2012 came without much of a fanfare. Wilmington did a big fireworks show, but after the first one, it seemed Captain Rogers didn't want to stick around to watch them, flinching every time the big boom went off. Katherine could tell he looked sorry as they went back inside, but she waved off his concerns, pouring the small bottle of champagne she'd had Lionel pick up for them instead. Alcohol didn't affect him much, but she'd actually found that her two glasses allowed her a somewhat restful night of sleep.
Now that the two of them had been in safe house for almost two months, Fury was letting them go out with only Agent Johnson. Captain Rogers didn't seem to be too upset by the fact that Agent Whitaker was allowed to go back to New York, as he and Agent Johnson got along much better. He also seemed to respond well to the little bit of extra freedom he was being afforded. Though he and Katherine were getting used to each other more and more as the days went on, it was still in the back of his mind that she was his glorifiedbabysitter. He felt guilty that she had to spend most of her time with him, so he tried not to complain in the earlier stages, when Fury had denied several of their requests to get out of the house.
It seemed that now, however, Fury trusted the two of them enough to let it happen. Katherine had asked for this little outing the week prior, and Fury had responded with a very short "fine."
Which is how they found themselves standing in the Delaware Art Museum.
Katherine never went to many museums in her life. One, she'd never really had time when she was a field agent, and two because she wasn't entirely enamored with art. She'd rather watch a movie and see the visuals play out in front of her. The day they could make paintings move was the day she'd probably enjoy it more. Captain Rogers, however, was different. He loved art. When she had told him after their gym session that morning that they were going to go to the museum, his face lit up in a way she hadn't seen before. It was nice to see him genuinely excited about something, and she was hoping it would be less crowded on a Wednesday so he wouldn't feel overwhelmed and anxious.
They were learning more and more about each other as time stretched on. He ate his eggs with ketchup. He always started with boxing when they worked out. He had nightmares. She was sure he was picking up just as much little tidbits of information from her. Maybe he took notice of the fact that she rarely wore bright colors, that she had a birthmark on her arm near the crease of her elbow, or that she only wore one piece of jewelry— a simple, silver, pendant-less chain that hung from her neck.
Perhaps the one thing she learned about him the most was his affinity for art.
He used the sketchbook she got him religiously. He was always scribbling down little doodles and sketches, and when she managed to get a glimpse at one, she realized he wasfantastic. It was no wonder he'd wanted to pursue it if he hadn't become a soldier. Which was why she had called the Delaware Art Museum to see if they did any classes for adults. Luckily, they did. Katherine had ran it by Fury, along with the projected cost and he'd cleared it.
Their art lesson was to begin at noon, and it was nearing eleven forty-five. Captain Rogers still had no idea, but it was hard to imagine him being even more excited than he already was at that moment. He was walking through the halls of the museum, eyes wide behind his fake glasses and underneath his Yankees hat. He still gave the baseball hat a glare when he saw it, as if personally betrayed by the Dodgers for ever moving out of Brooklyn. She always had to bite the inside of her lips to keep from smiling.
"These are incredible," he mentioned. They were in the contemporary art section. He had marveled over the sculptures in the garden, eyes pouring over the marble and stone until she was afraid his eyes had been superglued open.
"I'm glad you like them," Katherine said. Though she wasn't an art buff by any means, it was exciting watching him get excited. It was rare. She liked the moments when the shadows of his past forgot to follow him somewhere in the present. "I've got another small surprise for you."
His eyebrows raised. "Another surprise?"
Katherine nodded. "One of the artists for their contemporary section agreed to do a private art lesson with us. We're scheduled in fifteen minutes."
"We're...we're going to get to paint?"
"Paint, sketch, sculpt. She said she's going to lay out a ton of mediums and teach us a little bit of everything. Her name's Sonya Clark. She mostly does sculptures." They came across her sculpture in the section they were in and Katherine pointed her art out. "I hope that's okay."
"It's fantastic." He smiled shyly at her. "Thanks, Agent Baker."
"No problem. Sonya said to meet her at the front desk, so we've got to head back that way." She threw her thumb over her shoulder. And though Captain Rogers was enamored with the art in front of him, he must have been itching to get his hands on a sketch of his own, because he started walking in the direction she pointed without hesitation.
