#marveltrash

·         Who screams obscenities during football games:

Neither of you really watch football games? Until it comes to a Super Bowl Sunday, when you drag him along to a party thrown by a neighbor friend who you don’t see nearly enough of anymore since you started dating Harry. Harry is surprisingly personable with the people at the party (not that he’s not personable, but you were a little afraid he’d take to ignoring the party in favor of his phone) and at one point, he even offers to go buy more beer when it’s nearly gone at halftime. He and the guy downstairs who you once asked to help you move in some new furniture go to the corner store and your neighbor pulls you into the kitchen to talk about him, like Harry can hear you guys all the way down the street while you’re still in the living room.

“So, he’s the reason you’re not coming home, huh?” she asked teasingly, nudging you. You smile bashfully and shrug.

“You’re lucky,” she tells you, “So lucky. If he has a brother, you’d tell me, right?”

When Harry and the guy from downstairs come back with probably more beer than the party needed, you can’t help but throw your arms around him and squeeze tightly. When he laughs and asks what’s with the hug, all you do is shrug.

Who hides in the bushes and scares kids on Halloween:

Harry does, and you keep look out to make sure he doesn’t jump out at any little kids. Then again, you’re helpful when a precious 11 year old dressed up as a pirate decides to fight back and you have to pull the kid away from Harry, who’s laughing. The two of you spend the rest of the night in after that and you refuse to let him next year.

·         Who wears nothing but flannels from September 1st til Christmas:

You do! You tried to get Harry to get to wear them when you’re out and doing stuff outside of Oscorp, but he just seems stiff and uncomfortable in the overly-casual clothing. He just complains about them, and even though they’re collared shirts, which are what he always wears, they’re not right. Instead, the shirts that you bought him became your new lounge wear when you two were home and he seemed to like that much more.

·         Who tries to carve jack-o-lanterns but accidentally crushes the pumpkin:

Neither of you have a great amount of luck with jack-o-lanterns. You’re the one who accidently punches holes in the pumpkin, and Harry’s looks like it was done by a six year old. You’re too busy trying to get your carving knife through the pumpkin that you don’t notice you’ve pretty much cut a huge chunk out of it until it collapses in on itself. As for Harry, despite the fact he’s so precise, his pumpkin’s face is lopsided and the lines are jagged. Eventually, the both of you get so frustrated that you throw them out and he declares he’ll just buy the jack-o-lanterns from now on.

·         Who clings to the other and whimpers their way through the haunted house:

You cling to Harry like no other because you didn’t even want to go into the haunted house in the first place. He pulls you close to him as the two of you go through the house, which was his intention in the first place. Except it’s a little weird he’s laughing the entire time but you’re too busy screaming and clinging to him to question it.

·         Who rakes the leaves:

Neither of you. You live in a city. There’s not enough trees for you to do that. Though, it’d probably be Harry if there were. He really likes stuff like that. He claims it helps him turn his brain off for a little while.

·         Who jumps in the pile of freshly-raked leaves:

You tug Harry into a pile of leaves the first time you see it that season, and it very quickly turns into a cute little make out session that you continue until you get yelled at. The two of you laugh and Harry climbs out of the pile and tugs you up with him. The two of you start to head out of the park, hand in hand, but you don’t make it far before Harry’s hand slides into an empty pocket and you have to go back to get his phone out of the pile of leave. You stand there for a minute before nudging him back into the pile with your hip, laughing as he pulls you back in it too.

·         Who checks the Halloween candy for poison and syringes:

You both take the candy checking duty because you can never be too careful. You’ve both seen firsthand how gross and horrible people can be so when it comes to your kids, too careful is never actually too careful. They’ll come to complain about it when they’re older, but you’re doing it because you love them.

·         Who got drunk and inappropriate on the hayride:

Harry. One hundred percent Harry, and it takes you by surprise when his hand starts creeping up your thigh and when you go to grab it, he tightens his hold on your waist and starts whispering filthy things in your ear. Your eyes widen as he goes on, glad that it’s dark and that no one sitting across from you can see the blush creeping up your face. You bite your lip and decide Harry’s going to pay for this later.

