I feel around for something that isn't squishy, and thankfully, I find something small and wooden? I pull it out of the bag, "It's a popsicle stick?" I look at it and then at Tony with a confused look.
"Capsicle! You're up!" Tony yells as he looks over to Steve with a smirk.
I look over at Steve with a look telling him 'I'm sorry', but his face is tinted pink as Tony drags him into the closet while Clint drags me. "Clint! I can walk myself, get of-" I stop as he throws me into the closet, locking the door behind me. I open my eyes slowly and realize that even though we are in the dark, I am on top of Steve.
I scramble off of him quickly and sit criss-crossed against the wall. He chuckles nervously as he dusts himself off and sits up, criss-crossed as well. "I'm so sorry," I whisper as my face gets kinda hot.
"It's okay really, it wasn't your fault," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.
"So, what do you wanna do?" he asks nervously.
"I uh, I guess talk?" I say in a way that makes it obvious that talking is not something I'm interested in doing at all.
He looks at me with his eyebrows furrowed as if he is trying to read into what I said. "You sure?" He looks at me concerned like the golden retriever that he is, and I just pull my sleeves over my cold hands. "If you are uncomfortable, we can just sit here and wait it out, or I can break the door open and let you out?"
"No, no, you don't need to do that. Besides, I don't wanna bring down the mood of the party." I bring my knees up to my face and rest my chin on them, trying to look anywhere but him, but every time my glance passes his, I bite my inner cheek and fiddle with my sleeves.
"...Can I ask you something (y/n)?" I glance up at him before looking to the side again.
"Sure, Steve..." I whisper. Please be something simple... he's taking a while to ask. Maybe I wasn't loud enough? I go to repeat myself but get cut off before getting a breath out.
"How did you know that you... Well, how do people figure out who they like?" it takes me a second to process and think about what he asked me, I almost didn't understand the question. "It's just that... Well, back before I got frozen, people weren't so... Accepting of-"
"I just knew." I cut him off quickly, I knew that talking about that shitty time period was gonna make at least one of us cry.
I turn my head and reluctantly make eye contact with him. His eyes are watering, and he has a confused and conflicted look in his eyes. I am well acquainted with that look. He's questioning, and it probably isn't the first time. I'm happy he feels safe enough to ask me about it, though. "I know my answer isn't super helpful, but it's the truth. I just knew, ever since I was a kid."
"How did your friends and family react when you came out?" he looks almost scared asking that, scared for me, and for himself just in case.
"Well, I didn't have friends when I was a kid, believe it or not. As for my parents... They were, and still are, extremely horrible." I move to where I am sitting on my knees before continuing.
"There are still a lot of people who are assholes when it comes to this kind of thing, but everyone here, every person that has ever and will ever enter and leave this tower alive is part of the community and or supports us." I give him a small smile and wait before speaking again just in case he wants to say something.
"I'm happy about that, that's good, but I... I don't know what I am." He runs his hand through his hair quickly and sighs.
"That's perfectly fine. Not everyone knows immediately, not to mention you don't have to identify as anything if you don't want to. You have all the time in the world to figure stuff out, Steve." I hesitantly reach a hand out and lay it on his arm.
"All I know is that I... I'm not straight." He says slowly, grabbing and lightly squeezing my hand. He hesitated, but I can tell he's telling the truth. His truth. He's just scared.
"I'm happy you felt you could tell me, Steve." I smile and squeeze his hand back a little. He makes me feel safe, and apparently, I make him feel safe as well. "It's nice to be trusted with stuff like this. It makes me feel like I'm useful and, well, a worthy friend." I look down, trying not to let him see the tears that are pricking my eyes. I can feel him freeze for a second before putting my hand down and proceeding to tilt my head up cautiously, as if I was a fragile vase that he might break.
I try to look away, to resist his light pull, but the more I try to resist, the more tears buildup. "You don't need to prove that you are a worthy friend (y/n). Everyone knows how much you care about us al. Everyonee knows that you are a great friend. More than tha, I also believe everyone knows that whoever you end up with? They will be the luckiest person in the world."
That's it, that's what breaks me. I can feel tears rolling down my face as I sob, but I can't see anything. The tears just keep going. I can feel Steve's big arms gently embrace me, carefully and slowly pulling me onto his lap. "I'm sorry I made you cry," he starts rubbing circles in my back and humming, "I didn't mean to, really, I just wanted to make sure you knew how special and important you are to all of us... to me..."
Through his now tear stained shirt, I can feel his heart beat going a mile a minute; heat radiating off of him. Is that his way of telling me... that he likes me? I try to stop my crying as I nuzzle into his neck that just seems to infinitely get hotter. "Thank you, Steve." I am barely audible, but hopefully he can hear me, "and uh, you're important to me too."
I can feel him shiver as I say this. Maybe it's because of the sensation of my breath on his neck, or maybe it's because of what i said, I'm not sure. I feel a tear fall on my shoulder, and I look up at him concerned, but he's smiling. He seems at peace and happy. I go to lay a kiss on his cheek but instead land on his lips before quickly pulling away and apologizing.
"Shit, I'm sorry. I meant to, I mean, I didn't mean t-" he cuts me off by returning the kiss. His lips are lightly chapped but also extremely warm.
"I know, but I meant for it to happen." whispering as he pulls away and wipes the leftover tears from my face. We're both burning up and not doubt the color of tomatoes, and as we move to kiss again, the doors open.
Almost everyone looks worried. It's probably obvious that we were crying a bunch. "Are you two... okay?" Clint asks genuinely while also looking us up and down.
We both nod and smile, "Okay, well, are you two gonna get off of each other and out of my closet?" Tony chimes in, and everyone starts giggling.
We quickly separate, and I help Steve up. "Does this mean you two are together now or...?" Wanda puts down her phone from next to where I was sitting.
I sit down and look at Steve with a look that asks, 'are we?'. He smiles gently, "I suppose so yeah." A bunch of them cheer before quieting down, waiting for the next person to grab from the hat.
