The Irony of it All

23

                              2015
       Avengers HQ, Upstate New York

   Steve had seen it all in his 96 years on Earth. He'd been born in the dying flames of World War I. He'd witnessed first hand the blood bath and debacle that was World War II. He'd survived being frozen in ice for 70 years. He'd watched Aliens come out of the sky. He'd destroyed an entire intelligence agency and stopped them from mass murdering more than 20 million people, and he'd fought robots on a floating city.
  
  His father had never come home from the first war. He'd lost his mother to the sickness that threatens to take every human at some point or another. He'd lost the closest thing that he'd had to a brother. And he still felt guilty that he was never able to go back and tell Buck's mom and sisters that he was sorry. His second family for so many years, and he couldn't even provide for them when Buck wasn't there anymore. And Peggy. The last remaining link to his past. Or so he thought.

   He couldn't believe that he had children. He wasn't even 30 yet and he had two teenagers. With Natasha no less! Not that that was a bad thing, because it was the opposite. It was too good to be true. He'd known he'd liked her since they'd first started to be partnered. He'd been trying to work up the courage to ask her out since their mission in Mexico a few years back. And then after the fall of Shield, he just might be in love.

   Google was so helpful. He'd looked up what being in love was when he first started to suspect. So if Lifehack.com was correct, "Being in love means desiring the happiness of your partner, admiring them for the individual they are, and feeling motivated to be a better person." And Mydomain.com was also correct, "Being in love means that you yearn for this person, you think about them constantly and you crave being around this person and spending time together." Then yeah. He was definitely in love with the woman they called Black Widow.

   Right now, he was sitting on one of the couches in the commune, with Nat leaning against him, fast asleep. Sarah was curled up next to her, her head lying in Nat's lap as she watched, wide eyed as Luke Skywalker battled Darth Vader on the ridiculously humongous 3D flat screen that Tony had.

    James was next to her, holding her legs in his own lap, and leaning forward as he watched the movie in pure, innocent, amazement.

   Tony, Sam, Rhodey, Bruce, and Wanda were also watching with them. Spread out on different recliners and couches. They'd all seen the movies before, but they weren't going to miss the looks on the Rogers kids and Wanda's faces as they watched the legendary series for the first time. Steve could recall the first time he watched it with Natasha a couple months into their partnership. How he'd been amazed at just how real outer space looked. But he wasn't watching the movie this time.

    He was too busy watching the beautiful red head asleep against the crook of his shoulder, with the small blonde girl that reminded him so much of her namesake, his own dear mother. It was like a weird morph of his Mom and Nat. And James. He'd wanted children sure, but he'd come to terms with the fact that that life wasn't in his future. And here was his son that looked just like him, with the same look of wonder that Nat sometimes got when she was surprised, if you caught her before the Black Widow mask slipped back on.

    They'd only been there for four days. But he already couldn't imagine life without them. They were both pretty shy still. But they fit in, and the team welcomed them so warmly. Asking them questions about the future and about what they did there. From what Sarah and James had told them, the future sounded like a dark place. They didn’t know doritos or nesquik. They didn’t know Star Wars or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  Each team member had created a picture of what the future looked like in their imaginations, and usually those pictures had dark skies, and smog, with rubble, and no color. Leaking pipes, and open sewers. Plant and animal life gone. Rhodey had just asked the other day, “Do you guys have flowers in the future?” 

Sarah then responded in a way that reminded him so much of Nat. “Our plant life is actually a lot more vibrant than yours is. But that’s probably because all of you are dead and not polluting the planet with your metal costumes.” That resulted in James slapping a hand over her mouth, and Tony calling out,

“Excuse me, but Stark Industries is eco-friendly and has been since 2013!”

     And that’s how life has been ever since then. Bruce and Tony trying to fix the machine, doing more research. Him and Nat in charge of keeping the teens occupied and training them. They’re skilled, but they haven’t learned anything new since Nat disappeared in their future. He’s enjoyed sparring with them in the gym. Teaching them. Laughing with them. Sarah is so attached to Nat. Barely leaving her side. But James, Sarah too, but more so James, seems amazed that his father is actually there, teaching him, and he eats everything up like he’s been starved for too long. 

   Yesterday, they even took them out for ice cream in the city. James admitted that he hadn’t had ice cream since before the snap and Sarah had never tried it. He had no idea what a snap was, but Sarah explained to him that while she didn’t really understand it herself and she hadn’t been born yet anyways, she knew that it had killed almost everyone. That bothered Steve, but he filed it away for now. He could worry about saving the world later. Right now, he just wanted to never let these moments go. He’d only known them for a few days, but he swore that he’d do anything to keep them safe.