The Mission

The entire communal area was spotless. Evelynn had been cleaning for over two hours. Her third batch of cookies were in the oven and when the timer went off and rather than manipulating them out of the oven with her mind she walked over and pulled them out manually. Scattered across the island and all of the countertops were baked goods. She was starting to run out of room and had transferred several trays to the coffee table in the living room. Tony Stark entered the kitchen and swiped up a cookie. “These are delicious. Good thing you’re a good cook; that was a woman’s place in the 40s.”

Evelynn shot him a glare. “Because I want to be a woman from the 40s.”

“Steve would like that.”

“And aren’t you just Mr. Match-maker.”

Tony shrugged and smirked. “You know me. Billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, super-hero, genius, match maker, and incredibly gorgeous if I do say so myself. God, my resume is impressive.” He grabbed another cookie, “If you use all of the eggs while turning my kitchen into your personal bakery, do go out and buy more.” Evelynn nodded and watched as he left the room.

Just as Tony walked out, Steve entered. Tony smirked to her, “Try her cookies, they’re delicious. And I think I saw cake pops on the coffee table. You got yourself a prime specimen.”

Steve, being used to Tony’s attempts at match-making (among other crazy things), ignored him. He approached Evelynn. He looked around the room at the wide array of sweets. “Good thing Tony has a sweet tooth or else he would be quite angry with you making all of these.”

“Yeah,” Evelynn said softly. “Though I secretly think he likes the sugar cookies the best. I may have put rum in them.” She glanced over her shoulder as she continued to mix more batter. “It doesn’t taste as good as it sounds. But if you eat enough of them, you won’t notice how bad they taste. The cake-pops are delicious though.”

“What are cake-pops?” he asked cautiously.

“On the table,” she nodded her head and continued to mix. Steve walked over to the coffeetable and picked up the small chocolate covered ball on a stick. Tentatively he bit into it…it was delicious! It was a lollipop made of cake and icing! Steve couldn’t believe the cleverness of it all.

“These are amazing.”

“Thanks,” Evelynn smiled. “I think this might be my last batch of cookies. It’s getting close to dinner, maybe I should make real sustenance for you guys.”

“Have your powers been off lately?”

“No,” Evelynn said and it was half true. The only time her powers had been off since Storm’s death were at night. She had made the entire Tower shake with her nightmares. “Why?”

“Then why don’t you use your powers to bake all of the sweets? Wouldn’t that be easier?”

“It’s more therapeutic to do it by hand.”
***
Evelynn had been a mess for days, Steve knew it. She had gone to the funeral yesterday and was far worse for wear after returning. So much so, that Fury had approached him about keeping an extra close eye on her because the last thing the Avenger’s needed right now was to be choosing between humanity and their new comrade. She had everything taken from her once before and now she had lost it all again. That would be enough to drive anyone over the edge, and adding telepathy to the mix? Well, Steve could understand why Fury wanted him to keep a close eye on her.

So far though, besides trying to seduce him on multiple occasions, she had been coping by cleaning the Tower, and it was in pristine condition. Moreso than Steve had ever seen it before, which was possibly due to her cleaning it every day for the past four days. And she was cooking endlessly, sweets, dinners, lunches, desserts, soups, smoothies, you name it and she was making it in the kitchen. And of course the heavy bag. So, thus far, Steve hadn’t found anything of consequence to worry about.

He had gone out for a run as usual. He really did want to make her feel better and man, did she want to make him feel better. But it wouldn’t be proper to take advantage of her plight like that. No, Steve would have to wait a little while longer. And it was killing him. Sometimes he wished he could have been a little more reckless like Bucky…

He wiped the sweat from his brow as he stood in the elevator, waiting to get off at the penthouse. The bell dinged softly as the doors opened and she was standing there….wrapped in another man’s arms. He was bulky, with brown hair that was spiked up in two, making it look like mini horns. He wore a white beater and worn out jeans and was ravishing his hands all over her as they kissed.

Steve cleared his throat to make his presence known. Evelynn struggled to regain her composure as she readjusted her shirt and turned to face Captain Rogers. As soon as she met his eyes, she instantly regretting calling Logan. And Logan, in all his arrogant glory, was just making things worse. “Sorry, bub. You snooze, you lose.”

Completely ignoring Logan, Steve chided, “I thought you had a little more respect for yourself.”

