Hello Captain (Steve Rogers)

Fireworks

Steve's POV
"I know it's been hard for you, being alive in this time." Natasha said, putting a hand on my arm. "We always miss the ones who leave us, Steve, especially when we care about them. Does Jace make it better or worse for you?"

    "Better," I said decisively. "He's a good kid. It's like seeing Bucky the way he was before the war, carefree and happy."

    "I'm glad we all had the chance to get to know him today. He's young, but I could see him fitting in with the team after he finishes his training. He has the potential to be a great Agent."

    "He's a Barnes. Of course he does."

    "Sarah said he's not going to be using the family name at Ops. He's going to be using his mom's maiden name instead."

    "To avoid the questions? That seems out of character for him."

    She shook her head. "As a safeguard. Ever since WWII, any Barnes that has entered the military has died in service, targeted, in fact, if you read the classified files, which I did after Sarah asked me to. She talked his parents into letting him join Shield, with the caveat that all of his paperwork would be under that name. Director Gregg agreed, as did Fury. When he completes training, he'll have a documented life under that name, courtesy of Sarah."

    I understood what she was saying, and I didn't like it. "No wonder Sarah has spent so much time making him do things normal teenagers don't do."

    "You would have done the same for Bucky if you could have."

    "Without a second thought; they are as close as we were. Why are you telling me this, Nat?"

    She looked up at me with a small smile. "You know."

    "Softy," I said as I leaned down and kissed her cheek, and she let go of me to go back over to Clint. I did know. As another gift for me, this one was both the best and the worst. She wanted me to have the chance to enjoy the time I had with Jace while I could. While I had technically gained years, physically, I had not aged since the day I had been given the serum; it was likely that I would see him grow old before I would.

    I went over to them, standing next to Sarah. She noticed my presence right away, turning to me with a smile and stepping away from Jace.

    "Hi. Did you have fun today?" she put her arms around me and leaned her head on my chest. The flickering light played across her face, making her auburn hair glow.

    I leaned down to kiss her, smiling happily. "I did. There were a lot of firsts today for me." Almost everything today had been new, now that I thought about it.

    "Good. I'd hate for you to be bored doing the same things all the time. Do you like fireworks?"

    "I do. When we were little, Bucky always said they were for my birthday. I believed that until I was a lot older, actually."

    She grinned at my naivety, and the fireworks started then, so we looked up at the brilliant display. I watched the joy in her face as she and Chloe exclaimed over the particularly neat ones, Chloe having worked her way back over between Sarah and Jace.

    Chloe had enjoyed her time here with us today, but she was not particularly comfortable with the team. Kate, surprisingly, was fitting in just fine. She seemed like a nice girl, and she was drawn to Jace, even though he was quite a bit younger than she was. There was no more years between them than there was Sarah and I, though.

    All too soon the display was over and we headed back in to make our farewells to Sarah's parents and friends. Sam gave us both hugs on the way out the door, tired after a long day of fun. Kate and Sarah had shared a look as they hugged and I gave her a hug as well, making her blush.