CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
( WHAT'S IN A LABEL? PT. ONE )
A GROAN ESCAPES Quinn's lips as she swivels around from side to side in her chair, her hands covering up her face, bracelet hitting her soft cheek. She had just gotten off the phone with Missus Dupree and alleged lead with the missing persons case that she and her partner had been working on together for the past few weeks. For Anthony, it had been almost a month and a half before this case had actually been assigned to him. A month and a half in and still no exact leads. It began to take a toll on both of them. She was starting to become more reclusive when she went home, trying to focus all her energy from the workday into the night.The nice part about being reclusive was that Steve was understanding. He'd usually take her out on lunch dates whenever he could during her workday, trying his best not to get recognized. It was only fair for how often he had left her to go out on missions with the Avengers, putting her in a constant state of worry that his jacket couldn't even satiate her mental state during that time. So far he's managed to keep his promises of returning home to her, but, her mind always lingers to the thought of him not coming back to her one day.
She hops up from her desk, being careful not to disturb where she had strewn her black blazer over her chair. She tilts her head back once again before lazily making her way over to the whiteboard near her partner who looked up at her curiously. With a purple expo mark, she crossed off the name Dupree earning an irritated sigh from Anthony. "Aw man seriously?" he whines, rubbing his forehead with the back of his head in frustration. "Yep." she sighs out, placing both of her hands on her hips and hanging her head.
Three whole weeks and still not a single lead. She scribbles down on the whiteboard "are we missing something" with an excessive amount of question marks after it before dropping the marker back down onto the tray with a loud clack. It was clear to the agents nearby that they were having the worst luck on the case. It was made apparent by the scowl placed on her face as she returned back to her desk. "Damn. And I thought we were really onto something when she said she heard noises from upstairs." Anthony remarks, his fingers quickly tapping away at his keyboard once again.
While they had the downtime, they had to go in and sort out the closed cases or if they weren't closed they would have to see the status of the case and when it was last updated. Most of the time it made her upset to see these cases go without answers, or even with the accused and prime suspect going free. Something about these cases makes her have an unsettled feeling in her stomach. They also struck a nerve close to home since most of these cases were missing persons cases - the one case she was currently handling. If she couldn't connect the dots between the six people that had gone missing within the past weeks then the case would be as viable as these cases that she's closing out.
She has to minimize the tab she's working on when the photo of a mother and child smiling happily shows up on her screen, victims of an unknown serial killer in the nineties. It made her stomach churn and she can't help but think of her childhood in the nineties. That could've been her and her mother. She takes a deep breath while fiddling with the pen beside her keyboard. "You want to take a guess at what the noises were?" she quizzes her partner as she spins the pen in between her fingers.
Anthony purses his lips while rubbing his chin, acting as if he was contemplating on wanting to know the actual details of the conversation that she had. "Hm, no thanks. I have a feeling it's something indecent," he answers, focussing his attention back towards his screen.
"It is but it isn't." Quinn merely responds, shrugging her shoulders and yawning. Anthony glances between his partner and his computer screen, unknowing of what to do. He needed to work on trying to find leads for their case but Quinn's voice sounded semi provocative with temptation as she teases him about the details of the call. When his gaze finally rests on her, she gives him an innocent head tilt, however, he knew the meaning behind it. The tilt was more of a plea to let her indulge him in the details, knowing it'd be worth his while. "Okay, well now I want to know." Anthony quips, giving his half bored half intrigued attention to her. She relinquishes a smile, knowing damn well she got what she wanted. "Her upstairs neighbor was giving people tattoos in somewhat intimate places," she answers, causing Anthony's eyes to narrow at her.
"Is it legal to run a tattoo shop from your apartment?" he questions, quickly typing the question into Google. "I'm not sure and it's none of our concern." Quinn sighs as her eyes rest on the whiteboard with so many of their sources crossed off. "Our concerns lie elsewhere," she states, leaning her head back lazily. "Far, far, away from there." As she's saying this she's waving her arm throughout the room to amplify her meaning. Anthony absentmindedly nods his head while giving a huff of air out through his nose. It was clear that no leads on this case were starting to get him to him as well. There hadn't been a day where she hadn't walked in and seen him already here wanting to bang his head against the monitor. They had taught them everything at the academy but patience wasn't one of them.