·         Who went as Batman and who goes as Robin:

Even though you tried so, so hard to go as Batgirl, Harry eventually wears you down and you go as Robin. He looks surprisingly good in the Batman costume, but every time he tries to do the Batman voice, you burst out laughing.

·         Who went as Sonny and who goes as Cher:

Harry’s taller, so it makes sense that he goes as Cher. He ends up taking far too much enjoyment in the dress and the wig. You actually have to throw the wig away. Though, Harry ends up throwing your Sonny mustache, which has been stuck to the headboard of the bed (and freaks you both out when you rub up against it in the night) and in the end, it’s really for the best.

·         Their couple costume this year:

This time, luckily, you had actually heard the door open. You heard it shut and the rustling of Matt moving around in the rest of the apartment. When you heard the kitchen sink turn on, you sighed before calling out to Matt again.

“Matt!” you called, though your voice came out as more of a whine. You made a face, but groaned again when you went to move and felt a sharp stab in your stomach. You closed your eyes and slowly shrunk back into the position you had been comfortable in. When you opened your eyes, Matt was standing in his doorway, loosening his tie with one hand and pulling off his sunglasses with the other.

“[Y/N], what are you doing still in bed?” Matt asked, sitting down on the bed next to you; hand out just to make sure he wasn’t going to sit on you. “I figured you’d be out doing stuff by the time I got out of court.”

“I don’t feel good,” you mumbled, reaching out to wrap your hand around his wrist and pull him more towards you. When you were sick, all you really wanted was comfort, and right now, that meant having Matt close. You tugged at him until he took the hint and after a bit of shuffling, and some more sharp pains that you grumbled about, you were laying your head against Matt’s chest with his arms around you. Without having to ask, Matt seemed to know that it was your stomach because he went to rubbing small, soothing circles into your stomach. You let out a content sigh, already feeling better, if only because your boyfriend was there to comfort you.

“I’m going to die,” you mumbled against his chest. You felt the rumble of his laughter in his chest, and he pressed his lips to your forehead.

“You’re going to be fine,” he chuckled, “I promise. It’s nothing serious, just a sore stomach.”

“How do you know?” you grumbled, looking up at him and pouting. You watched as the corners of his lips jerked upwards and he shook his head, changing the direction of the circles he was still rubbing against your stomach.

“Because if it was more serious, you would have called someone else hours ago,” Matt stated, “And because you ate an entire pizza by yourself yesterday. You kind of did it to yourself.”

“Shut up!” you exclaimed, sticking your tongue out at him. It was partly because he couldn’t see it that made you comfortable enough do something so childish. That and you were too sick to do anything else in retaliation. “Jerk.”

“You said the exact same thing when I tried to stop you eating the entire pizza,” he laughed, shaking his head.

“I like pizza,” you mumbled.

“I know you do, dear,” he sighed, pressing another kiss to your head. “We can just lay here for a little, if you want.”

“Yes please.”

Matt smiled, and your heart fluttered. No matter how many times you saw it, Matt’s smile would always make your heart skip a beat. It was just so…cute. He was just so cute and lovely and he was seriously just going to sit in bed with you and rub your stomach. You had to admit that you had to be one of the luckiest girls in the world because you had your man, Matt Murdock.

Stupid New York City. Stupid roommate. Stupid last minute party invite. Stupid!  Stupid! Stupid!

The heels of your mary janes thud loudly against the sidewalk as you stomp from the bus station to your apartment, Goodwill bag swinging next to you with each (admittedly over dramatic) step toward the building. The halloween season has always been a favorite of yours, but ever since you moved to the city, there just hasn’t been the extra time or money to celebrate how you want. It has already been a stressful week, add to that a bus home from work that’s a half hour late and, surprise! Your roommate texted you on your way home that the two of you are hosting a costume party tonight with absolutely no warning to you.

