I HOLD YOU A LITTLE CLOSER
REST MY CHIN ON TOP YOUR HEAD
IF I COULD DO ANYTHING FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, I'D DANCE WITH YOU
He whistles when he walks through the front entrance of the massive Tower that rises above the city for the Avengers.
Sam Wilson cannot count the number of times he's walked into the tower, but it still manages to amaze him every time; he supposes the Starks would induce nothing less.
"Good evening Mr. Wilson."
Sam can remember the first time he was introduced to Jarvis. Steve had tried to explain the complexity of the machine a day after he had learnt how to use a Stark phone properly and the result was catastrophic. Bruce Banner had to cut in after it was apparent that Steve has yet to understand Jarvis other than the fact that the machine could uphold a conversation and do things around the house.
"Wassap, Jarvis."
"All is well. The party is on the fifth floor."
Sam Wilson thanks the ceiling, despite Elizabeth Stark mentioning several times that Jarvis does not reside there and that he doesn't have to look at the white lights when talking to the AI.
He gets into the elevator, preparing himself for the onslaught of AC/DC music that will replace the silence; Tony Stark's music preference that Sam actually doesn't mind.
He's about to tell Jarvis to take him up to the fifth floor when he spots a familiar face walking through the door and while he's confused, Sam holds the elevators and calls out.
"Cap."
Steve spots Sam and smiles, walking into the elevator with familiar ease, shaking his hand before telling Jarvis to take them up to the party.
Sam's surprised when, instead of the heavy metal, Marvin Gaye's classic hits encompass the elevator that is too large to be considered an elevator.
"Tony and Liz changed the music according to rider," Steve explains as much as he can, trying to comprehend the idea of biometric scans and programmable elevators. Sam would applaud him for his persistence suppose it would make a difference.
Instead, the ex-military latches onto the fact that Steve looks more comfortable in the tower than he did the last time he saw him. Sam latches onto the fact that Steve is progressively looking more and more like he wants to belong.
"This is home, huh?" Sam asks, making eye contact with the Captain through the reflective metal of the elevator doors.
The loud bass of the music can be heard faintly as they began their ascent, the music from the party eventually drowning out Marvin Gaye's tunes.
"It's not my usual style, but for some reason, it does feel like home," Steve says, the word home leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
Sam can recognize Steve's confusion at the idea that this tower is home. "You know, sometimes it's not the building that makes it home, but the people."
They walk into the party, and Sam has to take a moment to appreciate the subtle changes made to the main floor of the tower in order to create a welcoming environment that the many people drinking and dancing seem to enjoy. He then looks at Steve Rogers, trying to figure out if his observation had resonated.
The supersoldier isn't staring back, instead, he has zoned in on something at the distance as he faintly murmurs loud enough for no one but Sam to hear, "Ya. Maybe it is."
Sam follows his gaze and doesn't know why he feels even slightly surprised when he spots Elizabeth Stark.
She's dancing around on the makeshift dance floor alongside Thor, her pink dress twirling as she does. Her hair, long and straight, flies in the air as she jumps up before landing perfectly on her pink heels. The movement causes Sam to see a glimpse of the circular device he knows represses her powers.
Steve cannot take his eyes off her.
He had always thought Elizabeth Stark to be beautiful, ever since he saw her for the first time on a photograph clipped onto a profile. Right now, she's teaching Thor how to dance and she's laughing and her face is flushed red and she's so alive and Steve hasn't seen her for a week and he doesn't think he's ever seen her more beautiful before.
Eventually, Thor gives up trying to learn the Midgardian dance that Liz tries to teach him; all jumping and spinning and arms flailing that he cannot grasp and so the God grabs the hand of Elizabeth, and twirls her around, remembering the dances he would watch in Asgard, remembering the festivals and parties and dancers.
The young surgeon is tasked with trying to keep up with Thor spontaneous steps as he throws her out and pulls her back in before spinning her around ferociously until her head spins and she's forced to right herself because Thor would move eccentrically around the dance floor with moves she genuinely thinks should be a health hazard.
Steve makes his way to the bar where Clint, Tony, Maria and Natasha are, sipping their drinks and laughing at the duo on the dance floor.
"Nice of you to finally join us, Captain," Maria teases when he reaches the bar and grabs a drink.
Steve defends himself, "I was with Sam." He looks at the ex-military who is currently conversing with Rhodes, presumably talking about the issue in the military today. Steve isn't surprised that Sam and James had hit off perfectly when they first met, not when they have so much in common.
"Who are all these people?" Steve asks Tony.
Tony looks up from where he texts Pepper and shrugs, "SI executives. Some of Lizzie's co-workers. I kind of just gave everyone the reign to invite whoever they wanted to."
Steve nods his head, not finding it odd that something that would have once annoyed him about Tony Stark now just amuses him.
Tony scans the room properly now, taking note of the way his little sister is panting slightly as she tries to keep up with the God of Thunder who looks like he has no intention to stop until the younger Stark perfectly masters the Asgardian dance he's trying to teach her.
He gives Natasha Romanoff his hand, "Care to dance Ms. Rushman?"
Natasha smiles at the nickname, remembering a time where things were a lot less complicated than they are now and places her hand into Tony's, "Of course Mister Stark."
Tony notices Clint asking Hill and then looks at his little sister before turning towards the Captain telling him before he walks away.
"Tell me something, Rogers, you're still America's hero right."
When he receives nothing but a confused glance, Tony goes in for the kill.
"You are. So isn't it your civil duty to rescue all Americans from trouble, including those who are in danger of dancing Norse Gods?"
Steve gapes at Tony Stark as he leads Natasha to the dance floor where a much slower song has suddenly replaced the previously upbeat one and tries to figure out what Tony wanted him to do.
