Theo clutched his side where he had been hit with a slicing curse moments earlier. He pulled his hand back and winced at the sight of blood. Stupid emotions once again caused him to act irrationally. He scanned the room. It was almost completely destroyed. Blaise groaned from a corner, but he seemed okay which caused relief to course through Theo. He stood and moved haltingly towards the blonde crumpled beside him. He had warned her that more people would make things worse for them in the long run. Oh how he was right.
It took time, but he reached the woman and carefully turned her over. Breathing, another sigh of relief when he felt her breathe. With a quick glance, he knew that she was uninjured other than some bruises and scrapes, but no real damage. Thank Merlin. Ana came through the doorway with her wand at the ready.
“It is time to move, Minister.” She said roughly. “We are moving you and the captain to the human safe house. Blaise grab her and get to the cars.”
Theo’s brows furrowed. Wherever Ana was Lucious should have followed, but there was no tall blonde behind her. “Status report, Tats?”
“No time.” She shouted before moving to help Blaise with the unconscious form of Stevie. If she said that, it was worse than he thought it would be, so he got his ass moving and ignored the fact his side was still bleeding. He shooed Blaise away and grabbed Stevie himself. His magic still was not a fan of the other man touching her even if he knew that Blaise meant no harm.
“I expect one in the car.” Theo grunted out as they moved.
They reached the car and placed Stevie in first, followed by Theo, and Blaise went into the driver’s seat. Ana however did not move to get into the car. Instead she sent him a small, sad smile. “You will get none. Blaise, I will check in when I have an understanding of what is going on.” With that the car door closed and Ana was heading back into the building with a look of pure determination. The car lurched forward as Blaise pulled out of the parking spot at a speed that was not healthy for New York City.
Theo blinked at the door his sister had shut without getting into the car. She left him and went off into danger without him. His glare turned onto Blaise. “Stop the car, Zabini. We are not leaving my sister there.”
“I am sorry, sir, but this was the plan if anything happened. I get you to the safe house, and she takes care of the scene. I cannot stop this car.” The ebony man had the audacity to say without a bit of remorse.
Theo looked back and was just about to apparate when a groan and movement next to him caught his attention. He turned to Stevie and moved to adjust her position to make her more comfortable. “Stevie?” He asked gently as her eyes started to flutter. “You alright? You took a nasty blow to the head.” His hand reached out and pushed her hair back from her face as he once again examined the bruising on her temple. It took a minute for her to come fully to, and when she did, she tried to jump into action again. However, Theo kept her down and had her focus on him. “Easy now. We are out of harm’s way for now.”
She slowly took the interior of the car into focus and looked at Theo. “How did we get here?”
“Ana. After I incapacitated Flint, she came in and got us out of there. From who was in the room during the attack only Green did not make it. That is not counting those outside the room though.” Theo felt the bitterness on his tongue. He lost another member of his team for a decision made years ago that was necessary for the survival of wizards. If only people weren’t so stuck in their ways and so insistent that killing was the only way to get their way.
Stevie nodded as she felt her ribs checking for breaks and finding none. Despite her pain, the feel of Theo’s hands on her distracted her, causing a shiver to run from his hands on her shoulders to her toes and back up. “That’s a strong woman, right there.” She murmured.
“She had no other option unfortunately.” Theo murmured before sitting back in the chair and finding his own space again. “You are too. Not many can survive a hit like that and wake up a few minutes later.”
Stevie rolled her eyes at the dark haired man. The man had blocked half of the hit from the blast, and yet, here he was still praising her for a job that she seemed to have failed. “Right. So heroic of me to take the remnants of a hit after it hit you.” She reached her hand up, but spotted blood on it. Her brows furrowed, she wasn’t bleeding anywhere to account for the amount of blood on her hand and arm. “Theo, are you bleeding?” She asked in a deathly calm voice.
The question caused Blaise’s eyes to shoot to the mirror. “Sir?”
Theo’s arm had subconsciously moved back to his side and was putting pressure on the wound. He slowly lifted it off and looked at the new blood before putting it back on himself. “It is nothing, Blaise. Just a small cut. I will heal it later.”
The other man cursed under his breath, “Should have told Ana. She is a better healer than you, Theodore, and much better than me.”
Stevie went to move his arm and clothes to see just how little of a scratch they were talking about because just a cut did not bleed this much. She should have realized something was wrong with the amount of iron smell in the air. Theo just brushed her off.
“She had other things to do.” And pain sliced through him once again about being sent away because his life was so important to the community. What about the lives of his people? His family? Why did they continue to put him first? Why did he have to keep watching them die?
“Let me see this cut, Minister.” Stevie said through gritted teeth. She could force him physically to show her, but for some reason, she felt that would not be well received by both Blaise and Theo.
