CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
( COUCH HOPPING )
THE MATTRESS SQUEAKS in protest as the weight of another individual sneaks into it. Quinn lay face down fast asleep, snoring into her pillow. She's woken by a sharp shaking of her shoulders once again. She groans, getting ready to yell at whoever it was, especially if it was Steve again. Her neck was tired of being whiplashed.
"What?" she questions whoever was shaking her awake. "Who's on our couch?" Jo's voice alerts her from her tired state. She raises up from her pillow in a panic. Had someone gotten in? Jo gasps, pressing her hands to her lips as she gazes at Quinn.
"What happened to your face?" she asks, her voice rising in panic. Quinn feels the cotton fabric of the gauze wrapped around her head as she starts to regain memories of yesterday. She cringes as she remembers Blair's fist connecting with her cheek hard.
Quinn throws her comforter off her, ignoring Jo's question and heading into the living room. "Hello? What happened to your face?" Jo repeats following her down the hallway. Quinn rests her eyes on the sleeping figure snoring on the couch, navy blue cap over his face while Rudolph sleeps on his legs.
She can feel her face start heating up with anger as she tries to find an excuse about Steve sleeping on their couch. She spins to see Jo, duffel bag attached to her shoulder. She must've just gotten in from the wedding. "Did you just get in?" Quinn asks pointing to the mauve bag strapped to her shoulder, as she slowly moves back towards the edge of the couch where Steve is sleeping. Jo furrows her brows at her roommate, a scowl forming on her face.
"What happened to your face!" her voice starts to rise in frustration. Quinn attempts to smile but an aching pain shoots through the right side of her face. "I tripped while running," she lies, earning another scowl from Jo. She plants her hands on Steve's shoulders, startling him awake, he looks up at her dazed and confused and then to the new face in the room. Jo's face lights up in surprise as the Navy blue hat falls off his face. "This is Gerard," Quinn lies once again. "He's my friend from France. He's just crashing on the couch until his hotel lets him check-in,"
Steve sheepishly smiles up at the gawking girl. "Bonjour," he greets in a thick American accent, earning a frown from Quinn. She hopes that Jo buys it, she hasn't been keen on paying attention to her lately now that Josh is on her mind. She misses conversations with her completely so she may have said that a French friend was staying over. "Bonjour, Gerard," Jo humors the act. "Ça va?"
Steve raises his brows at the phrase. Quinn panics as she thinks he can't answer and she can't provide him the information without Jo seeing. "Jo he's tired. I think we should-"
"Ça va bien, et toi?" Steve replies, his accent becoming better the more awake he becomes, he sits up on the couch. Quinn raises her brows impressed by the response, to the looks of it so is Jo. They both weren't expecting a fluent and languid response. "I'm not going to lie, I don't speak French that well," Jo admits, looking apathetically at Steve.
For a moment Quinn is relieved thinking Jo has bought into the story until Jo starts giggling. "But I know for damn sure that you're not Gerard, you're Captain America," Jo's voice sounds almost giddy as she smiles at Steve until she turns her surprised face up to Quinn. "What's Captain America doing here? Did you bag and tag him?"
"Oh please," Quinn says, rolling her eyes at the phrase. "I didn't 'bag and tag' anyone. I simply fell on my face while running and he was kind enough to help me," she puts pressure into his shoulders, indicating for him to roll with it.
"In return, she's teaching me some new things from this century. Like what Netflix is," Steve adds, wiggling the television remote in his hand for his. Jo nods her head as she validates the story, relieving Quinn of any more stress.
"I'm sorry," Steve apologizes to Jo. "I just wanted to make sure she was all right after that tumble. I must have dozed off. Nothing happened," he specifies, shaking his head innocently. Jo snorts in response, making her way over to the end of the couch where his legs weren't resting. "Please, if anything did happen between you two it'd be a blessing. Quinn's been rather stressed and I think if she got la-"
"That's enough," Quinn interrupts, listening to Steve chuckle. Jo innocently looks up at Quinn, biting her lip as Quinn pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "What happened at the wedding? Why are you home so early?"
"It was a shotgun wedding. It was super thrown together so I didn't stay long. I wasn't even the maid of honor,"
"Ouch," Quinn hisses in response, attempting to yawn in the process but the head wrap won't let her.
Her fingers claw up at the gauze, ripping the itchy fabric off of her face. Steve grunts up at her in protest, reaching a hand out to stop her yet he stops himself. With Jo's eye fixated on him, he felt like it wasn't his place to try to handle Quinn.
"What time is it?" she asks her roommate, tossing the gauze aside pressing softly on the bottom of her jaw. "Six twenty," Jo answers, her eyes drifting towards her phone for a split second before resting her eyes on Steve once again.
A jealous feeling shoots through Quinn as she watches Jo gaze at Steve with infatuation but it's easily overcome by the feeling of panic. She's late.
