"That does sound nice," Hillary said, a bit wistful. She knew Liz understood, but it wasn't the same as actually fitting in somewhere.

Steve smiled a bit. "I'm sure you can find other people who can relate," he said quietly. "Other people who understand."

"There are, I'm sure," Hillary agreed. "But nobody that I know." And that was the crux of it. Sure there were others out there in the same situation she was, but nobody she could really get together with and talk to without it being awkward or dangerous.

Steve nodded sympathetically. He kind of understood that.

"Well, maybe you'll find someone," he said. "Maybe at the rally. You never know."

"Maybe, we'll see," Hillary replied. She grinned. "But I'm still dating you."

"Well that's good to know that we're on the same page," Steve said with a grin.

Hillary laughed a bit.

"I think we always will be," she said. "At least a little." She tentatively tried to send him a feeling of contented amusement across their bond.

Steve grinned at that. "Better than it could be," he said, managing to send back amused-happy.

Hillary turned a bit pink and smiled at that. She found that she enjoyed the pleasant feelings across the bond.

Steve's grin widened. Tonight seemed to be a success, and he was hoping things stayed that way.

Several weeks (and twice as many dates) later, Hillary nervously picked at her shirt as she waited for Steve to pick her up. He had finally decided it was time to introduce her around the Tower.

Bucky was moving a bit slower than Steve, but he didn't mind that. He wasn't quite ready to bring Liz home with him, but he also got the feeling that she wasn't quite ready to meet the rest of the team yet, either. So instead, he set up a trip with her to the local military surplus store to see what interesting odds and ends they could find.

Liz was heading out before Hillary was, and before she left, she looked at her friend one last time.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" she asked, for the third time that day.

"I'll be alright," Hillary said, nodding. Her eyes were snake-yellow, though, and the pupils were a bit narrow. "Just nervous. I'm sure everything will be okay." She hoped it would, at least.

"Alright. I've got my phone on me, in case you need me to come get you, or anything," Liz said, frowning a bit.

"I promise I'll call if I need a pickup," Hillary replied. "You go and have fun. Just shoot me a text if I'm going to come home to a robot or something, okay?"

That got a snort out of Liz. "Alright, I'll warn you," she said, although she knew that wouldn't happen again. "I don't know how long I'll be out, so I'll try to give you some idea."

"Just let me know if you'll be out all night," Hillary said. "I'll do the same."

"Alright. I'll see you later." Liz finally left the apartment. She'd be a few minutes late, but she knew Bucky would wait. Besides, that only gave Hillary a few minutes to freak out before Steve arrived.

Hillary barely had time to work herself into a proper freak-out when the familiar knock came at the door. Hurrying over, she opened it.

Bucky himself had been a few minutes late, after shoving Steve out the door. Steve had looked a bit anxious, so Bucky had pretty much marched him down to street level himself before heading off to meet up with Liz.

"Hi," Steve said with a nervous little grin. "You ready to go?"

Liz caught sight of him and grinned, heading over to him.

"You look like you had to do a bit of wrangling too."

"As I'll ever be," Hillary said, nodding. She blinked a bit, trying to hide her eyes until she could get them to change back to a more human-looking green.

"Steve was waffling," Bucky replied, grinning. "Had to push him almost all the way down the street."

Steve held out his hand, taking hers gently.

"Come on, then," he said quietly. "Let's get going before we figure out something else to do."

Liz nodded. "Yeah, Hillary was all antsy and anxious. Had to make sure she wasn't about to start shedding or anything."

"Let's go," Hillary agreed, nodding. She laced her fingers with his, letting his hand warm her own. She still hadn't shown him her full half-snake form, but he'd seen most of her permanent scales by now and he knew she ran cooler than he did. "You're sure they won't mind that I'm not... normal?"

"She does that?" Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought that was birds and furry things."

"None of us are normal," Steve said with a snort. "You just come by it more naturally than most of us. Except Thor."

"Yeah, she sheds scales, and she does a full shed every so often," Liz said with a shrug. "She's just not constantly shedding, not like a dog or cat."

"Still, I don't want anyone to be uncomfortable around me," Hillary said as she leaned a bit closer to him. She couldn't help it, he was warm and he made her feel secure.

"Interesting," Bucky said. "Didn't know that."