#kaithezaftig

Tonight was a pleasant surprise; Steve had come home early from his trip to Washington, D.C, and you two finally had a night together to catch up and relax. You loved the apartment the two of you shared in the Upper East Side of New York  City, and it felt even more like home when Steve was there with you. He had offered to take you out to a nice restaurant and a movie, but you had declined; you knew how tired he was after his trip, and even you yourself preferred a night in after the busy day you had at work. And so you had enjoyed a simple spaghetti dinner at the dining table accompanied with a nice red wine, sharing stories of your weeks and making each other laugh what seemed like every five seconds-- it was incredible how much he could boost your mood, whether you were tired, upset or even already happy to begin with.

He was now lounging comfortably in the bed in nothing but sweatpants as you stood before the mirror in the bathroom with the door open, your own clothing having come off long ago to be replaced by a simple black nightie. It had been hot in New York for the past couple of weeks, and being a part of a fashion magazine, you already took great care of your appearance as it was-- but you felt tonight you should give your skin a little extra love considering the humidity and heat it had faced as of late. 

You had just finished applying an oil-based cleanser to your face when Steve lazily strolled into the bathroom, the corner of his lips tugging upwards in amusement as he wrapped his arms around you from behind and rested his head on top of yours, looking at you through the reflection of the mirror. “I was going to tell you to come get in bed already, but then I realized you were doing your skincare routine and I decided I didn’t want to wait three hours until I saw my pretty girl again.” You blinked and laughed, nudging him with your elbow. “Stop being so dramatic, it takes, like, thirty minutes tops, and that’s only when I use a face mask.” He chuckled lowly and pressed his lips to your hair, arching a brow as he murmured, “And are you using a face mask tonight…?” You barely bit your lip somewhat sheepishly before tilting your head up to look at him defensively. “It’s been hot, and sweat isn’t good for your skin, okay? We can’t all have flawless looks like you, Steven.” You referred to him by his more formal name as you did when you were "scolding” him, and he laughed as he hugged you tighter. “Hm. I don’t know about that, baby, because you always look pretty flawless to me.”

You rolled your eyes fondly, playfully wrinkling your nose at the cheesy remark though you genuinely appreciated it, and you knew he knew that. “Okay, okay, let’s make this fun for me too, babe. I’m going to guess which one you use next. God knows how you even remember the order of all of these things,” he shook his head playfully as his blue eyes flickered over the several little containers of products you had on the counter. You blinked before giggling softly, looking up at him again and nodding your head. “Okay. You’re going to fail miserably, though.” He scoffed in playful offense, taking the bottle you had just used and setting it aside before rubbing his chin thoughtfully. 

“Hm.. wait, tell me what you used just now.” 

“An oil-based cleanser. Is that really going to help you?”

“Hey, you never know!” he laughed, biting his lip as he moved to stand next to you to lean in and eye each product closely. “Uh… okay, I think this one is next.” He picked up the toner, looking at you hopefully. Chuckling softly, you shook your head. “Nope. Do you want another guess?” He sighed playfully setting it down, reaching over to pick up your eye cream. “This one?” You shook your head, smiling fondly. “That one’s practically at the very end!” Seeing that this would probably take a while, you reached over yourself to pick up the water-based cleanser, showing it to him. “It’s this one. It’s water based instead of oil based, so it helps clean any residue from the oil,” you explained, then couldn’t help but laugh at his confused expression. “Then why did you put the oil on to begin with?” he asked, and you playfully smacked his arm. “Because it’s good for your skin! Here, you know what-- let’s just do this together.”

Before he could respond, you applied some on your hands before standing up on your tiptoes to rub the product into his face, a giggle escaping your lips upon his expression- he reminded you of the photo of a cat you had seen online frozen in confusion and distress upon having aluminum foil placed on its head. “Come over here and sit down,” you instructed, putting the toilet seat down so he could sit on the soft covered lid. “And stop looking like that. I promise it’ll feel good!” He blinked and chuckled upon being called out, obediently going over and sitting down. “Okay, but the others can’t find out about this,” he said playfully, raising an eyebrow. “Tony would never let me hear the end of it.” You laughed and went back to the mirror, applying the second cleanser to your own face before picking up your exfoliator, spreading it across your hands before coming back over to him and working it over his skin, massaging his temples along the way. “Wow,” he mumbled lowly, closing his eyes, “maybe this does feel kind of nice….” You smiled triumphantly, teasing, “I told you. Don’t worry, babe, I’ll write up instructions for you so you can do this when you’re away, too.”

_________________________________________

“So there’s just, different face masks for different… skin things.”

“Yes.”

“What’s this one for?”

“It hydrates your skin.”

“What’s in it?

“Aloe.”

