#warpilct

HE CALLED HER SUNSHINE. Lilli can't fight the smile, which rather ruins the soft pout.

"My face is ALWAYS cute, Steve. I can't HELP IT."

No. Steph shrugs, pulling the blanket around her tighter, but maybe she was just holding herself together.

“Sure, why not.” Normally, she doesn’t have any qualms being mean, and if Steve PUSHED, she’d have no problem meeting him with sharp words, but as yet, he hadn’t done anything wrong. He knew where to find her about 50% of the time. It’ll become clear to her in the next few minutes whether that was a GOOD thing tonight.

"Y'know what, your resistance is enough to tell me that you know that I'm right, and THAT is almost as good." Check and MATE, Steve.

She KNOWS she's strong. She knows it because she has MADE herself strong, and she knows that there's no-one to put the blame on but herself for the image she gives. But right now? It would be nice to not have everyone EXPECT strength from her. It would be nice if she didn't expect strength from herself, too.

She looks at him to listen to him speak, trying not to look TIRED, even though she was. Her expression softens a little, but closes her eyes, as if that would quiet his words. She doesn't open them to shake her head, biting back a sigh before speaking.

"Just tell me that I don't HAVE to be strong. That I can break and fall apart and that I'll be okay if I do."

Her hand TWITCHES, but she keeps it there, in his, and after a moment Steph even returned the gesture, relaxing a little and squeezing his hand. But that meant sacrificing eye contact. It's easier to focus on their hands than his face, but she listens to him speak.

"Maybe..."

let’s put this in their MAIN VERSE, which is mostly canon compliant;

    - steve isn’t around a lot, that’s just the nature of his job. she spends a lot of time at her boss’ office and, of course, steve’s house. … THEIR house. or she’d be with etta, be that at her office or anywhere else, the two women spend a lot of time together. the topic of steph moving into steve’s place is only brought up once, but the topic of steph and steve’s relationship being more than it appears comes up a lot more. etta is the only one who knows just how WORRIED steph gets about steve when he’s away ( this doesn’t help the are you sure’s that come when steph insists they’re just friends ).                  - steve doesn’t know just how much she worries about him when he’s away. he knows she DOES worry, but just not how much. and he doesn’t know that one of her greatest fears is her loved ones dying.       - steph wants to travel, that’s her BIGGEST thing, and before the war, she gets to a little. after that, however, it’s made impossible. steve knows about her desire to see the world, and when he comes back from foreign places, he often brings back trinkets. steph keeps these in boxes, organised by continent, and she can often be found poring over her own notes from before, or books, doing her best to put together an image in her head.      -  the first time the two meet is professional enough, her role as a cartographer’s secretary leading them to work together more than once in the future, and her first impression of him was literally: “He’s pretty, he’s charming and he’s a man. I DON’T TRUST HIM.” And as much as she does put him through his paces, in the end, he respects her and treats her as an equal and she really can’t pretend she hates him any longer. it is unknown how long she makes him think she doesn’t trust him after she does, but it’s obvious to both of them and anyone around them that she enjoyed his company.     - the first time steve tried to make her a cup of tea, she let it go cold. the second time he made her a cup of tea, she forgot about it. the third? the cat knocked it over. there are very few people steph trusts to get her tea right, and over time, steve does learn her particular brewing habits, but steph does have to show him a couple of times before this happens.

BONUS:    “i wouldn’t have hated ending up with you."                   "in another life, i wouldn’t hate it either.”                                     that’s it. that’s all. i just had to put it here bc u know what? not over it.