The Fixer

I don't know what to do

After four days of no Joanna Steve began to get worried. With his room being next to hers he tried to listen in to see if she was moving around to see if she needed any help. He could hear some muffled sounds, but Tony had soundproofed the apartments so that they all had relative privacy. Also she wouldn't answer the door for anyone but for Loki. He tried not to be hurt by that. He couldn't blame her after how much of an asshole he's been to her for nearly three months.

But the moment he thought she'd been shot.. his heart had sunk right into the pit of his stomach in fear for her. Seeing her standing there unharmed had made him want to rush across the room to hold her in his arms, but she wasn't his. Joanna Coleson would never be his. On the way home he had resolved to put everything behind him and just try to be her friend. Her getting sick had kind of hit pause on that though. Over the last few days he'd made an attempt to check in and bring her food, but she refused to open her door for him. So he would leave the tray outside her door and wait just out of sight to make sure she took it before leaving.

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As Steve was leaving his room for some training with Bucky he ran into Loki headed for her apartment. "How is she? Is she feeling any better?" He tentatively asked unsure if the Asgardian would even speak to him.

Any goodwill they might have had over the first few months of him coming back to earth had gone out the window. Loki had become extremely close and protective of Joanna since she arrived and made his dislike for Steve abundantly clear. He couldn't even blame him, he'd been rude and outright hostile to her and Steve understood a friend looking out for another. After all, he'd been the same way with Bucky when he brought him home earlier this year.

The god raised his eyebrows at him in disbelief. "Why do you care? You've made it quite clear of your distaste for Jo." He sneers at Steve taking a few steps away from her door closer to him.

"I don't dislike her. I just- forget it." He muttered and brushed past him to head down the hall for the elevators. The sound of her door opening had him slowing down his pace to listen to their conversation.

"Loki?" She called out to him in pure desperation. Joanna didn't sound sick and from the brief glance at her over his shoulder she didn't look sick. As always she looked beautiful not that he could tell her that.

"Yes, kitten, it's me. I'm coming." Steve stopped in his tracks. Kitten? Since when had he called her that? You don't give friends nicknames like that unless you were intimate. So much for not sleeping with colleagues Steve thought as he stormed off to the training floor in an absolute rage.

So it wasn't that she didn't date or sleep with coworkers, it was just him. There had been a few times over the first few weeks of her being here that they had kissed in the midst of an argument, but any time he tried to initiate more she shut him down. Steve had thought that she was trying to stick with her rule until she wasn't in charge of the team, but clearly he'd been wrong. It was because she'd found someone else.

Storming into the training room he threw his bag down by the benches. He needed to hit something. Hard and repeatedly. "What's eating you?" Buck asks, coming over when he sees him come in with the pissed off look on his face.

He shook his head, not able to talk about it and began to wrap his hands with athletic tape."Nothing. Want to spar because I could definitely use a distraction."

Bucky grins at him, rolling his neck and shaking out his arms heading for the mats. "Let's do this punk."

His punches were wild and it wasn't long before Buck had him pinned more times than he was happy with. Steve was too unfocused thinking about what Joanna and Loki were doing in her apartment the whole time. After a hard hour of basically allowing his best friend to pummel him to the ground he tapped out for a minute to catch his breath.