Wandering (John Walker x Reader)
Summary: Reader and John go on a mission together.
Word count: ~ 1.1k
Warnings: Swearing, that's really it. Also I think this can be read as gender neutral? But if that's not right, I'm sorry!
Also, I got the prompt at the end (You're smarter than you look etc.) from @creativepromptsforwriting ! Just wanted to give them credit! :)
The night sky was dark. If anyone looked up, they wouldn’t even be able to see the Quinjet in stealth mode flying across the constellations. They would, however, be likely to hear the Quinjet—or rather, the two people inside of it.
“I’m telling you, we need to go in!”
“And I’m telling you, we need to wait!”
“Who died and put you in charge?”
“Who died and put you in charge?”
“Uh, let me think, maybe Captain America?”
“Oh, fuck off! Like Steve Rogers’ dying wish was to install you as Captain America.”
“Well, that seems to be what happened, isn’t it?”
“And what happened after that?”
“Fuck off.”
“You fuck off!”
“Both of you, knock it off.” You hear Bucky’s chastising voice over comms. “Or at least turn off your earpieces.”
“We could hear them even if the comms were off,” Yelena butts in. “I’m shocked their cover isn’t blown already.”
“Argh!” John throws his earpiece to the ground and steps on it.
“What the hell was that for?” You ask incredulously.
Without warning, he swiftly grabs your earpiece and steps on it as well. “We don’t need them.”
“Except they’re our extraction team. Do you even think about the consequences of your actions?”
“I think plenty,” he grumbles.
“Prove it.”
“Okay.” With that, he grabs a chute and opens the bay hatch, the wind picking up immensely as the Quinjet travels quickly through the air. “Come with me or don’t. I can do this alone if I need to.”
“Yeah, right,” you say, rolling your eyes and grabbing another chute. Walker counts down from three and the two of you jump, linking arms to ensure you land close by each other. At a low enough altitude he nods at you, and you both open your parachutes before slowly drifting down to the ground below.
“Alright, what now?” You ask him, gesturing to the woods around you. “We’re gonna build a campfire, make some s’mores?”
“I thought I wasn’t in charge?” He asks, and even the darkness can’t hide the smug smirk on his face.
“Well, you got us this far. My plan would’ve gotten us closer, but, whatever, let’s do it your way.”
“Sure it would’ve,” he grumbles. Before you can retort, he’s grabbing your hand and marching forward.
“What are you doing?”
“Walking,” he says without looking back.
“And you’re holding my hand…why?”
“To keep you from wandering off.”
You wriggle from his grip. “I’m not a puppy, I’m a person. I can follow you just fine.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Truth be told, Walker liked holding your hand, whatever dumb reason he gave for it. And you couldn’t deny the warmth emanating from your palm either, the feeling of his fingers still imprinted around the back of your hand. Somehow the two of you found yourselves back in the same position moments later, fingers interlocked. Neither of you noticed, or if you did, you didn’t mention it.
About an hour after landing, the two of you approach a clearing, finding the base of the organization you’re working to infiltrate. A large warehouse towers over you.
Without warning, John rushes forward, grabbing a man from behind as he walks by. John puts him in a chokehold until he passes out before dragging him back into the woods behind you.
“Take his clothes,” John instructs. “Then push him into that ditch.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Find another guy. Give me two minutes.”
Then, he’s gone. You quickly change into the guard’s clothes, putting it on over your own, before pushing him downward into a trench. John was smart, you’d give him that.
You see him waving you down from behind a parked car, and you briskly walk over to him.
“Where’s your guy?” You ask him, confused by the lack of a derobed person nearby.
“Still in the car.” John gestures behind him.
“That’s kind of impressive,” you say, “that you were able to get his clothes off while he was still in the car.”
“Yeah, well,” he smirks. “I’ve got skills.”
You roll your eyes, but you can’t help the smile that comes to your face. You don’t get to have many nice moments with Walker, and in the midst of all your bickering sometimes you forget that he’s got a decent sense of humor. He’s also tall. Like, really tall.
You shake your head, trying to get your focus back to the mission at hand. “So what’s next?” You ask.
“We blow the place up,” He says. “We walk around, like we’re patrolling, and we place the explosives in different parts of the building. Bucky said it was four floors, so it should only take us a half hour to get through it all. I’m thinking 5 explosive pads per floor; one for each corner, and then one in the middle—”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to split up? We can be in and out faster that way—”
“No,” John says, a little too quickly. “We stick together. That’s the plan.” You shrug your shoulders. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he confirms. “Let’s do this.”
It took less time than you thought, only about 20 minutes even with the two of you staying together. By the time you were out of the building and miles away, the sun was just beginning to rise.
“You wanna do the honors?” John asks, holding out the detonation control to you.
“Nah, I’m good. You do it.”
“If you say so.”
With that, he pushes the button, and the two of you watch as a cloud of fire erupts into the sky. You stare at it for a moment before placing your hand to your ear, remembering that you’re comm-less and have no way to get back to the Quinjet other than by foot.
“Way to go, John,” You say, gesturing to the side of your head where your earpiece would be. “Now we’ve got no way to get home.”
“We’re only 5 miles from the meet point. You’ll be fine.”
“It would be a lot faster if we had a Quinjet to get us there.”
“I can’t hold your hand in the Quinjet, now can I?”
You look down to see your hands have wandered back together, John rubbing circles on yours with his thumb.
“You know, you’re smarter than you look.”
He scoffs. “Is that a compliment towards my intelligence or an insult towards my looks?”
“A compliment? From me? Never.”
He laughs before placing a kiss on your cheek. “Yeah, right.”
The two of you walk along in comfortable silence.