A/N: If you don't like the plot or pairings, then don't read.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Captain America: The Winter Soldier only my character/s
WORD COUNT: 2, 723
Chapter 1
Morning Run
She had come to realise that her boyfriend was still coming to terms with his life in 2014.
He was still having flashbacks and he had told Seph that the bed was too soft for him to sleep, Seph understood his predicament so she never complained, not that she had any inclination to. Steve needed time to adjust and she was going to support him no matter what.
So, today, she decided on going with him on his run.
Steve had woken her up by getting up a little rougher than he anticipated and she groaned softly, feeling him whisper apologies and lean over the bed to kiss her cheek, hugging her toasty warm body to his and he sighed. "I'm sorry, doll. Go back to sleep." He whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her jaw as she moaned sleepily.
"I'm coming with you, hold on." Seph croaked before pressing multiple, quick kisses to his lips, before she got up, yawning.
"Persephone, it's way too early, and you've got work later." Steve tried to make her see reason. There was no doubt, he loved having Seph with him on his runs, even though he had to piggy-back her after jogging one third of what he normally runs. Listening to her encourage him poorly would make him laugh, but she had been working hard; Seph was exhausted.
"Nuh-uh. I'm coming. Give me five minutes."
Steve sighed, feeling a little excited to be spending time with his best girl and he quickly shrugged on a grey workout shirt and his navy blue sweatpants, tying his sneakers tight when Seph walked out of the bathroom, her hair up in a tight ponytail, her face washed and she had brushed her teeth as she pulled off her nightgown as Steve sat back to appreciate her.
Seph hadn't noticed yet as she delved through the drawer and pulled out her outfit, shrugging on her workout tank top and her favourite black leggings and she turned to grab her sneakers before she caught Steve eyeing her up and down. Her lips curled into a grin and she wiggled her hips. "See something you like?" She teased him.
"Every day when I wake up and every night when I go to bed." Steve quipped as he stood, strode to his girl and handed Seph her sneakers and a pair of socks, before enveloping her in his arms, kissing her softly.
Seph gasped as his lips moved against hers and she reciprocated happily.
Steve smiled before pulling away, looking down at her lovingly, his large hand caressing her soft, pink cheek. "You're blushing," Steve chuckled, his pointer finger softly running down the warm skin, "you do that a lot."
"It's become a natural occurrence around you." Seph grinned before she patted his solid chest and sat on the edge of the bed, sliding on the pair of socks before slipping on her sneakers, tying her shoelaces up. They walked downstairs into the kitchen where Joey was, munching on his cereal and Seph smiled, pressing a kiss to his hair, "what are you doing up so early, mister? It's not even dawn."
"Morning, Aunt Seph, just thought I'd get my English homework done. Hey, Uncle Steve." Joey grinned up at Steve, setting his pen down and the older, blonde man pat his shoulder, letting it rest around his broadening shoulders. It had been two years since they met and fallen into love. Joey had grown closer to Steve and treated him as if he were part of the family.
"Hey buddy, how's it going?" Steve asked, reading Joey's unfinished English homework over his shoulder.
"Yeah, not bad. You? Couldn't sleep again?" Joey asked, looking up at the Captain with a small, sad smile.
Steve shook his head, the same smile curling his lips, "your aunt is refusing to stay home and she's coming for a run with me."
"Is she crazy?" Joey whispered to Steve, who chuckled, shrugging gently.
Joey had grown up quite a lot in the past two years, now twelve years old and in middle school. His hair was longer, reaching his shoulders in soft waves and his fringe fell into his eyes when it wasn't clipped back, his eyes were darker now, becoming more sapphire now. He was growing and since he competed in many sporting events (all of which Seph was in the crowd), he was starting to gain more muscle. He was turning into quite the handsome boy as Seph was told that many of the girls in his class were crushing on him. But he loved to draw, like his uncle, who taught him a lot. There were many sketches around the house that could be credited to Joey.
"What do you want in the shake?" Seph asked, pulling out the Nutribullet and looked over at Steve who smiled.
"I like what you usually make." He scratched the back of his head, making her chuckle.
She walked to the freezer and grabbed the frozen assortment of berries and poured a good amount of them in the smoothie maker, considering they shared and cracked a raw egg in the cup, pouring a generous amount of full cream milk that they both enjoyed and she spooned a large helping of honey to sweeten the drink.
