A chill runs up his spine and he wakes up. The room is dark and he shivers, feeling cold. He buries himself deeper in the blankets and tries to fall back asleep.

—

"How are you feeling?" The nurse asks him in the morning, "you look a little pale."

Steve yawns, "I don't know. I kind of feel cold."

The nurse's eyes glance at the thermostat that displays the temperature. It reads 78.

"Hmm." She steps closer and places a gentle hand on his forehead. Her mouth sets into a line and she forces a smile. "I'll have the doctor stop by in a bit to check on you."

Steve nods. He knows what a fever feels like.

—-

Tony walks down the stairs, not using the elevator so his dad isn't alerted to his presence.

He pushes the door open quietly and slips through, walking to the support beam that will block him from view. Then he peers around into the lab from behind the glass wall. His heart drops at the sight of his father bent over the pod, a half empty bottle in one hand and a wrench in the other.

He hears a curse as the wrench hits the ground, and another curse as his dad accidentally bumps his head on the corner of the lab table bending down.

Tony steps forward, swiping his card and pushing the door open once it unlock.

"Dad."

His dad looks up, red eyed and squinting, "Tony? Hey, Tony. Good to see you down here."

Tony grimaces, "you need to come up for air."

His dad waves him away, sloshing the liquid in the bottle. A few drops land on the ground and his dad's eyes get transfixed on them. Tony steps forward and snatches the bottle out of his hand, walking over and pouring it out.

"Hey!" His dad cries, "that's expensive!"

"Buy another one." Tony snaps, "when you've got your head screwed back on straight!"

His dad glares at him and grumbles under his breath reaching behind him to the little fridge.

Tony picks up a rubber seal and throws it hard. It slaps against his dad's temple and he reels back, "ow!"

"Snap out of it!" He strides forward and grabs his dad's shoulders, "yes is sucks that it was your guns, but you didn't shoot him!"

"Might as well have." His dad responds, closing his eyes and hanging his head.

"No." Tony responds, shaking him, "no, you didn't. That kid is psycho. You can't blame yourself. Maybe figure out how he got his hands on—"

"Legally."

"Huh?"

His dad looks up, "I checked. He bought it legally from a gun shop."

Tony frowns. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"Still not your fault."

"How can I look at Steve again?" His dad asks, "knowing I put the weapon out there that did this."

"If it wasn't your gun it could have been someone else's, Hammers or Sig. It doesn't matter. The kid is the one who wielded it, and his aim wasn't even Steve. So you drowning your sorrows in alcohol is not going to help you save him. So snap out of it."

His dad sags and he takes a deep breath, "what if I don't get this machine working in time?"

"You will."

"What if I don't?"

And he doesn't mean to let the desperation in his voice peak through but it does, "you will. You have to."

His dad mouths those words, have to.

"Dad?" They lock eyes, "you're going to. You're the smartest guy I know. And you've got me and Erskine and Bruce and that's half the brain power in New York, right?" He tries to laugh and his dad smiles at him a bit, "you know we're getting close. So don't give up. Yes, this is one hell of a set back but all the more reason to get this done. So get some coffee and some water and get back to proving that you're the smartest guy in the world, huh?"

His dad blinks at him and then a grateful half smile crosses his features, "thanks kiddo."

—-

"So." Natasha starts, looking at Bucky but keeping Peggy in her peripheral, "what's the deal?"

"Deal?" Bucky asks, not looking up from his phone.

"You and Carter scrambling for the phone."

Both of their eyes snap up and Natasha catches the way Bucky's eyes flit to Clint who is over in the corner on the phone with Laura.

"Nothing."

"Bullshit." Natasha says, "what is it?"

Peggy runs her fingers through her hair, "it's complicated."

"Uncomplicate it."

Bucky looks over to Clint and then scoots forward, closing the distance, "you can't tell Clint."

"Why not?"

"Because…" Bucky starts, "like Steve said, it probably would have happened anyways, but… Steve was starting to talk the guy down, maybe convincing him to let him go, until they heard Clint come into the building. That made the guy spiral and shoot Steve, worried he was about to get caught." Natasha's hand flies to her mouth and her wide eyes meet the sad ones in front of her, "so Steve doesn't want Clint to blame himself."

