A/N: This was written for The Houses Competition run by MoonlightForgotten. Bonus Round! Marvel Theme using Prompt 1 "I guess you are wondering why I'm naked?" and Prompt 2 "Shattering glass" Word Count: 1770. Enjoy! :D
Sunrays shone in Hermione's home in Muggle London. After graduating, Hermione had wanted to stay in her childhood home in her parents' honor; it was also next to the cemetery that her parents were buried. She set her hands down on the counter in the kitchen, staring at the quiet space and thinking.
Hermione thought that she and Ron would be together and planning the rest of their lives together with marriage, children, and jobs. Instead, she's living here on her own while he was off preparing his wedding to the round-bellied Lavender Brown. That burning feeling didn't reside in her insides anymore; Hermione was resigned to the fact that it wasn't meant to be. Granted, she wasn't one to believe in the idea of fate deciding things for her, but Hermione's best reasoning of the current situation was that it just wasn't meant to be.
Steam misted in front of her as she placed her hand around her mug, bringing it to her lips. She tasted the hot, fulfilling liquid as it soothed her mind and body and sighed. Why couldn't her life be hot and fulfilling? Since her adolescence, Hermione was very familiar with the idea of adventures and the thrill; and now that it was basically over, she still wanted that feeling yet in the form of settling down with someone.
Her choices were limited as the majority of her classmates that were left had already tied the knot or were currently courting someone. Being a muggleborn had its advantages in blending well among the muggles, but Hermione didn't want to have to hide her magical ability away from someone. So Hermione was left with the choices of by-chance encounters, which she did not believe could happen at this point. They only existed in the books she read.
Though, Hermione should have known by now that anytime she said something wouldn't work, it would work.
Across the seas was a man held captive in a madman's laboratory. He gritted his teeth as he struggled against the tight bonds. There wasn't much that he couldn't break away from, but these straps were made of some non-destructive material, similar to his shield.
He stared at the perpetrator, grunting slightly as he tried to pull his wrists from the bonds. "I honestly don't get the fascination with the super powerful stones that can destroy the world. Really, I don't," Steve said in an obvious tone.
Red Skull chuckled maniacally as he paced in front of Captain America; behind him looked to be a circular machine, charging up with a pink stone in the middle of it.
"You'll understand soon enough," Red Skull replied. He stopped in front of Captain America, his soulless eyes somehow gleaming with satisfaction, "Because you'll be something familiar; a test subject for what I have planned."
As he said that, the machine started up with a blast of pink energy, morphing together in the center of the device to create some sort of vortex. Red Skull laughed sinisterly as Captain America started to break through his bonds. As Roger started to charge for Red Skull, the scientist side stepped and pushed Captain America into the shining pink energy.
The minute Steve went through the vortex, he was sent flying downwards. However, that wasn't really the part he paid attention to. The striking part for him; was that the energy had somehow disintegrated all of his clothing, which wasn't at all favorable to his junk in this wind.
Squinting his eyes, Steve's visioned cleared to show him that he was plummeting down into a neighborhood of homes, heading directly for a house.
He curled himself into a defensive ball as he braced for the hard impact he was going to create from crashing into someone's window.
The collision with the glass came swiftly. With his velocity and weight, breaching the window was easy. The flimsy crystal-like foundation fractured immediately. He felt the clear sharp pieces pierce and cut up his bare body. Steve heard the startled, strangled cry of a woman in the room as he rolled on the carpet and stood back up.
Hermione was at a loss for words while staring at the man before her. Her wide brown eyes couldn't resist staring at his tall, built physique, quickly covering her blushing face when her eyes stopped in one particular area. It wasn't that she could see it, but given the man's large hands were covering a wide area, the irrational part of her mind decided to think of the possibilities.
Steve shuffled slightly to shake the rest of the glass shards off him while the woman covered her face for obvious reasons. His own cheeks tinged a bit red as he cleared his throat, "I guess you are wondering why I'm naked?" he started with a shake of his head, "I can assure you ma'am, this is not an everyday thing."
He scoffed to himself, "Heh, not to this degree, anyway."
Hermione opened her fingers over one eye to look at him, "An introduction would have sufficed," she replied as she swallowed.
"My apologies ma'am," he told her, "I'm C-Steve Rogers." Steve grabbed one of the pillows on the sofa in front of him to cover himself better.
