[A/N Oh, the reviews.. You are making me so happy & motivated! That's good. Oh, and, see the cover? SEE IT? Also, take a look at my Avatar. Remember the picture with the sweaters? It's right there!]
Part 11.
"Son of a bitch!" I said, pacing around my living room.
"Hey, that's my mother you are talking about!" Thor said angrily, starting to swing his hammer.
"Thor! It's figure of speech, calm down." Clint quickly stepped in, laying a hand on his shoulder and trying to calm him down.
"Still!" He roared, "This is my brother! We don't even know if he did anything!" I raised my eyebrow.
"Seriously, Thor, you can't actually believe he's still you brother." I spat, and Clint was now desperately trying to hold Thor back, "Besides, who else could have done it. Steve is practically untouchable, if he gets hurt, everything will heal within minutes, even the worst injuries. He doesn't get scars. This could only have been done by magic. And oh, how convenient, wasn't there that black haired, Rudolph-impersonating wizard we defeated? This is revenge, Thor. Or a warning. That's all there is to it."
"There are other wizards out there! You don't know what you're talking about!"
"NO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" I bellowed, trying to match up to his impressive volume, "That there," I pointed to Steve's exposed upper-body, "is the most beautiful chest in all of America, carrying the warmest heart in all of the world. And now it is ruined by that criminal!" I softened my voice, walking up to him (Clint had let go, but was still ready to jump in if needed) "What if something like this would happen to Jane? Would you be angry?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Well, I'm angry. And your brother is the only one who would do this. And why on the Steve? As revenge to me."
"What do you mean, you aren't the one with a giant L all over your abs." Natasha said.
"I am the guy dating him, though" I pointed out.
"Why would he want to take revenge on you solemnly? No offense, pal, but I think none of us could have done that on our own. It was team-effort." Clint said.
"None taken, but" I felt like I needed to keep pointing this out because people just couldn't believe that Tony Stark would do something selfless, "I caught a nuke out of the air and flew it into the ship of his hired warriors. I think he is angry and offended that such a regular person would be able to do something against him."
"So, what is he trying to tell us?" Bruce asked.
"That he's coming back," I told all my friends, "And this time, it's getting even more personal than last time." I said, eyeing Thor in particular. "Will you join us? Because if not I will seriously kick you out of my house, God or not." Thor looked at us all for a minute and everyone knew he would say something poetic pretty soon, probably something overflowing with rhetoric devices.
"My friends, we have fought beautiful wars together. Together we have faced the mischief of my brother before and succeeded in bringing peace to this amazing planet Earth. He might be family, and I have always thought of him as my little brother and I still do even though I know his true heritage. I love him dearly but when he dares to lay a finger on my friends.. I can not stand here doing nothing. I don't know what Loki has in mind, but shall it come to it, I will join you in a glorious battle!" See, I told you it was coming, but still I went to stand next to him to put my hand on his shoulder.
"What do you say, can we do this?" I smiled at the rest and everybody let out a little sound of excitement, except for Steve. Steve had been remarkably quiet.
So when we were alone in my workshop later that evening (I had gone straight to perfecting my new Iron Man suit after hearing of this new danger and was secretly enjoying the thrill of having Loki back), I tried to calm him some.
"Hey, Steve, you OK?" I asked, putting away my equipment and telling JARVIS to shut everything down for the night.
"Alright, I suppose." I walked up to him to peel his shirt off, tracing the L lightly and looking for signs of discomfort on Steve's face. There were none, so at least he wasn't in pain, that was good.
"When did it happen?"
"I don't exactly know, he must have wiped my mind clean or something, because I don't remember any of it. If I would have, I could have told you whether it was Loki or not." I sighed, throwing the shirt on the floor.
"You know.." I started, rubbing my hands over his broad shoulders, "Now that I know it's there," The burn mark, because he'd been uncomfortable showing it before, "will you sleep with me tonight?" Steve looked at me as if I'd just thrown away all my iron man suits, and I rolled my eyes. "Not have sex with me, stay with me. In bed, tonight." When he gave me a dubious look I added, "It might comfort you?" I moved my hand up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck and he knew I was waiting for either a response or a kiss and that he was so in charge right now.
"And," he said, eyes lazily locking on my lips, "What will you give me in return, Mr Stark?"
"My everlasting love and gratitude?" I tried with a smile.
"I was going for a kiss, but whatever you want." He said mock-stubbornly facing the other way, and I swore I would kill myself if I ever caught myself enjoying a playful domestic with Steve again. I grabbed hold of him again and I think for once we were on the same track because he met my lips quickly and immediately and it felt so good to have his bare skin under my fingers. I couldn't help but wonder if he was as glad to be in this position as I was, because he had been hesitant so far. I could tell that tonight wasn't the right time yet to start under-the-belt region stuff, but it was definitely going in the good direction when he picked me up and carried me to my room like I was as light as a feather. For once I didn't mind feeling like the woman in our relationship when I wound my legs around his waist and let him carry me. That made me happy and it made me feel those stupid tingles inside that you always hear about from teenagers, but it was nice none the less.
What kind of killed my mood was when Steve insisted on changing in the bathroom where I couldn't see him, but well, a guy can only take so much on one night. It irritated me, naturally, but I didn't say anything because I knew only bad things would come from it. I had never been prude, or afraid of anyone else's opinions about me, and hadn't cared for usual, mainstream or ordinary. So, it was hard for me to understand how Steve didn't just say 'fuck it' and sleep with a dude, but I supposed that was part of why I needed someone like Steve by my side. Someone to keep me from doing the stupidest of stupid things and Pepper had not been up for that. Oh God, now I was starting to compare him to my exes, stop it, Tony.
By the time Steve returned from the bathroom with his teeth brushed, legs into some jogging pants and upper body still bare, thank God, I had changed too, and made him sit down next to me on my bed. Loki's mark made me pull a face, but I chose to ignore it and look at Steve's face instead. I think we both looked like zombies, because we were so damned tired.
"Alright, if you feel uncomfortable for any reason, please don't hesitate to wake me up. I am used to no sleeping at all so it's OK. Got that?"
"Roger that," he replied with such a goofy smile on his face I almost wanted to ravage him again, but I somehow managed to control myself. I shooed him off the bed to pull the covers up and we both moved under them. Right. What now? I turned on my side to face him.
"I want to lay on the other side," I said in all seriousness. Steve rolled his eyes but did laugh, and I yelped when he totally dragged me over him to the other side. "I'll never get used to that strength of yours." I muttered under my breath.
In the beginning, it was kind of awkward because Steve was just laying there, not knowing what to do. So I picked up my tabled and showed the concept 'spooning' to him on WikiPedia.
"It says 'presumably a male and a female'!" He said, pointing at the screen.
"Well yes… presumably. Come on, Steve, you've got to do the works here. I will never, ever fit around your gigantic posture and you know it."
"So you'll admit you're the woman, then?" He smirked.
"If that's what it takes to get you to cuddle with me, then yes, I'll gladly admit to it."
"Alright, deal." He said, and I don't think he actually knew how much I was sacrificing. I mean, come on, my pride was on the line! I told JARVIS to turn the lights off, rolled onto my side and waited for Steve to curl around me. When he did, I breathed out a sigh of relief when I felt our bare, warm skins connect. I didn't expect to fall asleep so quickly, because I never do, but when I did I couldn't say it was particularly bothersome.
[A/N here you go. There isn't even a Wikipedia about 'spooning'. Weird shit!]