A/N: So I had been considering doing an alternative ending to the first chapter before I even published the first chapter. It would've basically had the opposite ending in which Seren survived the blip and that would've been that. However, several people seemed to just want a proper ending for the current path I wrote it in so...here yah go! ;)

(P.S thanks to those who reviewed! Hope you like this ending!)

The fireworks were going hard in the dark sky. Even at a distance, a couple of them exploded so hard that Seren flinched often. She just hoped that it wouldn't make her drop the birthday cake in her arms.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." She approached the living room slow and cautious. There was a lot of space between her and the coffee table. "Happy birthday dear Steve, happy birthday to you."

Steve was grinning from ear to ear when Seren presented him his cake. "This looks delicious," he said after taking several sniffs of it.

Seren beamed. "I'm glad you think so! I had to up my game seeing as you decided to skip what I'm sure would've been a huge party with the other Avengers just to come spend it here in the middle of nowhere."

"You forgot the keywords 'with me' because you are the only one I wanted for my birthday party."

"As flattering as that is, and it is, that's a big ouch to the rest of your team."

"I get the feeling they'd be fine if they knew where I was going." Not that Steve didn't already think that the others didn't know why he'd been so persistent in leaving the compound for his birthday weekend. They didn't outright say anything but he got the looks Natasha sent him every now and then when he'd been packing.

He didn't want the big flashy party, nor the flashy presents. All he wanted that weekend was to spend it with Seren. So he was.

"Make a wish," Seren urged, "Before the candle goes out."

"Yeah, speaking of, why is the candle a question mark?" In that moment, Steve wished he could've recorded Seren's face. Her eyebrows raised as did the corners of her lips. She mastered the innocent face a long time ago.

"Because your age is a mystery to me," she responded. "I mean, are you in your 20s or your 90s? The world may never know!"

"You know!"

"No I don't, shut up. Blow your candle!" Seren pushed her hair behind her shoulders and made herself comfortable on the ground beside the table.

"This conversation is not over," Steve warned as he slid off the couch to sit on the ground.

Seren propped her elbows on the table to then rest her cheeks on her hands. "Make a wish!"

Steve wondered what he could possibly want that he didn't already have. Nothing came to mind until he looked at Seren. Of course, he thought.

"Yaay!" Seren clapped when Steve blew the candle out. "Can't tell me what you wished for or else it won't come true!"

"Right," Steve agreed with a laugh. "But I really want it to come true."

"Well," Seren reached over for the knife and plates she'd brought earlier, "You're usually pretty good at getting things done. I bet this wish won't be the exception. Now, cake?"

"Please." Steve took his plate from her and immediately tasted it. Seren had baked it specifically for him and he was eager to find out what flavor it was. She'd kept it all a secret.

"Well? What do you think?" she asked, eagerly waiting for his response.

"It's really good, Seren! What is that?" Steve couldn't quite place his finger on it. The flavor was a mixture. "Apple? Is this...apples?'

Seren laughed. "I remember you said you love apple pie and since you also love my cinnamon rolls, I thought apple cinnamon would be the way to go. Of course, an apple pie for a birthday cake didn't really sound right to me soo...I made it into a cake!"

"Seren, this is delicious." Steve felt his heart swell just thinking about Seren coming up with this combination for him. "But you really could've just baked a pie for less trouble."

"Nope!" Seren shook her head. "It's your birthday. I had to make your cake and it had to be perfect! I do have the good old fashion cinnamon rolls in the oven, though."

"Seriously? When did you—you're sneaky!"

Seren laughed. "I just want you to have all your favorites! We can make the apple pie tomorrow morning if you'd like?"

"Seren, we don't have to—"

"It's a birthday weekend!" Seren reminded him. "And it's all about you!"

Steve smiled softly at her. No huge, flashy party could ever compare to this. Nothing could compare to Seren. Every time he visited her, he found it a lot harder to leave her and go back to his normal life at the compound. His heart just hurt when she wasn't around and he had to actually learn how to live with it until he would see Seren again.

He watched her cut another slice of cake for herself. She was still promising him a wide range of things they were going to do that weekend. It was all about him, she promised.

"Seren?" He called and she stopped talking. "I love you." He always thought those words would be difficult to say, like there would be something holding him back...but right now it was the easiest thing he had ever said. They flowed from his mouth and now all he wanted to do was to say it over and over.

Seren was stunned with admission. Her big green eyes got even bigger. "What...?"

"I love you," Steve repeated himself. He was happy to do so. He put his plate on the table to give her his undivided attention. "I. Love. You."

Seren's eyebrows knitted together and her face scrunched a bit. "Now wait a minute, I'm the one who's supposed to make you feel good this weekend! It's your birthday!"

Steve laughed at her genuine pout. "Interesting way to respond, but okay."

Seren set her plate on the table as well and scooted closer to him on the ground. "I love you too, dear, but this is your weekend. I should be the one to making you feel all fuzzy and warm..." Because that's exactly what he was doing to her right now.

Steve smiled softly at her. He ran his hand through one of her long curls over her shoulder. "You are," he assured her. "That's exactly what you do to me every time I'm with you. I love you, my secret star."

Seren beamed and threw her arms around his neck, throwing herself on him in the process. "I love you too!" She crashed her lips against his for one big, slightly messy, kiss. She was just too damn happy!

Steve pulled away enough to see her smiling face. "Now...that question mark on the cake..." He almost laughed when Seren's smile dropped instantly. "I told you we weren't done with that!"

