Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize…

A/N: So this is the end, thank you for taking this crazy mirror universe ride with me, all the reviews and favs.

I have another AU idea, kinda similar to this where Steve is a hitman for a secret government agency and Kono is his mark and of course stupidly in love crazyness happens. Are you interested?

Tell me what you think!

Kiss like a fight that neither wins
One tender payment for our sins
You are the drug that I can't quit
Your perfect chaos is a perfect fit

So I, get on the road and ride to you
I get on the road and ride to you
/Tired Pony/

…

Kono is out for fourteen hours straight.

Steve sleeps on the couch, half-collapsed on top of Danny, who elbows him in the kidneys and refuses to make room for him. Mary Ann grumbles and throws everything within her reach at them.

Every few hours, Steve gets up to check on Kono, to make sure she's still there, and that she hasn't climbed out of the window with his laptop and wallet.

When she does finally wake up, it's eight o'clock the next morning, and Steve is making coffee and scrambled eggs in his kitchen and singing along to some terrible old rock song on the radio. He doesn't even notice that Kono is watching him until she steps into the kitchen and one of the floorboards creaks beneath her bare feet. Steve does not shriek and grab for a knife, but it's a close thing.

Kono, wearing one of Steve's old t-shirts, and a pair of his jogging bottoms, rolled up twice, smiles sleepily at him, and it's like the sun has risen all over again.

"Was that Bon Jovi?" She asks, jerking her head at the radio and Steve flushes and turns back to the eggs before they burn.

"Shut up," he mutters. "Danny tortures me with that crap all the time. It's quite catchy after the eighty-sixth time actually. Coffee or tea?"

"Coffee," Kono grins. "And some eggs, if there's enough?"

Steve nods, already reaching into the refrigerator for the rest of the eggs and cheese. He puts another couple of slices of bread in the toaster as well, and pushes gently against her back until she sits down at the kitchen table. When the coffee has brewed he pours a mug-full for Kono and sets out cream and the chipped sugar bowl, before turning back to the scrambled eggs with his own coffee.

"How's the shoulder?" He asks picking up the spatula to make sure the cheese melts evenly into the scrambled eggs. "And the head?"

"Sore," Kono mumbles, and when Steve sneaks a glance at her from over his shoulder, she's got her face buried in the coffee mug.

"You can stay here for as long as you'd like," Steve offers, like it's not a huge deal for him, grabbing the toast when it pops up and buttering it quickly. "As long as you need."

He has the toast on plates and the eggs salted and peppered and spooned onto the plates beside the toast before Kono speaks again. She says thank you, very, very quietly, and more to the coffee than to Steve, but it's there, and he beams soppily at her and hands her the larger portion of eggs and toast.

They eat in silence, Steve watching every move she makes for any signs of pain, and Kono with single-minded focus. She digs into the eggs and toast with gusto, and finishes before Steve's eaten half of his. She puts his fork down sheepishly when Steve looks at her empty plate, but Steve just grins and stands up, opening the fridge to dig out the rest of the eggs, and put more bread into the toaster.

"It's really good," Kono says when he turns the hob back on and rescues the pan from the sink. "I never imagined you as a cook."

Steve turns around at that. "What did you imagine me as?"

Kono actually flushes, and Steve nearly burns his hand on the stove at the sight. "I just never thought that a gun-for-hire would spend his mornings making scrambled eggs and filling in the crossword puzzle."

Steve laughs, and cracks three more eggs into the pan, then reaches into the fridge for the cheese.

When they're done with breakfast, Steve changes the bandage on Kono's shoulder and steals some clothes from the luggage Mary Ann's left in the corner of his living room, and shows her how to use the shower. He tidies aimlessly while Kono is in the shower, folds Danny and Mary Ann's clothes for them and straightens the blankets on the couch before sending Jenna a panicked text.

'She's wounded and staying in my flat and I just made her two plates of scrambled eggs for breakfast. Unsure of how to proceed?'

