Till the End of the Line: Our Now | Stucky Fanfic

Chapter Two

unedited.

2015

The Avengers, minus Natasha and Bruce, were huddled in the living room, barely awake after a brutal mission. "C'mon Tony, hurry up," Clint groaned from his spot on the back of the couch. He was nursing an ice pack over his eyes.

"Relax hawkguy," Tony snapped in frustration. "I'm doing the best I can."

Steve raised an eyebrow, watching as Tony struggled to get the TV to work. Thor crossed his arms. "Isn't he supposed to be a genius?" Thor whispered to the captain as the two lounged on the sofa, their sore legs propped up.

With a snicker, Steve replied, "Geniuses sometimes find it hard to do things the simple way."

Thor laughed, clapping Steve's shoulder. "No truer words have been said."

"Quit conspiring," Sam laughed as he threw a pillow at the two of them.

Steve slung it back, glaring at him playfully.

"Hush now, children," Natasha said as she and Bruce brought in bowls of spaghetti for everyone. "Eat so we can get out of here."

As they all began to dig in, Tony continued to fiddle with the TV, cursing under his breath about the British. CNN popped up onto the screen suddenly, making Tony shout "Finally!"

The others cheered, glad to see something familiar after a long, hard mission. Tony settled in with his bowl, talking with Bruce quietly as the anchors started to drone on and on about the miserable things happening in the world.

"Is this the only channel?" Sam groaned.

Tony glared at him. "Unless you want to try and change the damn channel, then yes."

Sam raised his empty hand in surrender, doing his best not to snicker.

Steve opened his mouth to say something when the screen caught his attention. The anchor cleared his throat and grinned. "Today, America progressed as a country. The Supreme Court has officially declared that same-sex marriages are legal in all fifty states-"

Everything froze.

Steve could hear the others cheering. He could hear the laughs and applause. He could hear the anchor droning on and the crying from LGBT all over the states.

The next thing he knew, he was bursting out the doors and running down the dirt road leading up to the house. There were tears pouring down his face, his breathing was labored, and his legs were aching, but he couldn't stop.

He could barely process what was going on, much less what he was thinking. He just needed to get out of there and away from everyone.

It would have worked had he been paying attention.

Steve turned onto the main road, his vision blurred. Sam was chasing after him, calling his name. It wasn't until Sam had made it onto the road that his legs gave out a few hundred feet away.

The super soldier crumbled in on himself, sobbing and grabbing at his uniform. He just needed to hold them, just needed to touch them. Steve was growing frantic, trying to find the tags through his uniform when Sam slid in beside him. "Steve," Sam said with a surprising calm, "what's wrong? What's going on?" Steve shook his head, trying to find the tags still. He pushed at Sam, zeroing in on his pockets. "Are you hurt? C'mon man, you're scaring me here."

Steve ripped the tags out of his boot finally and collapsed into Sam's arms, the tags held tightly in his grip. Sam didn't say a word, just held him there on the side of the road.