Sonya was a nice woman. She shook his hand immediately and smiled whenever he asked a question about what they were going to do. She led the two of them back into the studio of the museum, where Katherine could see canvases, brushes, pencils, and clay. Captain Rogers wanted to start with sketching, so Sonya set a generic bowl of fruit in front of them and asked them to practice that first.
"I'm terrible at drawing," Katherine found herself telling the Captain when she started to try and sketch an oval shape for the top of the bowl.
"No one's terrible at it," Sonya said, walking over and catching Katherine's whispered confession. "People just have different styles."
Katherine had to disagree, considering the apple she was trying to draw was too fat and resembled a pumpkin more than anything. She didn't dare look over at Captain Rogers's sketch because she knew she'd just feel bad about her own work if she did.
"That's not the fruit bowl," Sonya suddenly said. Katherine tensed up, knowing that Sonya was probably talking to her and about to let her know how awful her drawing was, when she realized it was Captain Rogers that Sonya had directed her comment to. Katherine leaned over to get a peek of his sketch, ignoring the embarrassed look on his face.
Sonya was half-wrong. He had drawn the fruit bowl, in the right hand corner of the paper (which looked like the most impeccable fruit bowl she'd ever seen in her life). However, that wasn't the focus of the picture. Because across from the bowl on the left side of the paper, was a mirror image of Katherine with her canvas, tongue stuck out a little in concentration. She hadn't even realized she was making that face.
"You looked really determined so I wanted to draw that," he mentioned quietly, his cheeks pink and his gaze lowered.
"It looks wonderful," she said quietly. And it truly did. Katherine didn't know how to draw faces, but he most definitely didn't have the same problem. If anything, his drawing was a little too gracious in its portrayal of her. Her hair, which was twisted into a braid underneath the hat she wore, even had the little tendrils sticking out in his sketch. And she could see that he had added her one lone dimple on the left side of her smile. His cheeks were still pink as he nodded his head in acknowledgement of her praise before he went back to sketching. She noticed he angled his paper a little so she couldn't see as much anymore and felt bad if she had embarrassed him.
After their portraits were drawn out, Sonya let them paint. Katherine was a little better with a paintbrush than she was with the sketching pencils because if she messed up a painting, she could just label it as her own personal style. After painting, when Katherine had a red pumpkin-fat apple combination, Sonya started laying out small slabs of clay for them to work with.
"This is what I'm most comfortable with," Katherine said happily as they finished their paintings and made their way to the clay. "I did ceramics once when I was little. I loved it."
Sonya instructed them to try and make a clay replica of their apples. Katherine, feeling the most confident with the clay, started molding the shape of her apple immediately, dipping her hands in water to keep the clay damp so it was easier to shape. Unlike with sketching and painting, Captain Rogers seemed to have some trouble with sculpting. His hands were a little too big and clumsy to sculpt anything with minuscule details, like the small stem on the apple's top.
"It's nice to know you aren't good at everything," Katherine said in a sing-song voice. He merely chuckled at her.
"I'm definitely not good at everything. Or did you not see the files on me from before the serum?" She noticed he had a concentrated look too. While she stuck her tongue out a little at the corner of her mouth, his eyebrows furrowed and his nose twitched every once in a while. She smiled to herself at her new discovery.
"That wasbeforethe serum, though."
Captain Rogers shrugged. "Still the same guy."
Katherine wasn't sure if she'd offended him with her comment, so she didn't reply, growing quiet as she continued to mold her apple. When she risked a glance at him, he was giving her a knowing smile, one that said he knew her worries about offending him and that she hadn't.
Their apples, once molded into the shape they wanted, were put into the kiln. They would have to come back in the next couple of days to glaze them, which Sonya said was painting the color onto them, and then they'd go back into the kiln again. After setting up an appointment to come back and paint them, Captain Rogers and Katherine left the museum, covered in paint and clay but wearing smiles.
"That was amazing," He said happily as they walked down the street. He made a concentrated effort to slow his steps so she could keep up with him. "Thanks for setting that up, Agent Baker."
"My pleasure. It's always nice to see how much artistic talent Idon'thave."
Captain Rogers laughed, and the sound was so free and happy that it made Katherine feel lighter. That lightness, however, disappeared when she realized she couldn't see Lionel's car. She realized that in their art session, she had forgotten to message Lionel like she was supposed to. "I forgot to text Lionel when we got out."
"Text him now," he suggested.