She buries her eye sockets into the palms of her hands, because that's exactly what Clint would do.

"Shit."

"Yeah." Bucky says, gently pulling her hands away, "so don't tell him."

"I won't."

—

"So," the doctor started, "we're seeing your temperature rise, and I don't like that, so let's check your bandages and see what we see."

Steve nods and the doctor comes over, lifting up the gown and gently peeling the tape away from his skin. The area is still quite bruised but that's not what makes the doctor pause. Inflamed red edges and puffy shiny skin around the wound draw their eyes.

"When was this changed last?"

"Uh," Steve thinks back, his eyes on the stitches, "maybe yesterday? Or the day before?"

"Why so long in between checks?" The doctor asks, but more to himself than to Steve.

"I think it has been healing well." Steve answers anyways, "there were no signs of infection before." Surprise flits across the doctor's face. Steve lets out a chuckle then a wince, "I'm sick a lot."

"Well," the doctor sighs, "this is definitely infected. So we will need to start you on antibiotics."

He nods, "okay, sounds good." It was nearing the end of Christmas break and he wanted to be out of the hospital pronto.

"I'll order those and have the nurse hook it to the IV as soon as possible."

Steve nods and leans back as the doctor talks to a nurse. She cleans and rebandages the wound and then he's left alone once more.

—

Clint hangs up with Laura and walks over. Natasha and the other two seem unusually quiet.

"What?" He asks, sitting down.

"Nothing." Bucky says, a smile forced on his face. "What are we going to do about New Years?"

"I'm going to be with Steve. I know he said he doesn't want any of us there, but I don't care. I'm not having him be there alone." Peggy leans back and eyes them with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm taking Yelena, Wanda and Pietro to Times Square this year." Natasha says with a sigh. "They've been begging and Sam finally said yes. I think he wants to cheer them up. Steve's absence has been really hard on the house."

"Tony said he has his parents' annual party but would be there after. But that's when Steve said he didn't want us coming or leaving our plans for him." Bucky says, "so I don't know if that changed his plans."

"Pepper is supposed to be in town." Peggy adds, "he may be with her."

"Laura is inviting me to her family's party. So I'll be there, but then I am planning to go to the hospital on New Year's Day."

Natasha nods, "so Peggy will be there in the evening, and some of us will be there the next day. So he won't be alone. Sam is taking the rest of the kids with Sarah to the Stark's. So does that cover everyone?" Then she turns to Bucky, "what about you?"

Bucky looks around his room and sighs, "I don't know."

—

Steve steps through the door and into the school hallway. He starts walking, but the hallway seems to keep elongating in front of him. He starts to walk faster, but suddenly his cane is in his hand. He looks at it strangely, but doesn't question it, still walking. He hears a sound that makes his blood run cold and he tries to stumble forward faster. But the linoleum starts to liquify, holding his feet, making his steps labored and difficult.

Fear runs through him as the lights flicker off and then red flashing lights make the hallway seem hellish.

He hears another shot and he gasps, crashing to his knees. Sirens start to sound and he clutches at his ears. Then the sound of boots make his heart leap. His breathing starts to accelerate and his heart is racing so fast it makes him dizzy. He starts to crawl forward on his knees, but then his knees slip. His chest hitting the ground. He looks back to see a trail of blood behind him, and he looks down, blood sleeping through his hospital gown.

"Steve." A voice calls. "Steve, come back." Emil's voice echoes through the hallways, "I need to finish my mission."

Fear jolts through him and he crawls faster, forcing himself through the sticky floor and towards the illuminated exit sign. But the hallway is only getting longer, and he cries out in frustration and fear.

"Steve, can you hear me?"

He flinches away from the hands grasping at his gown and Emil's face looming in front of him.

His heartrate pounds so fast he swears it's going to escape his chest. And then his breathing cuts off and he remembers nothing else.

