#this is unpolished as all get out

[rainintheevening]

Steve and Sharon, 1.

From 100 ways to say ILY

In the vein of the other MCU ones... but more fluff this time. Staron4ever

1. “Pull over. Let me drive for awhile.”

Sharon woke to darkness, to glowing lights on the dash, and Steve singing quietly with Coldplay on the radio.

She was facing him, curled onto her side under her seat belt, and she stayed still for a while, watching him.

There was a softness in his mouth that she hadn't seen in months, an ease in the way he moved his chin and shoulders kind-of in time with the music.

He yawned in the silence between songs, and she stirred, sighed.

"Hey, Sharry," he murmured in response, though he kept both hands on the wheel. "You slept through Pennsylvania."

"Mmm, nice. It's not particularly impressive in the dark." She sat up, stretched. "Leg okay?"

"Yeah."

Of course she expected him to say that, and unless she could tell otherwise, she would take him at his word.

The clock said 12:49.

"Good. But still. Pull over. Let me drive for a while."

He did that thing with his mouth that meant he wanted to argue, but wasn't sure how to defend his position.

"Please," she whispered, a sudden lump swelling in her throat. "Please trust me."

A slow careful exhale, before he flicked on his turn signal. "Okay."

The truck halted on the shoulder, and a semi whooshed past in the other direction. They sat for a moment in the hush left behind, before Sharon nodded briskly, unsnapped her seat belt.

"Come on," she said. "We should both stretch our legs."

The heat and humidity hit her in the face like a physical slap, and she closed her eyes, inhaled the smells of warm asphalt, car fumes, goldenrod, and distantly... She sniffed. Ah, cow manure!

She strolled around the front of the truck, shaking out her arms and limbering up her back. "It's always better to take the scenic route."

Steve watched a car budge over before it whooshed by. "Yeah, sure."

In the glow of the truck's headlights she went to him, touched his arm lightly. "Steve?"

He turned, blinked down at her, smiled slightly before he pulled her into a hug. "Sorry," he murmured against her hair, "maybe I am that tired."

"Well, maybe you can try for some sleep." She aimed for casual, and he didn't tense under her hands; a good sign.

"Yeah, we'll see how good your driving is." When he stepped away, Steve grinned at her. "I do seem to remember that you once ran over the neighbour's bed of prize roses."

She groaned, but giggled, headed for the driver's door. "Oh, come on, I was 15, and it was a standard! I bet you weren't much better when you first learned to drive."

They both swung into the cab, and Steve made a face over at her. "Well, I learned how to drive in New York. There weren't any flowerbeds there."

"Mhm, just little old ladies to run over."

"Sharon!"

She raised her eyebrows at him, and his scandalized expression cracked. She took the opportunity to pull back out onto the road, pleased when his chuckles only quieted.

Settling back, she switched the radio over to the country station, coming in in the middle of 'She's In Love With The Boy', which actually made her blush. But Steve didn't seem to notice.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him bend over his right leg, propping it up carefully, before he pressed a button under his jeans, and suddenly relaxed.

He sagged back against the seat, and Sharon's heart squeezed in her chest. He looked so tired.

"It's an adjustment," Bruce had said, quiet, intent. He'd been saying it to Steve sitting on his lab table, face creased with pain and frustration. "You can't go back to the way you were, you have to change. We all have to adjust in our lives. Adapt or die, it's your choice."

Thank God, he'd chosen change, and the life that went with it. And every day she thought she loved him just a little more.

The next song was one of Sharon's favourite Tim McGraw songs, and she sang all the way through.

Though when she looked over and saw Steve asleep, she almost cried. He was trusting her to drive safely, and she fiercely blinked back her tears, fastened her eyes on the road.

She would not betray that trust.