Steve Rogers had been a little nervous when he had managed to call Clover Bonnie and invite her to spend some time with him, that day. It probably didn't help that he had spent a half hour trying to figure out to get his phone working, as he was more used to the rotary types of phone. The new handheld kind that everyone seemed to have now a days left him completely confused. He had managed to call her anyways, and talk to her without stammering at all. So that was a plus for him, now all he had to do was stay as calm and collected when he met up with her.
Steve had decided to make it easy on himself, and wear what he would normally wear when he decided to go out. That way he was ready faster, and was able to think about other things. Like if he should bring Clover flowers or something along those lines. Girls like that kind of stuff right when you were super keen on them, he thought to himself. He decided not to go that route as he didn't want to come off as overbearing towards Clover. He settled for going as himself to make it simple, and let whatever would happen to happen at the park. If anything happened a voice in the back of his mind said.
When it was close to the time that they had agreed on meeting up Steve made his way to the park. He sat down on a park bench in the general area that he said for Clover to meet him. As he sat on the hard wooden seat he couldn't help but look at his surroundings to keep him occupied as he waited. He watched as pedestrians walked by, and he noticed that a lot of the people in the park were either young couples, or families out for a walk. It made him feel good that people could still enjoy their time with loved ones.
At the same time it made him wonder if he would ever have a chance to have time like that with someone that he really cared about. Though of course protecting the lives of people around him was his number one priority, but at times he wished he had more personal time to do things that he liked. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make, and at least he could steal little moments of time to spend time with the new friends he was making in the Avenger group. Though 'friends' would be a somewhat loose term to describe some of his colleagues.
Steve had been deep in his thoughts and looking at people passing by that he had not been paying attention when someone had called out to him.
"Hey!" said a slightly nervous voice rather close to him, which made him jump and look up. He saw Clover Bonnie standing a few feet away from him.
"Oh hi," he said feeling embarrassed that he did not hear her, or even spot her coming towards him. "Sorry about that," he said apologizing.
"That's ok," Clover replied and paused for a very brief moment as she thought of what to say next, "so, uh, were you day dreaming or something?" Clover asked with a timid smile as she sat down on the bench next to him. Small talk with Steve was not her strong point, but she was going to at least try. She did not want to end up just sitting there with him in awkward silence. When she had sat down she made sure that there was some space between them so that they were not sitting too close together. Lately she was constantly aware of the personal space between the two of them.
"Sort of," Steve admitted "I was just thinking about some things."
"Oh? Like what?" Clover asked curiously.
"Just wondering what I would do if I had more free time besides waiting to save people," Steve admitted, he never seemed to have a problem opening up to Clover and talking about things like that. Compared to him trying to talk to some of the other Avengers. That usually ended disastrously for him.
"Well I'm sure you'd find all sorts of different hobbies, and maybe a side job or two," Clover noted, though she wondered to herself what kind of hobbies he would even have if he had more free time. Would he be the type of person that built little model planes, or ships in bottles? She could not quite picture him as a full time gardener, maybe he'd cut the grass when it needed a trim. He would probably play baseball for sure. What if he a secretly one of those guys that liked to do arts and crafts, she wondered.
"But all the things I know I'm good at are," he paused as he tried to find a way to describe it "out of date."
Hearing that made Clover feel sorry for Steve as she had only a vague idea of how he out of place he must feel having missed so much being frozen. Without thinking she reached over and placed her hand on top of Steve's.
"You're strengths aren't out of date," she said abruptly and slightly louder than normal. Before she stopped herself and lowered her voice. "I mean you're strong, smart, and really caring. That's not out of date at all in fact more people should be more like you, because you're such a positive role model." Clover admitted, and when she realized what she had just said she felt incredibly embarrassed as she had answered honestly. It was not that she did not want Steve to know that she thought so nicely of him, but she did not want to let him know that she had such a massive crush on him.
She saw that she still had her hand on top of his, and awkward jerked it back. She hoped that it did not seem obvious to Steve as she placed her hands in her lap. She sneaked a glance at Steve as saw that he was looking at her. Which made her face go really red, as she was not sure how to react to that. He seemed to look at her really intensely before he broke out in a wide genuine smile. Which made Clover want to melt right then and there.
"Thank you," he said as he felt better because of Clover's compliments.
"You're welcome," she mumbled to him as she dropped her gaze from his face as she was sure that her entire face was red by now. The last thing she wanted at that moment was for Steve to see how embarrassed she got when he smiled at her. Looking at what was in front of her she tried to find something to distract him from paying too much attention to her. As she scanned the area around them she noticed something off in the distance.
