A/N: I really should be editing my next chapters of my current stories but I read by "puckering-gustin" this morning on tumblr (can't link here, sorry but it is somewhere on her tumblr) and another story came to mind that I could write while waiting at the bus stop for my school kid. :) Enjoy.
Setting: Post-TWS. MCU compliant. Therefore not part of my head-canon. Based on Sam's question to Steve while at the VA in TWS.
"What makes you happy?" Steve asked Maria.
He stared across the table of the cafe where they were eating what was becoming their usual Monday morning breakfast. Maria's hand stopped it's movement, the fork full of eggs hovering over her plate, for just a split second. He might have missed it if he didn't know her as well as he did.
She finished bringing the fork to her mouth, then chewed the eggs slowly before taking a swallow of orange juice and looking up at him.
"Well, it used to be scaring the wits out of junior agents," she said, with a smirk.
Steve was silent as he waited for what he hoped would be an honest answer, though, in this matter he wasn't sure he could get that from Maria.
She leaned back in her chair and wiped her mouth regarding him, with extreme caution, Steve thought.
"This is one of those serious questions," she commented.
Steve nodded.
"What type of happiness?" she asked.
Steve shook his head at her to indicate he didn't understand.
"Week, there are all sorts of happiness," she explained. "There's the happiness of a beautiful sunrise. There's the happiness of a job well done. There's the happiness of, well, relational happiness."
It was his turn to give thought to her words.
"I guess I was thinking along the lines of something to do," he told her.
She nodded.
"You mean after you find Barnes?" she asked. "What will you do with the rest of your life?"
Steve nodded.
"Assuming I find him," he replied.
It was difficult to keep his hopes up. It had been more than half a year since he'd fought Bucky aboard the Hellicarrier in DC and he and Sam had come up empty at every turn.
"You won't," Maria's comment broke into his thoughts sharply.
He opened his mouth to reply but she cut him off with a shake of her head.
"He doesn't want to be found," Maria informed him. "If he did, you'd know where he was."
Steve felt Maria's words like a physical pain. They confused him all the further because she had been nothing but supportive to this point.
"Steve, trust me," she said. "I know a thing or two about hiding, about going off the grid."
He turned back to her now and noted the sympathetic look on her face.
"When he's ready," she explained. "He'll find you."
She smiled at him and Steve noted, not for the first time, that the way it softened the usual hard lines on her face stirred something in him, and always made him smile back. Today she reached a hand across the table to take his, ostensibly in comfort, but Steve felt the warmth there and held her proffered hand gently, but securely, not wanting to lose the contact just yet.
They sat together for several moments, staring, and Steve thought how like gazing into a lover's eyes this must be. There was a flash of something in Maria's eyes, but she turned away before Steve could make even a guess as to what it was.
"I need to get to work," she said, pulling her hand from his.
He regretted the loss instantly.
"I'll see you next Monday, if not sooner," she remarked as she stood.
Steve stood with her and walked around the table to help her with her coat.
She smiled at him as he pulled the coat up around her shoulders, allowing his hands to longer a moment longer than necessary.
Then she took up her purse and they said their goodbyes.
Steve sat down to finish his coffee and think on her words. It was several minutes before he realized that she had never answered his question.