*************
Half an hour later, the main hall of Stark Expo was still brimming with people. The empty stage had done nothing by way of chilling the enthusiasm of being at one of the most talked-about places on earth.
"I brought your file." Natasha said as they slowly made their way through the masses. "In case you had any last questions."
"I've read the file a thousand times. He isn't shallow, I know that. Still, at this point, I think I figured him out pretty well. Stop worrying about me. I can handle Stark."
"I'm not talking about Stark's file." She said, pressing a few buttons on her phone, making his beep a second later. He opened his jacket, fishing it out of his inner pocket. He looked down at the screen.
"Scott Rowan?" he asked incredulously, staring at the file that had automatically opened up on his phone. There was a picture of him and Steve couldn't even remember having it taken. Probably fake then. Nowadays, Steve thought, there was honestly no way of telling anymore.
"There is a printed copy in your apartment. Along with your new ID, social number, insurance information, background history, bank details, cash, even some family photos. I checked everything twice. You're all set."
"An alias? Why didn't I know about this?"
Natasha eyed him with a smile. "Because I knew it would bother you, so I decided to put it off until there was an opening. And now that Stark made Miss Potts new CEO it's too late for any major changes."
"That's..." Steve's brows furrowed. "...Conniving."
"Thank you." She sounded earnest about it. It should probably bother him more than it did.
"I thought I'd go in as myself. He doesn't know me. No one knows me. I am a 'blank slate', wasn't that the whole point in choosing me over you?"
"The point is that Stark's AI won't be able to track your identity."
"JARVIS," Steve remembered with a nod. That was something he was very much looking forward to: Meeting the first and only artificial intelligence in existence. Fury had, albeit a bit begrudgingly, admitted that up until this point, there was nothing even close to compare to Stark's creation.
"Yes, JARVIS. We'll have to do something about him scanning you per facial recognition though. The photographs of Project Rebirth are publicly known. Coulson told me the science department invented some kind of jammer. They're going to install it on-site tonight."
"That's risky," Steve said. It was Stark they were talking about after all. And while the billionaire surely was careless in a lot of areas, Steve was sure that the security of his systems wasn't one of those.
"It is," Natasha agreed, and then she grinned and it was such a shit-eating expression, that he was instantly appeased. "And it isn't. Coulson just has the best kind of ideas. You'll see."
Steve hummed, letting the subject rest for the moment.
They reached the exit shortly after. Once they were out of the exhibition site, Natasha pulled off the platinum blond wig, stuffing it in the tiny pink purse she was carrying around this evening.
"So, why identical initials?" he asked eventually. It seemed too odd to be a coincidence.
Natasha huffed, combing her fingers through her red curly hair. "It's sort of a tradition, like a private joke around SHIELD. Coulson started it with going in as Phil Collins when he went off to an undercover mission in Romania. We figured it's convenient to have a phonetically similar name. Keeps reaction times shorter."
"He kept his first name, though. I don't understand why I can't be Steve, then."
"Because," Natasha started, throwing the car keys in his hand and looking intently at him over the roof of the car. "Believe me: it'll be easier for you. It helps keeping some distance. It creeps up on you otherwise. Trust me. I've been there."
"You went on a mission as Natasha?"
Her look became a little distant. She then shrugged her shoulders in a way that was disturbingly self-conscious. With Natasha, it was hard to say if it was an honest gesture or not. "Once," she admitted after a moment while getting into the car.
Steve followed her and inserted the key, turning on the ignition. "And?"
A ghost of a smile graced her deep red lips while Steve steered the car in the direction of the highway. "I got too attached. Fell in love. Blew my cover. Betrayed my employer. Turned myself over... might have overthrown one or two regimes while I was at it."
It had taken him half a year to figure out when Natasha was being serious and when she was just playing with him. Of course, he only realized that she was lying whenever she allowed him to. And now she was clearly and deliberately overdoing it, her lips twitching in a way that meant she was trying not to laugh.
"Very funny," he said, smiling fondly.
She bumped their shoulders together. "Actually true, although that was much later. When I went in as Natasha Ramón, the mission went smoothly. Still—others who tried doing undercover work with their real names failed, and they failed fast, Steve. The 'keeping your distance' thing is one of those handbook rules you shouldn't ignore."
He itched to ask her about that other mission, but he knew her well enough to know that Natasha only revealed personal information about herself in her own time and under her own conditions.
"I just..." he said instead and furrowed his brows in a way that hopefully looked sorrowful. He'd learned to use the kicked-puppy-look to his advantage months ago. People always seemed to be too willing to believe that he was sad and alone and embittered. Not that he didn't feel that way sometimes, but he was just too busy to dwell on it for the most part. "Waking up here made me feel like a stranger to myself... it's just gonna feel weird, not hearing my own name for so long, I guess."
"Блядь." Natasha rolled her eyes and tossed her red hair over her shoulder. "Fine. I'll get your name for you. Just don't come crying to me if you can't handle it."
Steve nodded, trying to hide how pleased he was.
"It's still Rowan, though."
Steve chuckled. "I can live with that."
For a moment the only sound was the gentle hum of the high-end engine and the wind that was blowing outside of the car, and then, "You know you didn't fool me with that, right?" Natasha asked.
Steve laughed, looking over at her with a fond expression. Of all things, he would miss her most. "'Course not."
"I had a second file ready the whole time. You are too predictable Rogers."
Steve snorted, more amused than offended. But then Natasha was taking his hand in hers and she squeezed it a little. "It'll be good enough for Stark though. I did teach you well."
He couldn't force down the little proud smile that took over his face. Then, his eyes flickered to the rear view mirror. The lights of the city that had been as bright as the arc reactor in Iron Man's chest only a second ago, were now slowly dissolving in the darkness. "That you did," he whispered, silently wondering what the next weeks of his life would be like.
