nextgenerationmarvel | Hey There (Joe/Roxie)

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Hey There (Joe/Roxie)

Joe crept into the loft quietly and carried his bag back to the bedroom, careful to set it down so it didn't give away the object within. He'd been gone for several weeks on an assignment for SHIELD and run into Quinn Barton. He'd tried to talk the former SHIELD agent into coming back and explaining himself but Quinn sucker-punched him and escaped. Joe was still pissed about that but he'd put it in his report..

He hoped Roxanne wasn't too made about him not calling. But in case she was pissed, he'd brought back-up.

"Yo, Alex! You here?" Joe called out. No answer. Joe thanked the gods because he wasn't up to listening to his roommate's mocking and passive-aggressive behavior.

"Roxie? You here?" Joe called out. No answer. Okay, good. That gave him time to set up a surprise. He pulled out his phone and called their favorite Chinese restaurant.

"Hey, Mr. Shin. It's Joe Rogers. Yeah, I need your special tonight. All the stuff the lady loves. No, I'm not in the doghouse. At least I don't think I am. Yeah, go ahead and send all of it, just to be on the safe side." he said.

Then he sent Roxie a text.

Dinner. My place. Tonight. Come on over. Pretty sure you've got a key. :)

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She'd had a gruelling couple of days, not the least of which had been fighting the Swarm and ending up stung by lots and lots of bees.

Bees which, it turned out, were full of toxins that weren't necessarily from Earth.

She'd stayed in SHIELD's infirmary as much as possible before she simply had to get out.

The good thing about your mom not only having ties to SHIELD but also being best friends with one of its highest ranking officers is that things get put through the channel pretty quickly. With Jessica Drew's help, they'd ascertained that none of Roxie's blood or DNA had been kept as samples for anything, and Roxie was free to go.

Back to work at Young Woman magazine.

Roxie had actually been at Fay Da Bakery when the text had come in.

Joe.

Her smile must have been infectious because the young man at the register was suddenly grinning like a maniac too.

"Two dozen apricot cookies, a half dozen taro puffs, and one coconut tart to go, please." Joe was back.

This meant it was time to celebrate. As she moved to the other end of the counter, where she could pick up her order, she looked down at her outfit.

If I'd known he was coming home, I would have worn something sexier. Pause. Gods, I hope Alexander's not home.

I'm bringing dessert. Roxie texted.

No sooner was dessert in her hands than Roxie was out the door, flying across the Manhattan skyline, towards home.

Edited 2014-06-26 03:50 (UTC)

Joe smiled at the response and set about getting the table ready, dimming the lights and...a thought suddenly came to him.

He sent a text to Alexander.

Yo, you aren't headed home yet, are you?

Silence.

No. Are you under attack? Alexander replied.

No. But I'm home and Roxie is coming home...

A minute when by.

...I'll be home in the morning. Don't break the furniture with your rutting. And don't text me for the rest of the night.

Joe rolled his eyes. He must be out with that girl he kept fawning over in the paper. Brandy...Wingate? That sounded right.

By the time Roxie got home, Joe was dressed in slacks, a button down shirt and he'd shaven, too. The food was set out (Mr.Shin's delivery was fast) and he smiled at Roxie. He wanted to dress up a little for her.

God, but he looked gorgeous.

Roxie came in through the sun roof, as she almost always did, and gingerly set the desserts down on the kitchen counter.

The scent of Chinese food wafted into Roxie's nostrils, and her stomach rumbled ever so gently. He'd ordered a lot, which was good.

Roxie had the appetite of an entire football team.

But first things were first.

Without saying a single word, she strode up to Joe and playfully pulled him towards her, giving him deep, lingering kiss.

"Welcome home," she said, pulling apart after what seemed like too short a kiss. "I've missed you."

Joe was a manly man. He didn't go in for overly-macho but he liked to think he was, well, an all-American guy with a healthy like for food, football and beautiful women.

Roxie, in simple jeans and a shirt made his jaw forget how to operate. When she really went all out, she turned heads at whiplash-speed. He'd been sucker-punched, beaten-up and generally put through the ringer on this last mission.

All of it was worth it to come home to that kiss. His knees went a little weak as he looked at her.

"Glad to be back. I missed you, too. Sorry I didn't call but things got a little crazy. You're not mad?" he asked.