Evelynn just stood there for a moment before smashing Captain’s shield across the back of his head with her powers. “Fuck you,” she seethed. “You don’t get to judge my coping strategies. I offered you the chance for this to be you…and you rejected me.”

“I was trying to be respectful. And these coping strategies of yours aren’t healthy.”

Evelynn wasn’t listening. She had silently told Logan that she wanted to be alone and stormed off to her room. Glaring at Steve, Logan said, “Well there goes my fun.”

“How can you be such an ass to her?” Steve asked. “She’s hurting and you’re taking advantage of her.”

“No, she’s hurting and she called me. She was quite explicit with what she wanted. I didn’t press the matter.” Logan bumped Steve as he boarded the elevator to leave the Tower. Tentatively Steve rubbed the back of his head where Evelynn hit him. Now he knew what the HYDRA agents felt like when he had stormed their camps. It hurt, but thankfully wasn’t bleeding.

Steve entered her room to see Evelynn sitting cross-legged on her bed with her eyes closed and her palms up. It was quite clear that she wasn’t getting any so she needed to calm some of her more primal emotions so as not to lose control of her mutation. “You make me feel very conflicted, you know that?” Steve said, softly.

Peeking through one eye, Evelynn asked, “How so?”

“I’m trying to do the right thing by not sleeping with you while you’re vulnerable and then you throw it in my face by trying to get with him.”

“Wanna know a secret?” Evelynn asked, still in perfect meditation posture.

“I suppose?” Captain Rogers said cautiously.

“You make me feel real conflicted too.”

Steve smirked, and repeated her question. “How so?”

“Because I’ve never liked a normal human like I like you before. And every human who has ever treated me like you do has always stabbed me in the back or pushed me away when I got too close. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that you want to be my friend, still.”

I’d like to be more than friends, Steve thought.

“That’s a very flattering thought.” Evelynn’s eyes shot open as she realized what she just did. “Oh god! I’m sorry. I didn’t…you were thinking loudly and I couldn’t….I’m sorry…”

To her surprise Steve came over and planted himself firmly in front of her, his hands crossed over his chest. In his Captain America voice, he berated her, “It’s rude to read people’s minds.”

“Using your Captain America voice when we’re not in battle is quite sexy.”

“Thank you,” Steve winked. “Now, a healthy coping mechanism is going out to ice cream with me.”

Evelynn smiled and shook her head. “You really must enjoy blue-balling yourself, Cap.” She stood and took his hand, lacing her fingers with his. “But I’d love to get some ice cream with you.”

***
Steve had wandered onto the communal floor, in search for something cool to drink. He walked past the flat screen TV, blaring an info-morcial about some weight loss product. He detoured from his path to the kitchen and walked into the living room. Evelynn was sprawled out on the couch, her one hand loosely grasping a half-drank tequila bottle. Two cell phones were blinking on the glass coffee table and her dog-tags were on the ground next to the tequila bottle.

“JARVIS.”

“Yes, Captain Rogers?”

“The TV please,” he removed the tequila bottle from Evelynn’s grasp and picked up her dog-tags and her cell phones. He placed her personal items into his pockets and scooped her easily into his arms. He replaced her bra strap to its proper place on her shoulder. She stirred slightly. “Shh,” he cooed. “You’ll be more comfortable in your own bed.”

She nuzzled her head into his broad chest. “I’d be more comfortable in your bed.”

“I’m sure, miss. But we’ll save that for a more…sober time.” He pushed open the door with his foot and carefully placed her onto the bed. He removed her personal items and placed them on the nightstand beside her bed. Just as he was about to leave, the door slammed shut.

In her drunken stupor, Evelynn giggled. “Have you ever had sex before, Captain?” He turned to face her and tried to stifle the blush creeping up his cheeks. “Oh my god, you HAVE!”

“You said you wouldn’t read my mind without permission,” Steve scowled and reached for the door handle.

“I didn’t have to read your mind. And you just,” Evelynn hiccupped. “Confirmed it. So who was she? It was a girl, right?”

“Yes it was a woman…” Steve trailed off. “I’m not going to have this conversation with you right now.”

“You wanna know this game we used to play back at school?” Evelynn’s stupor was causing her to rapidly change the subject. “We used to sit in a circle and wish for different mutation. But they had to be a mutation that somebody in the circle actually had. And when you decided, you had to kiss the person.” She giggled. “It was a stupid game. I got kissed a lot ‘cause people always wanna read other people’s minds. Find out if their crushes like them back and such.”

