Dominance (Dark!SteveRogers AU) - 1

10

It was almost curfew when Wren looked at her watch one evening a couple of weeks later. Time to get home and under the welcoming warmth of her bed covers. She'd spent most of the day putting through calls, and generally just answering any emails from Rumlow (another key player that she had now identified), and making sure that all was running like clockwork for when Steve returned.

He'd left for Siberia two days ago and so she'd had time to try and hack his files. However this had failed miserably. His computer was so coded that it was impossible to even get past the first one. He had been right when he told her that he trusted no one.

She switched off her laptop and got up, grabbing her back and walking from the office in the direction of the elevator.

"Late night little bird?" Steve's smooth voice made her jump and spin around, seeing him leaning against the window and watching the city lights, drink to hand. This was one of the rare times that she'd seen him out of uniform and in some normal clothes. If his white shirt and jeans were anything to go by.

Yep. There went the ovaries, and Wren cursed herself inside for allowing to be caught off guard. Then again, he could have been standing there naked? That would've sent her into some kind of cardiac arrest.

"Steve." She breathed. "You scared me. I didn't think you'd be back until tomorrow?" That was what he'd estimated to her anyway. But this was Steve Rogers, and she still needed to learn to expect the unexpected.

"Mission went better than planned." Was all he replied and then looked at her. "Stay. Have a drink with me."

Wren placed her bag cautiously next to the couch and joined him by the window. "It's been quiet here." She smirked. "Almost too quiet for my liking."

A rumbled chuckle left him. "Because I haven't been here to make you scream?"

She cast a sideways glance and then helped herself to a drink. He was quite humorous in his own way. "That, and I kind of missed you." This admittance came freely, another mistake on her part.

"Just 'kind of'?" He jested, "I don't know whether to feel flattered or offended." There was a genuine smile that Wren saw, or at least she thought it was. He never smiled, not unless he was teasing her or it was a situation turning sinister.

"Be flattered that someone actually misses you when you're gone, Captain."

"Well then you'd be the first and only person."

Ok, why the fuck had he even just told her that? His guard rose a little more.

She returned to his side and drank the wine she'd poured. Wren felt bad admitting that it was the best she'd tasted. The Captain had expensive tastes though. "Don't you ever feel lonely? Here all alone when everything shuts down at curfew?"

"I've always been alone. It's what I know best." Steve didn't want any sympathy. He was just stating the truth.

Something inside of Wren instinctively wanted to rest her head against his arm. Cautiously, she did – and he made no attempt to remove her. In fact he was a little surprised by it. So much as it sent an electrifying wave around his body, igniting the want that he had for her. "What about when you were a child?" Wren pressed innocently.

Now she was asking too much, but he pushed the irritation to one side. Wren Reed was a curious little thing.

"I can't remember that." It was true. He remembered nothing from his childhood. Just the war. It was better that he didn't remember. It would only show weakness. "That was his past. It died with him." The anger began to seep, and knuckles whitened as his hand clenched around the glass, causing it to shatter. Shards fell like daggers while his hand was soaked with alcohol stinging the cuts that had been made.

And it burned.

He felt like he was on fire.

Wren jumped back. "Shit." And quickly retrieved a cloth to wipe up the liquid.

"Leave it." He snapped, but she didn't, trying to collect the larger parts of glass. He exhaled loudly. "Wren, you're going to cut yourse-"

He was cut off as she let out an 'Ow!' and grasped her hand, a shard slicing her finger and causing the blood to seep.

"Told you..." He scooped her up and sat her on the couch, retrieving the first aid kit from behind the bar.

"Steve, you should see to your own cuts first...your hands are literally covered in blood."

Now he looked seriously at her. "When are they not?"

Wren watched him remove the shard, inspect her finger for any other pieces (which thankfully there were not) then bringing it to his mouth and sucking the blood from it slowly.

Oh lord...

This shouldn't be making her feel anything. Once again her body was betraying her.

Removing her finger from his mouth, Steve wrapped the band aid around it, placing her hand back into her lap. "Ok, so erm...yeah, your hands..." she stumbled over her words a little shakily and reached for the sterile wipes.

"They'll be healed by tomorrow." Settling next to her, he watched her see to the cuts despite his protests.

"Healed or not, it's not a comfortable thing."

"I've had worse."

Wren looked up at him. "How bad?"

He thought for a moment. "Ok, I may have exaggerated that a bit...but still." And then she laughed. Not to chide him, even he could sense that. He'd made her laugh...the only person who he could have ever laughed with was Bucky. But Wren? She seemed to understand him in some ways.

And he wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not.

Wren snapped the first aid kit shut and rose from the couch, Steve watching her with fiery eyes while she put it back in its rightful place. Then she caught him looking. "I'm sorry...for making you that way, I can go if you want me to?"

He was contemplating over and over in his mind about his next words, suddenly feeling a little tired from the mission he'd just completed. Steve had a choice. He could let her go and simply see her again in the morning which was the new normal for them. Or he could ask her to stay and for the first time in decades, feel the warmth of someone next to him at night.

Taking his silence as permission to leave, Wren crossed the room to get her bag, Steve then rising quickly and pulling her back into him, staring down at her with what she could only describe as desperation.

"Stay."