Edited 2014-06-26 04:26 (UTC)

"Because you had to go on a secret mission to save the world?" Roxie chuckled and slipped her hand into Joe's, giving it a warm, tender squeeze. "You know I'm not that kind of girl."

She'd grown up in Avengers Mansion and had seen her mom go into space for months at a time on various missions. She was an Avenger herself and had done similar things. It was, after all, the world that she had chosen to live in.

"I mean, if I was, then I would have chosen an accountant or someone to fall in love with." Not that she'd chosen to fall in love with Joe, but there were some childhood crushes that simply couldn't be denied, no matter how old you grew.

This was a different thing for her, too. Her last serious relationship had been one that was a little codependent. She hadn't really been able to separate herself from Vincent. It was different with Joe. They were there for each other, they cared for each other, but she didn't need him to be there to hold her hand every second of every day.

She could handle herself and he could handle himself, and at the end of the day, they still cared about each other.

That was all that mattered. After all, it wasn't like she couldn't fly around the Earth to find him when or if she wanted to, but that would have been all kinds of wrong.

Unless he's in a true life or death situation. No one kills my boyfriend.

"You must be exhausted, though."

"An accountant would bore you to tears...but he does have a steady job that doesn't come with secrets. I'm waiting for your mom to ask me what my intentions are toward you." Joe said, chuckling.

He liked that Roxie didn't need him nearby. His last girlfriend didn't need him much, either, but then she lied to him about what she did with her off time. Joe always knew where Roxie was because the papers and tabloids never gave her a moment to herself when she was out in the city.

And she'd been with a number of men that most people considered...excessive...but Joe never doubted her fidelity. Chalk up to love.

"I slept on the plane after I got out of jail in Madripoor. Jet lag will probably jump me later but I'm good right now. I haven't had decent food in weeks, though, so we should eat. By the way, I'm glad you aren't mad. Your gift will just make you even happier." he grinned.

He went and pulled out her chair and waited for her to sit down.

"Your secrets are work related," Roxie said. "I understand that." It wasn't like Joe had a wife and kids squirreled away somewhere. She trusted him.

"You were in jail?" Roxie stopped and reached out, gently running her fingertips over his cheek. "Looks like you have about as much to fill me in on as I do you," she said, a wry smile playing across her lips. There was no unnecessary fawning. Roxie knew that Joe could handle himself. Worry did flicker in her navy blue eyes, though.

She nodded, and lowered herself into the seat. "My gift?" Roxie raised an eyebrow. "Not Madripoori handcuffs?" she joked.

"Yeah, jail. Ran into Quinn Barton. Tried to get him to come in before he got caught and...it didn't go well." Joe said.

"Yes, your gift. Although now I wish I had brought handcuffs. The fuzzy kind. You would have loved them." Joe said, sitting down beside her and getting started on dinner.

"Ending up in jail generally doesn't go well, no," Roxie said. Not that she'd ever been in jail, but it was a safe assumption. She frowned lightly. She wondered what he'd gone through in that jail. She wanted to know, but she was all too aware that this wasn't the time for the discussion. He wouldn't want to talk about it, and Roxie couldn't blame him for that. He'd just gotten home, after all.

Roxie shook her head, the frown fading away as she opened the carton of sweet and sour pork. She smiled. God, but this smelled good! She helped herself to a few big spoonfuls before passing the carton to Joe.

"I already have a few pairs," Roxie winked. "Pink. Red. Zebra-print. There's one with peacock feathers, too. Grandmother's very amused by that pair." Since, you know, peacocks were one of Hera's symbols. "We just haven't...well." Gotten there yet.

Though Roxie was thinking that maybe it was time.

Joe took a bite of his food and nearly choked as Roxie mentioned that they hadn't...done anything. He took a moment to compose himself.

"So...how do you feel about that? Us...doing that?" he asked.

Roxie laughed. She didn't much see Joe get surprised like that.

It was adorable.

"What do you think?"

"I'm not going to sit here and say I haven't thought about it a million times over...let's just say it's crossed my mind a lot." Joe said.

He sets down his fork and takes a deep breath. He didn't realize they'd be talking about a subject like this tonight but he wanted to get things out in the open.

