Rosalie was used to writing stories, not used to being the story. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She had been featured in tabloids and magazines following her affair, but she had thought that enough time had passed for people to forget about her. Logging into all of her social media feeds, she shut them straight away as soon as she read some of her notifications. People were judging her and they didn't even know her. People hid behind their keyboards and wrote things about her that they didn't even know.

She had closed the lid of her laptop and tossed it to one side of the sofa. It was the middle of the day and she was bored beyond belief. She knew that she had a job to search for, but she wondered who would even want her? She was damaged goods. A part of her still wanted to teach journalism. She thought about it often, wondering if anyone would take her. Her affair with Jacob had resurfaced in the press and he even had the audacity to say that it was a mistake he was trying to forget when he had been questioned about it on the news the previous evening.

"How long are you going to brood for?"

Steve's voice snapped her out of her daze and she looked to the watch on her wrist. When did it turn six p.m.? Rosalie shrugged her shoulders as Steve took his seat next to her, draping his arm over the back of the sofa as Rosalie brought her knees up to her chest, hooking her arms around them.

"For as long as it takes for all of this to go away," she said to him. "Have you ever logged onto Twitter and seen your name in a hashtag?"

Steve frowned. "I have no idea what you just said."

She let her lips quirk at his innocence. "Never mind," she responded. "Anyway, how was your day at SHIELD?"

Steve chuckled and looked down to his lap as he moved his hand to roam over his chin. "Let's just say I've ruffled a few feathers," he informed her. "Well…the Director isn't exactly happy with my name being in the newspaper. He prefers a quiet life."

"So you're in trouble because of me?"

"No," Steve said with a shake of his head. "Thankfully nothing confidential has been reported on that we do at SHIELD. It all just seems to be…well…my private life."

"That isn't much better," Rosalie informed him. "You do know that you might not be able to escape this, right?"

"It will be yesterday's news eventually, Rosalie," Steve promised her. "They will find the next big scandal to report on and forget that we even exist. You shouldn't let this dictate your life. I'm worried about you, okay?"

"You don't need to worry about me," Rosalie promised him, moving closer to him and taking hold of his hand inside of hers, holding onto it tightly as she rested her cheek against his shoulder. "I'm a big girl, Steve, I can take care of myself."

"Yeah?" Steve asked. "By sitting around in the apartment all day?"

"You don't need to be mean about it," she whispered and Steve shook his head.

"I'm not being mean, Rose," he replied. "I'm trying to get you to see that none of this truly matters. What people write…what they say…who cares? You need to get out there and do exactly what it is that you want to do."

"Right now all I want to do is order pizza, okay?" Rosalie said to him. "Tomorrow I'll start looking for another job, okay? Just give me the night off."

Steve smirked and bent down to kiss the top of her head. "I can do that."

…

Rosalie didn't know how long her and Steve had been sitting at the table in the fancy Italian restaurant for. She was dressed in a knee length black dress while Steve had donned smart pants and a crisp white shirt. She had warned him against wearing white, knowing how if anything spilled then it would stain, but Steve informed her that he was never as messy as she was.

"They're late," Rosalie spoke.

The restaurant was dim with the lighting and composed of small booths to give diner's privacy. It was full and bustling and Rosalie wondered if people were watching her or she was just paranoid. She suspected some of the former but most of the latter. Steve had sat there sipping on his beer as she sipped her white wine. The breadsticks had been left on the table and she had already nibbled two of them out of sheer hunger.

"Tony has a habit of being late," Steve informed her.

"How long have you known him for?"

"Just since New York," Steve shrugged at her. "We keep in contact, but he is busy globe trotting right now with his businesses."

"So weird," Rosalie whispered. "Captain America and Iron Man at dinner…I feel like there should be some kind of joke written about this."

Steve smiled at hearing her and moved his hand to rest on top of hers on the table. Looking down to her, Steve could see the anxiousness in her gaze. She was staring at him and Steve knew exactly what was going on in her mind.

"He is not going to judge you," Steve said. "Tony and Pepper are nice, Rose."

"But they know," Rose said. "I am just saying, Steve, if one of my friends started dating someone like me then I would tell them to back away. I would tell them not to get involved."

"Good job I am not you then," Steve responded. "I know the truth. I know what Jacob did to you. If everyone else would rather believe his side of the story then so be it, but I believe you."

Rosalie honestly felt her stomach warm at hearing him as she moved to kiss him chastely, her hand on his cheek as Steve closed his eyes and relished the feeling of kissing her. He had thought that there was a time when he would never feel like this for anyone. He had been a kid in Brooklyn and no one had paid him any attention. He wondered if Rosalie would have bothered with that guy.

"Not interrupting anything, are we?"

Rosalie and Steve jumped apart and both of them looked to the voice. Slipping into the booth across from them was Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. A part of Rosalie felt like she didn't belong. She had seen both of them grace the covers of magazines with their perfect faces. She didn't gawp, but she did manage to convert her open mouth into a smile.

"Cap, you didn't tell me how stunning she was. Are you sure she isn't out of your league?"

Rosalie suspected this was Tony's way. He always came across as cocky and confident. Steve rolled his eyes and moved one arm to rest behind Rosalie, his palm flat on the velvet material of the seat. He held his hand out flat to introduce the two who had just sat across from them.

"Rosalie, this is Tony Stark, and this is Pepper Potts."

Rosalie reached out to shake Tony's hand and he took hold of it as she did the same for Pepper.

