"Easy miss, I've got you.

'If you've got me, then who's got you?'"

- Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane

(Christopher Reed and Margot Kidder, Superman, 1978)


"No way we all get through this," Stark echoes. "If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. It's gonna be blood on the floor."

Steve stares at him, his next words tittering at the edge of his tongue. He wanted to tell Stark that that would be no issue; tomorrow or next week - he had no plans. Just to end this menace and preserve the world once more - that was all he had propelling him through the present: to protect the future.

However, standing in the hallway with nothing but the slate gray walls separating them from everyone else, he can't help but wonder if those words he had wanted to say were true. Plans? He never had them, could never promise to fulfill any - but in his way stands one woman who makes him want to try one more time. To see what the future would hold. Of course, he doesn't tell her this because he still isn't sure of his feelings.

This wonderful, beautiful and powerful woman before him deserved more than maybes and thin oaths.

But she makes him want to try one more time. The attraction is there. Somewhere. He just has to act on it. Acknowledge it.

"I got no plans tomorrow night," he says without a stammer. Steve can almost feel his past-self applaud at him for not stumbling over his words.

Diana catches his eye, a glimmer of mirth twinkling in the lowlights of the corridor. "Neither do I," she adds. "When all of this is over…"

"If it is ever really over," she trails off for Steve. Steve who is too enraptured by her beauty in the prosthetic lights of Stark Tower. Her long lashes flutter as her eyes sweep up to meet his to address the sudden silence.

Steve clears his throat and crosses his arms across his chest. "I'd like to think it does have an end," he supplies. "The good always in the end, doesn't it?" he says, not expecting a reply. Or maybe he is, as his gaze lingers on the glaze washing over her eyes. But just as quickly as he sees the waves of sadness appear, they dissipate with a bat of her eyelids.

"It does," she agrees quietly. "In some way, with some sacrifice - it does."

Catching that their conversation is drifting away from his goal, Steve straightens his back. "Diana," he begins, slightly flinching at the volume of his voice. "What happened back there, at Clint's house I -"

"Overstepped some boundaries," Diana finishes for him.

Steve shakes his head. "No, no you didn't," he continues before she can bury the moment for his sake. "I had as much responsibility over what happened as much as you did and I -" his voice falters as a different woman with a different visage appears in front of Diana.

Say it, Steve.

His fingers dig into his biceps. "I - I don't regret it," he stumbles over his words.

Say it, Steve. Head held high -

A voice. So old and long lost that Steve almost forgets who it belongs to; a dress' frayed hemline and the scent of readymade food overwhelm his senses.

Saturday. At the Stork Club.

A worn locket, the hot sand of a training camp flying and burning into his eyes.

"Steve," a sad smile stops the fog from overtaking him. He looks up - at Diana. "I can wait," she says.

Steve squeezes his eyes closed as he feels her light touch ghost across his arm as she leaves him.

However, Steve doesn't have long to wallow in his lost moment as the Maximoff twins approach him from the other end of the hallway. The girl, Wanda, remains quiet, but her stare makes his skin crawl enough to understand that a little conversation with her would unravel the events that had just taken place between him and Diana. So he remains mute, and maybe a bit peeved as both past by him and the boy, Pietro, smacks his arm and tells him, "to hurry up old man."

He takes a breath to remind himself that they are on his side, but also makes a note to keep Barton as far away as possible from the male Maximoff. Their initial meeting had already cost the marksman's probability of giving Pietro a second chance and Steve needed to keep the team barter and actual fighting down to the maximum minimum.

Or maybe he shouldn't have done that. Staying attentive to the team's COMM, he hears the shouts of the other members as they demand each other for the status of Clint, Diana, and Pietro. Heart beating furiously against his chest, Steve takes one last look around the clearing to make sure no civilian had been behind as he keeps most of his focus on the ongoing conversation. Having evacuated most of the civilians off to SHEILD's rescue ship, Barton had sounded off heading towards along with Pietro. They had been heading off to battlefield - to safety - but Pietro had taken a turn. Saw a kid in the line of fire and ran.

Afterward, they all heard Clint curse as Natasha alarmingly asked him on his status. Steve is too far to see anything but then he hears Diana's name being called out through the COMM and then he too was running.

Now staring.

Dust and debris make a maze in the jet's aftermath, but they are of little concern to him. Diana. She has to be safe, his eyes search madly through the mess of the attack.

"Come on, Captain," Natasha calls, forcing his eyes to drag themselves back to the carrier.

A flash of silver, gold, and black both rushing and collapsing onto an empty area of the ship make him breathe again.

