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“Why do you keep running away from Steve?” Jane asked as she studied the readings from the whatsit.
“Hmm, what?” was Darcy’s reply as she transcribed the last readings from that machine. Seriously, Jane’s writing was The Worst.
“Why do you,” Jane started, then paused when she found a particularly interesting readout, but then continued after a good minute, “keep avoiding Steve? Did he do something? Wait, do I need to tell Thor?”
Darcy bit her lip. Was that a S or a 5? “I’m not…not avoiding him. I mean, that’s ridiculous, of course I’m not avoiding him,” she let out the absolute fakest laugh, “who does that?”
“Ha! Then what would you call leaving the room as soon as he enters? And, when you are in the same room, actively avoiding conversation with him? I’ve see you shove food in your mouth just so you couldn’t talk.”
“Okay,” she sighed (it was a 5…maybe), “I might be not wanting to be in the same room with him? Or talk to him. But it’s not my fault! Like, c’mon, he hates me.” She put down the pen she was holding and put her head in her hands.
There was a sound as Jane put down the…whatever it was called. “He does not hate you. He absolutely does not hate you. Why would you think he hates you?”
She spoke into the surface of her desk, “Because I’m pretty sure he wants to kill me. I can never tell what he’s thinking. I’m pretty sure he wants to strangle me. He looks like he wants to strangle me. Brings his hands up and everything. I don’t want ‘strangulation by Captain America’ on my autopsy report, Jane.” A pause as she looked up. “Unless he’d be into that. No, no. He’s all wholesome and…and…good and not at all into that kind of thing. Probably.”
“You’re insane and you’re being ridiculous,” there was a loud metallic clang as she whacked the thingamajig. “Just talk to him. I mean, maybe not about choking. Though, from what Thor says, Steve isn’t exactly the paragon of virtue we all think. He’s actually kind of a troll.”
A throat cleared. A distinctly sound voice. “I don’t know about that, but mostly the good doctor has a point,” was the deep voice from the doorway.
Darcy meeped. “Steve! Cap! Hi! Uh, Tony isn’t here right now. He’s in his workshop. Can I take a message?” Grabbing a pad of post-its, the intern-turned-actual assistant hoped that he didn’t hear any of their conversation (please, please let the universe show mercy on her) and she could pretend they weren’t talking about him. And choking. Sexually.
“Darcy, I have a thing I forgot about. That’s not here. Bye!” Jane was out the door in less than fifteen seconds.
Darcy watched as Steve slowly walked over to her desk. She’d almost say he sauntered over. She gulped so loudly she was pretty sure he could hear her.
She needed more coffee because she really, really couldn’t handle this right now, she thought as she watched him.
He picked up a diagram of a something that was on her desk. Without looking at her, he said, “I can’t say I’ve ever thought about choking you. But if that’s something you’re into, I’m sure we could talk about it.”
The post-it pad missed the desk when she dropped it. “What.”
He smirked and god it looked good. Putting down the diagram, he walked closer until he was right in front of her and oh my god how can he smell so good? “I’m not sure where you got the idea that I wanted to strangle you, but I can tell you that you’re wrong.”
She bit her lip and decided to take the bull by the horns because he clearly wasn’t going to let this go. “Every time I talk to you, you look like it. Like, you bring your hands up,” she raised hers to demonstrate, “and you – you’re doing it right now.”
And he was. Steve had both his hands raised (those giant hands that she may or may not have thought of like that), fingers spread, and they were right in front of her face.
He looked down like he didn’t even know he was doing it, but then a look of determination took over his face and she was sure this was it. This is how she was going to go.
To say that she was surprised about what happened next is the understatement of the fucking century.
Slowly, he brought his hands closer to her face and she braced for it. But, for her part, she was pretty proud of herself for not flinching because if she was destined to die by Captain America, she was going to look that death in the eye and…oh.
Oh.
Gently, his hands settled on both sides of her face, his thumbs lightly caressing her cheeks. His hands (those gorgeous hands) titled her head up and she watched as his face came closer and suddenly, inexplicably, he was kissing her.
This was definitely not how she thought this conversation was going to go. As she relaxed into the kiss, her own hands came to settle at his waist, fingers gripping his shirt and pulling him closer, until she could feel his body flush against hers.
Fuck, he was good at this.
She decided she’d bring up the choking thing later.