Chapter Two: Blue

"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form."

― Rumi

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Steve asked Tony, his voice full of unease. "I mean, you were the one who was hesitant about doing any of this in the first place."

The couple, consisting of two of the world's most well known superheroes, was sitting on the couch in Stark Towers, about to take the next big step forward in their relationship. The two had been together ever since the incident with Loki and the Chitauri, only becoming married a year later. Another year had passed until Steve had felt that something was missing from their happy relationship: a child. The patriotic soldier proposed the idea to a reluctant Tony, only recently giving in to his husband's desire.

The agency had set them up with a young girl around four years old. All they had to do was confirm the placement transaction and bring the girl home into their loving arms. After the child lives with them for approximately half of a year, they will be able to finalize the adoption.

Steve looked away from the pile of papers sitting in front of them on the coffee table to glance at an unusually silent Tony, who was absentmindedly staring into the blank wall across the room.

"Tony," he said a little louder.

The man jumped in his seat, his reverie suddenly interrupted at the sound of Steve's stern voice. "Hm, sorry, Cap, what did you say?" He scrambled comically to put his hands behind in head in an attempt to appear relaxed, pretending that the exhibition of his anxiety didn't just happen.

Steve sighed. "This." He flapped the transaction form in front of his partner's face. Tony blinked.

"This single piece of paper holds the fate of our future in its writing," Steve went on. "After we sign it, the future of our complete family will be officially set in stone. I realize that you are not 100% with me on this, but it means alot to me. I need you to not blank out on me, okay?" He unsuccessfully attempted to catch Tony's gaze, who had reassumed a normal position and purposely looked anywhere except his husband's eyes.

They sat in silence for a moment.

Steve loved his husband, knew him so unbelievably well. He remembered when he had first brought up the subject of adoption to Tony, who had proceeded to stop whatever it was he was working on in the basement, turn around, and stare in utter surprise at his partner. They had talked, even argued excessively about the decision. Steve had begun to regret proposing such an idea. Then one day, Tony finally gave in. Steve never figured out what changed his mind, but he'd bet his money that Natasha was responsible. The usually quiet yet violent woman was known to occasionally show a soft side. Of course, she'd tie you up and send you on the nearest train to hell before she'd let you share that thought out loud.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, Steve was ready to get up and continue the conversation another time when he heard it.

"I'm sure."

Startled, the blonde haired soldier turned to look at the man seated next to him. A smile slowly began to run across his face. "What did you say?"

Tony's eyebrows were furrowed together in deep determination, causing the man to look serious, a rarity. However, the moment only existed briefly. He looked at Steve, cocked his head toward the side, and grinned that devilish grin of his.

"Let's fucking do this, shall we, Cap?"

~A few days later~

Steve sat hunched over dejectedly on the chair, staring at the empty child-sized bed in front of him.

Everything had happened so quickly. Too quickly for him to completely comprehend. He didn't remember much, despite the fact that only an hour had passed; everything had started to become fuzzy, his mind clouded by disappointment and shock. But what he could recall appeared impossibly clear in his mind. He remembered the phone call. Every exact word uttered by the woman on the other line, delivering the bad news. He remembered Tony slamming the door on his way out. Knowing Tony exceptionally well, Steve assumed he probably went to get drunk at a club or something.

"Hello, is this Mr. Rogers-Stark? My name is Avery and I'm with the adoption agency."

"Yes." Steve was puzzled. Tony had told him that they already called to confirm the delivery of their paperwork. "May I ask why you're calling, ma'am?"

Steve sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Steve."

The soldier slowly turned his head to look at the woman in the door. After recognizing the slim figure through his blurred vision, he looked away to gaze silently on the pink carpeted floor.

"I apologize for the abruptness of this news, but the child's mother refused to sign the transaction papers. She cancelled the entire adoption. However, there is good news."

Steve shut his eyes. "I'm fi-"

"No," Natasha cut off, her voice hard as steel. "Don't you darepull that crap on me, Rogers. It won't work." Her voice softened. "I heard what happened with the girl. I just came by to see if you were okay." She walked across the room and sat on the bed.

Steve scoffed. "I'm anything but okay. I get it, she wanted her kid back, but we were so prepared, so ready, so..." He cleared his dry throat. "It was all set in stone. Tony and I were supposed to travel to Vietnam on Tuesday. Then from out of nowhere, the mother decided that she didn't want to let her go even though she probably can't afford to feed the poor girl in the first place. So everything was cancelled." He clenched his fists.

Natasha stayed silent.

"The bright side is that they're assigning us with another kid."

The red-haired woman raised an eyebrow. "Already? How did they find another little kid so quickly?"

"Teenager," Steve corrected.

Natasha's expression didn't give away her surprise, but the soldier could tell that the news shocked her nonetheless. "A teenager? They're replacing your adoption of a four year-old Vietnamese girl with a teenager? How old?"

"Seventeen. They just want us to be his official guardians until he becomes an adult in ten months. He actually lives here in the city. Poor kid - lost his parents at six in a plane crash, uncle was shot a few months ago, and just recently his aunt in that fight between Spider-man and the Lizard."

Natasha whistled. "Damn. Wish we could have been there to help the newbie fight that thing off. Loki teaming up with the frost giants and attacking Asgard, the mudak," she cursed.

She stood up and walked toward the door before pausing halfway in the doorway. The red-haired agent slightly turned to look at Steve. "What's the kid's name?"

The soldier turned away from her and looked outside the window at the cityscape, car lights in the distance blazing and horns blaring.

"His name is Peter Parker."

Thought I should mention right here and now that I'm a slow writer, hence the late update and another short chapter. I apologize in advance. I'll try to make the next chapter much longer.

Also I changed my pen name in case you forgot who I was.

P.S. - mudak means bastard in Russian