What if I'm far from home? Oh brother, I will hear you call! – Avicii
Another random country somewhere in Europe, another half decent hotel they were staying in.
It had been nearly seven months since the Accords situation, the events that led up to the end of the Avengers, and perhaps the most shocking Steve had given up the title of Captain America. And in that time, not much had happened, aside from Steve disappearing during a week of the first month and returning downtrodden explaining to Aphrodite and Sam that Bucky Barnes had voluntarily gone back into cryo-sleep, but for their own safety Steve didn't tell them where or by who.
Aside from all that the three off them had been on a sabbatical of sorts, aside from them not staying in one place for too long. There hadn't been much going on. Turns out life on the run is quite boring. And Aphrodite could tell her boys were getting restless. For Steve at least she could help him burn off all that excess energy in some of the most vigorous ways, unfortunately they were no help to Sam in that regard. A fact that he never failed to remind them of.
Unfortunately for him, he never did invest in his own set of headphones. That was why he made a conscious effort to either get to sleep as early as he could, seeing as more often than not his room was right next door to theirs, or he left the room all together.
"C'mon don't look at me with those eyes." Steve begged.
"What eyes?" Aphrodite asked innocently.
"The eyes where you think you can get me to do whatever you want." He clarified.
"Is it working?"
"No," Steve responded shaking his head even as he smiled. "I'm shaving it."
Aphrodite sighed dramatically dropping her head back on the bed, the two of them were in their hotel room sitting on the floor in front of the bed having just finished dinner of a quasi-picnic.
"You're letting your hair grow out." She pointed out running her fingers through the distinctly longer and darker blonde locks at the top of his head, "I don't see why you won't keep it as well."
The 'it' in question was the slight stubble on his face that had the potential to be a full beard, if only Steve would let it reach its full potential. But alas he was adamant that he wasn't the type to grow a beard, and so long as he could get his hands on a shaver there would be no beard.
"Believe me if I could find a decent barber around here I'd get rid of those too." Steve smiled briefly but it dropped soon after as a nagging thought prodded the back of his head.
"What's wrong?" Aphrodite questioned sensing that the slight playful mood had been stopped for the moment.
"You deserve better than this." He answered mostly to himself.
"What do you mean?"
"Things were supposed to be different, after the accords, after everything." He said glancing at her, "We're supposed to get married, go home. Have a normal life, a simple life. I couldn't even give you that."
"It's a good thing you're cute because you're really dumb," Aphrodite said making him breath a laugh as she reached over with her hand to turn his face to hers to look him in the eye. "Do you think I need all that to be happy? Steve, I'm here, I'm still here after everything. And I just need you. My home, is with you."
Steve stared at her intensely for a moment before sliding a hand around the back of her head to bring her lips down to his so he could press a kiss there.
"How did I get so lucky finding you?" he whispered against her lips.
"We've both lost so much," she responded just as quietly, "Maybe it was time we won a little don't you think?"
Steve pulled away stared at her and decided right then in that moment that it was now or never. "You're right, it is time and I should have done this a long time ago." he saw the questioning look on her face. But paid it no mind as he slipped out the box that had spent far too long in his pocket and took her left hand in his.
"You know if everything was normal, I would have courted you for a few years then only after asking your father's permission. I would get down on one knee," he proceeded to do just that shifting from his seated position so that he was on one knee before her. "And presented you with the perfect ring. But since your father isn't here, I had to ask your brother." he said while opening the box. "Aphrodite Odindottir, you have changed my life in ways that I never even thought possible, and now I can't imagine my life without you, my home is wherever you are. Will you marry me?"
Aphrodite stared at him with watery eyes mouth opening and closing like a fish before bobbing her head up and down. It took a few tries for her to get it out but finally the word 'yes' slipped out. Followed by another and another. "Yes!"
Steve's own eyes began to water as leaned in and met her lips with his. Once, then twice but they were smiling too much to make it last any longer. This was the happiest either of them felt in a long time.
"Do I have to put it on myself?" she teased and Steve shook with laughter as shaking hand retrieved the ring from its long home.
"I think I got it." he muttered slipping it onto her finger, it fit perfectly, a gold ring with a large center diamond, surrounded by smaller diamonds and a blue sapphires going down either side, blue and gold, those were her colours and the ring was gorgeous. She told him as much admiring it for a moment before kissing him again.
"I love you." she muttered in between kissing him.
"I love you too, so much." He continued kissing her standing from the ground and lifting her with him only to deposit her on the bed seconds later, crawling up the length of the bed to keep their lips connected only separating long enough to rid one another of their clothes.
Aphrodite moaned as Steve kissed up the length of the side of her neck, the slight stubble that was on his face creating a nice rough contrast to the softness of his lips. She pushed on his shoulders slightly so she could roll them over and place herself on top of him, laving her lips over the short hairs on his face.
"Alright," Steve groaned hands flexing on her hips as she shifted ever so slightly to begin taking him in. "Maybe you can convince me to keep it."