Theo turned slowly to the woman and shook his head. “You don’t need to see it. Not much can be done here. There are supplies at the safe house to help. Right now, I need to keep pressure on it.”
The glare from Stevie’s blue eyes could freeze a better man. Luckily for Theo he was no good man, which many always liked to remind him of. “Then it is more than a scratch, Minister.” She then reached down and tore strips off her blouse. “Take off your shirt.”
The stubbornness in this one reminded him of all the strong women in his life. No wonder his magic picked her. “Fine.” He reached down to the bottom of his black sweater and pulled it up and over his head. Then he looked down and saw how bad it really was. There were lacerations from his hip to just under his rib cage on his left side. He reached for his wand and came up empty. “Blaise. I seem to have dropped my wand.”
Stevie winced when she saw just how badly Theo had been injured. Then she felt like she would start drooling as she noticed his abs and his ability to act like everything was fine despite his bleeding out. She ground her teeth as she began to tear his shirt into strips as well before beginning combat first aid on the man who always seemed to refuse help.
Blaise nearly slammed on the breaks and sent his best friend a glare. “You are wandless?!”
Theo chuckled darkly. “I can do some magic without it, Blaise. Don’t fret too much.”
“You can’t do healing magic without it though!” The man growled out.
“So, you can heal me.” Theo grinned, but winced when Stevie pulled the makeshift bandage tightly around him.
“Last time I did that, we almost lost your leg, Theodore.”
Theo chuckled. “Oh yeah. That was when that alien speared me through the femur. Oh man, Ana was furious when she reappeared. The reaming we got from her. Good times.”
“Right. Good times. That’s definitely how I remember it.” Blaise mumbled bitterly.
“Are you two done bickering like a married couple?” Stevie mumbled around the fabric she was holding in her mouth to tighten the pressure of the bandage even further.
“Never.” They both said at the same time and blinked at her.
It wasn’t long until they were pulling into what appeared to be a shitty motel. “Stay here till I get back.” Blaise got out of the car and began surveillance of the area to make sure it was all clear for his minister.
Once Blaise was gone and the bandage was tied, Stevie went back onto high alert and kept her eyes on their surroundings. These last few days had curated a deep trust of these wizards. They all cared deeply about their community and about helping those around them. It was a surprise. From some of the things she had heard about these wizards, she was not expecting them to be this engaged with these meetings across the pond. The wizards of the United States were less engaged despite them living on this side. This realization was not helping her with these feelings that had been growing for the Minister since she met him.
“Why did you do it?” Stevie asked him softly.
“Do what?” Theo feigned innocence. He scratched at his stubble and looked out the window watching Blaise stalk around.
“You know what I’m talking about, Theo.”
The dark haired man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I do, but I do not have an answer for you, Stevie.”
“You should not recklessly put your life at risk like that, Theo.”
“Why the hell not?” Theo snapped. “Why am I more important than those around me? Why can’t I save people I am fond of when they are in danger?”
Stevie’s head snapped to Theo with her eyes wide. This man has never lost his cool, not even when he was insulted during a meeting with the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. “Theo?”
He let out a long sigh and tightly clenched his hands on top of his thighs. He kept his focus on Blaise. “Sorry to snap at you like that. It is not fair of me to take my frustration out on you.” He began to do his counting breaths as he continued to watch the graceful, familiar movements of his best friend. “I am just over everyone around me putting me ahead of their own well being or lives.”
“Theo, that’s not just what they are doing.” Stevie understood his frustration, but she did not believe he understood why people were so willing to sacrifice themselves for him. “Don’t you see that you do the same for the people around you so they return the favor? They also still live their own lives outside of you.”
Theo sighed and unclenched his fists. “Right, right.” He shook his head and saw Blaise come up to the door, opening it. “Everything safe for us?”
Blaise nodded as Theo got out of the car essentially ignoring what Stevie had said. “Yes, sir. The room is all set up for you. I am going to have Captain Rogers stay with you while I head back to the site and meet up with Ana and the other Aurors.”
Stevie frowned at the interruption of their conversation. She would need to get him to refocus on it later if it was one of the last things she did. “Would it not be better for you to stay Blaise and I meet up with Ana?” She put her professional hat back on as she also got out of the car.
“Unfortunately, muggles are not able to enter the site anymore, so I am the one that has to go. Plus, I trust you.” Blaise nodded and gave her another one of his bright smiles, causing her to cough a bit uncomfortably and look away.
“I appreciate the praise, Zabini, and I can only imagine how upset Fury is at not being allowed on the site of the attack.” He chuckled at her response.
“The room is small, but we should have our other building ready for you in a few hours. The wards are up, and I doubt that anyone would suspect you staying here.” Blaise smirked as he opened the door to the motel room. Inside was a queen bed, an armchair, a small table with two dining tables, and a door leading to a bathroom.
