7/30/16, 1:12 AM
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I discovered that I had slept through my alarm when I woke up at one pm. Usually, the sun would have woken me which seems super corny, but there was none because there was a massive thunderstorm going on. "Oh, fun." I yawned sitting up but stopping immediately at the pain.
I needed a shower.
I slipped out of my bed, retrieved some new underwear and loungewear that included a pair of gray short pajama shorts and a black tank. I went down the hall to the bathroom, not bothering to check on Steve. He was probably asleep and I didn't wanna wake him.
Venturing into the bathroom, I nearly screamed at the sight of myself in the mirror. "Oh my god, it's hideous." I covered my mouth. My hair looked hit and I looked like shit.
I slipped off my wrinkled dress without much ease and stared at myself in the mirror. The bruises were ugly and large like I'd predicted they'd be.
I sighed and popped some painkillers before hopping in the shower and washing my mess out.
Once I got out, I brushed my teeth and washed my face deciding to leave my hair natural in its huge curly state.
I quietly walked farther down the hall to the living room but stopped on instinct at the sight.
Steve Rogers shirtless. It was absolutely gorgeous. "Oh," I said slowly, catching his attention. He paused putting on his black shirt just at the right time and the way he looked at me hit me in just the right spot. "Um..." I shook my head to remove all of my shameless dirty thoughts. "Hi, Steve." I nearly laughed.
He continued to pull on his shirt that seemed to mold against his body. "Good afternoon, Rachel. How long were you standing there?"
I folded my arms and raised a playfully suspicious eyebrow. "Why, was there something else that I needed to see?"
His eyes widened and he started stuttering. "N-no I don- I mean--"
"Kidding, Steve." I giggled softly. "Listen, um..." I rubbed my arm. "Can we talk?"
"Of course." He said, sitting on the couch. I took a seat on the sofa chair that sat close by it. We sat in silence for a few moments while I was gathering my thoughts. "Can you..." I looked up at him. "Can you tell me everything?"
He looked down. "There are some things I can't tell you."
"So tell me the things you can. I just want to know what's going on. Please?" I pouted slightly.
He stared at me for a few moments before sighing. "I was assigned to your case last November. It was a pretty minor case back then, it was before SHIELD figured out that you were the only one of your kind."
"Who could read the stone?" I inquired, leaning on the arm of my chair. I was beginning to put it all together.
He nodded. "You were already identified as a working polyglot without your powers so when your case began escalating in priority level, Fury thought it wouldn't hurt to keep you out of the loop for as long as we could."
I was quiet for a moment. "What was your part in this? I mean what was your job if you couldn't even make contact with me?"
Steve shifted in his spot on the couch. "To learn as much about you as humanly possible. This position we're in, it was practically inevitable."
I raised my eyebrows. "To learn as much about me as humanly possible, huh." I quoted. "How did that go?"
He looked down with a small bashful expression. "It was...interesting."
"Oh?" I inquired, curiously. I pulled my bare legs into the chair with me.
"I mean to say...you're interesting." He attempted to correct himself as so it didn't seem offensive to me, but I smiled. It was adorable.
"Why thank you, Mr. Rogers, I like to think that about myself as well. So what exactly do you know about me?"
"Ask me something about you." He said.
I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you sound confident. Okay..." I leaned forward with a determined smirk on my face. "Date of birth."
"July fourth, '90. Independence Day baby." He answered without hesitation, a small smirk playing on his lips. "Says you, Mr. Red White and Blue. From what I hear we're birthday twins." I smiled. "What a coincidence."
He smiled too, giving a shrug. "Give or take seventy years."
"Yeah well, there's that. Okay." I crossed my legs in my chair ready to give another question. "Birth name."
"Liberty Blair Bennett." He sat back with his grin. I gave a little playful grimace. He shook his head with a small laugh. "I don't understand, why did you change it? I don't think Liberty sounds too bad. It's kinda cute." He shrugged.
I snorted. "For you maybe. It's like naming a Valentine's baby something like Love or something. I mean Love is prettier than Liberty but still. It's just not my favorite day. It's over jingoistic." I looked at his shield in the corner of my eye. "But then again who am I to talk."
He gave an amused grunt and I shook my head. "I used to get bullied for it in elementary school. Once this boy called me Little Miss Stars 'N Stripes and that's all everyone would call me for two weeks. They uh," I chuckled at the memory. "They spray painted my locker with the American Flag."
Steve raised his eyebrows. "That's horrible."
"Actually," I tucked some curls behind my ear. "Now that I think about it, it was actually pretty cool looking. I was an angry kid though, and I ended up..." I looked down and began running my finger over my knuckle. "Breaking that little bitch's nose," I mumbled lowly, hoping he wouldn't hear. He did though.
"You were a really violent kid weren't you..." He said, slightly alarmed. I shrugged and continued to run my knuckles. "I was a disgruntled child, as it happens."
There was a sudden bright flash of lightning and the lights shut off. Steve looked startled and I groaned into my hands. "God damn it..." I muttered.
"What happened?" Steve asked, looking up and around.
I stood up with a sigh and walked over to a closet where I found my red toolbox. "Power outage. The building just installed some new kind of tech for maintenance last month and I'm the only resident who knows how to reset it so I'm like the temporary electrician." I said, slipping on my little gray bunny house slippers and getting my phone and keys off of the counter. "C'mon."
Because I lived on the ninth floor of my apartment building, we had to go down ten flights of completely dark stairs since the power was out in the elevator.
