Pairing: Steve/Peggy (or any pairing of your choosing with Peggy) + College + Road trip. :)
Sorry this took me so long, HonorableEmily! I hope it meets with your approval.
Peggy hummed along in agreement with Angie’s outrage over the phone, waiting until the other woman was done to add in, “I think you handled it perfectly. Let me know if – Oh hell.” Her gaze was fixed on a small sign she hadn’t noticed in the window of the gas station until right this moment.
“Pegs? What’s wrong?” Angie’s voice brought her back to herself and she shook her head, hopping off the hood of the car.
“I just realized that someone in the gas station is with the Friends of Humanity. I sent Steve in by himself.” She peered through the grimy window, sure enough, Steve was scowling up at a man over a foot and a half taller than him. “I have to go, Ange. I’ll call when we’re back on the road.”
“Okay, English. Go knock out the mutant-hating scum and save your boyfriend. Call me if you need bail money. Though I’ll have to send it with Buck or Nat, I’ve got work tomorrow!” And with that cheery ending, the other woman hung up.
Peggy stuck her phone in her pocket and headed inside to rescue her maybe-they-were-maybe-they-weren’t boyfriend from the cashier.
***
Steve shot her a warning look from the driver’s seat when she removed the soggy bag of peas that he’d bought her from her knuckles.
She rolled her eyes and pointedly put them on the ground at her feet. “They’re defrosted, Steve. My hand feels fine.”
He made that exasperated clucking noise that she and Nat were convinced was actually a kind of Morse code that he and Bucky had created amongst themselves.
She rolled her eyes and reached out to cover his hand where it rested on the gearshift. It was a sign of how far they’d come that he didn’t start and stare at her like she’d put her hand there accidently, instead just shooting her a sheepish grin. “Really. I’m fine.”
He nodded, shifted gears, and then grabbed her hand and nodded. “I believe you.”
She watched him, curiously for a moment, before asking what had been bugging her since they’d left the gas station. “You left money for the peas. Why?”
He made a face and focused on the road, saying, “That ignoramus said that the mutants were stealing from him. I didn’t want to give him more fuel.” His ears turned a delightful shade of red, the color sufficing over the rest of his face within moments. She knew he would try to convince her he was flushing because he was angry, but she knew better. He was blushing because of calling someone a bad name in front of her. Her favorite part was the knowledge that the blush did go all the way down.
She shook her head in exasperated amusement before leaning forward and kissing his cheek. He glanced at her with a half smirk that made her want to try to talk him into pulling over on the side of the empty road for a moment, but they were only half an hour from their motel. It could wait.
***
She stared at him incredulously. “What do you mean you don’t like being little spoon? Everyone likes being little spoon!” She shook her head and chided herself, “I shouldn’t be arguing about this. Being little spoon is the best. I’m glad you don’t want it.”
But part of her was a bit offended on his behalf. Had no one ever taught him the joys of being little spoon? That was just criminal. He made an amazing big spoon, this wasn’t about that, it was just about how comforting it could be to be held. She’d honestly thought he was insisting on being big spoon because this thing with them was still so new and undefined. Not because he actually had something against being the little spoon.
He pulled at bits of the bedding, frowning down at it. “It makes me feel small.”
She stared at him and straightened her back. “Do you think it makes me lesser when I’m little spoon?”
He jerked back so hard to stare at her that he almost fell off the bed, squawking, “What! No, of course not!”
She nodded, having known the answer before she asked. “Good. Because I don’t feel small when I’m little spoon. I feel protected and loved and cared for. And I am going to make you feel those things too.”
His blush spread at quite a speed, and by the time she was reaching for him he was bright red. He continued to object and she paused before actually manhandling him, asking, “Does it really bother you that much? I promise, my intention is not to ever make you feel small.”
He let out a breath and rubbed a hand through his hair. “Alright. We can try it. But just this once, okay?”
She nodded her agreement with a grin.
By the next morning she knew she had made a mistake, but somehow she enjoyed the nightly argument over who got to be little spoon more than she did actually getting to be little spoon.
***
She could hear Steve talking to someone, probably on Skype since she could hear the vague murmur of another male voice, through the bathroom door. She finished drying her hair before opening the door. Her suspicions were confirmed when the voice from the speakers became much clearer.
She rolled her eyes and propped her hip against the doorframe of the bathroom, crossing her arms and watching in amusement as Steve gesticulated a story to a wildly laughing Bucky on the other side of the computer.
It was a total exaggeration, she knew since she’d been there. The cashier she’d punched out was now another foot taller as well as several stone heavier with solid muscle.
He was such a dork.
For one thing, he was cheerfully swearing up a storm with Bucky but he couldn’t even call someone an ignoramus in front of her without blushing. Hell, the last time he’d tried to call someone a ‘dickhead’ in front of her he’d stuttered so hard she was worried he was having an asthma attack.
She wasn’t sure where he’d gotten it in his head that it wasn’t polite to swear in front of ladies, though she suspected it was from his late mother. She regretted having never had the chance to meet the woman.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Steve’s blue streak stuttering to a stop. For a moment she thought that he had finally noticed her, but when she looked up his gaze was still fixed on the computer. Then she heard Nat, saying a phrase that made both men squawk.
She couldn’t help it and laughed out loud. Steve looked up at her, eyes wide and face red. She arched an eyebrow and stepped away from the door, slipping her robe off her shoulders. His eyes went dark.
“Sorry-Buck-I-have-to-go-right-now-bye-Nat!” He managed in a rush, slamming the laptop shut and shoving it onto the couch.
She grinned and he stumbled in his rush to get to her. She didn’t mind.
She thought, maybe, that she could just accept it. He was her boyfriend.