Theo grimaced. “The wallpaper is rather eccentric.” He stepped in and took in the stale scent in the air. “How long did you say it would take before we could return to one of my buildings?”
“A few hours, sir.” Blaise smirked in amusement.
“Right. Deck of cards?”
“On the table. Now, with that, I must head back. Captain, take care of the minister and make sure he takes the potions in the bathroom. He knows which ones.”
Stevie nodded to the man as he left. She then locked the door and drew the curtains closed after taking one last look around the parking lot. This was going to be a long few hours Stevie thought to herself as she watched the still shirtless man walk to the bathroom. He started to open cabinets clearly looking for something, which caused his back muscle to ripple as he moved. It fascinated her, but there was little about the man that did not do just that.
“You keep staring like that, and I’ll have holes through me.” Theo grabbed two potions from the stash and down them simultaneously with a groan. Immediately he felt his skin stitching back together on his side and the pain dissipating.
A blush crept to her lips at being caught staring. “Well, you should put a shirt on.” She huffed and crossed her arms across her chest.
He chuckled and began to undo the bindings around his waist. “Hey, your shirt isn’t much of one either, and I’m not staring.”
“What?” She looked down and noticed for the first time that her shirt was more of a crop top now than a blouse. Her blush deepened, and she covered her bare stomach while she turned away from him.
Theo laughed as he began to clean off the blood that coated his side. Without healing magic, this was going to scar, but it was not like he did not have any scars as it was. “There should be some clothes in the dresser there. Likely all my size, but there should be some joggers and t-shirt that will kinda fit you.” It took both washcloths to get all the blood off him, which meant he needed to take another potion. Just great. That one was more bitter than the first two.
Stevie moved to the dresser and began to search through it. It took some time, but she found the clothes he mentioned and looked for a spot to change. Theo apparently had eyes behind his head because he nudged the bathroom door closed to give her some privacy. “Thanks,” she murmured and began to change out of her filthy clothing into what had to be the softest material she had ever felt. “Have you taken all the potions you need to?”
He groaned as he began searching for that third potion. “I have to take one more, but don’t worry. Unlike what Blaise thinks, I do take things that I need to take. No matter how gross the taste.” He gripped the bottle of the final potion and downed it with another grimace. He immediately bent and drank from the faucet to try and remove that taste. “Decent out there?”
Stevie moved to the table and sat down. “Yeah.” Theo walked out and went to the dresser to grab himself a change of clothes as well. Stevie marveled at the newly knit together flesh. There were some things about magic that still amazed her. “That healing magic is amazing.”
“That’s what you said when we first joined in on the fight against Thanos five years ago.”
Her eyes went wide. “How did you know that?”
“I got reports of everything during that time. I had to be on top of both the muggle world happenings and that of the wizarding world at that time, so anything and everything was being reported to me during that time. I was risking everything by having the wizarding world join with this one. I couldn’t risk anything more.”
Stevie stared at him. Impressed by his ability to infiltrate everything and frightened by it. “Why was it such a risk?”
Theo turned slowly to look at her before pulling a t-shirt over his head. “Despite the world’s acceptance of Scarlet Witch, there was no guarantee of one for our community, especially at a time when half the population had vanished. Then there is a faction of our community that hates non-magic users with their entire beings. I was risking war on three fronts.”
“Were you not one of those non-magic haters?” This was the first time Stevie had gotten Theo to talk to her about anything other than current work or defensive strategies.
“I had to be. Ana and I weren’t given much of a choice when we were younger. It was either pretend or end up like our mother.” Theo sighed as he moved to the bathroom again to change his pants. “Ana and I, though, had other plans and secretly worked towards them during the wizarding war. We wanted a united front especially with magic fading. The best way to do that was stamp out this superiority magic users had and combine worlds, so that’s what I did.” Now people are even finding their magic mates again, Theo thought to himself with a smile as he returned to the room and took the seat across from her.
“Right, Ana was snapped during that time.” Stevie frowned. “That must have moved up your plans.”
“That and some personal reasons.” He frowned deeply then grabbed the deck of cards and shuffled. “Now, can we talk about something else? As much as I love a walk down memory lane, I think I do enough of that on my own.”
Stevie frowned at the change, but was not going to push. She found this man interesting and wanted to know more about him, but she was willing to go at his pace. It was not like she was giving up her thoughts and past so easily as well. At the same time, she had to continue to try. Just needed another path. “I am surprised to see you handle a deck of cards so easily. In fact, I was surprised to see you don’t use magic in your day to day, really.”
“I guess that is a different topic but similar.” He chuckled and arched a brow at the woman. She was sneakier than he had given her credit. She only shrugged in response. “Well, I wanted to combine non-magical and magical worlds, so I felt I needed to understand those without magic at their beck and call. I went without magic for about a year or two unless absolutely needed before I became the minister seven years ago.”
