Promises

Chapter 8

Steve walks over to you. It is so quiet in the room that if someone dropped a needle it would be heard. Steve handed you one of the presents, to begin with. It was neatly packed in dark blue paper with stars on it and a big silver bow. You opened it carefully and he looked anxious on you. Inside was a box that you lifted the lid on. Inside was a Tardis.
You looked up at Steve, with big eyes.
"I know it's not a real TARDIS, but I know that you needed a new lamp" He blushes and looks down in the floor. You lift it up so everyone can see your Tardis.
You smile up at him, but before you could say anything to thank him handed you the next present. You placed the box with the lamp on the table and took the next present. It was packed in the same way as the first present. A bit heavier. You opened it and let out a gasp. Inside the package were first editions of J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Everyone is curious so you show them what Steve had gotten you.
Your father smiles and looks at you nodding. You knew you just got the approval of Steve. He had not bought you some expansive jewellery or anything meaningless. No, he had shown that he knew you better than any other man you had ever been involved with.
You open your mouth to say something, but you can't come up with something to say. Your head was empty. So you stand up and give Steve a kiss on his check and then you pull him in for a hug. You hold him a bit longer than you had with anyone else. You hear a bit of shuffling and when you look around, everyone had left you alone.
"Thank you, Steve," you say and pull away from him. You felt your face feel warm under his eyes. You could not recognize the look in his eyes. You stand looking at each other for a minute. Steve opens his mouth to say something, but the room gets dark and you see everyone coming back from the kitchen with a cake with candles on. They start singing 'Happy Birthday'. You hear Steve sigh before he joins them in singing to you.
"Come on, blow out the candles, so we can celebrate that you yet survived another year," Tony smirks at you when they stopped singing. You laugh, it was a good way to put it. So you close your eyes and make a wish. Then you open them and take a deep breath and blow out the candles. Everyone cheers as you get every candle on the first try. You look up and meet Steve's eyes. You smile at him.
"So, what did you wish for?" Peter wonders. You turn your eyes to Peter and wink at him.
"Wouldn't you like to know," you sass and the group laughs.
"I bet she wishes for world peace" Clint chuckles.
"Nah, she wished for more Jimmy Coo heels," Nat says looking at you smugly. Wanda looks at you and winks. Tony looks from Wanda to you.
"Oh, come on," he groans. "Wanda, we are not all mind readers." Wanda shrugs and you all walk back to the table to eat some cake. Tony is mumbling under his breath.
"Tony, stop it," Pepper says. "Its bad luck saying what you wished for." Tony looks over at you squinting his eyes. "If I get 10 questions I bet I can figure it out." You just shake your head. "My wish right now is for you to drop it," you say and you take a bit of the cake. It tasted so good that you almost moaned out loud, but you kept it in. It seemed like you weren't the only one who loved the cake, everyone was devouring it. It made you smile.

After the cake, your father heeds home, but not before telling you that he really liked your friends and hoped he could come over soon again. You smile at the thought. All of your family spending time together. That was perfect. You walk to your room to change into your pyjamas. You had sent everyone else to do that as well. So far the evening had been amazing. Your best birthday so far and you still could not get over Steve's gifts. They were kind of a chock, he had listened to you. He had given you something that you wanted. Every present had been on top and really showed you that the people around you loved and cared about you. And that they knew you for you. Your family.
You get ready for the movies. Tony had let it slip that he had one last surprise up his sleeve and you were curious of what that could be. He always had things up his sleeve.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Steve stood beside you by the treat table. He looked at you and you smiled at him. He looked relaxed in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. His hair was a bit ruffy as if he had dragged his hands through it. He looked down at his hands then up at you again.
"Y/N, I know I don't deserve a new chance with you. But I promise you that I will treat you better if you just give me a chance," Steve's voice was a bit hoarse.
"Steve, this is just words," you said with a sigh. You still had feelings for the man and even though you had decided to give him another chance you were weary. Maybe you were better just as friends. He could hurt you again.
"Please, go on one date with me," he begged and you could feel yourself waver. Maybe you should. You didn't know. You looked over at Nat who shrugged her shoulders. Then you looked at Wanda that nodded to you.
"One date," you said after a while. Steve pumped one of his arms up in the air. You could not help but laugh at his gesture.
"You won't regret it," he said and gave you a kiss on the cheek and walked over to the couch to wait for the first movie to start playing.
"What did I just agree to," you whisper to yourself, but Wanda and Nat heard you.
"Maybe this is a good thing," Nat said and walked over to you. "A way to move forward or to get a kind of closure." You nodded and you looked over to where Steve sat. He was already looking at you and the butterflies exploded in your stomach. He gave you a big smile and you bit your lip and turned around to the candy again. You took a piece of chocolate and almost let out a moan. They had really gone all out with the expansive chocolate for this.