Chapter Ten~ Changes
A/N: First of all, Guest: Yeah, I know, I tried to fix it. I explained that she actually lives in D.C. when I realized that Cap lives there during CAWS. I still have to go fix it in previous chapters.
Second of all: Warning, a bit of adult stuff in this chapter. Just thought I'd let you know.
The bell above the door dinged as Steve swung it open, revealing a mostly empty dining room. Despite the remodeling that had been done since the Battle of New York, there were still obvious signs of having been mildly hit during the invasion. Little cracks in the wall, a small window high up on the that was still covered by wood, and a chunk of counter that had not been replaced yet. Someone had painted a mural on the far wall depicting a beautiful city whose name she probably couldn't pronounce.
"Steven!" Came a hearty laugh. Jessika turned her attention back to her companion, who was being embraced by a stooped, portly, dark-skinned older man.
"Musab," he greeted. "How you doing? How's Amira?"
"Good, good, my boy. It is good to see you. Amira is in the back." Musab's eyes found her from her spot slightly behind her much larger friend. "And who might this lovely young woman be?"
Steve moved so that his arm was around her shoulders and she was out from behind him. "Musab, this is Jessika. The friend I told you about a while back. Jess, this is Musab. He and his wife, Amira, run the place."
"Ah, yes." Musab nodded, bringing her into a hug. "It is most wonderful to meet you, my dear. Steven speaks of you often when he comes to visit. I must say, you are much more lovely in person than your pictures."
Jessika could feel her cheeks start to heat up. Who hadn't Steve told about her? "Nice to meet you, too. Steve said you guys make some of the best food he's ever tasted."
"Yes, yes. Come! You sit, I will prepare a plate for you. On the house, course!"
"No, Musab, we couldn't do that. You guys give me free food every time I come in here."
But the old man wouldn't hear of it. "Consider it payback for helping Amira and myself with cleaning up the restaurant. And for saving the whole city. Come, come." Ushering them to a booth in the corner, he gave them menus and said, "Anything you want, I make for you. I will get your drinks, yes? Then come back for your orders."
"Thank you, Musab." Steve patted him gently, then gestured for Jessika to sit in the booth. Once she had sat down, he slid in opposite her. She noticed that he had purposely put his back to the wall, facing outwards to the rest of the restaurant. "I'll just have some coke, if you don't mind."
"Of course. And for you?" He turned to her.
"Uuum..." Skimming over the drink options, she found something. "Some hot tea. Whatever kind you think is the best."
"Very good, I will be right back. You look over those." He took off back into the kitchen.
"You actually helped them clean up after the whole alien thing?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I? I was part of the reason why it was a mess in the first place. Plus...they gave us free food."
Jessika stared at her friend in wonder, and he was totally oblivious to the smile on her lips, or the little twinkle in her eye because he was looking at the laminated piece of paper on the table in front of him. Here was literally the most amazing man on the planet, the purest soul that probably ever existed, the luckiest person to have survived the things he had and been graced with the body and abilities he had. And she was lucky enough to have existed at the same time as him, to meet him. She was the luckiest person in the world to have this amazing human being as her best friend. And she was pretty sure he didn't even realize how much she loved him and his silly face, and his goofy, old-timey ways. Steve Rogers didn't realize...probably because she didn't even realize, he was stealing her heart a little bit at a time.
She was still staring at him when he looked up from the menu. "You know what you're gonna get?" The look on her face stopped him. "Jess? Are you ok?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I...drifted off there for a minute." She fibbed. Trying to distract him, Jessika looked down at her menu and gave it a quick once over. "What's good?"
"Everything, pretty much. They do a couple of different meats, and whatever you want on it, you can get."
Her eyes were glued to it. "I don't really know what I want. What are you getting?"
Musab came back just then, setting down Steve's tall glass of coke, and then setting down a small tray with a silver teapot and a normal ceramic mug. "Here you are. This is my wife's favorite tea. Good for all kinds of health problems."