Her phone vibrates on her desk, causing her to jump at the sound. The text message was from Steve. It was one simple word but it was enough to make her smile. "Kinders?" A question she's been waiting to hear since she got to work. After taking a trip to the espresso bar once, it'd be nice to get up and visit someplace that wasn't her division.
Not that she didn't mind her division. It could get noisy and rowdy, which is something she didn't need while talking to a potential lead on the phone. Plus the added one-liners she'd get from other agents passing her desk was growing tiresome. It was like working in a frat house or as Robin liked to call it "the boy club". Robin was the only person besides Jo who she could trust with telling her about what happened within the division.
Sure she'd tell Steve about what she and Anthony were up to but she'd never tell him about the constant unwanted attention she had been receiving. She didn't want to upset him, nor did she want anyone to really piece together that she was Steve's lover. Everyone except maybe her partner, who didn't enjoy the fact that he was working at a frat house as well. He'd play along with the jokes that they'd play on him but afterward, he'd always roll his eyes and complain to her about the lacking of a professional work environment.
Her eyes flicker over to him as he moves to put on his casual winter jacket, something that also sets him apart from most of the agents here who would rather wear their work jackets if they had to go anywhere. She assumed it was some sort of power play but she followed in her partner's footsteps by using her regular winter jacket instead. "I'm going to get Guido's. You want anything?" Anthony offers.
"No thanks. I'm actually meeting someone for lunch." Quinn responds, checking the time on her phone before typing on her computer to see how far away the restaurant was. "Ohh is it your boyfriend?" he asks in a teasing tone, which made her involuntarily smile. "I'm not going to dignify your response with an answer."
"Oh, c'mon," Anthony begs as he flops back down in his chair across from her, while also looking in his desk drawers for his gloves. "We're partners. Don't you want to know something about me other than my order from Guido's and that I'm dangerously addicted to coffee?" he suggests with a minor shrug as his hands still rooted through his drawers trying to find the other glove to his pair. She gives him a suspicious look, one that was questioning whether she could trust him or not. He immediately pouts his bottom lip out and tries to scrunch his brows together to make it look like his eyes were two times bigger than they actually were.
"Anthony, is there something you would like to know about me?" she sighs out, crossing her arms across her chest as she leans back into her chair. "Yes. I'd like to get to know you better than the blonde girl or the girl with the...with the..." he eludes to his chest where he motioned a pair of breasts with his hands. Her jaw clenched. "I should revoke what I said just by that gesture alone -"
"No no. Wait. I'm sorry." he immediately says, stopping the motion altogether. It was clear to her that he was excited to know more about her. Something no one ever seemed eager to learn about. Not even Steve. However, she would also have questions if an agent started without having a backstory as to why they ended up here suddenly. From what she understood it took years to get to this division if you didn't have the right skills.
"Okay, partner, are you finally going to tell me how you were able to get in here? Not saying you're old or anything, I just don't know if it was a promotion from like working with the police or if it really was a random career change," he asks before putting his finger in between his lips, slight biting on it as he thinks of how to rephrase the question. "How did you get to the top of your class so easily? Are you like a genius like Einstein?"
Quinn sits up in her chair and huffs out a sigh. Her voice drops low, low enough to where Anthony has to lean in to listen to her. "I got a degree in law enforcement, which helped with the scholar part of the academy. My physical training comes from S.H.I.E.L.D." she answers, watching the confusion float in his eyes for a few moments as he takes in the information.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" he asks, getting a nod from her in response. "Like the old government agency that fell literally almost a year ago?" Another nod. He claps his hands together as if he's figured out an answer to a thousand-year riddle.
