Their relationship was done after so many years. She didn't know how to get her head around it. Too much was running through it right now, too many emotions.

Her heart was aching for Steve's warm touch, but she knew if he let him back into her life it would be hard and only end in disaster.

She couldn't do it.

For so long she had managed to get over him and then suddenly he was back.

Everything she had been through, how she had tried so much to get over him for that to now be ruined. However, the thought of not having him with her made her heart ache, not being able to feel his soft touch or his lips on hers or his naked body pressed against hers.

Her hand itched to grab the door handle to run after Steve.

Suddenly she didn't have to, footsteps came back up the corridor and stopped right outside her door.

Steve decided he wasn't going down that easily. He has heard the slight waver in her voice, heard the lie.

Maria heard something below her and moved back from the door. He was pushing something underneath the door.

Suddenly, a ring was pushed under and stopped at her feet. It was the ring. His ring to her.

"Will you marry me?" Steve said from the other side of the door, eyes closed and hands pressed against the door... Waiting.

"I don't care if it's not as it used to be but I know you still love me and I can't let you slip away because I love you and you know you love me."

He couldn't let their relationship end, not now after everything they had been through, the ups and downs were too much to just forget.

When she had said she didn't love him it took him until the second floor stair to realise it was a lie. He had heard it in her voice but hadn't registered it. He knew her too well. So he acted on impulse, acted in love and popped the question.

Maria bent down to pick the ring up, her heart beating faster than ever before and a lump forming in her throat.

She looked at it, seeing how the light hit it just right causing memories of the first time she had looked at it to come flooding back. It was like a train hit her, all of a sudden an emotion so strong nearly knocked her off her feet. Love.

She looked at the door and could picture Steve on the other side, eyes closed and heart beating out of his chest. She moved to open it, her hand shaking slightly as she reached for the doorknob.

Steve's eyes shot open at the sound of the door unlocking and he pressed back off it.
Maria opened the door and stood staring at him, light reflecting off her wet cheeks.

His face showed so many emotions. Love, sadness, fear, passion. Tears shone in his eyes, every inch of him trying to hold them back.

She held the ring out and Steve's heart shattered. He had never felt like this before, never felt so drained. She was saying no, causing the tears to break free.
He looked at her with blurred vision but couldn't read how she was feeling. She had gotten so much better at keeping her emotions controlled.

Steve took the ring, looking down at it as his chest got tighter. Everything he had from the past was now gone. Everything. He started to feel closed in, his chest getting tighter and tighter. The signs of a panic attack registered into his mind.

"Ask me again... Properly this time," Maria said and Steve's head shot up at her, hope filling his eyes. Maria smirked at him, pointing to the ground. Steve quickly got down on one knee, his heart was beating out of his chest and his hands sweaty. He was nervous, but most of all excited.

"Maria Hill," Steve began. "The moment I met you, I fell in love. I know our time together has been bumpy but throughout everything we managed to come back together. Will you do me the greatest pleasure in becoming my wife?" Steve asked and Maria's smile grew.

"Yes," she said and Steve smiled from ear to ear.

He sniffed the sad tears away as happy ones replaced them. The feeling of happiness drowned over him, he had never felt like this ever before. He climbed to stand and pulled her into the kiss he had been dreaming of since he woke up.

It seemed so familiar but so missed.

Finally, a kiss. Steve had missed her lips on his, her body in his arms. It calmed him, how her body fitted perfectly with his.

He pulled away and then placed the ring on her finger. He looked up into her eyes and they both smiled, letting out a long breath.

"I love you," Steve told her, his voice shaking from all the adrenaline running through his body.

"I love you too," Maria said, pulling him into another kiss with her arms going to wrap around his neck. He leant forward slightly, hands spread across her back. He then lifted her up so her legs wrapped around his waist.

"May I stay the night?" Steve asked with a smirk on his lips. Maria just reached out behind him to shut the apartment door.

"What do you think?" She asked before he carried her into the bedroom.