Maria

Just a quick one-shot I thought up while watching Captain America :)

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He remembered her because she'd smiled at him, not that she was the only one, but for once it wasn't a 'I want to get into your pants' smile. She had a beautiful smile, perfectly framed by her dark short curly hair and large brown eyes.

She'd danced in the show, she was amazing at dancing and had the most beautiful voice. After the spectacular disaster that had been the 'Captain America' show in Italy, she'd smiled at him and gently placed her hand on his arm. He remembered he'd smiled back at her and she'd gone to talk to her friends. He remembered the smell of her perfume and her soft tinkling laugh.

Now he thinks about it, he remembers her being at the Stark Expo. Howard Stark had been talking to her, smiling and touching her arm. He'd always had an eye for the pretty girls though, that had been the first thing he'd noticed about Howard.

He remembered seeing her at the army base when he'd gone to test some new equipment. He'd seen her laughing and talking to Peggy after she'd shot at him. They weren't introduced until later. He went to collect his new uniform from Howard and she'd been there in his office, sat on his sofa reading the paper.

'This is Maria Carbonell,' he'd said, smiling at her. 'I expect you've met her already.'

Maria had stood up and shaken his hand. 'I dance at the back,' she'd said, in a soft half Italian half American accent.

'I remember,' Steve had said. 'Where are you from?'

'Originally? Venice. Now? Manhatten. And from what I hear you're from everywhere, Captain Rogers,' she'd said, winking at him.

Howard had laughed and Steve had flushed pink. It wasn't until he left that he looked back and saw Howard place one of his hands on her hip and the other in her hair and kissed her softly that he realised there was something else going on. Sure, he'd seen Howard kiss a lot of girls since he'd known him, but not like that.

One of his last thoughts as he forced the plane into the water had been of Howard and Maria, and one of the first things he'd done when he'd woken up was find out what happened to them.

Tony was lounging on the sofa on the helicarrier, laptop on his lap, tapping away at some new designs when Steve had come in and sat on the sofa opposite him. One of the first things Steve had learnt about Howard's son was that when he was working a bomb could go off in the next room and he wouldn't notice. So Steve got his attention the old fashioned way.

He threw a pillow at his head.

Tony looked blearily over at him, his eyes were red and bloodshot, his skin pale. A clear indication he'd done nothing but work for at least 6 hours non-stop.

'I have a question for you,' Steve said.

Tony put the lid of his laptop down and crossed his arm across his chest. 'No, I won't give you the sex talk,' he said seriously.

Steve coughed awkwardly. 'That isn't what I was going to ask,' he said.

Tony let out a breath and grinned. 'Thank god, I was worried!' he said. 'So what can I do for you?'

'I need to know if you know what happened to Maria Carbonell,' Steve said. 'Howard had a thing for her when I knew him, like, a proper thing.'

Tony smiled. 'I should hope so too, he did marry her after all.'

Steve stared. 'Wait, so Maria is your...?'

'She's my mother,' Tony said, grinning. 'And you have to tell me what she was like when you knew her.'

Steve shrugged. 'She was... she was Maria. She was lovely, wonderful even, she danced in the show.'

Tony burst out laughing. 'She kept that one quiet!'

Steve looked at his shoes. 'Did she...? You know... in the crash...'

'She died next to my father,' Tony said, staring at the ceiling. 'I held her hand, she kept telling me to be brave.'

Steve glanced sharply at him. 'Wait, you were in the car?'

'Yep,' Tony said, pushing back his hair from his forehead, revealing a small scar. 'If mom hadn't pushed me out the way I wouldn't be here right now.'

'I'm sorry,' Steve said, feeling awkward he'd even brought it up.

'Don't be,' Tony said. 'You didn't know. She actually spoke very highly of you, she told me she met you once, didn't mention the USO girl part though.'

Steve looked up at him. 'She'd be proud of you.'

Tony smiled. 'Yeah, I think so too.'

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