glow [s. rogers]

9

"i feel like i'm going to throw up, steve."

he rolled his eyes, standing behind delilah as she looked in the mirror. she was in the middle of getting herself ready for a press conference she had to attend with tony, who, during the last few days, had begun to grow on her. this was supposed to be her moment, he was going to announce her as one of the avengers. as amazing and honoring as it was, delilah was beyond nervous. nearly everyone had seen the video of the man's death and everyone knew it was all her fault. her actions had been like a moderately alright movie, she received mixed reviews. some people sympathized and agreed that she was doing the right thing, it was just that something went wrong. other, more agitative humans, believed that she was a murderer and should be punished as one; it was what she deserved after all. the avengers press officials had said numerous times that she had already done her time for what happened, but she had never met anyone who only had to serve 5 days for cold blooded murder.

"i think the outfit looks nice." he smiled, hands shoved in his pocket to help hide the sweat that kept coming from his pores because of how nervous he was, not only for delilah, but because of delilah.

"thanks, bug," it was something she had started to call him ever since instead of killing the beetle in her room that she was shrieking about, he just put it on the palm of his hand and took it outside, "i had to stop them from making me look like hilary clinton and this was the most youthful option."

the captain couldn't help but chuckle, the way that she said every single hilarious thing with the most straight face seemed to make everyone laugh, even bucky.

"can you go make sure they don't have tomatoes?" she asked, turning around to face steve, running a hand through her hair nervously.

"delilah," he started, a concerned look growing on his face, "why do i need to make sure they don't have tomatoes?"

she looked at him as if he was stupid.

"so they don't throw them at me."

sighing, he gently rubbed her shoulders and hugged her tightly. it was exactly what she needed, the tension from her body flowing out with his touch.

"you're going to be fine, doll. and if the people are rude or anything, tony will either steal the attention for himself or just call it off."

she nodded, trying to find a little bit of faith and a little bit of calm in his words. despite every effort she made to clear her head, everything just went back to the absolute worst scenario.

neither of the blondes noticed that they hadn't released from the hug yet, neither minded either. it wasn't until tony walked in to grab delilah and say: "it's go-time, sugar!" but he didn't get the chance. they looked cute, he had to admit it, but the last thing he wanted was any team romances, not that this was by any means a romance. all this time, tony just imagined steve was gay and sharon was a ploy.

"excuse me," he pretended to cough and clear his throat, "but it's go-time, sugar."

sadly, delilah nodded and wriggled her way out of steve's grasp, trying to force a fake smile into her face. she looked at him, losing herself in the blue of his eyes for a minute before she realized how close their faces were. not only their faces, but how close their lips were. but he couldn't do it, not here.

"go get 'em, tiger!" he smiled as delilah began punching at the air as if she was the newest rocky, but steve had never even seen rocky so he remained a little confused.

watching her step out of the room was a little sad, but he watched the entire conference from the wings, wishing everything would go well.

her first question was a little straight forward, but they ended up getting worse.

"so you confess to murdering the man, who's been identified as marcus teller?"

delilah unfortunately had to nod, she had to tell the truth, "it wasn't intentional, but something i did caused him his life."

make it sound good, tony had said.

"now, mr stark," another reporter began, just looking at all the camera flash was starting to give delilah a headache, she wished she had brought sunglasses, "you're letting murderers join the avengers? doesn't this woman completely violate the sokovian accords? she's a vigilante who thinks she's above the law."

delilah put her hand up to stop him, his ranting making her head pound.

"there is no requirement for the avengers that says: must be a perfect person, there is only honest people that try to be the best versions of themselves as often as they can. maybe i do violate these accords, i wouldn't know, i'm dyslexic so if you expect me to read them you've got another thing coming. never did i ever, think i was above the law. i was simply helping the law out, maybe if they did a better job you wouldn't need me and i wouldn't be here before you today, but i am."

the room went silent, the only sound was occasional clicking of cameras and the constant low static of microphones. after a bit, a smaller woman who looked to be about twenty stood up and began to clap, a proud smile adorning her face.

"thank you, delilah everly. 2 years ago i was leaving a club in new york, alone, and a man was following me,  he cornered me, and held me against a wall. out of nowhere, you came flying in and you saved me, you saved my life. you're a hero."

delilah wanted to cry, she was so overcome with all the different emotions she wasn't sure what to feel. she just nodded a sad smile at the woman.

eventually the questions became less offensive and died out, letting delilah get back to the room. the room where steve was waiting, he held out a water bottle and a butter finger bar: her favorites.

"that was awful." she groaned, grabbing the items from the captain and slumping down in a chair next to him. tony had disappeared to handle some problem involving peter, who he swore was not his son, but delilah was sure he was lying.

"well," steve started, running a hand through his comb backed hair, "i think that it definitely could've gone worse. everyone has their critics, you just have a lot of really mean ones."

she laughed dryly, ripping the yellow wrapping of the candy bar and taking a bite, "everyone hates me. i'm officially the worst avenger and i didn't even do anything avenger-ish yet."

"i mean, at least you're here. no one has any idea where thor is."

delilah furrowed her eyebrows, she wasn't totally aware of who thor was, but the name sounded familiar.

"thor?"

he nodded, "thunder man, boom clap lighting?"

she giggled a little bit at his role play of the thunder god, "ah yes, it's all so clear now. hey, i have a lightning scar, wanna see?"

eagerly, he nodded. it was a lot less weird than it seemed, he just thought it would be kind of cool.

the blonde girl outstretched her arm and pointed to a little scar on her left wrist, eerily close to her major vein.

"how'd you get it?" he asked, gently running his fingers over the whitened skin.

she merely shrugged, "i've always had it. guess it's more of a birth mark than a scar."

nodding along, a smile grew on his face, "i think it's really dope."

"oh bug," she groaned, reaching out to smack him lightly, "please don't say dope again."