"Yeah. It'll probably just take him a while, so we'll have to wait. Sorry about that." She got her phone out and started drafting a text to Lionel when Captain Rogers stopped her, his hand coming to rest on her arm and halting her typing fingers. When she looked down at his hand on her arm, he yanked it away, as if her skin was made of fire. He had that same boyish blush on his face, as if he couldn't believe he'd put his hands on a lady without asking. "What?" She made sure to make her voice soft so he didn't think she was upset.
"There's a diner over there," he responded, hooking his thumb over his shoulder. It was a small place, smaller than where she had met Barton a few days before Christmas. The diner in question was made up of a variety of tables and chairs that all seemed mismatched but also seemed to go together in a strange way. It was a white building with cute blue trim and reminded Katherine of how someone would paint a beach house. "Let's take the day off from cooking and we can text Lionel when we're almost done."
They made their way to the entrance of the diner and Katherine smiled when Captain Rogers held the door open for her. She was still getting used to his weird chivalrous gestures. It wasn't that she lamented the fact that men didn't do stuff like that anymore, because honestly, she didn't care much. But it was still funny to see what kind of manners stuck with him in the twenty-first century.
The sign told them to seat themselves, so they chose a booth in the back of the restaurant, perpendicular to the front because they both liked to keep an eye on the door. An elderly woman came by and handed them menus.
"What can I get you to drink?" Her voice was low and raspy, like she had smoked for the better part of her life.
"Could I get a Roy Rogers?" Katherine ordered, her eyes flickering to the Captain, who looked surprised at her order. Belatedly, she realized that he probably actually knew who Roy Rogers was.
"Could I get a cola?" Another thing that he was happy about was that soda had lasted into the twenty-first century and was still relatively cheap.
"Pepsi okay?" He nodded and the waitress left to fill their drink orders.
"What's a Roy Rogers?" he asked when the waitress was out of earshot.
"Did you ever have a Shirley Temple?"
He shook his head. "I never had one. I know generally what they are though."
"Same concept but with cola as the main soda."
"We call it pop," Captain Rogers mentioned offhandedly.
"Sorry. It's another kind ofpop," Katherine exaggerated sarcastically while he laughed. "You can try mine if you'd like. We'll see if you're a soda snob or not."
"A soda snob? Harsh words."
Katherine shrugged and opened up her menu, trying to hold in her laughter. The two of them examined their menus in silence when the waitress came back with their drinks. She gave them a few more minutes to look at the menu. Katherine put a second straw into her drink and slid it over to him. "Here, try it. I want to see the look on Captain America's face when he tries a Roy Rogers for the first time."
"It's not a monumental thing," He argued, rolling his eyes. Still, he slid the cup over to his side of the table.
"It is. Next week, we'll try frozen Eggo waffles."
That caught Captain Rogers's attention. His nose wrinkled in disgust. "Frozen...waffles?" he asked in disbelief.
"Just drink the Roy Rogers."
He raised the cup to his mouth and took a decent sip from his straw. When he lowered it back down to the table, he chuckled at the expression that must have been on her face. "I like it. I like it a lot, actually."
She grinned triumphantly. "We'll make a soda connoisseur out of you, yet."
"Popconnoisseur," he corrected, sliding her drink back across to her.
When the waitress came back to take their order, he had decided on the grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes and green beans, and Katherine had gotten a turkey club sandwich with a promise to Captain Rogers that she'd let him have some of her fries because she never finished them and he seemed to eat like a horse. He also ordered his own Roy Rogers, rolling his eyes at the happy look on Katherine's face.
"Today was fun," Katherine said when the waitress left again.
"It was. Thanks again. It felt like the first day I've been able to take a breath."
"Really?"
He nodded. "I know you've been doing your best trying to get us out and doing fun stuff, but I'm always on alert. I think it's a side effect of the serum. At the zoo, out with Lionel, even Christmas tree shopping, I just haven't been able to relax. Today I did."
"Probably because you were doing something you really love," Katherine suggested. "You're... really good at it, Captain Rogers."
"I'm alright." He shrugged it off like it was nothing.
"No." It was suddenly imperative that he knew how talented he was. He felt like he was only good at being Captain America, but that Steve Rogers was lost in the past. She needed to remind him that the two could exist together. "You're brilliant. There are a bunch of literary journals in New York that Wendy reads. They always need illustrations to go along with the pieces they put in there. If you'd ever want to submit something, I could help you."
"I probably wouldn't."
"Why not?"
"They wouldn't want Steve Rogers' drawings. They'd want Captain America's."