Less than a minute later, Jenna sends him a text full of overexcited keysmashing, and then: SEDUCE HER, which is quickly followed up with AND THEN TELL ME EVERYTHING. And then: 'Take her to the tower of London! You can bond over workplace violence and make out in all the dark corners!'

Steve turns his phone off after that.

They don't go to the Tower of London, because when Kono gets out of the shower she looks exhausted again, and Steve gets her a cup of tea and closes the door when Kono falls asleep in his bed again. He's turning into his mother.

Mary Ann and Danny show up later that afternoon with the news that they've found a flat in London to stay at until they pick up another job. They collect their shit and hug Steve, and Mare makes a number of increasingly lewd hand gestures until Steve is forced to shut the door in her face.

In the evening, he orders a takeout from his favourite Thai place, and is just sitting down in front of his curry and pad thai when the door to his room opens up and Kono pads out. She's sleep-mussed and if Steve didn't know that she stole things and stabbed people who got in her way for a living, he'd call her adorable.

"Hungry?" Steve asks, lifting his carton of pad thai. "I ordered enough for a small army."

Kono smiles, unguarded and tousled, and Steve's heart swells a bit in his chest. He puts his chopsticks down to massage at it, and shifts backwards so that Kono can fit on the couch along with him.

"I feel nearly human again," Kono tells him, reaching carefully for a container of tom kha gai. Steve pushes the fried rice and half of the pad thai at her surreptitiously, and she smiles at him.

"I haven't felt so rested in years," Kono tells him, fixing her eyes on the television, where Steve had started watching Dune a little while ago, for lack of anything better to do.

"That's the only reason they got the drop on me," she continues after a minute, through a mouthful of curry, and Steve turns to look at her over the container of fried rice he's eating. "I'm better than that, usually."

Kono puts her curry down and swipes the back of her hand over her mouth quickly.

"I was just too tired to even notice that I was being followed." She looks down, twisting nervous fingers in her lap. "It's hard, doing all this on your own, sometimes. I don't know how you do it."

"I'm never on my own," Steve says, "not really. When I first started, Mary Ann and I worked together. Saved each others' asses a few times. Still do, actually. And then Mare found someone she wanted to work with, and I ran with them for a while, before I decided that I'd be better on my own. There's only so much time I can spend in hotel rooms with my sister and her husband without wanting to murder them both. But even on my own, I've got people who have my back. I've got a contact in Paris who supplies me with information. She doesn't come on jobs with me, but if I didn't have her, I'd probably get shot three times a week. She actually... she told me where you were."

"Do I know her?" Kono frowns.

"No, no." Steve laughs. "But I know her, and I know you, and when she figured out that you'd been pulled out of your flat at something like three in the morning she called me."

"And you came in, guns blazing, to rescue me," Kono drawls, and she's smiling, and she smiles even wider when Steve winks at her. They smile at each other for a minute, before Kono huffs with laughter and looks down. "You've got too big of a heart for this business."

She sounds like she doesn't agree with being so open-hearted with his friends and family and then turning around and murdering people for a living, but she also sounds a little bit envious, and Steve reaches out with careful fingers and links his fingers with the hand that Kono's not using to hold her chopsticks. She tightens her fingers around Steve's, holding on like it's a lifeline.

"I always thought it was a waste," Kono says, staring stubbornly at the television. "I've lost too many people to open myself up to that kind of hurt again."

"It's a risk," Steve says, slowly. "And don't think that I sleep soundly every day my little sister and my best friend are on a job that might get them killed. I hate knowing that I could lose either or both of them, or that they'd get in trouble, and I'd be a continent away, and not able to get to them in time."

He takes a deep breath and squeezes Kono's fingers again. "But I think it would be worse if I cut myself off from them completely. They are family, and I love them, no matter how much shit they pull. My life would be a lot quieter if it didn't have them in it."

Kono's palm slides against his, a little sweaty, and shaking slightly.

"And if I wasn't in your life?" She asks, voice soft against the hum of noise from the television.

