Who: Steve Rogers and Molly Walker What: Talking When: Thursday evening, after this Where: Their house Warnings: None Status: Narrative
As Steve had anticipated, Molly was waiting for him when he got home from dropping Veronica off. Perched on the stairs with a clear view of the door when he walked in. At least, he figured, that meant he didn’t need to go looking around the house for her. And judging by the way she was looking at him, smiling, she knew exactly where he’d been. And who he’d been with.
“Did you have a nice date?”
Yeah. She knew where he’d been.
He wasn’t looking forward to the conversation he had to have with her now, and better now than putting it off, better than not keeping his word to talk to her and letting Veronica know how it went. It was important that this happen, before either of them became emotionally invested, at least more so than they already were, only to find out that Molly was against it. She had to be okay with it, and Bucky had to be okay with it, before Steve brought anyone into their lives in that way. Before there was anyone spending more time around the house or taking a slice of his attention away from them. Someone he might want to have over some nights in the future, might one day want to have over a lot more than some nights. Molly and Bucky were his family.That was more important.
Steve shook his head, climbed a few of the steps and nudged her over so that he could sit beside the kid, his hands folded between his knees. “Let’s talk about this.”
“What’s there to talk about?” Molly shrugged. “Do you like Veronica now?”
“Yeah. I do. What do you think?” She didn’t seem to object at all, the kid had never been shy about letting him Steve know what she thought about things; if she was firmly against it, she’d have said so right off the bat. “Would be alright if she and I wanted to spend some time together?”
“I guess so.” She wasn’t objecting, but she didn’t seem thrilled either, and Steve couldn’t even begin to guess what was going through her head. On a good day he couldn’t guess, but he was especially clueless now.
“Is there a but, there?”
“No….” Her face scrunched up a little. “I don’t know. She’s my friend.”
That, Veronica had guessed would bother her, and Steve nodded quietly. “She can still be your friend, kid. No matter what happens between us, she’s going to be your friend, got it?”
For moment, Molly was quiet, obviously thinking about it. Then she nodded and stood up. “You guys have been stupid about each other for weeks anyway, so I guess you’d better try to date her.”
It wasn’t exactly a blessing, but it was apparently the best that Steve was getting tonight. Molly turned and bounced up the stairs and into her room. And Steve, still on the stairs, just looked after her and sighed. He’d hoped for a bit more than that, but he wasn’t going to push her. Not on this. She hadn’t expressly agreed, but she hadn’t objected, and that was good enough.