'My butt is sore.' Maria groused as she adjusted her hold on Steve's waist. 'How is you butt not sore? These have to be the worst roads in all of America. And I'm obscenely hot. Why am I the only one suffering?'

While Maria was bedecked from neck to fingertip to toe in ballistic nylon and her head was covered in a full-face motorcycle helmet. Steve, in all his super-soldier glory, was only wearing khakis, a collared shirt, and his leather jacket, blissfully enjoying the breeze on his face while Maria died of heatstroke behind him.

A few weeks ago Steve had broached the topic of him going on a cross-country road trip, visiting all of the states and nobody was willing to deny him after Beth's someone (cough… Natasha… cough) had put the idea in Director Fury's head that Steve needed a nanny and that nanny should be Maria.

So here Maria was, bouncing along on poorly paved roads for ten hours a day, sleeping in sketchy motels, taking pictures of the world's largest beer can while introducing Steve Rogers to the country he protects.

They had played license plate ABC, they'd played the country game in six different ways, they'd played speed I Spy and they were only eight days in and if Maria hand to think of another place that started with 'A' she might scream. She was going to spend a month clutching the waist of a guy she'd been having Happy Family fantasies about and gotten really drunk and pathetic when he'd dated someone else even though they'd never been together before. Fuck it, it was time to rip the bandage off so maybe at some point in this whole fiasco Maria might get a couple one-night stands and they'd stop being so goddamned awkward together.

'Why'd you date Beth?' But Steve seemed to be obtusely ignoring her Or maybe he just can't hear her over the wind and muffling effect of the helmet. 'WHY'D YOU DATE BETH?!'

He wrenched his head away from her. Oops, a little too close to the ear there Maria.

'Because she asked me.' There's almost an air of the wounded puppy-dog in his eyes.

'Why didn't you ask me?' And now she sounds like a plaintive child. Great.

'I didn't think you were interested.' Geez, looks like Natasha'a theory might not be so cracked after all.

'I was two steps short of getting a sky writer to ask you to go out with me.' She snorts as a pained look flits across Steve's face. 'I got really drunk and listened to Leonard Cohen on repeat. The last time I did that Eric Delahoy stood me up for my freshman Valentine's Day dance.'

Steve's shoulders tense up and he makes no reply, or if he does, not one Maria can hear.

'Can you say something? I feel like and idiot for telling you all this without you saying anything.'

'I think Eric Delahoy must be blind, deaf, and dumb to stand you up.'

'Yeah, well, it turns out the poor guy broke his collarbone walking down the highly dubious staircase of his mom's fifth floor walkup and just forgot to call me for three weeks, incapacitated as he was in a haze of pain and painkillers. I forgave him since he couldn't really do anything about it, but still…' Maria smiles ruefully, though Steve can't see it.

'Oh, well, I don't really have a good excuse, do I?'

'No, not really, no.'

'Well, sorry about that.'

'I'm feeling generous, so I'll forgive you.'

'Does this mean you're still hiring a sky writer?'

'Only if absolutely necessary. I am still living on a government paycheque after all, despite the kick-ass neoprene suit.'

'Well, I've never done this before, so I might completely mess it up, but, would you like to go to dinner with me?'

'Who else am I going to go to dinner with in the middle of nowhere?'

'Are you being difficult?'

'I am, actually. And I'd love to go on a dinner date with you. No skywriter included.'

'I'll keep the skywriter in mind, though, for the future.'

'Just as long as it doesn't say 'Surrender Dorothy'.'

'Noted.'

Maria's Happy Family fantasies came roaring back to the front of her mind. She hugged Steve a little bit tighter to stop herself from falling off of the bike. Dammit, but Steve was just too cute for his own good.

(When Steve proposes to Maria a year and a half later he's on a mission when they were supposed to be on a date, yet the skywriter, uninformed of the change, still writes 'Maria, will you marry me?' at exactly 10:30 in red smoke over Manhattan. Maria accepts over comms when Steve is busy battling and AIM minion.)