Back To Where He Wants To Be

A Soul For A Soul

2014 Vormir

Steve still had two trips to return the remaining stones to its original timeline— saving the two important times for last.

He started to climb the mountain, hopeful that maybe... just maybe he could bring Natasha back once he return the stone.

"Steve Rogers, son of Sarah." Red Skull greeted him upon his arrival at the top of the hill.

Steve recognized his voice but to his surprise, it was the least he cared about at the moment. What was on top of his priorities was to return the stone and possibly get Natasha back, if not... at least get to say his goodbye to her. The goodbye that they were deprived of the moment they went to different times.

"You're here to return the stone and seek for something in return." Red
Skull moved over the edge of the cliff as he continued, "In my time here, no one
has ever returned it yet, but I doubt you'll get what you came for."

"There's no harm in trying," he took the stone from the case and for a moment he held it close to his heart before he continued speaking. "So, how do I return this?"

"To where the sacrifice happened." Red Skull then left him alone to have his moment.

Steve moved closer to the edge and took the courage to look down where
Natasha jumped off. He found nothing, no body, but a stain of dried blood was still
evident even from where he was standing.

He brought his hand that has the stone in front of him then grinned on it bitterly, "See you in a minute, huh?" The grin on
his face slowly faded as he put on a straight face, "So why didn't you came?
You just wanted one of us to fetch you, don't you?" He released a heavy sigh as
he let his hand fall on his side, still holding onto the stone, "Well guess
you're lucky enough. I'm here just for that... I really hope this works Nat."

He blinked once, twice, trying to contain the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "I said we don't trade lives, but here you are. Right... you're Natasha Romanoff, when do you ever listen?" He smiled sadly as he recall all those times Natasha protected them. He recalled how Natasha was unwilling to give up Vision when Thanos first came to Earth, but never did she think twice of taking the fall in behalf of everyone.

Well, that's how they are, the Avengers... they always protect each other no matter what price they needed to pay.

After a moment of silence, Steve finally decided to drop the stone off the cliff. "See you in a minute, Nat."

And for a moment he wondered what happened, suddenly he felt water all over him. He opened his eyes and realized he was... sleeping? He sat down, trying to register what happened. All he could remember was returning the stone and then this.

"Steve?"

He recognized the voice, it's undeniably Natasha's. He slowly turned to where the voice came from. On his right he saw Natasha sitting few feet away from him, looking as puzzled as he is. Then he thought, it worked, he found his body relaxes. Relieved at the sight of Natasha. "You're back, it worked." He moved over and held Natasha in his arms and for a moment they stayed glued into each other's arms.

Steve pulled back to look at her and examine if she was bleeding anywhere.
"Does anything hurt?" He asked.

"No, I... guess I'm fine. Yeah." She slightly tilted her head back to look at Steve's face. Her eyes was full of questions, "What happened? I was... did it work? Is everyone back?"

Steve took a deep breath before answering. "Yeah, it worked Nat, thanks to you." He pulled her out of the water and guided them to the nearest rock they could sit on. "I'm on a mission," he started.

"Returning the stones..." Natasha filled in for him. She subtly bobbed her head fully understanding what was happening.

"And I guess in exchange for returning the soul stone, we got you back." He looked at Natasha, his eyes showed how thankful he was that it worked. No one really thought it would.

"So it's not an everlasting exchange after all," she grinned at the thought.

"No one has ever returned it so maybe no one really knew and just assumed it was." Steve stated his opinion. "But I'm glad it's not Nat," he looked at her straight through her eyes and she could see the sincerity in his eyes.

"Me too."

* * *

Natasha checked on her suit if she is still equipped to return to the present time. "I'm glad this didn't broke or I'm gonna be stuck here in 2014," she grinned as she set up her time travel suit to 2023. "So you still have one left to return?"

Steve nodded, "1970s."

She took a moment to digest all the possible outcome once he return to the past. Steve has told her how he saw Peggy few days ago when they were still collecting the stones and that made Natasha comment, "You're thinking of staying." She was stating more than questioning.

Steve took a while to answer, "I don't know... I might want to come further back in time. To when I lost the chance with her."

Natasha held her breath hearing Steve's possible plans of staying in the past.

"I'm not sure Nat. I once thought the man who wanted that life was left in the ice and another one came out. I got a new life here, the Avengers... I got Bucky back, I have you.".

Natasha was waiting for Steve to look at her, she wanted him to say those last three words while looking into her eyes but Steve's gaze was instead locked to his feet. She could tell he was weighing all the emotions he has about his current life and the life he had lost.

Natasha was hurt with the fact that Steve was unable to look at her. She shifted her gaze to somewhere else... to nothingness. She felt empty with the thought of Steve doubting the
idea of staying in their present time —with his new found life, with the Avengers,
with her. "But that's not the life you wanted."

Steve turned to look at Natasha for the first time since they talked about these possibilities. He wanted to assure her it's not like that, that he was happy in the present time, yet he can't find the words to tell her. Deep down he was also questioning himself. Isn't this not the life he wanted? The one with Peggy in it.