Now or Never

Chapter 23 ~ The game is on

Steve's POV

"I never got a chance to thank you." I walk over to Tony who is starting to build the Quantum Tunnel by himself while waiting for Rocket and Bruce to come back. Max is helping him by handing him the parts he needs.

Tony doesn't look up when he speaks. "For what exactly?"

"For taking care of (Y/n)."

Tony takes a moment to pause before slowly turning to finally face me. "Well someone had to after you lied to me about my parent's 'accident.'" I wince when he says this and he notices. "Sorry, Cap, but the truth hurts. You were right about Barnes being innocent, but when you lied to me that's when you lost both of us."

"I know and I'm sorry. I regretted it but I still want to thank you."

Tony turns back around to his work. "She's family. I would do anything to protect her and if I had to take care of her again I wouldn't hesitate."

A smirk appears on my lips. "Well it's good to know that if something were to happen to me on the time heist, she'll have someone waiting for her." Tony stops what he's doing once again to give me his full attention. I just shrug. "You never know what could happen. At least I'll know she'll have you and Natasha looking after her."

"No one's going to die." Tony crosses his arm defiantly. "We're all gonna be fine. Me, you, Natasha. She—we can't deal with any more loss. Especially not you, Cap." Tony starts walking over to his toolbox. "Reminds me." He pulls out a velvet box from the toolbox. "(Y/n) likes to snoop through my stuff so I had to hide this from her. Caught her snooping in my lab one time while I was gone and she was wearing a suit I was working on... it wasn't finished anyway." I look at him with a look that asks 'is there a point to this?' "Point is, I want you to give this to her in case... something happens to me on this time heist."

Tony opens the box and I smile at what's inside. "She's gonna love it, Tony. And you're gonna be the one to give it to her. Like you said, nothing is going to happen. Nobody's gonna die."

Tony smiles at me and closes the velvet box. "You're right. I don't know what I'm worried about. We're all gonna make it out of this."

Your POV

The four of us come back before Natasha does with Clint. I go straight to Tony, who's been taking care of Max while also waiting for Rocket and Bruce to get back so he can have an extra pair of hands helping him with the time machine. I let the genius' work while Max and I go find Dad.

"I see you guys got Thor," Dad says as I approach him. He points to Thor who's sitting in a chair and downing another can of beer.

"Yeah. We had to bribe him with more beer to make him come and I'm not sure when's the last time he showered either." I whisper to him.

Dad chuckles. "That bad, huh?"

I nod. "You have no idea." I sit on the floor, letting Max come up to sit on my lap as I pet him. "Then again, if I could get drunk I would probably be in the same condition."

Dad sits next to me. "Not on my watch you wouldn't." He says to me.

"Of course," I say, playfully rolling my eyes at him.

We hear footsteps approaching us, but I don't look up because I'm more intrigued with my dog than people right now.

"That's cute. You got yourself a dog." I hear a voice that I haven't heard for five years after that phone call. "Does he bite?"

I look up to see Clint standing right in front of me with Natasha by his side. Max gets up immediately to sniff the newcomer.

"N-n-no he doesn't." I stutter, not believing my eyes. Clint got a new haircut and look as a matter of fact. Five years really does something to you. Clint bends down to pet Maximus who excitedly barks and licks Clint's hands. I stand up. "So Maximus gets more love than me?" I say playfully.