Three Years After the Fall of Hydra
James Anthony Carter had his first kiss when he was thirteen years old. It was short and sweet, out on the dock overlooking the lake. It happened approximately forty-five seconds after he realized that Morgan Stark was not actually related to him and his sister.
Kayla thought it was adorable. She said they were just kids having fun while Steve's cheeks turned beat red when Sarah tattled on her brother.
Bucky teased that Howard Stark would have been so proud. Tessa smacked her husband in the gut, shaking her head to warn him to stop talking.
Tony warned it would never happen again, and if anyone brought it up again it would be the last thing they ever discussed.
"Oh Tony, it's fine, they're children." Kayla chuckled from where she leaned against his couch. She ran her hand through her jaw length red hair and let her eyes wander toward the front door. "It's not like they'll get another chance."
"Does she know you're leaving?" Steve questioned, looking up at Tony and Pepper with sad eyes.
Pepper and Tony exchanged a knowing glance and she lowered her head, her strawberry blonde hair falling around her face. Tony cleared his throat and rubbed his red eyes, turning to his friend, "She knows we're talking about it. She knows why. She's seventeen, we can't keep that from her-"
"Why are you leaving?" Steve kept his gaze locked on Tony's seeing the facade of bravery fall away as he started to cry. Steve scrambled to his feet and stood beside Tony as Kayla looked over her shoulder to where Tessa was sitting on the fireplace, watching intently. Steve grabbed onto Tony's upper arms as Pepper raised her head, sniffling back tears. "Tony? What's happening?"
"Pepper, uh, Pep's really sick Cap." Tony managed, looking up at his wife as she forced a brave face. "Heart failure. The doctors are trying everything they can, but... after the Extremis disaster, we don't really know what we're dealing with. It's been over twenty years, we thought we were out of the woods, but I don't think we realized the extent of the damage it did."
Kayla surged forward, looking out the glass door to make sure the kids were still down by the lake. She turned around and Tony sighed, already knowing what the woman was going to say, "I can fix it. You know I can. Let me help you."
Tessa bumped Bucky's arm and motioned toward the door. Bucky looked from his wife to the others and reached down to help up Tessa, "We'll go check on the kids. Make sure they aren't at third base by now."
Kayla shot Bucky a dirty look as Steve looked from his friend to wife, not seeming to register what Bucky had insinuated. With Tessa and Bucky gone, Kayla approached Tony and Pepper, "I know what happened with Extremis, my father saw you there." Kayla breathed, swallowing down the memories of that Christmas Eve. Tony Stark saved her father, even though he had very good reason to save his CEO. "I can fix this."
"Kayla..." Pepper trailed off as Tony rubbed her arms supportively, "I appreciate the offer. I really do... but I've been toyed with enough. I don't want... I don't know what'll happen."
"I've never had bad results." Kayla murmured and Steve lowered his head, understanding what Pepper was insinuating. Kayla looked to her husband, studying the way his blonde hair was looking more and more grey and how his shoulders didn't seem as strong as they once did. "I can save you."
"I watched my husband die." Pepper replied, and Kayla looked up to meet her eyes, red rimmed but confident. "You've done so much for this family. You really have. But sometimes you just have to let nature take its course. This could take years before I go. Let me live out the rest of my life normally."
"But I can save you. You could live-" Kayla argued and Steve finally looked up at his wife. She turned to him, wanting him to agree with her, but he didn't. Kayla deflated a little, shaking her head as her eyes began to well up. "You don't have to die."
"Everybody dies Kayla. It's part of life. You could give me a few more years with your magic serum, but that doesn't mean I'll live forever. I don't want that. Nobody wants that." Pepper explained, taking a step forward and wrapping her slim arms around Kayla. "Morgan is done with school. We're going to travel using the SHIELD nano-mask. We're going to enjoy what time we have left together."
Kayla pressed her face into Pepper's neck and held the woman tightly, feeling the tears slip down her face, "I understand." Kayla's muffled voice pressed into Pepper's blouse. She pulled away and smiled weakly, "We'll miss you all so much. Thank you for everything you've done for us."
"Well, the feeling is mutual. But we want to spend time just the three of us. Go tour Europe. Introduce Morgan to some good looking European men she can make out with. Away from the younger Mr. Rogers." Tony jested, staring at Steve playfully, "He's too young for her."
"I'm gonna miss you too, Tony." Steve replied with a grin and they both looked out the front door to see Tessa walking back up the steps. She opened the door and smiled, waiting to see if it was safe for them to come back in. Steve straightened up and cleared his throat, "So, you said something about steaks on the grill?"
"Yeah, I'll, uh, get dinner started. Give me a hand, Cap?" Tony asked as he broke away from Pepper, leading the blonde man out the front door to the outside grill.
Tessa turned and called for Bucky to bring the kids in for dinner. When Barnes arrived, he bent down and kissed her, holding her to him as she squirmed, "Bucky! There are children present..."
"Could be a few more if we..." Bucky leaned in and whispered into Tessa's ear and she blushed, turning six shades deeper as Sarah pushed open the door and wandered past them. Tessa pulled away quickly and smoothed down her sundress, clearing her throat as she tried not to grin like a schoolgirl.
"Where's your brother?" Kayla called as she grabbed plates from the drawers and began to set the table, already knowing where everything's place was. When Sarah didn't answer, Kayla stared at her daughter a little longer, noticing the twelve-year-old's face was pinker than normal, "Where's James?"
