"I think I snore in my sleep," Charlotte mumbled from her place besides Steve on the floor.
They had been packing all day for their upcoming move to DC the following week, starting in Steve's floor at the Tower, knowing they would finish early enough since he didn't have many personal things to begin with. They had stopped for a quick lunch at a diner, before they began with Charlotte's things. Although the apartment she shared with her roommates wasn't very big, it seemed to hold more clutter than one would presume at first glance. It didn't help that the three roommates had been bartering off shared items for most of the afternoon, so not much actual packing was getting done in between yelling and arguments over inflation and translation of currency in the form of kitchen items.
Now, exhausted (and even Steve, the super soldier, could admit he was tired) Charlotte and Steve laid on the ground, wedged between half-packed boxes and trash bags full of Jay's clothes, who refused to spend money on luggage.
"Nah. You just sort of sigh sometimes," Steve chuckled, his shoulder, already touching Charlotte's, rubbing against hers, "and you laughed so hard one time that you woke yourself up with a snort."
Charlotte chuckled in turn, "I remember that," she said, and they lapsed into silence one more time.
"Do I snore?"
"Horribly. Sometimes. Other times, you're super quiet," Charlotte responded, "You weirdo," she added as an afterthought.
"Takes one to know one," Steve replied mildly, with a smile.
Charlotte hummed in acknowledgment, and then asked, "You're turn. I've decided we're going to get every possible embarrassing thing about ourselves out in the open before we actually live together, and decide we completely annoy and hate each other."
Steve smiled to himself. He couldn't picture hating Charlotte, not ever, not really, but he knew enough about themselves as a couple to know that they would and could annoy each other. So he acquiesced.
"I leave the toilet seat up" Steve admitted, knowing this was something they had already talked about, and something she hated.
"Oh, God! I want to strangle you every time I sleep at your place," Charlotte supplied. "My turn… I don't eat fruit that needs to be peeled because I'm too lazy to actually peel it. Like, I love oranges, but until someone comes up with oranges that you can just bite into without peeling, I probably won't be eating too many."
"That's the laziest thing I have ever heard anyone say," Steve admitted with a smile. It disappeared quickly, though, as he thought over what he would say next. He had discussed Captain America with Charlotte before, not at length, but enough that she knew that he was enhanced; more so than any other human. But he carried on, saying what he wanted to, because they needed to do this. "I used to weigh like 98 pounds,"
"Everybody used to weigh 98 pounds at one point, Steve" Steve could almost hear her eyes roll, but before he could get into any emotional talk, Charlotte barreled on. "But I know what you mean," here, she turned to make eye contact with him, and Steve turned as well, their breathes mingling in their close proximity. "Tony gave me a weird shovel talk while you were down with that alien injury a few months back. There may or may not have been visuals."
And Steve was suddenly furious, his ears burning at the thought of the billionaire sharing something so personal with the girl he intended to spend the rest of his life with. Charlotte seem to detect the tense muscles and the fire in his eyes because she brought a hand to his cheek and made him look her in the eye.
"He meant well, Steve, and it obviously didn't affect the way I look at you or this relationship at all," she gave him a chaste kiss before she began speaking again. "Have you ever cyber stalked me?"
Steve frowned in confusion at the change of subject and the inquiry, and Charlotte smiled.
"Right." She reached for her phone in that back pocket of her shorts, the screen of which held a few cracks around the far right edge of it. Steve knew, without really knowing, that she avoided taking it out in front of Tony whenever they were in the same vicinity because it was more than likely that the man would get her a new one. She typed a few things, banging the phone a few times against the flooring in an attempt to make it go faster, before she shoved the screen onto his face. "He was my prom date. Not a very good one, but mostly because he was too shy to dance, and too nervous to make me laugh as much as he usually did."
The picture was pulled up from Facebook (and, yes, Steve knew about that, thank you very much), taking up most of the screen so that Steve could see clearly. The picture, taken in what seemed to be a park with fountains decorating around it, was of Charlotte in a long red, figure hugging dress, her long dark hair blowing in the wind, a bright smile on glossy lips. Steve's eyes followed her arm, which was draped around the shoulders of a man (boy?) a few inches smaller than her, with glasses that were far too big for his eyes, and a suit that ill suited him. He was smiling brightly at the camera, though, his hand loosely holding on to Charlotte's hip, and a rose on his other hand.
"That's Daniel. He was-is-a good friend of mine since like the sixth grade. He was born premature, so he's never been the biggest. Eats like he's always starving, but never seems to put on a pound of fat." Charlotte chuckled, "He had a crush on me the last two years of high school, and I won't lie and say I didn't either. He always made me laugh, and would send me these hilarious little videos where he would talk in totally inappropriate accents just to make me laugh. Not once, though, did I think I didn't like him just because of his size."