"Especially that of the female parts." Said the woman who had just appeared beside Musab. "Ah, Steven. Innaha jamilat. She is beautiful." Amira took hold of her face and squished her cheeks together in a very grandmotherly kind of way. "It is good this lump has finally brought you. I have been wanting to meet the sweet girl he talks about all the time."
"Oh, thank you." Jessika slurred between the old woman's hands. "And thank you for the tea, but I don't have any...female problems."
"La, we all have female problems. This make you strong, fertile!" She explained.
Jessika's eyes widened, and she turned to look at Steve, who's face had turned bright red, from the tips of his ears, as far down as his skin could be seen at the collar of his shirt. "Why does everyone think we're together?" She squeaked.
Steve let out a strangled laugh. "I don't know. Amira...Jess and I aren't..." It took the woman a minute, but soon her mouth made a large 'O' and she began apologizing profusely, both in English and Arabic. Musab didn't seem to understand what she was apologizing for, partially because, why else would a young man bring a young woman to his favorite restaurant? Jessika was hiding her face at this point, electing not to look at any of the people currently at their table or in the room. Steve asked her if they could both just have a lamb and chicken wrap with some sides, and Amira continued to say sorry as she took the tea tray in one hand and her husband's arm in the other and went back to the kitchen.
"Oh. My. Gooood!" Jessika cried into her arms, head down on the table. "Why? Why does this keep happening?!" Steve, on the other hand, was mostly silent except for the occasional uncomfortable laugh. He reached up to scratch the back of his head, trying to come up with an answer that wasn't going to make her anymore embarrassed. As if realizing what she was saying, Jessika's head shot up. "Not that being your girlfriend or anything would be bad! Oh, god. Kill me now. Don't take that the wrong way. I'm sure you'd be a great boyfriend, I mean, you're already the best friend in the whole world. This is...I'm not making this any better."
"No, you're not." He chuckled, amused at her attempt to placate what little male pride the captain had.
"I should stop talking now."
"Probably."
"Right, ok." With that, she went back to hiding her face in her arms. "That was horrible. I'm sorry, Steve."
"Jess, it's ok. I get what you meant. I should be apologizing. I guess I never really told them that we weren't dating...They mean well."
"I'm sure they do." Neither of them said anything while Amira came back out with a new pot of tea, apologizing again before ducking away. Jessika took her time pouring her tea and sweetening it the way she liked, still not looking the blond man in the eye.
If she had, she would have seen the way he watched every move she made. Every little twitch of her fingers as she swirled the tea around in her cup. Every time she pursed her lips side to side while she thought about whatever was going on inside her head. She would occasionally bit her bottom lip, and it would nearly make him cringe...for whatever reason. Steve knew that their friendship was a little weird, and by many people's ideas probably would be considered dating. But, it wasn't like they were romantically involved. Jess was the only one who didn't look at him like meat, or a machine. She took care of him whenever he was beat all to hell, or when he just needed someone to rant to. Even with the newfound information of her abilities, she was still his best friend, still the only one he could go to after a really hard day. When a nightmare would wake him up in a cold sweat, she didn't need to ask. If he wanted to run it off, ok. If he needed to talk about it, sure. If a mission had been especially hard, he could always go over to her house and crash. She never failed to calm him down.
"Jess." She didn't answer him at first. "Hey," Steve reached out and stilled her hands with his own. "It's ok. Look, we're just two normal people out for a nice lunch." He swept his arm out as if to help convince her. "When we get done, we can go back to the Tower and watch all the anime you want, binge on ice cream and cookies and beer, and crash on the couch just like we do at home. And tomorrow, when we get back to D.C., you're gonna show me how to play that assassin game you like so much."
Try as she might, Jessika couldn't help but break out in giggles. "Gee, Cap, you sure know how to spoil a girl."
"You betcha."
Musab broke up the moment when he came out of the kitchen with two hot plates, and a tray piled high with toppings and condiments. "Here we go. Eat up, eat up. I think Amira is making you some dessert, so save room."
