you're healing

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"Can we get everyone in here?" Tony yells, pulling in everyone's attention

Tony starts doing a headcount and a confused expression washes over his face once he finished counting.

"Where the hell is the raccoon?" Tony says, holding his hand to his forehead

"Rocket!" I yell

Rocket comes running in with an apple in his hand, he smiles once he enters the room

"I like the sound of my name coming from you," he smirks

"I'm definitely going to pretend like I didn't hear that," Nat states in disgust

"I'll join you on that one," I chuckle nervously

"Okay, okay, let's reel it in," Steve states

Everyone sits around the table and directs their attention to Steve as he stands confidently in front of everyone. Steve is a natural-born leader and everyone knew it, even if you had only met him a few seconds ago, it was crystal clear.

"Okay, so the how works. Now, we gotta figure out the when and where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones," Steve begins

"or substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six Infinity Stones" Tony cuts in while standing beside Steve

"or falling in love with one," Rocket chuckles, looking at me

"I'll step on you," I scoff

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history," Banner interrupts

"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to drop in, yeah?" Tony states while walking around the room

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint mutters

"Correct," Tony nods

"So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asks

Thor sits in the corner of the room with his sunglasses on and a beer in hand. He was slouched and silent. When everyone turns to look at Thor he doesn't move at all, it looked almost as if he wasn't breathing.

"Is he asleep?" I ask

"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodes states

I gently get up from my seat and kneel beside Thor's chair.

"Thor? Thor, are you okay?" I ask while lightly shaking his arm

"Huh? What?" Thor mutters

"We need you to tell us what you know about the Aether, Thor," I smile

"Oh, oh yes," he responds as he gets up from his chair

I return back to my seat beside Nat with a sigh, Nat smiles at me and places a hand on my shoulder to offer some form of comfort.

"Uh, where to start? Um..." Thor stumbles over his words as he takes off his sunglasses

"The Aether firstly is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before. Um, it's more of an angry sludge sort of a thing so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that. Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves. So, Jane, actually, Jane was a very old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from and we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see and I got to introduce her to my mother... who's dead and, um... Oh you know, Jane and I stopped dating a long time ago, and I found love in Helen... who is also gone..." Thor informs us

I quickly stand up and help Thor back to his seat.

"Why don't we just sit back down here, you've helped us tons. Good job Thor," I smile

He nods silently and sits down in his chair, taking a sip of his beer.

"This is gonna be a long night, why don't we order some food?" I suggest

"Yeah, good idea kid. Here, use my card," Tony smiles as he hands me his wallet from his pocket

"Sounds good to me," I say as I take his wallet

"Mind if I tag along? I gotta get out of here," Steve mumbles before I leave

"Come on, Rogers, let's get some fresh air," I chuckle

He simply nods in response and follows me out of the room.

"What do you think we should order?" I ask

"I'm up for some Chinese, plus we need a lot of food to feed all these mouths," Steve chuckles

"Good idea, You wanna call? I hate talking on the phone," I reply

"Yeah, I've got it, don't worry," Steve smiles

I hand him my phone and he dials the number. He puts in a fairly large order of food and gives them the address. Steve and I walk down to the front door to get some air. It was slowly getting dark out and it was slightly chilly but it was bearable. Steve and I started to walk around the compound side by side.

"How are you holding up?" Steve asks, breaking the silence

"Better than I thought I would be. After testing this whole thing and going back, seeing Vision again, I thought I would be more upset than I am," I admit

"Maybe you've found acceptance in it. You loved him deeply, a type of love that won't ever go away. Maybe you found peace," Steve states, glancing over at me

"Maybe your right, and maybe it is for the best. I just never imagined myself to be in this position. I miss him, but I don't find myself thinking about him every second of the day like I used to. I still wear his old sweaters and I keep his photo on my nightstand, but I feel myself slowly moving on. Is that a bad thing? Am I a terrible person?" I reply

"You're not a terrible person, you're just healing. You need to heal, you deserve it. I hated seeing you in pain, and I'm glad that your finally finding peace," Steve smiles

I look over at Steve and our eyes meet our walking stops abruptly and he turns his body to face me. Steve slowly raises his hand and places it against my cheek. His touch is soft and warm, inarguably the most comforting feeling that I've felt in a while. His gaze was welcoming, it made me feel like everything would be okay and I didn't have to stress about anything ever again. Steve just had that effect on people, he knew how to comfort people and help people in any situation. Maybe it was the kind blue eyes, or maybe the soft plump smile, just something about Steve that made everything okay. I leaned into his touch and he just smiled. He slowly moved his other arm around my waist, pulling me close. He moved his other hand from my cheek and placed it gently on the back of my head, pulling me into the comfort of his chest. He held me tightly and I could hear his heartbeat slowly increasing the longer he held me. He was warm, it felt nice to be held by him in this weather, it wasn't too cold but his warmth was comforting. He released me from his embrace and smiled when my eyes met his once again. He turned back to face the way we were walking and carried on.

"Steve?" I say, breaking the silence

"Yeah?" he replies

"What comforts you?" I ask

"Come again?" he asks in a confused tone

"What's something that brings you comfort? You're so good at helping and comforting other people so I'm just curious. What comforts you?" I reply

"You, you bring me comfort," he states

"I do?" I ask, stopping our walk once again

"Yeah, I find comfort in your embrace, in your smile, in your laugh, even when our eyes meet. You as a whole just bring me comfort," he smiles

"You bring me comfort too," I smile back

We resume walking, talking about everything that's happened in the past few years. Our conversation was interrupted when we got back to the front door and a small car pulled up beside us. Going on a walk made me completely forget that we ordered food and everyone was still inside. Steve grabbed the bags while I paid the driver, we quickly rushed back inside and upstairs. Everyone cheered once the food arrived. Guess we were all pretty hungry.

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