"Oh c'mon, Steve! It's a little joke—"

"Well, I'm not laughing!" He bopped her nose. "Take it back!"

Seren scrunched her nose. "Why!?"

Steve lowered his hands to her side and, to her surprise, he tickled her. "Because I said so!" He exclaimed.

Seren went into a fit of laughter with his poking fingers. "C'mon!"

"You better take it back!"

"No!" Seren writhed and wiggled in the midst of her laughter. Her head dropped to Steve's shoulder but even with her loss at hand, she wouldn't take back anything. "Steve!" She finally collapsed on him. She brought her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder while she caught her breath from so much laughing.

"Give up now?" Steve still had the audacity to ask. He rubbed a comforting hand up and down her back.

"I hate you," he heard her mutter.

"And I love you," he sighed contently.

Steve wasn't surprised about what he dreamt that previous night. He checked the date as soon as he got out of bed just to make sure he was right—as if he'd ever gotten wrong in the past 8 years—and of course, he was right. He pulled himself together and with some decent clothes for his plans that morning.

When he walked into the office, Natasha knew straightaway that his night had not been very fruitful in the sleeping department.

"I'd offer you some breakfast but you have a plans..." Natasha trailed off as Steve plopped down in the empty chair across her desk. Nowadays, the office was more hers than this. It was hers.

"Meeting him for breakfast," Steve said quietly.

"I know I've been asking you this for the past 5 years but are you sure that this friendship is the best thing?"

Steve understood her now and the first time she asked him that. It was a fair thought. But, just like before, he stood firm in his decision. "He's the only one that knew Seren as much as I did."

"Yeah," Natasha bobbed her head, "But also...not exactly the way you did."

Steve smiled wryly. "Right."

"He's her father, after all."

"Yeah."

"And you were—"

"Yeah."

Natasha's lips curved into a big smirk. Steve preferred to look away.

"Well," Natasha said after a long period of silence, "It is a birthday..."

"Happy birthday..." Steve mumbled reminiscently.

~ 0 ~

As much as it hurt him to, he kept his plans just like he did every year. He walked into the diner and soon spotted the brunette man already waiting in one of the booths.

The first thing Steve thought of when he met Brooks Soul was that Seren had inherited her father's bright green eyes. The only problem now was that Brooks' eyes had lost the life in them. Steve couldn't blame him. He had lost a good part of his friends and Seren; Brooks lost his wife and daughter.

"Hey," Brooks greeted when Steve slid into the other side of the booth. "Thanks for coming, as always."

"I wasn't going to miss it," Steve said, just like he had each year.

"I've already ordered it, hope you don't mind..."

"Course not. So, how are you?"

Brooks raised his head, green eyes flicking up to the ceiling. "Oh, you know, everything's kind of pointless but there's always 2 days out of the year where it all just feels a bit of an extra type of hell."

"Wouldn't it be 3 days?" Steve asked, trying to lighten the gloominess they both felt in their hearts.

Brooks sourly smiled. "I don't care about my birthday, Steve. I'm still here. I care about the fact that neither of my girls have gotten to celebrate their birthdays in 5 years. They haven't been able to do anything in the last 5 years."

Steve lowered his head. He wholeheartedly agreed with Brooks. There wasn't a day that passed without him thinking about Seren. He missed her more and more each day.

A waitress stopped by with two cinnamon rolls for them.

Brooks stared at his plate for a long, hard minute. "My little girl would've been 33 today."

A punch to the gut each year.

Steve swallowed hard. He stared at the cinnamon roll in front of him. Soon, he would put a star-shaped candle in his to blow out for a woman who no longer existed.

Brooks' sour laugh pulled Steve's gaze off the pastry. Brooks was shaking his head. "I say 'little girl' like she was just an infant..."

"I understand, Brooks," promised Steve. "Seren was your only daughter, an only child..."

"She was everything."

Steve once again wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment.

"She and my wife, they were everything. After S.H.I.E.L.D. went down, Seren didn't really come see us anymore. She felt so disillusioned with herself that I guess she must have thought that we—her parents—wouldn't want her anymore like the rest of the world."

"I'm sure that she knew that wasn't the case," Steve said.

Brooks smiled honestly for the first time. "Yeah. I don't know what happened but she started sending us letters later on." He chuckled. "She would write to us about how she was doing and how much she loved us. It was so old-fashioned, I have no idea where she got that notion from."

Steve hummed lightly. "Who knows..."

Seren sat on her bed in her pajamas with Steve beside her. The former was biting her thumbnail down to the skin. "But do you think they would actually open a letter from me? I haven't talked to my parents in over a year. What if they're still angry with me for disappearing?"

"I think that as your parents, all they want is to see know that you're okay," Steve said. He reached over her hand near her mouth. He was concerned that he would begin to see blood soon. "They don't know where you are. That has to be driving them insane."

Seren sighed. "I know but...I did this for them too. I'm a wreck in the public's eye. Being their daughter means that I'll pull them into my mess and they don't deserve that."

"I really don't think that's what they think." Steve scooted closer to her and finally lowered her hand from her mouth. He kept it in his in case she got the urge to bite her nails again. She was always so nervous when it came to her parents. "They love you, Seren. Above all, you are their daughter."

Seren looked at him nervously. "A letter?"

"Well, it's the only way they wouldn't be able to track you to the safe house."

"That is true...will you help me write it?"

"How about I deliver it for you?"

"What? How would you do that? I love you but I don't want them to know about us. They will never leave you alone and they might even show up at the compound. My mother is very strong, Steve."

