Draw Me Your Worries | S. Rogers x Reader

Ch. 5 - Coffee Shop

The next two class days were spent continuing to work on different still-life drawings. He didn't speak to her much because the entirety of those class times were spent in the dark.

After another Saturday morning run, Steve decided he'd get some coffee someplace new. He usually went to this one by Stark Tower, but ever since the Battle of New York the place had been shut down. He hadn't had his coffee in a while, and he was craving it. He remembered passing by a small coffee shop about a mile back, so he began running there.

The jingle of a bell signaled him coming into the café, and it rang again when the door closed behind him. He stepped behind a person already ordering as he approached the register. He looked around the quaint place, the atmosphere of the room was calming. There were various knick-knacks, pictures, and even some art hung around the walls, leaving barely any space for the actual wall to peek through. The entire café was colorful and lively, but there were only a few people sitting at the tables.

"I can help whoever's next! Steve?"

Hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, his head whipped around to find y/n smiling at him. She was in the coffee shop uniform, a soft yellow apron. Tendrils of her hair fell loose from her ponytail.

Surprised to see her there, and a little embarrassed to have been caught not paying attention, he didn't say anything. His throat closed up, preventing him from speaking.

"What can I get you?"

Regaining his composure, he gave her his order and stepped aside for her to help the next person in line. When his coffee was ready, she was the one to give it to him.

He mumbled a quiet, "Thank you, Ma'am," as she handed him the steaming cup. She leaned her crossed arms on the counter, closer to him.

"Have you been here before? I haven't seen you," she said, tilting her head just slightly and staring at him with curiosity in her eyes.

"No, I haven't. Thought I'd try something new today."

She nodded, her gaze traveling around the room and then back to him. "I assume you're off to workout after this, sweats and all."

"Ah, no, actually. I was just running for a couple hours..."

"Hours? You don't look tired at all! What are you, some sort of superhero?"

Even though she said it jokingly, he couldn't help but wonder if she knew that he was Captain America. It wasn't like he was hiding his identity from the world. Lots of people knew his name.

"Maybe I am," he replied in the same tone, even though it was true.

She laughed, and Steve smiled. Not because he found it funny, but because she did.

When her laughing ceased, she stood up straight and gestured to a person that came in through the door. "Well, um... I have to get back to work, so..."

"Oh, yeah. You go ahead."

"Okay," she said with an exhale, smiling still.

She started to walk back to the register, but Steve said, "I'll see you on Monday?"

She nodded and gave him a small wave. "See you."

Holding his coffee cup in both hands, he turned his back to the counter. An old man by the door mumbled to him as he walked by, "Ask for her number, you moron."

The old man turned back to his table of friends and Steve, confused but also embarrassed, left the coffee shop.

~~~~~~~

The wait was borderline agonizing, but he was early to class yet again on Monday. Surprisingly, she was there before him, sitting and sketching something he couldn't see. This was great news to Steve, this meant that he could talk with her longer before class started.

He must have startled her when he sat down next to her, because she jumped and brought her sketchbook to her chest.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, no, it's fine. You just surprised me, that's all," she said, setting down her sketchbook on the table.

"Okay. What're you drawing?" he asked, not looking at the page yet in case she didn't want to show him. He knew that drawings were on a large scale of either completely meaningless or very personal.

"My best friend. She's at a different college across the country, but I miss her a lot."

So they had another thing in common; he missed his best friend too. "She must have been worried after the attack."

"Yeah, she and my whole family were pushing me to fly back, but I wanted to stay."

"Where are you from?"

"St. Louis, Missouri. What about you?"

"Brooklyn." She nodded in response. Choosing a subject change, he wanted to clear something up. "So, how do you go to MIT while you live here? You mentioned the campus here, but you said you go to MIT."

"I want to stay close to that intern position that I'm looking for, so I take my classes online," she explained. "As for the campus, I guess I just focus better when I'm around other students studying rather than cooped up in my apartment or something."

He nodded. "I understand."

Their project for the day was to partner up with someone and practice drawing faces, by drawing their partner's face.

He was good at drawing people. Bucky used to let Steve draw him all the time when they were teenagers. Even during the war, Steve would have his notebook with him and sometimes he would draw Bucky from across the small campsites they set up at night.

But the difference was that he was drawing her. And that the finished product was his to keep. He was going to have a detailed pencil drawing of her face in his sketchbook by the time he was done. And he could take it with him, back to his apartment. And he could look at it any time he wanted.

He and y/n turned toward each other in their seats, sketchbooks in their laps and pencils in hand. Steve would look up every now and then to look at her features for reference, and every once in a while she would look up at the same time. They would lock eyes for a moment before smiling and going back to their drawings.

When Steve got to her lips, he would stay gazing at his reference longer than any other part of her. Longer than her eyes, which was the hardest part until then. It was like his pencil was stuck in mid-air.

And then she licked her lips, concentrating on her own sketching. He felt something stir inside his stomach, or his chest, or both. He couldn't tell. He couldn't take his eyes off of them, now glistening and all shiny. The urge to lean forward was unignorable.

She glanced up, catching him in the act of staring. He saw pink cover her cheeks, neck, and ears. It was the cutest thing.

Only then did it occur to him that she was also drawing him. And he wondered what he looked like from her perspective. He'd had comics, posters, movies, and photos taken of him, but no one had ever taken the time to draw him this way. Those were all him as Captain America, but this was different. She didn't know who he was completely, she was just drawing Steve Rogers.

When he was back in his apartment, his drawing of her sat in front of him. He was thinking about their small friendship they had formed over the last couple of weeks.

Steve decided that he was going to tell her the truth, and if she was okay with him being a Super Soldier in red, white, and blue, then he would continue to develop their relationship. Yeah. That was the plan.

He thought of the way he had stared at her lips for so long. Was there a reason? Not really. Would he do it again? Without a doubt.