Distressed // Steve Rogers

23 - Display

Steve held her for what felt like a lifetime, his fingers brushing gently over the t-shirt she wore and his mind waltzing over their time together. His thoughts dipped in and out of moments they had shared, from the first time he thought he was going to kiss her, to their afternoon in the sea. He wondered what their future would look like; whether or not they'd stay in the compound when they were married or when they had kids. He chuckled as he licked his lower lip and the little pieces of the puzzle of their life together seemed to slip into place. Talia shifted slightly, pulling out of his embrace and looking at him quizzically.

"Talia."

Something in the way he was looking at her made Talia nervous. Her heart fluttered as heat rose in her cheeks and her breathing quickened. She stared into his crystal blue eyes as he smiled lovingly at her and his fingers moved to her cheeks. He trailed his fingertips over her skin, connecting the dots of freckles on her cheeks and her neck, sending shivers down her spine as he drank in the sight of her. Her lips were parted slightly and as he moved to hold her face he swiped his thumb over her lower lip.

"Steven?" She smiled at him as he closed his eyes and chuckled.

When he opened his eyes again they were burning with intensity and Talia felt her stomach tighten. He leant in slowly, watching as her eyes darted from his eyes to his lips and back again, and licked his lips. As her eyes fluttered to a close and her breath mingled with his he paused.

"I think you should marry me." The words tumbled from his lips and he bit his lip in anticipation of her reaction.

She stopped breathing. Her eyes opened instantly and she was met with the most brilliant blue as he remained just a whisper away from her lips. Her mind ran at a pace she couldn't qualify, speeding away from her control as his words echoed in the silence - I think you should marry me - and her eyes locked on his. Suddenly it was as if the English language was lost to her - Russian too - and she felt dizziness encroach as she struggled to find something to say. She needed to say something. Anything.

"Breathe Talia." Steve's lips brushed against hers, so softly she was hardly sure he'd kissed her at all, and he smiled as he felt her breath come back to her. "You don't have to say anything, okay? I can wait. I'm not even asking you yet. I'm just letting you know that I am going to ask you and I'm going to ask you soon. Is that okay?"

Talia shifted, climbing off of his lap and shuffling down beneath the sheets. She glanced up at him with a shy smile and he raised his eyebrows, grinning slightly as he watched her. Laughing softly, he lay down too and immediately Talia wrapped herself back around him; her leg snaking around his waist and her head resting on his bare chest as she drew soft patterns across his skin with her nails.

"So?" Steve prompted, still grinning. She hadn't run away from him yet, so that was surely a good sign?

Talia placed a soft kiss against his skin before closing her eyes and breathing in. Her heart hammered, not from fear or pain, not from anxiety or anger. Her heart hammered with excitement and joy and she smiled to herself as his fingers resumed a steady rhythm of back and forth across her shoulders.

"Yeah," she shivered and his arms tightened around her. "It's okay."

Within a few moments her breathing was quiet and even and he felt her palm resting gently on his chest. He couldn't stop smiling as he held her close, listening to the soft sounds of her sleep. How they had gone from shouting at one another to this in the space of a few short hours awed him. She awed him. She was resilient and kind. She was loving and forgiving and too pure for the world they had been thrust into. She was intoxicating and she was going to be his; his partner, his wife. Now he just had to think of the perfect way to ask her.