Chapter 3
Steve opened the door to his room and let you inside. You giggled quietly as he closed the door, turning back to you and picking you up by the thighs. Your lips connected and he held you by your bum, in the air. You wrapped your arms around his neck and continued to kiss him as he walked you towards the bed. You were not light and thin like so many women. You were a normal sized woman with curves and he was still able to pick you up as if you weighed 5 pounds.
Your hand found its way to his hair as you kissed him deeply, him sitting you down onto the bed. He separated your lips and moved to pull back and you looked at him for a second. Then he moved completely from you, moving to his dresser where there was a record player. If you didn't know until now, you could definitely tell he was old fashioned by the quiet jazz music he put on.
"Come here." He offered his hand out to you and you stood up to walk towards him. As the music played softly through the room.
"Wanted to show me your amazing record collection?" You joked as he took your hand and pulled you to his chest. He took one of your hands in his and the other he pushed up and around his shoulders and his fell to your waist. You looked to his hand holding yours, adjusting yours to fit more comfortably.
"I wanted to show you more about me and the culture that you spent all that time studying in college." He said quietly and swayed back and forth with you. You looked up at him in silent confusion, but he dismissed it and continued to sway with you. You listened in to the song playing and realized that you had probably heard it once before at the club but this was much more relaxing.
His touches were soft and he silently hummed along to some parts of the song. At some moments he would spin you or kiss you softly. As much as you wanted to break away and get back to what you expected initially, you laid your head on his chest and closed your eyes.
You two didn't break apart for at least 2 or 3 songs. You looked up to him, eyes full of thought. Never had you danced with a man like this. Not at weddings of your cousins, not at any school dances. The only time you would consider what in one of your history culture classes where you and Kyle had joked around and danced around your dorm to some Frank Sinatra on a drunken weekend party with friends.
"How about you stay the night with me so I know you're safe." He whispered in your ear quietly. The same as when you two had slept together before. You looked up to him and sighed with a soft smile.
"I have to leave before anyone sees me. I don't want any other Avengers nagging you about seeing me." You whispered.
"I always wake up before anyone else does. I can bring you home tomorrow." Steve grew more hopeful as you didn't immediately turn him down.
"You really are an old man, early to bed and early to wake." You joked and he laughed, still continuing to sway with you as you two talked.
"I don't think an old man wakes up at 5am to go on runs and work out." He shot back at you.
"Depends on the old man." You smiled and he pressed a soft kiss to your lips. "Like in your case… yeah." and he gasped in fake offense.
~~
You two had fallen asleep together on his bed, not even having had sex or anything along those lines. He had given you one of his shirts that was always stretched out way too far on his chest. It fit you almost perfect, giving just enough slack to make it comfortable. The next morning you woke up to Steve offering to take you to breakfast.
You looked up at him and to the clock on the bedside table. It was already almost 7. You looked at him with wide eyes.
"I thought you were going to take me back at 5 before you worked out. Someone's bound to be awake by now." You looked at him with your eyes filled with worry.
"Don't worry I can sneak you out." Steve said and pressed a kiss to your forehead. "So would you want to go to breakfast?" He asked as you sat up in the bed.
"Only if we get out without anyone noticing me." You said and pushed your hair out of your face pulling an elastic off your wrist and pulling your hair up into a ponytail. "Just let me wash off my face first." You offered and got up, walking over to the bathroom connected to his room. You turned on the faucet and waited a second for it to warm up, looking at yourself in the mirror. The door was still open and you could see the record player in the corner of the room, and Steve collecting your jeans and tshirt off the ground and laying them on the bed for you.
You leaned over to wash your face of the sheen of sleep. As you dried your face off you opened your eyes and looked back at the mirror, Steve just settling standing in the doorway. You grinned and turned back to him, "Last night had to be the best date I've ever been on." You walked towards him and wrapped your arms around his neck when you got close enough.
~~
After that night your whole dynamic changed. He would take you out for dinner at least once a week, walk you back to either his or your place. He also took you home from the club, being sure that you'd get home safely, even if you weren't sleeping together that night.
