Author's Note: If anyone was wondering where Steve & Tony stood, while I'm a big Stony shipper, for the purposes of this I kept them as close friends. Close enough that Tony would still feel comfortable sharing his personal thoughts with Steve. Here we are at the end! Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! Not gonna lie, the subject of this chapter was the main reason I wanted to write this in the first place.
"Hey there, Queens."
Peter turned around.
"Oh hey, Captain Rogers," he said without enthusiasm.
It was a few months after the Reversal of the Snap and the final battle with Thanos, and Tony had invited everyone up to his lake house. It was almost like a family reunion of sorts, as most of them hadn't seen much of each other since then. At one point Steve noticed Peter sitting off by himself at the end of the dock by the lake. He didn't appear to be doing anything besides staring out over the water. Steve went down to the end of the dock to find out if there was something troubling him.
"Mind if I join you?" Steve asked. Peter just shrugged, not really caring what Steve did. Seeing as how Peter didn't out right tell him to leave, Steve took that as a positive sign and lowered himself down next to Peter. "What are you doing over here by yourself?" He did his best to keep his tone light, so as not to cause any undue tension.
"Just…thinking, I guess," was the quiet response.
"About what? If you feel like you want to tell me that is." Personal discussions with Peter were usually Tony's realm, so Steve didn't want the kid to feel pressured to open up.
Peter opened his mouth to start to say something, then gave a deep sigh. "I don't even know if I should be complaining to you about it. I mean, five years is nothing compared to almost seventy, right?"
Ah, so that was it.
"The amount of time doesn't make what you're going through or your feelings about it any less valid," Steve said as he tried to reassure him. "Five years is still going to be hard to adjust to. A lot can happen in five years."
Peter snorted derisively. "Yeah, tell me about it. Mr. Stark's moved out here, he's got his own family to worry about, May's with Happy, half of my old high school class is now in college, and I barely know anyone from the 'new' half. I guess…I guess I don't know where I fit in anymore."
Steve was all too familiar with that feeling. "When I first came out of the ice I felt detached, like I was an outsider just observing everyone else."
Peter nodded. "It's not even just that, but it's like everybody moved on and left me behind. It's not like I wanted everybody to stay miserable!" Peter added quickly, "It's just…" He sighed again in frustration, not being able to find the words to explain.
"You wonder if they moved on so much that they don't need you anymore."
"Yeah," Peter agreed as his eyes grew wide with realization.
Steve nodded in understanding and thought for a minute. He wanted to make sure his response made sense. "You know how we ended up time traveling to get the stones back, right?" Peter nodded. "Well, while Tony and I were in the past, I came across someone I had been close to before I went in the ice. She had gotten married, had a family. But I found she still kept a picture of me on her desk. She moved on, but she never forgot."
"Was that Agent Carter?"
Steve smiled wistfully. "It was." Steve didn't want to admit how tempted he had been to stay in the past with her after he put the Infinity Stones back in their proper places. "When I got out of the ice, nearly everyone I knew from that time was either dead or very old. My friends, my colleagues, all of them, lived out the rest of their lives without me. That was an awful realization to come to, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I was…pretty lonely for a long time. But, it was all history by the time I found out about it. You? You'll have face the changes in your personal life head on. It may be a learning process to find ways to adjust. But you have something I didn't. You have the opportunity to be part of their lives again."
"That's even if I have a part in their lives again," Peter said, still sounding unsure. Steve could sympathize. He had no idea how he would have handled it if he had been found five years after he went in the ice and had to face Peggy being married to someone else. And who knows if he ever would have found out what had happened to Bucky?
"I would bet you my entire Army back pay that you do," Steve said with a knowing smile.
"How did you deal with it?"
"I'm not gonna sugar-coat it, it was rough. I tried to take things in, but it was so much to absorb all at once. At the beginning I spent a lot of time hanging out in the gym, destroying all of SHIELD's punching bags. The whole fight with Loki and the formation of the Avengers kind of forced me back into the world in a way. It also let me know I still had a purpose. That I wasn't just some leftover antique that you took out and dusted off for special occasions." Steve paused. "I also took a lot of comfort in the things that hadn't changed, no matter how small."
Peter considered that for a moment. "Well, I'm still Spider-man, that hasn't changed. And Ned and MJ got snapped too, so I didn't miss anything with them."
"That's two big things right there." Steve said encouragingly.
"I think I get how you must have felt not knowing about any current stuff," Peter said, slightly changing the subject. "You know I missed two Star Wars movies? And that Mandalorian series?"
Steve had to laugh. "Catching up on all the pop culture? Now that is going to be an exercise in prioritization! You remember how I had a list?"
"Yeah, how long did it take you to get through it?"
"I'll let you know when I do." Steve laughed again at Peter's shocked expression. "It seemed like whenever I was able to cross something off, two more things would get added. Eventually I stopped adding everything I was told about and only checked out the things I thought would interest me." Steve grinned, knowing the irony of what he was about to say. "That Mandalorian series by the way? You should put that on your list."
"What? Oh my god, now Captain America's seen more Star Wars than I have."
"In my defense, I mainly watched it because two of the characters reminded me of people I knew. The good news is you should be able to watch through it in a weekend or two." Steve grew serious again as he realized how surreal this whole situation was. Until now only Bucky came close to having a similar experience as him, but now half the world was in the same boat. "Have you mentioned any of this to your aunt or Tony?"
Peter's face fell. "Well, no. I just don't want to make this any harder for them than it already is. I mean, I know they went through some stuff too. I don't want them to worry about me on top of everything else."
"I have a feeling they worry about you anyway, especially now."
Before Peter could respond, a familiar voice called out to them. "Well there's my Spiderling!" Tony Stark said as he strode down the dock toward them, his metal arm glinting in the sun. "And Capsicle! I was wondering where you two chuckleheads had wandered off to."
Steve smiled. "Hey Tony. Peter and I were just talking about you, among other things."
"Oh yeah?" Tony responded as he lowered himself down to sit near them. "Anything you'd care to share with the class?"
Peter seemed hesitant to say anything. Steve gave Peter a pointed look as if to say, Here's your chance. He moved to get up and leave the two of them to talk but Peter stopped him. "Oh, you don't have to go, Captain Rogers."
Steve looked between Peter's hopeful expression and Tony, who was surprisingly quiet, but no less curious to see what Steve would do. "Tell you what, how 'bout I sit over here?" as he gestured to the other side of the dock, "Gives you both a little space, but I'll still be within earshot." He moved to the other side, allowing Tony to shift closer to Peter. Steve watched Tony put his arm around the kid. Tony spoke in a soft tone that Steve had only ever heard him use with Peter and later with Morgan.
"So what's been eatin' ya, Underoos? I had a feeling something was up…"