"Tony, Pepper, this is Rosalie."

"Nice to meet you," Pepper spoke. "I've heard a lot about you from Tony."

"All good things contrary to the papers," Tony said and she felt herself wince at hearing him, but she soon regained herself and smiled softly, shrugging her shoulders as Tony continued to speak in a soft voice. "Although Steve here couldn't stop talking about you when I called him. I mean, it was shocking."

"How so?" Rosalie enquired.

"Steve had a cell phone," he responded deadpan and Pepper rolled her eyes but smirked while Rosalie heard Steve chuckle.

"I am getting into technology," Steve responded. "I know how to use a cell and a laptop now."

"Miracle," Tony said. "Anyway, Rosalie, I suspect you're a lot more interesting than the fossil there. So what is it you do?"

"At the moment, I am unemployed," Rosalie spoke. "But I used to be a political journalist…you know…hang around Congress for the inside scoop and roam the Hill looking for congressmen and senators. But maybe it is time for a career change."

"I know exactly how you feel," Pepper spoke to her with a nod of her head. "Sometimes working for Stark Industries is draining, especially with him as a boss."

Steve looked down to Rosalie, moving his arm from behind her as the waiter came to hand them their menus and give Pepper and Tony their drinks. Tony looked to Pepper with an arched brow.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm the best boss you would ever get."

"Coming from the man who hasn't worked for himself," she replied and picked up her gin and tonic, sipping lightly on it. "Anyway, how did you two meet? Steve never said or if he did Tony did not tell me."

Rosalie looked away for a second, slightly embarrassed at the truth. She didn't want people to know that they had met while she had been pursuing a story. She didn't want that to be the way their relationship began. But before she could speak, Steve was already talking.

"I bumped into her," Steve said. "I mean…literally, I bumped into her while I was going for a run. Her bag fell on the floor and I went to pick it up. She knew who I was instantly and…every time someone else has asked me if I am him…Captain America…I always tell them that they must be mistaken, but I told her the truth. I don't know why. I had no indication that I would even see her again, but then I saw her in the Constitution Gardens and I stopped again."

"And what attracted you to dear Steve, Rosalie?" Tony enquired. "I am going to say it wasn't his boyish good looks or chiselled physique gifted from the Greek Gods."

"It was actually gifted by a serum."

"Irrelevant," Tony shot back to Steve before looking to Rosalie and waiting for her to answer.

"His honesty," Rosalie said. "His politeness. He…when I first met him I knew he didn't belong in this town. Trust me, I've been in this game long enough to know that people are not how they seem. People do not do something for nothing. They do not do things out of the goodness of their heart. Steve does…and…to me…that was just refreshing and it put a lot of everything I have done into perspective."

"Like the affair?" Tony wondered and she saw Pepper nudge him in the stomach as Steve glowered at him.

"Tony," he warned him.

"What?" Tony wondered. "It's public knowledge, wonder boy, besides, that exclusive Jacob Burton did with the Wall Street Journal was a load of BS. It was written by a man who was clearly a cheat and knew he had messed up."

Rosalie arched a brow and Tony rolled his eyes.

"I've met guys like him before," Tony waved a hand. "They say something to one girl and then go home to the wife. They're always the ones who do wrong, but always the ones who do not get the same bashing as the other woman."

"Well, I don't think we need to discuss this," Pepper said, forcing herself to smile and Rosalie looked at her for a moment.

"We're not," Tony said. "I'm just saying that I get it. I mean, look at how often I have been crucified by the press."

Pepper scoffed. "Mostly because you deserve it, Tony," she responded. "Anyway, that's in the past."

"I know I messed up," Rosalie declared, unable to hold of her tongue as Steve took hold of her hand inside of his, holding onto it tightly. "I know what I did was wrong and I regret it, honestly I do, but he told me that he was leaving his wife and I believed him. I fell in love with a liar, but I never had to do the things I did."

"You don't need to explain yourself, Rose-"

"-No," Rosalie shook her head at Steve. "I'm not explaining myself. I am just saying what happened. I fell for a married man and made a mistake. Steve knows and for some reason he understands, but I…I wouldn't blame him if he wanted nothing to do with me after what I did and what I have put him through."

"Well, you know how fond we are of Steve," Tony said. "He's our little fossil."

Steve shook his head. "Can you stop calling me a fossil?"

"Just the truth," Tony responded.

"I doubt you can be as fond of him as I am," Rosalie said and Tony smirked. "He's the best thing to have come into my life in a very long time."

"Likewise," Steve responded.

…

Walking back to her apartment, Rosalie kept her arm inside of Steve's as they ambled along the sidewalk after dinner. What had started out rather terse had turned into a pleasant evening. Tony Stark was everything Rosalie had imagined, but Pepper had been charming and dignified.

"I didn't want him to bring all of that stuff up," Steve informed her as he saw the Lincoln Memorial in the distance.

"It's fine," Rosalie said. "I had half expected him to. Besides, he had your best interests at heart. I only hope that I passed the test."

Steve smirked. "I think that you passed," he nodded to her.

"Well, thank you," she said and both of them laughed softly.

Rosalie tossed her head back and Steve looked down to her as they stood at the edge of the sidewalk and waited to cross. Steve continued to watch her, wondering exactly how he could feel so happy in the modern day. It was another moment before they crossed the road and Steve looked to the sky for a moment, his lips still quirked as he vowed to do all he could in his power to keep that feeling.

…

A/N: Do let me know what you think!