—-

"Tony, Tony wake up!" He grumbles and turns over, about to put his pillow over his head when it's ripped from his grasp. "Tony get up, I need you to drive."

That gets his attention. "Huh?"

"Jarvis is upstate with your mother and I can't drive on my own right now, wake up!"

He sits up and looks. His father is rumpled and his mustache askew. And while Tony can tell he's sobering up, he isn't quite there yet. "Drive where?"

"The hospital. Steve's heart stopped."

And his dad must be more drunk than he thought because dropping that information with no warning makes Tony shoot straight up, "what!" He throws off the covers and stumbles out of the bed, "what?!"

"The hospital called." His dad says, "he was thrashing and then his heart gave out."

Tony felt his knees start to go. He sits down hard on his bed, "you're…" he feels his chest constrict, "I just saw him yesterday." He looks at the clock and it reads 2:14a.m. "He was fine." His dad is walking back towards the door. Tony hears the rasp in his own voice as he speaks, "does Sam know?"

"I assume they called him." His dad says as he disappears into the hallway.

Tony feels numb. Disbelief coursing through him as he blearily pulls on shoes and grabs his keys and wallet. He follows his dad's stumbling steps into the garage and slides into the driver's seat. "What about the others?" Tony asks, "do I need to tell them?"

"You can call them from the hospital."

"I don't want to tell them over the phone."

His dad looks at him in confusion, "why not?"

Tony looks at his dad in disbelief, "I'm not going to tell Bucky that Steve is dead over the phone!"

And his dad reels back and blinks at him with wide eyes, "what are you talking about? Steve isn't dead!"

Tony feels his brain crash, "you said his heart stopped!"

"It did! But they got it going again—"

"Well maybe fucking tell me that part next time!" Tony seethes at his dad, shoving the key into the ignition.

His dad groans, rubbing at his temples. "Sorry."

Tony just peels outs and heads towards the hospital.

—-

Sam is already there when they arrive. Looking drawn and weary as he listens to the doctor explain what happened.

"—he developed an infection around the wound, which could have been caused by multiple reasons. So we started him on an antibiotic that would not interfere with his other medication. But he started showing reaction symptoms almost immediately. So we removed that antibiotic, but we couldn't start another one until that one was weaned off, and sometime in the night, his fever overtook his body, before we could start the next medication. The nurse was going to fetch cold cloths and ice packs when his fever spiked suddenly. His heart rate accelerated so fast that it sounded the floor alarm and he was seizing when she came into the room because of his fever. And before he stopped seizing his heart flatlined and a crash cart was called. It took a few tries but he came back online and began breathing on his own. He hasn't woken up yet, so I'm not sure about his brain. But the fever is down now and the new batch of antibiotics is working."

"What now?" Sam asks, "what do we do now?"

"Now we wait and see. But his immune system is shot and he has been moved to isolation. When he wakes we will be able to know more. But his infection is not worsening. But we will need to do heart and brain scans to see if there was any additional damage done."

Tony pulls out his phone and his finger hovers over Bucky's number. But then he clicks his screen off and slips it back into his pocket. The clock reads 3:07am. He'll call him in the morning when they know more.

—-

The toll Steve back into his isolation room and remove the protective equipment before hooking him back up to the monitors. Tony stands next to his dad outside the glass window partition and they wince at the red patches on his chest from the defibrillator. Then he's in a gown again and laid back. He has yet to regain consciousness, but they think it's more from exhaustion than something more troubling.

He glances at the clock, its 6:57am. He should call.

"Dad, I need to call the others. They're already going to be mad I waited this long."

His dad nods and rests a hand on his shoulder, "I'll watch him while you call."

Tony nods back and walks out to the waiting room, clicking Bucky's number.

—

When his phone goes off before 7am and it's a Stark, he's instantly awake. "Hello?"

"Bucky, hey it's Tony, uh—"

"What happened?" He asks immediately, reaching for the athletic pants draped over his desk chair, "is he okay?"

Tony huffs out a laugh that doesn't have much humor in it. "He's stable now, but we don't really know—"

"What happened?"