One night, he was out on a mission and you decided to hang out with Kyle and your other friend Missy, who had so many questions for you since they would see you leaving kisses on Steve's cheek and walking back with a flower in your hand. He was begging to have a wine night or something and Missy was dying to hang out with you and hear what was going on.
You had just finished cleaning your apartment when there was a knock on the door a second before it swung open. "I have wine and the pizza is on the way." Kyle called to you as you finished pulling your hair up into what seemed to be the messiest bun your hair could possibly be in. Missy walked in behind him.
"I brought cookies and movies." She called, as she tried to balance both of them and her bag on her shoulder.
"Oh you two know me so well." You laughed as you gave them both a hug and took the things from their arms and let them take off their jackets because it had started to get colder outside.
“Ok, Ms. America. Tell me about your new man.” Missy said and hopped onto your couch as you sat the wine on your kitchen counter, pulling out a wine opener. It was just a small studio apartment so you could still see Kyle and her across the room. A blush spread across your cheeks.
“What do you want to know?” You asked, looking at your phone and seeing it light up with a notification, a picture of you and him glowing as the background, you leaned over to read the notification. It was Steve. You picked up your phone and read the text a simple ‘Got home early. Dinner?’ His texts were never really full sentences. You can tell he was still learning how to text, just like when your mom or dad try to text you.
“What’s he like? Did you sleep together? How is dating him? C’mon sister tell me.” Oh yeah, Kyle was pretty damn gay. Missy was too. And you loved both of them immensely.
You smiled quietly and texted him back. ‘Pizza and movie night with a couple friends. Wanna join?' You offered. And brought the opened wine and three glasses back to the couch.
"He's one of the sweetest men I think i've ever met." You said and sat between the two. "He's such a gentleman, opens door for me, brings me flowers, and makes sure I get home safely." You sighed and looked back down at your phone as it buzzed. 'Now?' You typed a quick yes and put your phone down.
"And the sleeping together part?" Kyle asked and looked at you with a laughing grin.
"Um… yeah we have a couple of times." You muttered quietly. And Kyle and Missy squealed in excitement
"How big is he… in all the senses." Kyle grabbed your arm in excitement. Missy gagged.
"Is that really all you can think about?" Missy asked and rolled her eyes at Kyle. "Y/n you don't have to answer that. Unless you want to let Kyle get it out of his system."
"Big enough." You pushed Kyle jokingly as you leaned forward to grab a glass and pour yourself some wine. "Proportionate to his body size." You said and Kyle groaned. You got up to put a movie in as they continued talking about how lucky you were.
Everyone joked around and talked about relationships for a while while the movie played in the background. There was a knock on the door and you got up to go get it. You opened the door, coming face to face with none other than one of your exes.
More specifically your most recent ex, broken up 6 months ago, about 3 weeks before you met Steve. He had thought you were cheating at your work and revenge cheated on you. Problem was that you weren’t cheating, you were telling other men off. One man groped you at just the right moment and your ex blew up at you.
His name was Brian. He had always been a very iffy relationship choice for you. He was always very racist, sexist, controlling, and overall a very rude guy. He was also verbally and sometimes physically abusive. Missy had always hated him from the day you started talking.
He was soaked in what you were assuming was rain from outside. He looked fuming, hand held out, a picture of you and Steve talking on the street from a few days ago. “You said you weren’t cheating on me when we broke up. Who the HELL is this?” He yelled and shoved it towards your face.
“First off, why are you stalking me? You followed me to my house? I could very easily call the cops on you right now.” You had definitely found confidence after you two broke up, realizing how abusive he really was and regaining your confidence in your mind and body.
“You know you won’t sugar, you know you were wrong and you cheated on me, now I demand your apology,” he grabbed your wrist and pulled your door closed behind you, he gripped your wrist tightly as you winced in pain.
