Burn Me Slowly With Your Love [40's STUCKY] ~Under Editing~

Chapter 14

Steve watched as the streets of Brooklyn passed him back, his finger pointing out as they drove.

"I know this neighborhood. I got beat up in that alley...And that parking lot...And behind that diner..."

"Did you have something against running away?" Peggy questioned with slight amusement.

"You start running they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. They can't say no forever, right?" Steve shrugged. Bullies couldn't get any enjoyment if you don't back down.

"I know a little of what that's like. To have every door shut in your face." Steve looked at Peggy and realised what she meant. It wasn't exactly normal for a beautiful woman to not be married by now, even less normal for said woman to a agent or in a position of power in the war.

Maybe that's why Steve found her so intriguing. She was different to most women, like he was different from most soldiers. It was nice. To have someone who understood having a constant weak point, his his strength and sexuality and hers her gender and independence.

"I guess I just don't know why you'd wanna join the army if you're a beautiful dame." He shrugged. She could anything, but he guessed she preferred being in the world of war. Fight for it like he was.

He realised what exactly he'd said when she rose a brow at him. "Or a beautiful...a woman. An agent, not a dame! You are beautiful, but..." Now he was rambling. He did think she was beautiful. Beyond beautiful, she was perfect, but he was trying his best not to sound romantically interested in her. He had Bucky after all, even if he couldn't see him for awhile.

"You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" Peggy chuckled and Steve couldn't help the embarrassed blush that heated his cheeks as he looked down at his hands.

"This is the longest conversation I've had with beautiful one. Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on." He admitted. Then again, he wasn't that interested in dancing with the girls. He'd make an exception for Peggy though. He figured she'd be a good dancer when she was such a fluid fighter. Much like a violent dance really.

"You must have danced?" Peggy questioned.

"Well, asking a woman to dance always seems so terrifying, so my boy- my friend would get girls to dance with me...I've only danced with two people, terribly might I say. Figured I'd wait to dance again." Steve wanted to dance with Bucky again, at the Happy Clam again. The bar where he felt at ease to show how much he loved the Sergeant with no judgement from others eyes. That homely, relaxed feeling where they could dance to soft music.

"For what?" He almost missed her words in his daydreaming, looking over to her.

"I guess, for my right partner." Steve smiled slightly, linking his fingers and wishing one was bigger, calloused and warm. His fingertips were cool and palms warm. He didn't notice they had pulled up the antiques shop until he heard Peggy open her door, doing the same and following her out.

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"That's fifty percent! Sixty. Seventy." Howard said slowly as the dial turned up. Steve's skin felt inflamed and swollen, his bones aching and spine like fire. He let out a scream without his consent, body shaking and trembling as he tried to stay conscious and stubborn. He couldn't run away from this fight.

The world needed the little guy after all.

"Steven!" Abrahams voice was hazy to his ears. "Steven!" The vibration of his knocks made his ears ring. What was happening to him?

"Shut it down!" Peggy sounded so worried and insistent. Steve went to protest, but he could only groan.

"Kill the reactor, Mr. Stark! Turn it off! Kill it!" Steve couldn't let the pain get in the way. So he forced the words out of his throat.

"No! Don't! I can do this!" Steve yelled, lung burning so hard that Steve was afraid he'd have an asthma attack.

'Bucky wouldn't backdown from this. He'd stay strong.' He told him. He thought of how Bucky was fighting for his country, to get back to Katherine and Steve, he was fighting the enemy like a true soldier. He would never stop because of the pain. 'I will see you on the battlefield, Bucky. You won't have to fight alone.' He promised as Howard turned the dials more as the pain burst through Steve, his eyes clenched tight before it suddenly ended, his body exhausted, heavier.

But somehow, he could carry the heaviness with ease, like he would carry himself usually. He winced when the pod opened, the light burning his eyes.

"Steven. Oh, Steven." Abraham helped him out of the pod, Steve stumbling and leaning his weight on Howard and Abraham, panting softly.

"I did it." He said in amazement.

"Yeah, yeah. I think we did it." Abraham smiled.

"We actually did it." Howard said in slight disbelief. Peggy came in front of him, looking him over.

"How do you feel?" She asked

"Taller." He had to actually look down at her. It was strange.

"You look taller." Her fingers ghosted his chest for a moment before taking a shirt from the nurse and giving it to the blond. Steve pulled it on happily, just glad to be clothed and not goggled at by the nurses. It made him slightly uncomfortable.

"How do you like Brooklyn now, Senator?" Phillips chuckled as they walking towards Abraham.

"I can think of some folks in Berlin who are about to get very nervous. Congratulations, Doctor." He took his hand, shaking it firmly.

"Thank you, sir." Abraham said gratefully. It was as they pulled there hands away that an explosion rang out, hurting Steve's newly sensitive hearing as he protected Peggy from any rubble on instinct. Steve looked around through the dust and watched a man in a suit grab a blue vial of the serum, making a run for it.

"Stop him!" Abraham shouted as the man aimed and shot him, fleeing as Peggy chased after him, firing her gun like no tomorrow just to get a hit on the man.

"Doctor!" Steve knelt besides the bleeding man, heart filling with sorrow as he looked at the bloodied man. "Doctor...?" Abraham looked at him with hazy eyes, his hand raising weakly to tap over Steve's heart.

"Remember what I said." He whispered before his hand dropped and eyes went glassy. Steve bit back his tears quickly, hand fisted in the doctors coat before he stood.

'Don't be a great soldier, but a good man.' Well, this good man was about to get revenge for another good man. He wouldn't let him get away with the serum. Steve took off up the stairs and out of the room to chase after the man.

14 KISSES OBTAINED