Rewritten 2018

Make You Feel My Love ~Book II~

Disclaimer: I do not own The Winter Soldier movie! All rights go to Marvel. All I own is my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 2~
This Is Home

Before Maria had left for her very first mission as an agent, she had gotten a phone call from Steve, telling her the address of his new apartment in Washington. As he worked for SHIELD and he was Captain America, he had to live in Washington, far away from the place where he actually wanted to live – Brooklyn – since the headquarters of SHIELD needed Steve to be close-by. As long as Steve couldn't pay for an apartment of his own, that was what he had to live with. Maria pitied him that he could not do what he wanted.

He had told her that he had at least a week off from missions and Maria couldn't be happier about the fact that he wanted her to come and visit him. After all, their relationship was most certainly a romantic one even if they didn't see each other that often. Since she now was an official agent of SHIELD, she was hoping to be able to qualify for a place in his team so that they would have breaks as well as missions together, never having to call and hope for the best anymore. Though she would have to stop making silly mistakes if she wanted part of Captain America team.

Now, after her mission, she was dropped off by Clint outside of the tenement where Steve lived and although she had to return to the office in three days, it was still three days that she could spend with Steve. Clint himself was going away for those three days as well. Clint was supposed to have a different schedule than Maria but he was still on watch duty when it came to her, and so they still shared recess- and mission time together.

Where Clint would be going, Maria didn't know. She had asked him, but he hadn't really given her a straight answer. She had respected the fact that he had a private life as well, though she couldn't help but feel curious as to where he was going to go or simply where he lived in general. All she knew of Clint, was the agent side which he showed her and the, quite occasional, brotherly side which he showed whenever he realized Maria wasn't feeling all too well about something. Perhaps, someday, she'd find out more about him but for now, Steve was her main interest.

She had never visited him at his new apartment, even if he had lived there for the past six months now. When they did meet, it was usually at whatever place Maria would have gotten from SHIELD, or somewhere outside of Steve's home. Besides, they just didn't have the time to meet that much because of missions and Maria's training. It was a pity, but it was something they couldn't do anything about.

She held a small bag in her hand with the few possessions she owned placed in there. She didn't really have a place to sleep in between missions. No place she could call home. It was something she had not had for quite some time.

A dark coat was wrapped around her and she wore the same, light blue, jeans that she always wore along with a simple shirt. Other than her suit, she owned no more clothes but those she wore now and a few extra shirts and a cardigan. Yes, she did get paid by SHIELD and yes, she did have the money to buy a permanent home and have a closet filled with clothes. But she just hadn't really gotten round to buying an apartment yet.

She walked towards the door of the apartment building, placing her bag over her shoulder and hearing the sound of her daggers clashing against each other as she did. A gust of wind made her hair blow in front of her face as she once again looked up at the building. Slowly, she lifted her finger towards the button that was next to Steve's address. The sound of a buzz was heard as she pressed the silver button before she stepped back, her eyes staring at the small camera that was placed next to the door, waiting to hear Steve's voice.

"Yes?" his voice said after a few seconds of waiting.

She looked at the camera, seeing herself being displayed on the tiny screen above it before she smiled an unsure smile towards the camera, suddenly not knowing what to say.

"Maria? Come on in," he said, his voice not revealing to her whether or not he was happy that she had arrived. She herself was happy, of course. But she was also nervous, just like she always was when meeting up with Steve again.

She remained silent, simply nodding her head and entering the building. What should she say, after all? "I'm back!" or "Honey, I'm home!" didn't quite fit.

It smelled odd in the first corridor. The smell was a mixture of freshly washed clothes and a bitter smell that Maria couldn't quite place. She looked around, seeing only a pair of stairs and wondering why SHIELD didn't afford to give Steve a more modern home with a lift in it. Then again, the building held a sort of old fashioned atmosphere to it and Maria wondered if it had been Steve that had chosen this place and not SHIELD.