She curses to herself as she grabs her tennis shoes from near the door and tosses them next to her room. "Can you fix up my face?" Quinn calls to Jo. "I don't want anyone to ask what happened, I was alone while running and you know how Maddox is,"
"I'll try my best, this will be a project for sure," Jo agrees, looking at the large purple bruise encasing the side of her face.
She crosses the room to take ahold of Quinn's face, placing her chin between her thumb and index finger, carefully tilting it up so she could examine the injury.
"It's going to hurt when I blend it," she explains, dropping her roommate's chin from her hand. Quinn shrugs her shoulders before crossing her arms across her chest. "Just do what you need to do," she hisses out.
As Jo leaves to grab the makeup her gaze makes its way over to Steve, who is petting Rudolph. Her chest feels tight for a moment while watching the interaction until Steve looks over at her with curious eyes.
She attempts to smile but ultimately fails as one side of her face protests against any movement. Her lips twitch as she struggles to try to smile, earning a small chuckle from Steve.
"I tried," she huffs out, softly touching the bruise. She had no idea how she was going to be able to run with Maddox without anyone noticing, Jo can make magic using makeup but this may be out of her league.
Steve crosses the room and takes her chin in his hand to examine the bruise just as Jo did. Her face feels hot from the closeness of their bodies, then she barely remembers how she got into the loft last night - all she remembers is that she was close to his chest.
This ignites a new feeling in her core, one that tingles with butterflies. "It'll heal in a week, at least that's what Agent Hill said. I'm sorry Fury made put you up through training. This is my fault," he apologizes. He was blaming himself for getting her knocked out causing Quinn to snort.
"If anything this is my fault, I should've parried but I just stood there like an idiot," she excuses herself. "Now I know how Josh felt like," she jokes, earning a questioning look from Steve.
She tries to bite down on her lip out of nervous habit but the bruising protests her from doing anything extraneous with her jaw. "I accidentally knocked Jo's boyfriend out on first meeting, it was dark, he was a stranger, it was self-defense," she admits with a small embarrassed blush strewing across her cheeks.
Steve laughs at the thought of Quinn actually knocking someone out, someone a lot bigger than her. He knew she had law enforcement training but at the same time she was - Quinn.
Quinn who would never hurt a fly, or worried about the cuts and bruises on his face when he got back from a mission. He never pictured her to be reckless.
"You're just a little a terror, I feel bad for Norris now,"
"Well, Norris did whoop my ass. She's at least twelve percent more lethal than me,"
Steve let's out a small chuckle at the statement as he gazes into her eyes. They held a conscious but dreamy haze in them, something he hadn't noticed before, as he absentmindedly closes in on the gap between them.
Quinn's mind runs with panic, she's hyper-aware of how close Steve is standing, she doesn't know how to deal with it. She nervously chuckles as she begins pushing herself away from him.
She didn't know how to handle the emotions she was feeling at the moment, nor had she thought about them like this before. Steve shoots her a confused look before he too realizes that she's uncomfortable with the situation, he pushes himself backward as well with an apologetic smile.
"I, uh..." Quinn tries to stammer out, her hand running against the back of her neck, trying to soothe her nerves. "I should get going," Steve announces hastily just as Jo walks into the room.
"So soon?" Jo wonders, as she begins setting her makeup down on the kitchen island. "We were just about to do makeovers," she teases patting the barstool for Quinn to sit on.
Quinn looks up to Steve with a nervous look to only be met with an embarrassed almost shameful look from him. "Yeah, I need to get running too," he answers Jo, avoiding eye contact with Quinn.
Quinn notices this and feels a little hurt, he was purposely avoiding her as if he was starting to ignore her. She didn't want to read too much into it. Perhaps this was his way of dealing with the awkwardness.
She purses her lips, determined to not make a fuss at this. "See you around then," she says, patting his shoulder in an attempt to say goodbye.
This catches his attention, his eyes connect with hers and are filled with some remorse of the action he had tried. He nods his head once, from what she could tell there seemed to be a small pout forming on his lips.
He sighs before heading towards the door, Quinn grips on his forearm as he walks away, making sure Jo is entertained with feeding Rudolph before speaking. "Do you have-"
"Natasha," he answers before she even finishes her thought. Her lips purse as he answers her without a care. Agent Romanoff has been close to him just as Agent Barton since they were a part of the Avengers with him.
If anything she idolized Agent Romanoff over Steve, she didn't have superpowers she was just lethal. And now she knew where she lived.
She swallows a large lump in the back of her throat as she releases her grip of Steve's arm. His shoulders heave as another sigh rakes through him, he feels guilty.
Quinn tries to give him an assuring smile but her bruise will not let her. She's starting to grow frustrated with her injury. "Captain America wait!" Jo calls out.
