"What?"
"I had the same reaction. But please you can't tell anyone. It's a secret. S.H.I.E.L.D will probably kill all of us. I wasn't even meant to tell you, but I just had to."
"What about Tony? And Clint? And Pepper? They feel so guilty about it all."
"They are coping okay. They will get over his death. I don't think it's such a good idea to be telling them. Please. Fury will probably kill me just for telling you."
"He is not going to hurt you." he said, angrily clinging onto my arms tighter making my eyeline meet his.
"It was just a figure of speech Cap, but he will be pretty darn pissed off by me telling you anyway."
"Okay...we don't tell the others." he said, putting his arms back down by his sides. "So...how are you coping?" he asked.
I sat down on my bed and stared in front of my at the window. "He's all I've ever had really. A father to me. The only others have been Fury, Natasha and Clint. Me and Clint are just as close as me and Natasha. Me and Nat may spend more time together, but that doesn't make our friendship closer than the one I have with Barton. They are both very good friends of mine. As for Fury, he does stuff for me as if he were really close, but in real life he doesn't seem that close at all. He confuses me. With Coulson it was different. Even when I had no one I had Coulson. He was always there for me. Is. Is always here for me. I can't even get my tenses right." I said, putting my head in my hands.
I felt the bed dip and a warm hand being placed on my shoulder, making the rest of my body want as much heat. "Coulson's back with us now. Nothing can change that. He won't be taken away from us. And as for only having a small group of people to depend on, you've got all of us now. Also, if you want to get the experience on loneliness then I'm the guy to talk to."
I looked up at him. "I'm sorry. I didn't think about the fact that you've spent so many years alone."
"Don't worry about it. I'm here for you now anyway."
"But didn't you feel lonely?"
He looked towards the floor. "I had no consciousness during the freeze, but afterwards...everything had been taken away. My family. My friends. My entire life."
"Peggy?" He looked up at me quickly, but didn't say anything. So I decided to. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up. I read your file. Fury said I had to assess all the Avengers before they came on board the helicarrier. I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine. We can talk about whatever you want."
"Well...do you...regret not making a move earlier?"
"I did. When I woke up, but since then I've realised that...our times over. If I did make a move earlier, I might have messed things up, so I'm happy I didn't. She's in the past and I can't go back there, no matter how much I want to."
"And do you want to?" I asked, with raised eyebrows. Does he even want to stay here?
"I don't think so." he said smiling. "I like it here. With the Avengers. I do miss my old team, but I'm moving with the times." he explained.
I nodded in understanding. How was he not scouring the Earth to find a way to get back to 1945? He must have truly found peace. I noticed that he was looking at the city out of the window.
"Beautiful. Isn't it?" I said, getting up and walking over to see the city.
"It truly is." Steve replied coming up to join me.
"Benefits of living with Tony Stark. Well not living, but...still." I said. I forgot that I don't even live here.
"I forgot to tell you earlier when you came in, didn't I?"
"Tell me what?" I asked, hiding the hope in my voice.
"You can stay here. Permanently. I asked Tony and he agreed."
"Really?! Are you serious? Thank you, thank you, thank you." I squealed and wrapped my arms around his neck. I was hugging him so tightly, probably blocking his windpipe, and he was holding me against him, his arms around my back.
"I'm guessing you're happy about that?"
"So happy! I can't believe this! I live in Avengers Tower!" I said, pulling out of the hug and going over to the bed. I jumped onto it and landed straight onto my back, the soft mattress catching my fall.
Steve walked over and took his hands in mine. "This means...we'll get to see each other more too."
"We'll be hallmates." I said smiling, but he didn't seem to understand the term. I rolled my eyes and he offered out his hand for me to take. I took it and he pulled me up, however, my excitement got to me propelling me forward, into Steve, knocking us both over onto the floor, met on top of him.
"Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean t-" My speech was cut off by Steve's face. As usual. His cheekbones were at the perfect angle, reflecting the sunlight coming in from the window of my bedroom. His eyes bluer than ever from the light. His lips, pink and parted, unkissed for 70 years. His hands were glued to my waist and mine to placed lightly on his chest, from the fall.