It was quiet after that, the two of them sitting in his words. She wished there was something she could say to keep the hurt away from the walls around his heart. The real Steve Rogers, the one who hung out with Bucky in the 1940s and got sick every weekend was still in there, guarded because people only seemed to want the new and improved Captain America version of him.
"You could submit it under a different name," Katherine suggested softly, picking at her fingernail. "But only if you want to. I just wanted to offer in case it was something you wanted to do."
"I appreciate it, but it's just not in my future right now." But his eyes told her more than his words did. He wanted to, but he didn't feel as though he could. She understood the reservations he had and decided she would drop the subject for now.
Their food was delivered to them relatively quickly, and Katherine made do on her promise to slide over some of her fries to him as he scarfed down the chicken and mashed potatoes. He looked up at her and smiled. "Doesn't taste nearly as good as your cooking."
"Flattery will get you everywhere,"
The next few moments were quiet as they ate their food, the Captain at a much quicker rate than Katherine did. In the end, she only ate three-quarters of her sandwich and let him have the rest, laughing when he immediately accepted it. She wondered if the quick eating was a mentality left over from the war or if it really only because of his fast metabolism due to the serum. Once his plate was clean, he leaned back and allowed Katherine to finish nibbling on the small pile of fries left on her plate.
"I don't know anything about you," he said after a few moments, crossing his arms over his chest.
"What do you mean?" Her eyebrows furrowed. He knew about Charlie and her family. He knew about Sophia and the Benjamin family. That was the most important piece of information in her life.
"I know the bad stuff. The stuff that brought you to S.H.I.E.L.D. But I don't know the good stuff, like what your favorite band is or when your birthday is." He thought for a moment and then remembered something. "Or what the M in your middle name stands for."
She remembered she'd been signing her texts with her initials, like he had. She had the privilege of knowing more about him than he did about her simply because she'd read his file inside and out when Fury had given it to her.
"Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is my favorite band, and April nineteenth is my birthday," she quipped back. He gave her a look that had her laughing. "Fine. We can play twenty questions."
After briefly explaining the rules, they began. His first question was easy, simply asking what her favorite color was. Neutrals. Her first question was what his favorite song was. Til the End of Time by Perry Como. When she was younger, what did she want to be when she grew up? A doctor. What had his favorite subject in school been? Science.
Time flew by, and Captain Rogers mentioned when the waitress brought the check over that they should probably text Lionel. "We each have one more question. Make it count," she warned him.
He took it seriously, the idea that this was his last question. Stalling, he grabbed the check before she could and set the card Fury had given him in the little pouch made for credit cards. While she jokingly glowered at him, he asked, "Do you regret letting Fury send you here with me?"
She knew what he was asking. Was he the burden that he obviously thought he was? "No," she said immediately, shaking her head. "I was upset at first because I would be so far from Sophia and her family, but I don't regret it." They paused for a moment so Katherine could calculate the tip for him since he was still getting used to the conversion of money value from the 1940s to now. As he scribbled down his signature, Katherine asked, "Speaking purely out of selfish reasons and if there had been no consequences... do you regret landing the Valkyrie in the ocean?"
He thought about her inquiry for a moment. "Yeah," he finally answered, and his voice was reverent. "It would have been nice to have a life with Peggy. And I hated that I brought Annie down with me. She told me it was okay, that we were going out together and that's what mattered, but... I still feel guilty she was there with me."
"It wasn't your fault. You were doing what was right. I'm not going to blame you for selfishly wishing it didn't happen."
He shrugged, as if telling her that things were unchangeable now. It was what it was. Lionel messaged her back saying he'd be there soon, so they were in the diner for a couple more minutes. Katherine didn't want the last thing they said in the diner to be heavy, so she gave him a smile and tried to lighten the mood.
"So, do you think you could teach me to draw?"
Captain Rogers raised his brows. "You want me to teach you how to draw?"
"I think it might be fun. We watch way too much TV," she joked. She was happy when he cracked a smile in her direction. "Obviously I don't want to be the next Picasso or anything, but it would be nice to learn a new skill."
"I wouldn't think learning how to draw would be a skill you'd be interested in learning. It doesn't really matter at S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Well, no, but... you like it and it's something we could do together. We're stuck with each other, so let's make the most of it, right?"
He thought about it for a moment before he slowly nodded. "Okay, sure. I'll try. I'm no teacher."
