Steve's POV:
After the New Year Charlie and I take Maggie to the compound every day, where we spend the time training, while Maggie stays with Nat in the control center. The first few days Charlie and I didn't get too much training done. Seeing my beautiful fiancé in action again made me way too horny. We're now at a good point where we can train, and playfully flirt while training, but still actually get things done.
Charlie has been able to pick things up where she left them. Her marksmanship is still spot on, whether she's using her knives, pistols, or one of Clint's old bows. She has made a point to want to perfect the use of the bow, mostly since it helps her feel closer to her long-lost uncle.
Watching her with the knives is eerily like watching Bucky. She handles each one well, flipping them around, throwing them, and even teasing me. Since the snap there's more of a darkness to her when she fights. Today she's finally bringing out the gauntlets that Tony made her. She's determined to be able to extend her air time without the help of being thrown.
"Steve, throw me up. Again." She huffs. I grab her and toss her into the air.
"Do you feel the way that feels. Now focus! Make sure you understand the feeling of keeping yourself in the air. You can do this Charlie."
She extends her stay by nearly three minutes longer. "Throw me again." She growls.
"No."
Her eyes shift before her body does as she fully turns on me, "What?"
"Me continuing to throw you up, isn't going to do you any favors. Propel your body and catch the air yourself."
She sucks a deep breath in before popping her neck and turning around. Clearly frustrated at my refusal to throw her. "Bend your knees, and use the force you would to kick me right now."
"Steve shut up." She whispers.
"You can do this. Use your strength."
"Steve...shut...up!" When she screams up, I feel a vibration radiating from her body. She turns looking at me with wide eyes. She barely bends her knees and propels herself to the ceiling of the training room. Once at the top she expands her wings suit and glides down to me.
I can't help but smile at her, "See. You focused your anger towards me. And look what you did."
"Shut up old man." She smiles and crashes her lips on mine. We peck our lips on one another for a while. Before she turns running towards the pool. With each step closer she gets, she removes an article of clothing before she's completely nude in the pool.
I can't help but follow after her. I however, don't remove articles of clothing until I reach the pool. "The water still cold, Charlie?" I remove all my clothes and jump in the pool beside her.
"That was like what, seven years ago? A lot has changed in that time."
"It has." I agree.
"Do you remember the first time we met?" She asks, with a sly smile on her face.
"The official first meeting when you could barely look at me? Or...?"
"I guess I'm more concerned with the 'or' meeting. I can't believe you remembered that."
"Well, you were captivating even then. I saw your shyness, innocence, and even the need to impress me. What was that all about?"
"Oh, I may have had the biggest crush on you. Every time Clint would tell stories about his time with the Avengers, I always wanted to hear only about Captain America." She wades over to the side of the pool. "Tell me your side of that meeting."
"Where to begin? I guess, after we got our asses handed to us by Wanda and Pietro. Wanda with her mind control. We all needed a safe place to stay for a bit. Obviously, Nat and Clint knew where we were going. Everyone else didn't even know you existed. Clint flew the Quinjet out to the farm. We were all confused, but just assumed it was a normal safehouse."
"But it wasn't." I shake my head no, coming closer to her.
"I remember walking down the field and looking at my surroundings thinking how odd that this safehouse seems very, lived in. Clint was holding Nat up; she was the most affected by Wanda's brain torment. It was even more odd when we walked in and Clint called out, darling or something."
"Honey. He calls, called Laura honey."
I nod my head, continuing my story. "We walked further in and the house was definitely lived in. There were toys and just stuff everywhere. Laura walked in very pregnant and saw all of us and was beyond shocked and confused. Not more confused than everyone that wasn't Clint or Nat though. I remember watching them and the absolute love she had for him. He hugged her and rubbed on her belly, introduced her, of course she knew us. Two kids came running down the stairs. Clint picked the girl up, and hugged the boy. Kissing them. I know I had to have made a face with all the little people around. The girl asked about Nat, that's how we knew that she knew about Clint's family."
I place my body right in front of Charlie as I wrap my arms around her. Still reminiscing about that time at the farm. My hand finds the side of her face as I gently pet her cheek. "I apologized for barging in. Tony made a comment about not knowing that you guys existed. Clint told us that Fury helped set it up so no one knew about you guys. He looked over at Laura asking where Charlie was. She responded a, 'Oh waiting for you or Nat to come back to help her train more. All she wants to do is be an Avenger to take your place.' Clint walked over to the stairs screaming up, 'Charlie! I've got some people I want you to meet.' I remember hearing your steps running down the stairs and you paused staring at each of us. Your eyes lingered on me a bit too long. You awkwardly waved and ran back to the stairs. No one knew at the time you had just sat down, embarrassed."