"If you weren't in my life my life would probably be a whole lot quieter, too." Steve says, smirking, and Kono's lips quirk gently.

"I wouldn't know what Shibuya was like at rush hour. Or that you can hide knives in your hair and kill a man with a coat hanger, if you really want to." He shrugs. "You're also the most beautiful art thief I've ever met. And you're stubborn as shit, and if you go down, you go down fighting and I respect that. My life would be pretty boring without you in it."

Kono looks at him, finally, and her hand opens and closes nervously in Steve's. "I'm really fucking bad at this," she says, biting her lips.

"You know, I noticed that the first time we slept together and you stole all my shit," Steve says, and Kono cracks a smile.

She leans in, very carefully, and kisses Steve.

"I nearly climbed out of the window earlier," Kono says, when they pull away, still half in Steve's lap. "But I thought I should at least say goodbye, and then when I came out of the room you were watching a terrible science fiction movie, and offered me pad thai."

Steve means to argue with her about Dune being more than a terrible science fiction movie, but what comes out of his mouth is: "Please don't climb out of the window again."

Kono looks away and sits back, so Steve moves forward, to pull her back into his lap. "If you're going to run away again, at least tell me? You owe me that much. Don't just disappear."

Kono nods, and leans forwards to kiss Steve again.

They fall asleep in Steve's bed that night, and he wakes up in the middle of the night when Kono curls fitfully into his side. She wakes up before Steve does in the morning, and she smiles nervously while he runs a hand over his face and grins at her before pushing her back among the pillows, careful to avoid her injured shoulder.

They shower together when they manage to get out of bed, and Steve makes them pancakes, despite the fact that it's nearly lunchtime. Kono gets jumpy in the afternoon, and they get dressed, Kono in Mary Ann's stolen jeans and one of Steve's hoodies that is far too large for her. They take the Tube to the centre of London and buy overpriced cups of coffee at a stand along the Thames, and walk along the river until the sun sets.

Steve tries to hold Kono's hand but she goes stiff and awkward, so he tucks his hand in his pocket and curls it into a fist. Kono sits right beside him when they take the Tube back to Steve's flat, as if to apologize, and she kisses him when they get back inside the flat.

Steve falls asleep uneasily that night, with Kono tucked against his side, and when he wakes up in the pale grey light of another rainy London morning, Kono is gone.

The worst part about it is the way he's not even surprised.

He takes a long shower and nearly misses the note on the kitchen table when he turns the kettle on to make himself a cup of coffee. It's written hastily in the margins of yesterday's newspaper and says:

I told you I was bad at this. I need some time. Don't wait for me…I'll find you. Thanks for the rescue, the home, and the pad thai.

Kono's handwriting is spiky and disjointed, unpredictable, and Steve abandons the coffee in favour of the bottle of aged scotch he hides under the sink.

.

.

"I'll garrote her for you," Mare offers over the phone from where she and Danny are on a job in Spain. Steve just laughs and brushes her off.

"It's okay."

"It's really not."

"She never promised me anything, Mare."

Danny swears loudly, colourfully, and at length from the background, and Steve sighs and would laugh if everything didn't feel a little bit sore from not enough sleep and a little too much scotch. He's itching for a job, but he knows that Mary Ann called Jenna and told her to keep Steve in London to keep him sane, until he gets over…whatever Kono was.

A one-night stand, a long-distance romance, a lot of misguided pining, and a rescue mission, respectively.

He's been spending a lot of time simply walking, mapping the streets in his neighbourhood, and taking the Tube until he gets tired of swaying with the motion of the train and gets out to walk some more. He likes walking on Hampstead Heath best, because the heath gets deserted in the early autumn chill, and he likes the view from the top of the hill, where you can look out over all of London.

Kono is waiting for him at the top of the heath one morning, exactly three weeks after she had disappeared from Steve's flat. She's sitting on the bench at the top of the heath that Steve favours, with two cups of coffee, still steaming in the cold air. She looks the way she did when Steve ran into her on a bridge in France. The cut on her head has healed, and she's wearing a leather jacket, and a thick blood-red scarf, with that same pair of designer boots.