Aphrodite giggled and it was the first time he head a laugh from her turn into a moan as he slid fully inside, a sound he wasn't going to forget any time soon. Then they spent all night, and well into the morning celebrating their new engagement.
The next day Sam was ready to berate the couple once again for their noisy night time activities, but then Aphrodite shoved her hand into his face and he was stunned speechless forgetting what he was pretending to be angry about. Instead he was elated that his friend finally popped the question and hugged them both as enthusiastically as he could. Then he insisted that they go out to celebrate, which of course had to wait until nightfall but they still found themselves at a nice bar compared, to some of the others they'd been in.
"I'd like to propose a toast," Sam said raising his glass, "To a beautiful future."
"To the future." Aphrodite repeated tapping her glass against his.
"The future." Steve echoed bringing up his glass as well before kissing Aphrodite on the side of her head.
"You know I'm the best man right." Sam said casually.
"What?" Steve asked smiling.
"Oh come on Frosty's isn't here right, why not this guy?" he asked gesturing to himself.
"Sam we haven't even been engaged for a full day yet." Aphrodite pointed out.
"But still you-" They were interrupted when a waiter placed down a single on their table in front of Aphrodite. "We didn't-" Sam began to explain but was politely cut off by the heavily accented waiter who stumbled over the English words.
"It's from the bar."
Both men immediately went on the defence shooting looks over to the half crowded bar to access if there was a threat, in contrast Aphrodite looked at the drink that had been sent their way and let a smirk tug her lips. It was a White Russian.
"Stand down boys," she said bringing their attention back to her and standing from her chair. "I've got this one." She took the drink in one hand and made her way to the end of the bar while Sam and Steve watched with varying degrees of apprehension.
Aphrodite made her way over to the bar, casually strolling up next to a blonde women seated there setting down the drink and speaking to the barkeep in smooth German.
"Ich glaube, wir haben das falsche Getränk bekommen. Kann ich bitte noch eine Runde bekommen?"
"Na sicher." The bartender replied easily moving further down the bar to prepare the drinks.
"Vielen Dank." Aphrodite said to his back before speaking to her new blonde companion, "I thought spies were supposed to be subtle."
"Who said I was trying to be?" a familiar voice responded.
"Then you weren't trying to be subtle when I saw you just outside of Munich either?" the other blonde had raised her glass for another sip of her drink but faltered. "Yeah, I knew you were there too. Figured you'd show your face when you were ready. Not-so Red." She teased finally turning to face her friend, Natasha too looked over at her from around her curtain of newly short blonde hair.
"Blue." She greeted.
"Hi Nat." Aphrodite said smiling fully before the two women moved to embrace each other. "Took you long enough." She teased when they pulled away thanking the barkeep again when he set down a tray of drinks.
"Had some loose ends to tie up on my side first."
Aphrodite nodded. "Missed you."
"I missed you too." Natasha responded genuinely before nodding over her shoulder. "And how are the boys? Giving you lots of trouble?"
"If you only knew," Aphrodite scoffed, "Actually these past few months have been rather boring, I didn't know civilian life was so, dull."
"You're not civilians, you're criminals." Natasha joked and Aphrodite nodded agreeing with her. "But I think I've got just the thing to help with that." Aphrodite was puzzled before Natasha discretely opening the flap of her jacket showing the envelope inside.
But before Natasha could reveal the apparent mission she had brought along with her, Aphrodite had something to tell her, and she was sure the woman whom she considered to be one of her closest, if not her best friend would be almost as excited as she was.
"Well," Aphrodite sighed picking up two drinks leaving the third for Natasha to bring along with her when she inevitably followed. "Seems we've both got news to share." She said knowingly before tapping the fingers of her left hand against the glass producing a clinking noise that Natasha wasn't familiar with which prompted her to glance down and she caught the slightest glimpse of the new jewellery Aphrodite was sporting on her left hand before she turned away completely to make her way back to her table.
Stunned for a moment, Natasha grabbed her half-filled glass and the remaining drink before going after her.
"Look what I scraped off the bar top." Aphrodite teased settling herself back into her seat, seconds later Natasha joined them taking the empty seat by Sam's side and reaching across the table and grabbing Aphrodite's hand to examine the ring more closely.
"I'm impressed Rogers," Natasha said by way of reintroducing herself, and it worked as recognition lit up both Sam and Steve's faces as she let go of Aphrodite's hand. "Finally manned up."
Beaming with pride Steve tossed his arm around Aphrodite's shoulders to tug her closer to his side.
Natasha had caught them up on the mission she had brought along with her, apparently there were some Chitauri weapons being sold on the black market and needed to be taken care of before things got too out of hand. Natasha had a safe house a few miles out of the city where they were going to meet up tomorrow to discuss the plan for these weapons further.