"Thanks." Steve nodded before immediately digging into the food in front of him.
Jessika looked down and was amused to see that her portions were far smaller than Steve's. Rightly so. She probably wouldn't have been able to hold the wrap he was currently stuffing his face with. Being a little more dainty with hers, Jessika picked out a few things, interested as to what pomegranate concentrate would taste like mixed with the seasoned meat. It did not disappoint. The second she bit into the wrap, bursts of flavor erupted in her mouth. Savory, sweet and perfectly seasoned. She made a little sound of appreciation as her head lolled back against the booth. Across from her, Steve was laughing.
"Why haven't you ever brought me here before?! Jesus Christ, this is amazing." The last word was punctuated by her munching down on the food again. "We have to come here again," she said around a mouthful of meat and bread.
"Dully noted." He chuckled. The two of them were silent for the rest of the meal, breaking it only to thank Amira when she brought dessert out. It was some sort of light and fluffy pastry drizzled in a type of syrup that Jessika had never tasted before. When they were done, they both pulled out a few dollars and laid them on the table, a tip instead of fully paying for the meal since Musab had refused to let them pay.
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It was nearly eleven o'clock when Jessika felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. The feeling was enough to rouse her from her semi-vegetable state where she had been staring at the TV, watching Blue Exorcist. At first, she her brain couldn't really understand the words on the screen.
Real or Not Real...
The realization broke over her and she sat up straight and waited for the next part of the text to come through. Steve, who had started dozing off a while ago, felt her move and cracked an eye open to check on her. "You ok?"
"I'm fine." She sat staring at the screen.
"What is it?" The large man sat up to peer over her shoulder.
Turning the phone so he could see the text, she said, "Bucky." That got him into gear. Jessika didn't even register that the phone was no longer in her hand, but he had snatched it away.
"What did he say?"
"Christ, Steve." Yanking it back, she leveled him with a glare. "It's very rude to snatch something out of someone's hand. Cool your jets and hand on a second. I don't know what he wants to know yet.
"What's 'real or not real'?"
"It's a sort of code I set up with him. Wherever he is, whatever he thinks he starts remembering, he would text me that so I know it's him, then he would relay a memory so that I could ask you if it he was really remembering it or if it was just something his mind made up." The phone dinged again and new text appeared. "He says, 'Coney Island. Giant roller coaster. Made him ride...got sick. Payback...train. Zip?' Any of that true? Jessika turned to look at him, relieved that he was laughing. "What?"
"Oh, that's just great. The first real thing he remembers... When we were kids, we went to Coney Island and he made me ride this huge roller coaster and I ended up throwing up everywhere. During the war, after I got him back, we were going after Dr. Zola and we had to use a zipline down to the train he was riding. He asked me if it was payback for that."
With a broad grin on her face, Jess typed 'true' and sent it back to him. Then, 'Don't forget to write it down. Circa Feb, or Mar 1945. Let me know if you remember anything else.' He didn't respond after that, but she knew he got the gist. "I think he's ok."
"You sure?" Steve asked, brows furrowed.
"I'm sure, Stevie. He's in a safe enough place to bother texting, and he's confident enough to let me know he's still alive. He's fine. Come on, let's finish this episode and head to bed. I'm beat." She settled down with her head on his shoulder. When he tried to say something, Jess put her hand over his mouth and shushed him. "Shut up and just watch the stupid anime." Steve didn't say anything after that, just chuckled and leaned farther down into the couch so her neck wasn't sitting at a weird angle.
It wasn't too long after that, Natasha walked into the living room to ask Steve something. She was greeted with the sight the two of them fast asleep, both snoring ever so slightly. She snapped a quick picture, then left to hunt down a blanket. There was an extra quilt on the end of Steve's bed, so she grabbed it and sauntered back out. It took her less than three seconds to cover them both up with the quilt and turn to leave. But, she didn't miss the way that Jessika nuzzled her face against the soldier's chest in her sleep, nor the way Steve pulled her closer before settling down again. It was so sweet...
