"Jim!" Arianna cried.
The call had Steve looking up immediately from where he had been staring intently at the manual for a rocking sleeper, to see Arianna scowling as stared down the mess their son had made on her shirt. He smiled as he saw the baby gurgling happily while Arianna sighed as she wiped her shirt with a baby wipe while holding their son down so that he didn't roll off the side of the dresser.
"Are you smiling, Captain?" She asked as she caught sight of Steve's grin, and he raised his hands in surrender.
"Oops, you caught me." He joked, and she threatened playfully as she picked their son up slightly off the changing table: "Don't you dare smile when your son is peeing all over me because you didn't want to change his diapers."
"You're better at it than I am." Steve countered with a laugh as Arianna smoothly wrapped the diaper around their son. "And besides, I changed him earlier and got showered by him too."
Arianna grinned as she finished pulling the diaper on, before picking up little Philip 'Jim' Rogers. She crossed the bedroom to place their son on Steve's lap, where Steve held him carefully as the baby gurgled and tried to reach out to grab the various sleeper parts.
"Watch him while I change my shirt. Again." Arianna called as she walked towards the bathroom, and Steve nodded as he held the baby while simultaneously keeping all the smaller and sharper parts away from the baby's curious hands and therefore mouth.
The six-month old child was now starting to sit up and liked to grab at almost anything in his path. It was fascinating for his parents to watch, particularly as Arianna noted Jim starting to crawl a little as he clumsily tried to go after items of particular interest. This had resulted in the pair egging on their son while moving the object of his affections – usually a rubber toy – further away the closer he got.
The exercise had ended in even more laughs for the parents as Jim, finally getting tired of their continuous game of pulling his toy away, started pounding on the ground and made small angry cries. Arianna had laughed so hard she was almost rolling on the ground while Steve finally relented and handed the toy over to his small man.
Steve still found it hard to believe he was a father, and yet nothing had ever felt more right than seeing his son in his wife's arms, or watching as the baby suckled on his mother's breast for milk, or patting little Jim after a meal so that he could burp. And always, tucking in his son for the night with Arianna by his side.
Steve roused himself from his thoughts as Arianna stepped back out from the bathroom, dressed in a different maternity shirt.
"You know," Arianna commented as she sat down beside Steve and little Jim, "at this rate I'll forget how to wear normal clothes again. Let alone my uniform."
Steve chuckled as he looked at her while Arianna reached over to scoop Jim up. While she technically no longer needed them, she was still wearing a lot of her maternity wear with yoga or workout pants while taking care of their son. It made things easier to wash and move about in, and especially in the early days of breastfeeding.
"You're still beautiful." Steve told her with a small smile, leaning over to give her a chaste kiss.
Arianna smiled into the kiss, cheekily nibbling on his lip as they broke apart and he laughed at her.
"You're going to make my ego grow." Arianna teased him. "If you keep telling me things like that."
"Well, no-one can beat…." Steve trailed off a little before he could finish, and Arianna's gaze turned sad as both lapsed into brief silence.
They hadn't heard from Tony, or any of the other Avengers who had sided with him, since the separation. The only way they knew any of them were doing fairly well was through the various news reports they had been featured in. And the hacking Arianna had managed to do on the CIA. The only one she had yet to find any traces of was Natasha.
According to T'Challa, Nat had disappeared after helping them out at the Berlin airport and had been yet to be heard from. Although, considering they were also on the run, it was possible that Nat had been unable to reach them. Arianna's paranoia – which she had inherited tenfold from Natasha and Clint – meant that virtually no-one was able to get in contact with her or Steve.
Since Jim's birth, they had only notified the Avengers who had been present at the hospital, and T'Challa of their location. And despite Steve's worry that Arianna needed to rest and recover, they had moved safe houses three times in the last half-year, her paranoid insistence having won out every time.
The only time Steve had put his foot down had been when she had tried insisting they move after the first two weeks of Jim's birth. He had firmly refuted and she had been forced to concede when Steve used the worry for Jim's healthy development as a reason. Although, there were no surprises there - it was usually the only thing that worked in convincing the other when these two argued.
"Come on." Arianna said at last, breaking the silence as she scooped up their son. "Let's get him fed and bathed – it's already almost bedtime."
Steve gave her a small smile as he nodded in agreement, getting to his feet with his wife and following as she carried Jim towards the kitchen so that they could cook up some new type of puree. Perhaps they could try carrot and beef this time.
Arianna smiled as she gently tucked her son into the crib, the baby having fallen asleep just minutes earlier. The one thing that both parents were grateful for was how easily and deeply little Jim slept – he would usually pass out at exactly ten o'clock and sleep exactly eight hours to wake up at six in the morning, by which time both his parents were already long awake.
It was definitely a relief not to have to wrestle the child to bed, and then be woken up at every hour of the night. Arianna hadn't been around for Lila's birth, but Clint had told some depressing stories before of lost sleep and… well, Clint had a dirty mouth.
Not that he'd been really upset – if there was ever a daddy wrapped tightly around his daughter's little finger, it was Clint. But even his love for his little princess hadn't stopped him from complaining about how difficult a baby was. And that was even including the fact that he had barely been able to be around to help Laura raise Lila.
Arianna smiled a little as she thought about the Barton family, before she paused as she ran her hand absently along the crib. She touched the crib again, running her hand along the rail as she remembered when Tony had gifted it to her and Steve. Well, not the actual crib – most of their original belongings were still being held in the Avengers facility, excluding the few possessions Wanda and Clint had managed to sneak out with when Clint had 'helped' Wanda escape the facility.
But Tony had given them a gift voucher for anything they might want for the baby, his present to the couple after Arianna revealed her pregnancy. He had privately admitted to Arianna that he would have given them an actual, meaningful gift and not a, to quote, "pathetic piece of plastic that represents a tiny cut of my money". But with his rough patch with Pepper, he had both been going through a lot of stress and lost the only person he trusted to give good advice on such matters. Hence, a gift voucher.
The pair had used it long ago to purchase a crib, and Wanda had recently gone with Steve to sneakily retrieve it. They had no doubt that Tony knew exactly who had taken the crib, but he never mentioned it in interviews or CIA reports, nor had he made any move to stop them.
Steve and Arianna weren't sure what to make of that – did that mean he'd at least understood Steve and Arianna's various decisions after the fiasco in Siberia? Had he read Steve's letter and forgiven them, in some small way, for what had happened? Where did that leave all of them?
There were too many questions and yet no answers. Arianna sighed.
"Thinking about Tony?" Steve asked from behind her.
Arianna smiled a little, nodding as she turned to face Steve as he walked into the small bedroom. Wrapping his arms around Arianna, he kissed the side of her head as she hugged him back, snuggling against his hard chest.
"I just miss him and worry about him sometimes." Arianna murmured and Steve nodded.
"I know." He replied softly, placing his chin on the top of Arianna's head. "I do as well."
They stayed in comfortable silence for the moment, Arianna snuggling in closer to Steve's warm embrace and closing her eyes as she remained in one of the few places in the world where she felt entirely safe – in Steve's arms. Steve rested his head against the top of his wife's, breathing in the familiar scent of lilies while he stared pensively down at the tiny sleeping form of their son in the crib.
It wasn't perfect, not with the worry for their small family, their friends, allies, and the uncertain future for all of the above. And yet, it couldn't be more perfect as Steve kissed the top of Arianna's head once more before leading her quietly out of the room as little Philip James Rogers turned over in his sleep, dreaming innocent dreams.
*A/N Sorry for the long wait and that it's so short! I've been really busy and it's been hard to update with all my other stories going on, but hopefully this small chapter can bring a smile!