Her eyes glance throughout the room, wondering if anyone was paying attention to them since the clap was rather loud. Thankfully no one wanted to look at the woman when she was aware. "Okay! That actually makes a lot of sense!" Anthony says with a breathless chuckle as if he was geeking out over her. In a way, he was starting to remind her of Frank. "I have a million questions now. Do you know Black Widow?"
"Yes."
"Hawkeye?"
"Yep."
"Captain America?"
Quinn lets out a wary smile, "Who do you think I'm going to get lunch with?"
She can see his mind explode and his eyes widen and his cheeks start to glow red with excitement. "You're getting lunch with the Captain America? Are you sleeping with him?"
She furrows her brow. "What? No, no. I mean, not yet."
"What do you mean 'not yet'?" he reiterates, using his two index finger to air quote to add emphasis. She opens her mouth but quickly shuts it. She didn't need to share that information with him. It's not like she didn't want to, she did, however, Steve was old-fashioned, and knowing this made her hesitate to push things forward. The most scandalous thing they've done is kiss outside on her porch.
Anthony begins drumming his fingers on his desk as he processes this information. "So you two are together together. Wait!" he abruptly shouts before typing something on his computer. When he turns the screen around she's surprised when she sees herself in a dress and Steve making a hasty exit out of a restaurant. She internally groans as the embarrassment all floods back to her. "You're the girl! That's you!" he shouts as if he's put the pieces of a puzzle together. She engulfs her face in her hands before nodding. "So how long have you two been..."
"Hard to really say," she answers scratching her cheeks out of nerves. Sure they had expressed their feelings a few months prior but their whole relationship starts back to last year. The Hydra incident was not going to be brought up with him now. Not after all these questions. She shrugs her shoulders. "A few months give or take." she reluctantly answers.
She thought opening up to her partner would help them grow closer, however, she should've known the barrage of questions she'd get. She should've grown accustomed to it but she hadn't. She viewed Steve as a regular person, but the rest of the world viewed him as an icon. She just wished everyone else could see him as she did. "So he's the one who got you the bracelet and you gave the tennis shoes to?" Quinn answers her partner with a curt nod. "That makes it ten times worse."
"I know,"
"You got Captain America a pair of Nikes and he got you a four thousand dollar piece of jewelry."
"Please don't keep reminding me," she says begrudgingly with an eye roll. She didn't even know where Steve had gotten the money for the bracelet. Honestly, with how he's been talking about wanting to move out of the tower he shouldn't have spent the money on her and left it in his account. Now she has to ponder whether to pawn it off and give him the money back to help him rent a place or deal with him living at Avengers Tower with everyone else and not knowing the line between work and home.
Anthony's astounded chuckle brings her attention back to her partner as he leans back into his chair. "Wow, I mean I've had partners in the past but none of them actually had a famous boyfriend." he muses with a cocky smirk. Quinn absentmindedly scoffs at the term which makes Anthony perk a questioning brow up at her. She instantly regrets even making some sort of sound as she realizes she's going to have to go into depth with their relationship. "I mean, I wouldn't call him my boyfriend." she casually says, trying to cover her tracks. "See we haven't exactly had the talk yet."
Anthony crosses his arms. "What talk?"
"You know. The talk talk where he calls me his girlfriend and I say yes and we're exclusively together."
"Have you not been exclusive to him for the past several months?"
"I mean yeah and so has he we just haven't labeled it."
Anthony's expression says a lot when she admits they hadn't labeled anything. His eyes had widened along with both of his brows raising as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was true. They never truly had the talk about it. Although, at this point, she should be able to title him her boyfriend she didn't want to overstep the invisible and unspoken boundary. That was ultimately Steve's call and she had no clue whether or not he wanted to label it because it could cause an even bigger target on her head.
Anthony reaches across their desks, extending his hands out for her to take, which she does as she gives him a quizzical look. His hands are warm against hers as he squeezes them ever so slightly. "Quinn, I say this with the utmost honesty because I respect you so much more now," he flatters her, causing heat to rise to her cheeks and a smile start to form on her lips, which ultimately flatters as he continues. "Put a damn ring on that man's finger. If you don't, so help me God, I will put a ring on his finger and marry him and I don't even swing that way."
