SAVOR || s. rogers

11 - Roadtrip Questions

The tension from the mission lingered in the atmosphere like a rain cloud threatening to pour. Natasha kept her gaze steadily peering out the window, unconcerned for her partners in the front seats. Her methods of ignoring them were working for the time being. Steve maintained focus on the road, as all good drivers should, but it was also a helpful distraction from his feelings and awkwardness for Emersyn. He turned on the radio in hopes of relieving some of the uncomfortable silence, but the slow classical music seemed to have no effect. Emersyn, lastly, found herself jittery and energetic, with eyes darting from Steve's solemn expression to Natasha's dull gaze every thirty seconds. She was waiting for one of them to change; for Natasha to look somewhere other than the window, and for Steve to have any sort of emotion displaying on his face. Her leg was bouncing up and down subconsciously and her fidgeting hands were adding to her frustrations.

Emersyn wanted to make conversation, but no matter how hard she tried she could not forget about whatever happened on the escalator. Her hope was for one of the others to start a new topic, but neither of them moved for a solid thirty minutes. That was way too long for Emersyn to handle. Unable to contain her energy, she blurted, "Was that your first kiss since 1945?"

"What?" Steve said loudly, narrowing his brows.

"Oh my gosh." Natasha facepalmed.

"I'm just asking!" Emersyn defended herself. "Somebody needed to talk or else this 8-hour road trip would be a nightmare."

"But you had to talk about that?" Natasha groaned.

"It's not an 8-hour drive," Steve corrected her. "It's 4."

Emersyn rolled her eyes. "Well, it feels like 8 with you guys."

There was silence for several seconds until Steve glanced at her, unable to hide his curiosity. "Was I that bad?"

Emersyn tried to wipe the satisfied grin off her face when he brought the conversation back to the kiss. "I didn't say that." She deflected the question nonchalantly.

"Well, it kinda sounds like that's what you're saying.." Steve argued.

"No, no!" Emersyn told him genuinely. "It was...fine." She finished awkwardly.

"So you liked it?" Natasha piped up.

Steve looked at Emersyn's reaction, and upon seeing him, she quickly raised her brows and said, "No-!" She flashed a dirty look over her shoulder. "You're not helping, Romanoff."

Natasha's eyes widened sarcastically as if to say: really? She turned to Steve and said casually, "She's wondering how much practice you've had."

Emersyn whipped around again to the backseat with glaring eyes. "What?" She mouthed angrily to Natasha.

"You don't need practice," Steve argued.

"Everybody needs practice," Natasha fired back.

Steve defended himself quickly, "It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, I'm not dead."

Emersyn tilted her head and gazed at him coyly. "You really don't have anyone significant?"

Steve chuckled dryly. "Believe it or not it's kinda hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"Really?" Emersyn exclaimed with mock disbelief. "I've been frozen in ice loads of times..."

"You can just make something up," Natasha suggested.

"What, like you?" Steve asked in a softer tone, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

Natasha cocked her head and remained silent for a moment. "I don't know.." she replied. "I'm not all things to all people all the time."