"Infection leading to fever, leading to seizure ending in heart attack. Or so the doctors say."

The phone slips out of Bucky's grasp as he freezes reaching for his tennis shoes. "What? When?"

"Around 1am."

"I'm on my way."

"Can you call Nat? I'm going to call Carter."

Bucky winces, not envying that conversation in the slightest. "Yeah, I'll call Nat and Clint. I know Peggy will want more details."

"Yeah…" Tony responds, "wish me luck."

"Good luck."

—-

An hour and a half later, all 5 of them stand at the glass partition watching Steve sleep. His face is drawn and gaunt and he looks terrible.

But he's breathing on his own and his brain scans show nothing to be concerned about.

His heart scans on the other hand…

Well, Clint didn't understand too much of that. Just that it wasn't good. "Anyone feel helpless?" Tony quips mirthlessly. "Anyone? Anyone? Just me?"

Natasha shoves him gently and he sighs. Bucky and Peggy stand side by side, staring at Steve like if they look away he might disappear.

Sam and Howard are somewhere discussing options and heckling doctors for more information.

"Peter's getting suspicious." Natasha says quietly. "Steve's not usually sick in the hospital this long, but also…" she glances back, "Sam's doing his best to stay calm and relaxed but the stress of this and keeping it from the kids is eating at him. Peter's perceptive. He knows something else is wrong."

"Maybe he should tell them what really happened." Tony offers, "the older kids already know, and the younger kids will figure it out eventually. Just rip off the bandaid."

"Maybe," Natasha says, then her eyes get sad, "what are we going to do?" She asks, looking at them briefly before turning back to the glass, "Steve's…" and for the first time that Clint can remember, Natasha's voice cracks with emotion, "he's really dying."

Clint doesn't miss the fact that Peggy's knuckles are white as she grips the metal windowsill.

"He'll pull through." Bucky states without hesitation. "He's going to be fine."

"Fine for now." Natasha shoots back, "but for how long? Until something else ridiculously horrible happens to him? Until another sickness lands him in the hospital? He said 4 years, what now huh? How much damage has been done? Is it less time now?"

That's a doom and gloom thought Clint hadn't considered. "We take it one day at a time." He says, resting a hand on the glass, "Steve's going to live as long as he's supposed to." The words grate coming out but he says them, willing it to be a long long time. "So we make sure we're there for every one of them."

Natasha's hand finds his and she grips it tightly. Her other hand slips into Bucky's who holds Peggy's who then grabs Tony's, and they stand there solidified in their goal.

—-

He'd describe that it feels like someone cracked his chest open when he's finally lucid enough to think coherent thoughts.

His heartbeat feels sluggish but not in a bad way, like a drugged way. Something's holding him down and his body isn't ready to wake up just yet.

So he lets it rest for a bit longer until he feels more like a solid being in a body than a floating presence bouncing around his skull.

Before he opens his eyes, he shifts his hand, reaching out for something, but only finding blankets. Eventually he drags his eyelids open and stares at a white ceiling.

Soft sounds make him look over and more monitoring equipment is there than there was before. He frowns, knowing that's a bad sign. Then he turns to his right and sees 7 pairs of eyes looking at him. Howard and Sam stand behind the rest, but the front row looks at him so intensely he expects to spontaneously combust.

He raises a rather weak hand in hello and they seem to relax a bit at that.

—-

Peggy almost refuses to go back to college when the time comes, but Steve, still behind the glass partition, sits up, points at her, and frowns, "if you don't go back to college then don't even think about coming to my prom. I want to take you but I'm not taking a college dropout." He says it with a serious face but his eyes have humor in them.

She begs to be in a suit and be able to say goodbye in the room but the doctors deny her and Bucky watches as she waves from behind the glass and Steve waves back. And he ignores the tears streaming down her face as he hopes they ignore his.

—

Clint waits anxiously for Sam to come out of his room. It's January 27th and the doctors have cleared Steve to be able to exit the isolation room. And if he does well, he'll be able to come home in a few days.

"Sam, come on!" Clint calls. Thankfully the rest of the kids are in school.