With a snap of her wrists, she retracts her hands from his, glowering at the statement. She hadn't thought too far into the future with Steve and the mere mention of putting a ring on his finger flooded her mind with unwelcome thoughts of Steve in a navy suit sitting at the end of an aisle with a smile on his face waiting for her that she had to push out of her mind. He wasn't even technically her boyfriend and now she was thinking about marrying him. She became flustered as she imagined him on their wedding day or how he'd propose. She shook her head clear of the thoughts as if they were poison. She needed to get a grip. They hadn't even said "I love you" yet.
Her eyes wander back to Anthony who had just stood up after learning the most intimate thing about her. They had made a pact that once she revealed why she was where she was he would do the same, and here he was trying to escape to Guido's. She wasn't going to let him get away that easily. "I thought Rhea at the front desk seemed more your speed." she pipes up after a moment of silence, drawing his attention towards her. He scoffs. "Rhea?"
"Yeah, she's always giving you the eye whenever you walk by to go to the espresso bar." Quinn nonchalantly states, knowing damn well she was trying to plant the same bomb in his mind that he did to her. He gives her a quizzical look, one that said he had no idea what she was talking about. "You hadn't noticed?" she tuts, shaking her head in shame towards him. "Are you just oblivious? Or not interested?" she teases, watching his statuesque face grow from confusion to frustration to even more confusion in a matter of seconds. It takes all her energy to hide a giggle. "Well first things first, when I have a coffee in my hand the world does not exist to me, you know this," Anthony answers, leaning back onto her desk. "Secondly, not really big into the whole dating scene. Just not my style."
Quinn pushes her chair back to look up at him. "And what exactly is your style? One nighters?" she asks with a shit-eating smirk on her lips. "No. Just not into the whole romance thing." Anthony answers with a twinge of sorrow in his tone. He absentmindedly rubs the side of her desk. She's obviously hit a sour nerve.
"At one point I believed in love and thought it served a bigger purpose for me in my life," he states, looking down to see her staring up at him with her wide blue eyes as if she was hooked on every word he was saying. "And then you see the shit we see and you wonder how the world revolves around the idea of love." His eyes instantly rip away from here to look towards the ground, a slight frown forming on his face. She tilts her head. She was starting to wonder what made him feel this way, and thought perhaps maybe he was scorned from losing a past flame due to his work. Maybe he resented love because he had too much work to do.
"Have you always thought this way? Since you've become an agent?" she questions, earning a breathless chuckle from him. "It started long before that," he emphasizes the word long as if he were twice the age that she was and had seen more in his lifetime than she ever would. "I was a mercenary for a short time and the things you see, the things you have to do, you just pray that no one gets close enough to you to really go through those motions with you." his voice flatters as he looks off into the distance, his gaze not fixated on anything in the office.
She could only assume he was reliving something horrible in his mind. She thought having to deal with Hydra's clean sweep of her mind was awful, but Anthony had obviously been through so much more than just a memory wipe. If anything it looked like he needed one. He looked like he aged twenty years in the past thirty seconds since the conversation had trailed off. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She watches as he rustles his right wrist up to show his watch, squinting as he peered down at it. "Well, it's twelve-thirty. I'm going to head to lunch. When are you going?" he asks, shifting the subject to something more lighthearted.
Quinn gives him a concerned look then looks towards her phone to reassure that it was the correct time. "Oh probably soon, I'm just waiting on the call," she answers as she watches him lift himself from the leaning position on her desk. He stretches for a moment before yawning. "I'll save you a breadstick," he states in a strained voice as he cracks his neck, trying to become reinvigorated. Before she can even open her mouth he clicks his tongue, winks, and gives her a finger gun before he begins walking away in a hurried fashion. She had dove into something he hadn't shared with anyone in years. Now she couldn't help but wonder what more laid beneath the surface.