"I'm not a good student," Katherine replied, smiling. "You should have seen me in school when I was younger."
"I was a good student in classes. It was outside of class you had to worry about me. I was constantly getting in fights. Bucky patched me up more times than I could count. And then Annie when she became a nurse."
"Will you tell me about your life before the serum?" Katherine asked, leaning forward in interest.
He looked surprised. "You could just pick up a history book, you know."
"But I want to hear it from you. I want to know about Steve Rogers, not Captain America. I've heard bits and pieces, but I want to know more."
He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. She wondered if he knew he was in a defensive position, blocking off his body as if to shield himself from the inquiry.
"There's really not much else to tell. I was scrawny but wanted to fight. I didn't like bullies. I tried to be like my dad and I think I failed. My mom was my favorite person in the world. Bucky and Annie deserved a better friend than me. They were always having to clean up my messes."
"I'm sure they didn't see it that way," Katherine said quietly.
"No, they didn't. They were too protective to let me think that way about myself. I miss them more and more everyday. Both of them are dead because of me."
"That's not true and you know it." He opened his mouth like he was ready to argue, but she shook her head. "They died doing what they thought was right. They didn't diebecauseof you. They diedforyou. And yeah, that makes you feel guilty but it should also make you feel incredibly respected and cared for, because they thought your life was worth risking theirs. Not many people in life would do that for someone else. You've got to cherish that. Honor it. Because if it was the other way around, they would be feeling the same way you are."
How many times had she been curled in her bed at night, unable to sleep because she was too busy wishing it had been her gone instead of Charlie? And how many times did she think, if the situation were reversed, that she would absolutely hate it that he thought that way? That he would be so willing to give his life for hers?
"You're thinking about your brother, aren't you?" he asked gently. His voice was no longer defensive like it had been. Instead, it sounded empathetic. He knew exactly what was going through her head.
"If it had been reversed, and I found out he was wishing every day that it had been him who died instead... I would be furious. Livid. But that's just survivor's guilt. I think all of us feel it eventually. No matter how much we hate it."
Her phone chirped and she saw Lionel's message. When she looked outside the diner's window, she saw his car. "Lionel's here," she said unnecessarily, for Captain Rogers was looking out at Lionel's car too.
The two of them walked out of the diner and greeted Lionel happily, Katherine giving him a short hug as she got into the backseat. She didn't like being in the back, but she knew Captain Rogers hated it even more. He was too large to be squished in the backseat, and she could deal with it for the short ride to the safe house. Lionel chatted happily as they drove back, winding through the now familiar roads. He dropped them off with a cheerful goodbye.
"Thanks again for today, Katherine." the Captain held the door open for her and she sent him a grateful smile. She was still getting used to his insistence on opening the doors for her. "It was exactly what I needed."
"I'm glad. We'll have to do it again sometime."
She shrugged her purse strap off her shoulder and started in the direction of her room. Then, she remembered something. "Oh!" She called, and she saw him turn around. "My middle name is Marion, by the way."
"Marion," he repeated, giving her a small smile before he closed the door to his room.
"I think I'm paranoid." Sophia's voice trailed through the speaker of Katherine's phone.
"Why do you think you're going paranoid?" Katherine asked.
"Fury just sent Romanoff off for some secret mission. But get this... I caught a glimpse of Tony Stark's file."
"Why is that surprising? Howard was big at S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Yeah, but Howard Stark wasn't Iron Man."
Right. How could Katherine had forgotten? She had only had the pleasure of meeting Tony Stark twice in her life, despite the fact that Howard had been such a huge part of S.H.I.E.L.D's history. She had never met the elder Stark, given the fact he died before Katherine had even come to America, but she'd grown up on stories about him from Wendy and Timothy.
The first time she'd met Tony was when she was at one of his parties. She hadn't been invited, but it had been easy enough to sneak in under the guise of a pretty female. It had taken her about three days to completely scrub the makeup off her face, but it had been worth it. Stark Industries had a habit of selling weapons to people who were less than reputable. Katherine had been there with her partner Oscar De Santiago, scoping out arms dealer Andreas Kapelos.
While Oscar had been able to get Andreas alone and deal with him accordingly, Katherine had been stopped by a very drunk Tony Stark who called her Melissa (her undercover name had been Maia, so he hadn't beenterriblyfar off) before handing her an entire bottle of champagne and disappearing in a drunken stupor.