Now Nat needed to go throw up and brush her teeth before she got cavities.
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Why was it so hot in her room? Why was she sweating? And why was she moving?
These were the thoughts that managed to drag themselves through Jessika's sleep addled brain as she fought for wakefulness. There was a steady rhythm under her ear, two actually. One was a sort of up and down motion, the other was a low thumping. Jessika's eyes managed to pry themselves open despite the sleep-gunk that had accumulated in them overnight, only to shut as soon as she had. Since when had the morning sunlight been that bright through her window? With a groan, she turned her face into her pillow to make the light go away. What she felt right under her lips was definitely not her pillow... especially when her bed reacted...
Her eyes shot open again, and she had to blink the blindness away for a moment. But, once her vision was cleared, she found that it certainly wasn't her bed she was laying on. At that moment, Jessika was quite literally laying on top of her very large friend; who was, luckily for her, still asleep. Which was a relief, because when she turned her head to see what had been poking her face, she found the outline of his nipple poking through his shirt. The realization made her cheeks turn pink. When she managed to look back to his face, she couldn't really do anything but stare at him. She never actually fell asleep on Steve, except for when she had been unconscious from poison. In fact, it was usually him using her as a prop when he spent the night at her house. And she had never gotten a chance to see him sleeping, because he always woke up before her. As such, once Jessika managed to calm herself down, she used that little bit of time to examine her best friend.
It was good to see him finally looking more like he was his true twenty-nine years old, and not carrying the weight of the world on his giant shoulders. He was relaxed and his face melted into a more youthful appearance than he already had. The hard lines that usually marked the area around his mouth and jaw were softened. She knew that he was probably still situationally aware of his surroundings despite how heavily he slept, so it made her all the more happy that he was able to sleep so soundly. It made her giggle that he was so out of it that he was still snoring. The movement of her quiet laughter made his arms, which she hadn't realized were around her until just then, tighten and move her farther up his body. Steve's face found her hair and he sighed in his sleep, murmuring something she couldn't quite make out. The feeling of his breath on her scalp tickled, but she didn't dare move. This was probably the first good sleep he'd gotten in a long time if she was awake before him.
It was a little weird laying on top of him like this. Jessika might have fallen off at some point if it weren't for the way one of Steve's arms was hooked around her hips, hand laying right at the top of her rump, and the other around her shoulders, effectively trapping her against him. Because she had probably been laying like that for most of the night, her back was starting to hurt. And she had to pee... It was a bit of sticky situation, especially since she didn't want to wake him up. Jessika made herself take a few deep breaths, an old trick she used to use while on long car trips, attempting to relax her body enough so that her bladder didn't feel as full. It worked. For a few minutes. It might have been because he was waking up, or maybe because of a dream or something, but Steve started holding her a little tighter, hand pressing her pelvis against his hip. The pressure on her lower tummy made her cringe and start to fidget.
Feeling movement, Steve started his own journey towards consciousness as well. There was a bit of weight on his chest, but it didn't feel like he was being crushed, so it was actually pretty comfortable. Whatever was on top of him felt warm and soft. Something tickled his nose, and he moved his face away from it while shifting a little bit, pressing the warm, soft thing closer him. Still half asleep (and half dreaming), something was pressed against his groin. It was a nice sort of pressure, and he unconsciously shifted, pulling it harder against him, so that he could feel it even more. A soft breath passed his lips. There was an odd sound. Whatever he was holding started fidgeting around, causing more friction that sent shivers up his spine. The thing in his arms started pulling away and he tightened his hold.
"Steve?" Came a voice. It was sweet and zipped around his head. He only moaned in response. "Steve," something small and warm touched his face, gently patting his cheek.
"Mm," he mumbled, holding even tighter still.
"Steve!" The voice was a little more urgent, squeaky.
