#folklorewrites

Steve can’t sleep, not that it’s big news that he can’t sleep but he just can’t. He’s slept for too long. His room is too big and too quiet. Even his goddamn bed is too soft. Lately, he’s been put through the paces in training and that helps him pass out from exhaustion but even at times, that’s not enough. Though training isn’t all that bad, far from it. He’s got a partner who’s got a few powers of her own. They’re a hell of a whole lot different from anything he’s ever seen but it seems that’s just par with the course in the future. Daisy is a damn good partner, tough and quick -- funny too. She’s got a lot of attitude and Steve finds that pretty amusing. It makes all this academy stuff a lot more interesting when she’s there beside him. It also helps that on their downtime she’s helping a lot with all this new future stuff.  Daisy is handy with a computer and Steve’s a quick learner. They’re really just trading the tools of their trade. Steve helping out with teaching her combat and she helps him with well --- everything that is a step above a radio.  Steve pushes up out of bed. The clock reads somewhere close to 2 am. He should really try to get a little more sleep but Steve doesn’t think he can. His fingers are already itching and his blood starting to pump with the idea of heading down to the gym for a few rounds at the punching bag. Stark has been working on prototypes to try and make on that Steve can’t break. If anything he’s being useful at this odd hour and helping Stark out with this challenge he’s presented. Steve decides to slip on a shirt as he packs up a few things for the gym if he was to see anyone he’d like to be a little decent. With his shoes tied on and sweats tugged on he heads out of his room and heads towards the gym. Steve thinks Fury had something to do with his room placement being so close to the gym, but he’s not complaining. It’s a short walk to the fully equipped gym and Steve is thankful for it. More often than not these late-night workouts are because he’s got too much on his mind that he doesn’t want to think about. So a short walk doesn’t let him do that.  However, as Steve shoulders his way into the gym it seems he’s not the only one here for a late-night workout. He recognizes Daisy the moment his eyes land on her. Steve smiles a bit to himself as he tosses his gym bag down. “Can’t sleep either?” He asks her, but as Daisy continues her set and doesn’t acknowledge him, he frowns. It’s only a few moment’s later that it dawns on him. “Earbuds.” He mumbles to himself. Is he a little stupid to take this as a teaching moment when he knows her powers are still a bit out of control? Yes, he is but that doesn’t mean all that much to him. There isn’t a need to be quiet when she’s got earbuds in but he is careful not to cast a looming shadow over her that would let her know it was him. Instead, he crouches down a bit as he approaches her, hand coming to rest on her shoulder. It’s a quick reaction from there. Steve dodges out of the way of a swing as it comes his way, laughing a bit when Daisy all but rips her earbuds out of her ears. He gives an innocent shrug as the woman scolds him. “How else was I supposed to get your attention? Someone has to keep your senses sharp, and maybe it’s the 40′s talking but I’d leave one earbud out.” Daisy isn’t the only agent who listens to music while she works out. In fact many do. It rubs Steve the wrong way most of the time. They’re losing one of their most vital senses and unless they’re like Barton and don’t have the choice he thinks they should be listening to their surroundings at all times. But he digresses, Steve won’t bother her with his soapbox tonight. “Can’t sleep?” He asks again, knowing this time she’s heard it. He doesn’t get much more than a shrug in response and it’s a bit suspicious. Daisy liked to talk, not that Steve ever minded, but the quietness isn’t something he’s used to. For a while, he’s okay with the quiet, gives it up to the late hour but the longer it stretches the more Steve grows antsy. He waits until he breaks the first bag to actually break the silence. He watches the beans spill out on the floor before sighing a bit. “I don’t think Stark’s gonna like that I broke this one faster than the last one.” That earns him a bit of a laugh but nothing more. “Alright -- enough of the bags let’s have a little one on one.” He motions for her to follow and thankfully Daisy doesn’t seem to hesitate.  The sparring is quick-fire. Both of them already awake and full of adrenaline from a previous warm-up. He’s careful with her as he always is, despite having powers that doesn’t mean she’s not prone to being hurt by actual hits by him. Their goal is to strengthen and perfect and not harm. It’s going well until Steve decides to kick it up a notch. He catches her fist easily and they both know what he wants. “You can’t hurt me. -- Try a little bit.” Expect the problem with that is she’s got no control. Her little bit is suddenly sending him flying across the room, back colliding painfully with the brick wall. The air is knocked from his lungs but nothing more than that. He pushes himself back up to his feet, brushing dust from his shoulders. “Don’t let me touch you, but don’t send me into the wall. Just stop me,” Steve tells her from across the room. Daisy looks a bit hesitant but seems to gear herself up. Steve tries to rush her and well -- she does send him flying into the wall again. Yet again, Steve rises back to his feet. There’s an ache in his back for a moment but the next moment it’s gone. “Again.” And they do this for hours it feels like until Steve can taste copper in his mouth. “I’m… I’m trying. I really am.” Daisy sounds defeated and Steve can’t have that. “Hey -- I know you are,” Steve speaks softly, a fond smile appearing on his lips. “You aren’t sending me through the wall anymore and that’s progress in my book.” He laughs a bit before reaching out to gently rest his hand on her arm in comfort. “It’s gonna take time, can’t deny that but you got the most indestructible punching bag on earth cheering for you.” He gets a bit more of a laugh from her and that makes Steve feel all the much better. With the rising sun, Daisy is the one to suggest breakfast and there’s no way in hell that Steve can refuse breakfast. Steve is confident that one day she’ll have perfect control over her powers even if that day is not today. Maybe then he could convince everyone else to let her join the Avengers team. 