The stairs creaked as she walked up them, her hand brushing over the wooden railing next to her. The first floor smelled slightly better, the bitter smell being gone while the second one smelled more like a humid church. The third staircase didn't creek at all and she noticed that it hadn't been used as much, or perhaps it had been replaced with a new set of staircases. Either way, she felt relieved to know that not the entire building would know that someone was walking up the stairs that led to the third floor. It was starting to annoy her a little bit which she most certainly knew was because of her childhood house. It had a floor that was just as noisy as those staircases.

Everything that reminded her of her childhood made her shiver nowadays.

At the fourth floor, the smell was better then it had been in the former floors and she almost, just faintly, thought she could sense the smell of a certain cologne which she recognized as Steve's. This only made her smile as she started half-walking, half-skipping, half-jogging down the corridor to the far most door; Steve's door. Which in turn made her look rather odd as one of Steve's neighbors opened her door and stepped outside, a phone in her hand.

"Oh," she said, startled by Maria who grew serious. "Are you new here?"

"Eh… No, I'm visiting a… friend," said Maria.

"Oh, okay. Who?" asked the blonde woman as she closed the door, a smile on her lips.

Although the smile was gracing her lips easily as if she truly meant it, Maria had spent far too much time with spies to know when someone was faking something. This made Maria suspicious of her.

"Maria," she greeted, stretching out her hand to the woman which surprised her as this had not been what she had asked. "I'm here to meet Mr. Rogers."

"Sharon," said the woman, smiling as she shook Maria's hand. "This is the first time I've met one of Steve's friends."

"Really? You know him well?" asked Maria, putting on the same smile as Sharon had, which made the other woman purse her lips slightly in response.

"Not really," she responded, lowering her head slightly before gesturing towards her phone. "Sorry, gotta go."

"Yes," replied Maria silently before walking past Sharon. "Nice meeting you!"

She heard Sharon walk away from her and she glanced back slightly, seeing her walk down the stairs hurriedly, her phone pressed against her ear. Something was amiss with her. She didn't seem alright. And no, that wasn't just the jealousy towards the very pretty woman living next door to Steve talking. It was the feeling of someone lying to her that was making her feel that way and it bothered her to not know whether she had lied about her name, or her relationship to Steve.

Her hand knocked three times on the door to Steve's apartment and her suspicions were washed away as excitement took over her body at the sound of Steve's footsteps walking towards the door. Her lips curled up into a smile and she bounced on her feet slightly before the doorknob turned and the door opened, quickly.

Steve stood there, wearing a simple, blue shirt which was tucked into his light-colored jeans while his blonde hair was combed nicely to the side in its usual way. A smile was on his lips which made his blue eyes tinkle slightly as they both stared at each other for a while before Steve stepped aside, letting Maria in.

A strange tension was built up between the both of them as they still hadn't said anything to each other. Maria placed her bag on the floor, against the wall in the small hallway close to the coats that Steve owned. As she started taking off her coat, Steve started helping her, taking it from her and hanging it by the rest of his coats before he gestured for her to enter.

"You've got a lovely home," said Maria, breaking the silence between them as she stepped into the living room. The tension did not go away though.

It was attached to the kitchen while the bathroom and bedroom were two separate rooms. It all reminded her of old movies that she used to watch late at night whenever she couldn't sleep, the living room that is. There was a TV, a small table in front of it, and a couch fit for two people. On the other side of the living room, one lonely chair stood standing against the wall, surrounded by multiple bookshelves, a lamp and a gramophone.

"Thank you," said Steve as he watched her walk towards the gramophone, looking at the multiple records that were stacked underneath it with curious eyes. "I don't think you've ever owned one of those, have you?"

"No," said Maria, shaking her head slightly before looking back at Steve, the tension still being there even though they had started to talk. "I had a cassette player though."

Steve smiled as Maria walked over to him, wondering what the tension was all about. Perhaps it was her creating it as she had just talked to Sharon. Or perhaps it was them both being insecure about where their relationship was now that created the tension.

