Make You Feel My Love
~Book III~

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers nor do I own the plot of Age of Ultron. All rights go to Marvel.
All I do own are my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 6~
Only Your Lips

"What the-"

"Hell," finished Tony, exchanging a look with Steve as the two of them accompanied by Thor and Clint walked through the lab. "Well… At least I now understand what Maria wanted us to burn."

Steve stopped in front of the last tube filled with a strange, brown fluid and an unconscious clone of Maria floating inside of it. He felt slightly awkward about the fact that she was naked, though he avoided those areas and focused entirely on the face. It was a perfect copy of her, though what he didn't understand was why her father had cloned her.

"I can hack this thing so it'll self-destruct," said Tony as he walked over to the computer, glancing back at Steve who nodded his head in consent, before he started working on the computer.

"Why clone lady Maria?" asked Thor as he and Clint came to stand beside Steve.

"I don't know," replied Steve. "But I do know that Maria's father wasn't the man any of us thought."

"Damn right. He's crazy," retorted Clint with a scoff before turning away from the tube.

"A father loves their children no matter what," said Thor, exchanging a look with Steve. "There must be a reason behind this that we do not know."

"Maybe," was the only reply Steve had before Tony walked back over to them.

"We got ten minutes to get out," he informed the three other Avengers to which Steve nodded.

"You go on ahead," said Steve, earning a confused look from Clint. "I gotta do something first."

Reluctantly, the three heroes nodded their heads before heading back towards the exit. Thor turned back to Steve one last time before disappearing out into the hallway, giving Steve a nod of his head as if he knew what Steve was going to do.

And he probably knew it too. After all, Thor had someone he loved just like Steve and if the one person you love asks you to do something, then you do it.

On his way inside of the lab, Steve had seen something interesting. At the left wall of the lab, there were shelves filled with uniforms and gasmasks. From what Steve had read about Hydra's current work, it was to create soldiers that could take on other soldiers with enhanced abilities. Meaning, soldiers like Steve who had enhanced strength. So to find gasmasks and weapons in a lab trying to make ordinary men stronger wasn't something surprising. And much to Steve's delight, there was a flamethrower there.

Burn it.

Grabbing the flamethrower and readying it, he walked towards the last tube. He knew he couldn't touch the computer, seeing as it was going to be what would destroy this facility and make its research unreachable to Hydra, though he could touch the tubes holding the defect and perfect clones of Maria. He aimed the flamethrower at the tube with the already grown clone, his finger resting on the trigger, when something held him back. Something caused his finger to not move and he knew it was no outer force.

As he looked at that perfected face, he only saw his Maria. And he couldn't hurt her.

He lowered the flamethrower again, sighing deeply before shaking his head.

"I can't," he said to himself and to Maria, even though he knew she didn't hear him. "I just can't."

A muffled banging was what made Steve tense up again. It was what made Steve ready the flamethrower once more. Though as he saw what was making the muffled banging noise, his eyes only widened and a saddened look appeared on his face.

From inside the tube, the clone was staring right back at him. Her eyes were wide open and her hands were pushed against the glass. For a minute, he wanted to pull the trigger again. Though the look in her eyes stopped him. He saw fear. But not only that. There, deep in her eyes, he saw the same look Maria gave him whenever he said something dorky or whenever he didn't understand something. A look filled with love.

Pain struck him when he realized the clone might know him. That she might have Maria's real memories. Though it didn't make much sense, Steve didn't doubt it since he had seen what Hydra was capable of.

He dropped the flamethrower to the floor before walking up to the tube. Her fearful eyes followed his every move and when he reached up, placing one hand against the glass where one of her hands was resting, the fear disappeared. She instead looked curious, almost seeming to cock her head to the side as she watched her fingers align with his against the glass.

"Cap, you got four minutes."

"Copy that," replied Steve quickly before looking back into the clone's eyes.

She had her eyebrows furrowed as she continued to stare at him. Then, suddenly, a smile appeared on her lips as she removed her hands from the glass, nodding at him. She mouthed the word 'go' to him, much to Steve's surprise, and watched him leave the laboratory she had been conceived in. Had water not been all around her, tears would've been falling down her cheeks.

"You alright?" asked Natasha as she stayed next to Maria while Bruce walked off to throw away the bloodied wipes.

"I was just shot," replied Maria weakly, putting on a forced smile. "So, yeah, peachy."

"Don't be such a cry-baby," replied Natasha, rolling her eyes. "It's already healed. And besides, that wasn't what I was asking about."

Maria looked at her again, the silliness disappearing from her face as a serious look took over.

Was she?

Her hopes of having a normal father were gone. She had seen clones of herself. And she had been the cause of her father's death.

"My father… He did things," said Maria, earning a frown from Natasha and Bruce, who had joined them again. "Things that he didn't use his hands for."

"I'm not following here," said Bruce.

"I mean, he made things move, without using his hands," said Maria, looking down at her own hands. "And he said he had the same powers as… Oh my God."

"You think you've got his weird telekinetic powers? If he's even gotten those?" asked Natasha.

"No, I mean yes, but… No," said Maria before standing up and running back to the opening of the Quinjet. "Don't you see! He's got the same powers as me!"

Bruce's eyes widened then as his lips formed an O while he stood up too. Though just as Maria was about to step out of the Quinjet, the ground shook harshly, smoke suddenly appearing from the old abandoned cottage.

"What was that?" asked Natasha, she and Bruce both running over to Maria.