"I'm coming!" Sam calls back, appearing and tugging on a jacket, "lets go."

—-

Clint and Sam wait impatiently until they're called. The nurse beckons them forward and they walk behind him, until they come to a room. They walk in and there he is, awake and smiling and listening to a doctor talk.

"— doing really well, so if we can keep that up then you'll be out of here before you know it."

"That's the goal." Steve responds, "no offense but I'm tired of being here."

The doctor laughs and then buds farewell, telling Sam he's available if he has any questions.

They both turn to Steve who is beaming, "hey guys."

Sam walks over and rests a hand on Steve's now too long hair, "hey kiddo."

Steve laughs and Clint walks over, plopping into a chair and reaching out, grabbing Steve's hand. "It's real. You're actually out of that prison."

The chuckle that Steve gives is a relieved one. Clint feels the semi-shaky muscles that Steve grips his hand back with, "I'm finally free. Good to have human contact again."

"Well we're not going anywhere." Sam assures, "and hopefully we will have you home in no time. I've already contacted the school and we will have your work sent to the house—"

"What?" Steve interjects, "why?"

Sam pauses, "what do you mean why?"

Steve tilts his head, "why would you have my schoolwork sent to the house, I want to go to school."

Clint feels his own surprise and watches as Sam tries to process that. "Well…" Sam starts, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

Steve sighs, "why not?"

"The school was very willing to work with you when I mentioned you may not want to go back to the building."

Steve's eyes narrow in sarcastic amusement, "and you decided that I didn't want to go back without asking?"

"Well, I assumed—"

"Assumed what, Sam?"

"I assumed you wouldn't want to."

"And why did you assume that?" Steve asks, and Clint has to hand it to the kid because he's not backing down. He's going to make Sam spell it out.

Sam, to his credit, does not back down. "I assumed because of the trauma you experienced in that building that you wouldn't want to go back."

"Well you assumed wrong."

"Steve—"

"No, Sam. You're the number one proponent of dealing with past trauma right? You and I talked about watching my mom die, and we talked about the Schmidt's, the dumpster, and it may have taken a while but I agreed to open up about my symptoms. I don't understand why you'd want me to regress and hide from what happened."

And Sam's eyes close, "maybe I'm not ready to let you back in that building."

Steve's response is gentle but firm, "you don't get to make that decision for me."

"Howard's going to lose it."

Steve laughs, a genuine full laugh, "Howard's always losing it. I can handle him."

Clint wants to beg to differ that the way Steve looks in the bed he couldn't handle a fly. But Steve's never survived off physical strength, it's been the sheer will power he's displaying even now.

"Well," Clint says, cutting off whatever Sam was going to say next, "let's work on getting you out of here before we argue about where you're going next."

Sam ruffles Steve's hair, "you need a haircut."

Steve chuckles, "I need a lot of things, like an actual shower."

Clint leans in and pretends to sniff him. Then he makes a face and Steve laughs, waving him away.

—

Bucky sits next to Tony in Tony's dorm room, watching the video of Steve, dressed in regular clothes for the first time in over a month, get wheeled out of the hospital doors. Bucky's watching with bated breath as Steve pushes himself up, standing on his own two feet and smiling at someone past the camera. Then Steve notices the camera, "Clint, what the hell, stop."

They can hear Clint laugh and respond, "this is a momentous moment! We need to document!"

"I walk out of hospitals all the time." Steve says dryly. "Not that momentous."

"Carter asked me to, so unless you want to argue with her…"

Steve rolls his eyes, and steps forward. He wobbles for one second and they see Sam appear as if to help but Steve snaps at him, "Sam don't, I got this."

Sam retracts his hand and Steve takes another step, stronger this time. "Okay—" they hear Howard's voice, "car's here, let's get to hopping."

"Mr. Rogers," they hear Jarvis call, "so good to see you."

Steve pushes his glasses up and smiles, "hey Mr. Jarvis, thanks for picking us up."

"My pleasure."