Your mouth opened to apologize, a learned reaction from you, but your mouth disobeyed your head. “I wasn’t wrong. That’s my new boyfriend, who I started dating weeks after we broke up, who is a whole lot better than you ever were to me.” You growled out at him, feeling his grip tighten on your wrist, surely bruising the skin beneath it. You let out a small squeak and kicked your door hard enough to signal to your friends inside.
As soon as Brian heard that he pushed you back towards the wall, almost knocking the air out of you. As he was about to speak, you heard steps on the stairs, sounding just like how Steve’s usually sound, (he’s been over enough for you to have memorized the clunk). He was only on the landing between the first and second floor, you were on the fourth. Your eyes widened as Brian took notice of your listening. “HELP!” You screamed quickly and Brian’s hand clamped over your mouth. You looked at him wide eyed as the feet on the stairs sped up.
"You stupid bitch." Brian growled and the hand that was covering your mouth soon collided with your cheek. He had punched you in the face and man it stung like a bitch. He had never done that before, always wary of you getting caught so he always hid the bruises and scratches on you. You grabbed your cheek in pain as you crouched over in pain, him lastly kneeling you in the side. "There's more where that came from stupid bitch." He muttered and rushed down the stairs as you fell on the ground in pain.
The door to your apartment flew open and Steve climbed up the last flight seconds later. You curled into yourself on the ground and covered your head with your hands. Jesus you felt like you would've thrown up if you had already eaten the pizza, which apparently Steve was holding, probably caught the delivery man on the way up. Kyle knelt beside you and gently moved your hair to assess the damage. Steve looked at you, worried, then to Missy.
"What happened?" He asked, moving to crouch beside Kyle. You looked up out of the corner of your eye. You opened your mouth to speak but slowly realized your lip was bleeding and tears were streaming down your face. Your heart was pounding hard in your chest as you realized you were having a full panic attack as you overthought the events that had just happened.
"It was Brian wasn't it?" Missy asked and you nodded slowly. "Her ex. Abusive dickhead that was over controlling and enjoyed using her as a punching bag." Missy explained to Steve. Steve’s eyebrows furrowed. You had never told him about Brian, it was still too early in your relationship to unpack all of that.
"Lets get her inside. There's some bandages and gauze in the apartment." Kyle muttered and helped you sit up. "I'm Kyle by the way." Kyle said and looked towards Steve with a small smile.
"Steve." He nodded back and helped you stand up, gently picking you up instead of you walking. You laid against his chest, tears rolling freely from your eyes against his surprisingly soft t shirt. Kyle and Missy looked at him as he carried you, Kyle silently grabbing the pizza from where it was discarded on the floor.
Steve sat you down on your bed and crouched in front of you. You couldn’t bear to make eye contact with him. Your heart was pounding from the rush of anxiety and adrenaline in your system and if you looked at him you for sure would cry more and you were not a cute crier; tears painting your cheeks, runny nose, furrowed eyebrows that highlighted the wrinkles in your forehead.
Steve wasn’t having that reaction though and he tilted your head up towards him, yet you kept your eyes down. “Sweetheart look at me.” He said softly and you took a deep breath in and looked slowly up to him. Kyle handed him the first aid kit. Steve gently wiped the blood from your lip and wiped your tears off your cheek with his thumb. You tried to slow your crying, quietly sniffing and rubbing your stomach where it was hit.
Missy sat on the bed behind you, gently rubbing your back. “He knows where I live. I can’t stay here.” You whispered quietly as you looked into Steve’s worried eyes.
“You can stay with me,” Missy offered. “Only problem is I don’t have a door guard in my building. And I’m pretty sure he knows where I live too.” Missy said softly and you looked down away from Steve as he gently rubbed your arm.
“How about you come stay with me,” Steve said quietly. “I know it’s a bit abrupt and early in the relationship but I have plenty of room and I think you’d be safest staying with me.” He pushed a piece of your hair out of your face. You thought to yourself quietly. That was a lot of commitment this early but there’s no way you could stay where Brian could hurt you again.
“Sure.” You whispered softly.