"After Melissa, I was down on relationships for a long, long time, Roxie. I didn't want one. It hurt too much. You changed that for me but I've been a worried about adding sex to things because...I've only been with one person."

Joe stopped and thought over his next words carefully. Being the son of Captain America, Joe possessed a conservative side that was hesitant to discuss sex. Melissa used to tease him about it endlessly.

"I know you wouldn't compare me to any guy you've been with but I would. I want you to want us to be together...like that. But I also know you haven't really brought up the subject either so...I wanted to wait until you're ready. Because I love you, Roxanne Danvers. I don't care if I have to wait until Ragnarok or whichever apocalypse the Greek gods, or any gods, celebrate.

I'll wait because you're worth it." Joe said.

Roxie understood conservative perfectly. Carol Danvers had her conservative moments too. It was, more or less, the Olympian blood coursing through her veins that made her more of a wild child.

"Hey," she said, reaching across their dining table and squeezing his hand warmly. "Joe. No matter how many men I've been with -" and really, that amount was practically the stuff of legend - "it was all for different reasons. Very rarely was it because I was in love with them." Even with Vincent, it had started out as a fun thing to do with someone who could hold his own against her strength. "But I can wait for you, if you're not ready," she smiled. "Our relationship doesn't hinge on that."

"Whoa, now." Joe said, raising his free hand to stop Roxie. "Let me make it clear: I'm ready. I'm very ready. I've been ready for awhile. I just didn't know how to tell /you/ I was ready. I didn't want to come across like I was just trying to get in your pants." Joe said.

"Besides...Alex has been needling me about it for a month. 'Are you two /ever/ going to have sex? The tension in this apartment is thicker than butter'." Joe said, doing a passable impersonation of her brother.

"I'd think he'd be more interested in his own sex life. I hear he's dating some famous chick." Joe said. "Practically snatches the paper out of my hand every day to read the society page."

Roxie grinned at that. "Well, we were taking it slow." And for good reason. Roxie didn't want to rush it with Joe. He meant too much to her for that.

She blinked, though, and raised an eyebrow. "He's been enquiring about my sex life?" She was close to her brother, and he certainly knew of her many exploits, but to ask about when she was going to boink her current boyfriend... "I'll talk to him about that." Really, she would talk to him about that.

"The society page?" Who was Alex seeing? She knew that Mellie "the Model" Holbrook was off the market because she was seeing Ryan Grimm. Who else was a big enough name that it would make it into the society pages?

"I mean, I'm not surprised, considering it is Alexander, but I wonder who the mystery girl is."

"Yeah, it was a little weird. I was glad when Sammy called with that mission or I don't know how I'd avoid it the next time Alex wants to have the talk. Maybe it was some kind of big brother 'don't have sex with my sister' psychology?" Joe guessed.

"But yeah, some girl. I think her name is...Brandy Wingate. Or something. I don't remember off the top of my head. I just remember the pictures on the page. One of those chicks had a serious case of Resting Bitch-Face. Like...the worst case I've ever seen. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth or within ten feet." Joe said.

"With my history?" The one good thing about Roxie was that she felt no shame about her sexual history. She was who she was, she'd done who she'd done, and people were free to judge her on that all she liked, but she would never stand to be slut shamed by anyone.

That still didn't give Alex the right to see when her boyfriend was going to diddle her doodle, though.

Or is it doodle my diddle? Regardless.

"Wingate?" Roxie paused. "Resting bitch-face?" Roxie paused, closed her eyes, and breathed in deeply.

It couldn't be, could it?

Roxie stood up, walked over to the granite kitchen counter, and reached into her purse, pulling her phone out. She stalked back over to the table, sat down, and rifled through the pictures, finally coming across an old one that had survived many a phone data transfer.

"Have you seen pictures? Is that the girl?"

Joe looked at the picture on the phone and nodded.

"Copy. That's her...with you. Wait, don't tell me. You met this girl and you two don't like each other. Because we didn't have any drama in the area." Joe laughed.