Steve turns to Clint and looks directly at the camera, "I'm sure this is going to make it to more than peggy's phone. So now you all have proof, okay? I'm fine. Focus on your classes and stop being such mother hens!" Steve winks at the camera and covers the lens with his hand. The video ends and Tony looks at Bucky.

"You heard the man. Go do your engineering project for Greisel's class."

Bucky groans and leans back, twirling the pen in his hand, "I don't wanna."

"Can't disappoint the invalid, so get."

Bucky stands and looks at Tony, "he's alright."

And Tony looks at the phone in his hand and spins it, his face reflecting off the screen, "he's alright."

—-

Steve steps through the door of the house to much fanfare. The kids cheer and scream and he smiles and there's lots of hugging and hello's and questions that he can't answer all at once. Dinner is served and Peter is like glue to his side but he doesn't mind. Peter knows the truth of what happened and even though he's smiling and cheerful through the evening, his grip on Steve's hand doesn't loosen and everyonce and awhile Steve will catch a look that makes him want to shiver.

Peter's own Aunt and Uncle Ahmad been killed by a mugger, gunning them down on some street and leaving them for dead while Peter sat at home with a babysitter waiting for them to return.

And now the weight of what almost happened sits heavily on Steve's shoulders. Peter almost lost another family member to a shooting. And Steve hadn't even thought about those repercussions when he was in that hallway. Not that he would have changed his course of action but… seeing the sad brown eyes that find his every few seconds make his chest tight.

But he doesn't run outside like last time. He grips Peter's hand just as tightly and tugs him along as they get ready for bed, Peter seeming equally unwilling to let him go.

And when Peter falls asleep on Steve's bed while they are catching up, Steve just shifts so there's room for both of them as he falls asleep.

—

Every few hours Peggy finds herself pulling up that video and watching Steve walk out of the hospital.

It brings her a sense of peace and even though she doesn't let it affect her studies, she finds herself looking at the calendar more often, counting down the days until she can go home and see him.

—

Howard and Sam both stand at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm not changing my mind."

Both men stare at him, varying expressions running the gamut on their faces.

"I'm going to be fine. It's just a building."

"It's too soon."

"It's February. Over a month."

"Too soon." Howard repeats.

"He wasn't a student at the school." Steve reminds them for the thousandth time. "He's in prison."

"You're getting tired quicker. Where's your cane?"

"I don't need it." Steve snaps, then takes a deep breath, "I don't need it right now, okay?"

"Steve, you gotta give us a bit of leeway." Sam tries softly, "it's all kind of fast."

And then Steve glares at them, putting his hands on his waist. "I'm the one with a bullet hole, huh? I think I can handle sitting in a classroom." The men wince and Steve rolls his eyes, "it happened. We can't change it. So I need you guys to let me live my life. Honestly, it wasn't worse than the dumpster. Not by far."

"Okay I'm going to forget you said that." Howard says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Steve steps down of the last step, willing himself not to wobble. He doesn't and he smiles at the guys in front of him. "I know you're worried for me, and I appreciate that. But I refuse to be held in another room forever just because you're worried. I was stuck in that hospital bed for over a month, and I'm tired of being cooped up. So unless you're going to let me drop out of high school, I'm going."

He raises an eyebrow and walks past them. He's unsurprised to see Happy standing there with the car waiting.

"Morning Steve."

"Morning, Happy."

"School?"

"Yeah, thanks." He turns to the door where Howard and Sam are watching him with intense eyes. "Goodbye, see you when I get home." He calls overly cheerful before slipping into the backseat.

—

Except maybe he didn't think it through because the minute he steps into the hallway, it falls quiet. And he walks slowly, keeping his balance as best he can without a cane and the eyes of his peers follow him.

He's at his locker when he feels a presence. He turns to see the vice-principal, a lady he hasn't really ever interacted with.

"Good morning, Mr. Rogers." She says with a forced smile, "we didn't know you were coming back today."