"Listen, Rogers, I'm not going to deny I was embarrassed, but me sitting on the stairs, yeah that was mostly because I didn't want to be too far from you." She smiles over to me. I hum and nod. "I heard Thor step on Lila's LEGO masterpiece for the day." She says with a giggle. Her hands start tracing the outlines of my face.
"Thor started to walk out the door, he quickly acknowledges you, but continues to walk out. I stopped shortly watching you sitting on the stairs. Not a single word was said between us, but it was almost like you knew what was going on in my head, and I couldn't quit looking at you."
"I knew someone had gotten in your head, not really knowing what, but I saw a dark hurt in your eyes. I didn't want to pry." She responds to me wondering what she was thinking.
"After I got my barrens about me, I followed Thor out. You still sat on the stairs watching. He told me he saw something in his dreams that he needed answers to. We watched as he flew off to who knows where. I turned back, and there you were still sitting on the stairs, watching me. The dream that Wanda gave me was Peggy. When I looked at you, I heard her voice. She told me, 'We can go home.' I had to take my eyes off of you."
"And you walked away." She gently kisses my lips.
"I walked away, and you followed." She smiles, kissing me again. "You followed me outside, but your walk turned as you went out into the garage. You came back with a bow, and quiver of arrows and you went over to a target. I looked at you once more and then went inside to change. When I was inside, I could see where you were from the window. You were looking around confused."
"I was wondering where you had gone to." I giggle.
"And then our eyes meet through the window. You quickly looked away from me and began shooting the arrows at the target. When I came outside to cut wood, you left to go back in. I was still curious as to why you were either following me or running from me."
She rolls her eyes at me. "I wanted to impress you. Wanted to be near you. And then I felt guilty for staring at you. I ran back inside to make tea."
I nod at her. "Tony came outside to help chop wood. We both began to get more frustrated at the situation with Ultron and Wanda playing games with our mind. Clint was working on something with the boy on the porch."
"Cooper." She tells me the boy's name.
"Cooper, they were building something. Tony was questioning me about where Thor went. I told him my teammates don't always tell me things. I glanced in a window and I saw you standing there staring, again you quickly look away." Charlie blushes, when she realizes all the times, I actually remember her staring at me. "Tony questioned me about what Wanda showed me, and how it was odd that I was alright, and he didn't trust people without a dark side. We argued about Ultron, and I..."
"Split a log in half with your bare hands. I was bringing out some tea for you two. You scared me."
"I saw your little flinch as you were walking from the porch. Clint smiled at you when he realized where you were going. You came out with your tray of tea, handing me and Tony one, and Laura told Tony that the tractor needed repairing, and he left. She walked up to Clint and Cooper, whispered something. He looked at us standing there awkwardly, me drinking the tea, you with the tray by your side and they went inside." She lets out an airy giggle. "You told me that whatever happened you were sorry. You could tell that whatever happened to me you could see a sadness growing in my eyes."
"You wanted to change the subject."
"I did, so I asked you to show me how you shot the bow. You walked over to get the bow and some arrows and I watched you hit bull's eye after bull's eye."
"Were you impressed?" She smiles.
"I was very impressed. I told you that you must take after your dad and you told me that he was your uncle. You handed me the bow and told me to try. I held it in my hands and you moved my body around to help me get the right stance."
"I just wanted to touch you." She winks with a smile.
"I figured that. I made the first shot and was far off from the bull's eye. You didn't laugh. You stood behind me, trying to see around me, you were so tiny but helped me aim, and I got it. I smiled down at you, and you told me that you should go help Laura with dinner and you would see me later. While Fury was there you kept your eyes on me, trying to be respective while I was speaking. Your eyes were also on Tony who was playing darts."
"Very badly at that."
"You had a handful of darts from across the room, and you picked one up, throwing it at the target, barely missing Tony's face, and again, you hit the bull's eye. I smiled over at you and Tony hated you were able to make that from so far away. You thew another one, looking only at Tony, and still it landed on the bull's eye. You looked back at me, smiling from ear to ear, and again you felt the need to throw another while looking at me."
"Made that one too." She laughs.
"You did. Fury noticed, but chose to ignore it, we were talking about Ultron and he called Ultron a bastard."
"And Nat said you didn't like that kind of talk. You looked at her smiling and said 'You know what Romanoff.' Before your eyes met back on me." Charlie licks her lips looking down, I pull her chin up to look back at me.
"We got serious again. Trying to come up with the best game plan to defeat Ultron and how he was building more bodies. And realizing that Ultron probably had Helen Cho. We continued talking and you excused yourself to go shower. When you came out you were wearing some skimpy little shorts and a shirt that hung off your shoulders. By that time, we were gearing up to leave, I was glad I got to see you again. You sat on the stairs again. Watching us and listening. I was the last one to leave and I turned seeing you on the stairs, I gave you a smile and you told me to be careful and you stuttered and told me to make sure to bring your uncle back. I told you I would and you needed to call us because we could use someone with your skills."