~ACT TWO: AGE OF ULTRON~
HER PHONE HAD just flipped tothe number thirteen hundred as she walked into the steakhouse. The smell was overwhelming at first, it made her stomach growl with anticipation as she waited in line at the host stand behind another group. She hadn't had steak in ages due to her fear of making it in her apartment again. The last time she had attempted to make it there was a small oil fire that had accidentally started. Of course, Robin panicked even though she had the situation under control and was able to put the fire out in a calm manner with the fire extinguisher but she was still banned from making it.
Out of her peripheral vision, she could see something moving from a ways away. She glanced over in the general direction and caught Steve waving her over, sunglasses and a baseball cap on as if that was going to hide his identity well enough for people to not recognize him. She gave him a small wave back as she sauntered over to him. Perhaps this disguise was enough, she hadn't recognized him when she first entered. Maybe they could finally have a meal to themselves without him being recognized and asked for a picture.
She slides into the black leather crescent-shaped booth, quickly nuzzling up beside him and giving him a couple of quick pecks on the lips before anyone could see them. He finally had the nerve to take his glasses off to fully see her in the restaurant's lighting, a smile creeping on his face and she takes her jacket off to reveal her work pantsuit. He slides her over a menu. "Hey. How's your day going? Anything new on that case you're working on?" he greets after her excited pecks. He hesitates as he begins to rephrase his words, knowing that other patrons were around them and it wasn't like they were talking in private. "The one that I'm not supposed to know about." Quinn lets out a small laugh as he gives her a silly side-eye about the question. "Same ol' same ol'. No new leads." she shrugs off, attentively looking at the menu for what she wants to eat. "Sounds about the same with me," Steve notes, placing his chin in the palm of his hand looking lost in thought.
Quinn closes the menu, watching him get caught up in his own head as she tries to wrap her own mind around her case. "I didn't know it'd be so hard. We're running out of options on what to do with this case. If we don't have any more development in the case we'll have to return it to the local authorities." she admits, feeling solemn about the state of their case. Perhaps if she had joined a little earlier she would've found something at a scene and they would've been further into this case but she couldn't look on the past nor could she wish things had been laid out differently.
"Well, maybe that's the best option. Always better when a new fresh pair of eyes look over it." Steve states, trying to make a positive out of the situation. "Yeah. It'd make Anthony and I look like idiots but at least they could potentially find those people." Quinn huffs out in a sigh. She's taken by surprise when Steve wraps his arm around her and pulls her in close to him. He strokes her arm gently in reassurance. "That's my girl, always looking to the bright side of things." he praises, getting a smile out of her. "What can I say? You bring it out in me."she purrs, earning a kiss on the top of her head from him.
She sighs contently as she leans onto his shoulder, watching the snow fall from outside the restaurant. The rest of the world didn't seem to pay attention to them, nor did they have the intention of paying attention to anyone but each other. Watching the snow fall down so blissfully as the warm smell of grilled steak and homemade bread wafts through the air. "Any luck finding an apartment?" she asks after a moment, sipping on the water the server had brought to them. Steve huffs out an aggravated sigh. She can feel his muscles starting to tense up in his chest.
"Brooklyn, The Village, everywhere I look it's just too expensive," he states in a defeated tone. She pushes away from him, throwing him a confused and concerned look. "You just bought me a Tiffany bracelet," she states, holding up her right wrist to promptly display the golden tennis bracelet. "Maybe, I don't know, we should return it so you could have the money to get an apartment," she suggests with a shrug of her shoulders, watching his brows knit together. "Do you not like your gift?" he questions, holding on to her right hand and stroking it gently while looking at the bracelet. She rips her hand out of his, holding on to the bracelet defensively.
"No, no. I love it, it's the most thoughtful gift you could have given me," she bites her bottom lip in anticipation as she reaches for the right words, even though her mind is screaming for her to just say thank you and change the subject. "I feel like you're going to add something on," Steve trails off as he takes a sip of his own water. She reaches out to grasp on to his shoulder endearingly, causing him to pay attention to her instead of the glass in his hand.
