All This Time

cookies and a potential goddess

Steve's staring. He knows it's weird and he should probably stop, but he's not sure he can. It will probably get weird soon—is it already?—but he's not sure he knows how to stop staring when the most beautiful girl he's ever seen is still standing in front of him.

She asks him something and he panics.

"Uh—what?" Great, now she knows he wasn't paying attention to a single thing she was saying.

"Do you always answer the door and then not pay attention to your visitors?" she asks, raising a brow at him. "Or am I just special?"

"Special," Steve repeats. She laughs and he's broken out of his trance as his cheeks begin to heat up. "Sorry, I don't mean it like—I just—Sorry, what were you saying?"

Still laughing softly, she says, "I just moved in across the hall, so I thought I'd come say 'hello'."

"Oh, welcome! Hello!" Steve resists the urge to bash his head against the doorframe, but just barely.

"Hello." She smiles and offers up a plate of what looks like cookies. "Would you like a cookie?"

Steve nods quickly and takes one off the plate, immediately shoving it in his mouth. She laughs again and he feels his cheeks heat up, but there's no way he can say something stupid with the cookie in his mouth, so he considers the world must not hate him too much. At least he can't make things worse.

A second later, he chokes on the cookie and turns into a coughing mess. The girl—why does he not know her name yet?—drops her smile and looks at him in concern.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry!" she exclaims. Steve tries to wave her off and assure her that he's alright, but he's still choking on cookie crumbs and can't really form the right words. "Do you need water? I'll get you some water!"

She hurries into his apartment and opens the correct cabinet the first time. Steve coughs again and she's at his side with the glass of water in hand instead of the cookies. He willingly takes the glass of water but is careful when he drinks it. There's no need to make his current situation worse by coughing water all over her.

Thankfully, the water does its job well and by the time Steve finishes the glass, the cookie has made its way through his throat and he's no longer coughing. His face is still red and he feels like an idiot, but at least now he's breathing.

"I am so, so sorry," the girl says, looking at him with wide eyes. "Please don't sue me."

"I'm not gonna—why would I sue you?" Steve asks, confused for a moment. "It's not your fault that I don't know how to eat properly."

This earns him a small smile and in return, he grins widely.

"I'm Diana, by the way," she says, holding out her hand suddenly.

Steve shakes it and feels like fate itself has just aligned in front of him. Instead of saying so, however, and possibly scaring her off, he says, "Steve."

"It's nice to meet you, Steve," Diana says. She picks up her plate of cookies from his kitchen counter and looks at them curiously. "Do you think I should give out the rest of the cookies? I don't want everyone to choke on them."

"No! No, they're delicious," Steve assures her. His face feels warm yet again as he mutters, "I just choked."

She doesn't look too convinced, so Steve takes another from her plate before she can stop him and eats it slowly, being careful not to choke on it again.

"See?" he says around a mouthful of cookie. "Delicious!"

She smiles and nods. "Alright."

Steve grins victoriously and moments before he chokes again, he manages to convince the cookie not to ruin his life.