One by one they were piling on top of him. Not even Captain America could hold off their advance.
"Lizzy, help me please!" He called out to the beautiful woman, but she only laughed .
Steve only had himself. That was clear. So, with great force he made his move.
He bellowed fiercely and forced himself to stand.
Four of them clung to him. One on his leg, another on the other leg, one hanging from one of his biceps, and one holding on for dear life, his hands clasped around Steve's eyes.
"Daddy! Daddy!" They screamed happily.
Stephen, the oldest, was strong enough to not let go of his dad's arm and yelled commands to the rest of his army as he swung tirelessly. "Get him guys! Don't let go!"
Anna had his left leg and Thomas had his right. Each of them giggled and screamed with delight as they were lifted one after another into the air and then brought crashing back down again.
Atop Steve's shoulders sat little Benjamin. His eyes were alive with excitement. He was so excited, in fact, that he was speechless as he whirled around the room holding onto his towering father's head.
Elizabeth Rogers, Steve's whole life, was lounged on the couch watching the whole scene unfold. In her arms bounced the 8 month old, Clare, whose blue eyes danced as she laughed at the commotion.
Finally Steve staggered toward the mountain of cushions and pillows across the room. It had been hastily constructed as a landing zone earlier. The kids had requested that their dad throw them into the air. That activity had inevitably degenerated into them all attacking Steve.
Steve shook his oldest child off of his arm. The boy fell into the pillows laughing. Then he bent over and pulled Thomas off his leg, piling him on top of his older brother. Anna came second, squealing with delight as she too was dropped into the pillows beside her twin brother. Then Steve, gently peeled his youngest son off his face and gingerly placed him atop the dog pile. He let them untangled themselves and went over to his wife.
"Thanks for all the help." He sighed as he dropped down onto the cushions beside her.
"I figured the Captain could handle it." She said dryly.
Steve leaned over and kissed Clare on the head. "Hi sweetie." His little daughter smiled and tried to grab at his face, but he was out of her reach too soon.
Steve lay back against the couch and closed his eyes with a self satisfied look. "I should see if Stark wants to make little iron man suits for them to fly around." Steve eyed her sideways. "Then let you chase 'em around the house."
"I'm kidding!" he shouted, pulling his arms up defensively just as her fist connected with his shoulder.
Nobody ever knew Steve had a sense of humor until Elizabeth had come into his life. Nobody else had ever put him so at ease. Nobody except Bucky of course.
Little Clare was laughing at her dad and mom and clapping as she did so.
"Kiss me, please?" Steve asked, again sitting straighter and looking serious. His bright blue eyes humorously pleaded with his wife. This was his silly stupid way of begging unnecessary forgiveness. She always denied him, but she always loved it. He was pretty irresistable. Obviously. She was married to him.
"Nope." Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on!" And he speedily leaned over to kiss her on the lips. This she accepted and returned with unhesitating affection.
This action, however, gave baby Clare enough time to take serious hold of Steve's blond hair.
"Ow! No, baby, let go." He whined, quickly pulling away from his wife's lips. He gingerly clasped Clare's small hand in his to try to relieve the pressure of her grip.
Elizabeth started laughing. "You had that coming." However, she intervened and gently unclasped the child's fingers from around the clump of her father's hair.
"I have a deal for you." She said, releasing the 8 month old onto the floor. Clare immediately began crawling excitedly toward the pillow pile where her 4 older siblings were hopping up and down, getting more and more punchy.
"Since you got them all riled up and started this mayhem, you get to wrangle them for bed on your own tonight." She smiled wryly
Steve's squinted as if in deep thought. "Uuh... I'm pretty sure that's not a deal."
"Yep." With that Elizabeth got up and scooped up Clare. "Guys! Daddy's putting you all to bed tonight! Just Daddy!"
Elizabeth turned to Steve. "Have fun."
Steve rolled his eyes and stood up with a big smile.
"You're evil, but I love you."
"I know." She said, kissing his cheek.
Then Steve lunged toward his little army of munchkins "Run upstairs! Run for your lives." They all started screaming with joy and adrenaline and tripped all over each other as they scrambled to try run out of the room.
As she went to get a new diaper for Clare and ready her for bed, Elizabeth could clearly hear the commotion upstairs; her husband stomping around chasing kids, people not getting into pajamas, people not brushing their teeth, people not in bed. They were never going to calm down and go to sleep.
"Not my problem tonight."She smiled to herself.
"Right?" She said, looking at Clare. Clare smiled.