Steve laughed. "Yeah, I don't want to poke that bear. I can deliver it anonymously. Maybe even one of the recruits can leave it in their mailbox or something. That way you don't even have to worry about the mailing situation. Do you want to do it?"

Seren nodded fervently. "Yeah!" She planted a kiss on his lips. "Do you think you could send it today when you leave?"

"I promise!"

Seren eagerly got off the bed to go retrieve some paper and a pen.

"I have all her letters in a box," Brooks went on, never noticing how Steve had drifted of in memories for a minute. "I just wish I knew where her safe house was located at. My mother-in-law, Seren's grandmother, had multiple secret safe houses around the world. Paranoid woman but I suppose in the end she helped Seren a lot. I know I ask you this every year but in hopes that maybe you've found something I have to ask...do you know where Seren used to stay?"

Steve stiffened in his seat. Yes, Brooks asked the same question every year and every year, Steve would lie to him and say he had no idea where Seren used to live.

"I know she only helped the Avengers once in Sokovia but I just...maybe she got in contact with you guys later on? Or, I don't know, you and the remaining Avengers found something this year?"

"No, we didn't," Steve said. There he went again. Perhaps it was selfish of him to keep the safe house away from Brooks or maybe it was exactly what Seren wanted. Steve was never able to decide. The only thing he knew was that the safe house in Virginia was the only place that was his and Seren's. They had made it their own for several years and he couldn't bear to have somebody else step inside it.

Brooks lamented the fact. "Well, I had to try, right?" He shrugged to himself. "Thanks for coming. You don't ever have to but you always do. It means a lot, especially since you barely even knew Seren."

Steve cleared his throat. "Even if Seren didn't think of it, she was like an honorary Avenger." He had no courage at all to tell Brooks the truth. He didn't have it when he first sought Brooks out and five years later, he still didn't. When the pain of losing Seren was too high—when he realized that nobody else would even remember her—he thought about searching for Seren's family. Whether or not they were still alive, he had to know and, for Seren, he had to make sure they were okay if they were alive. As it turned out, both Seren's mother and grandmother had vanished with her, leaving Brooks Soul as the only remaining family member. Knowing how crazy he was going, Steve wondered how Brooks was handling things. There were various stories about those family members who had survived the blip going into such a deep depression that sometimes...they took terrible actions.

Steve couldn't let that happen to Brooks Soul. Seren wasn't here anymore but her father still lived and he deserved to have somebody. He came under the pretense that Seren had just been an ally of the Avengers in the Sokovia battle and he wanted to know if Seren Soul, aka Stardust, had survived the blip. Natasha called him crazy for putting himself in that situation. How could being around Seren's father do any type of good for him? It did do him good, and a lot. Through Brooks, he got to learn more about Seren in her past. A part of Seren lived in her father and as much as it broke his heart that it was all he had, it also brought Steve a little bit of calm. Not everything about Seren was gone.

"Shall we?" Brooks pulled Steve out of his thoughts. He pulled out two star-shaped birthday candles.

"Yeah," Steve smiled. He took his candle and stuck it into his cinnamon roll while Brooks did the same with his. They lit both of them up and watched the flame sway.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you," Brooks sang quietly, "Happy birthday dear Seren, happy birthday to you."

Steve blew out the candle in his pastry. His heart cracked at the same time.

~ 0 ~

"I told you, you shouldn't have gone," Natasha said later that day. Steve had left the compound with a moping face and when he came back, it might as well have been a carved feature on his face.

"You know I can't leave him on his own," Steve said, dropping (and sinking) into the chair at her desk.

"Yeah, but how can you even find some peace when that man has no idea who you were to Seren?"

"Nat, you didn't even know until a couple years later."

"Touche."

Steve sighed. "I keep telling people to move on but I can't seem to do it." He knew that Seren would be on his ass for moping so much. She was long used to the idea of having people forget about her—it was better to be forgotten than to be remembered for bad things—and the idea of having him grieve over her for years would be completely out of the question.

"It's not for us," Natasha said, plain and simple. "I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job... this family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though...they're gone...I'm still trying to be better."

"I think we both need to figure out how to do that and soon." Steve couldn't imagine himself living like this for another five years, ten, fifteen—it was all just pointless.

Suddenly, a footage of the front entrance popped up and a familiar face appeared on the screen. It was a man who was supposed to be gone, vanished, and yet there stood Scott Lang begging to be let in.

For the first time in five years, Steve felt a twinge of...hope? Because if Scott Lang was somehow back, it could mean that there was a way to get...others back too.

~ 0 ~

Steve stepped inside the silent, darkened house he rarely visited in the past 5 years. He walked into the living room, past the furniture that was now covered in drapes collecting dust. The windows and the glass wall itself were covered with blinds. Steve thought it was better to keep Seren's house looking like it was abandoned to keep unwanted attention away. It wasn't like people did much traveling these days but he didn't want to risk somebody breaking in. This was all he had of Seren, after all.

He stopped in front of her old writing desk. He'd taken her laptop the day he found Seren was gone, along with her important documents. He hadn't wanted anything of hers to fall into the wrong hands. Her jar of pens and pencils sat on the left corner, a few books were stacked in the middle and most importantly, her one picture frame of herself with him was right at the center.

"Why must you take a picture of us?" Steve watched Seren fiddle with the camera in her hands. They were sitting together on a big rock beside the running river. "I am not photogenic at all!"

