Steve, Sam, Bucky, Io, myself, probably Ghost and maybe that crystal weirdo all got out and away from the fire, going as far as to retreat into South Carolina to hide.

"This sucks," I said, leaning my forehead against the passenger seat window of our stolen car.

Io snorted from the trunk and Steve yawned in the back seat.

"Suck it does," Sam agreed tiredly.

"What are we gonna do?" I yawned.

Bucky shrugged.

"We'll figure something out," Steve said firmly. "We'll check into a motel somewhere and we'll get on your laptop and we'll find a direction."

"Bucky smashed it," I mumbled.

"They were tracking it," he replied.

"Probably were," Sam chimed in.

There was a muffled sneeze from the trunk.

"Why's she sneezing?" Sam asked. "She doesn't have, like, lungs."

I shrugged. "I don't know, I didn't program her to be a little shit but there she is. Be –" I yawned widely. "Bein a lil' shit."

There was silence for a minute and then Sam let out a noise like a balloon being let out of air and started guffawing loudly. I started laughing too, a barking, wheezing noise that came deep from my stomach and Steve started chuckling too and the car was filled with the uncontrollable sleep-deprived laughter of Sam and me.

The laughter cut off instantly when Bucky swerved into the opposite lane and almost collided head on with a semi.

Silence followed for a minute.

"Steve maybe you should –" I started

"Drive, yeah," he finished.

We convinced Bucky to pull over and Bucky and I piled into the back and Steve and Sam got up front. Five minutes later Bucky and I were unconscious, snuggled in the back seat together.

I woke up some indiscernible time later in a bed that smelled faintly of cigarettes with Bucky curled up protectively around me. As much as I loved being in Bucky's arms, he was snoring too loudly for me to fall back asleep.

I wiggled out of his embrace, yawning and rubbing my eyes. I grabbed a room key from the counter and stepped over Io. She sat up, almost making me tumble over her, and she asked me where I was going.

"Shh, I'm just going across the hall to Steve's room," I whispered to her. "Guard Bucky, okay?"

"Yes," she nodded.

I glanced at Bucky to be sure that he was still asleep and I quietly slipped out of the door.

I tapped on Steve's door and he opened it a minute later.

"What's up? Are you okay?" He asked, frowning slightly.

"Yeah I'm fine, Bucky's just snoring really loud," I said quietly, nodding to our room behind me. "Can I hang out with you?"

Steve opened his mouth but I interrupted him.

"Oh, wait, I meant if you're not sleeping." I said quickly. "I'm sorry I didn't think –"

"No it's okay," he said. "Come in."

I gave him a grateful half smile. "Thanks."

Sam was sitting at the little table in Steve's room, looking up from a stack of papers when I walked in to nod at me.

"You guys doing homework?" I asked, sitting on Steve's bed and hugging one of the pillows.

"Yeah, actually," Steve replied, settling down at the table opposite Sam. "HYDRA isn't going to leave us alone, so Sam did some digging and I guess there's a girl that might be able to give us insight into what they're planning that lives about an hour away from here."

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, well that's great."

"Yeah," Sam said and he and Steve just looked at me.

"Is… is that not great?" I said slowly.

"No it's just…" Steve started and then paused. "Well, this girl is very particular about the people she wants to talk to and well… we were wondering – if it wouldn't make you uncomfortable –"

"Zendaya Lightwell would be more open to talking to a woman," Sam said simply. "She wouldn't talk to us and she has information that could save lives."

I didn't say anything for a minute and I felt my face redden. "You – you want me to try to get information out of some woman? How do you expect me to do that?"

"We – um – we aren't sure just yet." Steve admitted. "If that makes you too uncomfortable we can try something else –"

"No, I mean, I'll try." I shrugged, nervousness making itself comfortable in my stomach like a snake watching a mouse. "I don't know how to go about doing that though."

"Have a few drinks, try to talk to her." Sam shrugged. "If that doesn't go well we can think of something else."

I bit at my thumb, running over a scenario in my head in which I spill my drink all over a looming, intimidating woman who snaps her fingers to summon two hulking men who drag me into a back alley in order to break my kneecaps with a baseball bat.

"I can try that anyway," I mumbled.

"I can teach you how to socialize," Sam offered, smirking. "It goes without saying that I'm the best at that, but it seems like she prefers girls." Sam shrugged. "I mean, I don't blame her."

Steve and I chuckled. I always liked talking to Sam; he wasn't nearly as serious as Bucky and made me less nervous than Steve did.

