A/N: I was thinking about the kind way Steve talked to Natasha in Sam's house when she seemed so shaken after they escaped from the missile attack.
Candlelight
The defeat by Ultron had shaken the Avengers to the core. Barely escaping with their lives, they huddled in the main room of Clint's small cabin. Thor was AWOL and the rest were off the grid, using no power, so the room was lit only by a kerosene lantern and the dying fire in the stone fireplace.
Steve had never seen his teammates look so defeated. Natasha looked more lost than after she and Steve had found out Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD — her second home, her second chance. Clint's eyes were as blank as whenever he remembered Loki's mind control. Bruce had his eyes closed, breathing with studied evenness, controlling the monster in his body and the ones in his mind.
Steve was most worried about Tony, who sat staring at nothing, rubbing his hands together compulsively. The creator of Ultron looked as if he was on the verge of a major panic attack. Steve had seen that look in the mirror a few times since he woke up in 2012.
The Avengers' captain needed to do something to pull his team out of their funk.
Poking around the cabin while he tried to decide what to do, Steve found a package of white taper candles. They reminded Steve of church, in particular the Christmas Eve candlelight service.
And then he knew what he wanted to do.
Steve collected his props, wrote a note and pressed the paper into Tony's trembling hands.
"Here, read this," Steve said, then blew out the kerosene lamp.
Surprise and irritation overcame Tony's anxiety. "I'm not a Super Soldier," he snapped. "I can't read in the dark."
"Oh, sorry," Steve said mildly. He handed out unlit candles, then knelt beside the embers in the fireplace, blocking even its meager light from the others.
"Too bad you don't still have the built-in nightlight," Clint told Tony, venturing a morsel of humor.
Small chuckles greeted his feeble joke.
"What's on the paper, Steve?" Natasha asked.
"The hardest lesson I had to learn when I woke up 70 years in the future," Steve replied. "It was a good thing I had experience. When I was 11, the stock market crashed and the whole world changed. Then, just as America was pulling itself out of the Depression, war started in Europe and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor — and everything changed again."
"So, when you woke up in the future, you had experience adapting," Bruce said.
"Yes. Now the Avengers have to adapt," the captain said.
Steve stood, his face illuminated by the tiny flame of the candle he'd lit at the hearth. "Hold out your candles," he instructed, as he went to light the taper in Natasha's hand.
"How do you do it, Steve? How do you keep going?" Tony pleaded.
Steve touched the candle flame to each Avenger's candle and the faint light began to grow brighter until each Avenger's face glowed in the candlelight.
"It was hard," Steve admitted. "Until I realized one simple thing. When the world falls apart, you really only have two choices, to give up or go on. You can go on while complaining or singing, but you either lie down and cry or you shoulder your kit bag and ... soldier on." The corner of the soldier's mouth twitched in amusement.
Steve bent over Tony and lit his candle. "Now, Tony. Now you can read it."
Tony looked down at the paper that was plain to see in the accumulated light of the Avengers' candles. He read the words and his voice choked, so he had to clear his throat before he could say, "We are not alone. We are together."
Natasha understood. "One candle is small."
"But together they push back the darkness," Bruce said.
"Together we can push back the darkness," Clint said with determination.
"Together," Tony agreed, anxiety giving way to resolution.
Steve smiled at his friends and teammates, as the candlelight flickered, driving back the darkness.
A/N: Just a little something to start 2015 on an "Age of Ultron" note — but a positive note! Happy New Year!