Seren laughed. "Right! This coming from the man who has an entire exhibition on him!"

"That's different!"

"You're right! Because this picture will only be seen by me, myself and I!" Seren put a hand over her chest, smiling ever-so-innocently at him. "And of course you. Everybody else gets to see you—this picture is going to be special. It's just for us. Whenever you're not around, I'm going to look at our picture."

"That's very sweet, dear."

"So can we take a picture?"

Steve inwardly sighed while Seren smiled widely at him. "Well, I guess if it's for that reason...sure."

Seren beamed. "Great! You have to smile really big, though? You got it?"

"Yes, ma'am." Steve would always pity the fool who didn't listen to the ex-agent Soul. At least he got the commands with the cheery smiles. He heard stories of when Seren was an agent and she did not smile a lot when she gave orders. She was more scary.

"Smile!" Seren held the camera in front of them.

Steve tugged her a little closer—any excuse to touch her and hold her was welcomed—then did as she instructed. He smiled at the camera and saw it flash before his eyes.

Steve had the same picture in his bedroom. Before the blip, he had kept it somewhere secret just for his eyes. But when everything happened, once the names of the vanished had been engraved on those special stones, Seren's name was right there like it was just a number in the long, long list. Steve couldn't bear it. He couldn't keep anything of hers a secret, at least the things that didn't have to be...like her photographs. She deserved to be remembered in every way and he had done it as much as he could.

And now he was here, so close...so, so close...

"There's hope again, Seren," he spoke in a hushed voice as if there was actually someone else in the house. His eyes gazed at her in the frame. "After 5 years, there's hope that I might see you again. You would laugh if you knew what we were going to do."

Time travel. It was absolutely crazy and yet, some would argue, that it was crazy enough to just work. So he was going to hope really hard that it would.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to bring you back." He picked up the frame and smiled at the picture. "And when it's over, we are going to take so many new pictures. All the time." He gingerly set the frame back in its place then started heading out...until something new crossed his mind. He stopped. Glancing back into the living room, his eyes landed on the desk again.

He was either going to really just hurt himself if this didn't work out...or he was going to help Seren out. He hurried back for the desk and grabbed a pen and paper.

~ 0 ~

Things were going a bit awry, Steve would be the first to admit it, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. He held the case where Loki's specter resided and made his way through the Tower as quickly as possible. He had just fought his past self for the damn scepter so now getting out of the Tower was an absolute priority.

Perhaps even more so because nobody was answering him on the comms.

"Tony? Scott? C'mon!" He marched through the floor, fully prepared to make a jump out of the tower altogether if it meant getting to wherever the hell those two had gone.

"Where is the scepter!?" He heard from a distance and froze in his tracks.

"I already told you—"

"No! Try again!"

Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Steve heard himself perfectly. It was the logical and sensible thing to do but his feet were. not. moving.

"I just got word that Loki is missing!"

"And you're not supposed to be here!"

Sensibility be damned. Steve turned around and hurried back from where he'd come from. He took to hiding behind the very edge of the wall that would give him a glimpse of the scene. His heart might as well stop.

It was his Seren but at the same time not his Seren he was looking at. Whenever he saw her, she was always in casual clothes. This woman in front of him (or technically across him facing Rumlow) was dressed in a traditional dark pantsuit with a baby blue blouse peeking out. Her hair was in a pixie cut and in the bright shade of ginger.

That was the agent appearance in the profile Natasha had used to first introduce Seren to them.

It was Agent Seren Soul at work and she was not happy. She was several inches shorter than Rumlow but that did not have any effect. "I am here because Fury sent me to collect the scepter and when I get here, I find out that Loki has gone missing too! With the Tesseract!"

"You should not be here," Rumlow was adamant and since Seren didn't seem to correct him, he gained a bit of confidence against her. "Stardust is detrimental to the Avengers."

"My orders were to come undercover, if you haven't noticed," Seren gestured to her current appearance. "I don't have the suit on, dumbass, so it's safe to say that I wasn't called in to fight alongside them, don't you think?"

Rumlow looked away in disdain.

"Where's the scepter?" Seren asked again.

"Captain has it. He's bringing it back. You better focus on finding Loki and the Tesseract since you can't get anywhere near Rogers." The smugness was back in Rumlow's tone and face.

If Steve could, he would've definitely loved to wipe it off. It still boiled his blood knowing the ridiculous rules that S.H.I.E.L.D. imposed on Seren.

Fortunately, it didn't seem to bother Seren at all. "Right," she nodded, folding her arms over her chest. "And you know what? Since you're oh-so-helpful and you're, unfortunately, one of the people I'm allowed to be around, I'm going to ask Fury to lend your little team to me to search for Loki and the Tesseract."

Seren didn't need her abilities to make a blow against an enemy. As soon as she made her proposal heard, Rumlow's face screwed in horror.

"What!?" He exclaimed. "The S.T.R.I.K.E. team does not work for you and it definitely doesn't take orders from you!"

Seren merely smiled at him. "It will once I talk to Fury. I suggest you back. down." She pressed the tip of her index finger against Rumlow's chest and it was enough to make the man stumble back. Despite her petite figure, her strength could outmatched almost everyone in the building.

Rumlow could almost snarl at her.

Seren's smile widened knowing exactly what she was doing. "Say hi the Captain for me," she waved then turned to leave.

Steve pressed himself more against the wall when she walked by. She didn't even look his way. Agent Soul was on a mission, after all. Steve truly lamented not being able to meet her then. S.H.I.E.L.D. took away many prospects but he still had the power to get things right.