"I have about three days off too," she reported, standing a couple feet away from him.

"Should have a week. I don't have a mission at the moment. Never know when I'll get called in though," reported Steve.

She nodded her head before looking down at the floor again, still not knowing what to say or do about the tension.

"How did the mission go?" asked Steve.

Maria's eyes widened slightly before she cleared her throat, nodding her head slightly. "Good. It went perfectly good. We got in, did what we needed to do and… you know, got out again. Yeah, everything went well…"

Steve raised an eyebrow at her rambling before nodding his head slightly. "You sure?"

Maria sighed, leaning against the backseat of the couch, looking away from Steve to the floor in front of her. If she told him her childish mistake, then maybe he'd think that it was too dangerous for her to ever be a part of his team.

"I accidentally did something that blew our cover," said Maria quietly.

It was quiet for a while until Maria saw Steve's feet appear in her line of vision. It caused her to look up again, seeing Steve standing there with a sheepish smile on his lips.

"If you feel ridiculed by that… don't. That can happen to anyone," said Steve softly.

"Not to you," replied Maria, to which Steve looked away, seeming to not know what to reply to that. "Either way, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we're together again. Right?"

At this, Steve looked back at her, a smile appearing on his lips as he took a few steps forwards. He placed a finger underneath of her chin and simply looked down into her eyes. The blue color of his eyes still stunned her and the emotions that overwhelmed her when he touched her and looked at her with that loving smile made her entire body relax, wanting to simply fall against him and be held by him. Though, when she looked even deeper into his eyes, she saw the same emotions she had seen on the helicarrier that day they had first met. The emotions of dread, sadness and loneliness.

"I'm sorry," said Maria, making Steve's smile falter slightly as he looked at her confused, his other hand resting on her upper arm. "I should've been here for you when you moved here… when you had to adapt to this world."

"No," said Steve shaking his head slightly as he moved even closer to her, the hand that held his chin slowly moving down to her shoulders where her hair was resting in waves. He softly curled his fingers around her hair, seeming to enjoy the silky feeling. "It doesn't matter. You had training to do."

"Yes, but Steve… We're… I'm…" said Maria, suddenly not knowing what she was to him.

After the picnic in the park and the shooting… Neither of them had spoken about what they were to each other. Although they had spent quite some time together, they had never really talked about it and she didn't know what she was to him. All she knew, was that Steve was her everything.

"You're my girl?" finished Steve, making Maria widen her eyes.

"I-I'm your girl?" she asked in a whisper, causing Steve to smile again, their noses suddenly touching each other as Steve placed himself in-between Maria's legs as she still was leaning against the couch.

"If you want…" said Steve quietly, his courage suddenly seeming to disappear slightly, probably because Maria wasn't giving him any affection back.

He started to back up again, though Maria stood up and placed her arms around his neck, pressing her forehead against his, a move that forced her to actually stand up on her tiptoes. He immediately responded by locking his arms around her waist, a smile gracing his lips again.

"Of course…" breathed Maria, the same smile spreading to her lips as the tension disappeared from the room, a warm feeling replacing it. "That's all I've wanted ever since I saw you…" Although it sounded cheesy, Maria couldn't deny that it wasn't the truth. "With you… I'm home."

Steve pressed her closer to him, closing his eyes as Maria let him, her words seeming to have warmed his heart a lot.

"I feel exactly the same…" breathed Steve. "I've missed you…"

"I've missed you too, Steve," replied Maria, pressing a light kiss to the side of his lips, the fact that Steve pressed himself even closer to her when she did so giving her courage to press another kiss fully to his lips.

Her earlier doubts of where she wanted to live were gone as Steve responded immediately to the kiss. She knew where she wanted to live. She wanted to live with him. To be with him and see him every day. The world seemed so much brighter whenever Steve was around, and she just wanted that to always be.

Beside him, she was home.