"He means to tell you to ask her to dance, Cap." Maria Hill whispers in his ear before she is led to the dance floor by Clint Barton.
Steve just freezes in place. His drink is in his hands and he's still staring at Elizabeth Stark but the music has drowned out and replaced by the rushing in his ears and the warmth of the air is gone, replaced by the cool tingles in his blood.
Steve remembers red dresses, and broken promises and missed dates. He remembers bars and finding dancing partners and going down in the ice.
He doesn't remember his self-promise to never dance again.
He doesn't remember anything when he hears Elizabeth Stark laughing over the rushing in his ears and the pounding of the music.
He drowns his drink in one go before making his way to the woman who's slowly starting to lose her footing unbeknownst to Thor who keeps dragging her gently around the dance floor.
He rubs his palms on his jeans preparing himself to ask Thor if he could cut in, but the God spotted him from a mile away and smoothly, with a kind of flair Steve doesn't expect, deposits Liz into Steve's arms before making his way to the Bar to chat up Bruce Banner.
Liz grabs onto Steve's biceps to regain her composure after being spun around for what seemed like an hour at the least. She's breathing heavy and she decides that wearing the heels she is was not a good decision on her part. She toes them off gently.
"Are you telling me that you can fight twenty agents, beat aliens and hold your own with a supersoldier but cannot dance with Thor?"
She looks up at Steve, smiling Steve who she wants to punch for always messing with her heart, "Why don't you try dancing with the God of Thunder in five-inch heels as he pulls you around the dance floor."
Steve chuckles faintly, instinctively wrapping his arms around her waist and swaying slightly to the soft beat. He watches as one hand comes up to rest on his shoulder and he grabs the other one, marvelling at the fact that her hands, so soft and delicate, hold power unlike anything he's ever seen before.
She looks up at him after a moment of staring at their intertwined hands and she smiles, all soft blue eyes and flushed cheeks and he, not for the first time in his life, wants to bend down and kiss her. He doesn't because the timing isn't right for one and also because while Tony may have allowed him to dance with his sister, Steve supposes that kissing her might not elicit a positive reaction.
"You're pretty good at this," Liz says after a moment.
"My mom taught me." He remembers dancing in the living room with a tune he cannot remember playing in the background. Remembers his mother's smile and her green dress and her pride when he finally got it right.
"Jarvis taught me," Liz replies by sharing a part of her as well.
She continues, because Liz doesn't simply say three words, it's one of the many things Steve finds enthralling about her.
"Tony did as well. He used to like dancing when we were kids. He would make me stand on his toes while he danced us around the living room. I think he only did it to make me laugh."
"Then it must have been worth it." He says softly.
He likes when he shocks her with statements as such. Likes the way her eyes widen a little before they light up with a smile that is slightly shy, slightly amused. He brings her a little closer, holds her a little tighter and she follows, nearly resting her head under his chin where she fits perfectly; where she fits as if she was meant to be there all along.
And the two of them dance in a modern Tower, surrounded by heroes of varying powers, in the middle of the dance floor that's just white tiles and blue lights.
Steve Rogers forgets about his promise to never dance again. Doesn't realize that he hasn't danced with anyone since waking up in 2011. Doesn't realize that he didn't want to dance with anyone until Liz held his hand and smiled up at him. Doesn't realize that she's slowly becoming home.
The aftermath of the party finds the seven Avengers sitting on the couch debating Thor's mythical hammer. They've all had some to drink and are basking under the knowledge that a weapon of impossible destruction no longer falls into Hydra's hands.
Clint tries lifting the hammer first, expecting the results. He was there when the many scientists at SHIELD had tried to lift the legendary weapon, was there when they all failed. He's doing it for the fun of it, doing it because he has nothing to prove, not when he's in a room full of people that understand him better than anyone ever has.
It becomes a joke afterward, a game. Bruce pretends to Hulk out, smiling when he's only met with amused glances. Natasha falls to her feet laughing in the middle of her picking it up. And Steve can feel the budge, can feel the slight shift before the very little, barely-there control he had over the hammer leaves and he backs away, ninety-eight percent sure he had imagined it.
"This is ridiculous." Tony jumps up from his seat and examines the Hammer resting on the table trying to rationalize the object even though he knows that rationality as he knew it flew out the window the minute his sister was born.
He presses the watch on his wrist and the others, despite seeing the capability of Tony's tech many times before, are impressed at the gauntlet that covers his hand.
He looks at his sister who just sits crossed-legged on the couch, nursing her second beer due to her not having to go to work tomorrow, not realizing that she's fiddling with the tips of the Captain's hair as he sits on the ground in front of her.
"Elizabeth," Tony calling her name startles her and she stares at her hands above Steve's head in shock before she snatches it away and looks at him with wide eyes, their mom's eyes.
He motions her towards the hammer and she rolls her eyes, even though she jumps off from her seat and makes her way towards the hammer, "I don't see the point in this."
Tony holds onto the handle waiting for her to mirror his actions, "We're testing a theory."
"This is magic, not physics."
His gauntlet fires up and he expects the immovable object to stay immovable, despite the combined efforts. What he doesn't anticipate was for his sister to pull back as if the hammer burned her and then stare at the thing in thinly veiled shock.
"What?" he asks her.
She looks at him and then closes her eyes, shakes her head and then lifts her palms up in a surrender position, "Just a little tipsy. The world spun for a second."
Tony Stark deems it an acceptable answer and then grumbles at the inconsistencies of the hammer to Thor before taking his seat on the couch.
Thor's eyes trail the younger Stark who resumes her seat as well but doesn't take her eyes off the hammer. He remembers the very familiar lightning the two of them share, the way she tugged the hammer lightly before pulling back.
He knows something doesn't add up. He chooses to ignore it. Chooses to celebrate their victory.
Then Ultron happens.