"How do you feel about ice cream?" Clover asked trying to sound normal, but to herself she just sounded shy. Steve tilted his head to the side for a moment as he thought over her offer.
"That sounds good to me," he replied to her with another smile. Which made Clover whip her head forward to avoid letting herself be drawn into his smile. The two of them got up from the bench they had been sitting on and walked towards the little ice cream stand. The walk over there was a little quiet since Clover was focusing a lot of her attention on not getting too close and bumping into Steve as well as avoiding the other patrons in the park. The two of them had made it safely to the ice cream cart and waited in the short line as it seemed everyone else besides them had thought that getting ice cream was a great idea for such a sunny day in the park.
When it was finally their turn Steve let Clover order first, but she had not been paying much attention to the menu. So if a fit of panic she looked for the first thing on the menu board and ordered that. It was not until after she had said it out loud that she realized that she had asked for a Captain America popsicle. Right then and there she wanted to find some dark and deep hole to hide in forever. But there was not anything she could do at that moment except take her ice cream from the vendor. Clover had been so preoccupied with trying not to die from her embarrassment, that it was not until she saw Steve pulling out his wallet, that she realized that she had forgotten to pay for her ice cream.
"Wait, I can pay for my-," She stammered to Steve as she fumbled with her free hand to remember which pocket she had put her money in.
"It's ok it's on me this time," Steve said gently cutting her off in mid-sentence. Seeing that he probably was not going to take no for an answer Clover dropped the matter. She did not want to cause any sort of scene in front of Steve at that point. After Steve had finished paying the two of them started walking off in some random direction, as they both slowly ate their ice cream.
"What flavor did you get?" Clover asked trying to break the semi-awkward silence they had been walking in.
"Something with peanut butter, I honestly only saw the peanut butter part on the menu, and I had to try it," he admitted with laugh "But I like the option you went with," he said with genuine smile.
"Uh...yeah it sounded like the best thing on the menu," Clover stammered as she could feel her face heating up again. She felt as if she did not need to look in a mirror to see that her face was probably bright red.
"Well I'm glad you think so," he told her before licking more of his ice cream cone, as the sun was starting to make it melt even more. It was getting to that point where at any second it could start melting all over his hand. Clover tried her best to try and stifle a laugh as she watched Steve struggle to keep up with his ice cream, before it became a puddle in his hand. After a couple of minutes it seemed like he had finally got it under control, and avoided a near sticky disaster.
"I think I finally got it to stop," Steve joked as he looked from his ice cream cone to Clover. When he looked at her he saw that she was covering her mouth with one hand. It seemed like she was trying really hard not to laugh about something. "What is it?" he asked curiously. Clover moved her hand away from her mouth and tried not to let out a laugh as she tried to speak.
"You have a little something, right here," she as she tapped the side of her mouth to show him. Instinctively Steve raised his arm to use it to wipe his mouth, but managed to stop himself just in time. He started patting himself down with his free hand as he tried to look for something he could use as a napkin. "Here," Clover said to him as she held out the napkin she had grabbed earlier to him.
"Thanks," he said to her as he took it, and wiped his mouth with it "Better?" he asked her as he wanted to make sure that he had gotten all of it off.
"Better," she agreed with a smile, but then she noticed that Steve had an odd intense look on his face. "What?" she asked as she was a little nervous s to why he was looking at her so intensely.
"You've got a little ice cream around your mouth," he told her, and immediately Clover started looking for another napkin. She soon realized that she forgot to pick up an extra one, and the ice cream stand was no longer in sight. Steve could see that Clover was contemplating some kind of plan, but then an idea popped into his mind. With his free hand he reached up with his thumb, and carefully wiped the tiny smudge of ice cream away from her mouth. The sudden action made Clover jump in her skin.
"Sorry," he said to her as he pulled his hand away, "it seemed quicker than walking all the way back there for another napkin.
"T-thanks," Clover stuttered out as she tried to look him in the eyes. She had not expected him to be so touch her like that, or how gentle his hand felt. Part of her felt like shaking from excitement, but the bigger part of her was probably doing it out of embarrassment. This time she felt like her entire body was flushing red.
I hold no ownership over the characters in this story.
Clover Bonnie belongs to my friend who this story is for.
I'm not too familiar with Captain America as a character so any feedback on how I captured his personality in this story is greatly appreciated.