Pietro seems to be alive. He is harmed, some bullets have painted their trails on him and Diana's skin but they look better off than his worst assumptions. While Diana is shaken, bleeding - Pietro is worse. He is actively losing blood but when Steve squints his eyes, he sees that Diana has already attempted to arrest the bleeding by cutting off the circulation to the worst areas of his body as Clint carries the child over to an empty row of seats.

Although, it is not over.

As Steve reunites with everyone, Thor makes note that Vision is missing; Natasha supplies that he had last been seen In the forest with Ultron, or a shadow of what him after Thor's and Wanda's combined attack, but something else had trespassed into the area and blocked the communication link. No matter what she or SHIELD try to do, contact with Vision remains obsolete.

Frowning at the delegated news, Steve stalks over to Clint and Diana, a tin canister of biomedical foam and water in hand. Patting Clint's shoulder in passing, he drops to his knees by Diana and pours the water over Pietro's open wounds. In reply, the boy groans but Steve ignores the sound as he takes over his care and presses the nozzle by one of the holes in his skin. With a press of a button, a cold foam fills in the hole and staunches the bleeding. Pietro hisses and Diana glances worriedly at the creases on his forehead. Lifting a bloodied hand, she pushes back the fringes of his dyed hair as Steve finishes sealing off all his major wounds.

"It's a prototype.." Steve tells Diana as he helps her move Pietro to the remaining section of Clint's row of unoccupied seats.

"Stark?" Diana asks, looking over the emptied canister. Steve puts it aside as he shakes his head.

"No, Dr. Helen Cho's work," Steve answers as Natasha floods their earpieces again.

"-Vision is fighting someone else. He's somewhere by the forest line, if any of you -"

Steve watches Diana look around. He comes to the same conclusion as her when her eyes don't see Thor and before he can step forward to offer help - hold her back, she flies off the carrier.

"Natasha -" Steve starts.

"Already on it, Steve," the assassin cuts off. "I've got a cam on her and Thor will be good to go soon - he's just helping Wanda."

As the carrier settles itself onto the larger helicarrier, Steve only takes a second to commandeer a group of medics to head over to Pietro. Once satisfied that the boy would get the proper help he needs versus some experimental foam, he strides over to the command center to watch the cam's feed. Natasha shoots a sharp glance at him before handing off the seat to him and excusing herself from the room. Steve doesn't put much thought into her sudden departure as he stares at the screen's newest project: darkness.

There is no other way to describe it.

The formless foe floods a majority of the field greeting Diana as she sails over it and Vision. Abandoning her lasso for her gauntlets, she crashes each golden bracelet into each other to create a force of some sort that forces Vision to flee for cover and the darkness to hug the forest floor like spilled ink.

Unsurprisingly, it reforms into an amoeba-like structure and goes after Vision, who has returned to the ground. He fights it off, but it is strong and massless. It almost overwhelms him but Diana comes to his aid and performs another sonic wave against it. Unable to let his comrades fight alone, Steve calls in and joins the fight, but the shadows run as quickly as he is able to join them on the ground.

"What was that?" Steve asks, looking between Vision and Diana.

"Darkness," both of them. She looks off at the manmade being before she continues. "It wants the Infinity Stone."

"That thing?" Steve rubs the grime on his forehead as he tries to recall Thor's earlier explanation of the gem. However, their communications lines are still on and Thor has overheard them. Grimly, he cuts into the conversation.

"Return here and I will explain."

And explain Thor did. Scrubbing the side of his face, Steve vaguely makes a note that a shave would soon be due as he walks through the relatively silent corridors of the helicarrier. After SHIELD had safely seen to the return of the rescued civilians to various nearby towns, they are now being escorted back to whatever site Tony had passed onto Fury.

"Will it be safe there?" Steve asks him. Tony shrugs, the action forcing a wince that both silently ignore, as he turns to the plethora of empty desks beyond the helicarrier's main platform.

"Have I ever done you wrong?" he retorts, eyes darting about until they land on one desk. "I need to call someone now, Captain so -"

Steve had already bowed his head and turned on his heel to leave.

That someone of Tony is doubtlessly Pepper Potts. A person he could go back to. Steve shakes his head and stops walking, finding that his feet have landed him in the medical bay. He scans the glass-walled area, and aside from a resting physician, no one is around.

Until the doors of the attached bathroom hiss open - startled, Steve looks up and almost steps back as Diana comes out of the room - battle regalia replaced by the dark colors of SHIELD's uniform and a white tank top. She hesitantly smiles at seeing him; Steve's feet remain in place as he takes her whole being in.

Her lightly tanned skin sports no bullet wounds, but bruises splatter her arms in random places and tiredness lines her eyes; her hair is down, wild and untamed from the typical hairstyles she had sported before. Back to a time long when she and he were just strangers.