"I'm going to get you back," he promised her disappearing figure.

~ 0 ~

They had the stones, they had each and every one of them...at a dire cost. Natasha had sacrificed herself for the Soul stone and, thus, given the team the last piece of the puzzle. With the gauntlet remade, it was just a matter of snapping.

Banner volunteered for the job, claiming it was the logical thing to do since he was a product of a gamma accident. He put the gauntlet on and had about half a second before the power surged through him. The others could only watch and argue with each other about taking the gauntlet off him before it killed him.

Steve was going back and forth between the choices because at the same time, Banner insisted that he could do it. On some level, Steve felt like he needed to respect that because he'd been in an similar situation a long time ago. Banner pushed through the power and pain until finally...his fingers snapped.

He collapsed on the ground and the gauntlet slid off. Clint was quick to kick it away from them in case anything else happened. Steve hurried up to Banner to help him get back up.

"Did...did it work?" Banner was out of breath and out of decent strength but was otherwise fine.

"I...I don't know," Steve answered honestly. Nothing seemed to have change but then again they were inside a room that was on lockdown.

"Worth a shot," Thor said, lamenting their apparent loss.

Scott, however, had wandered to the window where he could hear the distinct sound of birds chirping. It was overwhelming as if there'd been much more birds than before. Clint's phone went off and he moved aside to answer it. Steve could see him shaking in his spot. Before he could ask Clint who was it, his own cellphone started vibrating.

When he saw the caller ID, he could honestly say that in that moment, he forgot about everything else. There was nothing else. "H-hello?"

"Steve! What's happened!? My house—it's all covered in drapes!" Seren's voice was shaky and perhaps slightly rushed in her attempt to explain the confusing sight in front of her. "I found a letter on my counter that wasn't there a moment ago—Steve? Are you there?"

Steve had lost the air he needed to speak with. He was probably shaking like Clint had been a moment ago.

"Steve!?" Seren called again, even more frantic than before. "Please tell me you're there!"

"I-I'm here," he said slowly. "A-and you're...you're there. You're here."

"Wha...Steve, why are you talking like that? Okay, I'm scared." And she was indeed because Steve could hear her ragged breathing from the other end of the line. "What's happening?"

Steve had to snap himself out of his stupidity to help her. He wondered if she realized that she'd disappeared and reappeared. You can't ask that through the phone. No, no he couldn't. Plus, he didn't want to. He needed to see her and have her in front of him. He needed to hold her in his arms. "Seren, stay right where you are—I'm coming to see you!"

"O-okay but what's going on? I'm sorry but I'm very confused and slightly afraid. Actually, that's a lie, I'm very afraid!"

"I'm coming, Seren!" Steve promised. "I'm—"

Before he could finish, something struck the compound. Then something else, and then something else. A series of missiles plummeted through the compound and to Seren's misfortune, she heard every single one.

"Steve!" she exclaimed. "Steve!? What was that? Hey! Answer me, please!" Hot tears formed in her eyes when the line went dead. She gripped the letter in her hand and looked around the house. She swallowed hard and went around the living room, pulling and yanking all the sheets off her furniture. She went to the windows and pulled—rather ripped—the blinds off the window with all her super strength.

She then went to her desk and rummaged through it in search of her laptop but it wasn't there. Her laptop wasn't there nor were the documents she had for her search on the Ghost. Why wasn't any of her stuff where she left it!?

Seren lost track of time going through her things and finding out that nothing was where it was supposed to be. All she had was the letter that apparently Steve wrote for her? It made no sense. He hadn't visited her in days. How does a letter pop out of nowhere?

She stopped going through her drawers when she heard an odd noise behind her. It was like...sparks? Something glowed orange behind her. She whirled around, eyes piercing and fists ready to fight the intruder.

"Who the hell are you?"

~0~

It was chaos, utter chaos. Steve had seen some pretty dark things in his life but this fight...this was the winner in the worst way possible. Everything around them was dark and ashy. The only thing that stood tall and, unfortunately, smug and proud was the cause for everything bad that'd happened. Thanos from the past had somehow arrived in the future to solidify his win again. With most of their team M.I.A, Steve, Tony and Thor had their hands full battling the Titan.

Suits and armor were broken in the attempt to stop Thanos from getting the stones.

Thanos knew he was close to victory again but even then, the remaining Avengers weren't going to let him take it so easily.

After a harsh landing, Steve pulled himself up from the ground. He faced Thanos again, ready to continue where they left off. On some level, Thanos would admit it was impressive...but he was still going to crush him and every other Avenger in his way.

"In all my years of conquest– violence– slaughter– It was never personal. But I'll tell you now– what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet– I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much."

Steve watched as the Titan summoned what he presumed was the entirety of his army. There were familiar creatures in the mix but a lot of them were unknown which just proved how far Thanos' power stretched across the galaxies. Steve didn't see anyone around him—Tony and Thor must have landed pretty far or they were just unconscious. Still, Steve straightened himself up for what he presumed would be his last fight. He was nothing but stubborn and determined...that's what Seren always said.

Her image briefly flashed in his mind. Their call had been disconnected and she was no doubt still afraid and concerned. I'm sorry my star. He really wouldn't get to see her again.

When he heard a crack, he readied himself for the fight. He never thought it hadn't come from Thanos' army. The only reason he didn't move was because of what he thought was Sam's voice calling to him.

"Hey, Cap, you read me? Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?"