“Is it--”

“Steve! Enough, already! This is supposed to be relaxing!” You playfully cut him off, looking up at him and lightly pinching his nose to make the mask press more against each side. The two of you were lying on your backs in bed with face masks on, having gone through the other previous steps of your routine. He barely bit on his lip, trying his best not to grin too widely since it would mess up the mask. “Baby girl, how do you still find a way to look so cute even with that on your face? I probably look like that guy from Scream.” He adjusted himself so that he could wrap his arm around you, your head now laying by his chest as a little smile crossed your lips. “You kinda do,” you teased as you glanced up at him, “but you get to look good all the rest of the time, so this is only fair.” He sighed playfully, squeezing your side. “You’re going to inflate my ego way too much, you know that? And then maybe my big head won’t look so good.” You chuckled and shook your head, murmuring softly, “You could never get a big ego, and you know that. You’re too good for that.” Glancing at the time, you sat up and slowly removed your mask before reaching over and taking his off, smiling as your eyes fell over his handsome facial features. Leaning in to give him a soft kiss on the lips, you murmured, “Doesn’t your face just feel clean? Rub the rest of the liquid in.” He immediately grinned against your lips, kissing back before obeying, his large hands reaching up to massage the excess material into his skin. “Okay, it does feel great, I’ll give you that. I can see why you do this.” 

Suddenly, he had you lying back on the bed again, a mischievous smile on his lips as he now hovered over you and murmured, “But now that we’re all done, I want my baby cuddled up to me in bed with some lame movie on the TV that we can drink hot chocolate to and make fun of. Sound like a plan?” He playfully covered your face in kisses, making you squeal as you giggled. “Okay, okay, but--” you bit your lip as you looked up at him, batting your eyelashes innocently, “-- don’t kill me, but we have one more step to go….” He blinked as he looked down at you incredulously, though clearly amused. “What? I swear, we used every single one of those bottles in there. There’s more??” You laughed and playfully pushed him off, jumping out of bed and grabbing his hand to pull him out too. “You can’t go to bed without moisturizing, Steven! That’s absolutely unheard of!”

A dramatic groan escaped his lips, but he was still grinning as he got up, sighing as he wrapped his arms around you from behind to follow you into the bathroom. “Of course, how could I even think to do something so filthy? Okay, okay, but the second we’re back in bed, we’re not getting out until I say so. Got it?”

(gif credit here)

“You can’t be serious, Steve.” You groaned, slipping on your mask. “Why do you think I like Sam or Bucky? They’re my teammates. And you are my boyfriend.” You put on your gloves and made sure that you could move properly in your new suit. 

“I’m your teammate too, (Y/N). Doesn’t mean anything. You spend all last week with Buck making your new suit, and Sam helped train with you too. You barley came over to my room when you were done too, so I’m feeling a little left out.” Steve went over the past two weeks of your life, starting to get on your nerves. 

“Because they’re my friends, and Bucky’s suit has all of the same things mine does, he was helping me upgrade it. You were in mission briefs all week, what else was I supposed to do? I needed to train and Sam wasn’t doing anything. You know he’s good at combat.” You told Steve, trying to get him to calm down. He seemed a lot more jealous recently, but you two didn’t spend much time together in the past few weeks. It just made it worse that you were spending that time apart with his best friends.

“You could’ve waited--” He started but got interrupted when FRIDAY called out that you were approaching the jump point. “We’re gonna finish this later.” He told you. 

You narrowed your eyes and crossed your arms, looking over at the mission sheet. “Wait, who’s partnering with who?” You asked, surprised he didn’t pair the four of you up earlier. 

“There’s three of us, choose one,” Steve said, crossing his arms to wait for your decision. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” You muttered, looking to Steve and then to his two best friends. “Steve-” 

“Come on, we can go in together. It’ll be easier to carry her rather than metal arm over here.” Sam said, putting on his goggles. 

Steve looked to you and hummed, opening the drop door to the jet. “Okay then,” He said and Bucky followed him out of the jet. You groaned and walked with Sam to the drop door. 

“Don’t let me fall,” you said before Sam took you down to the building’s roof. You got to a hatch and opened it, following the plan that you had gone over on the way here. 

It was all going fine until you heard a large boom come from the room over, followed by a wave of smoke and fire. “Sam!” you called out, asking if anyone was in there through comms. When you only got static, you walked slowly towards the door. You put your hand on the handle and turned it, silently thanking Tony for making your gloves heat-resistant. “Steve? Sam? Bucky?” You called out, wandering throughout the smoke-filled room. 

“Oh, sweetheart, this is so unfortunate.” You heard as the voice filled the room, the smoke dissipating around you. “You fell for it, I didn’t think a super spy would be coaxed by a false explosion.”

“Then why did you…”

“I wanted to test it, and now you’re not going to get out of here alive.” The voice said, a man appearing from the door. “I hear you’re pretty important to Captain Rogers, so maybe I’ll use you to lure him here...” You looked around, seeing multiple exits you could take, realizing that you weren’t even tied up. You could easily get away, especially since he was doing a classic villain monologue. You slowly made your way over to the door you had come from, only to have it disappear as soon as you touched it. 

“Oh, you really thought I would say all of that without having you tied up? You passed out the second you walked into the room.” The man said, walking in front of you. Your eyes widened, trying to get out of the restraints. “Maybe you need to be a little more battered to make it seem direr.” He spoke, creeping towards the chair. 

You cringed as you tried to get out of the restraints and they tightened around your arms. “You’re insane, you can’t hurt me.” You tried to stall him, get him to talk more as you thought of a way out. You didn’t feel the comms in your ear anymore, which meant he must’ve taken them out when you were passed out. 