"Are you hurt anywhere..?" Diana brings his attention back to her eyes as she stops half-a-foot away from him. Slowly returning to reality, Steve shakes his head.

"Nothing I can't take," he affirms.

Diana raises one eyebrow making Steve realize that with his broad frame, he easily blocks the exit of the medical bay. However, he can't bring himself to move. Keeping his gaze locked with hers, his whispered name goes by unnoticed as he lifts a hand to tuck in a strand of her hair.

Diana doesn't retract from his touch and that gives Steve all the fleeting confidence he needs to close the space between them.

Gently, because he does not want the moment to break, he touches his lips against hers - asking, apologizing, and returning all at once; Diana seems to understand the motives of his motion, and returns his kiss with the same fervor as him. If at all possible, she closes the remaining empty spaces between them and flushes her body right against his and together, they cling onto the fragile moment between them. Steve's chest swells with a feeling he hesitates to identify as his attention is overwhelmed by the movement of her soft lips against his own; delicate, complete and restrained - Steve finds himself wanting to give more but before he can, Diana pulls away - his head almost seeming to follow hers as her slow, smile reappears on her face.

She remains in his arms, eyes cast down as Steve rests his head on hers. "I want to do this right, Diana," he tells her after a while, his voice beckoning her eyes to meet his. Once those dark orbs meet his blue, he continues. "I know I have a long way to go, but I want this - I want you," he corrects himself. "But I can't, I don't think I even can just jump into what you want for us. I need time, and I -"

Diana cuts him off with a quick peck on his lips. "I understand, Steve," she replies as he stares at her questioningly. "And that is why I told you I can wait."

Steve's lips comically almost form a circle in realization as Diana softly chuckles and grins at his mind's ability to finally make the connection. Seeing her untroubled and unhindered happiness, Steve can only smile back until someone starts applauding from behind him.

"Well, finally -" Natasha teasingly smirks at the two as Steve disappointedly lets Diana go. Despite himself, he can feel the tips of his ears heat up as the woman pushes herself off the wall. "I didn't know if I would be able to stand seeing Steve following you like a puppy -"

Steve frowns. "I do not -"

Natasha raises a hand. "Um, yes you do. Since Diana returned, you've done nothing but follow her around and did you see your face when she went to rescue Pietro?" Natasha turns to Diana. "He looked like he was the one that got shot, not you."

Diana takes Natasha's teasing in goodnaturedly as Steve's eyes instantly shoot over at Diana once again. "You got shot? I mean I saw you had scratches but -"

Diana touches his arm. "I heal fast, Steve."

"She's Wonder Woman, Steve - Miss Demi-Goddess, endless stamina and super strength and all that, or did you forget that?" Natasha pipes in. "If anything that means you two will have the time of your lives in be -"

"Ah, how is Pietro, Natasha?" Diana stops the other woman from voicing out her line of thinking. While Diana seems to have gotten used to the crude humor passed around by the others, Steve hasn't and is thankful for her intervention.

Natasha catches on and merely laughs. "He'll be fine, Clint's been hovering over him like a mother hen," she agreeably stops. "Anyway, I spoke to Fury. We'll be awhile, two days I think, before we touchdown at Tony's old man cave. Think you'll hog my girl for the whole trip, Captain?"

Steve sputters as he quickly shakes his head. "I - no, but -"

"Good, cause I need her. Now. Diana?" Natasha turns to Diana and mockingly raises the crook of her elbow at the other woman. Diana nods her head as she once again touches his arm to say goodbye.

"I'll see you later, Steve," she says as she follows the other woman out.

Steve can only nod as he watches their two figures disappear at the turn of the hallway. Unfortunately, Natasha speaks loud enough for him to hear their conversation.

"- he say he wants to do right by you?...You do know what time he was raised in, right and how old-fashioned he is?"

Steve groans as he forces himself to turn around and walk the other way. He doesn't want to even imagine the endless conversations those two will have about him, and thankfully, he doesn't have the energy to. Heading towards the barracks of the carrier, Steve steals for himself a whole room and falls flat onto the bed. As sleep overtakes him, he reasons that he and Diana would have enough time to themselves later on to fully explore the future of their relationship.

Although, in a few days, he realizes that that line of thinking is only assumable if she stays with him. And as she and Thor stand before him, with the latter's grin testing all his self control, he also realizes how impossible that would be. To keep her by his side. Ignoring Thor's teasing aura, Steve motions for Diana to follow him.

