Monster

I paced back and forth in my freshly cleaned living room as I waited for Rogers to arrive. I had spent the afternoon furiously scrubbing the place all over again to keep my mind from wandering and my nerves from taking over. I hadn’t seen Rogers all week, and the only contact I’d had from him came from that one visit with Wilson and various texts from Romanoff as she explained our cover story.

We started dating when Rogers was transferred to DC from New York. We met at a café I worked at before switching to the diner. Agent Romanoff had been bothering Rogers to find a girlfriend, he asked out the lowly waitress who was just the right amount of sweet and old-fashioned that the good old Cap looked for in a girl. Then we apparently got caught up in an on again off again secret romance.

Rogers was prone to running off on missions and not wanting to drag me into his problems, and this was supposed to explain why Barnes hadn’t seen me until now. This would also explain to any of Rogers’ possible tails why they didn’t know about his “secret girlfriend.”

So because of his tendency to disappear I was supposed to be accustomed to him showing up on my doorstep every once in a while all bloodied and bruised and apologetic. I would always quickly forgive him, though our relationship was strained. According to Romanoff, we were those “broken souls” who “found comfort” in one another

Rogers’ apartment had been wrecked when Director Fury was assassinated. His new place was surrounded by government officials. He didn’t think it was likely that Barnes would try to contact him so close to so many spies, but he was good at sneaking away and so a few nights every week he would spend at my house. He would come over, and we would show our affection at the front door, cuddle in front of the TV, and then go to bed… in my bed, which was much too small for him in the first place. However, we were all hoping Barnes didn’t question why we were never going to sleep naked.

Not that Cap wasn’t really attractive or anything like that, just that sex wasn’t part of the job description. Not to mention I was quite certain that he could care less about it at all, let alone with a stranger he only met for the sake of this false environment. And that wasn’t even bringing up the mystery girl in New York either.

Rogers was known for being punctual and the minutes were ticking toward his expected arrival. Prior to this night Barnes would have no idea that I existed at all. There was a minuscule chance that he might have seen me at the diner with Wilson, but it was incredibly unlikely that he would be following Sam. And he wouldn’t have gotten much from that meeting anyway, except that Sam talked to a waitress that would later be revealed as Rogers’ girlfriend.

The doorbell rang at precisely nine o’ clock. I hadn’t acted since drama class in high school, and I hoped that I played the part right. I was supposed to be sweet and gentle, but I didn’t know enough about Rogers to know if sweet and gentle was his type. I shook out my fingers and stood up to get the door.

“Steve,” I said in mock surprise when I found the man standing on my front steps. He gave me a half-smile, but it lacked warmth, and it seemed like he still hadn’t slept very much. Although he’d styled his hair again.

“Hi,” he replied softly.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry… for being here so late. And not calling,” he said in an overwrought voice that suggested he was uncomfortable by this whole act. “I just… didn’t want you to get involved.” Now it seemed like he was reciting a script. His words seemed forced and I hoped Barnes didn’t have enough memory of him to know he was a terrible actor.

“I figured you were part of it,” I said quietly as I held onto the door. “Everything that happened, I mean.” He gave me a nod and looked into the house expectantly.

“Yeah, can we talk inside?” I nodded and stepped back to let him into the house.

Notes

God, please don't hate me? There was so much of this story I had to build up before Bucky came. I'm so sorry. I did not realize the extent of it when I started out.