Yes, yes he did hear...and he saw. Steve saw a portal opening up and out came faces that had long disappeared. Little by little, more portals opened up and allowed more familiar faces to emerge from them. Suddenly, he wasn't alone. He was surrounded by friends and allies...Avengers.

So the fight was on.

Both sides collided on the battlefield.

With renewed energy and determination, Steve fought his way through countless creatures. Somewhere along the way, he would admit that he lost his footing and unfortunately, one slight miscalculation is exactly what the enemy needed to kill him with. Steve was ready to counter, albeit messily and out of sheer faith that he'd get it right, when an array of energy fired past him and disintegrated the creature. It took him a few seconds to realize the energy wasn't really energy but instead bolts and then not exactly bolts but...star bolts.

As big as their side suddenly was, he didn't know of anybody with the power to wield star bolts except for...

"You know, you always pull me out of retirement," he heard the light chuckle he had dreamed of in the past 5 years. He turned back to see Seren standing with her arms stretched ahead of her, fists still curled from her attack.

Maybe it was selfish to say, and admit, that Steve once again forgot about everything else. Seren was right there, right here. He ran—my God he ran. Seren barely blinked once before she was encased in the tightest of hugs.

"You're here!" All of his senses were on fire as he held onto her. The way she smelled, the way she felt between his arms—it was all just like it used to be.

Seren didn't entirely understand what had happened but her heart was breaking for the pain that she caused Steve. According to him and his letter, she was gone. One moment she was making coffee and the next...she was gone.

"I'm here now," she said, nearly promising him that she wasn't an illusion. Her arms came around him to squeeze as much as she could. "I'm here...and unfortunately, we're here-here."

Danger. The alarm went off in Steve's head. He pulled away from her and looked around. The fight wasn't over, not nearly over, and Seren was right there.

"No!" He said, eyes wide with horror. "You can't—you shouldn't be here! Why are you here!?"

Seren smiled calmly at him. She more or less expected that type of reaction. "I'm here to help. One of those, um, wizards, came to me. They said they needed every fighter available, an..." she chortled, "Avenger. As if I'm ever that."

Steve shook his head. "No, no! You can't be here! Look at this—"

Seren cupped his face, forcing him to drop whatever he was going to say to her. "I have looked at this place and I need to be here. I'm not going to hide in my house while you fight for me and everyone else on this planet. I'm Stardust, dammit. I'm an alien and these creatures need to know they're on the wrong side."

"Seren..." He was dead afraid of having her in the middle of the chaos; he was afraid of losing her again. But if you lose the fight, you lose her too. The unfortunate logic was right.

Seren stepped back from him and raised her hands on her sides. They glowed with new star matter. "Lead the way, Captain."

Steve lost his breath. She was ready to fight and with no sign of the fear she used to talk about. The first time he had come to her to get her to fight with him in Sokovia all those years ago had been a long argument. Now here she was with no doubt in her eyes.

He nodded at her and turned to face the fight. A few seconds later, she stepped up beside him. They ran together.

~ 0 ~

Seren had never been able to say she'd lost count on the hugs she'd received. She expected a lot of them from Steve, even more so during Tony's funeral, but when everything was done and she met her parents...her dad had taken the win. She met them a few hours after the funeral, not too far from where Steve and the others were taking care of the time travel loose ends. Time travel. That was still shocking.

"I just look at you and I can't believe you're here again!" Brooks had to hug his daughter again, as if he hadn't hugged her before saying that. "I can't believe everyone's back."

"It's so strange knowing we're back when it doesn't even feel like we left," Seren's mother, Liana, remarked on the side. Before Seren, Liana had been the center of the hugging session.

"Yeah," Seren agreed with her. "What was it like, Dad?" She hadn't been brave enough to ask Steve that question, especially after their battle. There were way too many things that had gone wrong and her asking that question seemed way too much of an imprudence.

Brooks shook his head. "It was hell, Seren. Everyone lost somebody. You were gone, your mother, even your grandmother. I had nobody."

"Oh, Dad," Seren reached for his arm. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have been alone."

"Well, I wasn't entirely alone," Brooks admitted. "Your friend Steve came by every now and then. Very nice of him."

Seren's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Did he now?" Brooks nodded. "Did he...did he say anything about me?"

Her mother settled a strange look on her daughter. "Why?"

Seren knew better than to face her mother. She kept her eyes locked on her father instead. "Why did...what did you guys do?"

"You helped the Avengers in Sokovia so he wanted to see if you had vanished in the blip too. After that, we were just each other's company. I really appreciated it and now because of what he and the rest of is team did, I have you back." Brooks tugged Seren into his arms for another hug. She smiled and hugged him back. "I will never finish saying 'thank you' to him."

"Yeah," Seren had to agree there.

"You're not going to leave again, are you?" Liana asked her. "I mean, I know my mother has plenty of safe houses for you to retreat in but...after everything..."

Seren had a couple things she needed to say but she first she had to do something else. "Can you guys meet me in about an hour at that old diner we used to have breakfast in? You guys remember it?

Brooks smiled. "Oh, I have been there many times in these past years."

Seren raised an eyebrow at him. "Um, okay, see you there?"

"Of course."

Seren did a thumb's up then very quickly left them. Her mother was still giving her a look. She made her way through the forest until she came across the site where Steve was meant to be. Hopefully, they would be done with whatever time travel nonsense they had going on.