Sam and Steve kept talking, and even though the sun had barely set, I was finding it hard to listen to them and I ended up dozing off. When I woke up again the lights were off and I was tucked into Steve's bed. I sat up and blinked several times. Steve was asleep on a couch that was much too small for him. I watched him for a minute, wondering how he had suffered and suffered and suffered, but ended up so kind. I put my blanket over him and slipped out of his room to return to Bucky.

Bucky was still sound asleep, but he wasn't snoring anymore, so I laid down next to him, putting one arm under his head and pressing against his back.

He rolled over without waking up and snaked an arm under my waist and curled up into my neck. I kissed his forehead and went to sleep.

Zendaya was a powerful woman who was affiliated with the mafia, likely enhanced with unknown powers, a possible HYDRA affiliate, and the owner of a popular club that was almost impossible to get into.

Sam managed to get our names on the list, but he gently informed all of us that we were going to have to step it up a notch with our outfits. I agreed, plus it would give me an excuse to go out and get something different than the usual stuff I wore. It was surprisingly hard to dress nicely when you were running for your life all of the time.

I went out and bought a black velvet dress that had a gold zipper on the right leg with sleeves that went down to my elbows. It had a scoop neck that wasn't too dramatic. I got a pair of maroon heels to go with it.

"What do you think?" I asked Bucky as I sat on the counter of the motel and applied makeup in the mirror.

He shrugged. He was wearing his leather jacket, a white button down shirt with aviators hanging from the neck that I had unbuttoned a few buttons on. "You look different."

I glanced up from doing my mascara. "Like 'good' different?"

He furrowed his brow at me, as if he thought that was a strange question. "Of course."

I smiled and hopped off the counter.

Steve was wearing blue jeans and a striped shirt under a dark gray jacket and Sam was dressed in a light blue shirt rolled up to his elbows, a gray vest and a dark tie. Sam had dressed all three of them.

I bit at my fingers as we got into a taxi. Sam chatted with the driver in the passenger seat and I sat squished between Bucky and Steve, wiggling my leg nervously.

"If anything bad happens, we'll be right behind you," Steve said quietly.

That helped, but only a little. It felt as if I had eaten something squirmy for dinner and I found myself fantasizing about sinking through the floor of the cab, through the street, and into the sewers to live for several years.

I wasn't sure how Sam managed to get us on the list that lets you walk past the line and the bouncers and straight into the club, but the next thing I knew I was in a dimly lit room full of people, head-pounding loud trap music, and flashing red and blue lights.

"I don't see her anywhere," Sam shouted over the bass. "I'm gonna go get us drinks."

I hovered behind Steve and Bucky as they weaved a path through the crowd to one of the blue lit pillars.

Sam brought all of us back drinks and I didn't even look at what was in the glass before I snatched it out of his hands and gulped the fowl liquid down and made a face at the burning in my throat.

Steve and Sam both raised their eyebrows at me.

"It'll help my nerves," I explained loudly, grimacing. "Let me know if you see her, I'm gonna go wander."

I forced myself away from the safety of my boys and meandered around the dance floor, which was a couple steps lower than the rest of the club. I bought myself two more drinks and I noticed that I was starting to enjoy myself a little bit. Every time I glanced around Bucky was leaning against the far wall watching me and Sam and Steve were farther away but they were giving me glances often enough to make sure I was okay.

I felt someone grab onto my elbow and I whipped around to see a tall, beautiful black girl with a head full of red tinged braids pulled into a bun behind her.

"Don't turn around, but there's a guy that's been following you around for a while now," she said quietly. "Big scruffy white guy. Do you know him?"

"I dunno," I whispered loudly. "Where is he?"

She nodded to a huge ginger guy that I had never seen before who met my eyes and quickly shuffled away.

I scowled, assuming she had been talking about Bucky. "Ugh, no, he's nobody I know."

I noticed Bucky had gotten caught up in a conversation with a tall brunette girl, but he was scanning the crowd and didn't seem to be listening to her. Regardless, I felt myself blush angrily.

"Typical, isn't it?" she scowled. "Sadly you have to expect that when you're a pretty little thing wandering around all by yourself."

It took me a couple seconds to understand that she had complimented me, but when I did I blushed and giggled loudly.

She smiled. "What's your name?"

"Stella," I blurted out.

"Stella," she repeated, smirking. "I'm Zendaya."

I nodded and smiled, having to force myself not to gasp loudly.