Thankfully, with a quick mental scan of your current wardrobe and a shockingly easy trip to a few thrift stores, you managed to throw together a decent Cher Horowitz costume. If it weren’t for the fact that you saw the atrocious yellow plaid number from the Goodwill window, you’d more than likely be shit out of luck right now.

When you get home, you try to put aside all that your roommate has done to annoy you so far. Yes, she should have told you about the party sooner, but Halloween is your favorite holiday after all, might as well enjoy what you can.

“I’m home!” You shout to the empty living room when you get home, “how long until people show up?”

“I’m in your room!”

Suspiciously, you furrow your brow and head to your bedroom to find your closet light on, but the door closed. The bag is dropped on your bed and you stare at the door, but still don’t question her.

“Oh you look so handsome! Go find mama, go! Go! Go!” Her chipper voice gets louder when she flings the closet door open and your golden retriever bounds out happily wearing a lopsided, slightly ill-fitting, Captain America costume.

“Oh my god!” You can’t help but giggle at the sight. The dog jumps into your lap and you just barely dodge his excited licks and attempted nips of greeting, shoving him off you in protest.  “Shadow, I love you but you’re too big to be a lap dog!” He just looks dumbly up at you, tail thumping against the floor rhythmically.

“C’mon!” Your roommate jumps up and runs out of  your room, “get changed, we’ve got a party to throw!”

-----

“Hey! Have you seen Shadow?”

The music is pumping loudly through the apartment, the bassline rattling the furniture. There are sure to be noise complaints from the neighbors tomorrow, but thankfully none of them are the type to call the cops. The throbbing in your head is almost meeting the beat, and your roommate has managed to stuff the entire block and then some into your tiny apartment, making the air thick, hot, and hard to breathe. You can hardly move anywhere without bumping into or stepping on someone, and you know highly populated, high energy situations like this can be stressful to your dog and you want to check on him. Someone more than likely mistook your bedroom door for the bathroom, though, because the door was no longer closed, keeping him inside and he was nowhere to be found in or around the bedrooms.

Slurring, your roommate speaks up, “yeah he um, h’was by the coat closet last I saw.”

When you go to check on the coat closet, however, is when you notice that the front door is almost a foot ajar. Breath catches in your throat, and with a huff you’re grabbing your purse and running through the halls, hoping the door to the building hasn’t been opened since he got out.

At the bottom of the stairs, the door to the smoking patio is propped wide open. Of course. Not even anyone outside to ask if they’ve seen something.

You don’t know which is heavier; your sigh, or the knee high boulder propping the door open when you push it aside to make sure the door is closed safely. The best thing to do now is go looking, hope he hasn’t gotten far.

-----

“Shadow!”

You’re already a few blocks down the usual path you take him on walks, hoping if he went anywhere it would at least be somewhere familiar. No luck as of yet. Calling his name seems to be doing nothing but what else would help at this point?

Upon reaching the end of your walk route, a small park nestled between a bookstore and a cafe, you heave another sigh and land heavily on the bench nearest the cafe.

Once more, “Shadow!”

A man in a red suit exits the cafe, drink in hand, and sits next to you. The logo on his chest boast a lowercase “i” and a black mask obscures most of his face, but he clearly is handsome underneath it.

“You know, I half expected a young Peter Pan running around looking for their shadow, not a breathtaking, uh,” he gestures to your outfit vaguely with a gentle laugh, “I’m sorry I have no idea who you’re dressed as. Don’t let that dampen the compliment, though.”

“Mr. Incredible, huh? Like you’re one to talk about costume choice,” you joke. The man just shrugs and laughs again. “I’m supposed to be Cher. Not the singer, the main character of Clueless.”

“Not sure I’ve seen it. “

An involuntary gasp forces itself from your throat, turning into a laugh rather quickly, “you need to. It’s a classic.”

Grinning, “I’ll add it to the list, now,” he nods toward you once with that same charming smile, “you want to tell me why you’re calling out for your shadow into the night?”

