In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

Love Requited

I chose to check back into Earth, as it would be my next stop. I roamed through the Avengers Compound, namely the section Steve and I had claimed, until I heard water running through the bathroom. I peaked my head through the door. I saw him, dressed in a white tank top and khakis, preparing his shaving essentials.

I fell out of Time. The glossy green film that appeared over my eyes when I found myself in Time disappeared and I was given my sight back. I stood from my seat in front of the Orb, and dove from my pedestaled position into a portal. I dropped into the bathroom with Steve; the rough landing of my shoes hitting the floor startled him, and the razor in his hand clattered into the sink.

"You're getting rid of the beard?" I asked hurriedly. "I like the beard."

"Hello to you, too, Clara," he said, sighing. Placing his hands on the counter, he turned only his head to face me, a small smile raising the corner of his lips. "You spying on me?"

"I check in on you," I said, raising my hands in defense. I hiked myself up on the counter beside him. I pouted and reached to caress his cheek. "Is anything I can do to convince you to keep it?"

He kissed my head. "I just need something different. I look at myself with this beard and all I can think about is what happened," he admitted quietly.

I reached for him to place his face in hands. I ran my fingers through his beard and placed a kiss on his cheek. I understood, entirely. Steve smiled and continued to ready his shaving tools.

His words caused me to think about my own appearance. I hadn't encountered a mirror in years, essentially. I had been thrown through time, stuck in the Light Dimension, and never had the chance to do much about my appearance. I wasn't human anymore— I wasn't going to smell, my hair was going to stop growing, I wouldn't grow or shrink anymore. It had only been a month of me becoming Agamotto, but I had also been wearing the same clothes for two years.

"I think I'm gonna take a shower," I announced.

Steve raised his eyebrows. "I can leave."

"No," I said immediately. We locked eyes. "No, stay."

I reached my hand to touch his forearm. Our eyes stayed locked, each of us nervous for our own reasons, and he moved slowly to stand between my legs. His breathing went from a steady pace to holding it. I lifted my chin up and he tilted his down. I felt the flush of air from his nose against my face as our lips touched, almost relieved to be over the hard part. The initiation was always the scariest part. But I loved Steve, and he loved me, and I wanted this. I wanted this to go where it hadn't yet.

Steve and I were stealing kisses. Our noses continuously bumped into each other, igniting giggles, until he finally decided he wanted it to escalate and kept repeatedly locking his lips with mine and gently sucking on my bottom lip. I found his hands at his sides and pulled them to grasp my thighs. I ran my hands up and down his biceps, accidentally digging into them with my nails when he ignited a spark between my legs.

"I'm sorry," I gasped against his lips.

"Don't worry about it," he mumbled in return, moving from kissing my lips to my cheek, then my jaw, then the baseline of my jaw. I shivered when his hot breath whispered on my skin: "You feel like taking us somewhere else?"

I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist. He held on to my thighs, scooting me from the counter. Our lips still stealing kisses, he stepped back in small increments, trusting that I'd create a portal. I did. It took only a few steps for him to step through the portal and hit the edge of his bed, leaving us to fall over onto the bed.

Giggling softly, he pulled me up to sit. Our lips found each other again. My hands rolled down his chest until I found the edge of his shirt. His shirt found its way off, and mine did, too. My hands rolled over the divots in his abdomen, which sent a shiver down his spine. I smiled against his lips. I let my hands roam over his body. He kept his squeezing my thighs.

I turned my head to dodge a kiss. His lips smacked my cheek, and he tried to nudge my face back to connect my lips, but I stayed far enough away.

"Touch me," I said quietly. I kissed his collarbone. "Don't be afraid."

"I'm not," He panted. "I just.. I,uh, I don't know what to do exactly."

I leaned back. "Is this your first?"

Steve rolled his eyes and smashed his lips into mine. He took advantage of my surprise and his hands went directly to my bra strap, fumbling with it for a minute, before tossing it to the side. His kisses trailed down. I tumbled backwards onto the bed, barely enough time passed for my head to raise, and I felt his warm lips on my chest. My entire body clenched. I gasped with pleasure, throwing my hands into his hair.

"Off," I muttered breathlessly, grabbing his face and pulling him up to my lips. I had enough. I reached helplessly for the button of his pants and tore it, pushing them down.

Steve and I separated to pull off the rest of our clothes. I felt his hand on my waist, tugging me closer to him. I watched his eyes flow down my body, his eyes drooping with admiration. I could tell in the simple way he watched me exist that he loved me. He wanted to take his time with this.

"It's just like you're glowing," he mumbled. His calloused fingers ran from my thigh up to my hair, brushing through the ends that touched my middle back.

"I probably am," I admitted, kissing him once. "Being Agamotto and all that. I stopped aging. I'll look like this for my life now... Also kinda means I can't have kids, so..."

Steve laughed. "I can't just admire you for a little before it happens?"

I dramatically sighed. Smiling, I leaned my forehead against his. We sat for a moment, together, in our most vulnerable, intimate way, and I felt it. I felt love of the utmost passion. What I would do for him was endless. I would give up being Agamotto, I would lay my life down for him. We were never meant to be together. Steve was supposed to have lived a life in the 40s, I was supposed to be Agamotto, and no path existed where he and I worked. We operated on stolen time, but it brought such a ferocity and eagerness to our love that was different than anything I had felt before. I forgot of him when I left Earth, it was true, but seeing his face brought a hurricane of my emotions returning to my being. What I felt for him moved me, and thinking about it accidentally shed a single tear from my eye.

He flinched automatically as he felt it and leaned back. "Clara, Clara? What's wrong? What happened?" he whispered longingly. He started to reach for the blanket to cover ourselves with, but I laughed at him, shaking my head.

"I love you," I chuckled, hiding my face in my hands. I was so embarrassed, but I had to continue. "Steve, I love you. I don't know how this came to be, I don't know why this works, but you are my entire heart. I sit here and I'm crying because I can't believe how lucky I am to have someone that loves me so and to have that be you. Despite everything we've been through, you and me, our love never changed. It just deepened. And I just—"

"Clara?" he interrupted. He dragged my hands from my face. I stared at him, my lips in a pout. "I need you, now."

I didn't say anything more. Steve kissed my tear-stained cheeks until I laid down. I wrapped my legs around the backs of his thighs, he positioned himself above me, and we both nodded, ensuring we were both ready. He slid slowly into me. We shared a moan as he pressed his chest closer to mine, I reached around his body to grip his back, and from there, it only intensified.

I don't know how long it went on for. I know it was slow, it was careful. It was a showcasing of our love, a new exploration of it, by all means. The physicality of our relationship heightened at the same rate our mentality did. We shared a connection, emotionally, by the joining of our bodies. I knew then that what I had with him was truly real. I had no more doubts.

I loved him at the sky's limit. I always would. Earth held the most important being in the universe to me. I could never fully accepting being Agamotto with him in my life. I had a duty to protect Time, watch Space, but I had a duty to Steve just as much. I knew that now more than I ever had before.

Steve fell beside me. He spread his arms, tucking one underneath my head to pull me into his chest. We tried to slow our breathing.

I craned my neck to see him. "Good?"

"Amazing," he mumbled. He stared at the ceiling. His voice, his mind were far off in thought. "How lucky I am to be loved by you."