The Valentin Series, Book 1: The Valkyrie (Captain America fanfiction)

Chapter 11: Dinner

Valkyrie stepped out of her room and leaned on the closed door. Damn it all, what happened to keeping her distance? What happened to letting him go? What happened to disappearing? What the hell happened to not having any feelings, and what was that tug on her chest? She couldn’t be growing a proverbial heart, could she?

Val took a deep breath and walked to the kitchen, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she was greeted by the happy pounces of her pets. Smiling, she bent down and petted them both. The kitchen was filled with the delicious smell of bubbling chili and baking bread.

“So, how’s he settling in?” Natasha, dressed in a loose black shirt and gray yoga pants, asked, she was sitting on the bar stool by the bar table. Val’s kitchen was very similar to the one in her apartment, all steel over granite, sleek and modern. The only difference was instead of having a formal dining area, there was a huge slab of granite in the middle of the room on top of marble pillars which acted as the dining/ bar table.

“Pretty good,” Val answered, rising from her crouched position and walking to a smiling Andy who was manning the large gas stove, “Stop smiling, you,” she reprimanded halfheartedly, “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Oh, of course it means nothing, hermana,” Andy replied, stirring the big pot of chili she was cooking, “But you do realize you taught me to hone my hearing, yes?”

Val groaned as Natasha laughed, “You heard?” she asked, covering her eyes with her palms.

“Sounded hot,” Andy answered, reveling in Val’s embarrassment. It wasn’t every day she could do this.

“Oooh,” Natasha cooed, “What  happened to ‘he deserves someone whole’?”

“Shut up, Romanov,” Val shot back, “Just…” she sighed, then sat on one of the kitchen counters, “Give me a few days.”

“Sweetheart, take all the time you need,” Nat answered, leaning her elbows on the table, “No one’s complaining, especially not him.”

“Ha-ha, Tasha,” Val rolled her eyes as Andy snickered, “Where’s Cap?”

“Cleaning up,” Nat answered. Val then stood up and started setting the table. “So, how’d you two meet?” Nat asked, referring to Andy.

“She found me near her brother’s kill site,” Andy answered as she bent down and took out freshly baked bread from the oven, “I was 11 years old and cowering in the back corner of an alley, for some reason,” she put the bread on a cooling rack, “Knight found me and stayed with me after I watched Chimera die.”

“I had to take her in,” Val shrugged, finishing with the place setting, “Knight wouldn’t leave without her, and now I realize why.”

“Oh?” Andy said, surprised, she moved the big pot of food to the table.

“Yeah,” Val nodded, taking a seat across from Natasha, “You’re a lot like my brother, only less… monster-ish.” She smiled.

Andy laughed, “I take that as high praise.”

“You should,” Nat agreed, “Cristoff may have been one mean killing machine, but he was a wonderful guy.”

“Nat had a crush on him while we were growing up,” Val informed Andy.

“I did not!” Nat denied.

“Oh, please,” Val rolled her eyes, “He was the reason why you’d always hang out with me, admit it, Tasha.”

“Fine,” Nat admitted, defeated. Andreana laughed as she brought the bread and a bread knife to the table.

“So you’ve been with Camilla ever since?” Natasha asked Andy who had taken her seat beside Val.