Aphrodite woke with a sharp intake then promptly froze when she realized that the arm wrapped around her waist had tensed slightly with her movement. She waited in silence to see if she had woken her fiancé but his soft snores and breaths hitting the back of her neck told her that he was still asleep. Carefully crawling out from underneath his arm she made her way to the window peeling back the curtain to gaze up at the night sky.
"Thor," she sighed to herself pressing her fingers to her temple where a headache was blooming, "Where are you brother?"
"Hey," Steve said placing a hand on her shoulder making her jump, she hadn't heard him get out of bed. "You alright?"
"I'm fine," she said turning to face him and running her fingers over the bags under his eyes, "Go back to bed." She instructed gently.
"You used to be a better liar." Steve teased with a tired smile.
She breathed a laugh and let her head drop slightly before lifting it again, "Maybe you're just better at reading me."
He pressed a kiss to her forehead before leaning back slightly to look her in the eye, "C'mon talk to me. I'm worried about you, I've never seen you out of tune with your powers and now when you're having a nightmare the entire room shakes."
"You noticed that?" she asked sheepishly and he nodded. "I keep having this dream," she admitted, "I see Asgard falling to ruins. And at the center of it is Surtur, but that doesn't make sense either my father killed him years ago. Then there's Thor," She sighed heavily turning back to the window, "I think he's calling me. I think he needs me."
"That's it?" Steve asked knowing her well enough that he knew there was something more she wasn't telling him.
"And there's a stone." She admitted.
"Vision?" Was Steve's first guess.
"No," She shook her head. "No, I know when I'm reading Vision's stone. This one is different, one I haven't encountered as yet."
Steve nodded, "If you think Thor's needs you. Then you should go to him."
"Even if I knew where he was, I wouldn't know how to get to him. Heimdall hasn't responded to my call in years."
"If anyone can figure it out its you." He said tipped up her chin.
"You know if we're going to plan a wedding, I think that requires both of us to be here." Aphrodite teased and Steve brought her left hand up pressing a kiss to her knuckle just below her engagement ring.
"I want nothing more, than to keep you by my side for as long as I can so I can marry you." He said kissing her finger again before dropping her hand but keeping their fingers entwined. "But it's your brother, and if you think he needs your help, you should go find him."
"What about Sam, and Nat?"
"The three of us will be fine and I'll still be here when you come back."
"Time works differently out there," she said nodding her head vaguely in the direction of the sky meaning outer space. "There's no telling when I could come back, literally."
"Sweetheart, I've waited 70 years to find you. I'll wait as long as it takes for you to come back home."
Aphrodite smiled but it turned to a grimace when another sharp pain stabbed through her head, Steve tensed and placed his hands on her shoulders but didn't know what else to do.
"Its him." She said through gritted teeth. "I have to go, I have to find him."
"Hey," Steve said shifting his hands to hold either side of her neck and make her look him in the eye. "I love you no matter what, okay?"
"I love you too." She said before kissing him again.
When they pulled away he took half a step back to give her some room to do her thing, and with one last look between them that held a thousand promises they couldn't say at the moment. His fiancée disappeared with a crack.
But she would come back, he was sure of it. Fate wasn't that cruel.
BrittStar1199: Ragnarok is coming very very soon, I promise. I've got so much planned.
Ivana bocanegra: Love you and your suggestions as always, never change.
BlueBloodsSVUOrder: You're a star.
Supernatural4life: Welcome, and thank you. Everyone is so excited for the next two movies to play out in this book and honestly, so am I.
Love. Fiction. 2018: ;) J
MidnightPenguin: Interesting suggestion, I like it. Plus it makes sense that Hela would try and get Aphrodite on her side. I think she'd see the power that Aphrodite has and would want to exploit it. Hmmmm, so many great suggestions, so little time.
Xtremesparkles: Thanks a million.
*Pops head out from behind a bushel and waves*
Hey everyone. So, sorry for extremely the long delay in posting this chapter. Now that could be due to one of two reasons, the first and most likely is that the last month of the semester had me up to my neck in assignments and projects and left me with very little inspiration for this particular part of the story (everything else was flowing like water btw).
Or the second, but still highly likely reason is that the plot bunnies ran wild with a new *ahem* furious fixation project that will be posted during the hiatus this story will take after Infinity War. Seriously every time inspiration struck I got so excited until I realized that it was for my WIP story, which was still exciting. But frustrating at the same time because I was stuck in a rut for this story, and this chapter in particular, that's why it seems like its sort of all over the place.
But I finally produced something I was happy with even if I didn't really love the ending, but most importantly this chapter we got the proposal that you guys have been not so patiently waiting for, I'm looking at you BrittStar1199.
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future. Leave me a review too, as you can see I'll be answering/responding to the ones can. So feel free to say or ask me anything.
P.S.
I described Aphrodite's ring as best I could but I don't think I did it justice, if you guys want to see the ring, PM me and I'll figure out a way to send you the link because I know is weird about that kind of stuff. Or peep this story over on AO3 where the link to the beautiful ring is right there in the story.