nothing - steve and natasha

i am home

The moment that he shrunk in that suit, Steve did what he had to do. It might only take five seconds for the ones he left in the present but for him, as long as he needs. And the first stop was the HYDRA facility, New Jersey, of the year 1970. It should've just been an easy task because it wasn't that hard to sneak in, but he almost got caught when he made a sound and when the tesseract glowed electric blue that practically lighted up the whole room. It was seen by some of the guards. Even so—before those agents got to him—he escaped in the nick of time.

And then, for the next two stones, he travelled to New York, 2012. The only mission would be returning the time and mind stones to where they got them in the first place, but he may have done something else aside from that that's why it took a tad bit longer.

As to what it is, he doesn't want to disclose anything yet, but it has something to do with creating another reality (or it might actually be a lot more than one), that's parallel to the main timeline where he came from.

Reality. That's the next goal. After successfully putting back the space stone in 2970, then time stone and mind stone in 2012, he travelled to Asgard, 2013, where Jane Foster is at, in order to get the aether back inside of her; as well as the Mjolnir, right where it should be. It wasn't that easy of a job, considering that Thor existed in that time and he's able to summon the Mjolnir that he holds. He had to stay hidden from the Asgardians but he still wasn't able to avoid some guards which he successfully won over combat. However so, it still made him acquire a few cuts and bruises on his face, adding up to the injuries he got from 2012 when he fought with his 2012 self and practically tangled with the war that was happening at the time. He was lucky the the ancient one went easy on him. After all, the return of the time stone was what she wanted.

And then there were two.

He looked at the remaining stones on the palm of both hands. One of them glowed purple, and the other was a mesmerizing orange; one that made his heart skip a beat.

Steve intentionally kept the soul stone separate from the other five. He always had it near him, either inside his fist or in his breast pocket or simply where he could always find and see it. Right now, the power stone's orb settled on his right palm, while the soul stone was on the left one.

Natasha was left-handed. Even in these little things, he tries to be as close to her as possible, doing everything under her name and glory and thinking of her every step of the way. To be honest, at the moment that all of the other avengers came back after they've been dusted, he still felt Nat even though she wasn't there. When the first portal opened behind him, he just knew that it carried hope. And he might not mention it but Agent Romanoff or not, Black Widow or not, Natasha symbolized hope. And when the portals finally opened simultaneously, he felt her presence, as if she was crawling out of one of those—no—like she was coming out of every single portal. Her spirit radiated through everyone that it made him imagine a gigantic version of her for she practically lived inside every resurrected one. Her soul is a piece of all of them. Even though he wasn't resurrected, way before she sacrificed herself for the soul stone, she had already been a part of him.

The place that she holds is the biggest one his heart that's why when she didn't come back, it all felt hollow. However, it was deeper than that. Their connection didn't just mean seeing or holding each other close every time. It's so strong that even at his lowest point, just thinking of her made him fight. He knew that if she was there he wouldn't tolerate him giving up because she didn't only witness how he always stood up—she was there, standing beside him. He owes it to her to live and get the life they both want, together.

The next stop is Morag, where the power stone belongs. He just wished that he can stay in there for a bit longer, because he is not ready to go to his last stop: Vormir. Not yet. The soul stone is the only thing now that he has of Natasha and returning it in the place where she died would be traumatic. He can't even imagine how. Amongst all the stones, the soul stone is the most mysterious and unpredictable one. Not much is known of it, because it takes a sacrifice to have it and therefore be able to use and explore what it can do. And they only ever used it to complete the six infinity stones in the gauntlet and perform the snap. So no, he doesn't have an idea if his hopes of bringing Natasha back once he had returned what she died for would be effective. Nevertheless, he still wants it to work. If it doesn't, he already made a backup plan.