america's assassin ➻ steve rogers

eleven

"You should've let me stab her," I said to Steve as I hopped from foot to foot as he finally let me down from where he'd thrown me over his shoulder to remove me from the situation. "I wouldn't have killed her or anything, just made it hurt." He watched me with pursed lips, arms crossed over his chest. He'd brought me down to a gym where it was eerily quiet and big enough that when I screamed it echoed off the walls.

"I think you know I would never let you do that," He replied in a dry tone. I glared at him, still hopping back and forth to try and shake off some of the raging energy.

"You have no idea what she's done to me," I said. His face didn't change. He looked rather unimpressed and I wanted to punch the stupid expression right off his face.

"She was doing her job," He said. "Sometimes in this business we have to do things others won't necessarily like." I rolled my eyes.

"You weren't there," I said. "You don't know what I was like when I first came back."

"No, and to be honest I don't particularly care about it." My fist twitched. I was going to punch him. "But I know what it was like for her, and she's only human. She can only do her best."

"Do you mind if I punch you?" I said as sweetly as I could, the tone that came out sounding rather chilling in my thinly veiled rage. He looked mildly amused.

"Yes," He said. "Punch the bag." He motioned to the punching bag behind me and I whirled around to face it, unable to look at his stupid, punchable face anymore.

"I think I need to hit something with a face," I said doubtfully. Steve sighed and I was sure he was standing closer than a second ago. I didn't dare turn around to check and alert him to the fact I could feel his body.

"Imagine it's mine, then," He said in a tone that was equally amused and annoyed. I did as he said and imagined his face on the stupid bag and punched it hard, over and over until I was breathing heavy and sweat was starting to gather on the back of my neck.

"Is it helping?" He asked as I paused. I glanced over my shoulder at him and back at the bag.

"No."

"What will help, then?" He sighed.

"Maybe if you have really hot hate sex with me against the wall or something," I offered. I heard his muffled laughter even as I knew he reacted to my words.

"No," He said. I whirled around to face him with a glare, a hand on my hip.

"Why not?" I demanded.

"Because you're kind of acting like a psycho and it's turning me off," He said. I rolled my eyes.

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is," He argued.

"No man turns down hate sex with a crazy girl," I said. One side of his lips turned up in a smile as his eyes sparkled with humour.

"So you agree you're insane?" I rolled my eyes again.

"I'm feeling a little more unhinged right now than usual, I'll admit," I said. "Come on, Cap, you know you want to." I walked closer to him, winding my arms up around the back of his neck. He looked down at me, frustrated and amused.

"You just tried to stab my friend and you're expecting me to have sex with you right now?" He asked. I pressed myself against him.

"What can I say?" I shrugged. "After all that fighting I need to relax." He was still resisting me, but one hand was tucked into my belt loop.

"This is not part of the deal," He said.

"It is quite literally the deal," I said. "I need to forget and you get to have sex with me." He shook his head and let it fall backwards.

"You're killing me," He said as I pressed my open mouth to the corner of his jaw.

"Well, I kind of want to." Apparently a threat on his life was what did it for him because he tilted my head up and leaned down to kiss me right as there was a throat clear from the entrance to the gym. Steve let me go and pushed me away from his body so hard I stumbled backwards, barely catching myself. I glared at him as he turned to face our interruption. I looked over my shoulder and saw Bucky.

"For somebody who wants to keep this quiet, a lot of people are finding out," I said to Steve. He glared back at me.

"This was all on you," He replied.

"Sorry to interrupt," Bucky said, looking less than impressed as he glanced at me and settled his blank stare on Steve.

"You're welcome to join," I called out as Steve opened his mouth to say something before snapping it shut and glaring at me.

"I swear to god, Mia," He said. "I told you not to pull that game." He ran a hand through his hair as he blew a breath out through his lips.

"I'm just having a bit of fun," I said airily. "I thought you didn't want me to be so angry."

"Winding me up isn't the way to do it," He muttered.

"Harmless flirting should not be winding you up," I said. He was about to reply when Bucky cleared his throat again, when I turned to look at him he was watching Steve with that blank, unimpressed stare again.

"I think it's time to say goodnight," He said.

Steve

Bucky slipped out of Mia's room sometime after midnight when she had finally fallen asleep and he had told me to meet him out front.

"What's this about?" I asked, eyeing Mia's closed door. He watched me, looking unimpressed and majorly frustrated.

"Are you joking?" He said.

"What?"

"Don't be an idiot, Steve." I stared back at him, lips pursed.

"What do you mean?" I knew what he was going to say, but he would be wrong. Even though he sometimes thought he did, Bucky didn't always know what was best.

"With her," He jutted his head behind him to where Mia slept in her bedroom. "Whatever it is you're doing with her."

"It's just casual," I muttered. Bucky's eyebrows raised.

"You don't do casual," He said. A muscle hitched in my jaw.

"I do with her."

"What makes her different?" He asked, amusement trickling into his tone as he didn't believe me.

"I don't even like her." Bucky laughed. "It's just sex," I insisted. He shook his head.

"This is headed for disaster," He told me.

"Why does it have to head that way? Why can't it just be what it is?" I felt defensive and I didn't like it. It shouldn't matter what Bucky thought of the arrangement, I knew what I was doing. Mia knew what she was doing.

"Because she might do casual, Steve, but you don't. She will break your heart." I glared at him, anger swirling in my gut.

"What if I break hers?" I regretted the words as soon as I'd said them but now they were out and Bucky was looking at me with some mixture of pity and frustration.

"Don't be an idiot," He said again. "The girl is damaged. If she ever trusted you with her heart, and that's a big if, you have to be smart enough not to break it. People like that don't come back the second time."

"It won't get that far."

"For both your sakes, I hope you're right about that."