DECEPTION • STEVE ROGERS

play your cards rignt

𖣂 CHAPTER THREE 𖣂
"play your cards right"

Steve found it exceptionally hard to avoid her when she had been wearing his clothes for the past couple of hours.

Despite the cold winter weather, she was sat outside on the run down balcony. Her suit was out to dry, so Steve had fine her a simple red tshirt for her to wear for the time being. She was tall, but not quite as tall as Steve. So his shirt still went half way down her thighs.

He stepped outside into the cold to join her on the balcony. She had retied the makeshift bandage on her leg with a clean piece of fabric she'd made out of a tablecloth, and was currently bandaging her arm from a wound that he hadn't actually noticed before.

"How you holding up?"

She looked at him, and shrugged.

"I'll live."

Steve sat down next to her.

"There's a pharmacy and a thrift store in town. You could go in tomorrow and get some more medical supplies and some spare clothes for cheap."

She nodded.

"Yeah, I think I'll have to." She replied, "I can't keep living in my suit and your shirt for the rest of the time I'm stuck here."

"Keep it as long as you need. Suits you better, anyway. Reds never really been my colour."

"Really?" She chuckled, "You strike me as the kinda guy who'd be able to pull off anything."

"I wish." He replied, "Trust me, there was a time where I couldn't pull off a simple pair of pants."

"Well they're working for you now."

He grinned, "Thanks."

They both paused. Staring out at the forest. An awkward silence fell, and Steve cleared his throat.

"I found a pack of cards in the closet upstairs, want a game?"

Steve pulled the deck out of the pocket of the leather jacket he was wearing, and took them out of the box.

"I don't think I know any card games." She said.

Steve shrugged, "No worries. I can teach you. And if you don't get it we can just play snap."

"Snap's the one where you match two cards?"

"Pretty much."

Steve started to shuffle the deck.

"This is blackjack. Normally, players each place a bet before it starts. But considering we're both living in an abandoned shack how about we skip the bets for this game?"

She grinned, "No, we can still bet." She said, "Whoever looses takes their shirt off."

Steve chuckled, shaking his head, "It's basically below freezing out here, we're not taking any clothes off."

She was already barely wearing anything, if she took anything off Steve was scared she'd get frostbite.

"Boring!" She replied, "But fine. Instead of taking your shirt off... If you loose then you have to tell me your name."

Suddenly taking his shirt off felt a lot less dangerous. In theory, Steve was a very common name, hundreds of thousands of people were called Steve. But in reality, Steve's face had been everywhere... The television, the papers, billboards, the side of milk cartons. If she didn't realise who he was straight away, it wouldn't be long until she worked it out.