I sing with the band for a few more songs, singing mostly covers of popular pop or country songs. When I finish I feel exhausted, but accomplished at completing the performance. I thank Claire and the rest of the band for allowing me to come back one last time and sing with them before leaving the stage and pushing my way through the crowd towards the waiting Avengers and Steve.
"Wow Sky. Didn't know you had that in you." Tony says, the first to break the silence that falls over the surprised heroes.
"Thanks?" I reply, unsure if there's a compliment or a punch line in the billionaire's words.
"You were amazing Skylar. I had no idea you could sing like that." Bruce says, giving me a reassuring smile.
"Thanks. Can we get outta here?" I say, feeling uncomfortable with six pairs of eyes on me.
"Sure. I'm tired too." Natasha says, giving me a small smile and looping arms with me.
The two of us walk out of the grand hotel and towards the waiting car. Happy greets us warmly, opening the door for us as we slide in, Jane and Pepper right behind us. I don't know where the guys are; they didn't follow us girls out of the building so I assume they're staying for the remaining part of the gala.
We arrive back at the tower a quarter till midnight, the four of us exhausted from the party. We quickly remove our heels once inside the safety of Avengers Tower and walk barefoot to the elevator.
"I have some champagne and no boyfriend, care for a drink ladies?" Pepper asks, hitting the button for the top floor.
"Sure. That sounds refreshing." Jane says, smiling at the CEO of Stark Industries.
"Count me in." I say, happy to have a quiet night with the girls.
"Will there be vodka?" Natasha asks, looking at Pepper curiously.
"I have a full bottle of Grey Goose with your name on it." Pepper replies, making a small ripple of laughter emit from our voices.
The elevator doors open at the top floor and we step out. Reaching for the pins in my hair, I let my dark brunette locks fall freely down my back; the somewhat lengthy hair reaches the middle of my breasts.
"I'm going to change out of this dress." I say, heading back to the elevator and pressing my Steve's floor.
"Me too." Jane says, jumping in the elevator hitting Thor's floor.
We ride down the elevator in silence I exit first. I enter Steve's apartment and toss my shoes near the door, not caring where they land. I walk towards the bedroom, unzipping the floor length gown on the way. By the time I reach the closest I've removed the dress and accessorizes and begin to rummage through the closet. I find my favorite sweatshirt of Steve's, a plain dark blue zip up. I opt to wear just the sweatshirt since it's big and reaches my mid thighs.
I return to the top floor to find Jane dressed simply in one of Thor's plaid button ups, Pepper in one of Tony's dress shirts, and Natasha wearing Clint's red t-shirt. I see a glass of champagne waiting for me, which I gladly take. I sit down beside Jane on the couch, Pepper on the single chair and Natasha on the love seat. We're all quiet, just enjoying the pleasant silence and each other's company.
"Would you guys want to do something sometime?" Pepper asks, breaking the silence between us.
"Like what?" Natasha asks sounding interested.
"How about we fly to the Bahamas next week? I have some much needed vacation time and I think it'd be fun to do something, just us girls." Pepper explains.
"I'd love to. How long would we stay?" Jane asks, perking up at the mentioning of the Caribbean paradise.
"Maybe spend a few days in the Bahamas then go to St. Lucia?" Pepper says, taking another sip from her champagne.
"That sounds amazing. I'm down." I say, excitement beginning to grow as I imagine tropical island paradise.
Although I love winter, snow, and anything cold, a vacation to the Caribbean does sound really nice in this very bleak December.
"We can leave Friday. I'll have the jet ready to go after work. We can come back next Sunday." Pepper says, pulling out her phone and making the arrangements.
"I'll need to go shopping for swimsuits and clothes. I haven't been to the beach in a long time." Jane says, making a note in her phone.
"I'll go with you. I don't have any swimsuits or beachy clothes either." I say, making Jane smile.
We then begin to talk about the trip. The cost, the hotel arrangements, and the activities we want to do. We all agree spa, snorkeling, and shopping are the top there things on our lists, the rest we can figure out when we get there. Once we finish the planning part, we fall into a pleasant silence. We begin to change our champagne for coffee and/or tea. Pepper and Natasha make themselves a cup of coffee and Jane and I make some tea. We continue to sit around drinking our warm drinks, watching the lights of Manhattan outside the glass window, and make small talk.
It's around 1 o'clock in the morning when Jarvis alerts us the boys are back. Not long after the elevator dings and Steve, Clint, Thor, and Tony step through its doors, Bruce must've gone to bed. The four men look at us, noticing us all sitting quietly on the comfy furniture, sipping our drinks, and wearing our significant others clothes. I can tell Steve's turned on by me wearing his hoodie, the pupils in the captain's eyes dilating and his jaw falling slack. If there's one thing I've learned about Steve in the short span we've been dating: he's majorly turned on when I wear his clothes. The other Avengers are also stunned to see their lovers wearing only their clothes, Clint's eyes particularly popping out of his skull at seeing Natasha in his shirt.
