Pound of Flesh

This is the second time that Steve’s watched her thick lashes slowly flutter open. Her hazel eyes catch the sun that’s beaming in through her window and turn a simmering shade of gold. She licks her dry lips and removes her arms from where they snuck around Steve’s waist last night- warm, and welcoming, and wonderful. It’s more than a fleeting thought that Steve wouldn’t mind doing this many more times. Maybe forever.

“I only have a vague recollection of last night,” The sultriness in her voice is increased tenfold first thing in the morning. “But we’re not naked, which- while slightly disappointing- is a good sign.”

Steve smiles and pulls the covers up over them to ward off the early morning chill. “You told me that I was the most comfortable thing you had ever used as a pillow, and you weren’t willing to give me up so easily.”

“That sounds embarrassing enough to be something I said.”

“Don’t be embarrassed.” Steve was so close that the timbre of his voice rumbled through her chest. “It was cute.”

DJ rolled over onto her back with a groan. “Cute? No. Not cute. I’m mind-bogglingly sexy.”

“Yeah, that too.”

“Oh my God,” she gave a theatrical gasp. “Is Captain America allowed to say things like that?”

Steve just shrugged, a shy little flush tinting his cheeks. “I didn’t say anything. I just agreed.”

“And yesterday I would’ve said you couldn’t flirt if your life depended on it.” Steve never stopped catching her off guard. It was fantastic.

“Yeah, well…” Steve reached out and brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “It gets a lot easier when I know a dame’s interested. I’d like to take you out tonight, by the way, if it’s not too soon. I know it’s not very polite to schedule things last minute, but peaceful periods aren’t very-“

“Wait, what? Take me out?”

The doubt came flooding back full force in the form of the crinkle between his eyebrows. “Yeah, you know… Last night? When I asked you out? You sort of said yes?”

“Fuck! I mean… I mean holy fucking shit!”

So DJ was entering full on panic mode. There were so many alarms going off in her brain that she couldn’t keep up. How, even in her alcohol-addled state, did agreeing to a date seem like a good idea? It wasn’t a matter of desire, because oh did she desire. It was a matter of a million and one things standing in the way of that desire. But Steve- beautiful, perfect Steve- was lying next to her with messy bed hair and impossibly blue eyes and lips that begged to be kissed and it hurt to even think about saying no.

“If you don’t w-“

“Shh!” She snapped covering his mouth with her palm. “I’m thinking.”

Can she do this? She totally can’t do this. Wait, no, yes. She can. She’s dated a little since the whole Max thing. Granted those guys weren’t Captain America. Oh God, what if she ruins Captain America? Is it even possible to ruin a super soldier? Probably not. Maybe they’d even balance each other out. Maybe he’d be less I help old ladies across the street for fun and she’d be less… Bad.

“Okay. Alright. Yes. I accept. I’ll go out with you.”

“Well gee, don’t feel like you have to.” Was Captain America just sarcastic? Did they even have sarcasm in the 1940s?

DJ grinned and had to resist the urge to throw herself on top of him. “Oh, I have to. I definitely have to. I would throw myself off a building if I ever turned down the perfection that is you.”

“You’re very…” Steve struggled for a word that wouldn’t get him dumped before they even began. “Different.”

“You have no idea.”
_______________________________________________________________

Steve shifted his weight nervously, wiping his sweaty palms on his slacks. It was three minutes past seven, and while she was only barely late it didn’t mean that she hadn’t changed her mind. He wouldn’t exactly hold it against her, but it would certainly make things awkward if he was going to be… supervising her stay at Avengers tower. And okay, it would probably sting a whole hell of a lot, too.

The clack of heels echoed down the hall and Steve’s heart leapt up in his throat. DJ turned the corner and his heart fell through to his stomach and stopped beating. She was, for lack of a better word, breathtaking. Her hair was pulled back so that only a few wisps framed her face, the rest cascading elegantly down her back. A shade of ruby red made her full lips even more distracting, and matched her dress perfectly.

Her dress was… Wow. It was red lace with long sleeves and a plunging neckline. The flared skirt brushed an inch above the knee and showed off a fantastic pair of legs. The heels certainly didn’t take away from the look, even if they looked impossible to walk in.

There was a brief, guilty moment when Steve’s mind conjured the image of another woman in a red dress.

“Someone laid this out on my bed,” she told him bashfully, running a hand over the skirt. “I think it was a hint. Sorry if I look ridiculous.”

Steve was going to have to thank whoever had picked that out. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you. You’re pretty devastatingly handsome, yourself.” DJ takes a few awkward strides forward. “Sorry for the lateness. I know it’s sad that I can’t manage to be on time when I’m just down the hall, but dresses are sort of hard to get in without any help, and there was a suspicious lack of people.”

