𝒑𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒕 || s. rogers & b. barnes

2||; 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚

⤷ november 14, 2012
━━━━━━━━━━━

The months begin to fly by, either going slower or faster in ways she can't begin to understand why. Her and Steve stay on their daily routines. She goes out in the morning to work, and comes back in the afternoon. He runs in the morning, and sketches in the afternoon, and occasionally disappears for a mission once or twice every two weeks. They manage to settle into that routine nicely.

Some nights, she can sleep fine. She sleeps from late in the night 'til early in the morning, and wakes to the smell of Steve's delicious breakfast.

But there are those rare nights, those few sprinkled across the next few months that she just can't sleep through. That she wakes up to in a running sweat and an anxious panic.

When those nights happen, she finds herself going into the kitchen to fix herself up a cup of herbal tea, something she's done ever since her first nightmare here, when Steve took care of her.

And on even fewer nights, when she goes out to the kitchen to make her tea, she runs into Steve.

𓆩*𓆪

The first time she runs into him in the middle of the night.

He's sitting in the kitchen, charcoal scratching against textured paper, his fingers stained with black.

He doesn't notice her at first, working away on whatever latest project he had going on. It doesn't take until she steps on the specific floorboard that's loose, and creaks under the weight of her foot, that his head darts up.

He's surprised to see her, and it's obvious. "Roberts?" He asks, blinking owlishly.

She offers him a tired smile as she walks further into the kitchen, checking that the kettle was still full from earlier that day. It was. She flicks on the burner, and leans against the counter as she waits. "The one and only," she drawls. "Actually, scratch that, since there's actually another Emma Roberts out there —"

"What are you doing up?" Steve interrupts her, looking concerned.

She fixes him with a knowing look, and he immediately understands.

With a small hum, he hesitantly looks back at his sketchbook. "I see..." he mumbles.

They don't say much more after that, and Irina wordlessly makes her tea, before she takes the mug and takes it with her back into her room. Steve watches her go with a frown.

𓆩*𓆪

The second time it happens, Steve is walking out of his room while Irina is already in the kitchen, sitting at the round table and reading that day's newspaper. Steve liked to buy one from the local newsstand every day after coming back from his run.

The stove light was turned on, giving her a warm ambience as her eyes tiredly drag across the paper, noting its contents.

"Oh," is what Steve blurts out when he sees her. She looks up, meeting his eyes with a grim smile.

"Morning," she says after glancing over at the clock. It was just about time for Steve to head out for his daily run.

"How long have you been out here?" He asks immediately, walking over to her and pulling out a chair to sit in.

She gives a weak shrug, continuing to read the paper while taking a long sip of the herbal tea. It's never as good as Steve's, but it helps her calm down, nonetheless. "Not too long," she mumbles out, setting her mug down. "I'm about...three quarters through my mug. Maybe an hour and a half."