“You just stopped using magic to do things?”
“Yep, almost set my house on fire many times at the start, but I watched some of those YouTube videos, and got a pretty good handle on things. Now, I just don’t feel the need to use it for every little thing.”
“I will have to ask Ana for stories of this time.” Stevie said, smirking.
“She would love to regale you with the time I tried to do laundry and ended up with suds halfway down the hallway.” He began to deal. “Know how to play Gin Rummy?”
“I’m a little rusty, but I think I will pick it back up again.”
Theo deals out the hands and explains the basic rules to help refresh Stevie’s memory. The first few rounds went to Theo, but it wasn’t long till Stevie got the hang of it and was able to beat Theo out of a game.
“Hah!” She cheered and threw her hands in victory and stuck her tongue out at the man who chuckled at her reaction. “I won!”
“Yes, yes, you did.” He grinned as he picked the deck back up and began to shuffle them again with a raised brow. “Good to see you have good sportsmanship.”
“Oh, please. I am allowed to have such a reaction. It isn’t like you can’t afford to go down a peg or two now and again.” She grinned as she organized her hand.
“That’s what you were doing, trying to lower my ego.” He smirked. “Many have tried and none have succeeded, Miss Rogers, and I have a secret for you.”
Stevie’s brows rose in shock that he would consider confiding in her about anything, but then again it could be a silly secret that means nothing at all. “And what would that secret be?”
He looked from side to side acting like he needed to make sure no one was around before he could tell her. This caused Stevie to stifle a chuckle. “My ego actually isn’t that big. I just fake it a lot in order to keep people at a distance.”
Stevie looked at him confused. “There is-”
However she was cut off as Theo’s communication device went off. Suddenly a hologram of Ana was in the room with them. She was still in the clothes that she had fought in and hair a mess. “Sorry to interrupt.” Her voice was muffled.
Theo immediately sobered and Stevie cursed his sister’s timing. “Not at all, Tats. What can you tell us?”
Ana nodded before starting the update, “I have some good news and some not so great news. Then to top it off some really bad news. The good news is that the scene has been thoroughly investigated and the real Wanda has been found. We still are not sure how they got the drop on her, but we will let you know once we do. The not so great news is that other than Flint we have not been able to capture anyone else. The bad news is that Captain Rogers is now wanted by the rebel wizards, so she is as much a target as you are and will be essentially stuck in the safe house with you till further notice. More bad news, Lucius is still unconscious and has been rushed to the wizard hospital. It is not looking good.”
Silence met her status report. Thoughts of anger and frustration were filling Theo. ‘How could I have let this happen,’ was at the forefront. “Please keep us updated on Lucius's well being, and if you need anything, do not hesitate to ask, Tats.” He managed to get out.
“Of course, Minister. Now if you will excuse me, I have a lot of work to do and cannot dally much longer.” She did not wait for a response before cutting the line.
The silence that followed was almost deafening for the pair, so Stevie got up and moved to the window to look out at the parking lot. It had not changed since they got there which was not a big surprise for the middle of the afternoon during the week. “Why am I a target?” Stevie finally muttered softly.
Theo looked up from his hands and grimaced. “There are likely a few reasons. The main one being that you are protecting me and sticking your non-magical nose into magical business.” The other was likely them noticing how Theo had gotten close to Stevie the last couple of days and wanted a repeat of seven years ago as well as last year. However, Theo was not about to go into those details.
“That’s enough to put a target on me?”
“Oh yes. More than enough for them.” There was bitterness in his voice, and he decided to change the topic again. “Well, it seems we are going to be stuck here together for a while.”
It took a moment for the words to really hit Stevie. They were going to be stuck in this small motel room with one bed for the foreseeable future. “We should probably discuss sleeping arrangements and the watch shifts.”
“Right. Sleeping arrangements.” Theo muttered as images of them sleeping together flooded his mind. His eyes went to the bed and he coughed to cover his sudden uncomfort. “I doubt we have to do watches. This place is better secured than my penthouse. Plus I am sure Blaise already set up additional wards.”
Stevie’s eyes moved from the window to the bed in the middle of the room. “We can sleep in shifts either way. That seems like the best way to deal with this situation.”
Theo shook his head. “I doubt either of us will wish to be up much longer after the day we have had, and the bed is big enough to fit both of us. I see no reason not to use it.”
Stevie could think of many reasons to not sleep in the same bed as this man. The first being her unreasonable attraction to the man. The second also being her attraction to this enigma of a man. However, she knew he was also right about her wanting to go to bed sooner rather than later. She moved her eyes to the dark haired man and swallowed. “Alright.”
The pair stared at each other both wondering how long they would last before the need to touch the other and be with them overtook them. Would they make a fool of themselves or would the affection be returned? Only time would tell for them, but it was clear to those around them that by the end of the night their relationship would forever be changed.