Six

Steve was nervous. He wasn't sure why, but he was. It had been two weeks since Six had lit up the night sky for him and let him know she was alive; it was now the first of the month, and he was in Milan. He was at the hotel that Six had told him about. The Boscolo. “I’d check in under the name Fiona Lanton. If anything happens and I can’t contact you, look for me there on the first of the next month.” Her words played back in his head. This had been her plan all along; she'd prepped him for it without him even realizing it.

He had checked into the hotel three days ago, and every couple of hours he had called or personally gone to the front desk, asking for a Fiona Lanton. So far, she hadn't been there. He'd called again this morning, and been met with nothing except the guy who worked the front desk Monday through Friday seemed to be really tired of being asked about Fiona Lanton...

He exited his room and got on the elevator down to the lobby. Out through the open lift doors, he adjusted the collar of his polo shirt and made sure his chinos weren't wrinkled. It was a nice hotel, and he had to look the part. That meant rich. Even though he had a decent amount of money now, this wasn't the environment he was used to. He had been a poor kid from Brooklyn.

He approached the desk. The concierge regarded him warily.

“Excuse me, sir. Has a Fiona Lanton checked in today?” Steve asked, clearing his throat. He was aware that he was starting to look like a weirdo trying to track down a woman named Fiona, but Six had told him to meet her here. She had to be here.

“Yes, she checked in this morning. What's your name, sir? I'll ring her room.” The concierge eyed him, obviously trying to figure out f he was a friend or a crazy stalker.

“My name is Steve. I'm... supposed to meet her here.” He answered, letting out a deep sigh. She hadn't left him. She was here. He momentarily wondered why she hadn't found him... then he realized he'd checked in under the name Steve Anderson. He mentally scolded himself. If he'd have at least used Barnes again she'd have come to him.

The man nodded, dialing a phone and waiting for a few moments, listening to the ringing. He clicked the phone back down. “She's not in, Steve.”

Steve was crestfallen. “All right. I don't suppose you can give me the phone number to her room? That way I can stop bothering you.”

“You can call the front desk and we can patch you through.” The concierge explained. “But she left something for you.”

Cap had been defeatedly turning to leave. He swung back around. “She did?”

The hotel clerk nodded. “She left this envelope. She said if a man named Steve showed up, to please give it to you.” He handed over a small manila mailer. Steve took it and thanked him, then briskly walked around the corner. Once he was out of sight of the desk, he tore open the envelope. What was in there? Had she left him a “Dear John” letter? God he hoped not. More directions? Maybe. It turned out that the answer was, neither. He opened the package and a key card fell out. A room key card. To room 1204.

Steve picked it up and held it, disbelievingly. He'd thought she was dead and now he was going to get a second chance. Truth be told, he was pissed. She could have told him her plan. He had considered not showing up for about a second and a half. He'd told Bucky as much; Bucky had told him to stop being a moron and go find Six, that whatever issues there were had needed to be handled in person. And Bucky had been right. He may be upset because he'd been played, but he also had the feels for Six. Bad. There was no way in hell he could leave her.

He got tired of waiting for the elevator, and took twelve flights of stairs instead, and was soon standing in front of her door. He knocked on it and waited. Nothing. He inserted the key card and pushed the door open. The lights were off, and no one was in the room. He looked around. A suitcase was on the floor at the foot of the bed. Clothing was strewn around like she'd gotten dressed in a hurry and left. Her toiletries were in the bathroom; toothbrush, face wash, a bottle of perfume oil. It was definitely her room. He sat down in a chair beside the window overlooking the city, and waited.

* * *

I knew someone was in my hotel room the moment I stepped in. The air was different. I cautiously crept down the short hallway leading from my door to my bedroom, scanning the bathroom to my left. It was empty. I poked my head into the room, and saw him sitting in the moonlight under the window. Steve. I'd missed him. It had been over a month. I'd been busy, keeping stealth watch over Marina and Luc, remembering a lot of things from my life, and wrecking Hydra's shit everywhere; but my mind had been on Steve a lot. He hadn't checked in under any assumed name I could think of, so I'd done the second best thing. I'd left a key at the desk for either Steve or Bucky, not because I actually expected Bucky to show up. It was because I figured Steve would use one of those two names when asking for me. Undercover work wasn't really his specialty.

