I jump up and down excitedly in my seat. "Ooooo ooo oo; like The Avengers?" I say in an excited whisper. Steve smiles at me.
"Yeah- exactly like The Avengers," he tells me. He stares at me. I stare right back, and so it goes for about two to three minutes with the A/C's soft sound blaring through the dead silence, until Clint turns on the radio.
I'm on a hiiigghwaayy to hell.
I'm on a hiiigghwaayy to hell!
I look away, finally, and so does Steve. I cough. God, it's so awkward right now. I have to admit I'm more than just physically attracted to Steve, so that could just possibly be the main cause of how awkward I feel in this particular moment.
"Oh yeah, we're supposed to tell you what happened," Natasha says, breaking the silence.
"That would be appreciated," I reply.
"Well, uh, basically Nick Fury got shot, but he's not dead, trust me, and uh, in the process of finding out who shot him- we, uh, we found out SHIELD was HYDRA in disguise all along," Steve explains, bowing his head.
"Ah, well that sucks…" I murmur. Natasha had long ago explained to me what HYDRA was. And man, it really does suck finding out that something you thought was so good was just… a fake all along.
"We're sorry," Clint says solemnly from the front. I shake my head.
"Not your fault Clint," I say to him, patting his back as much as I possibly can from the backseat. And so silence falls within this car, driving swiftly to… wherever it's driving. It's about a half hour before Natasha breaks it, again.
"We got intel from someone, we don't know who it was, but the signal was sent from SHIELDs last safe house- so we're going on the blind hope that someone wholesome sent it, that there's someone doing experiments on…" she pauses, trying to find the right word.
"Like mutants, but, not. The name was something like, uh," Clint helps out.
"VonStrucker- I remember him, sadly. This is a mission for a team, and that's why we're calling in The Avengers, along with every trustworthy agent, which, at this stage in the game, is hardly even a handful," Steve finishes with a sigh. "That's why you're here."
"I'm honoured, really," I smile at him, and he smiles back.
"Since we have a lot of work to do, but we, well mostly I, need to stay under the radar, we're gonna be staying in this hotel. Clint and I are going under aliases-"
"Not shocked," I interrupt.
"I dunno what you two are doing though- so, um good luck," Natasha continues. I can see her smirk in the side-view mirror. "Kidding, but, you really do need somewhere to stay, so either you go with the flow or just… go with the other flow."
So in the end we decide that we're all just going to stay in a fucking hotel. Because I was 1) too tired to get in a full on debate with Natasha because 2) she was the most persuasive person I know and 3) I wouldn't mind staying in a hotel with especially 4) Steve.
Natasha checks us all in with new names. Well, except for Sam and myself, because, well, we aren't that well known. There's way too many of us for one room, so Natasha and Clint take one, and Steve and myself are forced to live with Sam, which I honestly didn't mind that much. Steve did, for some weird reason. Once we're all settled in, we all meet up in mine and Steve's room and ran through the people we needed to get and the places we needed to go. Through the middle of that talk, Steve gets up and goes to the bathroom. Sam was spread-eagled on the bed. "But the most important person I need to visit is sleep and his location is this bed right here." I giggle.
"I'm gonna go take a bath," I say, thinking Steve was out already. I push the door open and bump into a half-naked Steve, with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Oh god," I mutter, my face going red. Steve clenches his towel tighter.
"Oh my god, I'm sorry, I, uh, I didn't expect you to come in, my fault," he stutters.
"No, it's- it's on me; I should've knocked, and, well, um, you look nice."
He smirks. "You do too, well you always do- I mean, um," he tries to cover up, getting flustered.
"Well thanks, but I kinda need to, um, use in here."
"Oh well I wouldn't mind another bath if it was a bath with you."
I smirk. "Did Captain America just flirt with me?"
He returns the smirk. "Maybe," he tells me as he exits.
