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He stared at the figure again. Her head was hidden so he couldn't see her face, just strands of crazy hair and her body wrapped in the blue blanket. Sighing, he turned around and opened the sketchbook, pencil firmly held in his right hand. He scanned through the drawings of the pages, none of them were finished and they were all portraits of Alba.
That was everything he had been able to draw in the last two years. He tried to inmortalize Wakanda a few times, but his mind kept coming back to the girl. He would wake up in the middle of the night, breath failing as he thought of her, rushing to the sketchbook so he could calm his mind. Drawing itself didn't calm Steve, only drawing Alba did the job, it was the only moment he let himself review his memories of her, and the moment he felt the closest to the ginger head.
He hadn't been able to finish any of the drawings though. There had always been something that stoped him from finishing each drawing, he felt like he couldn't do it. The first time, he couldn't draw her nose, and he almost panicked. He had been in Wakanda for three weeks more or less and he thought he could be forgetting her.
That was a stupid thought, he knew it, he was a supersoldier and his memory was incredible, but even if he reminded himself that a couple times, he just couldn't find the correct curve, re-making it until there was a permanent grey stain on the paper. He quickly moved on to the next page and started another portrait, nose first. He got the nose perfectly, but he also left the drawing incomplete, lips missing and the only hair on her head being a few strands framing her forehead. On some of the pages there were only small parts of the body, hands, her hair in a ponytail from the back... One seemed blank at first, but a pair of feline eyes would stare back at you from the right bottom corner.
He hadn't been that surprised to realise that he wouldn't need a picture to draw Alba's features perfectly. When he saw her for the last time, that brief, insufficient moment at the airport's hangar, when she broke all the rules to help him, he felt his insides tingle, knowing her face would forever be engravated on his mind.
But here she was again, asleep right next to him, her soft breaths giving Steve the calm he hadn't had in years, even if they also made all his body tingle. She always had this kind of effect on him. Yet, he didn't do a thing, he knew she deserved much more than what he was or could offer, that she needed someone who could make her actually happy. Peter Parker seemed the right person for the job and he saw something special in Alba's eyes when he looked at him. Spiderman could take care of her like he didn't.
He past all the pages carefully, scanning the drawings with affection, it was not like he could do that with the real life Alba, knowing someone would realize he was staring like an idiot, which he was. He arrived to a blank page, and before he could realise his hand was sliding the pencil through the paper, forming Alba's features. Her expression was not anything far- fetched, just her common smirk. Lips curled without showing her teeth, high cheeks and one eye slightly more closed because of the asymmetrical smile.
He practically had it, adding a few more hairs onto her lashes he only needed to draw the inside of her eyes. That could be a challenge sometimes, he didn't need to worry much about the shade with the pencil, but trying to find a way of showing the sparkles that danced around her iris was something else. He was starting to form the circle of her right eye, the one more opened, when the sofa creaked slightly, he turned around to find Alba half sat against the arm of the sofa, blanket covering just half of her body as she stared at him confused.
"Uh, I found you asleep in here, I didn't want to wake you up." He admitted in a murmur. Sun was starting to show through some of the buildings and Steve hadn't slept at all, but he was a supersoldier and very capable of pulling an all nighter.
"Thanks." She murmured looking down, and he was starting to close the sketchbook when she jumped forward. "Whatcha have there?" She wondered, but Steve had already closed shut the sketchbook before she could see more than irrecognizable lines.
"Nothing." He quickly said, getting up. He saw as she frowned at him, her bottom lip forming the smallest pout without noticing.
"You won't show me?" She asked and he could feel some disappointment in her voice. Well, he hated disappointing her but if she saw a sketchbook full of portraits of her she would probably think he was totally obsessed. And Steve considered himself only kind of obsessed.
"It's just nothing important." He answered walking towards the kitchen.
"Then if it's not important it doesn't matter if you show me." She got up and followed him to the next room. She still had Steve's drawing of her on her nightable, counting it as one of her most preciated posessions, but she was eager to see more.
"Alba, no." He stoped to look at her firmly, making her stop in her tracks before pouting and sighing.
"Okay." She murmured sitting in the counter, sighing and changing her expression. She shot him a smile and crossed her hands, placing her head on top. "You should make me breakfast in return for not showing me your sketchbook."
Steve rolled his eyes at the girl's offer, but he still turned around and started to prepare some coffee for both.
"What about waffles?" He inquired raising an eyebrow to her.
"Awe, will you really make me breakfast? You're too nice." She smiled sweetly from her position. Steve didn't thought so, but he smiled back as he placed two cups of coffee in the counter, the one mixed with milk facing Alba. He then turned around and got the four waffles out, he put two in each plate and one of the dishes next to his coffee. Alba watched in confusion as he took his plate away and opened the fridge and cabinets. Turning around a moment later he placed in front of Alba a two waffles covered in cream, chocolate and raspberries. She smiled seeing he remembered they were her favorites.
"Thanks, Steve, they look great." She said with a big smile as he sat next to her, taking a sip from his coffee, black, with two spoons of sugar, she knew that was how he took it.
"It was nothing." He assured. "You seem pretty happy." He noted then, remembering the state Alba was in when she arrived to the tower the day before.
"Uh, yeah. Peter called me last night and we made up." She smiled softly as she ate a raspberry from the waffle. Steve tried not to look too hurt, obviously he didn't like to hear about the kid, but he knew Spiderman was better for Alba, he was glad she had him.
"Nice." Steve said in a half truth.
"Yeah, he's coming for dinner, well, we are working on something in the lab in the evening and he'll stay." The girl explained cheerfully. "Oh, and are you going down to the gym later? I haven't trained this last days and I wanted to catch up."
"Yeah, sure." He said, earning a smile from Alba. He knew he was playing with fire, getting so close to Alba when nothing could be done, but after all, he only had problems with ice.