"Can I get you a drink?" she offered and I nodded enthusiastically. "Do you like tequila?"

"I LOVE tequila!" I exclaimed. It was a lie; no one likes tequila and anyone that tells you that they do is lying.

Zendaya held out her arm and I happily took it.

After she took a shot of tequila with me and gave me another drink of a plum colored liquid she called 'venom' that tasted strangely like chocolate, I found myself jabbering about my entire life to Zendaya. I told her all about the robots I had worked on, about Isabel, about how hard I had studied in college and how little my parents had noticed.

Zendaya didn't talk very much, but she was a good listener and nodded and commented when I stopped talking long enough to see if she was still paying attention. I vaguely noticed once how much she looked like a cat playing with a mouse, how her smile was a little bit too wide with, maybe, unless it was a trick of the light, too many teeth. But in my drunken haze, the thoughts quickly passed through my mind. Two more shots of tequila and one more shot of venom and I was loudly singing along to the music, holding Zendaya's hand and jumping up and down.

"Hey!" I shouted loudly, turning to Zendaya and nearly knocking the both of us over. "Do you wanna meet my boyfriends?"

She smirked. "I'd love to."

I dragged her through the crowd, beaming and apologizing to other drunk girls as I bumped into them, to where Sam, Bucky, and Steve were all congregated by the wall.

"HEY!" I shouted as I stumbled up to them and threw my arms around Bucky's neck. "These are my boyfriends!"

Zendaya smirked wider. "All three of them, little thing?"

"Nuh uh," I said, letting go of Bucky who put his hand on my back to keep me steady. "Just this one." I pointed right into Bucky's face and sniggered loudly. "They're just my friends who are also boys."

"Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers, and Bucky Barnes, I assume?" she purred, putting her hand out to Sam. "Zendaya, as I'm sure you already know."

"Uh, yeah," Sam said, taking her hand and shaking it and smiling at her. "It's good to meet you."

I giggled to myself and reached out my arms to Bucky.

"I drank a lot," I slurred loudly.

"Yes, you did," he said, amused. "I watched you do it."

"Will you carry me?" I pouted.

"Not while there are people around to look up your dress," he replied.

I noticed the girl who had been talking to Bucky earlier watching me and I planted a kiss on Bucky's neck. She scowled.

"Let's go somewhere a bit quieter," Zendaya suggested, glancing around her club as if it were a boring PTA meeting. "I feel as though there are a few things you'd like to ask me about."

Stunned into silence, Sam and Steve followed her and Bucky mostly carried me after them while I tried to get the attention of every girl we stumbled past in order to tell them how pretty they looked.

Zendaya led us to a large mirror that stretched from the floor all the way to the ceiling. It looked out of place in the club – it looked ancient with its age spotted glass and intricately carved wooden frame. Everyone else was walking right past it without giving it a glance and when Zendaya's hand reached out to touch the glass her hand just kept going and passed right through it.

"This way," she said, still smirking unpleasantly, as she disappeared into the trick mirror.

The three boys exchanged glances and I poked Bucky in the cheek and started laughing loudly to myself.

The trick mirror felt cold to walk through, like striding quickly out of your house early in the morning to be met with a thick kiss of fog. Behind the mirror was a staircase lined with flickering oil lamps that led down further than I was willing to go in my stilettos.

I jumped up into Bucky's arms and gave him a large kiss on the cheek and asked him to carry me down the stairs with my lips still pressed to his face. I felt his face stretch into a grin and he began carrying me down the stairs.

The bass was still audible down in Zendaya's hidden room, but it was much softer and my ears rang with the sudden absence of it and I wiggled out of Bucky's arms.

The space Zendaya led us into was a stark contrast to the rest of the club; old hardwood tables overflowing with books and a system of speakers, jars of different colored things and makeup, a large fish tank took up most of the back wall was filled with eels peering out of old vases at us, and a large mantle with a roaring fire sat to our left with what looked like a deer head with too many eyes and Mardi Gras beads thrown all over its antlers hanging over it. A small kitchenette sat in one corner of the room with pink, 1950's style appliances.

It was a strange mixture of old and new things that smelled of expensive perfume and old books.

"Sit, please," Zendaya invited, sauntering up to the long dining table covered in candles. "There's water in the kitchen, little thing, you should go have some."

I tore my eyes away from the eel tank when Zendaya addressed me and I grinned and slurred out an 'okay' and tottered over to the kitchen. I heard Sam mumble that he didn't know how I was getting around in my heels and I turned my nose up importantly.

