XIV

Park

"Hold still, you have a little on your nose," Sharon said, reaching forward and gently brushing her finger against the top of his nose. "There… that's much better."

Steve made a face and tried to escape by leaning back, but she was still faster. "You do that often when you're having ice cream with friends?" he teased lightly as the two resumed their walk through Central Park.

"Only if they haven't pissed me off in the last twenty-four hours with more paperwork and they're not Tony Stark," she replied with a wink as she began walking again, and Steve let her walk ahead before following as well.

They'd been dating for the good part of a year now. Seven and a half months to be exact, although, with the battles and close calls and weeks of physical separation, it certainly felt as though it had been longer. They still had quite a bit to work out between the two of them, but Steve was content to just take it one day at a time.

Right now though, Sharon was far ahead. He just kept walking calmly behind her, enjoying the park in general silence as he ate his ice cream. It had definitely changed since his days, more sugar than anything else, but it was worth suffering through too much sugar to see Sharon behaving like she was five years old again. There was something freeing about seeing a child's spirit, even if it was in the body of a woman in her late twenties. It wasn't something he saw often, being surrounded by the dead and dying on a blood soaked battlefield somewhere in the deep of Europe. Even the children during the war had had something haunted in their eyes, a stolen light that the war had taken away from them.

"Steve!"

He looked up with a faint smile to find Sharon waiting somewhat impatiently by a nearby fountain. She was standing to two small children, and was apparently unaware that they too had ice creams had had taken to mimicking every action of hers. "What's taking you so long?" she teased as he came closer.

"Oh, I was just figuring out how to get the best shot of you three, you all look cute together," he said, pausing a little ways away from her so that he could still see the children.

"Huh?" She looked down in confusion, but her face broke into one of the biggest smiles when she spotted the two girls. "Well, hello there, what are your names?" she asked, kneeling by the two of them.

This was the Sharon that wasn't the soldier and the Avengers liaison to S.H.I.E.L.D. This was the Sharon that Steve had fallen in love with first after watching her at one of Tony's numerous parties. She'd snuck out after the first half hour, claiming that Tony didn't need her around, and Steve, on impulse, had followed to make sure she was all right.

"Hey, Steve? You okay?"

He returned to the present, and smiled when he made eye contact with her. "Of course I am," he replied with an easy smile.

She just nodded with a smile in reply before turning back to the kids.

A/N: Prompt: Eating Ice cream. This had been the one I accidentally switched with Day 13, but no worries now that they're both here.