villain | STEVE ROGERS 18+

n i n e

February 6th 2017
Avengers Compound

Steve had never been more relived to watch Tony Stark walk through a door.

Finally, that chunk of useless metal would give him something to take his mind off of Ember.

He was still so embarrassed about the whole ordeal.  Steve praised himself for being a gentleman, reading women right. And then he dreamt about her being in his bed.

He had never felt attraction before. Yes, he was attracted to Peggy, but not in such a sexual way. Peggy intrigued him, he wanted to get to know her better.

He hadn't even know attraction was what he was feeling until Bucky explained to him.

"You've got 70 years of horniness built up inside of you busting to get out, and you found a pretty girl who drives you so insane that you want her."

But Ember was different to Peggy. He lay awake in bed staring at the ceiling after their spontaneous training session, fantasising about how it might feel to wrap his arms around her, feel her, touch her in different ways that weren't anything to do with fight training.

Maybe the Steve Rogers he was trying to hold onto had died when he went into the ice.

"What song is this?"

"A Taylor Swift song."

Steve rolled his eyes. If it hadn't been for the flirting and stupid nicknames that made him feel weird, he would have fought her harder for choice of music.

If it was his choice he would have chosen no music.

"Why do we have to listen to this."

"Because you love me."

"I hate you."

"You're just saying that."

"No I definitely mean it." Steve said, taking off his jacket.

"You can't mean it. You're doing extra training with me voluntarily. You don't do that with people you hate."

"You talk too much."

"And you don't talk enough." She shrugged, "We're perfect for each other."

Suddenly the music she had on said "The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause she's dead."

Maybe Steve was like Taylor Swift. Maybe the 40s Steve everyone knew, a guy who fought a guy working a low wage to dress up as Hitler so he could be fake punched by Captain America to please a crowd, wasn't here anymore.

Steve Rogers had seen too much to stay that innocent, that naive.

So Steve Rogers, in that training room, realised that he was different, he wasn't the guy Peggy Carter new.

It wasn't a bad thing. He had just grown up.

And it took meeting a girl who challenged him as much as Ember Rose did, to make him see that.

Tony had been trying to show him for years, that he had to move past his 40s lifestyle, but he had been too stubborn to listen. He was so angry that the life he had always wanted had been ripped away from him when he finally had it within his grasp, and he woke up 70 years later — And everyone was gone.

The more he thought about it, the more he realised he had been a changed man ever since he got out of the ice.

It was like he left some part of him behind, and it left a deep hole that he couldn't climb out of, and it had taken saving his best friend, saving New York, and meeting these other extraordinary people with amazing powers to realise that — As well as picking up a crazy lunatic girl from the middle of nowhere about a month ago and holding her captive in a huge tower.