Lane stood in front of the refrigerator at the compound with pursed lips trying to figure out what she could pilfer as a late-night snack before heading down to the closet Tony had graciously granted her to work in. She had piles and piles of data to comb through to try and get a lead on the weird runed weapons popping up along the west coast were coming from and she couldn't do that on an empty stomach, especially after the several drinks she'd had with Paloma earlier that evening.
"What are you doing?"
The voice coming from the far side of the room made her eyes roll so hard she got a bit dizzy. "Looking for sustenance to feed my brain before I head to my lab," she said over her shoulder, closing the refrigerator and moving to one of the cabinets. "Unless I need permission to do that as well, Captain."
"You aren't seriously planning on working right now?" She could hear his footsteps as he moved closer and her brain easily filled in the image of him stopping to cross his arms, biceps bugling underneath whatever too tight t-shirt he'd changed into when they got back earlier.
When she grabbed a bag of chips and turned to find exactly what she'd imagined she let out a small laugh. "And why exactly wouldn't I?" She pulled open the bag and reached in for a handful, tossing it in her mouth before speaking around it. "It's not like I have anything better to do right now."
Steve let out a scoff. "I don't know, Lanie, maybe because you've been at a bar for the last three hours and I can tell from here you're drunk."
Her hand paused halfway to her mouth with another handful and she cocked her head to the side. "How do you know where I was?"
He at least had the decency to look a bit guilty as he glanced around the room, arms uncrossing to rest his hands on his hips. "I've been following movement on the arms dealer since you left."
"Why does that have anything to do with me?" Lane mirrored his stance, chip bag in front of her all but forgotten.
Steve had seen her marker heading back to the compound and after his chat with Nat earlier he'd realized he'd been harsh to Lanie so he'd come up here to apologize to her but then she'd turned around and had that petulant glare on her face and it re-ignited his anger all over. He had to get it out before one of them ended up killing the other. "The lipstick. In order to get it on the dealer you had to put it on yourself first."
Her eyes went wide and he could see an angry flush creeping up her neck. "So rather than delete the marker, like you would have done for any other person I'm sure, you decided to use it to watch where I was like a fucking stalker?" She stormed around the counter and headed for the stairwell, heading for the lab levels.
"Calm down, Lanie, that's not what happened." He moved around the sofa he'd been standing beside, gesturing for her to join him. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Yeah," she laughed over her shoulder as she kept walking. "Done that once tonight, not interested in a repeat."
She reached for the door handle but he raised his voice like she had never heard before. "Lane," she turned her head to watch as he seated himself in an armchair, manspreading like he had no damn control over himself before looking at her, one finger pointed at the sofa next to him. "Sit."
Her blood pressure rose and all the fuzzy good vibes she'd gotten from spending time with her friend, that had been barely holding on since he walked in on her, disappeared from her brain. All that was left was a desire to see him squirm. He wanted to control her...she'd let him.
She dropped her hand from the door and let her shoulders relax as she crossed the room back to him, hips swaying seductively the entire time. Rather than take a seat where he'd indicated though, she came to a stop between his legs before slowly dropping to her knees and sitting back on her heels. She folded her hands in front of her and put on the most innocent face she could as she stared up at him, doe eyed, through dark lashes.
"What are you doing," he asked again and she could see him sit straighter trying to put distance between them.
"You want control, wanted me to sit, Captain. Well," she dipped her chin as if in deference. "I'm sat. So, what is it you'd like to talk about?"
She was still in the cut off jeans from earlier and even from this angle he could see they had ridden up when she knelt and her ink covered thighs spread ever so slightly. No longer in the darkness of the van he studied the ink for just a second. One leg held the visage of what could only be a Medusa, scaled skin and a face contorted in rage as it screamed, snakes writhing around her head. The other was a figure he couldn't recognize but it was just as beautiful as it was terrifying. A woman's face was split in two. One side was blackened and cracked while the other was pale white and skeletal. Both eyes were nothing more than dark voids. He shifted in his chair, trying to pull his knees back from where they framed her and he winced at he felt his sudden erection dig into his zipper. "You can't take anything seriously, can you?"
"Oh no, Captain," she said with a saccharine smile. The glare he gave her returned some of her satisfaction and she could tell her plan was working as he ran his hands over his thighs trying to pull some of the tightness away from the tent growing in his lap. She had to focus very hard not to cackle at the fact she would be giving him blue balls for the night. "I take things very seriously when I'm in this position."
The wicked glee behind her eyes made Steve realize she was enjoying this. She did this for the sole purpose of getting to him, of making him... Fine, if playing her games would get through to her than he'd do it. He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees and one hand reaching out to grasp her jaw with the tiniest bit of pressure, forcing her to meet his gaze directly. She tried to pull back but he held her in place. "You're smart. Like Tony, you're too smart and you think it makes you invincible, that you can get away with doing things you shouldn't because no one can touch you. But that won't always be the case, Lane. And you might not give a damn, might act like you have no reason to be careful but as long as you're on my team I care about you. You are mine to take care of and I protect what's mine. So, if you make a stupid move it doesn't just affect you anymore. And if this," his eyes roved over her and his hand squeezed at her jaw with a bit more force. "Is what I need to do to get that lesson, and any other future one's we might need to go over, into that brilliant yet infuriating head of yours then..." he leaned in, voice dropping to a low growl as he whispered in her ear. "Consider me more than willing to what needs done."
Somewhere in that speech, she wasn't entirely sure when, Lane had felt a growing tension in her stomach and she'd had to clasp her thighs together tightly. She was so focused on holding them together to stop the flood growing inside of her ending up on the floor she barely noticed when Steve hand slipped from her jaw to her neck, his other slipping under her arm to pull her up with him when he stood with little effort.
"Go to bed, Lane," he stepped back and a sudden chill made her shiver. "The files will still be there in the morning."
Well that backfired.