“My dog,” you avert your eyes to disguise the blush that is making its way to your cheeks, “my roommate left the door open and he got out. Can’t find him anywhere.”

“Now that just won’t do. What kind of dog are we looking for?”

“No you don’t, I mean, I’m fine,” you mentally curse yourself for stumbling over your words, “You don’t need to worry about it, you probably have plans.”

“I did,” he stands and turns to offer you a hand up, “it was to drink my coffee, and to take a walk in the park. What difference does it make if I’m shouting a dog’s name every few minutes? So again I ask, what am I looking for here?”

“Golden Retriever, he’s more of a light haired golden than most.”

He winks and turns on his heel to walk back in the direction you came, “now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Oh!” You call, jogging to keep up with his fast pace, “and he’s wearing a Captain America costume.” The man practically chokes on his drink and you laugh, rolling your eyes. “It’s ridiculous, I know.”

“Not at all.” Despite his words, he continues to laugh and shakes his head.

After about another hour of looking, you begin to lose hope. It’s a big city. A big city with lots of smells to chase and wandering kids who are just begging to use the ‘he followed us home, can we keep him?’ line. It gets cooler, darker, and quieter but still you keep looking, calling the dog’s name as the two of you walk further into the city. You’re so close to giving up hope, the heartache starting to set in as you make another round in the park near your house.You try not to cry, honestly, but this situation is stressful and your dog is nothing less than your best freind, so you soon find yourself sniffling and biting back tears, trying to hide your emotions from the total stranger helping you out.

“Hey have you looked--” He starts, turning to you and stopping when he sees the look on your face, he speaks up again, softer, “hey, he’s going to be okay, I promise. I’m not going to leave you alone until you find him, either.”

Your lip trembles, your arms crossed tightly around your torso and eyes trained on the ground, too embarrassed to look at him. “You don’t have to. I’m probably taking up too much of your time, anyway.”

“Never!” A low laugh rumbles in his chest, “you know why I was out and about tonight?” You shake your head weakly, he continues, “my...coworker is huge on parties. The man goes wild, invites the whole city and then some, you’d think. I always go, you know because it’s Halloween! Or someone’s birthday, Christmas, New Year, Arbor Day...Saturday…”

That gets you to giggle, looking up at him quickly but immediately back to the ground when he looks your way.

“I never stay long, though,” he shrugs, “I’ll mingle a bit, have a drink or two if he really insists, whatever. What I really enjoy is the people watching out on the streets, where it’s not all high-class bozos whose idea of a good time is looking down on those less fortunate. I don’t know, there’s just something truly amazing about going to a park and seeing people play with their kids, an old couple still cuddling together on a bench after all those years, the pretty girl looking lost and yelling something crazy about shadows into the night sky...it’s just one of my favorite things to do.” He smiles down at you and you pretend that he can’t see your blush in the darkness. “You’re not wasting my time, ma’am. You’re making it more enjoyable if anything.”

“Well, if you insist, I suppose,” you giggle and bump into his shoulder with your own. Another teasing response is about to leave your lips when a blur of red white and blue runs across the street to you. “Shadow!” You gasp loudly, crouching to hug the dog to your chest tightly. His tail thumps against your feet and he struggles to lick at your face from your grasp. This time, you let a few tears fall from happiness, not caring if anyone noticed. “Don’t ever do that to me again, you dummy!”

The man laughs above you as you fish the dog’s leash from your purse and clip it to his collar, jumping up quickly with glee and facing him with a huge smile. He doesn’t quite expect you to lunge forward and hug him tightly (just as little as you expected to be met with such a hard chest and tiny waist under that costume) and he stumbles back slightly in surprise.

“Thank you so much for helping,” you mumble into his chest, still hugging him.

“It was my pleasure.” You let him go and he smiles down at you, offering his hand, “I’ll even walk you home, if you’ll let me. Free of charge.”

“I mean I guess. If it’s free.” You take his hand and swing it lightly between the two of you as you turn back toward your apartment. “I never caught your name, by the way. How am I ever going to retell the tale of the handsome stranger who rescued me and my dog if I don’t even know his name?”

