NIGHTSHADE

012.

STEVE HAD hot-wired a car and they were now passing the Welcome to New Jersey sign. Lana looked at him intently as her legs were propped on the dashboard.

She had never taken a good look at him before. His baby blue eyes were focused on the road and his golden hair reflected the sun in some places making it look lighter. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" she asked.

"Nazi Germany," she hummed, "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash."

She raised her eyebrow at him and took her feet off, "All right I have a question for you, which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know."

"What?"

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" Lana smirked as she asked.

"That bad, huh?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, it kinda sounds like that's what you're saying."

"No, I didn't. I just wondered, how much practice you've had."

"You don't need practice."

"Everybody needs practice."

"It was not my first kiss since 1945," Steve finalised, "I'm 95, I'm not dead." Lana, for some reason, felt jealousy spike in her body before she pushed it down.

"Nobody special, though?" she asked.

Steve chucked, "Believe it or not it's kinda hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"Well that's all right you just make something up."

"What, like you?"

"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all the time. And neither am I."

"That's a tough way to live," Steve's eyes flickered to her before going back to the road.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Lana responded.

"You know, it's kinda hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is," They looked at each other.

"Yeah," she muttered, "Who do you want me to be?"

"Not sure. A friend?"

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business Rogers," Lana said. Steve sighed and looked forward and kept driving.

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They pulled up to an old army base and Lana stepped out of the car holding a special phone.

"This is it," Steve said.

"The file came from these coordinates," she slipped it into her back pocket.

"So did I," Steve muttered looking at a sign on the fence.

They walked around as it got dark and Lana was holding the phone up.

"This camp is where I was trained."

"Change much?"

"A little." Steve fell into silence as he seemed to reminisce.

"This is a dead-end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves not even radio," Lana spoke, "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off," she noticed Steve's gaze towards something else, "What is it?"