A/N: Welcome, welcome. This is the place where I dump all the scenes of Steve and Holly I have revolving around my head that's distracting me from updating the main story - Hope for the Hopeless. They vary in length, some being short snippets of a thousand words or less and some being lengthy enough to be considered a full chapter/one shot. They're mostly ideas triggered by songs/movies/books or anything really that inspires me and so, some of them are titled after said songs/movies/books/anything. This chapter is inspired by two songs - Something by The Beatles and Something in the Way she Moves by James Taylor. Give them both a try, they're such lovely songs.
Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing you recognize. I don't wanna be sued, I just wanna write lol.
Without further ado, I present to you:
Evaporate: The In-Betweens
One: Something in the Way...
"Gather 'round now, children! Gather around!"
Tony Stark grinned at his grousing guests and nodded smugly, not once ceasing his attack on the wineglass. He stood on the highest point of the room – in an attempt to be seen by everyone – as always, which happened to be the handmade dining table he had ordered in from Italy especially for the affair.
Pepper Potts tugged hard on his pant legs in a futile attempt to curb the billionaire who ignored her unyielding efforts and continued to call out boisterously across the room.
"Tony! Get down!"
"Hold it, Pep, I need to gather the committee."
"You're such an idiot!" She hissed through clenched teeth, looking thoroughly harassed. Steve couldn't help but wonder if this was how she looked on an everyday basis, considering how the two were dating and working together.
"I beg to differ, my dearest," Stark pandered as he hopped down from the table in an obnoxious smacking of leather and stone. "I mean this state of the art building was designed by yours truly…" At her icy glare, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and continued, winking. "With 12% of the hard work going to Ms. Potts here, of course."
Steve scoffed. "So that's where the 12% thing came from."
"What 12%?" Barton asked.
"Stop harping on the past, Spangly," Stark said airily, waving a hand as if he could dispel the topic from the air around them. "Live in the present. The present is a wonderful place!"
"I'll show you wonderful," Steve groused, earning himself a rare chuckle from Romanoff and even a small smile from Holly.
"So!" Stark continued cheerily, having paid the super-soldier no mind. "Pick your glasses up, people! It's time for toasts!"
Potts hung her head back with an ill-concealed groan of exasperation. "Tony…"
"What?" He shot back. "It's a dinner. All dinners have toasts!"
"Except we already had them done. Just now. Remember?" Romanoff deadpanned in a cold calmness that she executed with finesse. "When you were praising yourself to high heavens and Pepper had to get you to stop because Clint was falling asleep?"
"That was the pre-dinner toasts, Agent Romanoff," Stark said, curling his 'r' obnoxiously, much to the redhead's distaste. "We're now having our post-dinner toasts."
"Does he do this everyday?" Barton asked, looking towards Potts.
"Only to be an absolute annoyance to everyone, yes."
"C'mon people! Rejoice! The war is over!" Stark crowed. He waved his arms about vivaciously, spilling champagne all over the table. Holly would've been showered in the sparkling beverage if she hadn't jumped out of the way. "There might've been some bruising and a little blood loss, but we're all still alive, aren't we?"
There was a beat after Stark's enthused rave where everyone in the room turned towards Holly in unison, faces frozen and eyes wide in consternation. Even Stark had the grace to look mortified at his thoughtless outburst.
Flushing at the sudden attention, Holly shook her head and tugged a piece of her hair behind her ear habitually. "I'm okay, guys. Really."
There was another beat, then –
"See! That's the spirit!" Stark as always, was the first to recover in a situation as he reached over to ruffle her hair. "Good on you, Bubbles! I knew I liked you for a reason other than your sassy rejection of my advances."
"Excuse me?" Potts snapped.
"Toasts!" The billionaire raised his half-full glass towards the irked strawberry blonde with a salacious wink. "To my lovely Pepper, may you stay as beautiful and as talented as you do now and forever more." She flushed at the compliments and grumbled something intelligible under her breath as Stark downed the contents of his drink. "Although even if you don't, I'm sure I can come up with something to counteract that in the future."