Steve stared at the picture for a bit more, before he looked up to her eyes, and Charlotte gave him a wicked grin, "and he was totally my first kiss."
Steve pulled her closer by the waist, dropping the phone between them onto the floor, and dropped a kiss onto her temple, mumbling, "Didn't want to know that,"
And he probably didn't really want to know that, but he couldn't really bring himself to feel jealous when relief over her words overpowered every other feeling (expect for the little rage against Tony Stark. That would remain for a bit more until he had words on the subject of privacy with the man).
"Too bad. I'm counting that as my confession. You're turn again."
"Cheater," he said, pinching her side playfully, Charlotte letting out a small squeal before she disentangled herself from him and went back to laying on her back, Steve doing the same. "To be honest, I didn't like those pancakes you made the other day."
Charlotte began laughing then, a hand holding her stomach while the other went to her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laughter. "I know."
"Than why'd you let me eat them?!" Steve asked, a little annoyed, but also equally amused. She had made a large batch that morning, saying how she'd found a new recipe online that didn't require any flour, and she had looked so excited cooking for him for once that he hadn't had the heart to not eat them. He ate a total of eight pancakes before he decided that the number was enough to not make Charlotte suspicious to his dislike of the hard lumps she was serving him.
"Because I figured if you were eating those things, you must really love me. Also, I was getting some sort of sick amusement seeing you grimace and trying not to choke when you thought I wasn't looking."
"You know, you keep saying you love me, but I feel like you just keep me around for your amusement." Steve commented with a smile turned towards her.
"Aw, shit. You found me out," Charlotte deadpanned, laughter still in her eyes. "My turn. So, July fourth. I gave you that 32mm camera, saying I bought it for you because I thought of you when I saw it at a flee market. Truth is, though, when Tony gave me that shovel-talk-whatever-thing, the part of your file he showed me included your birthdate-which, by the way, wow, you can't get more Captain American-y than that. Anyway, you never personally told me your birthday, so I figured if you didn't say anything, I wouldn't either, and I would just give you a present anyway. So…"
Steve suddenly realized that he didn't know Charlotte's birthday either, and he felt cold with the realization. They were moving in together in the next few days, he was planning on spending the rest of his life with her (however long or short it might be with his line of work), and he had never thought of asking for her birthday. With the almost year they had been together, he was sure he had missed her birthday already, and he suddenly felt like the most horrible boyfriend in the planet.
"November 1st. Basically, the best day ever, because I'm lucky enough to have missed being some kind of demon child by a day, at the same time that I get Halloween candy for half price," Charlotte answered his unasked question.
He thought hard for a bit before he spoke, "I was with you for your birthday last year."
"Yup."
"I didn't know it was your birthday."
"I know. It was great."
"We had hot dogs from a questionable cart near Times Squares, and you ended up taking the subway home because I got called in." And he suddenly felt much more horrified than before. "You don't even like hot dogs!"
"I know. But you didn't know that back then, and, honestly, I have never liked to make a big deal out of my birthday, anyway. Besides, I was just happy I was spending time with you. We had only gone on a couple of dates, and I was really infatuated with the way you blushed every time we held hands. It was a good birthday." Charlotte amended in a calm voice. "Besides, you didn't tell me yours either, so we're even."
"I didn't get you anything." Steve insisted because there was no way he felt better about not knowing her birthday.
"You got me a hot dog," Charlotte said with a grin.
Steve frowned. "Next year. I promise-"
"Nope. No party. No fancy presents. I'm good."
"We'll see," Steve responded just like he responded when he compromised until further notice. That is to say, when he didn't agree but went and did the thing anyway and apologized later. Charlotte did the same thing. "My turn again, I guess… I have two sketchbooks full of you from before we even started dating." He said, his ears burning, and he knew he was blushing.
Charlotte turned to him to meet his eyes for a long moment before she smiled shyly, a blush forming in her face. "I didn't know that. I thought you only had a few pages worth of me."
"I didn't want to creep you out with the other sketchbooks. I spent about a week sketching every time I had a spare second just to fill up one book to show you that wasn't just full of you." He admitted sheepishly.
"You're extremely adorable with a good dose of creepy," Charlotte said as she turned to her side with a smile on her face. Steve turned to face her too. "But I guess I like you enough to keep you still."
"Geez, Baby-Doll, you really know how to make a fellar like me all sorts of wanted."
Charlotte threw her head back in laughter, quickly coming back to plant a smiling kiss right on his mouth. "God, I love it when you speak 40's to me."