Song: Nima Fakhrara - the garden.
Imagine; you have a heartfelt conversation with someone who understands you.
The last one in my drafts!
See you soon in the new book tho!
•••
Steve sees it happening more often than not. He's the only one who seems to notice it happening. Maybe he just recognises his own actions in yours. When you try to muffle your ears with your hands at the same moments he feels the urge to do the same.
Or when you suddenly turn your head, he remembers doing it frequently before going into the ice, even after he just got out of it and had to get used to his body again.
That's just a small top of the very large mountain of signs you give out. Him being the only receiver of those signs, he wants to help you. Because he knows how destructive this can be.
•••
'Hey Cap...' you greet him with a small frown.
Sure Steve's a great friend in and outside of work, but he never asked Friday to order you to come downstairs. He sure as hell never requested to go swimming together before.
'I must say I was a little surprised to hear Friday say that you wanted to meet me here... after I told Friday not to disturb me...'
'Yeah, sorry not sorry...' he smiles at you funny.
'Steve what is going on? You're kind of creeping me out here...' you scold him a little.
'I... okay I noticed something... I noticed it because I myself used to have trouble with it, it's called sensory overload... I got it after I had the serum...'
'Steve...' you sigh. 'I appreciate your worry... but I'm fine-' you get caught red handed. The damn car horn from down the block rings through your ears so loud that it makes you visibly cringe.
'Like I said... I noticed something...' Steve continues. 'And I may have a way to help you cope.. doesn't work for everyone but it does for me.. and since we have the same serum flowing through our veins, there's no harm in trying...' He offers you his hand.
You gently take it before he pulls you to the edge of the pool. 'Now what?'
'Get in... and we will go from there..'
'You do know how wrong this sounds right?' You chuckle and he smiles at you before shaking his head.
He gives you a push, making you end up in the lukewarm pool before jumping after you. Steve pops back up next to you with a small smirk.
'Now all you have to do is lay on your back, your ears beneath the water and let the water do it's job..'
'And what is its hob exactly?'
'It absorbs the sounds, so you can get used to those sounds at a lower volume first, and then build up from there...' Hé explains before getting in position himself.
You copy his movement and end up staring at the ceiling, ears underwater like he told you.
Truth be told, you don't expect much from this, it's not the first thing you've tried. Up until this point, you've tried almost everything, and every attempt failed miserably. Sometimes you just wish you could go back to the way you were before the serum, almost completely deaf and using sign language to communicate, it's so much easier than getting used to this many sounds.
Sometimes you wonder if what you're hearing is even real. You can hardly sleep at night, hearing the creaking of the pipes through the compound, mixed with the water running through them. Sometimes you hear Tony tinkering away in his lab, when he drops the tools it makes your ears itch. The same goes with the team, you love them to death but they can be so loud, without even realising it.
But at this very moment? You hear the rustling of the water, you hear bubbles. You hear all those sounds from outside but.. softer. That car horn is now actually ten times softer than a few minutes ago.
You close your eyes and take a deep breath. This is the most test you've had in a while. It brings tears to your eyes, that sudden volume drop means a lot more to you than Steve realises.
Steve keeps an eye on you, he may have accidentally almost drowned the first few times he handled the noise like this. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in ages, so when he finally got the rest, he fell asleep.
He can see the small satisfied smile spreading on your lips, your brows still furrowed. He reaches for your hand again, you gladly take it.
You stay like this for a moment before Steve gently pulls you up. You both swim towards the edge and push yourself up.
You sit down, your feet still in the water. You wipe some water from your face before turning to look at him.
'Thank you... it did help...' You rasp.
'Good...'
'So Uhm... how long did it take you to get used to hearing everything?'
'A while... I too struggled with going from almost dead to hearing the pipes creak in the walls... amongst other things... when I got that serum, I got sensitive to almost everything...'
'Really?'
'Yeah...' he nods. 'I finally could breathe normally, Peggy said that when u got out of that machine, it looked like I had done some of those army stimulant drugs...' He chuckles at the memory.
You chuckle with him, you must've looked the exact same way when you woke up after the serum got injected.
'Basically every medical diagnosis I collected over the years were suddenly cured...'
'Thats not too bad... I mean I'm back to hearing everything, I used to be deaf, hearing aids and all... I barely used my voice...I mean I shouldn't be complaining at all...'
'Is that why you don't speak up about it?'
'Kinda, yeah... I mean not everyone is lucky to get this serum... or even survive it.. I feel like I shouldn't speak up about this because.. I should be thankful..' You glance up at him, he gives you a small nod.
'Me too... mainly at parties, I envy everyone else, they can get drunk and enjoy that small period of time that they're careless and happy... we don't really have that...'
'No we don't...I can't even handle a stupid party.. I can't even enjoy seeing everyone else drunk... everything is so loud...I sometimes wish... no I shouldn't say that-'
'Say it...' Steve softly replies.
'I sometimes wish I would still have hearing aids... so that when I wanted them quiet I could just turn it off... that sweet silence is something I never knew I'd miss sometimes...the water did give me some of that back...'
'I'm glad it works for you too...and if you ever want to talk about any of this again.. you can talk to me... we're not that different when it comes to that serum..'
You give him a soft smile. 'I'll keep that in mind...'