A Feast of Scraps - A Captain America Fanfiction

Ch 4 -Normalizing

I woke in the morning back in my own bed. I'd stayed with him for a while, whispering in the dark as our bodies unwound a little. Amazing how wonderful that was. I found myself smiling at the thought of it, here where he couldn't see me. God, it was so good to see him again, to be near someone I really loved. How could it be that the person I trusted above all others was one of the most dangerous men alive? Or was that an essential piece of why I trusted him?

My stomach growled and I decided it was time for phase 2 of my plan. Okay, I'd started it last night really. It was all about trying to normalize things. We both needed that. Everyday things. Everyday activities. Food, exercise, chores, projects maybe. Whatever he could handle. I wasn't going to attempt the deprogramming without some decompression time first.

I was cooking a dozen eggs in just my shorts when he came downstairs. I had all the windows open on the ground floor and the tropical warmth of the island was lifted a little by the soft ocean breeze. It wasn't so much that I heard him. My hearing was crazy good, but so was his stealth. It was that I felt him behind me. "I've got the coffee on," I said without turning around. I wanted him to see that I wasn't scared of him, that I'd leave my naked back open to him.

He grunted and sat down at the table.

"Eggs and toast sound okay?"

"How're you getting provisions in?"

"Yup, that's a security weak point, but there are companies that specialize in dropping supplies off for the uber rich. They pull up on the beach every Friday, unload and get the hell out. We can place our orders online and monitor the whole thing from here. They never see us.

"Internet?"

"Black Satelite. It's this new stealth thing. Untraceable so far."

We talked about security and weapons as we ate a whole loaf of toast with our eggs. I could see him itching for more fire power but also not wanting to arm himself too heavily in case he lost it again.

I reached across and gripped his shoulder. "Hey, if no one's here yet, I think we've got a few days before anyone shows up to try and kill us." I smiled with all my teeth.

He rolled his eyes, but at least I got an almost smile.

I squeezed the thick muscle layer and my heart thumped as I felt it relax a little under my hand. "So let's wash the dishes and then go for a swim. Sound good?"

I made him wash and I dried and he bitched about it, but it worked. By the last fork, he was talking about my mom's kitchen and how she'd gotten us both by the ear when we'd decided that having a soap fight was more fun than clean up duty.

I grabbed for the soap bottle as nonchalantly as I could and poured some down the back of his neck. He swung around with that creepy blank face on, his body in a fighting stance and yeah, he was deadly intimidating. I held up my hands as best I could around the bottle.

"Sorry, it just dripped." I gave him a big smile.

"Steve." He shook his head and stood down. "Man, aren't you worried I might just take you out? 'Hair trigger' might be a bit of an understatement here."

"Nah. I think I could take you," I looked down my nose at him and gave the bottle a good squeeze, striping the t-shirt he was wearing up and down his chest.

It was game on after that. He wrestled the bottle off me and dowsed me pretty good, but all that tackling meant the soap smeared all over both of us and that neither of us could get a good grip on each other for long. And then I sprayed him with my thumb on the faucet and the floor got slippery.