His eyes fluttered open, taking a moment to adjust to the difference in brightness. Right in front of him was a purely angelic vision. Light filtered around the face that swam before him, casting a halo of sunshine. The face cast in shadow was so lovely he could have cried. One of his hands came up to push bangs away from the eyes that stared up at him, so big and wide. "Beautiful." He whispered.
The eyes widened even more, face holding back thinly veiled surprise. "Good morning, sleepyhead." Jessika said, somewhat ignoring what he had just said.
With a deep sigh of a yawn, he stretched for a solid five seconds before settling back down. "Morning." He shifted again, still not fully awake, hugging the tiny woman.
"Oh, god, Steve. Much as I like laying on you, and having you squish me, I really need you to let me up. I gotta pee." When he didn't, she started pushing on him, trying in vain to escape his iron hold. "Steve, seriously!" She started wiggling.
The sudden movement made him hiss, jolting him fully awake. Looking down at the woman on top of him, he realized what the pressure he'd been feeling was actually her thigh pressed tightly against his crotch. His hands attempted to make her hold still and she let out a strangled little 'eep!' He had a vice grip on her ass, where her shorts had ridden up on her cheek; and another with his hand wrapped around her rib cage, fingers brushing the side of her breast. It took his brain a whole two seconds to catch up with him and he released her, sitting up. The movement made Jessika fall back against the other side of the couch. She was staring at him, unabashedly.
"Um, thanks. Gotta pee!" With that, Jessika shot off the couch and down the hall. Steve heard the bedroom, then bathroom door slam.
Steve hissed again, suddenly very glad he had opted to wear sweatpants last night when they settled down to watch TV. Not wanting for his friend to see him in such a state, he hurried up and past her door, down the hall to his own room. As soon as the door closed behind him, he was leaning against it, trying hard to calm his body down. Images and feelings came unbidden to his mind, and he groaned. "Damn it!" He growled to himself. There was already a wet spot on his underwear when he pulled the fabric away from his skin.
Taking his throbbing member in his hand, Steve gritted his teeth against making any noise. It wasn't fulfilling, and it wasn't dignified as he pumped himself to a quick completion. The memories of the soft body pressed against him, of the handful of flesh he'd been gripping so tight, everything about the woman who was probably hiding from him right this moment, made him gasp. He got there, using his hand to keep from making too much a of a mess. "Damn it," he repeated, sliding down the door, suddenly ashamed of himself. He shouldn't be masterbating to the thought of Jessika. He shouldn't be getting off to the idea of doing unspeakable things to her. With her. Steve thumped his head against the door trying to gather up the pieces of his mind. This was so wrong. She was his best friend. God, but it had felt so good.
His breath had just evened out when someone knocked on the door, right above his head. "Steve?" Jessika's voice was so soft. "You ok in there?"
"Yeah, I'm good." Damn, his voice sounded like back when he first hit puberty, and his mother was knocking on the door after almost the exact same thing.
"You sure? You sounded like you got hurt or something."
Shit, she heard that? "Totally fine, Jess. I'll be out in a minute."
On the other side of the door, she was silent for a moment. "Ok. I'm gonna get a shower. Maybe we can make waffles or something when I get out. Are you hungry?"
Oh, god, yes. He thought to himself. The sudden onslaught of images started up again and he had to shake himself to get back on track. "Sounds great. I kinda need a shower, too. Meet you in the kitchen."
"Alrighty."
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Jessika had managed to escape to the bathroom without making an ass of herself. She hadn't wanted to even think what Steve might have been doing in his sleep when she had tried to move off of him. At first, she had thought he was just shifting to get more comfortable. But, then he literally lifted both of them off the couch, pressing down on her butt to rub against her. Honestly, if she hadn't had to pee so bad, she might have let it continue.
