Rogue (An Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 12: First Date

"I can't believe you're going on a date with Stark," Nat said. I had enlisted her to help me pick out an outfit for our first date.

"Look Nat, I know you don't like him-" she cut me off.

"Stark and I have never seen eye to eye. I know him, better than a lot of people. I know what he's like," she said. I rolled my eyes, knowing that she was going to try to talk me out of going on this date with him.

"You know one side of him. I know he acts like a..." I struggled to think of a word.

"Asshole?" Nat finished for me with a grin. I threw a pillow at her.

"But I'm giving him a chance, you can too?" I asked hopefully.

Nat sighed and was silent for a moment. "Fine. I'll give him... 1 tenth of a chance. But the millisecond he hurts you...!" she trailed off angrily.

I stood up and hugged her. "Thank you. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing big sister," I said into her ear.

"And I'm lucky to have a completely crazy, head-over-heels, headstrong baby sister," she replied with a laugh.

"Rogue, Mr Stark is waiting for you on the first floor," we heard JARVIS say.

"Stark always interrupts us at the worst moments," Nat said, rolling her eyes.

"Be nice," I reminded her. She nodded, following me downstairs, where Stark was waiting.

"Romanoff."

"Stark." They greeted each other, neither of them looking happy to be in the other's presence.

"Be nice," I whispered to Nat under my breath.

She rolled her eyes at me again before turning to Stark. "Stark, I'm gonna pretend that I'm OK with you taking Rogue out," she began. "But if you hurt her, if you make her cry even one time..." she warned, causing me to sigh.

"I'm not gonna hurt Rogue," Stark said, looking from Nat to me and back again.

"You better not," she said simply, leaving Stark Tower.

"Ready to go?" Stark asked me, offering his arm, completely undeterred by Nat's warning.

"Sure," I said with a smile.

Once we got in the car, I decided to give him the 'be nice' speech.

"Stark, you really should be nicer to Nat," I started.

"I'm always nice," he said with a smirk.

"I'm serious. Nat's basically my sister, she's really important to me. And you're very important to me. And I don't want you guys to be fighting all the time," I said.

"Hey, she hates me!" he said defensively.

"Why do you think that is?" I asked sarcastically.

"Because I'm good looking and extremely charming?" he asked with equal sarcasm, annoying me. I stared out of the window in silence, letting him know that I was angry. "Look, I'm sorry OK?"

I ignored him.

"Can I use this date to make it up to you?" he asked sheepishly.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, trying to seem nonchalant and not show my curiosity. Unfortunately he could see right through my act.

"It's a surprise," he said, smiling to himself.

***

About half an hour later, we arrived at a park. As we got out, Stark reached into the back seat and pulled out a blanket and picnic basket.

"A picnic?" I asked, to which he said nothing. "You know it's about to get dark," I said, gesturing towards the sky.

"I guess we're right on time then," he said, walking in one direction. I followed, wondering what he was up to.

He stopped suddenly, spreading out the blanket and sitting down. I stood, watching him for a minute before sitting next to him. As he started to unpack food from the picnic basket, I noticed a screen in front of us.

"Oh, is this an outdoor movie theatre?" I asked him, excited. I had never been to one of these before.

Stark smiled, still not saying anything.

"How did this happen? I've never even heard of an outdoor movie theatre around here," I asked him, still in shock and excited.

"The park was already here, I just organised the screen," he said.

"You paid to have a huge screen put in the middle of a public park?" I asked, astonished.

"Normally I would have just taken you out for a really expensive dinner, maybe bought you some jewellery or something," he said.

"Why didn't you?" I asked. I had heard about the flashy dates that Tony and Pepper had gone on – or rather, seen pictures of them in the papers the next day.

"I wanted to do something simple. I know I can't impress you with my fancy cars or expensive stuff."

"You call this simple?" I asked, gesturing to what was in front of us as the screen lit up.

"Shh, it's starting," he said, leaning back. I grabbed a handful of popcorn and mimicked his pose, laying my head on his chest. The opening credits for 'When Harry Met Sally' came onto the screen and I squealed with excitement. When I first came to S.H.I.E.L.D and met Nat, we used to watch old rom-coms every day, sometimes until the early hours of the morning, pausing every few seconds to make a comment about one of the characters on screen or to go off on a complete tangent and talk about our own lives. This was my favourite memory. And as I didn't have a lot of memories under my belt, this is one that I held on to.

"How did you know that I love these old romantic movies?" I asked Stark.

"Romanoff was very helpful. Shh," he said, pressing his finger to his lips. I kissed his cheek. No one had ever gone to this type of effort for me before. And I'm not talking about spending money, but just going above and beyond to do something that I would love. Who knew Tony Stark could be so romantic?

***

"Thanks for today," I said to Stark as we got back to Stark Tower.

"Did you like it?" he asked. I couldn't tell if he was being snarky or if he was genuinely worried about how I found the date.

"It was... the perfect first date," I said, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him.

"Oh really?" he asked. "Is 'perfect' good enough for me to ask you to be my girlfriend?"

"You just broke up with Pepper, do you really want another girlfriend so soon?" I asked, worried that I could still be his rebound girl.

"Pepper and I broke up ages ago now," he said

"You're exaggerating, it's been like a month," I said.

"Yes but she was cheating on me for like, six months. So if you think about it, we've been broken up for half a year," he kissed me again.

"That doesn't make sense," I said. "I don't want to be your rebound girl."

"You're not a rebound girl Rogue. I, I think I love you," he said. I smiled and hugged him, impressed by his ability to tell me exactly what I wanted to hear exactly when I wanted to hear it. "So what do you say, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Of course," I said, still not letting go of him. We stayed that way, hugging in silence in the middle of the first floor living room for a long time, too long.

"We should throw a party," he said out of the blue.

"Sure," I replied.

If I had known what would happen at that party, I would have dismissed his idea straight away...

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Thanks so much for over 500 reads now, I can't believe it!

So, was this a cute first date? And what's gonna happen at the party? Find out in Chapter 13 next week!

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