Next, he directed his empty glass to the two S.H.I.E.L.D agents across the table. When he realized it was empty, he swiped the bottle of champagne from the table without a bat of his eye.
"And to Agents Barton and Romanoff, thank you for being two of the three good things to come out of Nick Fury's ass."
"You're a terrible person," Barton chortled, raising his own glass, although he couldn't keep the smile off his face.
"Not afraid one of us is going to rat to him?" Romanoff smirked.
"No," Stark scoffed, taking a deep drag of champagne. But something clicked in his head as he stopped short and reconsidered his actions. "Don't tell him I said that though, honestly." Then, he turned towards the reticent scientist, unaffected, and grinned broadly. Stark threw an arm around Banner, pulled him closer and succeeded in knocking the wind out of the poor man. "Bruce! My fellow genius… Science bros for life, man!"
Banner chuckled softly. "Yeah, sure, Tony."
"No, really, science bros for life," He reiterated. "No more running off to Calcutta or the Arctic or rural China in the future."
"Yes, Tony. For life," Banner mimicked, rolling his eyes.
"He's so drunk," Holly whispered, leaning closer to Steve so that he could hear her clearer without the billionaire in question overhearing them.
"You think?"
"Hey! There'll be no secrets in this room!" Holly and Steve sprang apart, eyes wide at the boisterous yell bouncing about the room. Stark guffawed at their reactions, smacking his hand against his thigh repeatedly and pointed a finger in their direction. He earned a rough nudge in the gut from Potts, who effectively stopped his obnoxious laughter.
"Okay, okay, fine," Stark wheezed. "A toast to our Captain Stars 'n' Stripes. Thank you, for opening my eyes up to the world," He grinned, winking exaggeratedly at him. "I never knew someone could be as much of a stick in the mud as you are, until I met you."
Steve's jaw clicked together, his teeth grinding as he bit back the retort sitting at the tip of his tongue. He huffed out once and folded his arms across his chest while the rest of the company laughed. He knew his thinking was kind of old-fashioned for someone who looked as young as he did, but he didn't think it was something to be teased and taunted about. With the way Stark was constantly mocking him, it seemed as if being a respectful gent was unorthodox and that women in this age were meant to be treated less than courteously.
But his ideas and decorum were what made Steve fundamentally, well, Steve. They were something that was stamped into him since he was a young boy, and waking up to a modern society was not going to change that, no matter what.
"At least he's a gentleman," Holly piped up, eyeing Stark squarely. Steve's eyes flickered over to her at the defensiveness in her voice and barely managed to return her smile with one of his own.
The billionaire's brows shot up in surprise, his dark eyes sparkling with mirth. "Was that supposed to be a dig at me?"
"I don't know," She shrugged. "Was it?"
"Sure sounds that way to me," He looked at Romanoff. "Isn't that right, Natasha?"
The redheaded agent merely smirked. Stark hummed and proceeded to reach forward and pour some champagne into Holly's glass, only to overestimate his judgment, sending golden wine sloshing over the sides and spilling onto her hands.
"That's a little too much, Mr. Stark," She bit out, setting her brimming glass down to take the napkins Steve offered her.
"There's never too much alcohol, Bubs," Stark grinned. He swiped the abandoned flute from the table and took a loud, distasteful gulp. "To our sassy super-nurse, may you and Cap progress swiftly so that you can personally bone the stick –"
"Tony!" Potts cut in quickly, aghast. It seemed to be a personal talent of hers to interrupt whenever Stark was about to say something appallingly offensive or downright sleazy.
"Okay! PG rating, fine," He sighed. "Anyways, because of the 20% – I gave her 20%, Cap – hard work you placed in saving the world, I hereby declare you to be an honorary member of the A-Team!"
"A-Team?"
"Yeah, the Avengers Team," He nodded, looking thoroughly impressed with himself. "The A-Team."
"Uh… thanks," Holly snorted, setting the soaked napkins aside and trading them for an untouched glass of water. "But no thanks."