He looks at her and shrugs, "I didn't know I needed to let you know I was coming back on a certain day. I thought my dad called—"

"He did." She responds quickly, "he just didn't say a day, we were hoping to have a nice welcome ready for you—"

"No." Steve snaps, a little too loudly, "no." He takes a deep breath, his chest twinging, "please don't, o don't want anything. Please. I'd like to just return to normal if that's okay."

Her eyes search his face before she nods slowly, "okay, I think I can let the office know that." She reaches out and places a hand on his shoulder, "we are glad to have you back." She says earnestly, "we hope you're doing okay."

He nods, "I'm doing fine, thanks."

She nods in return and then steps back and away.

"She wanna give you a medal or something?"

Steve smiles, knowing the voice before turning to see who it is.

"Nah, but I think if they'd known I was coming there might have been balloons or something."

Scott chuckles and he raps on Steve's shoulder, "saw the video of you getting out of the hospital.

He groans, "I swear he sent that video to everyone."

"Sorry I couldn't visit much—"

"Scott, watching me from behind a glass wall wasn't all that exciting. It's fine".

"Yeah, I know, but—"

"But nothing. How bout you keep me company here and we call it even?"

"Yeah." Scott says with a grin, "okay."

Steve stifles a yawn. "How's Hope?"

The grin turns giddy on Scott's face, "she's still ignoring my texts, but the other day she liked one of them. So I think that's progress."

Steve laughs and then hides the wince from the way it pulls on his still tender skin. "Good for you."

—

Natasha glances down at her phone as it buzzes. A text from Yelena pops through and she puts down her textbook to look at it.

It's a photo of Yelena in a prom dress standing next to Wanda and Rebecca who are also in dresses. She can tell they're in a department store changing room.

Y: what do you think?

N: Wanda looks fabulous, but Rebecca should wear a full length, she's got an elegant face and she needs a dress to match! And you—

She pauses evaluating the pale yellow dress that compliments her sister's hair but kind of washes out her skin

—you're too dangerous for that dress ;) you need something deep colored, maybe blue to match your eyes, or green to give off a warrior vibe. Just my opinion.

Y: knew I could trust you. I'll send updated pics when we have them.

N: can't wait!

—-

Steve and Clint stand on the platform, waiting for the train to come in. Peggy was due in on the next train and Laura was due the one right after.

"Can't believe we're going to go on a double date for Valentine's." Clint says for the thousandth time.

"You're literally the one who came up with this idea." Steve yawns and then huffs, "stop acting so surprised."

"I know but like, now it's here. What did we do last year for Valentine's?"

"I was sick." Steve says with a laugh, "Bucky and Natasha went out I think, and Pepper and Tony were arguing I think? I don't remember about you and Laura."

Clint's head is bobbing as he remembers it, "think she was busy with something, but hey, now we're going somewhere."

"And that somewhere is?"

He grins at Steve, "stop trying to spoil the surprise!"

Steve frowns, "I'm not much for surprises."

Realization curls in Clint's gut, "oh." He turns to Steve, "I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"No." Steve cuts him off, "no, I didn't mean it like that. I've never been a fan of surprises. It's fine."

The train tumbles closer and Clint watches as Steve takes a deep breath and excitement builds on his features.

Before the doors even finished opening, she's out of it and practically bounding towards them. She drops her bags with a thunk and wraps Steve in her arms. He laughs and returns the hug, and Clint steps back a few feet to give them some semblance of privacy.

The way Peggy kisses him though leaves little for the imagination as strangers whistle in amusement.

"Peggy." Steve says a bit breathlessly, pulling back, "I'm happy to see you too."

She doesn't respond, just kisses him again so hard that they almost topple over.

Suddenly Laura's at Clint's side and she's smiling at them and whispering to him, "is this their first meeting after…"

She trails off but Clint knows what she means, "yeah." He nods, "first time in person. But I know they talked over video call."

Steve is blushing and laughing at something Peggy is saying and Laura smiles happily up at him, "but everything's better in person."

Clint leans down and places a soft kiss on her lips, "you betcha."

—

*Sorry for the delay in updating! With my classes coming to an end things got hectic! Also forgive the errors that I'm sure are present! I sometimes have time to edit but not always. :l