Thor, Tony, Clint and Steve jogged back over to where Maria and the others were standing, worried looks on their faces.

"Dalton's gone," said Clint with a grunt as he passed the three of them before sitting himself down, a scowl on his face.

"We were stupid," said Maria, brushing a hand over her face in desperation. "He's got the same powers as me."

"Yeah, we figured," replied Tony as he too passed them by.

"All this for nothing," grunted Clint. "No sceptre. No baddy. Just smoke and a whole lot of weird memories from down there."

Maria shifted on her feet at his words, clearing her throat slightly; "We got the intel we needed, right?"

Tony nodded, all Avengers regrouping around the middle of the Quinjet again as Tony made a map of Europe appear as a hologram in front of them.

"Sokovia," said Tony, a red dot appearing where the city was located. "That's where we'll find the facility that Dalton has been feeding information to about the enhanced program they've got. Apparently, they've got an energy source that can't be found anywhere else on Earth."

"You think it's Loki's sceptre?" asked Thor.

"Oh, I know it is," said Tony. "And you can slap me if I'm wrong."

Thor frowned at his strange words before looking back at Maria and Steve. "Then we are wasting time discussing this."

"I agree," said Steve, nodding his head as he looked over at Clint who had already positioned himself by the panels at the front. "Let's head out."

The plan was made and everyone knew what was going to happen. Maria wasn't allowed inside the facility this time. No one was except for Tony. The others were going to take the fight outside.

There was still half an hour to go until they were in Sokovia. Coming up with a plan hadn't been too hard nor had it taken much time thanks to the intel they had. Hopefully, the facility would actually be above ground this time.

Currently, everyone was prepping for the fight in their own ways. Most of the Avengers had eaten something and had something to drink already and those still eating were those who needed food the most; Steve and Thor.

In other circumstances, Maria would've made a witty joke about the fact that Steve was holding a tiny plastic plate in his hands while eating with a tiny plastic fork. Though Maria was tired and done with everything life had to offer at the moment. All she did was watch the fork go up and down from the plate and to Steve's mouth as she sat beside him, leaning her head against the wall of the Quinjet and feeling the tiny vibrations of the engines against her skull. They soothed her slightly, though they also made her slightly dizzy.

"If you're still hungry, there's still food," said Steve, glancing back at her, clearly indicating to her following the food from his plate to his mouth.

"Sorry," she replied before looking away.

Steve watched her for a while, his fork in mid-air before he sighed, placing the plate and fork away from him and turning slightly to Maria.

He was about to say something but seemed to think otherwise as she looked at him. Instead, he gently placed a hand on her knee as he continued to look at her, his eyes going from her eyes, to her cheeks, to her mouth and back up to her eyes. And then a smile broke out onto his lips to which Maria frowned slightly.

"Yeah, no… You're the real one," said Steve then, nodding his head.

"I really don't want to talk about that," said Maria, turning to look away from Steve though he grabbed her chin before she could, gently turning her head to look back at her. "You wanna know how I know?"

Maria didn't reply which she didn't have to either because Steve was already leaning in. He gently placed a kiss against her forehead, his lips lingering there for a while before he pulled away just enough for him to speak; "Only your forehead is this beautiful."

She furrowed his brow at his words, cocking an eyebrow at him as he smirked down at her before he shifted slightly, pressing a kiss to her right cheek; "Only your cheek is this beautiful."

A smile started to appear on her lips as her heart warmed up at his words. Her hands reached up to grab onto Steve's arms, holding him close to her.

Then, he shifted slightly in order to kiss her nose gently; "Only your nose is this beautiful."

She giggled at his antics this time, a genuine smile spreading across her face and reaching her eyes, making them glisten as she looked into his perfect, blue ones. And then, her smile faded as he moved so that his lips were lingering close to Maria's. An intense feeling took over her body then and there. An intense feeling that she hadn't felt before towards anyone. A feeling of neediness; a feeling of pure and other admiration.

"Only your lips are this beautiful," he whispered, his breath touching her lips and making a warm sensation run down her spine.

When he finally kissed her, she relished in the moment of their lips touching. For the first time in their relationship, she completely opened up to him with that one kiss, parting her lips slightly to deepen the kiss even more. It even took Steve off guard and had it not been for the others all around them, Maria would've gone even further.

Though Steve pulled away, his chest heaving slightly from the kiss and a deep look in his eyes as he looked back at her. He suddenly moved as though to kiss her again, though he hindered himself, seeming to remember that there were others around him that could be watching and as he straightened back up, a painful longing filled Maria's chest.

"That's why," he said, breaking eye contact before grasping her hand in his big one.

"Urgh… Get a room," commented Tony from across the Quinjet to which Maria rolled her eyes.

"I've seen you," said Maria, pointing a finger at him, referring to back when she was his cleaner and he still was the playboy he used to be. At one point during her career in the Stark Industries, she had wanted to clean his office, thinking it hadn't been in use. Well, it had been. "Tread carefully or I will tell others."

Tony widened his eyes before mirroring her and pointing his finger at her; "You play dirty."

"I'm not the only one apparently," replied Maria, raising her eyebrows as she talked.

Both Natasha and Clint started to laugh at the offended look on Tony's face and Thor's confused question about what they were talking about. And although Maria chuckled too, her thought were still on the kiss she and Steve had shared. She looked over at Steve who was smiling at Natasha and Clint. It wasn't until Maria squeezed their intertwined hands that he looked over at her.

"I love you," she whispered to him, a wide smile appearing on his lips.

"I love you too."