Charlie's cheeks blush, "And I meant it. Not to mention I wanted to see you again, especially if it was in those shorts. You and Laura followed us out onto the porch as you watched us leave. I might have asked Clint if you were wanting to join the Avengers, he laughed and said yeah, and then I asked if you were single. He gave me a death glare and Nat answered, 'yes.'"
"You did not ask that." She says not believing me.
"Yes, I did. You can ask Nat." I smile at her.
"I can't believe you remember all of that. And I thought I was the one with the crush. I didn't expect you to remember."
"I remember everything with you Charlie. Not to mention that there was a big difference between you and Cooper. You were grown, he was a child. You tried to impress me, and you did. But the most impressive thing was how intuitive, and now I know about your empathy, but you really cared. You didn't have to try and impress me, you didn't even have to try to care about me, you just did. It's in you."
She wraps her arms around me, and then her legs follow. I fully embrace her as we begin to kiss. In almost eight years, Charlie and have been on a roller coaster of a ride. I wouldn't change anything. She still is the same. She wants to make sure that I am forever ok. That I am forever good. Even at our group meetings she listens intently to everything I say, even if it's about Peggy. She takes me with all my flaws.
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Charlie's POV:
Steve goes to take a shower and I go into the control room to find Nat calmly watching the screens, Maggie is asleep on a bed that Nat insisted be in there. "You guys are here late."
I sigh, "Yeah, we're just going to stay here. I hate to get her strapped in the car waking her up, only to carry her in the house. She'll never get back to sleep."
I use my foot to trace circles on the floor. Nat reads my body language and that I want to say something. "What's bothering you babe?"
"I'm just thinking." I answer flatly. Hoping Nat takes my bait to ask more.
"Well, what are you thinking about?" I smile up at her, "What?"
"The other day Steve and I were talking about the very first time we met. The actual first time. When you guys came to the farm after the first meeting with the Maximoff twins."
Nat nods with a smile. "Okay. And?"
"Did he talk about me after?" She nods. "I always thought he would forget about that, and that he would only know me from the video of my training."
"No, he randomly brought you up over the next year. Not always to Clint, but definitely to Tony and me. He would always ask if you were actually wanting to join, and if so that you should definitely join or at least live at the compound and train. He even said he could personally train you. Why do you think he wanted to be around you from the beginning?" I blush and look at Maggie. "You doubt the pull you have on people. Especially ones that have more of a sexual interest in you."
"Nat..."
"No, I looked at footage of you and Bucky. I find it hard to believe that was your first time meeting him. You trusted him so quickly, and he was drawn to you."
"I don't want to talk about Bucky." I look over to my sleeping daughter. She's now a year old and more perfect than ever.
"Why not? Steve talks to me about you and Bucky." I look up to her tilting my head, daring her to go on. "It's odd that of all the people you could fall for, you fall for best friends, super soldiers, and old men." She lets out a giggle.
"What does Steve say about me and Bucky?" My curiosity is piqued.
"He thinks that you and Bucky were the ones who were truly meant to be together."
"Like how he was meant to be with Peggy." Nat nods. "After all this time, we have a daughter, we have a good relationship, I love him..."
"But you both are in love with someone else." I nod.
"He's, her father." I say, tears falling down my cheeks.
"If you could bring him back, would you?" I nod. "Where would that leave Steve?" I look up at her. "Do you really think that you could live a happy life with Bucky, and Steve just sit on the sidelines?"
"I can't imagine a world without him. I can't imagine a world where he's not a part of her life." I look over to Maggie, she's still peacefully sleeping. "But I still think about Bucky every day. I had no time with him." Nat looks at me with sadness in her eyes, "I love Steve so much."
"I know you do, and he loves you. I don't see why it should matter. I don't know how we can change anything. But it is something that we've talked about it. He was sure that when we found Thanos we would be able to bring everyone back. He just knew he would lose you. And there would be no way for him to be with the person he loved."
"We're so good. And there's these moments where we both realize that we're not as good as we think, but how do we change this?" Nat shakes her head and shrugs.
"On a happy note, you were able to push yourself up in the air?" Nat takes my hand in hers.
"Yeah, there was vibrations from my body that even Steve felt."
"Do you think with all the random and cosmic weather changes, it's stirring something up in you? I just don't understand where the powers come from. We need to look in your family history and see if anyone else had powers. I mean you've had them as long as I've known you, not quite like these.
"After the snap...I've felt a difference for sure. Which makes sense. There are always consequences to major changes. Nothing stays the same forever."