“Oh it’s, uh, it’s Steve.” He reaches up to take the mask off, “Steve Rogers.”

At first, you hadn’t really minded it. Spending your weekends in Harry’s penthouse, looking down at the city below that was blissfully unaware of what the two of you were doing so high above, was exhilarating. It was nice to have a secret, and it added something to the appeal. It wasn’t so much that he was the high profile type of guy that meant he had to keep these things a secret, but it was more of the fact he was, in all technicalities, your boss. Even if it was his company, it was still probably frowned upon. So, you kept all flirtations to private moments in the elevators in the morning, those moments he’d text you to meet him in the access staircase or out on the roof, or when you were at his place.

But it was getting old. It was stupid of you, but you were developing real feelings for Harry, and you found yourself getting to be less and less okay with things. You could understand not flaunting your relationship (and it was definitely that, judging by the reaction he had had when he came in to your co-worker flirting with you. the texts had been less than pleased) but never mentioning it at all? It was starting to hurt.

Harry had sensed it too. That’s when the lavish gifts started. The clothes, the jewelry, and the little inconspicuous things that were left on your desk were all plenty sweet, but they didn’t exactly help. You didn’t need them, you knew he cared but you couldn’t help but feel like maybe he was ashamed of the two of you together.

You were working at your desk, going through files of research for something that would help solve the problem at hand when your phone went off. Instinctively, you reached over with one hand, still typing with the other, and grabbed your phone. As your eyes were still glued to your computer screen, you managed to knock over the basket full of your favorite candy that Harry had had sent to you. You glanced over at it, shrugging before you unlocked your phone. You found it was from a familiar string of emojis (how you had Harry in your phone)  and sighed before you read the message:

Are you mad at me again?

You made a face, looking around even though you had no reason to be worried that anyone would catch on and then typed out a response with one hand:

I’m never mad at you?

You had only just sat your phone down back down on your desk to go back to your research when it buzzed again. Sighing, you decided to let it sit there for a moment because you really did have work to get done. Harry managed to keep your boss off your back when he distracted you without too much suspicion, but you still felt back. You got paid to work, not flirt with Harry all day.  After about half an hour, it buzzed again and this time, you stopped what you were doing to look.

You had a look on your face again this morning.

It was followed by:

Can we meet on the roof? I’d feel better if we talked about this in person, and I’d feel better if I were late to the board meeting for a reason.

You chuckled, imagining the look on his face as he had typed the message out. He always had that same look on his face when he mentioned board meetings. He’d scrunch up his nose and his brows would knit together and it was a strangely endearing look on him. You’d usually press a kiss to that scrunched up nose, and then one to his lips to distract him from what he was talking about. There were times he was just too serious for his own good, and usually those times involved him talking about board meetings.

You quickly typed out a response for him.

We can meet on the roof in ten. Just let me finish my train of thought and do some my own work for once!

Your response was answered with the wide-eyed blushing emoji, followed by two hearts. Taking that as his agreement, you quickly scrambled to gather your thoughts onto the open notes file on your computer, referencing the research results you had open and up on half the screen. After exhausting everything your brain had to say, you slid your phone into your pocket and stood up from your desk. You were almost at the elevator when your boss called out your name.

“[Y/N], where are you going?”

“I was…going to the bathroom,” you told him, turning around to face him, chewing on the inside of your lip. You and Harry had been sneaking around for the better part of a year now. You’d have hoped you’d get better at lying about where you were going, but it hadn’t happened yet.

“Bathroom’s in the other direction,” your boss stated, eyeing you suspiciously.

“I prefer to use the bathroom on the thirty-third floor,” you explained, blushing slightly. “It’s considerably cleaner, and they said I was welcome to use it as long as it stayed that way.” You looked at your boss, who stared you down for a second before nodding.

“Don’t take too long,” he sighed. “You’re already behind.”

