Lessons in Rule Breaking and Other Reader-Inserts*Steve Rogers*Reader*

Nothing but the Truth - Pt.1/8

"Don't be ridiculous," you added.

He frowned, dissatisfied, but then his face lightened up. "Come on. Let's grab a lunch-" you froze at the horror image of you coming back to the hellhole of cafeteria only about a half an hour after you giving them the super-awkward show. "-somewhere. I'm paying. What are you in the mood for?"

And he asked with such cute inviting smile, his eyes shining, that stupid green spark dancing in blue sea and you didn't even have the heart to point out that you hadn't crashed into anyone, but had in fact been crashed into, let alone to tell him no.

It ended in a lovely lunch date and it... kinda felt like a lunch date, his long fingers gingerly checking on your burned hand at one point which wasn't hurting at all anymore because he was your hero and... yeah, you might have been crashed into, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore that you had a freaking crush on Steve Rogers.

-.-.-

Thinking about it, the photo did make it look like a date as well. So, you didn't really blame that the tabloids plastered it over the front pages with Steve being who he was and him usually keeping his private life secured as Fort Knox. This was huge and would have been even huger if it wasn't one big misunderstanding caused by a ridiculous game of chance.

"It was, eh, a coincidence, honestly. One thing led to another, we had a little incident in the cafeteria-" Steve finally started to explain and you felt just the tinniest bit of the burden that had seated itself on your chest when you had been called into the small conference room disappear.

You had utterly and truly freaked out at the idea of explaining to Tony Stark and his PR why did every tabloid and some newspaper too now – only a day after, less than 24 hours in fact – thought that you were Steve's girlfriend. One of the reasons being that you were not running in the same circles as the Iron Man, not really knowing him, another one that at some point you would have to admit how stupid it all was, because hello? You were no one special. How had they even drawn a conclusion like that?

Eyeing the photo, you were reminded exactly how.

Steve could apparently be very tender when he wanted to, which was by some miracle visible in the photo and in return, you might have been looking at him like he was the eighth wonder of the world. In addition, he had a teeny-tiny soft smile on his lips and the way his brows knitted in concern was not helping the whole situation.

Speaking of Steve's tender fingers, they were connected to a large hand, to an impressive forearm and a massive bicep you had possibly dreamt about last night-

"Well, normally I'd say don't tell me, tell the PR," Tony smirked shortly and sighed. "But..."

Uh-oh. You did not like the 'but'. What did the 'but' mean?

"...but this in fact might be a blessing," Natasha finished, resigning to her posture of a disappointed mum and relaxing.

Huh?

You were confused to no end by their cryptic talk. Shooting Steve a look, you were slightly relieved to see that he seemed to share the sentiment.

He was also apparently at loss of words.

So were you, but you managed to stutter out two: "...what? How?"

Tony grimaced and with a motion of his hand, ten different faces, five different men and five women, each in an individual frame, paired up as the line of men was on top (rude) and the women below them, appeared in the hologram, replacing the infamous photo evidence of your supposed relationship with Steve.

You still didn't understand. And what Tony Stark said next didn't help either.

"Because we need your help."

-----Notes:
I solemnly swear I'll work on the fic I've been promising to finish for ages.

Eh, failed again.

For some reason, Smallville popped up in my mind recently (I blame Tom Welling's cameo in the mega DC crossover). This fic is inspired by episode 8x05 Committed, if it means anything to anyone :D

Also, fake dating was on my non-existent to-do writing list.

Enjoy and leave feedback if you're willing :-P