killerlashes prereads and I'm sorry.
Embers
"It's a lot sometimes, isn't it?" He hears her voice behind him, though he didn't hear her footsteps. An impressive feat considering the heels she's wearing. The look on his face must be one of surprise because she laughs quietly.
"What? Did you really believe you were the only one trained in the element of surprise?"
Steve smiles, though it's more of a smirk, and Hill is convinced he's still mad about the whole "being experimented on" remark.
He doesn't say anything about it, though. Instead he answers her original question as his gaze settles on the inside of the Avengers' tower. People are still milling about: his friends and coworkers...his team.
"It's not much different than our USO shindigs, I guess." Steve smiles again and shrugs a little, while his eyes travel back to hers.
She looks different tonight; but he guesses they all do. The dress is red, short and feminine. He likes the way it looks on her, so different than the SHIELD uniform or the business suits she wears at Stark Industries. It takes a moment and a small movement for Steve to realize he's been staring. Hill shivers, just a little, but Steve is from a different time and he always remembers his manners.
He quickly shrugs out of his jacket and slips it around her shoulders before she can protest. (She tries to.)
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier," she blurts out less smoothly than she'd like, but before she has a chance to change her mind.
Steve's brow furrows and she wishes she could crawl into a hole and die a slow and painful death there. She's been working closely with the Avengers for a few years now, but sometimes his presence still unnerves her. It isn't like she hasn't been around soldiers before, because she has. It's just that he's the soldier: Captain America.
"Earlier?" He asks, and swipes two beers from a server who passes by on the balcony. He opens both and hands her one.
"In the elevator...about the twins?"
Understanding dawns on his face and her eyes tighten. He knows she feels bad; he knew the moment he made his remark about his own volunteering. It wasn't that he necessarily forgot about he comment, because he didn't. In fact, he had been feeling guilty about his comment but the party had seemed to make him forget for a while.
"It's nothing," he mutters with a dismissive wave of his hand because, really, it wasn't. "Water under the bridge."
"No, Cap, really. I-"
"Maria," he says her first name and she starts, but only a little. She doesn't want him to know that her name from his mouth does things and makes her feel something she hasn't felt in a long, long time.
"It was my terrible attempt at a joke. You have to remember that I was in the ice for a long time. Maybe my sense of humor isn't thawed out just yet."
He gives her a rueful smile and her whole body warms at the way his bright eyes crinkle at the corners. How his lips tug up and, Jesus, those eyelashes should be illegal.
Also, when did she become such a...girl?
"We should get back before they send out the search party," Steve says, bringing her out of her own head.
She laughs, "We are the search party, Cap."
He grins and holds out his elbow to her, nodding slightly.
"I guess you're right," Steve says as she slips her arm through his. His other hand comes over and rests against hers, sending a jolt of electricity through her. She smiles and tries to hide her blush.
And then all hell breaks loose.