After everyone's done bathing and doing what they usually do, Tasha and Clint go back to their room and Sam's dead asleep on the bed, leaving Steve and myself to share the other bed. There's practically one fucking centimetre of space between us, if so much, and I can feel his heat radiating off onto me. It's awkwardly… nice, for lack of a better word. But besides that heat, there's this inward flutteriness that I can't seem to shake. I shift ever so slightly, pushing myself up onto Steve's bare chest. Heat runs to my cheeks.
"Sorry," I mutter, trying to muster up the energy to shift again.
"It's fine- I like you here, actually," he tells me, wiggling his arm out from underneath himself, putting it above my head. It's ridiculous how much he towers over me, even when we're lying down.
"Do you really?"
"Yeah, I really do."
Silence. I shuffle around to face Steve.
"So…"
"So…"
"Is this the first time you've been in bed with a girl?" I ask with a small smirk. He blushes.
"Yeah," he admits.
"Is it fun?"
"Maybe, is it fun for you?"
I smile up at him. "Maybe."
Silence.
"Tatyana?"
"Steve?"
"I'm in love with you."
Silence.
"Steve?"
"Tatyana?"
"I think I'm in love with you too."
Even more silence.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Is this the part where we kiss?"
I smile in the dark. "This is, in fact, the part where we kiss."
And so we do. A bit awkwardly, but we do. And it feels like I'm floating on Cloud 9 with the softness of Steve's lips pressed to mine. He raises a hand to my face hesitantly and strokes his thumb across my cheek with a gentleness that melts my heart. I shuffle my hands out of their spaces to hook them behind his neck. We're forced to be pressed to each other in the lack of provided space from the bed, but I'm sure neither of us minds. The fluttery feeling intensifies with every second I feel his lips on mine. It feels like forever –and I would have loved it if it were forever- but Steve and I break apart, my hands still interlocked behind his neck and his thumb still stroking my cheek. He presses the tip of his nose to mine and I slide my hands down to his chest. His heart is thumping at a million beats per minute, matching to the beat of mine.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"So which part is this?" he asks breathily with a flickering smile.
"Well, we could either, um," I give a small laugh. "Either kiss me again- personally my favourite option- two, we could fall asleep together, two alternative, we can fall asleep separately, or three, forget all this ever happened and go on with our daily lives and maybe I can convince Sam to-"
"Not happening!" I hear Sam mutter from his spread-eagled position on his bed.
"Then option three is out," Steve tells me. I chuckle. "Doesn't matter, though. I wasn't picking option three for the world," he continues.
"Oh, so which option do you fancy going with?"
"Ma'am, I think I'll go with option two."
"Option two or option two alternative?"
"Just option two."
Silence.
As I fall asleep, I feel the tip of Steve's nose skid lightly across random areas of my face and neck, with the occasional light kiss. So with the beating of his heart as my lullaby, I fall into the best sleep I'm ever going to have.
Hey guys! Um, so, this is the author reporting. Introductions before I get serious. Hi my name is Avie, and I'm a summer camper, and a secondary school student. So I'm sorry all these chapters are taking 10-ever to upload, but it's sometimes a pain to think of what to write then actually write it. Plus I can hardly find the time- juggling friends, camp, schoolwork, film club etc. etc. etc. So my apologies to those who followed/favorited; and speaking of that, thanks to my followers: Alyera Reed, Amy Breezy, Beautiful dreaming warrior, GleeOdestaAnnie, MrsSamuelUley, Rainbor123, lozzabozzaera, mrsroe00, nina-hany, princess mollie and the typewriter improviser. You guys have no IDEA how happy I am about that. Also shoutouts to my reviewer/s: Rainbor123 . Thanks a billion. Now question time: tell me if you like how things are being taken, and if I'm rushing the Tatyana/Steve relationship. Hell, tell me if you like the relationship at all. Tell me what works, what doesn't work, what I should subtract, add, all that jazz. Anyway thanks all my readers for sticking with the story, and just for reading it, thanks a bunch. So, err, Avie out. Till next time, salute.