Steve gave a lighthearted laugh as the tension started to ease away. “That one was my doing. Someone must have told Fury what was going on, because he called me and threatened to shoot us both if we left the premises. So I figured, as long as we had some privacy, it wouldn’t be so bad to have our first date here.”

First date. DJ liked that sound of that. Very promising. “Not bad at all,” she beamed. “What did you have to bribe everyone with to get them to leave?”

“They said they were just glad to help me out.”

DJ shot him a skeptical look. “I call bullshit. Tony’s probably going to livestream the entire night for blackmail material.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” Steve actually looks mildly alarmed. It’s hilarious.

“Well then, we’ll just have to make sure that there’s nothing embarrassing for him to see.” She loops her arm through his and bats her lashes coquettishly. “Show me what you’ve got. Woo me.”

Steve leads her through to the dining room, stopping anxiously in the doorway. The lights are dimmed low, the room mostly illuminated by the flicker of a few candles placed on the table. Two plates were set close together, loaded with a generous pile of steaming spaghetti. A bottle of wine gleamed in the low lighting, and it almost distracted DJ from the bouquet of red roses resting on the table.

“I know it’s not the most impressive dinner, but it’s all that I know how to-“

“You got me flowers?” Her voice was more choked up than she had hoped it would be. She gently picked up the bundle and caressed a petal. “And not daisies, either. Thank fucking God for that.”

A little thrown off by her unexpected reaction, all Steve could do was awkwardly stuff his hands in his pockets and say, “Uh, yeah. You seemed like the kind of girl that might like roses.”

“No one’s ever given me roses before.” She hugs the flowers loosely against her chest, and gives Steve a look that’s almost terrified. “Thank you, Steve. All this… It’s really the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

A pebble of sadness settles into Steve’s chest. He can only think why? But he doesn’t know her story. Not really. Not at all. And even if he did, he knows better than anyone that life is hardly fair.

DJ clears her throat uncomfortably and quickly takes a seat. “Sorry for that uncharacteristic display of sappiness. I promise to pack the tears and swooning away for another day.”

“You’re apologizing a lot tonight,” Steve points out softly as he takes the chair next to hers. “You don’t need to.”

“Nervous habit,” she explains meekly, fidgeting around for a while before she decides the best course of action would be to actually start eating. “Very tasty.”

Steve laughed, twirling some of the pasta around the fork. “Thank you, I worked very hard at boiling the water.”

“If I didn’t know you, I’d be hard-pressed to believe that Captain America was so self-deprecating. In the pictures and film reels you always look so… Not arrogant. Just confident, I guess. I sort of idolized you growing up, you know?”

He looked nothing but humbled. “I hear that a lot nowadays. It’s hard to get used to. In my head I’m still that stupid, puny kid that jumped into fights with guys twice his size.”

“You weren’t my hero because you had a chemically induced growth spurt. You were my hero because you did what was right no matter what the cost was for you.” DJ shifted her chair closer and put a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know how you didn’t have a heart-broken wife to leave behind. The women must’ve adored you.”

Steve huffs an uncomfortable little laugh. “No, no wife.”

“But there was someone?”

“Sort of.” His eyes meet hers and the pain in them hits her like a speeding train. “Her name was Peggy. We never actually… I mean, we had a date, but… I missed it. That’s when my plane went down.”

DJ was torn between hating this woman and feeling really, really bad. “I can’t even begin to imagine… I’m sorry. I know how hard it is starting over, but for you it has to be a million times worse. But you’ve got friends here, at least. A make-shift family. And I’d like to help in any way I can.”

“Tell me about yourself,” Steve says, and the quickness with which he says it makes her jerk in surprise.

“What?”

He slides her hand off her shoulder and holds it in his, giving her an eerily serious look. “I barely know anything about you, besides the fact that your old boyfriend is a jerk and you have friends that know how to make someone disappear off the face of the earth. I’m not asking for all your secrets. Not yet. But tell me something. Anything.”

“I miss my family,” she blurts out before she can stop it. Opening that well of emotions is a bad idea. “My mother is the toughest woman I know. She’s a lawyer, and I’m pretty sure she’s the one responsible for making me such a bitch. My father, he’s a surgeon, and I always used to think he reminded me so much of you because more than anything all he ever wanted was to help people. My parents barely ever saw each other ‘cause they were so busy, but they loved each other so much that you could feel it if you were in the same room. And my sister, she’s younger than I am, she wants to be a lawyer like mom, and she’s just so smart! She picks things up so fast, and then she tries to talk to me and I can’t even keep up…”

“And what do you want to be?”

DJ sighs and pulls away to pour herself a hefty glass of wine, downing it in one go. “I don’t want to be anything anymore, besides incognito. But before all this bullshit came into my life, I wanted… It’s silly, don’t laugh. It’s certainly nothing like a lady of the law or a doctor. I wanted to be on Broadway. It’s terribly typical, but there you have it.”

“You have the big personality for it. I’m sure you’d be great.” Steve gives her a crooked grin and pours her another glass when she looks like she desperately needs it.