We reached the basement and pushed open the door to the Electrical room.
"Who's that?" A voice rang out from the dim red emergency lighting of the room and I looked up and around. "It's Rachel, Mr. Spinelli. I came to check out the wiring." I walked towards the older Jewish man who looked relieved to see me. "Rachel, I'm glad you're here. Listen you know how it is with these wires, they-- they're so new and--"
I chuckled. "It's fine Mr. Spinelli. It should be a piece of cake." Y'know unless it wasn't.
He gave a curt laugh. "I'm sure. Calvin is already down there looking at it. Between you two, it should be up and running in no time."
"You bet." I nodded before continuing down the long passage of panels and tanks and pipes. It was like something out of a scary movie or something, eerie in the dark red light.
"Cal?" I called out, unable to find my way on my own and occasionally bumping into Steve.
"Over here, Ray." His voice guided us past a few more turns of twisty tubes and to the main electric panel which Calvin was inspecting.
Calvin Fletcher was my neighbor two doors down and he was sexier than a mother fucker. He was German, 6'2 and hella stunning especially with the prettiest blue eyes you could see on a guy and blessed with a jawline so sharp that it could cut me. He had a man bun-- a beautiful beautiful golden man bun and a nicely trimmed beard. This man came out of my dreams. Foreign, beautiful, and a fucking genius.
"Hey, neighbor," I said casually strolling over with my toolbox and Steve again trailing behind me curiously.
The man lowered his flashlight from the panel and gave me a dazzling and charming smile then looked back at the generator box. "Rachel, hey. Um, I think a wire got knocked out or something."
I looked up at where he was flashing the flashlight and grimaced slightly. It was kinda high up and we didn't seem to have ourselves a ladder in this dark damp place of a basement.
"Hm," I said slightly in thought. I would have Steve do it but even with his height he still probably wouldn't be able to reach it. Plus I'd have to walk him through it and I wasn't the best at that. There was another option.
I looked back at Steve who was doing Stevely things. "Steve, can you give me a boost?"
He gave me a confused look and I looked back at Calvin who had just noticed Steve behind me. "Oh, Cal this is Steve, a friend of mine. Steve, this is Calvin, my neighbor."
Steve wasn't very recognizable without all of his patriotism attached to him and the lighting was very dim so there was a large chance that Calvin wouldn't recognize him. That was good.
"Oh. Hello." Calvin nodded with a small wave and Steve returned it. "Hi."
"Alrighty," I said between their awkward silence and I handed Calvin my toolbox. "Hold this please."
I pulled Steve over to where Calvin said the loose line was and using precise cheerleading technique I had gotten from my years in high school, I was sitting on his shoulder with his arms wrapped around my legs to keep me steady.
"Do you see it?" Calvin asked up at me as I pointed the flashlight at the large electrical wires above the long generator box. Sure enough, one of them was loose. "Uh huh," I replied. "Wrench please." I let my hand down so Calvin could hand it to me.
As I fixed the broken wire, below me the boys seemed to be trying to start a conversation starting with Steve most uncasually saying "So...you like baseball?" Which made me giggle at them once or twice.
"How's it going up there?" Calvin asked.
"Al...most..." I tightened it one last time before the regular lights came flickering back on. I smiled triumphantly. "Done."
Steve grabbed my hand to make sure I didn't fall as I slid off of his shoulder, his arms cradling my hips and my stomach as my feet touched the ground. I was sure he didn't mean to touch my body like that, but I wasn't gonna lie to myself when I thought oh yeah.
I smiled at Steve who avoided looking at Calvin who was looking at him kind of funny but I didn't bother with it.
"Well, that's fixed." I ran my finger through my conditioned curls.
Calvin looked at me and gave a comfortable smile. "Quite nicely." He said and I shivered. It certainly could have been because I was only wearing a pair of lounge shorts, a tank and a pair of slipper boots, but I highly doubted it. I mean a girl between two very attractive men had an excuse right?
"Right, well um..." I paused a bit bashfully. I was never the best at the game. "Well, I'm...we're gonna go back up now." I pointed backward.
He chuckled and Steve beside me looked down at me with a small eyebrow raised.
"Right." I turned to walk away but he called me making me freeze. "Rachel?"
I turned slowly. He held up my toolbox with an amused smile. "You forgot this."
"Right," I said sheepishly. Steve went ahead of me to grab it himself, making me pause. "Oh," I said as he nodded at Calvin who looked confused but nodded back and began walking back.
"Uh..." I looked back at the direction he left in confusion. What was that all about?
Calvin who was looking too chuckled. "Nice, but odd man." He then creased his eyebrows. "He does... Look familiar. I wonder if I--"
"You don't." I blurted. "I mean I'm sure you don't he hasn't been in Brooklyn for very long." That's a lie he's been in Brooklyn since like the 1920s come on.
Calvin gave a question mark expression. I cringed and without any other words, I turned and followed after Steve who was waiting by the door. I pushed the door open and walked ahead of him so he couldn't see how red-faced I was.
"So are you and him..." I could tell he was trying to look for a word that described a romantic relationship. "Involved?"
I pressed the button for the elevator and hid my face by turning away from him, my face becoming hotter and hotter. "No," I answered quickly. "Why, are you jealous?" I bit, trying not to come off as flustered as I was.
He didn't answer and I looked back at him. He wasn't looking at me.
I bit back a grin. Jealous.
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2468 Words.
8/10/16, 2:20 AM