Chapter three, here we go!
"So, truth or dare?" Tina asked as she leaned against Steve's chest.
"Hmm?" he questioned distractedly. He was wonderfully comfortable here, leaning back on a tree in Central Park, watching the sun start to sink. He was trying to make the most of his time here. Steve was dreading the mission he had to report for at 20:00 today. He was just not in the mood to spend the night writhing in terror, and knew that no matter how few casualties there were, he'd see Bucky dying and fight Red Skull tonight.
"Truth or dare?" Tina repeated.
"What do you mean?" Tina turned around and stared at Steve in shock.
"You've never played truth or dare?!" she exclaimed.
"No," Steve's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Oh my gosh, Steve. Okay that's just wrong. How on earth did you get to be twenty-three without ever hearing of truth or dare?" Steve shrugged, and Tina sighed, and snuggled against him again. "Okay, it's easy. I ask you truth or dare, and you pick one. If you pick truth, I get to ask you a question and you have to answer honestly. If you pick dare, I get to tell you to do something silly and you have to do it."
"Alright," Steve responded slowly. He hoped that her questions wouldn't be ones he'd have to lie about. While he was sure that he should lie to her, wasn't sure if he could.
"Okay, truth or dare?" Steve thought for a moment.
"Dare."
"Oooh, fearless Freddy over here. I dare you to…" Tina's eyes darted around the busy park for a victim, "Go over there and ask that hot dog vendor if the park will still be here tomorrow." Steve laughed, and Tina continued her thought. "You have to insist that someone told you that it wasn't but the paper said it would be!" About after half an hour of straight dares, in which Tina had to flirt with a thirteen year old, Steve had to jump out of a chosen branch on the tree to scare a businessman (only ten feet, a height Steve scoffed at), Tina sang to an old lady, and Steve harassed various vendors with ridiculous questions while Tina had an animated conversation with herself. Finally, she caved.
"Truth." Steve's eyebrows lifted, and she leaned back against him. He wrapped his arms around her while he thought.
"Do you think I'm weird?" Steve's inner paranoia that he stuck out too much in the modern world had surfaced.
"Yes, sometimes." Steve's shoulders sunk a little. "You're about as good as a caveman with anything remotely technological, and there's about four billion pop culture references that don't even ring a bell for you. But, you're charming and chivalrous like no one I've ever known. It's like an old movie. You have an old-fashioned-y-ness that I happen to adore. It's very weird. And awesome. So yeah," she finished, feeling a bit self-conscious. Steve sighed in relief. She had an idea of how out of it he was, but she liked him anyway. The thought was immensely comforting to the soldier. "Truth or dare, weird guy?" Steve grinned and poked Tina in the arm.
"Truth."
"What is your favorite movie and why?"
"The James Bond movies. Gotta love 'em."
"Eh," Tina responded, unimpressed.
"Eh? Eh? He's awesome!" Steve hotly defended the man who reminded him very much of two of his friends. Tina laughed and turned around to face him.
"Fine, fine." Steve rolled his eyes, unconvinced.
"Truth or dare? Even though you don't like double-oh seven."
"Truth, you big meanie." Steve pulled his fingers through her curls.
"Who's your favorite Avenger?" he asked with a rakish grin. Tina yanked her hair back behind her ears while she thought. Steve held back a laugh.
"Probably Black Widow," she finally decided.
"What?!"
"Or Captain America," she added as an afterthought. Steve chuckled, feeling more satisfied than he'd admit.
"Any reasons why?" he asked, still with a huge smile on his face.
"Well," Tina began, clearly still deep in thought, "Black Widow is just so badass. It's awesome that a girl can kick butt the way she can! But Captain has always had a special place in my heart. When I was little," she laughed a little at the memory, "I used to have really bad nightmares. I had a Captain America doll and I imagined that he was going to protect me." Tina giggled. Steve laughed openly, and traced her jaw.
"You never know," he said, "He might." Steve smiled but had a strange seriousness in his eyes. Tina just couldn't figure him out sometimes.
"Your turn," she reminded him.
"I don't really feel like getting up…truth," Steve said languorously.
"Why don't you sleep, Steve?" she asked quietly. Steve tensed and bit his lip, unsure of how to answer. He decided to stick to as much of the truth as he possibly could.
"I…hm…well…" he frowned, searching for the right words, "I've been through a lot of…stuff. Sometimes I have bad dreams that are really hard to shake off. And I think about what happened in the past and whether I could have done anything better. I think about my best friend a lot."
"Was he in the special forces with you?" she asked, displaying her usual astounding perception. She studied the turmoil in Steve's sky-blue eyes.
"Yes. He was." Steve let his head fall back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes.
"Were you there?" Tina almost whispered the question. Steve nodded.
"It was my fault." Steve bit his lip again. "Don't you dare get sappy in front of her, Rogers. Toughen up." Tina pushed his hair back from his forehead and scooted closer to him. "We were on a train…" Steve trailed off, unable to continue. Tina didn't push him. She could sense that he was fighting off tears, and it upset her. She knew Steve had a very old fashioned view of how men should act, and Tina was sure that emotional sensitivity wasn't something he felt comfortable with. She kissed his cheek, then wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest.
"Okay." Steve pulled her closer to him, feeling his heart beat with hers. He cleared his throat.
"It's seven thirty," he mumbled into her hair. Tina's stomach dropped. No matter how 'easy' or 'safe' he claimed this was going to be, she worried for him.
"Oh." Steve stood, pulling her up with him. He bent down and kissed her; softly and tenderly as a whisper. Tina's eyes began to fill. She hugged him tight to hide her emotions. "Please be safe," she whispered, trying to convey how much it meant to her in those three words. Steve held her arms and lifted her chin to look into her eyes.
"I promise. You'll see me Wednesday," he said with conviction. Four days is a long time…Tina thought. She nodded vigorously. He started to leave the park, heading off to SHIELD headquarters.
"Steve? You're already a hero, you know. You don't have to do anything dumb to prove that," Tina said plaintively. The soldier stopped and replied. He took a mental picture of the sunlight streaming through her hair and her eyes reflecting the green grass. She was wringing her hands in worry, brow creased and biting her lip.
"I won't do anything dumb, but what makes you think I'm a hero?" Steve asked with raised eyebrows. Part of him wondered if she knew more than she was letting on.
"You're my hero." Steve's heart lurched. He smiled and waved goodbye.
He let the words replay louder and louder until they covered up the sound of gunshots and screaming. The sound of a beautiful voice calmed him and replaced the usual suppressed panic with a cool logic. He replaced the sights of death and blood with sunlight and green grass.
…
Natasha heard Steve calling orders and thought that he seemed even more focused than usual. He fought smarter, more strategically, if that was even possible. She watched his shield arc through the air and take out enemies to his right just as he fought those on the left. As the last man dropped, the shield returned to his hand and he moved on, with an almost surgical precision and detachment. As she studied his face she had a realization. Steve was no longer fighting because he was told to, or to save his friends. He wasn't fighting for an ambiguous "citizens of America". Steve had a reason to go home. It was then that the spy began to question whether she was doing the right thing by trying to find out what it was. Could something that revived the captain's will to live be this bad? If Steve was suddenly fighting to see something again, how bad for him could it be, really?
So, what did you think? Is there anything you want to see happen? I'll definitely consider some requests if they don't wildly interfere with the plot I have in my head. P.S. More reviews=Faster Chapters Long reviews=More chapters )