“What mutant would you kiss for their power?”

“Then or now?” Steve shrugged. Though he was quite curious about what she wished her power was, with all of her advances in the past few days, he assumed the “now” answer would be him, despite his not being a true mutant. To his surprise she didn’t mutter out his name.

“Pepper? Why?”

“’Cause she’s normal. None of this pain would have happened if I was normal. I’d have gone to a regular school with regular kids and would have lived with my family. Charles probably still would have died, but I wouldn’t have known him for it to hurt.”

“We wouldn’t have met if you were normal though.”

“Truth. I would miss that, but I’m a little irked by being surrounded by death all of the time.”

“Losing those around us is a part of life,” Steve mused.

Evelynn smiled goofily. “You drawstring is untied,” she giggled as she twisted her fingers and pulled the drawstring of his pajamas clear out of the pants. The string floated across the room.

“If you were going to undress me, I’d prefer that you do it without your powers.”

“That can be arranged,” unsteadily, she stood and walked over to the Captain. She slipped her hands into his pants and kissed his chest. Steve moaned, reached down after her and grasped her wrists and brought her hands to his lips. He kissed each hand softly.

“You’re drunk.” Evelynn protested, but he shushed her. “I won’t do this while you’re drunk.”

“And if I wasn’t drunk?” She asked hopefully.

“Ask me when you’re sober.” With that, Steve picked her up and placed her back into bed. He almost had to waddle as without the drawstring to hold them up, his pants were beginning to slip.

***
Steve entered Evelynn’s room with toast and a large glass of water, only to find that she wasn’t there. “JARVIS, location on Ms. Evelynn, please.”

“Sir, Ms. Evelynn is on the roof.” Since JARVIS was an AI, there was never any intonation in his voice, even still Steve panicked. He dropped the glass and the toast. He knew what it felt like to lose everyone. He bolted up the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator. To his relief, Evelynn was not standing at the edge looking over. She sat cross-legged with a small electronic radio playing soft music next to her.

“I’m surprised to see you outside in the sun after all you drank last night.”

“In my defense, Tony did have 2 mojitos with me, so it’s not like I drank the whole bottle. And I am hungover, I’m just not sensitive to light when I’m hungover. My powers are what really are affected by my drinking so as long as I don’t try to read your mind or anything, I’m okay. A little nauseous though.”

“So did it make you feel better?”

“The drinking or the attempt to seduce you?”

“Both I guess,” Steve blushed.

“I’m waiting for a phone call from Bobby. He wants me to pull some strings here at SHIELD,” Evelynn deliberately changed the subject. “Apparently Charles left the mansion and all of his inheritance to Storm in his will, but Storm didn’t have a will, so when she died…the government technically owns the property now. They’re trying to shut down the school.”

“Do you think Fury will help?”

“Well, I did point out that many of the students have no place to go other than the Mansion, so if they close down the school they will be on the run just like I was. And I was a pain in the ass for SHIELD before Charles took me in.”

Steve nodded. “Who’s Bobby?”

“Is that jealousy I detect in Captain America’s voice?” Evelynn jested before answering. “He’s a guy from school. It always was meant to be passed down to Storm or Jean, but now that both are gone, it’s kinda topsy turvy over there. It would make sense for him or me to take over the school. We’re two of the few remaining students who actually studied under Charles exclusively. There’s only like eight of us total in this position. We were some of his first students.”

“Will you go back?”

She shrugged. “Probably not.”

“Why?”

“There’s nothing really for me there. Bobby wants me to come back and help him teach all of the new students, but I don’t have the patience that he does. He did try to guilt me into it, saying that Logan won’t come back and teach, so it’s really just Bobby that’s qualified.” Evelynn smirked to herself. “Besides, if Logan did come back, the classes he’d teach would be a mess. He has no patience and metal claws in his knuckles to boot.”

The music player hummed in the background. “Do you have an escort for the Stark Expo tonight?” Steve blurted out quickly.

“I wasn’t aware that I was invited.”

“Oh,” Steve fell silent again, trying to work up the courage to ask her to come with him without sounding like a fool. “Would you…I mean you don’t have to…but I haven’t been to a Stark Expo since 1943 when Howard Stark ran the business. I don’t want to….go alone.”

“Are you asking me on a date?”

“No!” Steve stammered forcefully. He cleared his throat, “I mean no, I’m asking if you would accompany me to the Expo. It doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be a date.”

“I’d like it to be a date.”