She hadn't thought he was responsible enough to be selling weapons, but she had reigned in her opinions in favor of helping Oscar out with Andreas.
The second time she met Tony Stark was after his kidnapping, at a press conference before the infamous "I am Iron Man" and before her disastrous mission in Austria. She had just been sent to keep an eye on him, evaluate his mental health for a file Fury was compiling on him. She had posed as a concierge at a hotel he stayed at, under the guise of a manager named Jordan Price. She had gathered her intel and had been on her way.
He hadn't been doing well.
"You're right. You think they sent Romanoff to keep an eye on him again?"
"I don't know why. The jig is up on her whole Natalie Rushman act. I talked to Barton and he was pretty tight-lipped, but let it slip they're sending her to Kolkata."
"What the hell are they sending her to Kolkata for?"
"I'm not sure. But I did some digging."
This didn't surprise Katherine. She and Sophia were similar. If there was information to be dug, they would dig. "And? You gonna keep me on my toes?"
"Bruce Banner's last known location was at JFK, on a flight to India."
Katherine's nose scrunched. "The Hulk? S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps tabs on him, Sophia. She's probably just going there for a routine checkup."
"But going there and then compiling shit on Stark? And this whole damn experiment with you and Captain Rogers. Why the sudden interest in all these supers?"
Katherine closed her laptop, rubbing at the bridge of her nose. "Coincidence?" she asked tiredly.
"You're not that stupid."
"No, but I am that exhausted. You gonna talk to Fury about it?"
"Not yet. It wouldn't surprise me if they're planning something."
"Yeah," she said. Then, she remembered something. "Actually, Barton mentioned something about an incident in New Mexico. A weapon from another world. Called it The Destroyer."
"Shit. See?"
"Let me know what you find out, okay?"
"Sounds good. I'll talk to you soon, yeah? Only a couple more months of this."
Katherine ended their phone call and let out a long sigh, flopping her body back against her bed. She understood Sophia's worries about some super secret mission, since it wasn't the first and definitely wouldn't be the last time S.H.I.E.L.D. did something similar. But she didn't want to think about it, not when it meant she'd probably be thrown in the field quicker than she'd like.
Finally deciding she'd laid around too much, she swung her leg over the side of her bed and stood. She heard the faint sound of the television from the living room, on some nature documentary Captain Rogers had started watching the night before. When he finally came into view, she saw him sitting on the couch, sketchbook and pencils in hand.
"What are you working on?" she asked quietly, as not to startle him. He looked up and gave her a small smile.
"Just messing around." He held out the sketchbook to her when she took a seat on the couch next to him. It was a cartoon styled depiction of the Redwood Forest in California. "Were you serious about those sketching lessons?"
Katherine raised a brow. "You think you're up for dealing with how absolutely horrid my artistic abilities are?"
"Somehow, I think I can handle it." He gently ripped out a page from the sketchbook and handed it to her, along with a large hardcover book so she had something to support it. "What do you want to draw?"
She debated for a moment. "Let's start easy."
"We'll try a rose." He got his own sheet of paper ready. "Start with the stem. Sketching is all about basic shapes first." She tried to mimic the thorned stem he'd drawn, feeling her tongue poke out in concentration. "Now draw two circles, one at the base of the stem facing you. The other will be facing the ceiling, so it's a different perspective."
"What do you mean, facing the ceiling?" Katherine asked, leaning over to look at his again. He slowed his pencil movements down so he wasn't going ahead of her. Once he was satisfied with her two circles, he moved on drawing two teardrop shapes poking out of the stem.
"You're not terrible," he mentioned when he showed her how to start drawing the petals. "I don't know why you think you are."
Katherine shrugged. "I guess I've never really tried sketching before." She finished the petal she was working on and started drawing the next one. He was getting ahead of her now, but not so much that she was getting confused. "What have you never done before?"
He didn't seem shocked at the question, seemingly used to Katherine asking him questions out of the blue. "Dance with someone." He immediately shook his head. "Wait, that's not true. I've never danced with a woman before. Bucky and I used to do stupid dances all the time when we were kids."
"You never danced with Annie?"
"Annie was too focused on nursing school and then she was with Howard. Peggy...Peggy and I never got the chance. I went in the ice before we could."
