As Darkness Falls Upon Us // MCU

teamwork makes the dream work

"What about school? I'm worried about finishing out the year and walking at graduation!"

♦️

Both Maize and Meaghan had settled into their routines of training and schoolwork within a week and had been continuing them for almost three weeks. Maize was so far riding comfortably with her powers. She had been avoiding Talia and only got a slight premonition that something bad was going to happen in the cases of her slipping and falling in the shower and trying to grab onto the water for support.

Meaghan seemed happier than ever to be training with Steve and things were never going better in her life. She had adapted much quicker and seamlessly fit into her new life, but Maize was just beginning to feel that way. Her routine was important to her; she liked to know when things were going to happen and generally what to expect. She hated it when no one filled her in at the last second about a change in plans and she was caught off-guard. She valued consistency mostly above all things, and she knew that wasn't a virtue in her line of work. She had to be flexible in some way or another.

Maize had been training with Thor which built some of her lean muscle a little bulkier and Natasha helped her refine her agility. Meaghan was spending all of her time with Cap because only he could be able to teach her how to be Captain America. His fighting style and physicality was specific to him, which is something only he could pass on to her.

But Maize suspected it was a little more than that.

Maize walked into the gym with her headphones in her ears, ready to sweat it out with a High Intensity Interval Training workout, but she wanted to spy on her friend's training session on the other side of the room. It was hard to tell what Meaghan and Steve were working on since Meaghan was doubled over in a fit of laughter and Steve was trying to keep his cool but couldn't. Maize couldn't help but wonder what they could possibly be laughing about when she started her own workout.

"Okay, alright, alright. Let's get ourselves together and let's run that sequence one more time." Cap instructed with a smile, standing back in his place. Meaghan joined him and they worked on a hand-to-hand combat sequence that Meaghan looked like she was winning at. They threw calculated punches and the footwork seemed choreographed just like a dance. Meaghan had memorized the moves and steps but Cap was surely leading, which maize didn't expect. She couldn't see Steve as someone who was particularly dominant, and he surprised her when he made a swift and unexpected move around Meaghan that caused them to go to the ground. Steve pinned her down, though both were out of breath from their workout. Meaghan's chest rose and fell heavily as she stared into Cap's grayish green and steely blue eyes, their bodies mere centimeters away from touching.

"I think you win this one." Meaghan admitted in a whisper of defeat, but it was a loss she was happy to take. Cap agreed, getting up first and then extending his hands down to Meaghan to pull her up. At this point, Maize wasn't doing a good job of spying and probably gave herself away, since Meaghan walked right towards her once their training session was over.

"What was that with Cap just now, Meaghan?" Maize asked, not so subtly inquiring.  Meaghan blushed.

"It was nothing! We were just training?"

"Oh I'm sure that's all that was. Get real, Meg. How long have you and Cap been flirting like that, because something like that doesn't just come out of the blue. I'm pretty sure he was into it, too."

"Stop it! It was totally nothing! There's no heat between us!"

"I didn't say there was, but that didn't look ice cold to me."