"James, we have to go in for lunch." Morgan laughed as James kissed her again, deeper this time as they sat on a log out of view of the cabin. She didn't seem to mind, leaning into him as she grabbed onto his shaggy hair to keep him close. "I can't believe my first kiss is with a child."
"Screw you. I'm thirteen." James hummed into her and she giggled, pressing her hand to his chest. She nipped at his lower lip for a moment, then pushed him away panting. James looked at the older girl hungrily, but his wolfish grin vanished when he realized Morgan was crying, "What's wrong?"
Morgan's breath was shaky as she exhaled, finding her composure, "I'm leaving... we're leaving." She admitted, looking up at James as he stared down at her. Despite the four year age difference, James had grown slightly taller than his childhood friend. Morgan was well aware of her father's theory that the super soldier serum aged the boy faster than the average human. Morgan was also very aware that Steve and Kayla worked very hard to convince their son that he wasn't different. As much as she hated to admit it, and knew her father would despise it, Morgan found Captain America's son quite handsome. That made her feel even more guilty when his perfect smile melted into pure devastation.
"You're... leaving? Where are you going? How long will you be gone?" James stammered, looking up to see his mother standing on the porch looking for him.
Morgan ran her fingers through her hair as she huffed, leaning over to place her elbows on her knees, "We're going to travel Europe, I believe. Dad wants me to get out and see the world. I don't really know how long we'll be gone." Morgan began to cry a little hard and James put his arm around her, pushing her hair behind her ear to look at her face. She wavered a bit before adding, "My mom's dying."
At that, James wrapped both his arms around her and let her cry into her chest, unsure of what to say to the mourning girl who'd stolen his heart.
As the sun began to set, Kayla and Steve rounded up their kids to go home. Bucky and Tessa had bailed out after lunch, feeling like it was no longer their place to spend the last bit of time with the Starks. Sarah's lip quivered as Morgan pulled her into a fond hug. Sarah buried her face in Morgan's chest, overwhelmed with grief, "I'm so sorry Morgan. I'm so sorry."
Morgan pulled away and smiled at the younger girl, "It's going to be okay. We'll be okay. And we'll see you again someday. I know we will."
"Not if you keep sneaking into the woods with that boy, you won't." Tony barked at his daughter, feigning anger, but Morgan just grinned in response.
"Yes, Dad." She answered coyly, but her eyes were locked onto James. She brought herself back to reality long enough to give Kayla and Steve each a hug, feeling her heart sink as she realized what came next. She turned to see Kayla crying into her mother's blouse, but trying really hard to keep it together. With a wobbly lip, Kayla offered Tony a one armed hug then stormed away to the passenger side of the pickup truck.
Steve turned to Tony and they each let out a sigh. Steve nodded, shoving his hand out to shake Tony's. The shorter man responded by grabbing it and pulling Steve into a tight hug, which the blonde returned. "Take care, Tony."
As they pulled away, Tony nodded, mumbling "yeah" under his breath. He forced a weak smile, then turned to his daughter, "Make it snappy. Leave room for Jesus. If I see any contact above or below the waist, I'm sending you to boarding school until you are eighty."
Despite his threats, Tony turned away and grabbed Pepper by the arm, giving his daughter and the boy a chance to say goodbye. Sarah leaned in between the front seats to get a good view past her parents. Steve fiddled with his keys to start the truck, but Kayla watched her son like a hawk.
"Why does Uncle Tony hate James so much?"
"He doesn't hate James." Kayla snorted easily, "He just sees so much of your father in him."
Sarah considered this, "Okay, why's that a bad thing?"
"It's not. He's just being protective. Just wait until you start dating, if you start dating... You think Tony's protective-" Steve started, but Sarah turned away from her father and Kayla just shook her head and mouthed 'no'.
"There's still a lot of time before we have to worry about that. For either of them." Kayla responded, nodding toward James and Morgan at the hood of the truck, "He'll be pining for quite some time I feel."
James leaned against the grill of his dad's truck, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as Morgan stared at him, "I don't want you to go."
"I know, but it'll be good. I'll get to see the world- you know how long I've wanted this. You got to tour Europe-"
James chuckled a little, lowering his head and causing his blonde hair to fall across his eyes, "Yeah, I was ten and it was stupid. Don't go. Stay."
Morgan sighed loudly, her lips twisting instinctively as she thought about kissing him again, one last time, "It's not my choice to make. My family is everything I am. They are all I have. That includes you, which I'd like to point out that up until several hours ago, you thought I was your cousin."
"Did you know?" James asked her quickly, and Morgan felt like she was talking to someone much older. His voice was deeper and his gaze more even, less erratic than the hyperactive boy she used to play with as a child. She bit her tongue as she realized where the tone came from- he sounded like the old videos Tony had of his father.
"Yes." She raised her chin and looked him in the eyes, "I've known for a really long time. Things are complicated, but they are the way they are for a reason. Just accept that, okay?"
Morgan turned to walk away then, knowing if she didn't go now, she may never leave. She had the weight on the world on her shoulders, because she'd spent ten years lying to her only real friends. She rejoined her parents and looked over her shoulder to see James get into the backseat. Tony clenched her shoulder supportively and pulled her into his side as Pepper rubbed her back. Morgan didn't cry though. She knew she'd see them again someday.