I brushed my hand along a row of books, searching for the title I desired. I was doing what I did every Monday after school—browsing the school library. I came to get books that I needed to read for homework or something that would help me understand my lessons better, and occasionally I would pick up something just for pleasure reading.

A boy started coming down the same aisle as me, but I barely gave him a glance as I continued searching for my book, automatically moving a little closer to the shelf to give him space to pass, even thought there was plenty of space already.

But he didn't pass me. He actually stopped beside me, looking at me expectantly. "Alina?" he said pleasantly. Now I looked at him, nodding. I had no idea who he was, but he was kind of cute with his dusty blond hair and brown eyes.

"Steve said he's waiting for you out by the tree over at the running track," the boy said. "He wanted to talk to you before you went home."

I raised my eyebrows. "All right. Um, but who are you?" I thought I had seen him around before, but never interacted with him.

"I'm Aldrich. Steve asked me to give you his message."

"Okay then. Thank you, Aldrich, see you around." I went to go check out the books I had, thinking it strange that Steve hadn't introduced me to Aldrich before. They must not be very close, I thought. But he's kind of cute. My mind flashed to Steve, who my mind automatically thought of when I was thinking of good-looking guys, but then to Loki's green eyes when they were so close to mine as he picked up my papers. Wait, what? My brow furrowed slightly as I considered my out-of-place thought. I reluctantly realized that I liked Loki's looks just a touch better than Steve's, since I had never been into blond hair on guys, but the Steve's kind personality appealed to me more than a nice face.

With my newly checked out books in my arms, I made my way toward the track. I could see Steve sitting down, leaning against the tree, but it wasn't until I was closer that I could see he was breathing kind of heavily. And there were black marks all over his face. I recognized the work of a Sharpie and started giggling when I saw the black mustache etched under his nose. When I got up to him, Steve wasn't laughing. In fact, he had a frown on his face when he opened his eyes.

"What is this?" I chuckled, leaning over and reaching a finger towards his face without touching him.

"Just a prank," he said gruffly. That startled me. I had never heard Steve use that tone around me before, or anyone really.

I sat next to him, worry creasing my face. "Hey, are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," he said with a small sigh. "I just need to catch my breath." He was clutching his stomach, drawing my attention.

"Are you hurt?!"

"Nothing I can't handle." He didn't look at me while he spoke. I didn't like that. He usually looked me directly in the eyes with his baby blues confident and bright. Something must have been wrong to make him avoid my gaze.

**********

Steve felt a small twinge of annoyance when Alina walked up laughing at him, even if it was a cute giggle. Loki and his buddies had grabbed him, got a good punch in his gut to immobilize him, then scrawled all over his face with black markers. Apparently, they were playing pranks outside of school now too. Now Ali was laughing at him, almost like she agreed with the bullies.

He felt a little bad being so short with her, but first she practically had stood him up since she arrived so late without an excuse, then she thought it was funny that he would have to go to school the next day with marker on his face.

Ali shifted so she was crouched straight in front of him, looking into his eyes with those soft chocolate orbs. "What happened?" she asked, concern rooted deep in her face.

"Loki and his gang jumped me," he said, looking at his shoes, up at her, then back again.

Her expression melted to one of sympathy. "Oh. That's terrible. I wish they would stop doing stuff like this, it's ridiculous. Come on." She grabbed his arm and started trying to heave him onto his feet. "My place is closer than yours, we can get the marker off your face there."

"It won't come off," he told her, stubbornly remaining on the ground. "It's permanent."

"Listen, I have had lots of run-ins with permanent marker on flesh. If we scrub really hard, we can make most of it go away before tomorrow. Do you want to drive home and go to school with black marker all over your face?" Her eyes were determined, so he relented, rocking himself onto his feet without much help from her. They started walking towards the parking lot. Ali suddenly wrapped her left arm around his, and put her right hand in his left, tilting her head close as they marched together.

His irritation melted away as he leaned his head lightly on hers.

When they got to her house, Alina didn't say anything to her siblings, stealing quietly to the kitchen bathroom with Steve in tow. She left Steve there with the running sink and returned a moment later with a rag and dish soap. Dumping both the rag and some dish soap into the water, she plugged the sink and waited patiently for it to fill. When it did, she fished the rag out, wringing the excess water from it.

"Start scrubbing," she said, handing the rag to Steve. He watched himself in the bathroom mirror drag the cloth up and down his face, trying to erase the marker without scouring off his skin. He scrubbed for a few minutes, and when the marks had faded a bit, Alina took the rag from him. "Do you mind if I..." She motioned towards his face.

He shook his head. "Go ahead."

Ali stepped a touch closer, holding his cheek in one hand and rubbing the other with the wet rag. Her touch wasn't as gentle as Steve had been anticipating and he winced a little at the sudden roughness.

"Sorry," she apologized, but didn't relent her scrubbing. He watched her as she stared at a particularly dark spot on his face. Her lips were a little chapped, as usual, but still appealing nonetheless. He could help glancing at them every once in a while as she worked on his face, wondering if she had ever kissed a boy before.

When she finally put the rag down, his face felt raw, and it was probably red from all the rubbing and the close proximity of his girlfriend. Or the girl he would like to call his girlfriend.

"Sorry," she said again, brushing his blushing cheek. "It's mostly gone now."

Steve caught her other hand with his own, looking directly into her eyes. How could he have been upset at her earlier? "It's all right. Thanks." Her face was turning red now as well as she nervously looked at his eyes, then everywhere else. Steve leaned just a touch closer. Alina looked nervous and a bit flustered, unsure where to look. "Ali," he whispered, letting himself slip ever-so-slightly closer. "May I kiss you?"

She licked her lips. "I... I, uh..." She laughed, low, breathless, and nervous. "I don't know. I've never kissed anyone before. I mean, if you did it, I don't think I would be upset, but I don't know if I should..."

Steve wasn't one to do something without anyone's permission. Unless he was convinced it was the right thing. So, while she blushed and stammered, trying to continue to talk, he gently stretched forward and kissed her. It made his stomach warm and his heart stutter, then race like a horse. When he leaned away, Ali looked a bit dazed. She had said it was her first kiss.

Slowly, a blushing smile slipped onto her lips. She giggled, breaking the silence between them. "What do we say now?"

"Well, I suppose I should ask if you want to be my girlfriend," he said with a grin.

"And I suppose I would have to say yes." She beamed at him.

**********

Loki ground his teeth angrily as he watched Steve and Alina walk to the parking lot together. He had hoped that Rogers would be more annoyed at Alina when she showed up late to the meeting she had never planned and when she laughed at his misery. Loki had known she would laugh—she always laughed.

Obviously, it would be difficult to separate the two out of anger because Alina hardly ever got upset and there was no way Rogers would be able to stay mad at her for long. So, not his best prank ever. He needed to do something to get Steve to stay away from Alina, that way he could actually have a chance with her. If he could just get her focus off Steve for a moment, maybe she would be able to forget the blonde's perfect muscles and blue eyes and see him instead, however unlikely that was.

So, for the next month, Loki tormented Steve in whatever ways he could think of. He hid the other boy's books; he had his friends spill juice or something of the like on him at almost every lunch hour; he took the gas out of his car when no one was looking; and those were just a few of the pranks he pulled. Maybe it was all very juvenile, but if it made Steve's life harder and potentially corrupted his relationship with Alina, Loki was bound and determined to do it. 

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote and add this book to your library to keep caught up!