You nodded, scurrying away to hit the up button on the elevator. You quickly slid in as the doors opened, hitting button thirty-three and backing yourself to grab onto the railing. The elevator shot upwards, and you held on to stay standing. You bit your lip, waiting for the doors to open before you could exit. It always moved so fast, but the doors were always so slow to open. Once they were, you exited, headed immediately to the right to take the access stairs the rest of the way up to the roof. Making a mental note to say you went to the bathroom on the floor closer to the roof next time, you climbed all the way up to find Harry was already out there waiting for you.

“I was starting to think you forgot about me,” Harry said as he caught sight of you, a familiar easy smile appearing on his face. You didn’t see him smile often outside your time together, which was probably for the best because it made your heart flutter and forget all the other things in your head. It amazed you that after a year, just the sight of his smile made you feel so silly.

“I didn’t forget about you,” you sighed, taking a spot next to him on the bench where he sat. “I’ve just been busy with work and as my boss reminded me when he asked me where I was going, I’m behind.” Harry made a face, reaching out to take your hands in his.

“If he keeps asking questions, I’ll just have him moved,” he told you absentmindedly, rubbing the back of your hand with his large thumbs. He looked down at your hands for a while before he spoke again. “You’re mad.”

“I’m not mad, Harry,” you said immediately, shooting him a look. He looked up at you, confusion written all over his face.

“You haven’t looked happy in a while, [Y/N]. That’s why I’ve been sending you stuff to your desk and everything else…” he trailed off, “I thought they’d help, but you always have that same face when we’re not…” he trailed off again, seemingly trying to find the right way to phrase what he was about to say.

“Together?” you offered and he nodded. You looked at him for a long moment before you tugged one of your hands free of his to instead rest it on his cheek. “Harry, you make me so happy. When we’re together, it’s so wonderful, but…the whole secret thing is getting hard. It was so fun at first, us having this little thing. But we’ve gotten a lot more serious in the last year, and I…just. I don’t know. It’s so much harder to keep a secret that I’m in a relationship with the man that I love. It’s even worse when we sneak around Oscorp. The thing in the elevator today, pretending it didn’t happen. It sucks,” you explained, feeling embarrassed that you couldn’t just accept this whole thing for what it was. You felt wrong to complain, but he had asked and you’d never lie to Harry.

“So, we stop sneaking around,” he declared, giving you a look of determination.

“Just like that?” you asked incredulously. You went to pull your hand away from his cheek but his free hand reached up for it, keeping it there.

“Just like that,” he stated. “Well…not just like that, but listen. We’ll stop sneaking around outside work. Stop just spending all the time at home. We’ll go out, be more open about things, and we’ll figure out what to do while we’re at work. In theory, no one can really say anything because I’m…me. But I understand the concern for you and your job. We’ll figure it out, [Y/N]. I promise.”

You stared at him, amazed. “It’s that easy?” you asked. “I mean, you’re the one who suggested we do this whole, secret thing in the first place.” He shrugged, turning to kiss the palm of your hand.

“I’ll admit, it’s easier to not have everyone know our business, but if it’s making you unhappy, we can stop trying so hard to hide it,” he stated. “It’s not worth losing you. I love you too much for that.”

You smiled, leaning over to press a kiss to his lips, which he returned greedily. His hands left yours to hold onto your face, deepening the kiss. The two of you stayed tangled up in each other for a while before a constant buzzing in his pocket distracted you both enough that he pulled apart. He sighed heavily, his forehead pressed to yours.

“I should go to the board meeting, huh?”

“Probably. You should also probably move my boss or he’s going to fire me,” you told him. “It’s probably been too long for a bathroom break.” He chuckled quietly, pressing his lips to yours again before pulling his phone out of his suit pocket.

“Done,” he said, opening up his email. “Just go back down. It’ll be fine.” You waited for him to finish sending the email before you stood up, holding your hand out to him. He took it and the two of you headed for the roof access door, stopping to kiss each other one more time before he held the door open for you and you headed in and down the stairs to catch the elevator.