I rooted around in the cupboards for a plastic cup and filled it full of water. A bottle of whiskey sitting on top of the fridge caught my eye, but I made myself waddle away from it.

"After I drink all this water, then I can have more waskey," I told myself out loud.

I kicked my heels off and poked my head around the wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the room.

"…much has she had to drink tonight, exactly?" Steve asked Zendaya.

"Not more than she is capable of handling," she replied. "She would be in a much worse condition if she had drunk out of the drugged cup she had, but luckily I was keeping an eye on her."

Anger crossed Steve's face and I saw Bucky's shoulders tense.

Zendaya noticed me over Bucky's shoulder as I took a gulp of water and she smiled at me and gave me a little wave. I waved back without taking the cup from my lips.

"She had something else too, something I wouldn't have given her had she been a plain human," Zendaya went on and Steve and Sam exchanged a glance. "It'll keep her from getting hungover but it has some strange side effects, so if she's acting funny later that's why."

Zendaya put her chin in her hand, her eyes lazily fixed on me, and sighed. "It's too bad she –"

I noticed the eel tank again and tottered over to it, no longer listening to the conversation. I didn't know what kind of eels they were, their bodies seemed iridescent in the low light, resembling an oil slick. One of them eyed me curiously and opened its mouth to show me purple, needle-like teeth.

"I need to act sober now," I told the eel quietly. "I'm not, but I need to act like it."

Sam snorted and Zendaya smirked.

I wandered around the room, fascinated by the eclectic items. There were poisonous colored mushrooms pulsing with a faint glow on a bookcase next to a mirror that made me look like I had green scales on my face. I tripped over my own feet and fell down hard and stayed there, noticing a pair of little yellow eyes peering at me from under the bookcase.

Bucky scooped me up and I clung onto his neck, muttering about how I wanted another shot.

"Maybe you should go home, little thing," Zendaya offered.

"Nuh uh!" I protested, jerking enough that Bucky almost dropped me. "I wanna stay."

Zendaya raised an eyebrow at Steve and I pouted at him, crossing my arms.

"You can stay if you want," Steve said, a faint smile on his face. "Can you drink some more water though?"

I put my mouth on Bucky's cheek. "Hear that? I need more water."

Bucky chuckled and carried me into the kitchen.

Bucky and I spent the next two hours sitting on the kitchen floor. I told Bucky, several times over, how unfairly attractive he was and how his lips were perfectly shaped. He didn't understand either of these sentiments.

It was very hard to sit like a lady, but I thought I managed it alright.

I asked Bucky, in as quiet a voice as I could muster, whether he thought about kissing me as often as I thought about kissing him, and the color that rose to his cheeks was answer enough.

I was focused on Bucky's metal fingers, telling him that I should really open up his arm and make sure they were working okay while he watched me in amusement, when Steve padded into the kitchen and told us that it was time to leave.

I gave Zendaya a big kiss on the cheek and told her I'd visit again and I tried to sneak another shot from one of the tables upstairs in the club before Steve caught me and shooed me away from the table.

Half a dizzy hour spent in a cab later, we were back at our hotel. I hugged Sam and Steve goodnight and I held onto Steve for a lot longer than I realized.

I grabbed his face and told him, seriously, that I knew he wasn't happy very often and I wished that he was. He gave me a surprised look and a sad smile that almost made me burst into tears.

I sniffled and also told him not to swim in the hotel pool, because I had seen a large, dead spider floating in it before I stumbled off, humming to myself, in the direction I thought Bucky and my room was.

I continued humming tunelessly once we got into our room, still surprisingly drunk for someone that had only had water to drink for two hours.

"James!?" I barked, swinging around from where I had been poking at my face in the mirror.

He jumped a little bit, sitting at the little table by the window. "What?"

"Why am I still so drunk?"

He frowned. "That woman gave you something. We never should have put you up to talking to her."

I shrugged. "She was fun though."

I remembered that we had been there for information and I asked if we had gotten it, quite pleased with myself for remembering.

"Yeah. We can talk about that later though. Are you hungry?"

My face lit up. "I would love some greasy fast food!"

"Do you want to change into something else? That dress looks uncomfortable."

I looked down at myself and realized my dress was stained with a cloudy purple liquid. I looked back up at Bucky.

"Where is my puppy?"

"Io?" he chuckled. "She's under the bed."

I nodded solemnly. "Where are my sweatpants?"

