You wake up to heavy breathing and thrashing from the other side of the bed. Your eyes snap open in fear, wondering what the hell was happening. Steve must have stayed the night; Steve must be having night terrors again. "Steve..." you sleepily mumble while you nudge him with one arm. His left arm, thrashing out at some invisible enemy, catches the side of your nose. "STEVE!" you yell, as your nose begins to throb painfully. He wakes up in shock, to see the red rose of blood spewing from your nose.
"Oh no! I'm so sorry! Please I... Let me get you a tissue!" He fumbles with the box of tissues sleepily and knocks it onto the floor. You begin to giggle and his big, clumsy hands trying to grab a dainty, rose scented tissue from the light pink box on the floor, failing spectacualy. He hears your laughs and begins to smile as well, while he mops the remaining blood from your face. You sigh at his tired eyes, concentrating on wiping your nose delicatly, in fear he could hurt you again.
"Perks of dating a super soldier, eh?" You say with a sarcastic smirk.
"I'm sorry, I never planned to stay over but you fell asleep on the sofa so I brought you to bed and you felt quite cold so I thought I'd stay and..."
"Warm me up?" You laugh, and begin to pull him closer. You briefly kiss, just a small peck on the lips but as he pulls away his face doesn't mirror yours: happy but sleepy but instead looks upset and alert.
"What's wrong?" You ask, racking your brains for what you could have done in the last few minutes to upset him. He reads your expression and hastily replies,
"Oh no, It's not you... It's just you haven't had a good night's sleep in weeks because of me. I just think that you must be getting a little bit angry about that because..."
You silence his tired ramblings with a kiss. Not hesitant and quick like last time but long and passionate. After a couple seconds, his lips start to push back against yours as he runs a hand through your hair. This time you lean back first, watching his face carefully as he swings his legs over the side of the bed and stands up wearing his dark blue boxers and begins to pull on a white vest top.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to make breakfast, pancakes?" he asks with a grin, already knowing the reply,
"Do you even need to ask?" You reply.
Pancakes are your favourite and pretty much everyone you know is aware of it. Secretly though, it's because that was exactly what you were eating, on your lunch break in New York City, when Steve bursted through the door to warn you of the attack that would destroy most of the city. Your house, your office and the special café that served pancakes with just enough Nutella and a side of strawberries. Just as you remember the events that happened 2 years ago Steve nudges open the door with a plate of three pancakes, laden with Nutella and strawberries. He sets it down on your knee and hops back into the bed beside you. After taking a few mouthfuls you glance over at him and see him watching you.
"What is it?" You splutter, mouth full of pancake.
His eyes meet yours, darting up as if he forgot you could see him.
"Wha... Nothing" he says, without his normal cheery optimism.
"No seriously, what's wrong?" You ask, swallowing down the last morsel of pancake. A part of you hopes he will tell what he's been dreaming about these past few months that affect him so much.
"Just... I love you and promise you won't leave me?"
The guilt hit you like a nail in the back of the neck.
"I've been asked to go to Berlin for work!"
Whoops. That was really sudden and loud. Steve hates you going to the grocery shop on the corner alone, as if he'd be okay with this!
"Oh... Well if you want to, it's fine."
"Yeah but do you want me to?"
"Of course not," he replies solemnly, "But how is this supposed to work if I'm constantly telling you where to go and what to do..."
"Steve..."
"No." He says suddenly, cutting you off mid sentence. "I've seen your tumblr page... You reblogged two pictures of the Berlin Christmas lights and urr... followed the official tourism page..."
"You've seen my tumblr?" You say looking down at your rapidly cooling pancakes, blushing at his thoughtfulness.
"I think you should go there! How long is it for?"
"One week." you say quietly. You can see him clench his fists at the thought of not being able to protect you for an entire week; releasing his grip when he sees you've noticed.
"Okay, that's... Okay. Just be careful out there people want to hurt me. What if they try to..."
"Steve," you say leaning your head on his shoulder, "I'll be fine, I haven't even told most of my friends about you yet, no one will even know I know you!"
"I love you."
"I love you too."