"How did you find that place anyway?"

Steve shut the passenger side door of the convertible where (Y/n) was sitting comfortably, her legs tucked underneath herself. Walking around to the driver's seat he sat down beside her, shoving the keys in the ignition.

"It's one of Mr. Creston's houses, he said it was okay if I stayed there for awhile."

Steve's head turned towards her, taken aback by the familiarity of the name.

"As in Secretary of State, Duke Creston?"

"Yea he's a family friend." She shrugged casually.

(Y/n) and Steve were beginning their journey to the airplane hanger. Having been worried (Y/n) would leave Boston before he could get there, he had flown one of Tony's jets to minimize the travel time. After a long night and a lot of discussion he had finally convinced her to return to New York with him and now they sat side by side on their way to the hanger, one step closer to bringing her home and repairing the damage the contract had made. He kept stealing glances at her, reveling in the fact that after weeks and weeks of separation, she was really there with him. To put it as mildly as he possibly could, he was living on cloud nine, and even that felt like a massive understatement.

Steve turned around slightly in his seat, his arm resting on the back of (Y/n)'s chair while he reversed out of the drive way. Something in her phrasing had stirred something in him and he pondered why for a moment before he made the connection.

"God I'm an idiot." He chucked, lightly.

"What? Why?" (Y/n) asked, curiously.

"You're Mom mentioned you guys knew him." Steve explained. "I could have looked into that, I could have found you weeks ago!"

(Y/n) stiffened slightly in her chair.

"You went to see my Mom?"

Steve hesitated for a moment, realizing that her Mom must never have told (Y/n) about the argument that had ensued when he came to her apartment. She didn't even know about the way she had cornered him at lunch the day they met. With everything going on he didn't want to add more stress to her return to New York but after the fiasco with the contract he would be an idiot to try and keep something this big from her. It may have been strange but the issues between Steve and (Y/n)'s mother felt like they should stay between the two of them. Her issues were with him not (Y/n), and he knew the only way to resolve whatever problems she would still have was to face her head on and find a way to gain her respect. (Y/n) talking him up wasn't going to fix this, it was up to him.

"I tracked your phone location to her house. I was going to go the day you left but wanted to give you some space to cool off. By the time I got there the next day you were already gone."

Feeling that leaving it there would be a little too reticent to not mention any of the hostility there he continued to add on begrudgingly, "She's uh- she's not very happy with me at the moment."

(Y/n) exhaled, looking out the window.

"I guess that's to be expected."

Steve kept his eyes on the road, occasionally looking over in her direction. She had grown quiet and was biting her lip. As much as she complained about her, and rightfully so, Steve knew that (Y/n)'s relationship with her mother was extremely important to her. He guessed that the thought of her mother being constantly disapproving of the man she was in a relationship with weighed heavily on her heart. At the thought that he had been and was maybe even still making her life more difficult, he flexed his back, feeling suddenly uncomfortable in the seat that was far too small for his large frame. His hands tensed on the steering wheel, knuckles turning white.

"Hey." (Y/n) reached over so her hand rest on his knee, giving it a gentle squeeze. "We'll work through it together. Once she sees how much I love you she'll come around."

Steve relaxed into her touch even though his heart was beating a mile a minute. When she had said she loved him yesterday he had nearly fallen off the couch. Hearing it again hadn't dampened the effect. He wasn't sure if there would ever be a time where (Y/n) saying those three words didn't make him feel like he had electricity buzzing through every inch of his body.

He knew it had been risk telling her he loved her. Given everything that had happened between them, he had assumed it would be the last thing she would ever say back to him but she had because that's just who (Y/n) was. She understood, she forgave. She showed compassion, she accepted people for who they were flaws and all, she cared about everyone else more than herself. She loved. She loved him.

He snuck a few more glances her way as he continued to drive, the topic of her mother reminding him of another thing he had forgotten to mention the night before.

"That's quite the oil portrait of you by the way. Very regal, like a princess."

Steve smiled knowingly, laughing as (Y/n)'s cheeks turned pink. He wasn't sure if she was blushing at his discovery of one of her secrets or the fact that she had been wrangled into doing something so pretentious, ostentatious and so very unlike (Y/n).

"How come you never mentioned it to me? I could have told Tony that you're rich ages ago, maybe he wouldn't have come down on you so hard."

"I'm not rich, my Mom is." She corrected, pulling the clip out of her hair so that it fell onto her shoulders in loose curls. "People look at you differently when they know you have money. I guess I just hoped that you and everyone else would trust me without having to drop the oh and by the way my parents are loaded, wanna be friends card."

As much as he wished she had been comfortable enough to tell him the truth earlier he understood where she was coming from. After all, he was the one who had told her he was "just Steve" the first night they met even though he had every opportunity to tell her he was Captain America. Sometimes its easier for us to forget who people think we are so we can figure out who we really are.

"While we're on the topic of telling each other things I uh- should probably mention something." (Y/n) said slowly, placing the clip in the cup holder and picking up her phone from the same spot, fiddling with it anxiously. "I'm not sure if you already know or not, maybe you've guessed."

"You're talking about Nat right?" Steve cut in. "Teaching you all that stuff without my permission?"

"Permission?" (Y/n) laughed, the dry and humorless sound letting Steve know he was on very thin ice and needed to tread carefully.

"That's not what I meant..." Steve shook his head. "I told Nat I didn't want her teaching you any of that stuff and she went and did it anyway."

