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"Peggy, can I talk to you for a moment, please?" Steve pleaded.
"I don't see what you'd need to talk to me about," she answered in a snippy tone.
A few hours prior, Colonel Phillips' secretary Lorraine had kissed Steve and Peggy walked in on them and was certainly not pleased. "Looks like finding a partner wasn't that hard after all," she had commented on his behavior.
"Peggy, that's not what you thought it was," Steve had replied helplessly, trying to fix his appearance, which Lorraine had messed up a little, and following Peggy to wherever she was headed.
"I don't think anything, Captain, not one thing," she lied. "You always wanted to be a soldier and now you are. Just like all the rest." She implied that if he did what she thought he had just done, which is make out with any girl he gets the chance to kiss, he was no better than the other soldiers. Those who fornicate their way through their loneliness while their wives are waiting for them at home. And she had honestly thought he was different.
Trying to defend himself, he questioned how he was supposed to know that Peggy didn't have anything going on with Howard. But instead he made a fool of himself by insinuating she had been "fondue-ing" with him, which he thought was a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
"You still don't know a bloody thing about women," she told him, visibly irritated.
After Howard had explained to Steve how harmless "fondue" actually was and Peggy had gotten revenge on him by shooting at his new shield, he couldn't stop thinking about her for the rest of the day.
He truly did have feelings for her but he was quite certain that he just mucked up any chance he had at getting with her he might've had. But he wasn't ready to give up on her just yet.
"Please, I want to apologize. Just let me explain", he begged.
She rolled her eyes and looked around, then walked into an empty storage room where maps and other utensils were kept. He followed her closely.
"Go ahead then. I don't have all day", she told him with obvious annoyance in her tone.
"I didn't want to kiss Lorraine. She kissed me and I didn't know what to do."
"Pulling away would be a good idea for starters", she snapped.
"Peggy, I've never... it was all so sudden. Before I even knew what was happening, you were already there."
"And you expect me to believe that?", she asked skeptically.
"Uhm..." he mumbled, "yes...?" he said unsure of what else to answer.
She didn't know how to react. After a few seconds she managed to collect her thoughts. "You know, I just thought you were different from the other soldiers. I thought that... that it meant something when you said you were waiting for the right partner."
"Peggy, it did. Lorraine is not the kind of person I was talking about when I said that."
"Oh really? Then why did you kiss her? What kind of person were you talking about?"
He had never been this insecure in his life. He knew this would have to be the right moment to confess to his feelings for her. He had actually been quite sure she felt the same way about him. But in that very moment he wasn't sure of anything.
He was scared. What if he'd been living under some sort of illusion that she liked him too, when in fact she didn't? What if his feelings had been clouding his judgement?
"Someone like... you?", he answered quietly.
She looked at him. He tried to read her reaction but avoid eye contact at the same time, which turned out to be rather tricky.
She looked to the floor and back at him trying to think of a good response.
But instead she just cleared her throat and asked "Me?", trying not to look too surprised nor confused.
He nodded. "Peggy, I'm truly sorry about what happened. It really did not mean anything to me."
"Well, I fairly hope so", she said with sass in her voice again and looked at his eyes.
After a minute she looked down. "I just... when Barnes asked who I was waiting for and I said the right partner, I thought... I...", she tried to come up with the right words to explain herself, "you...", but got severely distracted by the look of his lips. So she tried to focus on his eyes instead and he looked right back into hers. "I thought you meant me, too", she said to him but couldn't help her eyes from wandering back to his lips.
"I did", Steve assured her, searching eye contact. At this point they were standing way closer to each other than they had noticed moving.
She looked up to make sure he meant what he had just said.
"Really?", she asked and they both looked at each other's lips.
His face slowly moved closer to hers and nodded, his head tilting slightly. He tried to make out a reaction from her but when he noticed her eyes were closing, all the tension that had build up inside him faded and their lips finally met, moving against each other slowly.
He carefully rested his hand on her hip and she pulled away gently, focusing on his eyes. Then she moved her whole body closer to his and kissed him again softly, and longer this time.
It was the most incredible feeling he'd ever experienced. He never wanted this moment to end and neither did she.
The kiss got deeper and more intense and soon he parted his lips slightly allowing her tongue to explore his, while she wrapped her arms around his neck.
When he slowly pulled away a minute later, Peggy was smiling. She had the most gorgeous and contagious smile Steve had ever seen and he couldn't help but smile with her.
"It was about time", she said in a low voice and smirked. He looked into her eyes again, getting lost in their endless beauty and nodded.
Suddenly, they heard a thud just outside the room and jumped, away from each other. Peggy looked around quickly, hoping nobody around had seen them.
When she was sure no one was there, she looked back at Steve.
"You can't tell anyone about what just happened", she said sternly. He nodded slowly, slightly afraid of her sudden seriousness.
"It will ruin my reputation."
"Don't worry, Agent", he said reassuringly. "Our secret is safe with me."
He could see the relief on her face. She looked around again and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He smiled and held her close.
She felt so safe in his arms, safer than she'd ever felt before. She never wanted to let him go. He looked at her beautiful face and kissed her cheek.
She smiled and pulled away from him. "I think I have to get back to work."
He nodded.
"See you later, Captain", she smirked and left the room.