Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 3

Truth Be Told (Part 3-final) (Rogers x reader)

Completing the trilogy of Urie, because why not?

Do I look lonely?
I see the shadows on my face
People have told me
I don't look the same
Maybe I lost weight
I'm playing hooky
With the best of the best
Pull my heart out my chest
So that you can see it too

I'm walking the long road
Watching the sky fall
The lace in your dress
Tangles my neck
How do I live?

Steve's collar was trying to asphyxiate him, he was sure of it. It was choking the air from his throat with every attempt at a breath, and he had no idea why; he wasn't nervous at all, or at least that's what he had convinced himself of. Maybe the shirt really was trying to kill him to save him from himself. He was about to meet you for another date, the next of many that you had allowed him since that day when you returned to the tower for just a quick visit. That quick visit turned into staying awake late into the night, reminiscing with the team, and finally getting the time alone that Steve had craved for nearly a year before seeing you again. Since then, you were nearly inseparable again, though you had refused to move back to the compound yet. The two of you were together again, at least that much was certain; what wasn't certain, and what Steve would find out tonight, was how together you really were.

"Cap," Sam greeted, entering the living room where Steve had stalled on his way to the garage, "what's going on? You nervous?"

"Pfft, no," he scoffed with a roll of his eyes, "not at all. Why would you say that? I'm just making sure that I haven't forgotten anything."

"And you think that you'll find what that might be by staring out the window?"

"I was...uh...checking the weather," Steve stammered back, trying to wave Sam away but he wouldn't budge. "Can't be too careful."

Sam stopped and leaned himself back against the door frame, crossing his arms with the usual pose that his friend took whenever his mind was racing and trying to put a situation together; when he knew that someone was lying to him and he was trying to find the clear hole in the story before leaping through. The two of you had planned this date over a week ago, and it didn't sound like anything out of the ordinary, just dinner and a movie. There hadn't been any arguments that he had heard about, and if there were, Steve certainly wouldn't be dressed in a suit to meet up with you and certainly not just for a movie. "Oh, shit," he gasped, standing up straight as his mind finally clicked, "you're gonna ask her, aren't you?"

"What?!" Steve gasped, spinning to look back for the first time. "What...what do you mean...ask what?"

"Dude, are you serious? Let me see what you picked out."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sam. I've gotta go."

Steve tried to push past Sam and again towards the hall that would lead him to the car and his freedom from interrogation, but he wasn't having it, and he positioned himself so that there was no way to leave the room other than through him. Steve wasn't about to fight dressed like this, so Sam felt safe in his method right up until Steve's hands caught him under his arms and he lifted him away as if he weighed nothing. He wouldn't leave even a second open for Sam to get another question in, nearly sprinting away and through the garage entry on uneasy footing until he knew he was out of sight and able to finally let the nerves that he had been denying take his focus.

"Oh god," he panted, leaning over with his hands pressed to his legs and trying to take a deep breath through the stricture in his throat and tight band of panic crushing his chest, "what if she says no?"

I'm cutting my mind off
Feels like my heart is going to burst
Alone at a table for two
And I just want to be served
And when you think of me
Am I the best you've ever had?
Share one more drink with me
Smile even though you're sad

When you had excused yourself from the dinner table for a moment, leaving Steve alone and left to retreat into his mind again, he felt that sickening return of nervousness that had calmed while you were sitting across from him. When you were there, everything was right; everything was okay again, and the destruction that had torn his heart into shreds during your year apart was healed. He felt immediately ridiculous, relying on you so completely for his own sanity and happiness. That wasn't your job or responsibility, to maintain him this way, and he would never expect it of you. That wasn't why he was carrying the small velvet box in his pocket now, and that wasn't the purpose of the diamond ring within it. It also wasn't there because of his fear of loss again, but it sure didn't make his decision to ask you any less guaranteed.

He turned and looked back towards the restroom to see if you had emerged yet, sighing both in disappointment and relief at the same time when he didn't see you. His hand drifted over his pocket, carefully removing the box so that he could take one final look at it before he would find his bravery, and before it would find it's home on your hand if this went well. "What if she says no," he whispered to himself again, feeling his stomach flip and churn until the acid built in his throat. He was still the same man that you had left behind; still an Avenger and still serving a world that didn't deserve him, but he didn't deserve you, and the reasons that you had walked away were still there.

Steve set the box carefully on the table in front of him and instead grabbed his phone, frantically typing out a message with fumbling thumbs that dared to use misspelled words that would surely get their share of ridicule from their recipient if he didn't catch them. If any made it through he didn't care; he needed some reassurance and there was only one way to get it, and only one thing that he could think of that he could use to work in his favor.

Tony, I need some time off.

His foot bounced impatiently as he waited for the answer, glancing back and over his shoulder every few seconds just to be sure that you weren't about to sneak up behind him. When the phone vibrated in his hand with the answer he needed, he closed his eyes for just a second to pray that it would be the one he wanted.

How much time are you thinking, Cap?

A year.

A year? Came the reply, and Steve could hear the tone of voice behind it as he read. Damn, Steve, that's a long time. What could you possibly need a year off for?

To make the conversation move faster, Steve opened the box and hurried to snap a picture of the ring to send to Tony without anything more to say. Stark was a smart guy, he would get it; he knew that you had left because Steve was consumed by the work, and he wanted to see you back just as much as everyone else on the team. Stark would get it; he was a workaholic too, and he had made his own share of sacrifices for love. He would understand. He had to, because if he didn't and it cost Steve his chance-

Take as much time as you need. I get it.

Thank you, Tony.

Don't forget to breathe, Cap.

"Okay, I can do this," he whispered to himself again, trying and failing to hold back the smile that came with his sense of reprieve from his anxiety. Steve turned off his phone and slid it back into his pocket, settling himself to wait for your return with a renewed confidence. Now all he had to do was to figure out how he would word the question itself. He had narrowed it down to two or three options, and really, any of them would work, but this was no time for improvisation or uncertainty. He had one shot at this, and not a single opportunity would be wasted.

The sound of your feet coming closer startled him back into the moment, looking down and realizing that he hadn't put the ring back into his pocket in his inattentiveness after his mind had begun to wander. He reached up to grab it, but he never had the chance, nearly falling out of the chair as the sound of your voice both terrified and elated him with one single word.

"Yes."

The death of a bachelor
Letting the water fall
The death of a bachelor
Seems so fitting for
Happily ever after

How could I ask for more?
Lifetime of laughter
At the expense of the death of a bachelor