"May we help you?" I ask, my voice coming out huskier than usual.
"I- uh- we- um..." Steve stammers, obviously at a loss of words.
"What's the matter? Cat's got your tongue?" I say, giving Steve a small smirk before taking another sip of my tea, finishing the warm beverage.
"I'm tired I'm going to turn in. Goodnight everyone." Jane says, rising and walking past Thor, grabbing the thunder god's tie as she walks by and pulls him into the elevator.
"I'm exhausted too." I say, getting up and placing my mug in the sink. I can feel Steve's eyes on me the entire time. I smirk, knowing I have him exactly where I want him. "It's rude to stare you know."
"Um- uh- sorry." Steve mumbles out, not looking away, but a flush creeping up his cheeks.
"Don't be. I'm going to bed. You coming or what captain?" I say, grabbing Steve's tie and begin to lightly pull him towards the elevator, pressing the down button and stepping inside the waiting car.
When the doors close Steve's lips crash into mine. I'm surprised by his ferocity, but nonetheless return his advancement with eagerness. Steve's strong arms go around my waist to cup my ass and lift me up, allowing me to wrap my legs around his waist. The bell dings announcing we're at Steve's floor. It doesn't break out kiss, if anything it makes Steve kiss me rougher and more urgently as he walks through the doors and attempts to mess with the lock on his apartment door.
Steve manages to unlock the door, while balancing me in his arms, as my lips stay glued to his. He walks inside, still carrying me, and slams the door shut with his foot, pressing me up against it. Steve begins to slowly trail is soft lips down my throat towards the top zipper of the sweatshirt, slowly unzipping the cotton jacket. Doing my part, I pull my arms out of the sleeves and throw the sweatshirt to the ground. The shell-shocked look on Steve's face at the sight of my lingerie is priceless. Not only does he look rather surprised, but even more turned on then before, a foreign animal-look coming to his blue eyes.
"Where did you get that?" Steve asks, setting me down to inspect my full outfit, or lack of one.
The lingerie set I'm wearing is a lacy, mostly see-through, bra that is a bright blue, matching Steve's suit color. The panties are lacy in the thong style, barely covering the area between my thighs and leaving very little to the imagination. Natasha convinced me to get a set to try when we went dressing shopping yesterday, I had no idea Steve would react the way he has.
"I bought it yesterday when I went shopping. Do you like it?" I ask, turning in a circle to give him a 360 view of the outfit.
"Yeah it looks- you look- wow." Steve stumbles on his words, watching my body as it spins slowly in front of him.
Despite enjoying his lusty look, I'm way too turned on for my own good, and reach behind Steve to drag his mouth to mine in another heated kiss. When we pull away I can see the love radiating in his eyes, sending chills to the pits of my stomach.
"Let's go to bed." I whisper in his ear, feeling his body tense as his hands rest on my hips.
No sooner do I speak those words, then Steve lifts my body up once more, allowing me to wrap my legs around his waist as he carries me to bed, me kissing down his neck, undoing his tie, and working on the buttons of his shirt. No sleep tonight.
The next morning I find myself alone in bed when I wake up. There's no noise coming from the bathroom or kitchen, so I assume Steve's on his morning run. Damn it must be early if he's on his run. I grab Steve's green dress shirt from last night and pull it on, buttoning a few buttons and walk out the room towards the kitchen.
I find my phone in my clutch from the night before and go through my email and texts. Once through with that, I lay my iPhone back down and sit down at the table, going through my work files that I have laid out. Underneath the mountain of paperwork, blood tests, and fitness records, I see a sketchbook peaking out underneath the paper. My curiosity getting the better of me, again, I pull the sketchbook out from underneath the papers and flip through the pages.
There are mostly sketches of New York, Brooklyn, and the harbor. There's a few of pictures tucked into the pages as well. One is of a young Steve and young Bucky, another is of Steve's unit, and the last one is a single photo of Steve when he was at training camp before the change. He's thin, small, and he looks sickly pale. He's wearing a white shirt, his blonde hair is messy, and a pair of dog tags hangs around his neck. I study the picture; a serious look is on Steve's face and I can see a slight shin on his skin from sweat. The picture is in color, a rarity since it was taken in the 1940's.
"You were handsome even back then." I say, sensing his presence behind me.
"I was sick and weak." Steve replies, his deep voice sounding breathless.
"You had a heart of gold though. That counts for more than all the muscle in the world combined." I retort.
I can tell he was surprised to see me looking at his sketches, even more surprised to see the picture in my hand. I can't tell if he's mad, but I'm betting he's not, just surprised and maybe slightly taken back?
"That's what Dr. Erskine said." Steve says in a somewhat bitter voice, coming over behind me.
"He was right." I say softly, noticing Steve's body tense. "He was a good man. His death wasn't your fault."
"I should've been able to save him. That's what he designed the serum for. I couldn't save him and I failed to protect you." Steve shouts in an angry voice, slamming his fist on the table.