"I'm..sorry." I said, finally getting up after a couple of minutes. I brushed down my clothes and looked at Steve. "Should we go to dinner?" he asked quickly.
"Yep." I replied, almost instantly and we immediately exited the bedroom. We walked down the corridor in an awkward silence and when we got the kitchen door, he went off first and opened it for me. I mumbled a thank you and went to sit next to Natasha, which left Steve to sit next to Bruce. Tony was also sat at the table, but next to an empty chair, yet to be occupied his girlfriend.
Natasha looked sad, probably because Clint had not returned, and the others just look hungry as Pepper finished cooking the food. "Here you go." she said, once she had finished serving the food onto the plates and was now handing them to people.
"Lasagna. Pepper Potts you complete me." Tony commented.
"I complete your paperwork for sure." she replied.
"Burn." I said.
"I hope you all like this. It's a home-made recipe of mine. My grandmother passed it down to me."
I took a bit of the wonderful looking meat and pasta bake and discovered that the taste was just as brilliant as the appearance.
"Pepper, this is incredible." Bruce complimented, followed by a chorus of positive comments about her food.
"Thank you guys."
"Have you ever considered doing it professionally?" Rogers asked.
"No. Looking after Tony in itself is a full time job, let alone looking after his company."
"I'm not that bad." he said, turning his head towards her. She just smiled and carried on eating. Throughout the night, we discussed topics of Clint's return, other foods that we want to eat over the next couple of days so that JARVIS could stock up on ingredients and what we were having for dessert.
"Cookie dough."
"Chocolate Fudge Cake."
"Ice cream."
"Profiteroles."
"Gu cheesecake."
"I have an idea. Instead of shouting out random foods, that we might not have, lets have an actual look in the fridge first guys?" Pepper said, as if we were all idiots for not thinking the same thing.
Fortunately, every single dessert that we said was in there. How does Stark own this many desserts and not eat them all already? Is he insane? I mean, there's even choc ice's in here. And everybody eats choc ice's. Even if you're a vegan or allergic to the ingredients, you still eat choc ice's. Because you know...they're choc ice's and they gathered 2 Ben and Jerry's ice cream tubs, 4 Gu cheesecakes, some profiteroles and three chocolate fudge cake for Thor, which were obviously heated and covered in chocolate sauce, otherwise there is no point in having fudge cake.
We sat on the floor, around the table in the living room. Tony had decreased the table size, so it was a couple of inches off the floor, meaning that we could put our feet under it, still see each and have room for our food. Moments like this make me glad that I know Tony Stark. Did I just think that?
"So these are little pastry things filled with cream?" Steve asked, inspecting the profiterole like it was radioactive.
"You should try it. They're really nice." Bruce said. Steve hesitantly put it in his mouth and he started smiling. He took a couple more and we all laughed. "These are amazing!" he said. He is so cute.
"I can't believe you've never had one of these before Steve. They are a genius invention." I said, popping one into my mouth. Steve ate the corner of another one, but it left cream over the sides of his lips.
"Cap?" I said and he looked over. I licked each corner of my mouth, but he looked at me confused. I rolled my eyes and then tapped each corner of my mouth with my finger. He lifted up his fingers to touch the same place and found that I was trying to get him to wipe the profiterole off his face. We all chuckled as he licked his lips clean and then he grabbed the cookie dough pot.
"Jesus Christ, are you on your man period or something?" Stark said.
"What? No. I have a fast metabolism remember. 4 times faster than yours."
"But still," I started. "how do you eat so much and still look so fit?"
The group started laughing, but Cap didn't seem to get the joke. Red infiltrated my cheeks and I put my head in my hands. "Uh...what's so funny?"
"Fit is another word for sexy basically Steve." Natasha explained cooly, whilst the others were still chuckling. Steve went a bit red too and adjusted his shirt a little before replying "I work out more than most."
"What even more than Red?" Stark asked.
"I don't know. Romanoff?" We continued to talk about the Avengers and our regimes. Tony's was very food-based.
Right, I'm skipping a few days so we can actual get Steve and Hill together.:) Hope you liked this chapter! Please review!