“Oh, of course, I can. I have all these tools here.” He said, bringing over a tray. You tried to think back to the multiple ways that Nat taught you to get out of this situation, but every time you tried something, another restraint tightened or you got shocked. This chair you were stuck in was near impossible to break, which made it worse when he neared your body with a weapon that made you struggle even more. 

***

“Now go on, call out to him,” The man said, holding the knife up to your throat. 

You winced as you shook your head, trying to get the breath to tell him that you weren’t going to do anything. You felt the knife break skin, giving it a small cut but nothing compared to the other injuries on your body. You felt your broken ribs, sprained wrist, the cuts and bruises on your face, a busted lip. Anything from the waist up probably didn’t look good, since he couldn’t do much with your legs tied to the chair. Your ankles, however, most likely had terrible bruises if not burns on them. “Call out to him.” He said again, not asking but telling. 

“St-Steve.” You called, using the energy that you had left. He had turned up the smoke in the room again after he put on a mask to cover himself. It was draining your energy quicker than the blood loss could. The man grabbed the comms and told you to say it again, and when you did he crushed it underneath his foot like some kind of further torment. 

“And now, I get to watch as the two of you claw for life.” He said, laughing as he walked out of the door. You heard a ringing as the door shut, followed by a real bomb going off. 

“(Y/N)! (Y/N)! Are you in there? Are you hurt” Steve called out once the dust subsided. You could hear the building rumble as you tried to get out of the restraints again. 

“I can’t breath.” You said, wincing at the pain in your lungs as you inhaled the smog around you.  

“Alright, alright just hang on. I’m coming for you, don’t move.” He called out, making his way through the wreckage. 

You tried your best to stay awake and conscious, but the blood loss and the smoke was starting to be too much for your body to handle. It was going to shut down to preserve your life any minute now. 

You felt your eyes well up with tears not only because of the amount of pain you were in but because you were thinking this may be the last time you see Steve. And the last thing you did before this fight. 

“Hey, (Y/N) I’m right here.” He said, covering his nose with his sleeve to keep him from inhaling the smoke. He held up his shield and cut the restraints from your ankles and arms, giving you a small amount of relief. 

“St-Steve... The building... It’s gonna…” You started but he cut you off. “You gotta save your energy okay? I’m gonna get you out of here.” He said, wrapping his arms around your waist. You let out a cry of pain and clutched onto him. 

“Broken... Ribs..” You muttered, shaking your head in the slightest way when he asked if he could carry you. 

He set you down on the ground in what seemed like a stable part of the building, for now, to try and help with the pain so he would be able to carry you out. He pulled out the shot that they were given in case something like this happened, putting it into the side of your arm. “I wish I could do more but until this kicks in, we can’t go anywhere.” He said, sensing that if you were put in any more pain you would pass out, possibly not wake up again. 

“Just smile, I really need to... see your smile... right now.” You muttered with staggered breaths, eyes opening and closing in a slow tempo. You could see the water build up in his eyes as he gave you a small smile, shaking his head. 

“You have a long time to be able to see my smile, doll.” He said, cupping your cheek as gently as he could. “You smile now, please. Just stay awake.” Looking into your eyes, he leaned his forehead against yours. 

You gave your best attempt at a smile, but it came out as a pained cringe. You grabbed onto your stomach and winced, clenching your jaw from the agony caused by your rib cage. “I can’t…” Your voice faltered as your hearing started to change into a constant ringing. 

Steve’s muffled voice was the only thing you could hear as you lost consciousness, “Don’t close your eyes on me...” 

***

It had been days, too many for Steve’s liking, that you had been asleep. Bruce said that it was a miracle you were still alive. Partly because of the shot Steve gave you that kicked in right in time to keep your vitals strong enough to get you to the med bay in time. It still didn’t help the fact that you were in a bed with a heart monitor attached to you, an IV in your arm, and a cannula around your head to give you stable oxygen. 

Steve barely got sleep, staying by your side until Bucky had to drag him out so Bruce could run a few more tests. He had finally fallen asleep at your bedside just as you woke up. You took a few shaky breaths as you opened your eyes, the low beeping of your heart pulling you out of the deep slumber you were put in. You looked over to see Steve clutching your hand in his as his head was on the bed. You didn’t know how much time had passed, but you could tell he didn’t get enough sleep anyway. You tried your best to not wake him, but he had barely fallen asleep and was on edge already. 

“(Y/N)?” He asked with a sleepy voice, seeing that you were awake. “(Y/N)!” He said happily, raising his head to yours and kissing your forehead. “You’re awake. God, you’re awake and you’re okay.” He said and squeezed your hand, making you wince at the amount of pressure he applied. “Sorry, sorry.” He said and loosened his grip. 

You gave him a small squeezed, raising his hand and kissing the back of it. “There’s the smile I wanted.” You said, giving him one that he wanted as well. 

You heard his soft chuckle, the sound giving you a small amount of energy you needed to lean up and kiss him softly. “You know that you’re the only man that I love right?” You whispered against his lips.