Steve, sitting in the lobby by the door, wearing a coat and holding a dozen roses. He had a look on his face that reminded her of Tony when he wanted to do something that would be painful or dangerous.
"Steve, where are you going?" Pepper asked.
"Nowhere, now," he replied, giving her a small, sad smile. "Too much snow. The buses aren't running, and there's no way a taxi's going to come in this. Normally, I walk it every week, but..." he shuddered slightly and ran a hand over his face. "I don't do well with cold and wet anymore."
Pepper sighed inwardly. She needed to talk to Tony about the board of directors, and there was a pile of paperwork sitting upstairs waiting for her. But something about the sadness that Steve tried to hide always got her. "Wait here."
Steve looked at her, clearly confused, as she walked across the lobby and dumped the pile of notes and papers she was carrying onto a plush chair. "JARVIS? Can you please notify Tony that I need him to take this upstairs for me?"
"Of course Miss Potts. I shall inform him immediately."
Ten seconds later, she was back at Steve's side and was nudging him gently towards the door. "I don't know where we're going, so you had better be good at directions," Pepper teased him gently.
Steve opened his mouth, as if to protest, but she cut him off. "We are going, Steve. I'm driving. You can't talk me out of it, so don't even try." He closed his mouth and followed her outside to the sleek car at the curb. Pepper saw a tremor run down his body as the cold air and sleet hit him, but she opened the car door and said nothing.
The ride there was silent. Except for Steve's occasional instructions, not a word passed between them. Finally, they stopped at a small cemetery, deserted because of the weather, and Steve got out with the roses. Pepper stayed in the car; clearly this was something she didn't need to intrude on. She watched, though, as he trudged through the snow to a grave marked Peggy Carter, and knelt in the cold next to it, laying the roses at the headstone and lowering his head. He sat like that for four or five minutes, unmoving. Just when Pepper was on the edge of going out to bring him in before he had a panic attack or got frostbite or something, he stood, wiping his eyes, and returned to the car.
When they got back to the tower, they rode the elevator up in silence. It dinged as they arrived at Pepper's office, and she stepped forwards.
She turned to look at Steve. "Same time next week?" she asked.
Steve looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "Pepper?... Thank you."
Pepper smiled at him, and the elevator closed.