""Do you have to go?" Steve steals her away from Thor's knowing grin. While he knows the god can hear them and while Steve would like nothing more than to throw him into another plane of the universe, he is running on limited time and he would not spend it on anything else but trying to ask the woman in front of him to stay. He desires for a futile future, knowing her drive lay beyond them, but he could hope and ask for one more time.

Diana smiles and cups his cheek. Steve automatically leans into her touch and Diana runs a thumb across his cleanly-shaven skin. "I will be back," she says, voice not wrought with an echo of false promise. The tables have turned on Steve, but he reminds himself that this is a different time and woman. While both are strong and resilient, Diana holds a different fire and warmth within her than Peggy. Where Peggy stood cunning and brilliant like the moon, Diana burns in a different sort of light - like the sun - hot, strong, and persistent. But she always did, into his thoughts and actions - she influenced him in a constant way, a good way. She stood as a light he wanted to both be and protect. And sometimes, he lets out a sigh as he stares at the woman in front of him. And sometimes he would just have to a little bit more selfless; who is he to keep the sunlight to himself?

"I'll hold you to that, then," he finally agrees. He places a hand over hers and grips it tightly. "You stay safe, listen to Thor or -" he chances a glance at the god. "Don't listen to him," he corrects himself. The god of thunder has a likening to rushing in to situations without thought more often than he would have liked and -

"I will do my best, Steve," Diana laughs, stopping his wayward thoughts from delving into how brutish the other man could act. "But I will return. You have my word."

Steve turns his head and presses a kiss into her palm before he lets her hand go. "Okay," he says, knowing that her mission holds more priority over them, him - everyone. She had said sacrifices were needed for good to win, and if time between them is one of them - he could wait a little longer.

"Okay." He repeats.

He would not ask her for anything more.

Deciding that standing with her any longer would only delay her return to him, he leads her back to Thor who has finally discarded his grin for his commonplace smile - Stark right by his side.

Steve braces himself for another bout of endless teasing, but fortunately, Tony is already invested in his conversation with the god of thunder.

"-can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone. It's safe with the Vision and these days, safe is in short supply." Thor nods at them at their return.

"But if you put the hammer in an elevator…" Steve grins.

"It would still go up," Tony replies.

"Elevator's not worthy," Steve argues goodnaturedly. From the side, he sees Diana smiling at their conversation as Thor chuckles.

"I'm going to miss these little talks of ours," he comments.

Tony drops his glasses to the edge of his nose as he peers up at the taller man. "Not if you stay."

Thor sighs. "I have no choice," he gestures at Diana. "The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That is not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us - all of us," he adds, remembering their newest addition to the team. "But once all these pisces are in position…"

"Triple Yahtzee?" Tony supplies, staving off the inevitable.

Steve shakes his head as he places his hands on his hips. "You think you two can figure out what's coming?" He glances between them. While the team has handled more than enough of the extraordinary, they are still human - aside from now Vision, only Diana and Thor have experience dealing with what they considered the unknown.

"We will," Thor reaffirms for both him and Diana. "Besides, this one," he shrugs over at Tony who takes the cue with pride, " - there is nothing that cannot be explained."

Steve opens his mouth to reply, but with a quick extension of his arm, both he and Diana are gone, an intricate mark lying in their wake.

Beside him, Tony grimaces. "That man has no regard for lawn maintenance," he stamps a foot over one burnt line. "I'm gonna miss him though," he admits. "And you're probably gonna miss her more than any of us."

Steve drops his arms. "I will miss you too, Tony," he says as the other man steers them back towards his car.

"Yeah?" he echoes. "Well, it's time for me to tap out. Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book and build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up."

"The simple life," Steve smiles as Tony stops walking.

The older - or is he younger? Steve can't be bothered to find out where his age stood amongst the others as Tony gives him an all-too familiar look. "You'll get there one day."

Steve looks to the side - at the new base and the burned marks of Thor's and Diana's departure; nostalgia and wonder war inside him.

"Maybe," Steve finally says. Family, stability? Steve doesn't know if the guy who wants it is still inside him, but someone there is. Someone who wants to start again with maybe different but still similar dreams.

"You alright?" Tony cuts into his musings.

Steve lets out a deep breath.

"I'm home."


Author's Note: Thank you for the past reviews! They all bring a smile to my face, and welcome to the ship for those new to it! (i.e. cohn3!) I'm glad I can serve you guys a taste of it through my writing.

So we've closed the chapter on Age of Ultron and Civil War is next. Like I said, I've my exam to study for and now also, a few outlining to do for this upcoming segment because Steve is a fickle man and I thought he wouldn't do things as I originally planned but alas - in some way he did get to what I had.

So I'll hopefully update next month as per my outlined schedule on my profile; if anything changes please refer to it as I keep that page updated! Hope you liked this most recent one and stay well!