I stood in the entry to the room and looked at him. He looked at me, his eyes scanning up and down. I could see the hurt behind them. They fell to my red lips and the black pencil dress I was wearing, and my hair which was no longer blonde, but now dark and cut short.

“How long have you been waiting?” I asked him.

“Four hours.” He replied.

“I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd be here early. I asked for any pseudonym I could think of at the desk but you didn't check in under any of them.” I looked at the ground and back up at him.

“I was here three days ago. I had hoped you'd be early.” He admitted, still sitting under the window. “You look nice.”

“Thanks. I was out seeing a man about an apartment.” I told him, smoothing the front of my dress.

“An apartment? In Milan?” He questioned. His eyes looked a little disappointed, like maybe he'd thought I'd be coming back to New York with him. I'd told him this was going to be hard.

I nodded. “I have... a lot of work to do in Europe. I need a home base, for when I'm in the area.”

“Where did you get the money for all of this?” He looked around the suite we were in.

“Uh, it was... available.” I stammered. I'd stolen it all from the Hydra bases I'd wiped out, but before that, there may have been a bank job. Maybe. But I'd gotten a lot of money from Hydra; I'd returned the money I'd stolen from the bank, left in a bag on the desk of the bank manager. It had been entirely too easy to infiltrate that bank, to be honest.

He stood up. “I see.” He looked out the window, then turned quickly back to me. His eyes were like fire. “I can't wait any more.” He took three long strides across the room towards me, pulling me to him and kissing me hard on the mouth. I closed my eyes and breathed him in. His hands wove their way up my body and into my hair. He pulled back, looking me dead in the eye. “I missed you, Six.” Before I could reply, he was kissing me again, his tongue slipping into my mouth, our hands catching up with the five weeks of each other we had missed. I yanked the polo off of him, and the zipper came down on my dress, and soon we were crashing down on the bed into a disaster of blankets and pillows and flesh, clothing being removed hastily.

He pushed me down and slid into me, and I took in a deep breath. He began to thrust, getting faster and faster.  I arched my back and clawed at his biceps in ecstasy, and he let out a low growl. Steve was wild in the bedroom; it was something no one would suspect, even I had been surprised. I flipped him over and pinned his arms above his head. He smirked at me. “Kinky.”

“You're one to talk.” I grinned, straddling him and sinking down slowly. His face looked blissful. I leaned down and kissed him, his hands still firmly held hostage. “I missed you too.”

“Now you have me.”

“Right where I want you.”

* * *

We lay in the dark together that night. Steve was holding me incredibly tightly- we were both holding each other tightly. Like we were scared the other would slip through our fingers and get lost again. Considering who we both were, this wasn't a far fetched concept. And while I knew Steve was happy to see me, I could feel the undercurrent of anger that had come back after the initial intimacy. I didn't blame him. I'd pulled a fast one and he was upset. We lay in silence for a long time. I was going to let him talk, when he felt like it.

“Why didn't you tell me your plan?” He finally whispered into the darkness near my ear. His hands, which had been tracing up and down my back, had gone still.

“I thought about it. I really wanted to.” I closed my eyes. I felt badly. I'd felt this way the whole time. It hadn't been fair, but it had been necessary. “But I had to sell it. My death. I had to make people believe it. Make everyone believe it. And that meant keeping you in the dark for a while.”

He was silent again. “Did anyone know? Dan? Bucky? Wade?”

I shook my head. “No. Nobody knew.” I sighed. “I'm sorry, Steve.”

“You'd do it again. If you had to.”

“Yes.” I confirmed. “But that doesn't mean I'm not sorry for doing it. You've had to do things you didn't want to do, in the line of duty.”

“My list of things I don't want to do in the line of duty seems to be a lot longer than yours.” He stated bluntly.

“You knew that when you started this with me. You knew it when you kept it going. You knew that when you asked me to be your girl. It's not fair to use it against me now.” I sat up. “If you don't forgive, me, then I can disappear again.” My heart was breaking but I didn't let him see. All I let him see was the harshness that was my exterior.

He sat up as well. “No. Don't go.” I could just make out the outline of him. He reached out and took my hand. “I don't want to be without you again. I understand why you did what you did.” He paused. “I don't like it, but I get it. Just don't leave again.”

I laced my fingers through his. “I can't come back with you to New York right now.” I finally said.

“I figured as much.”