"She was just looking out for me, trying to keep me safe." (Y/n) pushed back stubbornly.

"We're more than just teammates (Y/n). Nat and I, we've been through a lot together and I like to think we've built up a certain level of trust. She broke that."

The light in front of him turned red and Steve brought the car to a stop at the intersection. The cars in the perpendicular lanes began to swim across the road, clouding the once clear and a straight path in front of him.

"Even if she was right to teach you those things, she could have at least had the decency to tell me about it after you left. She saw how crazy I was going without you. She sat and watched as I drove myself insane, looking for you everywhere when she could have single-handedly stopped it."

Steve grew more frustrated just thinking about it. He had been so quick to leave for Boston that he hadn't had time to speak to Nat about what he had guessed she had done and upon his return he had a few choice words already prepared for her about her role in (Y/n)'s disappearance.

"If we're being perfectly honest, you and I both know you're not mad at Nat." (Y/n) began, Steve looking at her in confusion. "You're mad because I used what she taught me to get away from you, so if you're going to be upset with anyone be angry with me. I'm the one who left New York not Nat and if I'm remembering correctly I left New York because you were keeping a much bigger secret from me. It's our faults we landed in that situation, yours and mine, not Nat's."

The bluntness of her words stunned the frustration out of him, leaving him at a loss for words.

"I'm worried enough about going back to New York as it is and if you and Nat are fighting because of me it's only going to make things worse. Don't hold this against her." She said, much softer this time. "Please?"

Steve thought for a moment taking in her words, feeling that she was both right and wrong. He wasn't mad at (Y/n) for leaving. The way he saw it, he hadn't given her much other choice. He also wasn't happy Nat had gone behind his back but her intentions had been good, even more clear headed then his own. Of course (Y/n) should have some means of defending herself, of keeping herself safe and hidden if God forbid his line of work brought any sort of danger in her life. He had just been trying so hard to keep her away from it all that he hadn't been able to acknowledge how foolish it was to think if he didn't involve her in his work that danger wouldn't be able to find her anyway.

"Okay, I won't." Steve sighed. (Y/n) looked at him skeptically, unsure of his sudden change of heart and apparently oblivious to the affect that she could have on him. He smirked. "Really, you're right I shouldn't be angry with her and I definitely don't want to make moving back into the tower more stressful for you."

Her smile told Steve she believed him but he could tell something was else was still on her mind, bothering her. She had opened a contact on her phone and started typing out a message before erasing it and starting to type again. Looking at the message for a moment her finger hovered over the screen until she deleted it a second time without sending it, letting the phone fall back in her lap.

"So..." She broke the temporary silence, hesitantly. "How is he?"

Steve didn't need to question her to know who she was asking about. As grateful as he was that he had been able to work through the problems with (Y/n) he knew he wouldn't have truly fixed things until her friendship with Peter was back to normal. The way he saw it, it was his fault their friendship was in jeopardy in the first place and his first priority was going to be doing whatever he could to repair her relationship with her best friend. Steve wanted to tell her Peter was doing fine but it was pointless to lie. The last he had seen the boy was anything but fine and there was no doubt (Y/n) was going to witness that first hand once they arrived back in New York.

"He's uh- He's been having a hard time, sweetheart."

"What do you mean? Is he okay?" She asked quickly, her eyes widening in concern as she tried to decipher the tone of Steve's voice and the meaning of his words.

"I think he got pretty attached to you, can't blame the guy for that. Having you up and leave like that... he didn't take it very well, he's convinced it was all his fault."

The light finally turned green and Steve pressed his foot to the petal, the car beginning to move forward again. (Y/n) was quiet, still turning her phone over and over again in her hands anxiously, so he continued to elaborate on what she had missed.

"He helped me look for you the first couple weeks but then he started getting a little reckless, taking unnecessary risks on missions, fighting with Tony all the time. I'm not really sure what's been going on with him since I came to find you, if anything's changed or not."

Her phone slipped out of her hands and onto the floor of tha car but she just sat there, not bothering to pick it up.

"He's upset you left but he's more angry at himself for hurting you."

"Yea well I'm not too fond of him either right now." She replied unconvincingly, and Steve knew better than to take too much stock in her words. The look on her face showed no anger, only sadness and regret. He guessed that after the weeks of isolation she had spent brooding about everything that had happened she had finally grown tired of anger and resentment and was now left in the sorry state of feeling disconnected from someone she had been attached to.

"You really miss him, huh?" Steve observed.

She didn't respond, keeping her lips closed. After a few moments she looked at him briefly with solemn eyes, nodding half-heartedly in affirmation of his words, as if she was admitting an embarrassing flaw. He took one hand off the wheel, placing it just above her knee, running his thumb up and down. Leave it to (Y/n) to find a way to feel guilty for missing someone.

Steve knew the issues between Peter and (Y/n) were bigger then Peter keeping the contract hidden from her. There were a number of lies told and secrets kept that had caused this rift, the contract had just brought them out of the dark and into open daylight. His dishonesty was a bitter pill of betrayal that wasn't as easily swallowed as it was acknowledged. He also knew that even though she had been hurt by the things he had done, (Y/n) loved Peter. It wasn't the same way she loved himself, but it was love nonetheless. He was hopefully sure that a simple and heartfelt apology from the both of them was all that stood in-between their impending reconciliation. They cared too much about each other to let stubbornness and past mistakes ruin something so good. Right?