"We were best friends," Roxie explained. "Once upon a not so long time ago." Though it felt like ages, to be sure. "We're at sort of a cease-fire right now, but once we hit high school, we had our issues." Issues that they both probably remembered a little bit differently, as these things tended to go. "Once we got into high school, the politics of that environment started to take over. Brooke - that's her name, Brooke Wyngarde," Roxie continued, "cared about her grades and about being the Queen Bee of the school. She desperately tried to get into the in-crowds. As for me...well. I was there to party, and have a good time, and network, and..." Roxie shrugged. She'd had a colourful past. "People naturally gravitated towards me. The in-crowders, I mean. Brooke may have resented that a little bit."

She took another bite of food and stared off into space. "Eventually, she did end up being the queen of our school, as she had always wanted to be, and I was more often than not busy fighting bad guys or sleeping with bad boys or partying with a bad crowd." They key word here was bad. "We made up again around college, but we never really became friends again.

"It's just odd that Alexander's dating her but...then again, it's not. He's got his dark side, she's a crazy rampant bitch. It kind of does make sense."

"That's pretty heavy, Roxie. Your brother is seeing your ex-best friend. Are you gonna be okay with that? Eventually, you two will probably run into other again. If not out there...then maybe in here." Joe said.

Joe still couldn't get over the fact there really was someone for everyone. Even Alexander Aaron.

"I'll be fine," she said, brushing it off. "It's Brooke Wyngarde. I wasn't threatened by her in high school, and I won't be threatened by her now. If Alexander is happy with her, then more power to him." Roxie didn't say the one thing that was on her mind, though, which was that if Alex and Brooke ever got serious, then Brooke might start entertaining notions of being queen of Olympus or something one day.

That'll go well.

"Besides, if you can put up with my brother, then I can put up Brooke."

"Alex likes me. He can't wait until we're family." Joe laughed.

"Really, though...there is nothing Alex or anyone else can do that will make not want to be with you. I'm here as long as you want me, Roxie. I didn't expect to stay here when Sammy dragged me back." Joe said.

"I stayed because you made it worth it. And that's why I keep coming back." he said.

"Then promise me one thing," Roxie said. "Don't stop coming back. No matter where your missions take you..make this home base." She stood up again, walked around the table, and knelt down next to him, taking his hands in hers. "I love you, Joe, and I've dreamed of a life with you ever since I was little. I'm not asking you to give up doing what you love - I would never. But no matter what happens...let it happen as long as we're together."

Joe was moved by the depth of Roxie's emotion toward him. He'd worried, during days and nights on the road, if she felt the same way for him that he felt for her. She was the hottest woman in the world, by his reckoning. She could have any man she wanted.

...and I've dreamed of a life with you ever since I was little.

Joe Rogers often wondered if he was worthy of carrying his father's name, of being called a hero, after all the things he'd done and failed to do. He wondered if he was worthy of /her/ and she was telling him that he was.

This girl made it all worth it.

"This was home base the day I moved in. You've got a deal, Roxie." he said.

Edited 2014-06-29 05:43 (UTC)

Worthy of her? He'd been worried about being worthy of her?! Roxie's first fear, when Joe had arrived again that day at the Mansion, was that she could never be worthy of him.

She wasn't one of those girls whose eyes watered at the slightest bit of emotion, and indeed, they weren't watering now. But the smile on her face could easily light up any solar system whose sun had been eaten by the Phoenix, so bright it was.

And so, she replied the only way she could think to. She kissed him, with every ounce of feeling that she could muster.

It was a lot.

She hoped he had strong lungs.

Joe kissed Roxie back and reminded himself, quickly, to buy his dad something amazing for Father's Day. Passing along the Super-Soldier Serum was the only thing that gave Joe a chance at keeping up with Roxie.

Tonight, he was pretty sure he'd need every ounce of it.

He was also very glad he was an excellent swimmer. He had great lungs.

He also had a feeling that said lungs would see much use tonight.

He pulled Roxie into his arms, his food forgotten.

She let herself be pulled in by Joe, losing herself to the kiss. She'd always read about the world falling away from you when you were in love with someone, but Roxie had never known that to be true until now. She pressed herself against him hungrily.

Joe broke the kiss momentarily.

"We should go to my room. Or your room. A room. We need a bed for some of the stuff I have in mind." Joe grinned.

And with that, Rose and lifted Roxie into his arms with ease. Then carried her in the direction of the bedroom.

Dinner would still be there when they got back. At worst, they'd have leftovers for breakfast.

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Hey There (Joe/Roxie)

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