“I want to, but there are more bases to take care of. And I want to watch Marina and Luc a little longer. Make certain they're safe.” I explained. “If I could, I'd go with you right now. It's what my heart wants to do.”

“Are you going to let Marina and Luc know you're alive?” Steve asked me. He had rested back against the pillows, and I leaned back into the crook of his shoulder.

“I don't know.” I finally answered.

“DO you remember them yet?”

“Yes. I remember a lot.” I nodded. “And I don't know what to say to either of them.”

“Luc knows.”

“Knows what?”

“About us. That we're together.”

“How?”

“When Dan, Bucky, and I went to tell them about your... death.” Steve sounded anguished over everything that had befallen us the past few weeks. He continued. “He called me back.”

“What did he say exactly?”

“He said it gets easier. Living with your death.” Steve said a hitch in his voice. “And he said that he always knew it would end in tears, but that you were worth every second.”

I closed my eyes, feeling tears welling up. I'd loved Luc so much. He'd given me a home to come back to every night and a beautiful daughter. But that was gone now.

“I agreed with him.” Steve finally said.

“You think it will end in tears for us, too?” I asked. Steve was very different than Luc, but also very similar. Both men were good men; true, just, and their faith in humanity never failed. I was the darkness to their light, the necessary black hole to their North Star. I didn't want it to end in tears with Steve.

“It already did, once.” Steve wrapped an arm around me. “For me at least. But I don't know. We both do dangerous things. It's possible.”

“Is it worth it?” I asked.

“It is for me.” He said. “Luc was absolutely right. Just a few minutes is worth all the heartache in the world.”

I held him tightly. “I'm not letting you go, Steve. Even if we're on different continents, my heart belongs to you.”

* * *

“I don't think that's a good idea, Tony.” Steve said into the phone the next morning. I don't know what they were talking about; I'd just stepped out of the shower and found Steve sitting at the desk, engaged in conversation. He seemed to listen to whatever Tony was saying, then shrugged and held the phone out to me. “Tony wants to talk to you.” He told me. I furrowed my brow and took the phone.

“Hello?” I asked, towel drying my hair. I hadn't ever really had a conversation with Tony that wasn't all business. What did he want to speak to me about?

“Hey there Dark Lady. Nice Sherlock you pulled back there.” He said. I didn't know what he meant by that exactly.

“What?”

“The faking of the death. Good job.”

“Oh. Uh, thanks. I think.” I replied. He sounded almost giddy at the fact that I'd fooled all of them and nearly broken Steve's heart in the process. “I didn't think anyone would be glad I did that.”

“Oh it was fucked up for sure, but I appreciate good performance art.” Tony quipped. “The Capscicle tells me you don't know if you want to see Marina and Luc.”

“This is true.”

“Why not?”

“Because... I'm not sure Marina would want to see me. Or Luc. It will be painful and complicated and perhaps it's best that I stay away.” I answered honestly. I'd been gone so long already. What did it matter now? Better to grieve on my own than drag them down too.

“Listen, I'm not the kind of man who should be counted on to ever say or do the right thing.” Tony began. “But I can tell you, from experience, that a person who loses their parent will give up nearly anything for the chance to see them again.”

“Did you lose yours, Tony?” I asked him.

“Yes. Both of them.” Tony paused. “Hydra had them killed.” He finally stated hesitantly.

“It wasn't me, was it?” I asked, horrified. I still didn't know what I'd done, but I hadn't seen any Starks on my hit list when Dan had shown it to me. That didn't mean there weren't others Dan didn't know about, though.

“No... it was... the Winter Soldier.” Tony said flatly.

“I see.”

“I've let bygones be bygones, Six. But I'm telling you, consider meeting them. It doesn't matter how messy the situation is or how complicated things get, Marina wants this.” Tony was serious for a change. “I know I'd want it. I'd do anything, pay any price. She would too.” I heard the phone click off, and I looked down at it. Tony had hung up before the conversation could get too real. I looked up at Steve.

“What did he say?” He asked me, looking blatantly confused.

“I think I want to see Marina.”

“Tony, of all people, convinced you of that in a three minute phone conversation?” Steve looked surprised.

I nodded. “Yes. He was pretty persuasive.”

Steve seemed to take this all in stride. “Sometimes Tony pulls a hail mary.” He stood up. “You can't go to their house; let me make a few calls and I'll work out the details.”

* * *