It seemed like they were—Banner was putting some machinery away. Seren saw Steve with Sam and Bucky not too far from the machines. She approached cautiously (if somebody asked her why, she wouldn't know) but before she reached them, Steve was warned of her nearing, He turned quickly and smiled so widely at her, Seren couldn't quite believe she was the reason for it.

He reached her first and, like the many times before, engulfed her in a hug. He heard her chuckle and soon felt her arms come around him too.

"I can get used to this type of treatment," she said jokingly.

Steve pulled away enough to cup her face. He kissed her deeply, just like he had every single time they'd been together since the battle. "Well you should get used to it because I'm not letting you go again," he told her dead seriously.

She smiled. "You don't have to go to that extreme, Steve. I'm not going anywhere and you still have a job to do."

"My only job is to make sure that you are happy and I can't do that if I'm out on missions."

Seren paused and tilted her head. She was trying to read him but it seemed like the 5 year gap really did change things. "I don't understand," she finally confessed. "And I know I've been saying that a lot lately, I'm sorry."

"These 5 years I have done nothing but remember you. I've thought about all the regrets I had and they were all about you. I regretted not being able to spend more time with you." Steve had actually counted the times he had let her down by cancelling visits or cutting them short. There were too many.

"You did the best you could," Seren said. She meant it and Steve knew it but it wasn't enough. Getting her back was a second chance to do things right.

"I'm going to do better this time," he promised. He wrapped his hands around hers then brought them up between them. He kissed each one then her. "Let's go somewhere quiet and away from everything," he proposed. "Your safe house, a new house, I don't care."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Seren had to pull away from him. He was going too fast and, she feared, with more emotion that logic. "You realize what you're talking about, right? I chose to leave the fighting behind, you don't have to do any of that for me. I'm okay with things being the way they are."

"That's the way it used to be, Seren. Don't you get it?" He shouldn't even ask that. He couldn't blame her for seeing things unchanged. She didn't feel the 5 year gap like him and everyone else who had lived through it. "I spent 5 years without you," he said, going slow this time. "I had to wake up knowing that you weren't here. You weren't waiting for me in that house and you weren't going to sing happy birthday to me nor bake cinnamon rolls for us. Each year, I had a birthday but you didn't. I didn't get to do anything for you. I can't go back to the way things used to be."

"Oh Steve..." Seren could only imagine the levels of frustration and sadness he had to have gone through each day. To live like that every day was no life.

Steve held his hand out for her. She took it without question and allowed him to tug her closer with it. "I can't just go back to the way things were. I don't want to."

Seren nodded. She understood now what he wanted. "But what about...I mean...you're...you. Sweetie, I love you but did you forget who you are? Captain America can't exactly take a permanent break."

An odd smile crossed Steve's face. "I've already taken care of that."

Seren tried figuring him out and her expressions were much too amusing not to laugh at. "I don't get it," she frowned. "You don't—you're Captain America! Hello!"

"I just want to be Steve Rogers," he said so earnestly and instinctively. "And I want to go home with you."

Seren swallowed hard. It was hard not to let out all the excitement she felt at the prospect of being together all the time. "I-I mean...are you sure that's what you want?"

Steve nodded his head within the second. He had nothing else to think about it because he'd made up his mind the moment Scott Lang had introduced the idea of time travelling as a means to restore everything. If he was getting a second chance with Seren, he was going to do things right and appreciate everything that he hadn't the first time.

He pulled Seren into another hug. He would be hugging her every time he got the chance from now on. "Is this okay?" he asked her after a moment. "Me, you...living together?" He had to remember that for Seren time hadn't really passed by. He knew where he was at in terms of their relationship but she was still in the place they'd been 5 years ago.

"Of course," she said, unknowingly relieving those temporary nerves of his. "I could get used to the idea of not wondering whether or not you're safe in your missions. But, um, before we decide where to go...I sort of need you to explain a couple things to me. Oh, and you're meeting my parents." She pulled away enough to look up at him with a big smile on her face.

Steve knew exactly what that conversation was going to entail. "Right..."

~ 0 ~

An hour later, Steve was opening the door of the diner for Seren. She walked right on in and waited for him to take her hand before heading towards the booth where her parents were waiting. They had a lot of clearing up to do from both sides.

"You mean to say that you knew Seren had disappeared first?" Brooks was looking directly at Steve, eyes sharp and slightly filled with betrayal.

"Dad," Seren warned. It'd taken a lot for Steve to come in with her to set things straight.

"It's okay," Steve told her, shrugging his shoulders. "He's right. I did lie."

"But not with bad intentions," Seren said, urging her father with the same sharp look of his to listen. "I know you would've done anything to be close to the last surviving person who knew Mom."

"She got you there," Liana said to her husband.

Brooks sighed. "I guess..."

"I didn't want to lie to you, Brooks, but I couldn't see another way to get in contact with you," Steve explained. "In those early days, I was...things were really dark. You were the last connection I had to Seren; the only other person who would remember her the way I did. Because nobody else was going to remember her."

"Dad, c'mon. You can't be mad at somebody who actually cares this much about me. It would be, frankly, offensive."

"Oh, can't offend your daughter, can you?" Liana decided to help Seren out.

Brooks' face fell flat. "You are incredibly lucky that I've missed you like crazy for 5 years because otherwise I would be very upset you're both ganging up on me."

"That means he's good," Seren said to Steve. She curled her arm around his then rested her head against it. "Which means I can finally have a cinnamon roll."

Steve pressed a kiss to the top of her head. He would want nothing more than that too. He met Brooks' gaze. "I am sorry, Brooks."

