Helios (Steve Rogers x Male!OC x Darkling)

IX

"Oh, shoo off!" Steve said as he waved off the photographer, laughing as he gave you support. You chuckled and leaned on him.

"Who says shoo off?" You looked at him and laughed louder.

"Come here you, no drinking from next time." He smiled as he brought his arm under your knees and lifted you up. You and Steve had been going out more and more often lately. After a couple of those "extra" and lavish dates, you had given Steve an ultimatum of cheap dates or no dates and he had shown up to your room with takeout the next night. After that, Steve had just started trying out looser clothes and shades, caps to disguise himself so you two could sit in a bar in the city without getting found out. He had a couple of guards with him if he did get caught and be able to leave without getting bombarded with requests for selfies or autograph.

But after a couple of times, it had just gotten worse and people had started to figure out and post on Twitter that Captain America was dining there. Since then, Steve used to just book the whole place for the night and kept out guards to make sure everything went fine. But somehow, a couple of magazine photographers always made their way through, though you were always able to get to the car soon enough so your face didn't always show up on the magazines. 

"You challenged me!" You hit him lightly as he picked you up. He stopped outside the bar as he held you in a bridal carry and leaned down to kiss you. You kissed him at first but broke away when you saw a flash. "Steve," You said and he nodded, getting you to the car. "Why did you have to stop?" You groaned as he sat you down and got into the driver's seat. 

"You're too irresistible," He smiled as he leaned over the seat to put your seatbelt on and kissed you once more. "Your fault." He chuckled and sat back down, driving back to the tower. You fell asleep some ten minutes into the ride.

***

You had just gotten out of the shower and had gotten dressed when you had your breakfast and waited for Steve. You had to go to SHIELD headquarters for some work and Steve had said he had to go as well so you two decided to go together. You didn't want to get late so you simply asked Jarvis where Steve was and decided to go to him.

He was in one of the conference rooms and you were about to walk in when you stopped dead in your tracks and saw Steve and three other men looking at some pictures. It was your picture with Steve from last night when he had carried you and kissed you on the street.

"No, not that one. Send in the other one." Steve said. You furrowed your brows and noticed that one of the guys in that room was the photographer you had seen last night. Now that you looked at it, it seemed almost as if Steve had purposely posed for the camera with your face clearly visible. You wouldn't have trusted your memory, having remembered how drink you were, had it not been for the other guy right next to him. You distinctively remembered him as one of the paparazzi that Steve had scolded one night while blocking your face from the lens.

"This is actually great," the fourth man, Mark, said who seemed to have been taking notes and seemed the in-charge, really. "I'll take care of who gets the first look and I'll have your statements ready. You sure you don't want any of Y/N's words in it?"

"No," Steve said almost immediately. "He should think it was a mistake like every time. In fact, don't release my statement until a couple of days after the photo gets out."

"Wouldn't that be-"

"You heard me," Steve said and something in his stance and voice said he wasn't up for questioning.

"Alright." Mark finally gave in with a sigh and typed something on his laptop. "Well, it does seem to be working. The people are loving the mystery of whom you're dating. You're trending on Twitter, apparently. So the date nights weren't a total waste." Mark said.

"What's that?"

"A social media platform, speaking of which, we'll need to get you an Instagram, at least." He said. "We'll need more direct contact with the audience. I mean, there's always OnlyFans but you know."

"Is it better than Instagram?"

"Depends, how keen are you on fucking that Y/N guy on camera?" Mark said with a sly smile which meant that he had meant as a joke. Steve's expressions blanked as he glared at Mark but before he could say anything, you walked in.

"What the fuck?" You said as you walked in and saw Steve's face drain as he saw you. He quickly gathered himself as the projector was shut off and the pictures were gone.

"Y/N! Hey, how-" Steve had started but you cut him off.

"Is this what it all was? A fucking PR stunt?" You yelled. "God," you grunted as you turned around, too angry to put your thoughts into words.

"Y/N, it's not like-" Steve walked over to you and had put his hand on your shoulder when you turned around and punched him. It was a messy hit. You hadn't anticipated his height well and thought it did hit him right across his jaw, it wasn't balanced enough and he didn't even move. His facial expressions just darkened.

"Dismissed," Steve said, turning to the others and they left immediately. He turned to you, "You've got to stop doing that." He said through clenched teeth. "These people respect me. I swear to God if you were just someone else right now, I would have-"

"Are you fucking kidding me? You-"

"Calm down." He ordered. "Just let me explain," He said and grabbed your wrist but just as he did, he suddenly pulled back with a confused look on his face as he looked at his hand with a wince. It was slightly burnt.

Steve looked back at you with confusion and boy you looked scared, which confused him even more. You gulped as you saw Steve's hand and looked back up to meet his eyes. "Don't touch me ever again." You said and stormed out of the room. 

Your heart was racing as you finally got back to your room and pulled out your phone. You tried Phil's number a couple of times but he didn't pick up. Tears flooded your eyes as you looked at the windows on the other side of the room. You felt stupid for having believed Steve and being made a fool out of everything. You had really believed that Captain America of all people could be into you. I should've known better, you thought. Fuck, you thought whatever Phil would think of you now if he were to find out. No, you told yourself. Phil already had a lot on his plate. He didn't have to know, and now you actually felt glad that Phil hadn't picked up your call.

It had been somewhat of a cloudy morning but it sure was bright now. You looked down at your hands as tears finally dropped and you let yourself cry. It had been more than two years now since you had felt it. But it was much stronger this time as if it was telling you there were no more escapes left, almost as if it was chasing you this time. The sun was calling.