hehehe thank you emma!! obsessed with the idea of sleepy baby steve, lord knows he needs the rest. enjoy some soft, sleepy steve <3 - [0.8k] | join the party!

It was Steve’s idea to do a movie night. The past few weeks had been a hectic blur, your downtimes never fully overlapping until tonight. He promised to snag some movies from work, one you’d been wanting to see and one he liked the poster of.

You were more than thrilled, eager to spend the night with your boyfriend, giving and receiving the attention you’d been without for what felt like ages. 

When you made it to Steve’s house that night, you could tell right away he’d had a day. He tried to hide it, his smile wide and beaming when he sees you. The hug he gives you is a tight squeeze that feels like coming home. You can tell all the same and you hold back a frown. 

The two of you make it through all of the movie he’d grabbed for you and you can tell he’s fighting off sleep. His head nodding off against your shoulder. When he comes back after putting in the next one, he lays his head in your lap, shimmying against the couch to get comfortable. He’s out within the first half hour. 

You knew the amount of stress Steve carried. It sat on his shoulders like a weight, so much so that he always seemed to sag. You’d noticed he’d started to lean on anything he could, against walls, door frames, the counter at work. 

He tried to hide it, didn’t want anyone to see what he was carrying, always worried he’d burden them with it. You were the only person privy enough to help alleviate it, to help shoulder that weight. Truthfully, you could only do so much. Sometimes, all he really needed was a good bit of sleep. 

The sun has long sunk beneath the horizon and Steve’s living room is pitch dark, save for the flashing of the television. The movie you’d started watching together, his pick, before he’d fallen asleep had long been over and you’d simply used the remote to switch to cable. You kept the volume low, almost on mute so as to not disturb him.

You’re not even sure what’s playing on the screen, too wrapped up in keeping Steve asleep as long as you can. Even if that meant your legs falling asleep and not being able to move them since his head rested in your lap. Your hand smoothed his hair away from his forehead, your fingers threading their way through the strands. 

He looks so serene like this, the most at peace you’d seen him in a while. There’s normally a stress crease on his face, a permanent divot between his eyebrows and one stretched across his forehead. Here now, your hand in his hair and his head in your lap, the stress lines have disappeared, melted into his skin. 

It tugs at your heart. 

Sometime after your legs have gone past pins and needles completely and you’ve seen the same ad on TV at least 5 times, Steve shifts in your lap. A sleepy grunt gets muffled against your thigh and one of his hands comes up to rub at his eyes. He blinks at the TV in his living room, a confused look taking over his sleepy features. He sits up and though you’re glad you can finally stretch out your legs, you also miss the solid weight of him in your lap.

“Did I fall asleep?” his voice is husky from sleep and you can hear an apologetic undertone to it. He’s pouting when he looks at you but you only smile with a shrug. 

“You slept like a baby. It was kind of cute,” you say, smile widening when you take in the pink flush that rises to the surface of his cheeks. He tries to stifle a yawn and fails. 

“M’sorry. Movie night was my idea and I-” you shush him, pressing a finger to his lips. His eyes get a little wide. 

“Hey, hey, none of that, okay?” you say, dropping your finger and instead moving your hand to caress against his face. “You needed the rest and I was more than willing to act as your pillow.”

Steve smiles at you, a little bashful but his heart is bursting at the seams. It’s pushing against his chest, growing and growing until he thinks it’ll pop and leave him dead. He leans into your hand, nuzzling his face against it. It’s how you know he’s still tired.

“M’so in love with you,” he mumbles, feeling entirely overwhelmed by the feeling. It takes you aback only slightly. A heavy warmth floats to the surface of your skin, sticky affection pumping through your heart and seeping into your veins. You lean forward to press a kiss to his forehead. 

“Feeling’s mutual, honey. Let’s get you into bed though, yeah? We can try movie night again tomorrow,” you say, your hand falling off his face and landing on his thigh. Steve nods and gets up from the couch with you, another contagious yawn falling past his lips.