“Awfully brave of you to offer me wine after you saw how plastered I got last night.” She takes the glass anyway though, downing it just as quickly.

Steve watches her with obvious concern. “I thought maybe this time I’d be able to keep your mind off of whatever made you want to lose yourself.”

“You’re really something else,” she says in something akin to awe. Without really thinking about it her hand slips down to the inside of Steve’s thigh- nearer to his knee than anything- which makes him all but convulse with shock. “Sorry,” she laughs lightly. “I guess I forgot to mention that wine tends to make me a little frisky.”

“The way your legs look in that dress has the same effect on me.”

DJ makes a sound of pure delight and throws her arms around Steve, landing herself in his lap. “Listen to you! You’re starting to sound like Tony.”

“If it were Tony, I don’t think he’d be talking about your legs.” Steve’s having trouble not feeling uncomfortable- the good sort of uncomfortable, the kind that makes his brain go is this allowed, now?- with her on his lap. There’s extra discomfort with a certain part of her anatomy very close to eye level, so he makes a point of staring at her face. But that only leads to his gaze trailing constantly back to her lips.

She smirks in response to the war in his eyes- the war between want and his sense of propriety. As she leans forward Steve braces himself for the contact, but her lips bypass his and rest at the shell of his ear so she can whisper. “If you want a kiss Shy Boy, you’re gonna have to take it from me.”

So he does.

Their mouths clash together with more force than she would’ve expected from Steve, and while it’s clumsy, she’s certainly not complaining. She moves so that she’s facing him with a leg on either side of his lap. Her hands tangle in his hair as she nips at his pink bottom lip, and his arms hang awkwardly at his sides.

DJ pulls back for a second, grabbing his hands roughly. “You know how I said women were different now? Well you can also get away with a lot more.” And with that she repositions his hands on her ass and gets back to that glorious mouth of his.

Steve meets her tongue with his and tightens his grip. He may be old-fashioned, but he’s not stupid.
She relishes in the way his large, strong hands touch her like she’s something new and precious. He can’t hold back a moan at the way her legs clench around his hips as she rocks into him.

But then Thor is crashing through the window and the moment is basically ruined. The two of them stumble apart and to their feet dazedly, Steve’s face smeared with traces of bright red lipstick. The demi-god is standing there in all his gigantic glory with an outraged expression and a mangled robot raised in one hand.

“Jane has been attacked!” He bellows, and DJ swears the whole building rattles.

It’s like a bucket of ice-water is thrown over Steve with the way he immediately snaps to attention. “Is she hurt?”

“I was there when the creature attacked. Of course she is not harmed.”

Steve looks utterly confused, stepping forward to take a closer look. “There was only one?”

“I hold the only offender. I have brought him for Stark to examine.”

Which, of course, is when the robot unfurls and springs to life.

It surprises everyone, which is probably why it sends Thor flying back out the window, and then Steve hurtling towards the wall. There’s a blast of energy that hits DJ square in the chest, but it knocks the wind out of her more than it stings. She curses under her breath and peels herself off the floor, disheveled and pissed off.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” She bites out through clenched teeth. “I can’t have one nice thing without any of this fucking bullshit? Is there a sign on my forehead that says ‘please direct all inconvenient bullshit this way?’”

The robot is not amused. A three-pronged claw reaches out with a glow of light, but before another blast can go off Thor is tackling it. And then Steve is there with his shield and there’s a whole lot of clanking and shouting.

“We need to get this thing out of here!” Steve orders as he just barely dodges a blast of flames. “It’s going to explode!”

Thor swings Mjölnir and the robot spins out of the way, making him fumble for balance. He’s knocked off his feet by an energy blast and he dents the floor upon impact.

A second claw extends towards DJ and this one sends a heavy jolt of electricity. And yeah, this one is definitely more sting. She doesn’t fall, but staggers and clutches her head as her vision swims. “Cute. You like to play rough. I get it. But I don’t wa-“ It zaps her again, and now it’s got to be doing this for the sake of being an asshole. DJ kicks off her shoes and glares. “I swear to God. One more time and I’ll-“

Steve’s there in front of her blocking the next strike. The bolts bounce right off his shield, but as they hit the robot it only seems to increase its power. With a snarl Steve stops trying to deflect and hurls the shield at the bot’s supposed head-region. The bastard catches it.

The shield flies back at Steve with alarming speed, and before he can duck it cracks against the side of his head. He crumples to the ground as a thick line of blood trails down his cheek. Thor is moving towards the bot, but the bot is faster in moving towards Steve.

With an ear-piercing shriek the robot’s claws begin to spin and sharpen, but DJ is there in an instant, shielding her favorite super soldier. Steve weakly cries out for her to move, but she doesn’t listen. She thrusts her hand out and the robot freezes on the spot. And then it slowly disintegrates into a pile of dust.