Steve hates paperwork. He swears he hates it, yet somehow he’s always the one who is stuck doing it. Well, it’s not somehow he knows why he ends up doing it. Steve is seen as the ‘leader’ of the team, though anyone who is on his team knows he is far from the leader. That is all on Natasha’s shoulders. But most of the world and a lot of shield sees him as the head of the avengers and with a super soldiered brain, his memory is pretty damn good (as long as it pertains to things before the ice). So the long hours of paperwork and debriefing often land in Steve’s lap and he really doesn’t feel like he’s got the authority to say no. Besides, if he has to pull an all-nighter to finish it, it wouldn’t affect him like his other team members. If Steve wanted he could go several days without sleep and hardly be affected. He just doesn’t want to take that chance and possibly put his team in danger if he’s missing out on his five hours.  Though the longer he types away on this keyboard, the more it seems like he might actually have to stay up for a while longer to finish this damn mission report up. Clint had passed out hours ago at this point and Steve will get a bit of revenge in the morning during work out -- run Clint through his paces claiming he got plenty of sleep he should be well-rested enough to have an intense morning work out. Many would see that as cruel and unusual punishment, Clint included no doubt but that’s just how they work. Their relationship is easy. It’s fulling of teasing and impulsiveness that nearly gets them both killed but has them laughing in the process. In fact, their whole relationship was created because of impulsiveness.  Steve was not usually the one to initiate things like this. He’d never truly been in a real relationship. Back in the 40′s, he had a few... flings with a few of the dancers after receiving the serum and even once in the 2000′s there had been a few women and men here and there but nothing stable. He didn’t see himself as the stable relationship sort of guy but Clint is the exception . He’s the exception in most things, even to shield. Steve’s always felt a bit of a connection to Clint because Clint gets it. He gets the impulsive nature, the need to put everyone before yourself, and the little self-regard. So was it really a wonder that the two became connected quickly? He hadn’t been thinking when it happened. Tony had called over comms that Clint wasn’t responding and Steve hadn’t cared if he was the closest or the furthered from him but there was no way in hell that Clint was going down in this mission. Upon racing to the last known location of the other man, his hearing aids had merely been busted and comms with them. The relief was so overwhelming that Steve had dropped his shield carelessly to the floor and pulled Clint in for a kiss. His train of thought is interrupted when a blanket is carelessly dumped over his head. Steve laughs a bit as he carefully pulls it off his head before turning around in his seat to see Clint standing there, sleep rumpled and bleary-eyed. The other male’s voice is accusatory as he asks why Steve isn’t in bed yet and he can’t do anything but smile. “I’m finishing up these field reports. -- Ya know the ones I told you I was doing and you called me a sucker for getting roped into them?” He grins a bit as Clint shakes his head as if he doesn’t remember. Steve knows he does. He sighs a bit before turning back around in his chair, facing the computer once again. “I’ll be there soon, go back to bed Clint.”  Steve expects to hear footsteps heading back to the bedroom but he doesn’t. “You’re going to be standing there for a while.” He begins typing on his computer again. There are a few minutes of silence where Steve starts to wonder if Clint has fallen asleep standing up. He doesn’t get to turn around to check before the blanket is once again dumped over his head.  “I will roll you up in this blanket if you don’t march your butt to bed right now.” Arms wrap around Steve’s shoulders as Clint speaks and Steve can’t help but laugh once again. “That’s an empty threat, Barton.” Clint seems to take offense to that and the edges of the blanket begin to wrap around his upper body. Steve’s hands scramble up to try and pull the fabric away from his face, Clint’s laughter muffled by fabric over his head. There isn’t much more Clint can do to wrap him up, he’s far too big for it actually wrap him up like it was intended but Steve’s gotten the message. Until he comes to bed he doubts he’ll get any work done. “Alright! If you take the blanket off I’ll come to bed. I’ll let you think you’ve won one.” As the other starts to peel the blanket from his body, Clint threatens to make him sleep on the couch. “You’d have to beat me to bed for that to happen.”  It’s a challenge and they both know it. Steve knows tomorrow they’ll have neighbors banging on their door for their loud footsteps that trample down the hall but at this moment he doesn’t have a damn care in the world.