She took a sip, her face scrunching up into a painful grimace as the beverage burned a searing path down her throat. Vodka. Figures. Romanoff snorted at her reaction and swiped the drink from her, pressing a cup of soda into her hands, which she quickly downed.
"Why not?" Stark frowned, bewildered. Seemingly not noticing her slip with the drinks, he pressed on. "It's a privilege, you know? We're like Earth's mightiest heroes or something."
"Yeah, still not interested," She choked out, still reeling from the sip of undiluted vodka.
"Whatever, you've already been inducted, no backing out now."
"How old are you again?" Holly laughed, shaking her head in exasperation.
"Old enough to be your daddy," He grinned. "Literally."
"Oh," She murmured, caught off-guard. "Oh that's just – oh, gross."
Everyone at the table shared a laugh that even Steve joined in at the expanse of the young nurse as she blanched, though her disgust gave way to quiet amusement.
The laughter faded away after a few moments as the group took quiet drafts from their own drinks.
"One last toast," Stark spoke up. The mirth and humour left his countenance, replaced by a solemn gaze directed at Holly. "To Agent Phil Coulson," She averted her eyes to the glass in her hands. "For his foolishness, his naivety, his damned courage and the faith he had in all of us. To Phil."
It was short, simple and so unlike Stark's normal flourish that Steve assumed it was so because he didn't want to put Holly in too much of a spot. Her head was bowed, white-knuckled hands clutching so very firmly around her drink that he was afraid the glass would shatter under her grip. He watched while she took in a deep breath before picking her head up, her own arm following her movements as the glass rose in a silent toast.
"To Phil," She smiled.
For the first time, glasses were raised in unison as everyone toasted the fallen agent. He was the glue linking one person to the next and if it weren't for his defense of Thor from Loki, the Avengers' and Holly wouldn't have happened.
And they would definitely not be gathered around the slightly ruined penthouse floor in Stark Tower, sending toasts to each other.
"Now that that's out of the way. Jarvis! Hit the needle!" Stark hollered, breaking the silence. He snapped his fingers and the lights dimmed before grabbing a couple decanters of alcohol from the side tray, which he slammed down in front of Barton. "Time for a rematch, Robin Hood." He turned towards Steve with a dark brow raised in challenge. "Wanna join, Spangs?"
He shook his head. "I can't get drunk."
"Come on, Cap," Barton said. "It's gonna be fun."
"Seriously though, I can't get drunk," Steve repeated. He gestured to his body with a self-explanatory shrug. "Super-serum, super metabolism. It's impossible."
Barton whistled lowly. "Damn."
Chuckling, he turned away from the two and cast his eyes around the room. Everyone had broken into groups – Stark and Barton in their drinking contest, Pepper was on her phone and Romanoff had engaged Banner in a hushed conversation. He frowned, not having seen Holly with any of the aforementioned three and turned around.
She was moving about – rather sneakily – along the bar that had miraculously survived Loki's destruction, eyes flickering from one label to another. Her hands flitted indecisively about the crystal decanters of amber coloured liquor lined on the marble slab. One by one, She passed over the pricier looking ones, which Steve figured were those with higher alcohol content, and chose instead to settle for the bottles of Breezers. Before she made a move for the drinks, Holly took a few careful glances around; checking to make sure no one was watching her before she filched three bottles from the counter top quickly, placing her arms by her side in forced casualness.
'Smooth,' Steve snorted. It was bumbling actions like this that reminded him how young Holly truly was, despite withholding one of the biggest burdens among the rest of them.
Quietly, he watched as she took another look around the room before beating a hasty retreat and disappearing into one of the balconies to the side of the floor in a flurry of black silk and flashing Plexiglas windows.
"Best go check on the girl, Cap."
Steve turned back to the two men, meeting Stark's hazy gaze. The latter was leaning against the edge of the table while Barton sat slumped in his chair, each holding a bottle of scotch in their hands.
"We don't want her to fall over the edge, do we?" Stark mused. "My tower's not bumbling drunken idiot-friendly."
The super-soldier raised a brow in reply. He looked at the empty bottles on the table and back towards the inventor who merely rolled his eyes in response to his unspoken shade.