Steve stops walking, and just stares. It takes Kono a moment to notice him, but when she does she jumps up, tamps out her cigarette in the dirt by the bench and closes her hands nervously on empty air.

"I brought you coffee," she says, after a minute of silence, and offers it tentatively. "I have to tell you something, and I thought you'd be more likely to stay and listen to me if I brought you coffee. You can leave, though, if you want, I'm not… I wouldn't try to keep you here."

She coughs awkwardly and gestures with the coffee cup slightly manically. "I also thought that I'd let you punch me in the face, if you wanted to. I deserve it."

"My sister offered to garrote you," Steve says, conversationally, and takes the coffee from Kono's hands. "I didn't hear what Danny said in the background but it wasn't something pleasant either,I'm sure."

Kono touches her neck absently. "I probably deserve that, too."

"It's okay, though," Steve shrugs and it almost doesn't hurt when he says it. "You never promised me anything. I was foolish to even hope."

"You're not foolish," Kono says, sticking one hand in her pocket to fumble for her cigarettes.

"You're incredibly fucking stubborn, and you believed in me even though I did my best to not give you anything to believe in. That's not foolishness," she says, a strange smile playing on her mouth as she lights her cigarette. "That's bravery."

Kono exhales a pale stream of smoke, and looks at Steve's fingers around his coffee cup, the old sweater he's wearing, the stubble on his cheeks – anywhere but his eyes.

"And I thought you were a crazy person at first, because I left you in Paris, but then you just kept showing up. And I never gave you any reason to keep coming back, and you still showed up, in a suit in goddamn Birmingham to help me, and you opened up your house and fed me, and it's always been so complicated in this life, to be involved with other people, but it was so easy with you that I had to get out again."

Her hands are shaking badly, now, and she ashes her cigarette so forcefully that the coal glows fiercely in the cold.

"It's like what we were talking about," she whispers. "What's the point of getting involved with people you could just lose in an instant, courtesy of a stray bullet, or a job gone south? And then, I couldn't stop thinking about how if you never got involved with people, what was the point of sticking around? Being lonely is about as miserable as losing someone, so why not be happy while you can?"

Steve sets his coffee down carefully on the ground, because he's not sure what his heart is doing. It's jumping around in his chest, trying to escape right through his ribs, and he sticks his hands in his pockets and clenches them into fists to stop them from shaking like Kono's are.

"I was going to be dramatic," Kono says in a rush, "and fly to Italy and kiss you in front of the Trevi Fountain, but I got too impatient."

"I'm a little bit confused about what's happening here," Steve says, carefully, and Kono smiles bashfully at the ground.

"About three weeks ago," she begins slowly, "some men dragged me out of my apartment in the middle of the night and tied me to a chair. And then, two days later, you came bursting into the warehouse like a knight in shining fucking armour. And you opened up your home to me, and I realized that I was in love with you, and I panicked and ran off. And I was all ready to take a one-way flight to Spain and never see you again, but I couldn't."

She kicks at the ground and steps closer, cigarette smouldering between two fingers. "I'm in love with you, and all I can think about is how I want to steal priceless works of art for you, and wake up next to you for the rest of my life."

Steve's heart feels like it might explode, and he steps forward, knocking his coffee over his shoes, and the cigarette out of Kono's hand as he reaches for her. They both scramble to stamp out the cigarette, and then laugh straight into each other's mouths when they finally manage to meet in the middle.

Steve kisses Kono like he's drowning, and Kono kisses him back just as desperately, her fingers digging into Steve's arms through his coat.

When they pull away to catch their breaths, Steve leans down to rest his forehead against Kono's. The art thief smiles brilliantly at him, and stands on her toes to whisper into his ear:

"Hi, my name is Kono. I was born and raised in Hawaii and I wanted to be a pro surfer until my accident. I steal art for a living, I keep straight blades in my hair and I love you."

Steve grins against her lips and tightens his arms around her, feeling like he'd finally found home.