Bucky nodded his head to the bed where he had gotten me sweatpants and a t shirt. I went into the bathroom to change and made faces at myself in the mirror for several minutes and came back to lay down on the floor and pat Io. She leaned into my hand and seemed to enjoy being patted even though I hadn't programmed that and she didn't have skin.

"James?" I asked, noticing a dust bunny under the bed.

"Stella?"

"Are you my boyfriend?"

"Do you want me to be?"

I rolled over onto my back and looked up at him.

"...Yes. Yes I do."

He smirked down at me. "Then yes."

"I want a cheeseburger. Or mayhaps a taco."

"Anything you want, devushka," he replied. "Is mayhaps a word?"

"Mayhaps," I said and raised my arms. "Lift me, my body is heavy."

He chuckled and lifted me up so easily that I was disoriented for a moment and I blinked. "You are very strong. I like that. It's nice to feel small and safe."

"You are safe," he said gently, setting me on my feet. "And you are small."

I beamed up at him and stared up into his handsome, scruffy face.

"Am I enhanced?"

The smile vanished from his face. "I don't know, Stella. Maybe."

I tilted my head. "I don't think HYDRA experimented on me. I mean, maybe they did, but they intended for me to be disposable, s' why experiment on someone you intend to get rid of eventually?"

I pouted. "What if I'm only good with tech because I'm enhanced? I studied so hard…"

"You are intelligent regardless. Don't doubt yourself. You're…"

He shifted awkwardly. "Wonderful."

I giggled and swayed back and forth. "May I have a snack?"

Winter tried to get me to put shoes on, but I kept walking out of the hotel room without them, so after a while he gave up.

Steve poked his head out of the door, looking concerned. "How is she?"

"Still drunk," Bucky replied as I marched barefoot down the hallway. "We're getting burgers, you want some?"

Steve shook his head and Bucky jogged lightly to catch up with me.

We got some greasy burgers, which usually helped me sober up, but I was still very foggy as I jumped into a puddle on the way back and I got distracted by the blue glow of the outdoor pool outside of the hotel.

"I wanna swim," I said, padding toward the pool.

"No, Stella, you'll drown," he protested.

"No I won't, you won't let me," I replied, hopping over the fence and falling into the grass.

Bucky nimbly hopped over the fence and offered me a hand and I bounced up and made a run for the pool.

I heard Bucky protest just before my head went under, cool water embracing me and I watched the bubbles rise to the dark surface and smiled.

I kicked off of the bottom and my head broke the surface and I spit water out. Bucky was kneeling at the pool's edge, exasperated.

"Well at least you can swim," he mused.

"I love swimming," I beamed. "Come swim with me!"

"Why?"

"Because it's fun. And who knows, I could drown if you're not in here too." I stopped paddling and began to sink. "Look! Here I go!"

Winter rolled his eyes but rose to his feet and pulled his shirt off. I stared at his stomach. I had seen him without a shirt on before, but it felt different. He was all muscle, scars from past battles stood out pale against his skin. I was so distracted that I really did start to sink.

I took a breath and let myself sink and swim to the other side where I could stand on the bottom.

Bucky rose from the water next to me, silent as a shark and I jumped.

"You're so quiet!" I said loudly. "I mean, of course you are."

"You're not," he replied and I made a face at him.

"Where are we going now?" I asked, staring up at the orange hazy sky.

"I don't know. We gotta keep moving, I know that much."

"I guess it's back to wandering for now."

Bucky looked at me thoughtfully. "That's all I've done since I fell off that train. That's what it means to be with me. We'll never settle down, we'll always have to run."

I snapped my head to look at him and splashed closer to him.

"So? I would be running for my life without you too. HYDRA probably would have experimented on me too eventually. I am better off with you. Look at me," I grabbed his face. "Look at me. Don't blame yourself for the things other people have done to you. I love you. Even running and staying in motels, my life is better with you in it."

He blinked and stared at me.

The water splashed gently as he moved closer to me.

"I love you too," he said softly. He was inches away from me, looking at me with so much tenderness that it made my chest ache.

I put my arms around his shoulders and kissed his forehead.

"I love you," I repeated, quietly and gently, trying to say a million things with those three little words. As if I could wash away the pain he carried and keep him close and safe forever.

He wrapped his arms around me tightly and buried his face in my shoulder.

We were interrupted by a member of the hotel staff who shooed us out of the pool and we walked back up the cement stairs to our hotel room, leaving wet footprints behind us.