Distressed // Steve Rogers

16 - Unravel

As he followed her Steve grabbed his blazer from the back of a chair. He followed her footsteps down the long corridor to the front door and he smiled to himself as she glanced over her shoulder at him, a glint sparkling in her eyes, before slipping into the darkness outside.

Surrounded by trees and flowers and the glowing lights that adorned the footpath she looked beautiful. She was a woodland nymph, gliding through the night air with ease and grace, and he was locked in by her. He watched as she moved slowly towards the edge of the lake and he followed behind, unsure of what to say now that they were alone in nature. To be alone with her was easy, it always had been, and yet as he watched her skirt the edge of the lake and pick at her dress as she moved he knew she wanted to talk. What she wanted to say, however, was unknown to him and his stomach knotted in anticipation.

When she stopped at the edge of the rippling water she stared out over the reflective pool and sighed softly.

"Here," Steve spoke gently, careful not to disturb the peace of the moment, as he draped his blazer over her shoulders. "It's a little chilly."

Talia looked up at him, turning to face him beside her, and smiled a small smile as her eyebrows knitted together and she took a deep breath. Slowly, Steve moved his hand to her face, his thumb gently stroking her cheek and his eyes watching as her features softened with his touch. His smile was easy and kind and her heart hammered with every soft caress. When he pulled away it felt like ice against her skin, stinging for the warmth of him again.

She watched as he placed his hands in his pockets and looked down at his feet. He was nervous too. She was sure of it.

"Steve?"

He smirked.

"Talia?"

She looked at him for a moment, smiling as he glanced away from his feet, his eyes meeting hers for a second as she steadied her breath and tried to quieten the pounding of her heart behind her ears. Her stomach was doing somersaults and when the ice blue of his gaze remained glued to her eyes she felt tiny butterflies fluttering in her chest.

"Why haven't you tried to kiss me since that day?"

There. She said it.

"What?"

His smile was almost amused and Talia felt foolish.

"Well, it's just, you were going to kiss me when you found the chip and then you just didn't try it again and I was just wondering why that was." She turned to look back at the lake, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment as she waited for the ground to swallow her whole so that she could forget ever having asked. It wasn't as if she was asking out of the blue. He was the one who had told her he'd make her fall in love with him, surely this was something that would come up? But then, what if he was just kidding and she had read too much into his kindness? The world seemed to spin away from her as panic flickered like a spark in her chest; his silence the oxygen it needed to fan the spark into a flame. "You don't have to answer that. Just forget I asked, please."

"I -" Steve watched as the sting of rejection washed across her face in the pale moonlight and he stumbled over his words. "I didn't think - Talia would you look at me please?"

He waited for her to turn back to him before he spoke and his heart ached when he saw the glisten of unshed tears in her eyes.

"I didn't know if you wanted me to Talia." He stepped forwards as he spoke, soothing her with his words when he was so afraid to break that barrier of touch once more. "I don't want you to think I expect you to do anything - to be anything - because of the past. I just don't want you to feel like you have to be a certain way because of what we had."