Hermione raised a brow at the quick correction that he made, but figured that the effort to get the information out of him now would not be helpful. Instead, Hermione uncovered her whole face once she saw him covering himself with a pillow; however, her cheeks remained the color of red.
At the mention of red, Hermione noted the cuts created from the glass that was still lodged in parts of his body.
"I'm Hermione Granger. Allow me to help you with um…" Hermione started to say as she pointed to his chest, getting distracted for a bit but forcing herself to stay on track, "...your cuts."
Steve kept one hand firmly on the pillow as he used the other to scratch the back of his head, "That'd be most appreciated."
Hermione went to raise her wand, but remembered that the man in front of her could be a muggle; she couldn't reveal herself. Instead, Hermione attempted to save the action by pretending to drop something, which didn't go unnoticed by Steve; although, he decided not to pry considering he was nude in a strange woman's home.
Sounded like his times before joining the army when Bucky would come staggering back from running out of one of his lady friend's bedrooms.
A clink was made as glass shards were dropped in a small bowl from Steve's wounds. Hermione was insistent on helping remove the pieces lodged into his body.
"Are you sure this doesn't hurt?" Hermione asked with a frown. There were so many things that Hermione could believe, considering she was a witch, but the amount of cuts on his body would certainly hurt a human being.
Steve chuckled, knowing exactly why he wasn't in immense pain. He did wince every now and then, but Steve hardly felt anything while the woman before him took the glass from his wounds.
"I'll take care of your window," he told her.
She tried to focus her attention on the task at hand because if Hermione looked anywhere else, her faint blush would intensify all over again. "I can have it patched up in no time, trust me," she replied.
"I insist," Steve said.
Hermione shook her head, breaking her focus to stare into his blue eyes. Clearing her throat, Hermione responded with, "I insist."
"Can't argue with persistence," he laughed.
Hermione smiled softly as the last clink sounded from the glass being removed from Steve's chest. Thankfully for Hermione, that was the section with the most impact; there was no way she would be able to handle the situation if she had to go any lower.
Stepping away, Hermione reached for a towel to clean the dry blood from the cuts. Steve grabbed for the towel to help, incidentally rubbing against Hermione's hand. Steve cleared his throat again while Hermione's cheeks tinted red.
"I could...get you some clothes," she stated before disappearing into the hallway towards her bedroom. Inside of her closet was still some of her parents' things, including some of her father's clothes; they would have to do.
Hermione returned with the clothing and handed them to Steve, "I don't know how well these will fit, but these are the best things I can offer at short notice."
Steve accepted the clothing and gave her a questioning look. Hermione blinked with curiosity until she realized, "Oh, I'm so sorry! The bathroom is down the hall, the last on the left." She pointed in the direction he needed and Steve nodded gratefully.
He stood and maneuvered his way down the corridor of the house with his rear end to the wall as to not flash Hermione. She was very grateful for that, because the hint of his bum that she did get to see, would be engraved into her memory forever.
"So this is England now?" Steve inquired as he looked around the neighborhood. He was standing outside with Hermione now that he was freshly dressed and ready to go. The clothes Hermione had gotten for him fit rather well. Too well for the muggleborn witch because of his toned physique.
"Now?" She asked curiously.
"I was in the war," he replied dismissively before facing her. Steve gave Hermione a kind, charming smile, "I want to thank you for helping me when you didn't have to, ma'am. If you would be so kind as to direct me to the closest place with a computer, I would be eternally grateful. There's somewhere I have to be and quickly."
Hermione nodded, "Of course," she replied, "Let me just get my wan- purse." Hermione rushed back inside and let out a breath. As soon as she arrived home, Hermione would have to contact Ginny; the redhead would not believe this!
Straightening up, Hermione grabbed her bag with her wand securely inside of it and left her home, discreetly fixing her window as the pair walked down the street out of her neighborhood.
Steve looked at the woman he was walking with to wherever, allowing himself a moment to admire her simple beauty. Once the problem with Red Skull is done, Steve would have to ask Natasha to help him locate this Hermione Granger.
This wasn't a feeling he'd felt since Peggy, but Steve would have to see Hermione again. Hermione was thinking something along the lines that she would never doubt by-chance encounters ever again.