"Just – just go," He sighed, waving a hand to shoo him away. "You're giving me a physical pain in the brain."
"Are you sure that's not the scotch you're consuming?" Steve sassed before walking away without waiting for a retort, leaving the petulant man to grumble at his back in slurs.
"Hey."
Steve stopped at the threshold of the terrace; unsure if Holly would welcome his presence in the little refuge she had carved out to hide from the others. It was an open-air platform wrapped around the left side of the tower with a sprawling view of the city skyline. Being one of the tallest buildings in the area allowed for a breathtaking vision of downtown Manhattan – from the uniform streetlights lining the alleys to the blurs of car lights speeding down the roads.
Holly turned from the scene and smiled up at him. In the dimness of the full moon overhead and the floor lights installed into the tiles, Steve could see a light flush staining the apples of her cheeks, giving her a glowing yet slightly feverish look.
"Hey yourself," Steve's brows rose at the underlying coyness in her voice and felt a warmness slowly seeping up his neck. He rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling like an abashed schoolboy all of a sudden, and gestured to the empty seat beside her. In reply, Holly patted the space on the settee and returned to studying the darkened portrait of the city.
"What are you doing out here?" He asked, taking her proffered bottle with a soft murmur of appreciation. He broke off the cap with ease and took a draft, letting the bitterness of the Bacardi glide down his gullet and pool in his guts.
Holly shrugged instead and took a sip. With a smack, her lips detached itself from the mouth that sounded so very loud in the still quietness.
"How are you?" He asked.
Another shrug.
Awkwardly, Steve shuffled in his seat and took another gulp from his bottle, noticing that he had polished off half of the contents in two swigs. With her lack of verbal replies and attention, he was starting to think his presence was unwelcomed and Holly only acquiesced his request out of basic decorum. It was something he would have done, if he were her.
"They're like tiny stars – it relaxes me."
Steve almost choked on his drink when the "I'm sorry?"
"The lights from the buildings. They're like stars," She said and turned to appraise him with a small quirk of her brows. "Don't you think so?"
Steve turned to the view. Allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he could see what Holly was talking about. The lights decking the buildings did look like stars if you stared hard enough and the shapes of the buildings blended into the inky darkness of the night sky.
"I used to go camping with my parents when I was little," Holly confessed, propping her chin up on one of her arms. "Dad would rent a little cabin in the Colorado Mountains and we'd spend a couple of days there, hanging out and swimming in the lakes and roasting marshmallows," She took one last, long draught from her mostly emptied bottle and gulped loudly before letting a loud gasp of satisfaction.
Steve cringed, though he tried to hide it by copying her actions.
"At night, we'll drag a tent out and sleep under the night sky," She raised one of her fingers and left it poised in the air as she began to trace an imaginary line, linking all the tiny lights together. "Mom and Dad would point out all the constellations to me, and they'll always argue which one of them was right until I fall asleep."
"It sounds wonderful."
Holly grinned. In the blanketing darkness of the night, Steve was struck by how her smile seemed to light up and how the simple upward tugging of her lips could cause his heart to stutter ever so lightly. He choked it up to the alcohol he had been consuming and decided to set the bottle aside.
"It does, doesn't it?" She asked rhetorically and was had more to say when a sharp trill came from the pocket of his pants. "What was that?"
Steve drew a slim device from within his pocket as a mild blue light bounced off of his skin. A single envelope icon was currently wriggling on the darkened screen, begging for his attention.
"Stark gave me a phone just this afternoon," Steve admitted in shy uncertainty as he stared down at gadget in unconcealed befuddlement.
The 'phone' was an impossibly slim thing of cool metal and polished glass, bearing the proud logo of Stark Industries on its back. It was no wonder Steve didn't know how to use it. The device looked even more futuristic than Holly's own, and she was a proud owner of the latest model from Apple Inc. He slid a thick finger across the screen clumsily, prompting the device to light up in a crisp neon blue light.
