Sophia Strange: The Newest Avenger (Steve Rogers x OC)

14 - You Need To Know

That night, after they returned from New York City, Sophia lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She thought about the conversation she'd had with Steve. She felt bad about jumping on Steve for his eagerness to get her back into dancing. Especially because he was right. She wanted... she needed to dance. She knew it, she'd felt it for a while now. As she'd gotten back into training physically she could feel it in her soul. She felt the pull to it.

The clock by her bed had ticked to 2:12am when she rolled out of bed and changed into workout gear. She made her way down into the lower levels of the compound and went down a hallway to a rarely used training room. Upon entering the room her hands went to her hips and she chewed at her bottom lip as she looked around the room. The room had enough open space to work for what she would need. She took a deep breath, pulled her phone out of the pocket of her workout pants, connected it to the room's sound system, began a playlist, and started stretching.

****

The next morning Sophia awoke to her alarm and stretched out her muscles. She smiled, despite the tiredness of her sleeplessness and middle-of-the-night workout, she was excited about her middle of the night discovery.

Her phone chimed and she picked it up off the side table.

Steve: Good morning, Sweetheart. I hope you slept well after our trip yesterday. Will you be down for breakfast this morning?

Sophia smiled at the text. She wasn't ready to share her discovery with her boyfriend, but she would be happy to see him this morning, nonetheless.

Sophia: Had a hard time getting to sleep, but I'm feeling okay now. Just woke up and going to get a shower. Be down in about twenty minutes?

Steve: I'll have a cup of coffee waiting for you. :)

Sure enough, when Sophia came down just a little while later, a fresh cup of coffee was sitting at her open spot by Steve's side.

"Good morning, everyone!" She smiled as she sat down in the empty seat and leaned over, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Morning, Legs! We hear you had a good trip to the City yesterday," Tony said.

Sophia glanced at Steve who suddenly looked a little pale and nervous. "I, um, mentioned we had a good visit with your brother. And told them about you surprising me with the visit with the diner and all. That was all."

"It's okay, Steve. I'm happy for the team to know about my visit with Stephen. You all are as much my family now as he is."

Bucky smiled from across the table as he passed her a tray of pancakes. "I'm glad you two have found some peace, Sis. Even if it ends up only being a temporary truce."

"Hopefully it will be long term, but I agree. I'll take what I can get," she smiled as she piled a few pancakes on her plate. "And thanks, Buck, for the tip about the diner."

"Yeah, sounds like Steve liked the surprise."

Steve nodded excitedly. "It was great, Bucky. I can't believe that place is still around. We'll have to go back sometime together."

"For sure, Stevie," Bucky grinned.

Conversation turned to other places in New York City that various members of the team were fond of and soon the team was planning a group trip back to the City, easy enough with the Tower available to stay in. Eventually breakfast was finished and everyone was cleaning up the table and moving everything into the kitchen for clean-up.

Before long they were done and Tony called out, "Alright, boys and girls, team meeting in half an hour! Mission handouts! No skippies, everyone is on the docket this week! That means you, Legs!"

Sophia turned to Steve with wide eyes. She knew this moment was coming, but now that it was here it was a little hard to take in.

Steve grabbed her hand and nodded towards the door, tugging her towards it. She followed him and he pulled her through the living area and out the back door of the living quarters and into the backyard of the compound, allowing her to lean against a wall for support as he placed his hands on her hips. "What's up, Sweetheart?"

Sophia appreciated that Steve had detected her apprehension. "It's just... am I ready? Really?"

He cupped her cheek, tracing her cheekbone with his thumb. 'Of course you are, Sweetheart. We wouldn't have cleared you if you weren't ready."

She frowned, her brows furrowed as she examined him closely. "You're not worried?"

Steve sighed and leaned in close to her, resting his forehead against hers. "Sweetheart, I'm always worried about you. I don't want any harm to come to you. But what can I do? Keep you in a bubble? When I met you, you were standing in the middle of a battlezone holding a magical shield over my head and threw a magical spear through the head of an alien that was headed straight for me," Steve chuckled. "Suffice it to say, I knew what I was getting into when I became interested in you–I wasn't going to be able to keep you out of danger for long."

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"I know we haven't been dating very long, really. But–but we've known each other a while now, and I'd say that you were one of my very best friends before we were dating. That is to say, you are so incredibly important to me and with all this about to start happening, I just really feel like I need to say this.. Steve... I..." She reached up and rested her own hand on his cheek. "I love you."

Steve broke into a wide smile. "Oh, sweetheart, I love you too." He leaned back into her and kissed her gently before repeating it again. "I love you, too."