Setting it all up, she blended the drink until it was smooth and completely mixed in with all the other ingredients and quickly poured the smoothie in a modern travel mug before cleaning the mess and putting everything away. They said their goodbyes to Joey and then they were off.
(..)
"Oh God!" Seph heaved, trying to keep up with Steve and doing a poor job of it, sweat lined her entire body, her forehead shining as she stopped, gasping for air. "Damn, super-soldier." She muttered to herself as Steve stood in front of her, not even having scratched the surface.
"I heard that," Steve teased her, turning around so he faced away from her and knelt to the ground so she'd climb up on him. "Assume the position." He nodded his head for her to get on.
"I forgot you have the ears of a Vulcan." Seph teased him before she clambered on his back, the half-drunk smoothie right near his lips as she held onto his shoulders, panting hard as he took off once more.
"I know you're talking about this Star Wars business, but I still haven't seen it." Steve reminded her.
"Star Trek, sweetheart." Seph corrected him, her body bouncing softly as Steve's hands caressed her thighs. "Star Wars is the one with the Jedi, remember? You haven't seen Star Trek yet."
"Right! You know, you still need to get them." Steve mused and ran faster. Seph's body weight hardly hindered him at all as he kept running.
"It's on my list." Seph stole his line, laughing, "let's go!" Seph called as Steve sped up faster as she started to hum the Rocky theme song. He still hadn't seen the movie but Seph kept doing it, saying he'd get the reference one day.
"Yes, ma'am." Steve laughed as he ran faster and faster and she laughed, pressing soft kisses on his cheek as they spotted a man jogging at a leisurely pace in front of them. It was still dark outside, but the super-soldier could see him clearly and he sped up, catching up to a man who also had the same idea as Steve.
Running to get their mind off the wars they fought.
As Steve passed him, he murmured, "on your left." Catching the stranger's attention, he looked toward the power couple as Seph saluted.
Steve continued the same phrase every time they passed the soldier.
Seph by the third time, had gotten down from Steve's back and was jogging up ahead both soldiers only to hear:
"Don't say it, don't you say it!" The man replied, dreading to hear the Captain's words.
Steve shit-stirred him anyway, "On your left." He said, running faster.
"Come on!" He roared, trying to chase after the blonde man.
Steve took off, and without missing a beat, lifted Seph off her feet, enjoying the startled cry as she laughed and he ran with her. "Hey!" Seph cried, laughing as hard as she could, looking at her boyfriend who, quite literally, swept her off her feet.
Steve did one more lap before he set Seph down and they proceeded to the panting soldier, nursing the stitch in his side.
"Need a medic?" Steve teased, standing just under the tree, hands on his hips and Seph smiled to the soldier.
He chuckled, "I need a new set of lungs. Dude, you just ran, like, 13 miles in 30 minutes." Her marvelled.
"I guess I got a late start." Steve joked and Seph smacked his chest teasingly.
"Wise-ass." Seph remarked, making both men chuckle.
"Really? You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take another lap." He also remarked, continuing the banter, "did you take it? I assumed you just took it." That made Seph chuckle.
It was then Steve noticed the jumper, "what unit you with?"
"58th Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA." The man stated, as he lifted his hand in greeting, "Sam Wilson." He introduced himself.
"Steve Rogers." Steve took his hand and helped him up, "this is my other half, Persephone Brandt."
"Yeah, I kinda put that together. Nice to meet you, Miss America." Sam said, adopting the nickname that the media dubbed her and she rolled her eyes good-naturedly before she took his hand in a strong shake.
"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Wilson and thank you." Dating the WWII war hero (and also having had her father and great-grandfather in the military) had opened her eyes to what their country's military forces sacrifice in service to their nation and the individual toll it has on the men and women that joined.
Sam nodded in thanks and respect for the woman, "please, call me Sam." Seph smiled and he turned back to Steve, "must have freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing." He commented, and Steve shrugged, sliding his hand around Seph's waist and she smiled up at him gently, patting his chest.
"It takes some getting used to, but when you got a beautiful dame like this to keep you grounded. . . ain't no place I'd rather be." Steve looked down at Seph and she smiled peacefully before he turned back to Sam, "it's good to meet you, Sam." Both Seph and Steve started down to the pavement, before Sam called back:
"It's your bed, right?"
