Work Text:
Mac felt her body move with each heaved breath, shoulders shifted under the thick uniform she was wearing, and her senses were in overload. At her feet, a man groaned and caused her to kick out instinctively. Aimed at the temple, with just enough force to knock him into unconsciousness without killing him. He was the last one, everything else around her was quiet with the exception of her loud breathing, and now it was time to—
“What the—whoa!” Mac spun around as a hand touched her shoulder, fingers light through the thick material, and she immediately had a hand raised to point a finger at a very surprised expression. “You can’t just go around grabbing people like that!”
“Sorry, I called your name,” Steve quickly explained. She’d learned, right off the bat, that this Steve was unfailingly honest. If he said that he’d been calling her name, he’d been calling her name. She probably just hadn’t been able to hear him under her pulse thundering in her ears or her loud labored breathing. So she let the finger of accusation fall and propped her hands on her hips. She let her head tip back so that she could keep looking up at Steve, who was also decked out in his superhero uniform. (Thankfully, their similar uniforms were both dark in color and didn’t contain any kind of brightly colored spandex. Thank Hemsworth for small mercies.) Steve was standing similarly, hands perched on his hips like a mother getting ready to scold someone, and he was looking curiously down at her like he had a question but didn’t know how to ask it. He got that look around her fairly often.
“What’s with the face? Why are you looking at me like that?” She knew that if she didn’t ask something first, they’d spend the next hour (possibly only several minutes) just standing here and staring at each other.
“You’re smiling,” he pointed out. He wasn’t wrong. She’d been smiling since she stopped moving and realized that everyone in the immediate vicinity was down for the count. She thought she might have even managed to hold the smile through her surprise and alarm when Steve first got her attention, but she’d been a little distracted by the extra shot of adrenaline to be absolutely sure.
“We just took out a Hydra base! Just the two of us! Took ‘em all out!” She held her arms out, to indicate the entirety of the building that they had infiltrated that was now filled with Hydra agents that they had taken down, but Steve still wasn’t smiling. If anything, his expression darkened. His brow was even starting to do that thing, where it furrowed whenever he got down on himself and broody, and she did not have time for that today. Not in the middle of her celebration.
“We still have to—” Steve’s eyes widened to an almost comical degree as she slapped a hand over his mouth, cutting off whatever logical and depressing thing he was about to say, and she shuffled closer on her tiptoes without removing her bare hand from his mouth. (Huh. Captain America was getting a little bit of a five o’clock shadow. Kinda went against that perfection thing she was always prepared for when she looked at him.)
“You and I found this base, got into it undetected, and neutralized every agent without either of us being injured in any kind of way.” Under the bare skin of her palm, she could feel Steve’s lips shifting. Could feel his cheek twitching beneath her fingers. He was starting to smile, so she let her hand slip down to grip his shoulder. Holding onto him helped to keep her steady as she continued to balance on her toes, close enough to see the different blues of his eyes.
“We did make a pretty good team,” Steve said and smiled fully. Lips slightly parted to show a flash of teeth, dimples denting his cheeks and adding some color to his face, and his eyes looked so much brighter when he smiled. (That could possibly be her projecting, but damn if the dude didn’t have sparkling Disney eyes whenever he was actually happy about something.)
“We made an amazing team! We totally crushed them!” The energy from the fight was still buzzing in her veins, making her feel light and a little invincible, and she had to know what Steve’s smile felt like. She used both hands to grip his shoulders and pull herself up a little higher, and Steve was still smiling when her lips pressed against his. Their smiles matched, lips brushing and holding, and she tipped up more to brush their noses together before lowering herself back down. “You were amazing, I was amazing, we were—”
Steve’s arms curled around her as he pressed into her, bending her backwards just the smallest amount as his lips molded to hers, and oh. This was what it was like to kiss Steve. His hold on her was secure, felt like she was floating as her spine curved over his arm, and she reached up to sink one hand into his thick sweaty hair. (Because Steve wasn’t perfect, except for maybe the way he kissed. That was kinda perfect. Okay, totally perfect.) He mapped her mouth like he was committing it to memory, and a quiet sound built in her throat as she clutched at him and opened for him. Before pulling away, he smeared wet kisses across her sensitive lips and in a line to her chin. He tried to pull back completely, but the grip she had on his hair and the shoulder of his suit wouldn’t allow him to go too far. She could still feel the warmth of his breath, see where she had darkened and slicked his lips, and her fingers flexed with the need to pull him back to her.
“Was that, uh, was that okay? I know I should have asked first—”
“To be fair, I did kiss you first,” she quickly interrupted. Because Steve was a good guy, and he’d never forgive himself if he thought he’d done something wrong. (Even though she had been the one to kiss him first.) He relaxed some at her words, but he was still holding her at an angle like he wasn’t in any kind of hurry to move. “I also, just for the record, wouldn’t be completely opposed to that happening again. In the future. Or now. I wouldn’t be opposed to it happening either of those times, just so you know.”
“I can kiss you?” He looked confused now, and she much preferred this little furrow in his brow. The one that said he was confused but also hopeful, and she let go of his shoulder so that she could smooth her fingertips across his brow.
“Yes, please, I would like that very much.” Steve smiled again, so bright and with dimples, and she started to strain upwards. “Now, please.”
“Right, yeah, o—” Whatever else he wanted to say was smothered between their lips, broken off with hints of teeth and soft tongues, and she clung to him as they learned each other. Officially, best mission ever.