After All We've Been Through (Steve x reader)

Stuff of Nightmares

   When you walk into the kitchen, Steve is stirring milk into his coffee. He doesn't greet you, per your usual morning routine.

"Morning, Steve" Your fingers gently brush his arm as you walk past.

There's no response or movement from the rumpled blond man.

   His silence is eerie. For as long as you had been here, he had never ceased to be cheerful and talkative. Though lately, he'd reverted to a lower less energetic tone, reminiscent of his former self. But there had been something else, too. Something dark in his eyes.

   "Steve?" You slide into the barstool next too him "What's going on?"

   "I don't know" He wrinkles his nose and looks up for the first time "I have all these images in my head."

   You wrap your hands around your mug "Can you describe it?"

   "It's a man in a long coat" Steve frowns "His face is red."

   "You mean his cheeks?" You try to clarify .

   "No, his face is red. Like blood and his cheek  bones are highlighted by something shiny and blue."

  Well, that makes absolutely no sense. But I'll humor him, if it's bothering him that badly.

   "Is that all?"

   "Then I'm on a train and we're holding on to the side-"

"Who is we? You and me?"

"No, it's someone else. I can't- I don't know who he is" Steve squelches his eyes shut and messages his forehead "He's is reaching for my hand, yelling my name, but I can't reach them. He fell into the valley below the train."

   "You're changing tenses, Steve. Is this something that happened to you?" You ask.

   "I don't know. It's so vivid. He keeps falling and the other one, the man with the red face, he's taunting me. His voice is in my head." Steve shudders.

   It sounds morbid.

"Where is this coming from?" You ask "It is this from the 40's?"

Steve turn's sharply "The what?"

"Never mind" Change the subject!

You get to your feet and put your mug in the sink.

What am I supposed to do with that?

You know very little about Steve's past. There's the general cover story about him coming back from the dead, but nothing more then anyone else.

Maybe T'challa knows...

"Stay with me for a little bit, Y/N" Steve reaches for your arm as you brush past him "I don't want to be alone."

There's grief in his eyes. His pleading expression tugs at your heart.

Since the accident, you've treated him like a child, comforting and watching over him. But this time Steve takes you in his arms and pulls you into his chest.

"Steve?" You turn to look at his face.

"Please, Y/N." He looks weary.

It makes you want to cry. He's acting so... normal, and in your reality that's not normal.

"You've been so good to me, Y/N" He murmurs stroking your hair.

Now you're internally spazzing. What the {Captain America Issued Language} is going on?

Yes, this is what you wanted, but the hardship induced suspicions were triggering internal alarms.

"Excuse me a minute, Steve?" You jump to your feet "I'll be right back"

"Okay" There was that childish pout and a sigh.

You lock yourself in your room and punch in the number for the Tower.

"Hello, Pepper. Is Nat or Clint there?"

Pepper transfers the phone to Natasha.

The familiar sounds of her voice warms you "Hey, Y/N! What's up? How are things in Wakanda?"

"I'm not sure." You twirl you finger in your bed hair and pace the floor "Nat, I need to know exactly what happened in Russia."