"What's that?" Steve asked, politely and Seph smiled knowingly. Though he just met Steve, he knew exactly why Steve was up at 4:30 AM, for a morning run.
'Got it in one, Sam.' She thought.
"Your bed, its too soft." Sam provided an explanation as he walked toward them, stopping in front of Steve, "when I was over there I used to sleep on the ground, use rock for pillows like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed and it's like. ." Sam looked at a loss for words, but Steve knew exactly what the other man was getting at.
"Lying on a marshmallow." Steve provided and he hugged Seph closer, "feel like I'm going to sink right to the floor." Sam nodded. "How long?" Steve asked.
"Two tours." Seph sighed, the haunted look on both their faces was enough to break her heart, before Sam smiled. He covered it up good. "You must miss the good old days, huh?"
"Well, things aren't so bad." Steve looked around before he looked down at Seph, as if making sure she was still there before he turned back to Sam, "Food's a lot better, we used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful; been reading that a lot, tryin' to catch up." Steve listed and Seph thought of the little red book of things that he had yet to try and things that he had yet to discover.
"Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack. Everything you missed, jammed into one album." Sam suggested, to which Steve nodded in interest, taking out the famous little red pocketbook and she giggled.
"I'll put it on the list." He's said that a lot too. Steve opened it to the page where he had some space and wrote it down.
"Don't forget to cross out Thai food. We ate that last night." Seph reminded.
"Is that what it was? I thought you just cooked something exotic." Steve mused, quickly crossing out 'Thai Food'.
"No," Seph chuckled, just as his phone dinged and vibrated with a new message. She sighed.
Steve put his pocketbook away and took out his SHIELD phone and she read the message over his shoulder: "MISSION ALERT. EXTRACTION IMMINENT. MEET AT THE CURB. :)" She only knew one person that would send Steve a smiley, and that was Nat...and Tony... but mostly Nat.
Seph and Nat had gotten closer after the incident with Hellfire and they were practically best friends.
"All right, Sam, duty calls. Thanks for the run." Steve shook Sam's hand. "If that's what you want to call running."
"Oh, that's how it is?" Sam teased.
"Oh, that's how it is." Steve grinned, wrapping his arm around Seph.
"It was nice to meet you, Sam." Seph waved gently.
"Nice to meet you too, Seph." He called her by her nickname and she tapped Steve.
"Now see, why can't you do that?" She laughed and the World War two veteran rolled his eyes.
"Anytime you want to stop by the VA, make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk. Just let me know." Steve and Seph migrated to the curb and Steve nodded, his face taking on a contemplative expression.
"I'll keep it mind." Steve grinned as Seph heard the growl of the engine. No doubt Nat in some expensive-
Yep, it definitely was expensive.
"Hey fellas and pyrokinetic badass," Nat greeted and Seph chuckled, "either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil." When Seph heard the punchline, she burst into laughter as they walked to the car.
"That's hilarious." Steve dryly commented, getting in the car and Seph squeezed in, having no other way home and Steve wouldn't have left her to go to the bus stop by herself.
The brief altercation with Sam and Nat peeked Seph's interest as she seated herself in Steve's lap as he looked out the window, "can't run everywhere."
"No you can't." Sam agreed as they took off.
"You know, I will now expect to be greeted like that all the time." Seph mused, sideways glancing at her best friend who chuckled.
"Noted." Nat said and Seph sighed in relief to be off her feet. "Where am I dropping you, Seph?"
"Mine." Seph said as Steve wrapped both of his arms around her waist. "I'm gonna crash, let me know when we get there, 'kay?" She asked and Steve nodded.
"Got it, baby-doll." Steve affirmed and Seph closed her eyes, letting the smooth rocking of the car lull her to sleep as Steve and Natasha spoke amongst themselves.
Two years they had built their relationship and grown to trust each other implicitly.
But now, everything was about to change.
Welcome back!
Instead of having two individual stories, I'll be putting them all together in one massive story like my Twilight story: 'Opposite Sides of the Spectrum.' I hope you enjoy this new set up and yeah, I know theres been a bit of a mix up, I'm fixing it now ;(
-Munsurieya