"But I don't need expensive jewelry to know how you feel about me and it's not going to make me stop feeling how I feel for you." she conveys, fiddling with her bracelet. "I care about you. I just want you to be happy and living in that luxury tower doesn't make you happy." she gives him a small smile, while he can see the sorrow in her eyes. She sighs. She knows this is the right thing to do. She unclips the clasp of the bracelet and holds the jewelry out in her hand for him to take. "I can't accept this until you've gotten your own place, preferably close to me," she instructs him in a firm tone, only for her to break momentarily afterward as she stares at the sparkling piece of jewelry in her hands. "Or I can keep it. I mean no skin off my bones, I definitely love it," she mumbles, earning a chuckle from Steve.
He takes the bracelet out of her hand and wraps it around her wrist once again, making sure it clicked to ensure that it was clasped together. "Quinn, I love that you're trying to make a grand gesture of returning the bracelet so we can get a place of our own, it's very noble and selfless of you, but I had been saving up to get you that bracelet for the past couple of months," he admits in an endearing tone that made it seem as if he was adamant on her keeping the jewelry.
However, she couldn't pay attention to this. All she could focus on was the words "a place of our own". It was bad enough that she was still having fantasies of getting married to him stuck in her head, now the thought was getting even more solidified since the mention of moving in together. Her face was beet red at the thought. It takes her a moment to come back down to Earth after the comment. "Back up, did you just say "a place of our own"?" she clarifies, an ever-growing smirk appearing on her face as she watches Steve's face also starts to glow a bright red at the realization of what he had let slip out.
"I-I mean, I would only assume you'd be there for a-a few days a week so I-I would want your opinion on the place so technically it would be a place of our own. Get it? Because I won't have a roommate and you'll be staying over and," he stammers out a plausible explanation, hoping to throw her off the trail of living together. He didn't mean to actually say it out loud and not until they found an apartment that they had both liked. "Please stop me from rambling at any time," he begs her, earning a small smile from her. She reaches up to stroke his cheek with her thumb to calm his nerves down.
"That's a big step, Hon," she tries to console, gaining a groan from her lover. "I know it just slipped out. Plus you have Robin and you'd be breaking your lease," he states, seeing the logical side of the situation. It was nice to see him thinking where her head was at. Not that she didn't want to live with him, however, they hadn't even labeled their relationship yet. "I love where your mind is at. We're on the right track to getting a place of our own. I just think you need a bit of independence. You haven't had it since you left the ice, what with S.H.I.E.L.D. bugging your place and putting the agent-"
"Sharon," Steve corrects her.
"Right, Sharon, beside you as your neighbor. And now you're in the tower where almost everyone lives."
"Well, that's not entirely true." Steve mulls over, causing Quinn to shake her head. "Right Tony has places all over the world to stay at and Clint has in own place, where exactly?"
Steve shrugs. "I don't know, he won't tell anyone. We just know that he goes there after missions sometimes."
Quinn blinks a couple of times before she can get her mind back on track to the point at hand. "Point is, don't you want to live on your own for a bit?" she questions, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. "Then we can talk about me moving in once my lease is up and if we can't live together then we can live in separate apartments for the rest of our lives," she jokingly suggests earning a genuine laugh from Steve, one that makes her heart skip a beat. "Sounds like a plan I can get on board with," he answers before giving her another kiss on the forehead before finally meeting her lips with his in a soft kiss that made her heart explode. She whines when he pulls away from the kiss, as she had gotten lost up in it and didn't want to go back to reality. "You'll get more kisses, as soon as we live together," he jokes. She bites down on her bottom lip once again, looking up at him with hooded eyes, as she tries to be as seductive as she can. "If we live together, you'll get more than just kisses."
Steve chokes on his water, causing him to cough it up as it comes out of his nose. She quickly unwraps her silverware and places it in front of his nose and mouth to cover and clean it while looking around to the patrons who were giving them concerned looks. She mouths out an apology to them before patting her lover on the back. She tries to hide the giggle that is starting to form as she looks up at how distraught he was after her suggestive comment. She didn't expect him to have a knee-jerk reaction to it and to be honest, she couldn't tell if it was a good reaction or a bad one.