"Steve you can't blame yourself for what happened with Red Skull. Sure he gave me some freak experiment, but I'm okay. And Dr. Erskine wouldn't be happy to know you're beating yourself up over his death." I argue, standing up and facing Steve head on unwavering even though he's is losing his cool.
"I should've been able to protect you. You should have never been involved with Shmidt. It's my fault you were injected with his serum." Steve says in a calmer voice, a sad note in his voice.
"Steve I'm okay. I told you, I'm a big girl, and I can take care of myself. Shmidt may have injected me with his serum, but he also gave me a gift, remember? If it wasn't for him I may or may not have ever known about my mutation." I speak softly, cupping his face in my hands, making him look at me.
"But he hurt you. What good is it to be at the peak of human perfection if I can't keep the one person I love safe?" Steve says, looking down at me dejectedly.
"I can protect myself, you know. Don't worry about me. I'm okay. I'm better than I've ever been." I say in a confident voice.
"I still don't forgive myself."
"If you can't forgive yourself, let me forgive you. I don't hold anything that happened against you. Shmidt would have still kidnapped me even if I didn't know you."
"I know. But still, I should've been there to protect you." Steve says, still not looking convinced.
I drop my hands from his face, placing the picture back in the sketchbook when a particular sketch catches my eye. It's of me and I'm wearing the white dress from our first date. My hair is in soft waves and my eyes are closed, my face looking down. There's a light blush drawn on my cheeks.
"When did you draw this?" I ask, holding the picture up to Steve, forgetting about our other conversation.
"Um- uh- the day after our date. You looked really pretty so I decided to sketch you so I would never forget." Steve says sheepishly, whatever anger in him before no turning to embarrassment.
"It's really good. Did you draw it from memory?" I ask, looking at the heavy detail on my face and hair, noticing he even got my dimples right.
"Um yeah, most of it. I had to check the security feed to make sure I had everything right though." Steve admits, beginning to look uncomfortable.
"Were you ever going to show me your drawings?" I ask, placing the sketchbook down and entangling Steve's large fingers in my smaller ones.
"Yeah, someday. I haven't shown anyone my sketches before." Steve admits, looking down at me with a boyish look to his masculine and manly face.
"Was I not supposed to see them?" I ask, feeling guilty that once more I snooped into his life on accident.
"No." Steve says, looking at me with serious eyes. "But I'm glad you did."
I smile, watching as a small smile emerges on my soldier's face. I kiss his lips softly, allowing him to deepen the kiss at his own pace. I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling myself closer.
"I need to shower. Fury wants Clint, Tony, Thor, and I to check in on the helicarrier. He has an assignment for us." Steve says, kissing me one last time on the forehead before making his way toward the bathroom.
"Okay. I'll make some breakfast." I say, walking behind the counter to begin breakfast.
I make eggs, bacon, toast, and some coffee for Steve and some tea for myself. While I'm working, I turn on the radio Steve has sitting on the counter, turning it to my favorite station. I begin to hum as I cook, swaying my hips back and forth to the familiar song.
"Watchin' that blonde hair sway, to every song I sang. You were California beautiful, I was playin' everything but cool. And I can still hear the sound of every wave crashin' down. Like the tears we cried that day we had to leave it was everything we wanted it to be. The summer of 19 you and me." I sing softly along Dan + Shay, keeping perfect timing with the slow country melody.
"You have a beautiful voice." Steve says behind me, making me jump and burn my hand on the egg pan.
"Shit." I growl, turning off the stove and rushing my hand to the sink, running the cold tap water over it.
"Are you alright? Let me see." Steve says, rushing towards my side to see the burn. Examining my hand, Steve checks every inch of the burn mark, making sure to keep it under the freezing water to make sure it cools off. "You'll be okay. It doesn't look permanent."
"Goody I get to go to work with a burned hand." I say, wincing when Steve lightly touches the injury.
"Here I'll kiss it make it all better, okay?" Steve says, raising my hand to his lips and kissing the stinging skin. "Better?"
"Yeah a little." I say, walking closer and kissing Steve's cheek lovingly. "Your breakfast is ready. I'm going to put a band aid over this."
"Thanks Sky. Sorry about the hand." Steve says sitting down at the table to eat the meal I've prepared for him.
I go to the bathroom and grab the first aid kit, taking out a band-aid and return to the kitchen. I lift the band-aid in my hand, showing it to Steve.
"I need some help." I say, standing in front of the soldier and offering him the band-aid.
Putting down his fork, Steve takes the band-aid from my hand, opening the packaging and aligning it with my injury. Gently removing the paper protecting the stickiness, Steve places the band-aid over my burn, gentle smoothing out the corners. Steve then gentle raises my hand to his lips and kisses the knuckle, the band-aid, and my palm before looking back up at me.
"I am sorry, Skylar." Steve says, looking into my eyes.
"It's okay. Don't worry about it. I've got to go, I'm due at the hospital in an hour." I say, kissing Steve's lips warmly before leaving to change.