Cornelia Street - Avengers

Made To Be Mine

"Fate is pulling you miles away, and out of reach from me"

(Leave Before You Love Me, Jonas Brothers)

...

"I can't wait for all of this to be out there," Steve said softly. "And for him to finally understand how much it hurts us. The rules, the secrecy. All of it."

She stared up at the ceiling as Steve lay beside her. She didn't know what they were, but either way, he was acting like everything was normal. And so, she would too. It would hurt too much to act differently. Besides she didn't want to spend last night alone, her mind had too many thoughts to even think about a good night's sleep in a cold bed. 

So, she had slept in his arms, like a puzzle they had drifted towards one another during the night, fitting together. She had even pretended to be asleep as she felt tears soak her shirt from behind, when she woke up with the bed cold in the night, knowing he had left to clear his mind for a couple of hours.

Her mind clouded with guilt, her fingers tapping nervously against her stomach, she had a secret from him that she was still keeping and she figured she should probably tell him before they had that conversation with her Dad. 

Although a part of her wasn't sure what they would even say, they were together and yet she had told him she was in love with someone else. And of course, in his perfect way, all he had done was comfort her. But she wanted to avoid waking up, wanting to tempt him to stay in bed, because yes, she was dreading having to tell her Dad the truth about them.

"What?" Steve asked, hand lightly skimming down her arm comfortingly. "You've got that look on your face."

Her brain was on fire after a night of drinking. "It's probably the hangover."

Lifting her glass from the bedside over to her lips he popped out two pills into her palm, watching her knowingly. "I know you; your mind is still somewhere else. What's going on?"

She laid back down with a humph. "I have to tell you something."

"Alright," he said softly, sitting up on his elbow, starting to get a little nervous and she finally turned to look at him, seeing him scan her face wide-eyed.

Fiddling with the hem of Steve's shirt she was wearing, a wave of nausea rolled over her. "You read me and Pierre's mission reports from Norway, right?"

Steve narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, of course I did."

"Okay, well...we left some things out," she said, before realizing she had to take full responsibility. "I asked him to do it, begged him to lie on the report actually. Don't get mad at him for this."

He shifted on the bed, sitting up better, and she could see him starting to get flustered. "Why- what happened in Norway?"

The redhead clasped her hands together on her stomach. "When we were trying to escape, we were stopped by-"

"An army of men, who held you off while he started the Quinjet to get you guys home," Steve said, repeating the exact words from their reports.

"What, did you...did you memorize them?"

Steve leaned forward, a hand going to hold hers before he held back and stopped himself. A flicker of confusion rattled through his form. "I nearly lost you that day. You're damn right I memorized those reports, I needed to make sure that it never happens again."

Lucia swallowed hard, biting back emotions.

"You're telling me there's more that I need to know?" He asked slowly. "It's okay, just tell me what happened."