"I was just talking to Kae, she didn't say anything about coming out here," Elaine said. "Why would she need to come get me in the first place?"

"Who knows? Maybe she just misses you." Tony was quiet for a few moments as JARVIS reminded him of a few things. "And now I'm supposed to go play nicely with some military businessmen."

Elaine snorted.

"I would say behave, but I know better than to ask for miracles," she said. "Just don't piss them off too much, that causes problems."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said with a snort. "We'll see who I have to deal with this time. Have fun with your cousins."

"Uh huh," Elaine replied vaguely. "I just hope I don't have to hit them with my cane too many times."

Tony snorted. "It should only take a few times. You're ferocious with that thing."

"They're also family," Elaine pointed out. "They think they can get away with more."

"Family does," he said with a distinctive grumble about Kae. Because clearly she was growing on him like a flesh-eating fuzzy fungus.

Elaine couldn't help a snicker.

"She's mostly harmless," she said. She knew who he was grumbling about.

"The same could be said of you." Tony just sighed. "Get back to your cousins. I have to go before Clint decides he needs to drag me along."

"Maybe if you didn't threaten to 'upgrade' his hearing aids..." Elaine said. "Anyways. Go unnerve some military personnel. And for the love of god, Tony, don't show off with the suit unless someone important asks."

Tony just snickered. "I promise nothing," he said before he hung up. It was time for him to go and to tell Steve how to find Elaine.

Elaine rolled her eyes and closed her phone. With a sigh, she turned and headed back into the other room. Time to face her cousins.

It took Steve another two days to go find Elaine, by which time he'd admitted that yes he did like spending time with her, and there was just no way to get around it. And he missed her. Still grimacing at himself, he made his way down the road to her cousins' house.

Elaine was sitting out on the front porch, a Braille book in her lap as she listened to two of her cousins throwing a football back and forth. She hadn't realized they had stopped until she heard them talking.

"Dude, look at that bike..."

"It's so awesome. Kind of vintage and kind of cutting-edge at the same time..."

"Jake, look, the guy is slowing down--"

"Is he stopping here?"

Elaine paused her fingers where they were and paid attention to her surroundings.

"Wait a second, I know the sound of that engine..." she said softly. Setting her book down, she went to the porch railing. "Steven Rodgers! What are you doing all the way out here?"

Steve parked his bike and got off, walking over to her slowly. "I came to see you," he said quietly, looking at her. "I couldn't get hold of you."

Elaine bit her lip a little.

"I... I know," she said. "I just... I needed some space for a bit." She was quiet for a moment. "But I thought... Didn't you say it was better not to get too attached?"

"I did," Steve said after a moment. "I may have been being an idiot about the situation, though."

"What changed your mind?" Elaine asked cautiously. She was trying hard to keep even a little bit of metaphorical distance between them, because she was sure that Cupid's arrow hadn't worn off or been cured yet.

Steve was quiet for a few moments, shifting his weight, before he sighed. "I didn't like not knowing where you were," he said quietly. "Before Tony did whatever he did. It made me nervous." And, as much as he didn't like that, he wasn't going to deny it anymore either.

"He hacked my phone's GPS, apparently," Elaine said dryly. "We had a talk about that, once my calls annoyed him enough to pick up." She was quiet for a moment. "I thought you wanted space between us. So I did that."

"I thought I wanted that," Steve said, distinctly uncomfortable. "I was wrong. I don't like it, Elaine. I don't like not knowing where you are, I don't like not seeing you." There, he'd admitted it. And he was fairly sure he was blushing.

"It's not easy, Steve," Elaine admitted softly. "It hurts, knowing that I'm not allowed to feel what I feel. It doesn't matter that I know it's not all mine, it still hurts."

Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Clearly this was harder than he'd thought. "I know," he said quietly. "I just..." he floundered for a few moments. "It would be wrong to do anything now when these aren't your feelings."

"I know," Elaine said. "And I've been thinking about that. There is a cure, Cupid has it. I just... don't know how to get it."