Chapter 5
Steve awaits Diana's arrival with unhealthy enthusiasm, and it's so visible Natasha (or anyone) physically can not stop teasing him about it.
"Something good happen recently?" She asks as she slides to sit across from him in the booth. She wanted to meet in a diner, just to order a black coffee and hang out.
Steve doesn't know why she would ever even occupy a diner that has a giant doughnut on top of it, but Natasha claims the place has 'emotional value' to her.
"I'm going to start ignoring you real soon, Agent Romanov, if you don't stop that."
Natasha doesn't stop it, and Steve doesn't start ignoring her.
"What's with him?" Clint asks when he and Natasha join Steve and Thor in Fury's "office". "He looks like he's waiting for his husband to come back from the war."
"He won't tell," Natasha answers with a tone that suggests it is a matter of great despair, "but I'm sure we'll find out soon."
Stark joins them only seconds before Fury does, so he loses his chance to make fun of Steve, which he is grateful for, because Stark is the one who might just be capable of annoying the truth out of him. Even Banner -who is usually the one who resents teasing -lifts his eyebrows at Steve and smirks in that weird way. It's extreme for Bruce.
"Alright!" He yells, unprompted, on a morning that is not any more unusual than any other morning. Natasha raises her eyebrows at him and Bruce lifts his head from a newspaper.
"I've been writing to someone," Steve starts, "and they're coming to New York next week."
Clint blows bubbles into his coffee, which, gross, and Steve won't be drinking coffee from that pot today. "So your husband?"
Steve spreads his arms. "What husband?"
"The one that's returning from the war." Bruce quips unhelpfully. He and Natasha shouldn't be allowed to interact.
"What war?"
Natasha stares at him, unimpressed.
"Right, so you need to listen to news more, that's cool."
"Shut up, Clint."
The subject is dropped, just in time for Hill to appear and tell Natasha and Clint Fury wants to see them. They leave, smirking and snickering. An anxious knot from Steve's stomach undoes, though he isn't sure if it's because he really should tell someone about Diana.
And when the day comes, that Diana should be arriving and Steve hasn't slept a wink, some dirtbag has plotted an attack to all of New York in general, and the Avengers are called to assemble. Steve is reasonably angry.
"What crawled up your ass and died?"
Steve sends Clint a scathing look, but the man succesfully ignores him as he pretends to pay close attention to what he is shooting at, as if it would be difficult for Clint.
"Nothing."
Clint snorts. Natasha drops down to Steve's other side, and swiftly pushes her guns to their holsters, in favor of unleashing the batons.
"Is your husband coming back from the war today?"
Steve leaves them to join the only one who hasn't commented on his behaviour recently; Thor.
"Ah, Captain!" He greets, swinging Mjolnir in an arc, knocking down a bunch of their enemies (incompetent clones of the 'mastermind', whose plan was to simply overpower his opponents with the sheer mass of his clones. They have mediocre intelligence and fighting skills at best, and according to Stark and JARVIS, no pulse or other bodily functions).
"Thor," Steve says. He punches a clone and throws it on another. Even though they're technically not alive, he gets queasy inside killing so many. It helps that he's pissed and altough this is not what Steve would rather be doing, it's great that he gets to punch things. There's no way Steve would be able to handle a hostage situation right now.
He and Diana are supposed to meet in an hour at a cafe near the Central Park, and he'd been ready - embarrassingly, but he's looking forward to this - when the call to action came. Now Steve will have to shower again, dress himself and make it there in time to beg Diana for forgiveness.
The fight is winding down about twenty minutes later. The guy has been apprehended, and all there is to do is to get rid of the clones, because, apparently, the perp hadn't thought to build anything to control them. The clones have a basic command to wreak havoc, and the only way to stop them is to kill them.
There's still light at the end of the tunnel.
Except not, because there is no end to the clones. Steve has no idea where they are coming from, but they're coming, and he's absolutely frustrated.
"Where do they come from?" He growls, decapitating a clone with his shield. He's ten minutes past killing them.
"There's a machine down the road at the basement of an apartment building. I've already notified Iron Man." Diana says, kicking a clone in the face.
"Oh." Steve says. Then he stops moving completely.
"Diana?"
"Hi, Steve!" She smiles and throws a clone at another before disappearing into the action completely. Steve gapes after her, before a clone hits him and he has to fight again.
It takes another ten minutes, before all the clones are piled up and bound. Nat and Tony are taking care of them, Steve doesn't care about that; he's not completely sure he didn't hallucinate Diana.
"Steve," she says from behind him. Steve swirls around. Diana is grinning like a little shit. She doesn't have a hair out of place, and the red of her lips is perfect. Her navy pantsuit is crinkled from the fight, but not dirty.
She looks a bit out of place.
Steve breaks into a run and races to meet her. It has been over a year since they've last met, and that was before everything. When Steve was still progressing being alive, before the Avengers and Loki and the Chitauri. He's missed her since, worse than he missed her during the five years after the war.
He sweeps her into a hug, lifts her up and can't help twirling. Diana almost laughs, a soundless laughter bubbles in her chest as she smiles delightfully.
"Hello, Steve."
"Diana," he mumbles into her stomach. Her fingers card in his hair, a familiar gesture from years back, her long and nimble fingers tangling and untangling his hair.
"What happened to your shoes?" Diana's nails scrape against his scalp, pleasantly gently.
"I had to take them off. Heels are awfully inconvenient in the scene of a fight."
Steve thinks back to Peggy, her own graceless fighting and the definite lack of heels if she could help it. Well. Natasha's said women's clothes are made for looks and not convenience.
Diana pats his shoulder, a clear signal he should loosen his hold. Steve almost can't let her go. He does, because his team has clearly seen them and are coming closer.