As he finishes sputtering he looks at her, she offers him an apologetic smile as she looks into his red and watery eyes that made his blue irises stand out electrifyingly. She tries to apologize with just a smile and a shrug but without a word, he places his hand on her knee and gently strokes upwards a quarter of the way up her thigh. The motion sends a shiver down her spine and she immediately knows his knee-jerk reaction is a good one as he continues to absentmindedly, or maybe knowingly, stroke the inside of her thigh. She could feel the bundle of nerves in her stomach starts to unfurl with want and desperation. If there hadn't been people in the restaurant, she knew by now, she would've jumped his bones. The mere thought of it makes her cross her legs, causing Steve to stop stroking her.
After a moment of her biting the inside of her cheeks to restrain whispering to him to meet her in the bathroom in ten minutes, she speaks up. "I finally told Anthony about us," she states, her voice quivering a bit from the strain of her wanting him starting to weigh in on her. She fought with every ounce of her consciousness to stop thinking about what they would look like with their bodies entwined, or the pressure that would build between them until they could no longer handle it.
"Oh yeah?" Steve says, drawing her mind out from the gutter. Obviously, he had absentmindedly been rubbing her thigh, if he was doing it intentionally she felt like she would've seen something about it from him by now. Or at least she hoped. She nods her head. "You got the seal of approval from him," she states, her voice finally regaining its normality as the thoughts started to subside. "Be honest, Captain America got the seal of approval from him. Not Steve Rogers," he says in a monotone voice.
"Steve Rogers shouldn't think about what anyone thinks of him as long as he's happy where he's at," she replies trying to invoke content within him. He smiles at her. "Definitely happy, won't deny that. And I do care about what you think of me. You're the only person's opinion of myself that actually matters." he admits, making her heart squeeze. However, the statement makes her perk a brow up in question. "Really? Have others tried to push their opinions of you onto you and change you?" she questions, earning an exhausted groan from him. "Stark's the worst at it. Him and his team. Wants me to become more tech-savvy -"
"Steve -"
"I know it's crucial to understand these things in this day and age but..." he trails off, pursing his lips. He looks to her and grabs a hold of her hand once again, stroking it with his thumb. "But I'd rather be at home dancing with you in the kitchen rather than some stuffy event to make him look good." he conveys with a sweet smile that makes her heart melt instantly. She knows that Steve is an all-around romantic person, but he's also very stubborn and in his ways and it takes time for him to adjust to new things. But at least he's willing to learn for her. From the sounds of it, S.H.I.E.L.D. had tried to bring Steve up to speed on the current age, created a whole program dedicated to him. Yet, he decided to decline the program or any efforts of trying to get him brought up to speed.
Quinn places a smile on her face. "You're very sweet. Perhaps, a compromise is in place?" she suggests, watching as Steve waits expectantly for her explanation. "I'm not saying that he's the greatest person, but, he did give me this opportunity. Maybe, if you gave him a chance and you gave him the opportunity to open up it would help out your relationship with him and quite possibly the team." she gives him a pleading look as he takes a sip of his water.
His eyes never left hers for a moment. Usually, if it were any other person asking him to play along with Tony he'd tell them that they didn't have any sense in them and that they need to sober up but this was Quinn asking him. The one love he's had after leaving the ice. "I still don't know what game he's trying to play at by putting his foot in the door for you to get that job, but, I'll try to open up. Just for you though." he begrudgingly states, unveiling a thin-lipped smile. She, in turn, gives him a slight peck on the lips. "The smallest steps mean a lot to me."
After their lunch had settled into their stomachs and once the serious conversations of Tony and the rest of the Avengers had silenced, they settle into each other, enjoying each other's presence. If only she didn't have to return to work, she would be blissful. However, it was weighing in in the back of her mind that she was taking too long of a lunch and reached out towards her phone to see a text she had received from Anthony ten minutes ago.
