The Captain and Stark's Sister (Avengers/Captain America Fanfiction)

World's Okayest Sister

Decided to update for Captain Steven Grant Roger's 97th birthday! So here we go!

"You weren't ever supposed to see me like that." Clara says, sitting down in front of Steve. It was one week after he came back from his mission and now she was finally out of the psych ward. She felt somewhat normal, but not much. Steve looked up from the mug of hot coffee that she had put in front of him a few moments before. She had her own mug in front of her. "That was never my plan to have you see me. . .that bad."

"But it was alright for your brother to see you like that?" Steve asks, his voice somewhat cold. Clara sighs softly and looks down to the hot liquid. She breathes softly. Her time in the psych ward helped her learn how to control the cold and she also decided to be smart. Clara told her brother and Bruce that disease/curse was back. Which is, she thought, better than fucking keeping it to herself.

"Well it is not the first time he has seen me like that. It's the tenth, to be exact." She says, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. His eyes once again fall on her bandaged wrists. They were a constant reminder of seeing her with blood coming out of those scars and seeing her almost dead. He thought back to when she took him to Malibu and he saw thise red scratches on her arms and stupidly thought they were from a pet.

"The tenth?" He asked, his eyes traveling back to her face as he shakes the memories out from his head. Clara nods, her blue eyes studying his face.

"Yeah," She said, lifting her mug and drinking the black liquid, "Ten attempted suicides. All of them failed. Five of them were me swallowing different pills and drinking copious amounts of alcohol, four of them were cutting, and one of them was me almost shooting myself in the head." Clara says, her voice wavering. She gives him a soft smile. "And lucky for me, I suppose."

She leans back in her chair, drinking the warm liquid. Steve stared at her and then the contents of his mug. The mug was grey with the Stark Industries logo on the side. Clara's mug was white and it read "WORLD'S OKAYEST SISTER" printed in black. Her hair was pulled back, away from her face. Her nails were perfectly painted a navy blue. She set the mug down and looked at him.

"Any questions, Capsicle?" Clara asks, leaning forward. Steve brings his eyes up to meet hers.

"Why did you do it?" He asked. It was now or never. Clara thought that she might as well tell him about it coming back. It would be really stupid of her to keep it to herself.

"Well, you see," She chuckled dryly, "The reason I wanted to kill myself it was, because I got very low. Which is very easily for me. It happened a few weeks ago before Malibu and during it. I started cutting because the damned nightmares that haunt me every night got to me. It also didn't help that I found out that. . .that my disease- well more like curse came back."

The room was was practically silent. The only noise was Clara and Steve's breathing. He studied her face as she looked away, tears brimming her eye lids. "That's why as soon as we got back I took mission after mission, downed drink after drink, barely talked to you, because that's how I cope. I cut myself off from everyone around me. I was numb. Then after that it wasn't me, it was the curse. It makes you cold, physically and mentally. It got to a point where I said "Why don't I just call it quits now? What's the point of drawing out the pain? It'll be on my own terms.". So I decided to kill myself. Didn't bother leaving a note, because I already have so many in my room already. At the last moment, I was going to go from help, but I fell and hit my head. That leads us to where you and Tony found me." Clara tells him, her voice getting lower and lower. Steve doesn't reply, his eyes move to look outside the floor to ceiling window wall. It was bright outside. The sun was somewhat shining over New York. It seemed all too cheerful outside compared to what was happened at this moment.

"You know, " Clara says, stirring her coffee with her finger, "it would be great if you would say something. Anything, really." Her voice cracked at the end. She sounded like she was going to start crying at any moment. Clara did not want to cry in front of Steve. She hated crying in front of anyone.

"Come here." He stood up and walked over to her. Clara looked up at him, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"What?" She asked. He opened his arms and smiled softly at her. "Oh." She realized and stood up, walking into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her and she did the same. Tears fell from her eyes and stained his shirt. Clara started to softly cry and Steve, still somewhat new to this, started to rub her back.

"Please don't ever do that again." He murmurs to her. Steve pressed his lips to her forehead, "You scared me, Clara. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to feel." He tells her, continued to rub her back. The Captain rested his head on top of hers.

"I'm sorry." She sobbed softly into his chest. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Shhh, it's not your fault." He murmurs to her, the right words suddenly popping up as if someone was typing the words for him to say. "How much time do you have left?" He inquired, not really wanting to ask the question.

"Enough, I think. Tony and Bruce are working on something for the curse. Maybe a cure or....I don't know. I want to help, but my brother and his new best friend say I need to take some more time off."

"It's probably for the best, Clara. Can you promise me something, please Clara?" He asks her, looking down at the woman in his arms.

"What is it, Steve?"She responds, her eyes red and her cheeks wet from tears.

"When ever you get nightmares or feel like these things, I want you to call me. No matter what time it is, alright?" He tells her, his tone very, very serious. Clara looks up at him and smiles softly.

"Alright. Thank you, Steve. Thank you." She murmurs. Clara looks up at him and leans up, kissing Steve softly. Her bandaged hand carressing his face. His hands moved down to her hips as he kissed her back. She pulled away for a moment, her forehead against his.

"There's nothing to thank me for. I just want to make sure you are okay." He told her and opened his eyes. His blue eyes stared into hers. Steve continued to hold her close as did she. Both of them tethering to each other. Neither of them wanted to let go, because if they let go, they might lose each other.