She hadn't really danced either. When she was younger, she and Charlie would dance in the living room of their house. Then he was dead and she was in America, but she wasn't like other little girls who got to go to formals or proms. When girls her age were dancing with their boyfriends at an embarrassing school dance, she was doing field work and learning how to disassemble and reassemble a gun. "You know, thinking about it, I've never really danced with a man before."
"You never danced with Ian?"
"We never really had an opportunity. I feel like dancing nowadays wouldn't be as fun as it was when you were younger."
"What do you mean?"
"We don't have classic dance halls much anymore. It's mostly just clubs and bars. And those are definitely fun, but it's not the same as an actual dance hall like the ones in the forties."
"You would have liked them. They always seemed bigger than they were. Part of it was the layout and part of it was the magic of them. The band was always too loud, but not in a bad way. I never danced but I used to sit in a booth and listen to them play all night."
"They sound awesome." Katherine finished her last petal and started on the leaf, like he was doing. After a couple of mistakes easily fixed with the eraser he provided her, she held her rose up proudly. "Tada."
"Looks great," Captain Rogers complimented. His looked professional while hers looked more like a middle school art student, but it was progress.
"I had a good teacher," she joked, stretching out her legs until they rested on the table in front of her. "Charlie used to love watching stuff like this." She gestured to the television.
"Was he big into nature?"
"He said he wanted to climb Mount Rushmore because he wanted to take a picture with Abraham Lincoln." Katherine rolled her eyes.
"When I went into the ice, Mount Rushmore had only been opened to the public for four years," Captain Rogers mused. He liked hearing little tidbits of things that had survived the test of time.
"Charlie was the adventurous one. He wanted to travel all over the world. I didn't really care about traveling. I think eventually I would have, but back then I didn't. You want to know something stupid?"
"I'm sure it's not stupid."
"He used to collect keychains whenever he visited a new city. Whenever I go somewhere new, I'll get one just to add to his collection."
"Definitely not stupid," he assured, setting his sketchbook on the table and facing her. "Are you going to get one from here?"
"Yeah, I'll get one. Maybe you can help me pick it out."
"Where are some of the places you've gotten keychains from?"
Katherine had to think about it for a minute. "Argentina, London, Egypt, and Seoul. Those were some of my favorites."
There was only one place she hadn't bought a keychain for, and it was Austria. She couldn't bring herself to. Even when she was standing in the airport, at one of those stupid little kiosks they had, she couldn't. She wouldn't have wanted Charlie to know what she had done. Who she had become.
"I've only been to London out of those places."
"My favorite was Mexico. I went with Sophia and her family to visit some family they had over there. It was beautiful."
"Where's somewhere you haven't gone that you want to someday?"
There were several places she had yet to visit, but she could live without seeing them. She tried to think of one she absolutely had to see. "Probably New Zealand. What about you?"
"It's going to sound stupid."
"I'm sure it's not stupid," she repeated his words from earlier, giving him a joking smile. He laughed, the laugh that she was growing so fond of. It was free of the pressures of Captain America.
"I want to visit Bucky's old place in Shelbyville. I made plans to go, but always got sick before we could leave. He used to talk about it all the time. I was so jealous he'd been somewhere like that."
"Definitely not stupid." And it made her think of Bucky's siblings, one of which who was very much alive. She wanted so desperately to tell him, but it wasn't the right time. Not when it could ruin everything. And definitely not when his eyes were starting to droop and he was still sitting on the living room couch. "Sleepy much?" she joked.
"Didn't get much sleep last night. I'm not meaning to be rude, I promise."
"I don't mind. Go get some sleep."
"I could say the same for you."
She laughed. "I'll go to bed eventually. I actually slept pretty well last night." That was a lie, but she wasn't feeling tired just yet. She was still energized enough to stay awake for a few hours. "Go, it's fine. I'll probably just watch another movie or something."
He finally conceded, standing from the couch. "I'll see you in the morning." They were still very much active in the home gym every morning. Since they woke around the same time now, they had a system in the gym. She boxed first while he tried out the treadmill and then they switched. He usually boxed the rest of their morning session but she stopped on the treadmill after forty minutes and did yoga the rest of the time. Steve still wasn't brave enough to try it with her.
"See you," she replied. "Captain Rogers?"
"Hm?" He turned around.
"I think you'll get to dance someday."
The smile he gave her in response was slow and warm, simmering underneath his skin like the embers of a fire. It did something strange to her stomach. "Yeah, hopefully. Night, Agent Baker."
She waved as his bedroom door closed for the night.