As she opened it, it revealed a picture of a package of breadsticks waiting on her desk for her. The text underneath it read "Scored you those breadsticks you wanted." She smiles and places her phone in her purse, stretching from the comfortable spot she had rested in for the last few minutes. She yawns before looking at Steve and giving him a peck on the cheek. "I have to run, but I'll see you at my place tonight?" she asks, as she places her jacket on. He follows suit before answering, "How about my place? I'd like to own up to that promise of a dance in the kitchen, so long as you can put some music on it."
The proposal makes her smile as she leans up on her tiptoes, getting ready to give him a goodbye kiss. "I'll show you how to work the A.I. when I get there," she informs him. Just as he's about to swoop in to catch her lips, she pulls back with a gasp. She groans as her face contorts into pain. He gives her a concerned look as he embraces her in his arms, ready to ask what's happening before she snaps her fingers at him. "Wait. I do have to stop by and see my mom before I come over. I don't want her to freak out when the move happens this weekend." she informs him, causing his worry to decline as his embrace drops from her.
He thought she was having some sort of panic attack after she ate that whole twelve-ounce prime rib and mashed potatoes. "As Doctor Woodruff said this transition needs to appear as seamless as possible," she says with a forced laugh as she realizes she made him have a panic attack for a moment. Instead, of finding a disgruntled look on Steve's face like she thought he was going to have after that she finds his features are soft and almost endearing.
"Of course, honey, take as much time as you need with her. I know this is a huge deal to both of you. I'm just happy that she's going to get the help she needs." he supports her, giving her hand a tight squeeze of encouragement. As they begin their trek out, she notices that he places his sunglasses back on and tries to shy away from any form of light that would potentially expose him. Once they're outside in the street, he takes off his façade, so she can finally really be with him. "Yeah. You know, I've been thinking," she begins, as he raises his hand out in the street for a cab to come pick them up. He gives her a softened look as he peers down at her, his cheeks becoming rosy from the wind. "After my mom gets all settled in, and she's used to her routine, maybe you'd want to meet her?"
"Yes!" Steve yips out excitedly, causing her to knit her brows together while giving him a nervous smile. He quickly clears his throat to cover his nerves. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to sound too excited but yes. I'd love to see the woman who raised you."
She hadn't pegged him to be this excited to meet her mother, especially after all she's made her out to be. She was absent for the majority of her childhood and completely gone when she was a teenager. Even though, she had said she forgave her for everything it still felt like she resented her in a way. She felt as though Steve would also resent her in a way since she did tell him everything that had happened. Yet he was excited to meet her. In a way, she wished she could be like him. To see her mother with new eyes. Maybe she wouldn't resent her as much.
Steve opens the canary-colored taxi door for her, as she slides in along its leather seats. He informs the driver of Quinn's work, before giving her a look. He wasn't getting in the cab with her. She at least wanted to give him more kisses before she went to work. She had nothing to look forward to now. Except for the breadsticks. She gave him a slight frown before he leans his head into the cab.
"Rudolph's got a grooming appointment at seventeen hundred. I'll pick you up before I grab him and we can head to my place," he informs her while catching her off guard and planting a kiss on her lips. Her head is swirling as he pulls away, not expecting the kiss to end that abruptly nor anticipating receiving a kiss that gruffly. "You made an appointment for Rudolph?" she questions, looking up at him with dazed eyes. He nonchalantly shrugs. "You've been stressed these past few weeks and I know he's overdue. I took the liberty of taking it off your plate." he humbly says, causing her to pull on the collar of his jacket, yanking his torso into the cab to hold him in an awkward embrace.
"You're amazing," she mumbles out, before planting several kisses to the side of his neck that makes him grip on to her tighter before she catches his lips with hers. The kiss is filled with want, desire yet hesitancy as they remember that they're not alone. Steve's the first to break, not wanting it to go further. He fixes a loose strand of her hair behind her ear before kissing the palm of her hand which makes her sigh contentedly. "What would I do without you?"