"It's Steve," Quinn and Steve correct Jo at the same time, earning a curious glance between the two from her.
"If you're learning about the future with Quinn, does that mean we'll be seeing you around more often?"
Steve glances up at Quinn, who once again tries to give an encouraging smile forcing herself through the pain. He smiles back at the attempt before looking towards Jo. "Yes,"
~ BOOK ONE: WINTER SOLDIER ~
THE THROBBING PAIN of her bruised face ached with each step. She didn't think this through all the way. Thankfully Jo was right beside her, pressing on the back of her elbow as Quinn tried to reach the front of the group.
She was surprised to see Jo actually running up with her. Usually, she remained in the back but she was up there with her, however, she did notice her face was redder than usual.
Whenever Quinn started to slow down for her Jo pushed her elbow to continue her fast and steady pace. The thick layer of foundation that covered her cheek was sure to be sweating off.
Her hand instinctively covers the side of her face where it was wounded, trying her best to cover it up without anyone really noticing. But Jo notices. She yanks back on Quinn's sweatshirt indicating that she can slow down if needed.
It was needed, Quinn instantly found her way to the back for the lack causing Maddox to whip his head around to see what was happening. Quinn had hoped he hadn't noticed her swollen face as people began to block her from his view.
If Maddox hadn't yelled out that they were breaking soon she would've just walked with Jo and went back home but instead she found herself at a slow pace with Jo next to her.
As soon as she saw people breaking off into the grass to rest she pulls out the small tube of concealer and a round sponge for Jo to toy with. Jo pushes her out of sight from the rest of the group, behind a tree where she orders Quinn to sit.
Jo places herself in front of her on her knees, taking the makeup and dabbing it over her sweating cheek. Jo purses her lips as she tries her best not to put too much pressure on her cheek as she dabs the sponge along the areas where the bruise was starting to show through.
"I know you wanted to see Maddox today but if you didn't want him to see your bruise you should've waited until it went away," Jo scolds, dabbing away at the bruise.
Quinn rolls her eyes. It was never in her intent to see Maddox, she just wanted to return to The Joggernauts as always so no one would get deterred and catch drift that she was thinking of America's sweetheart constantly.
However, the slight mention of Maddox's name gave her the same feeling that she had felt with Steve earlier. Just less amplified.
"Are we hiding now?" a voice questions the two friends. Jo freezes and drops the concealer in the grass beside Quinn, while Quinn lazily looks up at Maddox.
His cocky smile seems to dissipate after resting his eyes on Quinn's puffy jawline, a streak of purple shining through. "What happened?" his voice is the most panicked Quinn has heard so far.
His thumb strokes against her cheek, wiping away the fresh layer of concealer, revealing a patch of the vibrant bruise that laid on her face. His eyes grow concerned as he inspects the injury.
Quinn clears her throat, before answering. "I fell," she lies, her voice cracking in the process. Maddox furrows his brows as he drops her chin and sits in front of her with Jo.
"You fell? Are you sure you're just not covering for Jo hitting you?" he teases, Jo smacks him in the ribs jokingly. "See? She's ruthless. I bet she gave you that shiner as payback for Josh," he further explains causing both Quinn and Jo to roll their eyes.
"Well, if the group didn't leave without me I wouldn't have gotten this bad boy trying to catch up," Quinn's lies are starting to become more effortless as she goes along. Maybe she could be an agent with how believable this was sounding.
"I'm sorry," Maddox states, placing his hand on his chest to convey how empathetic he was being. "Let me repay you by taking you on a proper date," his cocky smile returning.
Beside him, Jo sucks in a deep breath while smiling widely between the two. "Damn that was smooth," she huffs out with an over-excited sigh.
Quinn's brain wasn't putting the two together. Did he just ask her on a second date after the first went horribly? Was she willing to give him a second shot after he insulted Steve? Did he deserve one?
Yet, at the same time she had a tender spot for his high confidence, how sauve he had been about the situation. Her eyes dart to Jo for a split second just to look at her excited smile.
"You want to what?" Quinn repeats for clarification, making Maddox chuckle nervously. "We don't have to if you don't want to. I know it's stupid to ask, I made you mad the last time we went on a date. I just figured I'd try to make it up to you," he explains, scratching the back of his neck nervously.
Her eyes dart to Jo once again pleading for advice. Jo nods her head softly, barely noticeable to the untrained eye. Even though she was more than willing to put herself out there she still felt she couldn't be distracted by romance.
Yet, there was something genuine she could feel inside of Maddox that made her want more. "Of course, I would love to," she can still feel the pain in her jaw radiating pain, reminding her that she wasn't in perfect condition to go on a date.
"Next week. I should be healed up by then," she suggests. The rhythm of her heart speeds up as she sees him crack a genuine smile, one of the rarest smiles she's seen him give her. "Next week," he promises with a head nod.