Artemis (A Steve Rogers Story)

3-It's A Trick

A few days later Steve and I got ready for the party, as I step out of the bathroom, I see Steve standing there waiting for me, a smile forming on his face. "Is that the same dress you wore the night Bucky asked you to dance, and I was too scared too?" he asks me.

"You remembered" I smile as I slip on my heels and wrap my arm around his. We then make our way out of the room and head toward the main area were we see the party in full swing. Steve spots Sam playing pool, and I tell him to go ahead and have fun as I look for Natasha. I find her sitting on one of the couches listening to Rhodes telling her the one War Machine story he enjoys telling everyone.

"Willow, it's good to see you" James says as he stands up and gives me a hug.
"You too Rhodey, you're not talking Nat's ear off with your usual story, are you?" I ask him.
"Not at all" he says to me.

"You should go tell that one to Tony and Thor I'm sure they would love to hear it" I then say to him, as he nods at us before walking away.
"Where's your partner?" Natasha asks me as I sit down across from her.
"Catching up with Sam" I tell her.
"I think this is the first time I've seen you two away from one another" she smiles at me.

"Yes, just like I'm surprised you aren't by Bruce's side right now" I say to her and I see her try and hide a smile. "Don't think I haven't noticed what's going on with you and Bruce" I say to her.
"I don't know what you are talking about" she says to me.
"You should go for it Nat" I smile at her as I see Sam and Steve walking toward us, "trust me, never wait till it's too late" I say as I get up, place a hand on her shoulder before I walk away toward the boys.

"Sam" I smile at him, as I pull him in for a hug.
"Willow, it's so great to see you again" he says as we pull apart, and I move closer to Steve.
"Steve filled me in on your big fight, I'm so glad I missed it" Sam says to me.
"Well if we had known it was going to become a bigger firefight, you know we would have called you in" I say to him as I follow the men up the stairs.

"No, no, I'm not actually sorry. I'm just trying to sound tough. I'm very happy chasing cold leads on our missing persons case" Sam says looking at the two of us. "Avenging is your world; your world is crazy" Sam adds.
"Be it ever so humble" Steve adds.
"You two find a place in Brooklyn together yet?" Sam then asks us.

"We're working on it, just gotta find the right one that we can afford together" I say to him.
"Well, home is home, you know" Sam says to us.
"Yeah well wherever this one is, its home for me" Steve tells Sam, as he smiles at me.

Steve and I eventually leave Sam, going over and joining Thor who was standing with a bunch of veterans. "I gotta have some of that" one of the elderly men say to Thor about the drink he had in his hand.

"Oh, no, no, no. See this.... this was aged for 1,000 years" Thor says as he pours from the flasks in the glass in his hand and passes it to Steve, "in barrels built from the wreck of Grunhel's fleet. It is not meant for mortal men" he adds as he pours the rest in his glass.

"Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie" another Vet speaks up saying, "Stop trying to scare us, come on" the vet adds and I smile at the man. Thor looks at Steve and I and we just shrug at him, as he looks back at the man.
"All right" Thor says as he puts his glass down, and puts some of his drink in a shot glass, passing it to the gentleman. We watch as the old an takes a swig of the drink, and within minutes he's drunk, and has to be helped out of the party. Steve very slyly pretends to take the drink, before placing the glass down and the two of us walk away. As we head back down the stairs, we see Bruce at the bar, talking to Nat and a smile forms on my face. As we get closer, I can hear her practically trying to hint to him that she has a thing for Bruce, and Steve and I can't help but both smile at this as we lean against the bar and Natasha walks away.