The Soldier's Goddess

"How was Hawaii?" Natasha asked Phil the next day over breakfast. Ok, so technically it wasn't breakfast time, it was 2pm, but bacon was a breakfast food, and seeing as no-one even attempted to stir before mid-day, they were counting it!
"It was so warm," grinned Phil. "I just don't think I could thank S.H.I.E.L.D. enough for saving me. Fury tells me I was right on the brink of death, before they whisked me away. They apparently didn't realise how bad I was initially, but once the full extent became clear, I was rushed to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base in Hawaii, where I was told to recover for as long as I needed. I landed in New York a couple of days ago."
"Show her your scar," said Clint, cramming two slices of toast into his mouth at once. Phil stood up, and started to lift his shirt.
"No, no it's ok," cried Natasha quickly, as Phil sat back down, laughing.
"Do we have any pizza left from last night?" Kari mumbled, wandering into the open plan kitchen in pyjamas, her hair tied back hastily.
"Fridge," said Natasha.
"Oh god, don't tell me you're going to eat that," groaned Clint, looking disgusted. Kari took a huge bite out of a slice of pepperoni and extra cheese.
"Oh my god, do you know how much bacteria is on that?" said Bruce, walking in with his first coffee of the day, looking surprisingly awake for the situation.
"Nope, but it's so tasty," grinned Kari, taking another large bite, giggling as Clint grimaced.
*****
"What's that you've got?" Natasha and Pepper were pouring over a book.
"Trying to sort out the Stark Industries New Year's Eve party."
"Um, Nat, you know it's the summer at the moment," grinned Kari.
"I know, but if we don't get started now, it'll be a nightmare, Tony always wants to go overboard," sighed Pepper.
"Ok, what can I do to help," asked Kari, grabbing a chair. They sat like that for the next few hours, and when they finally emerged that evening, the wheels were set in motion for everything. They just had to get the castle booked - Tony loved to go all out and had come in halfway through to convince them a castle would be perfect for a New Years Eve party. After an hour and a half, Pepper finally caved and gave in to him. But she had to admit, a part of her was starting to look forward to it now.
*****
"Can I have a word, babe?" Steve pulled Kari to one side. She looked at him questioningly; the poor guy looked nervous.
"Are you ok?" she asked, starting to get worried. He took a deep breath, rubbed his forehead and sighed heavily.
"There's something I haven't told you. I - I can't dance." Kari burst out laughing and Steve pouted, looking pretty offended.
"Oh sweetheart," she said, taking his face in her hand, "I was worried you were telling me that you were leaving me for another woman or something.." Poor Steve's eyes widened in horror, as he stammered that he would never do that, he couldn't dream of hurting her like that. "Sshh, it's ok," she soothed, stroking his face, "I know you wouldn't. I just panicked, that's all. So you can't dance, it's not a problem."
"Are you sure? This New Year's Eve party is going to have a lot of formal dancing, and I don't want to show you up."
"I'll show you how," Kari smiled. She took him by the hand and they went down to the conference room on the 50th floor. "JARVIS," she called to the computer.
"Yes Miss Skaarsen?" JARVIS replied.
"Can you please play the Blue Danube Waltz on repeat for a while." The music came on over the speakers and the two of them moved the chairs and tables to the edge of the room, leaving a clear space for dancing. The room must have been half the size of a football pitch as it was, so there was plenty of space!
"I remember this used to be on in the dance halls when I went out with Bucky," Steve smiled, then his face fell a little. Losing Bucky like that was still hard to think about. He came back to the present with a smile and turned to Kari. "Ok, I'm ready."
"Right, the more formal the dance, the further apart we have to be." Steve looked at her. "Honestly! I know what I'm doing. Ok, so the waltz, simplified, is a sort of box step to the beat of '1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3' and so on." She took his left hand in her right, and placed his right hand on her waist. He looked into her eyes, and smiled. He felt confident he could do this.

Things went well for the first three and a half minutes, but Steve panicked suddenly, looked down at his feet, just as they were starting to speed up a tiny bit, headbutted Kari, stood on her foot, and the pair fell to the floor. Kari was the first to start laughing.
"Never mind," she chuckled, standing up. "Let's start over." Steve couldn't believe how patient she was with him. Well ok, he knew she was a patient person, but anyone else would start getting annoyed after they had been trodden on 36 times in less than an hour. After a while, neither of them noticed anything other than each other. They were so wrapped up in each other's gaze, dancing round the room, that when three heads, belonging to Tony, Clint and Bruce, peered through the large window to watch what was going on, it went completely unnoticed. In fact the only thing that either of them noticed was how much they wanted to kiss the other. Steve bent his head down and grazed his laps across Kari's, moving away, teasingly each time. She grinned and the next time he bent down, she pressed her lips on his, hard, passionately, hungrily. The sharp intake of breath from him confirmed she had hit the spot and they both stayed like that for a moment. When they finally pulled away, resting their foreheads against one another, Steve didn't open his eyes. Instead, he opened his mouth, just a little and whispered,
"I love you." The words flooded through Kari's body like melted chocolate and warm marshmallows. This was the first time he had said it, and she knew he meant it.
"I love you, too," she whispered back. She couldn't say anything else, even if she wanted, because his soft lips came crashing down on hers in relief that he she hadn't laughed at him, and love, so much love for the woman in his arms. The woman he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Notes