angel cake ♡ tom holland/sebastian stan/chris evans oneshots

The Beard // Steve Rogers

   Nina wasn't ready, when she was taken. She wasn't prepared well enough. Her mind was a mess, her body was slowly going to shit, her entire world was crumbling, until she met Steve. She'd only just made it off Kryan, her home planet, after the revolution that resulted in the ultimate demise of her people, and she'd been recruited for the Avengers after heading towards Earth (she'd always loved reading about their culture and learning their trends and becoming one of them - she was informed that made her an "Earth weeb" by a boy called Peter, who was very proud of the name). While there, she met a series of people who were just as weird as her, some more, and then Steve, who she fell in love with faster than she had time to process. And Steve fixed her, in every way she could've been fixed. Her magic worked better when she loved him, and he fought harder with the knowledge he'd get to her as soon as the job was finished. But, like most good things, it came to and end, right before Nina was stolen. They didn't argue, the opposite, lying in each other's arms for hours and just tuning out the world and kissing breathlessly while they stumbled blindly over furniture on the way to the bedroom. It was just him - he couldn't stand the idea of losing her, and so he broke it off. And, on her way to Nat's where she planned to sleep for the next few days, she was kidnapped. 

   And she was hurt.

   So badly.

   She was hurt until she couldn't stand, and was still made to work like she was perfectly healthy, rather than a shell of her former self. Every ounce of her energy was spent showing her captors that she didn't care about what they did to her, because if she did, she didn't have to be told they'd work her until all that remained was skin, bone and hope. She'd long since given up on God, passing him off as nothing more than some bedtime story to keep children good and kind, but she found herself still making prayers when she slipped in between sleep and waking. They weren't to anyone in particular, but her mind somehow always found itself addressing them to Steve.

   She didn't know how she finally scraped together the energy to break out, but she did, and she never did find out what she did to do so, just remembering flashes of screaming and her own whimsical "ribbon dancing" (that was what Steve called it, and because she herself didn't have a name for it, that just became what it was), then she was on someone's motorbike racing towards the Avengers compound, knowing by nature where it was. 

   The motorbike skidded to a stop and Nina stepped off, letting it fall onto the concrete without a second thought and heading towards the main building. She caught her reflection in the spotless window and sighed a little. Kryan's people were just like Earth's, only different in that their appearance would never change. Their image was set out from the day they were born and it wasn't changeable, so her weight hadn't dramatically changed and her skin was covered in spots and all the other things that would happen to her teammates should they be deprived of as many things as she. But the clothes she wore, a tank top and shorts, were nothing like her chosen attire usually (that consisted of endless dresses and skirts - warriors on Kryan just weren't ever seen in girly clothes, only in their battle armour and in training clothes), and somehow they made her look more threatening, particularly with the addition of the visibility of her branding tattoo on her chest - Kryan sixteenth-birthday custom. 

   Nina rested her hand on the door, then pressed her finger print to the pad and looked at the retinal scanner, then slipped into the building after a greeting from FRIDAY and a soft greeting back. She glanced around the room, and took in the people she'd missed for far too long. Tony, Nat, Wanda, Peter, Gamora and Pepper were all sat at desks and on sofas, looking at a guy drawing on a huge board. He had his back to Nina, but she knew the shoulder-waist ratio of a Dorito anywhere - it was Steve. No-one saw her come in.

   "We're running out of options, Steve. I don't know what else we can do." Nat said, then brushed a fast-falling tear from her cheek.

   "I don't give a shit if there isn't a single thing we can do, we're gonna entertain any way of finding her until we do." Steve said, then spun around to face the group, in doing so meeting Nina's gaze. His hair had grown out, and he'd grown a beard, and his sharp blue eyes seemed darker than when Nina had gone. He stopped, just looking, eyebrows slowly furrowing and eyes glazing over.

   Nina's breath caught in her throat when everyone slowly turned to face her, everyone's faces falling, then they all swarmed her, Wanda the first to break and fling herself at the girl. Slowly, the group broke away and Nina caught Steve's eye. He was stood almost defensively, arms loose by his side with fists clenched and shouldered tensed.

   "Hey, Stevie." Nina murmured. The nickname slipped out naturally, falling from her lips with the same ease it always had, but the aftertaste was bitter. His face immediately cleared, and he strode forward. For a second, Nina truly believed he was going to strike her, but his arms went firmly around her waist and pulled her upwards, pressing her into him and almost crushing her spine in the doing, though neither parties noticed or cared. She squeezed her arms around his neck and buried her face into him, tears falling fast and soft sobs escaping her parted lips. He loosened his grip and she leaned back, though he didn't let go much, so her legs stayed wrapped firmly around his hips. He gazed at her, then let his lips crash onto hers, new beard bristly against her soft skin. She pulled away again, but kept her forehead on his to whisper into his mouth.

   "You grew a beard." Nina stated and Steve chuckled.

   "There wasn't any point in shaving. No-one was here to complain about how much it itched when they kissed me."

   "I don't mind it, actually." Nina smiled back, then shared another glance.

   "It suits you."

~~~~~

oh my this took so long to write

i'm sorry loves!!

my mental state is just not what i'd really like it to be right now, it makes it harder for me to do this for you all

though honestly, this is for me too

i do want to thank you all though

without your appreciation i probably would've long since given up with this, but i'm glad it is what it is, and that you like it

it truly means so much

so thank you for being patient with me

viv x