Draw Me Your Worries | S. Rogers x Reader

Ch. 3 - Small Sketches

Steve felt extremely guilty the next day. The fact that he could feel anything for a girl he'd just met, and didn't even know the name of, said something. He was disgusted at himself.

It was the same way he fell for Peggy at first. He saw her punch Gilmore Hodge in the nose and he was smitten. After he got the serum, she was the only woman that wanted to be around him simply because he was himself. Not just Captain America. She knew exactly how he felt about joining the army and fighting on the front lines. He loved Peggy more than anything, and would give anything to go back to her. Maybe he did need to let her go, but how could he just move on from her in just a couple of months?

He couldn't.

By noon that day, he was back at the gym, letting out all of his thoughts onto a bag filled with sand. He knew it wasn't healthy for him to beat the bag until his knuckles bled through the wraps, but he did it anyway.

A war raged on his mind. Part of him wanted to get to know that girl more, to talk to her about the one thing he knew they had in common. The other part of him told himself to leave her alone and that making friends with civilians wasn't a good idea.

Steve didn't know what he liked to do anymore. His entire life right before the war revolved around getting into fights with random bullies and desperately trying to join the army. He had no idea what he actually enjoyed that he could do in the present.

All he knew is that he loved to draw.

~~~~~~~

Steve was back in art class at 3:00pm on Friday, sitting at his desk and waiting for the instructor to start. He was mindlessly doodling on the side of an empty page in his sketchbook. The sketch ended up looking like a side-profile of Tony's Ironman helmet.

"Are you a fan?" a voice startled him from his left.

He looked up at the girl with wide eyes, a nervous smile appearing and then disappearing as he let out a breath of air. His nerves making him forget what she said, he asked, "What's that?"

"Tony Stark, are you a fan?" she asked again, pointing to his quick sketch as she sat down beside him.

Steve scratched the back of his neck and chuckled to himself. "Oh, uh, he's a bit too narcissistic for my taste."

They were... coworkers, but he'd rather keep the fact that he was Captain America from the art group a secret for now. If they didn't already know.

"Well, you're not wrong. I've been trying to get an intern position at Stark Industries for awhile, but I always get turned down. So here I am, taking the same art class year after year."

"You don't like it?"

She grinned and teased, "Well if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here, would I?"

"Suppose not."

"I'm y/n, by the way."

"Steve." He held his hand out for her to shake, natural mannerisms he was taught to do since he was young. She took it and shook it gently, her small hand fitting in his larger one like two puzzle pieces.

The soft pads of her fingers slipped across his palm as she retracted her hand. A tingling feeling erupted where her skin touched, sending chills up his arm, bicep, shoulder, and then down his spine.

Their small touch didn't seem to affect her at all. She gathered her sketchbook and pencil case, the same as his, out of her bag and flipped the sketchbook open to the first page. Steve got a good look at her drawing.

He was looking at a gray and white depiction of the same park he was at, just in a different perspective. Her art style was different from his, but a good different.

Steve's was all soft strokes and choppy, uneven lines. He created pictures with nothing but his minimal self-experience with drawing.

Hers was precise and accurate. She drew exactly what she saw, all there with different textures and forms. He could tell she had lots of practice with the way her pencil strokes were either thin or thick, smooth or jagged, light or dark. It was beautiful. More beautiful than anything he'd ever created, in his opinion.

"Your drawing... it's very nice." Was that seriously all he could say about her amazing piece of art?

"Oh- thank you. I messed up a bit with the shading here, and here," she said, pointing at specific parts of her drawing. "But overall I'm pretty proud of it."

"You should be, it's really good."

"Can I see yours? Only if you're comfortable with that, of course."

Would she see that he drew her? And that she was one of the most detailed parts of his drawing? Would she find that weird?

"Yeah, sure," he said, and passed her his sketchbook.

She flipped it back to the first page, setting it on her lap. Her lips parted as she stared at it for a good ten seconds. It was starting to make him nervous and he began shifting around in his seat.

"Wow," she whispered. "I didn't even realize I was sitting next to you. Sorry I was in the way of your view. This is amazing."

"Thank you... and you weren't in the way. I enjoyed drawing something different."

Steve smiled at her, not showing his teeth. He was hoping he wasn't making her uncomfortable. She smiled back the same way.

He didn't realize he was staring until the instructor cleared her throat and caught their attention. He looked away from her and towards the front of the room, his face ablaze. She spoke about what they were going to be doing that day.

The instructor was going to write a topic down on the board, and they had ten minutes to draw anything they wanted that related to that topic. They were advised to only use one page, so draw small.

The first topic was, "Enchanted Forest". Steve knew exactly where his inspiration was going to come from. "The Wizard of Oz" was one of his favorite films, and one of his favorite books growing up.

The apple tree from the movie had a face and he remembered it being frustrated with Dorothy, but he couldn't remember why. He hadn't seen it since before the war.

He chose to draw the tree in the bottom left corner, wanting to conserve space for his other sketches. He started with just the outline of the tree and leaves, and he shaded them first before adding details. The lines of the truck and the frowning face formed, and before he knew it, the time was up.

"Is that the monster-tree from "The Wizard of Oz"?" y/n asked from beside him.

Steve quickly glanced at her sketch, seeing a small fairy sitting atop a spotted mushroom.

"Yes. I'm glad you recognized it." He paused before adding, "I like yours."

"Thanks."

The class went on like that for the entire time they were there. These sort of awkward exchanges happened between them after every topic change, never moving past complementing each other's drawings.

When it was time to leave, she was one of the first people out the door. Steve was hoping to speak to her after, but she didn't even give him enough time to close his sketchbook.