Hermione/Steve

Rating: G

Summary: Steve and Hermione work well as a team. Turns out there's a reason for that.

Hermione was usually one of the first responders during a crisis simply because she could teleport, or apparate, as she called it. Steve was usually the second responder because he had nothing better to do, so they teamed up very often, which led to a whole lot of ridiculous speculations in the papers. Steve ignored them, like all other gossip newspapers seemed to enjoy spreading nowadays. He wasn't even sure Hermione had seen any of them. From what he understood, her world had their own newspapers.

He still had a lot to learn about wizards and witches, but her kind was so used to secrecy, they didn't open up easily. Even having one of them join the Avengers a few months back hadn't helped much in that aspect, but Fury had told them recruiting one of the magical had been hard enough as it was and to not annoy her into leaving. He had said that with a pointed glare at Tony, but Steve took the advice to heart anyway. It would be a shame if she left, not only because her powers were very useful, but also because she was nice. Real nice, not the way most people pretended to be. She always went out of her way to help people too. Steve often felt like she was a kindred spirit, which might explain why they worked so well as a team.

"Any idea what this is about?" Steve asked as he stopped his motorbike by her side and got off.

"No idea. Someone signalled a disturbance in the air and thought it might be the Rainbow Bridge activating."

"In the middle of a street in the city?"

"Yeah, I thought that was unlikely as well, so I came to check it out. I can feel what they mean by disturbance though…"

She looked at him expectantly so Steve took another step forward before jumping back immediately.

"It's gotten worse then?" Hermione asked.

"It's freezing," he shivered. "I hate the cold. Where is it coming from?"

The witch shrugged.

"Ironman would be helpful right now. Where is he?" she asked.

"Washington. Something about a contract with the government."

He kneeled, noticing frost patterns just starting to decorate the dark tar covering the road. He pointed it out to Hermione who nodded in understanding.

"It's coming from above then."

She sighed then took out a whole broom from the pocket of her coat.

"I hate flying," she said, her eyes fixed up, trying to find whatever was causing this event.

"You'll be fine," he said, trying to cheer her up. "I'll walk the perimeter, try to figure out how large this phenomenon is."

"Good idea. Here," she said and tossed him a large chunk of chalk. "So we can see if it's growing. We might need to bring in the scientists if it's not magical in nature, and they'll be pissed off if we don't give them as much information as possible."

They shared a wry smile, having both been on the wrong end of Foster, Banner or even Stark's disapproval over their lack of scientific understanding. Hermione kicked of the ground and flew upwards, sometimes moving closer to the center before retreating suddenly, making her look like a drunk bee when she was so high up he could hardly distinguish her. Steve kept an eye on her while he traced the outline of a perfect sphere, about eight feet large, much smaller than he expected and not expanding at all. So weird.

Hermione was on her way back down when a pillar of blinding white light suddenly filled the cold spot. Steve blinked away the light from his eyes and searched the sky for Hermione, not surprised to find her falling since she'd been flying so close to the phenomenon. Taking a running start, he jumped up and caught her in his arms before she hit the hard concrete. Her broom landed on the handle and split clean in two though.

"You alright?" he asked her.

She rubbed her eyes, squinting up at him.

"Yes, thanks for catching me. What-"

She suddenly scrambled out of his arms and pointed her wand at the circle. The light had dissipated, leaving someone behind. Well, he was being generous by saying someone, but something seemed a bit rude since it was a living… thing. An alien? Probably an alien. Not a Chitauri though, thank goodness. If this one was here to invade them, he came a bit short handed though, so Steve took it upon himself to try talking to it in case it was friendly.

"Hello, and… erm, welcome to Earth?"

Steve frowned, pretty sure he had heard that line in a movie not so long ago, but he shook off the strange feeling and looked at what he thought was the alien's face. Its pincers moved after a few seconds, making strange clicking sounds he had no hope of understanding. On the bright side, he didn't seem menacing and ended his speech by bowing to them. Hermione exchanged a look with him before they decided to bow back, but the alien only began clicking again.

"I'll send for Thor," Steve said and informed Hill about what was going on.

"He's still off planet, but I'll ask Foster to send a message. Do your best, we'll be on stand-by if you need back-up," Hill said.

"We're on our own," Steve whispered back at Hermione, not wanting to seem rude to the alien who was still clicking away. What the heck could he be talking about for so long? It went on for five more minutes before he suddenly lifted a leg? an arm? and shot a beam of light at them. It didn't hurt, but Steve went on the defensive anyway and protected Hermione at his back. She seemed fine too, but he wasn't taking any chances.

The alien clicked at them some more.

"Stop it! I don't understand!" Steve exclaimed in frustration, and of course Thor chose that moment to appear.

"Captain! Lady Hermione!" he turned to look at their guest, made a clicking sound of his own, then beamed at them. "Congratulations! I had no idea you two had been engaged! I'm sorry I am late to your wedding, but I only just got your message. Where is everyone?"

"Uh…" Steve was at a loss for words, thinking he must have misheard.

"What?" Hermione squeaked behind him.

Steve was both too dumbfounded and too terrified to turn around to look at her.

"There must be some kind of mistake," Steve told Thor. "We were just investigating a disturbance when this little guy appeared."

"He's a priest of the click-click-clack." Or that's what it sounded like to Steve. "He was invited to officiate a wedding at- Ah, yes, now I see there's been some mistake."

Thor clicked away at the alien priest, sounding like an angry pigeon. The aliens claws covered the pincers on its face and in another blinding pillar of light, it was gone.

"Did he just… bugger off?" Hermione asked.

"I'm afraid so, Lady Hermione, but he did apologise for the confusion and hopes you two will be very happy together nonetheless."

"What… What does he mean by that?"

Thor shifted uneasily on the spot.

"Unions officiated by priests of the click-click-clack are very sought after. They're non-refundable and non-dissoluble."

"I'm not sure I follow," Steve said.

"You're married," Thor deadpanned.

"Yes, I think we got that part," Hermione muttered. "Why can't we just get divorced?"

Steve's heart skipped a beat at the thought. He never thought he'd get married, sure, but he never imagined he would get divorced either.

"Well, see, those weddings are very sought after because if the couple presenting themselves to be wed are not true soul mates, they, uh, die in the process. So… congratulations?"

Steve, who had been avoiding meeting Hermione's eyes since learning they had been married against their will, finally looked at her. She seemed just as shocked as he was, but not as angry as he had feared, and the thought she was his soulmate, that such a thing even existed, he couldn't help but feel happy about it.

"Your hand," Steve said, noticing a glint on her ring finger.

Hermione turned her hand over to inspect it and gasped at the thin band of frost encircling her finger. She reached for his own hand to look at it and sure enough, he had the same marking on his finger.

" I…" she shook her head and coughed to clear her throat. Steve steeled himself for some kind of rejection. "I guess we could go on a date?"

Steve's face broke out in a smile.

"It would be my pleasure," he replied, offering his arm to… his wife. That was going to take some getting used to, but a renowned priest of the click-clack from outer space had just proved they were soulmates by failing to kill them, and Steve was more than happy to give it a try.