Brooks gave a small nod of his head. "I suppose under the circumstances, you did what you felt you had to do." His eyes flickered to his daughter who was smiling. "Besides, I owe you a debt of gratitude for getting my girls back. I just hope one of them decides to stick around...?"

Seren's smile faltered for a moment.

~ 0 ~

It was evening when Seren and Steve left the diner. Both exhausted, they went straight for their hotel room. Since the compound was in deep reconstruction, their living situations were a bit odd.

Seren placed her take-out box on the table. She wasn't able to leave the diner without at least one extra cinnamon roll. She pulled off her coat and folded it slowly before placing it on the table as well.

"Alright Seren, spit it out," she heard Steve say.

Her head flipped in his direction, eyes blinking wide. "Huh?"

Steve smiled at her. He genuinely forgot how easy it was to startle her. He often saw those green eyes get wide. "You've been thinking of something and for some reason, you didn't share it back at the diner."

"Umm..." Seren pursed her lips together. Maybe she had been thinking of something and maybe that something wasn't entirely concrete yet.

"Seren?"

"Yeah?"

"Really?"

Seren sighed. "Okay, fine! I was just thinking of our future and, well..."

"Is this about what I said earlier? Because I get if it's too much—"

"No, no!" Seren waved a hand to stop him. "It's not about that—well, it's related to that but it's about me instead."

"How so?"

"Well, you said you'd come home with me at the safe house in Virginia and I would love nothing more than to live with you, but..." Seren scratched the side of her head. She was really failing to come out with the right words and in the process she was making it sound like she had doubt about them when it was the last thing she could ever have.

Steve could see her heavy struggle. "Okay..." He walked over to her and took her hand, bringing her away from the table. "What is on your mind, Seren Soul?"

"I just...I'm not so sure I want to go back to the safe house anymore," she finally admitted.

It definitely took Steve by surprise. When he thought about living with her, he never really considered the idea that Seren might not want to go back to that house anymore. "Where-where did you have in mind?"

"I'm not sure," Seren chewed on her bottom lip. "I-I mean maybe I do have some ideas? I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologize," Steve chuckled. "If you don't want to go back there, we don't have to."

"But you wanted to—"

"No, I want to go wherever you go. The house is the least of my concerns. Can I ask, though, what brought this up?"

"Umm, a mix of things?" Seren shrugged, still quite unsure herself. "I mean, being back with my parents...knowing how lonely my dad was...I don't want to leave them again. Plus, I feel like after everything, I don't have to go and hide anymore. That's why I did it in the first place—I ran because the world didn't want me. But you know what? Screw the world." She laughed at herself. "I helped save it, the least they can do is let me live near my parents."

Steve laughed out of sheer delight. He'd never heard her talk so proudly of herself and so...happy. He slid his hands over her cheeks and kissed her, muffling her laughter in the process. "Where do you want to go?" He asked afterwards.

"I'm thinking halfway," Seren said, much more open to sharing those thoughts of hers. She moved around him and continued to explain. "I don't really want to live in the city. I did like the peace that came with the safe house. I just don't want to be in the middle of nowhere anymore."

Steve turned with her. "So where does that leave?"

"Hear me out," Seren turned around, hands in front of her, "The towns around New York are quiet and away from the city but still not in the middle of nowhere. We could live in one of them...if you want to?" She brought her hands together as she anxiously waited for Steve to say something.

"I want to," he nodded. He could already envision them in their new home—whatever it looked like—just living together. The mornings where they would wake up together, their shared pastimes, dinners...he wanted that now. "When do you want to go?" He asked and Seren laughed.

"Whenever you want, dear!"

"We can go now!"

Seren laughed more. "What? It's night!"

"And we have a car!"

"But we don't even know what town!"

"Pick one on the map!" Steve walked up to her and since she was still laughing, it was easy to grab her for another hug.

"It's not that easy!"

"Yes it is! Just do the 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe' thing!" He gently swayed them towards the bed. The fact Seren couldn't stop laughing made his heart swell. He really missed these moments and some part of him still couldn't believe that he was getting the chance to make new moments.

"I can't do that!"

"Why not? Did you forget the song?"

"Oh my God, Steve! Take this seriously!"

"I am," he argued, but his big grin made it hard for Seren to believe him.

They dropped on the bed together. Seren looked up at Steve as she finally sobered from her laugh. "Soo...we're doing this? Retiring for real?"

"I think so," Steve said. "Although maybe we can do a couple jobs here and there like, I don't know, your search for the Ghost?"

Seren shrugged. "Oh, who knows, I may never find her. It's been so long now..."

"I tried to search for her, you know. I picked up every one of your papers and I tried to continue it but I was pretty sure she disappeared in the Blip too."

"You looked for her?"

"Of course."

"Why? I know you had plenty more to do during these past years..."

"It was important to you," Steve said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I couldn't save you so I figured maybe I could try to save someone important to you."

Seren smiled softly at him. She cupped his face and leaned up to press a short kiss to his lips. "You are wonderful. I think we can do this one job together." She chuckled suddenly. "And they said that Stardust could never work with Captain America."

"Well, we know that's not true," Steve said. "But I think this one can be just for Seren and Steve, don't you agree?"

Seren hummed. "Yeah, I think so." She leaned up for another kiss. "I love you."

Words Steve thought he would never get to hear again. "I love you," he whispered to her. He captured her lips in a sweet kiss that turned into a second one, then a third one, a fourth...until things just got away from them.

It wouldn't matter. They had all the time in the world now.

P.S. As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"