Stopping, Jessika slapped her hand against her forehead. "What the hell am I thinking?! He's my best friend. That should not have happened, and she was embarrassed to the point that her face was on fire. It wasn't like knew he was actually doing it to me. He was dreaming. Oh, god I should have gotten up as soon as I woke up. Forcing herself to move, Jessika took a deep breath and turned the water on. It warmed up almost immediately, and she shed her pjs, then hopped into the shower. The hot water on her back felt wonderful, working the kinks out of her back from sleeping in such an awkward position. Laden down with water, her hair fell nearly halfway down her back, creating a feeling akin to warm hands on her skin. "Jesus Christ." Jessika hurried to get clean, then shut the hot water off and nearly screamed when the cold water hit her. The sheer amount of willpower it took for her not to move while the frigid liquid cascaded over her was astounding, but she managed to cool the heat that had been growing for the last fifteen minutes or so. It didn't take too long, and she finally turned the cold water knob off as well, shivering so hard that Jarvis even asked if she was ok. Of course, she was fine once she wrapped herself up in a towel.
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Tony, Pepper, Nat, and Bruce had all decided to come up to their floor when they heard that Jess and Steve were planning on making breakfast. So, when Jessika stepped out of her room and saw the guests, she couldn't help but mutter a curse. They hadn't seen her yet, and she managed to put on a smile and all but skipped out into the kitchen.
"Good morning!" She stopped to hug Pepper and then went around to the other side of the counter to get a cup of coffee.
"Morning," Tony stared at her. "Why the hell are you so peppy this early?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Did Capsicle finally do the deed and get that UST outta his system?"
Steve had just come around the corner and watched on as Jessika stopped in her tracks. With a smile still on her face, she turned around to look at the dark haired billionaire. There was something about the way she tilted her head and widened her eyes just the smallest bit that was super creepy in a horror movie doll sort of way. "You wanna say that again, Tony dear?" She said through her teeth.
Tony's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, everyone else watching and waiting for his response. "No, nope, not at all. I'm good." He made a show of zipping his lips and throwing an imaginary key over his shoulder.
"That's what I thought." She straightened her head and was back to her normal face, went about fixing her coffee.
"You gotta show me how you do that," Steve said in her ear as he came up behind her, gently putting a hand on her lower back. The contact and proximity made Jessika jump, but she put on her most convincing 'I'm-totally-not-freaked-out-that-you-were-totally-freaking-dry-humping-me-a-little-bit-ago' face, and handed him another mug for his coffee.
"It's really not that hard, but I don't think you could pull it off. Tony's only scared of me and Pep. We're the only ones who can and will do something to him before he can get his suit on. Besides, I'm creepy by nature."
"No, you're not, Jess." He admonished.
"Yes, she is," came the response from three of the four people sitting at the island behind them. Natasha was the only one who hadn't spoken, but she was looking extremely amused by current events.
"Anyway," she smirked, "How'd you guys sleep last night?" The spy was immediately satisfied with the response when both Jessika and Steve seemed to have become statues. Steve was the first one back in action, while the woman kept her back turned to her friends. But, Natasha could see the very edge of her ear poking out of her hair, and it was bright red.
"Probably need to stop sleeping on a couch," Steve joked. No one seemed to notice the light dusting of pink across his cheeks. If they did, they probably figured it was from his shower. "Bad for the back, y'know."
Tony scoffed, "Yeah, I'm sure you're creaking and cracking, old man." He threw a balled up napkin at the soldier, who easily caught it and tossed it in the trash.
Jessika seemed to have gathered herself when she finally turned around, "Alright, who's hungry?" There was a chorus of 'me's, and she started laughing. "You pigs. I guess it's a good thing Thor's not here, right? I wouldn't be able to keep up with a super soldier and a god." Her and Steve went about getting everything ready for waffles, finally settling into their normal way of talking and joking. But, the incident from earlier was anything but forgotten.
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A/N: AHHHHHH! Oh my god this was so hard to write! Here you go, my lovelies, let me know what you think. I'm so sorry for teasing you with this, but it is coming around eventually. I'm trying!
AcaciaDawn105