Who Am I? » [Stucky]

42. The Day After

Tap! Tap!

Steve jogged himself awake, lurching forwards a tad at the sudden sound that intruded upon his unrestful bleak sleep. He pouted in disagreement with the noise. It was far too early for anyone yet. He wasn't going to move. He still had Bucky to worry about, and it seemed that the door hadn't opened all night; though he suspected, from the shuffling sound inside, that Bucky had been returned to the land of the living by the unwelcome knocking. Neither of them were particularly eager to see who was outside the flat.

Steve's head flopped back against the door in rejection of the visitor and he smacked it hard into the wood.

"Nghhh..." He grumped as the surprisingly solid wood came into contact with his equally tough skull. That had hurt more than he had anticipated and his head started to throb. Now brought around to full consciousness by the bump, he decided to rise to his feet and go and check out who was at the door, rubbing the back of his head idly as he did so.

He lugged himself lazily across the room slowly like a boulder being pushed up a mountain, stretching out his achy limbs that had been compacted all night where he had slept and loosened all the aches and pains in his large body; twisting and turning to try and work out all the tight or uneasy parts of his body.

He reached the door and there was a tap again. My god... Someone was being impatient.

Natasha smiled back at him through the doorway and he immediately sighed in exasperation. He really was not in the mood for her happy-go-lucky humour and uninvited mind games.

"What?" Natasha was more than a little offended by his reaction to her visit. "Trouble in paradise?" She quite rightly guessed. She was always so bloody perceptive; she could pick up changes in the environment better than a sniffer hound.

"I suppose you could call it that..." Steve drearily complained, rubbing at his eyes and trying to straighten out his hair to make himself look at least a bit presentable; he could only guess how dishevelled he looked.

"Well... It's a good thing that I'm here, because I've had an idea," She grinned ecstatically at him, in a bouncy and excitable mood.

Her whole happy and positive attitude was enough to irritate him and he stared back at her with blatant dislike and scorn. He really didn't want to play along with one of her great "ideas", today of all days.

"Do tell me more about your master plan(!)" Steve sarcastically suggested in a disinterested tone, his eyes still half-shut and dozy. His back was killing him and he raised a hand and clutched the doorway in his sweaty palm to support himself. He could barely stay up.

"Why don't you come out and I can try and set you up with someone?" She grinned beguilingly, twisting her head and acting like a small child being obsequious to a parent. Natasha was a good actress, Steve really had to give it to her; but he wasn't going to give in to that - he'd known her far too long to fall for one of her duplicitous acts.

He felt even more distressed by the proposition than she had intended so. "I'm not interested Nat, I'm sorry."

Her beaming pleased face dropped into a sombre unsmiling serious one. "Are you ever gonna get back out there? Because it would be so easy for you to find someone: everyone wants a slice of Captain Catsuit." She looked him up and down and winked at him playfully, just trying to wind him up, clearly trying to ease the tension.

"It's not a catsuit. And No, Natasha. I'm fine on my own." He spared a quick glance over his shoulder to the bathroom, where he was sure Bucky would be listening through the door.

"You're a terrible liar, Steve..." Natasha shook her head at him parentally, apparently switching from the pleading child to the mature adult in a split-second.