"He said it was specially designed for me," Steve explained, as the words 'Welcome back, Captain Spangs' flashed across the see-through screen in an explosion of vibrant colours. "That it was made to cater to my voice and touch but I still have no idea how to use it."
"Here, let me see," Holly offered. Steve was already presenting the gadget to her before she could put a hand out, handing it over like how one would hand a crying baby back to his mother.
"I'm not sure if it'll recognize your voice though…"
"Well, let's get to the phonebook first, shall we?" She mumbled and was about to get Steve to speak the commandment when the words on the screen flickered away to reveal the contact list. "Um…"
"It recognizes your voice," Steve pointed out, baffled. "Why does it recognize your voice?"
It couldn't be because she sounded like him, could it. No, that was impossible. Holly had a soft and silvery voice that was in no way close to his bass baritone deliverance.
'I can't have broken it already, can I?' Steve considered. 'I barely even touched it.'
The glass doors separating the terrace from the living room slid open, revealing an alcohol-flushed face and a bright and very well taken care of grin.
"That's all me," Stark cut in, jabbing a finger at the phone lazily. "Just in case Capsicle here locked himself out and couldn't find a way to unlock it. Your voice is one of the two default users, Bunny."
Ignoring his obvious dig at her larger than normal front teeth, Holly asked, "But why me?"
"Because you're the only one who could tolerate him, duh."
"That's rude, Tony," Steve watched as the brunette frowned at the inventor in obvious disapproval. "Everyone likes Steve well enough. Except for you. Ever thought it might be your problem?"
Instead of snapping back with a witty comeback, Stark merely chortled as he clutched onto the sides of the glass doors tightly to keep himself upright.
"See, this is why I picked you," He shook his head in amusement and pushed himself away from his support, swaying dangerously on the spot. "Well, play nice children and don't be one of those weird exhibitionists. We've got tons of rooms in this building, open for your benefit."
With a much-too-suggestive wink directed at the steadily reddening pair, he walked away; mumbling under his breath about defending Steve and something else none of them could quite catch.
"Stupid Stark," Holly muttered darkly. "Let's just ignore him."
She then proceeded to divert their attention back to the troublesome contraption in her hands as they both slowly figured out how to navigate the system and execute the most basic functions – calling, texting and taking pictures.
"So," Holly said, passing the phone back to Steve after setting a picture of her she had taken on the spot as her contact picture. "What are you planning to do now?"
"Get back into the real world, I guess," Steve shrugged, tucking the phone back into his pockets. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the plump cushions of the settee as he released a deep, heavy sigh into the chilly air. "I'm not needed by SHIELD at the moment."
"You're going to stay with SHIELD?" Holly asked, a blank expression coming upon her face at the mere mention of the agency. It was clear she hated the bureau and her obvious dislike only made Steve feel that much lonelier.
He nodded curtly, fists clenching in his lap. "It's the only thing I have left."
A tense silence fell over the two as they were left to their own thoughts. Steve felt regretful bringing SHIELD up when it was a raw topic when it came to the young woman with whom he had struck up a quick friendship with over the course of a few days. He was about to apologize for his tactlessness when a soft warmness wrapped around his hands tightly and tugged them closer to the body beside him.
"SHIELD isn't the only thing you have now," Holly said, giving his clenched fists a tight squeeze. "You've got me too. Don't listen to Tony; he's just jealous everyone likes you better as a superhero. Besides, I'm pretty sure he considers you as his friend despite his teasing."
He stayed quiet, unsure as always.
"We can go there together sometime – the Colorado Mountains," She added with a genial smile. She squeezed his hands once more before letting go. "Just you and me. It'll be fun. You can take a breather from the world. Okay?"
Something in the way the light wrapped around her form and the moonlight bouncing off her grin struck a little hope in him. Something in the way her hands warmed his in the chill of the night and the soft whispers of her words washing over him drove the desolation from his soul. Something in the way she painted her visions of his future comforted him immensely.
And so, with an answering smile, Steve nodded.
"Okay."
As always, reviews gives me life and the essence to keep me looking forever youthful.
No, seriously. It does.
x, thekindlyones