"Who's this then?" Clint asks and the surprise in his voice is exaggerated and teasing rather than genuine. Diana's fingers still and Steve takes that as his cue to save his dignity and set her down.
He turns, to see the varying looks they get from his teammates. Hulk stands in the background, assessing Diana in his own way to decide if she is a threat or not. Thor on the other hand, has a look in his eyes that Steve can't read.
"A friend."
From the corner of his eye, he sees Diana construct that new smile on her face. He still doesn't like that smile on her, the smile that rips off her honesty and trust. He hates it.
"I am Diana Prince," she says, more to Natasha than anyone else, "it is a pleasure."
"You're the woman from France," Natasha answers instead of offering her own name. Diana blinks. She turns to Steve, but doesn't say anything. It seems, as always, she can read what she needs to know from his eyes.
"I am," she finally turns back to Natasha. "You're the other one that was following him, correct?" Ah. So that's why the smile. Diana is honorably loyal and protective, and though she no doubt keeps with the world enough to know at least their aliases, she has deliberately chosen not to adress Natasha by hers.
"Yes," Natasha says and Steve can see just the barest hint of annoyance, twisting her lip and lighting her eyes. She lifts her chin, squares her shoulders. The change is minimal, but Steve's keen eyes pick it up nevertheless.
Diana is out of her armor, in a navy pantsuit and barefoot and without weapons, but she is standing with a straight back and the pride of an Amazon. She is on all levels equal and superior to Natasha Romanov, Black Widow, who is in her full gear and unruffled by battle.
Diana, again, looks to Steve. "She is your friend?"
"Teammate," comes out instinctively before the 'yes' he'd meant to say. Even now, when she doesn't have the lasso on her side, Steve cannot lie to her. Diana hums knowingly, but a smile does not come up to her lips to reassure Steve.
"I see," she breathes. "The others, too?"
He nods. She smiles, and together they ignore the disappointment from the faces they can read. Steve does wish they were friends. But they're not.
He feels Diana's fingers brush against his hand, that's how close they still are to each other. He takes her fingers, silently, not caring who sees, and squeezes them. Diana smiles.
"Oh," Clint grins, "is she your husband back from the war?"
Diana's eyes move to him, leisure and amused. She does not look nearly as flustered as Steve feels. He lets go of her fingers.
"I'm afraid your evaluation is incorrect," Diana says smoothly, "I am visiting from Paris. And I also am not his husband."
(Tony might say something like 'Steve wishes' inside his suit under his breath that might have carried over through the comms, and made Clint snort and Thor grin. The important part is that Diana did not hear it nor did she pay heed to the way Steve flushed.)
"My mistake," Clint snickers.
Diana attempts escape, claiming she does not want to intrude on them post-battle, but Steve is hesitant to see her go, so he invites her to the tower, with Tony's permission. The others agree kindly, eagerly, except Natasha whose agreement is false and muted.
So Diana joins them.
She has to be alone a few minutes, while they make sure the mess is cleaned up, and together leave a report for Fury. Natasha strings it together naturally and Steve approves of it mostly out of formality, and then Tony sends it, because he wants to.
Then Steve has to change out of his suit, and when he comes back to the communal floor, where Diana is stood, Thor is keeping her company.
"Are you hungry? It's about time for lunch?"
Diana's eyes are kind and knowing. "Then I suppose we should eat."
And Steve smiles and Thor declines Diana's invitation to join them. Before they make it out, however, Natasha and Tony step in.
"Why don't we all have lunch together?" Tony asks, in his flight suit and on his phone. His eyes are as knowing as Diana's but not nearly as kind, however he does not mean any ill with his words.
"Excellent idea, Tony," Natasha says, and she might mean ill with her words. "I would like to get to know our new friend better."
Diana, Steve sees, rolls her shoulders. "I would be delighted to."
She turns to Steve, and he honestly cannot tell what she is thinking. "What do you think?"
Steve graciously agrees, because he isn't going to be the rude one in this scenario.
"Fantastic," Tony grins, "I'l order for us. What are we feeling?"
The Avengers, Diana finds, are warmer people than she had first anticipated, open with their humanity and kind to each other. She enjoys their company, even though Natasha distrusts her and Bruce finds reason to retreat from her politeness.
Tony Stark is intelligent and sarcastic, and at first glance she agrees with Steve. He is brash and doesn't think of the words he is about to speak, but Diana enjoys his good-natured banter. Even his flirting, which subsides only after Diana herself has agreed that no, he should not except anything to come from it, she finds charming. It aggravates Steve, however, who strains to keep his reprimands to himself.
Clint Barton, like Tony Stark, is intelligent and sarcastic, but he falls on the other end of the scale, and his intelligence can easily hide under the jokes he makes. He wants to hide it, and Diana lets him.
Diana enjoys her lunch and then she enjoys the lull that follows, when everyone disperses, and only her, Steve and Thor remain.
Thor. The Asgardian. Diana has heard the word from her mother several times growing up. It's always said with disgust and contempt, and Diana has never quite understood why. Hippolyta claims it's because of her soft heard, but Diana thinks it's unjust to judge people she's never met.
Thor does not seem worth the contempt and disgust. He's kind, and he immediately recognized Diana for who she is, just as she recognized him for who he is. Diana has enjoyed his company so far.
"My mother did not think well of Asgardians," she says as they clasp arms.
Thor grins, bright and sunny. His hand is warm and large."My father dislikes your people as well."
Diana grins. "There might be a story there."
"There might." Thor agrees and lets go. He turns to Steve, who looks between them in barely hidden amusement. "How do you know Princess Diana?"
Steve smiles.