Resilience | S. Rogers [3]

21 | LEAVING, LOVING, MEETING

"I'd say wonderful is very subjective," Rose mentioned carrying the toddler.

"You're poisoning the kid's mind, you know that?" he uttered jokingly with irony.

"Your dad's a little dramatic, isn't he?" Rose asked Morgan who stared at her intently.

Then Morgan smiled.

May 2020
Steve and Rose's Apartment

"It was a nice moment," Steve mentioned to Rose as he finished washing the dishes. When he had gone out for groceries two sisters, one about eight and the other twelve, had approached him as fans. Calmly albeit slightly nervous.

"I can imagine," Rose told him leaning on the counter with a smile.

It was nice to feel people still had you on their good side after everything that had happened.

"You know, it was weird...they asked me if I was happy," he said to her.

"Oh? What did you say?"

He dried his hands walking over to Rose. His eyes became soft, "I told them that I was, I had someone that never failed to make me smile." Rose smiled rolling her eyes as wrapped his arms around her.

"You did not tell them that."

"I did," he looked at her. Despite the loss of his friends, even if he had a bad dream, once he woke up, his stomach fluttered when he realised who he was waking up to. "The oldest, Kate told me she was happy for me while the youngest, Sarah saw me taking out the cinnamon rolls and told me she liked them too," Steve mentioned. "I told her they were for someone at home who was obsessed with them," he looked at her knowingly.

"Kid has taste."

"They asked me if it was for the person I mentioned earlier and I said yes...then I told them who you were and they seemed to be more excited." Rose smiled kindly. "Sarah looked happy about sharing something in common with you...then Kate just talked about how great you were." Rose laughed lightly.

Rose hugged him as he finished telling his story, and they remained in that position for a while. "In all seriousness," she began, "you are happy, right? Even with everything that's been going on?"

"In spite of it..." Steve told her. "There's times that it gets to me...often but...I mean it, honey," he told her. "You do make very happy." He moved his head from resting on hers to look at her still keeping his arms around her. "I didn't know we'd end up like this but it's the best surprise in life I've ever had."

She smiled before saying, "I did." His brows furrowed. "Know we'd end up like this, I mean," she clarified.

"What?"

She moved her hand across his back. "I drew it...back at the compound, before Carol brought Tony back," she confessed. "I didn't know how but I knew it was gonna happen...It was a drawing about us, somewhat like this but lying on a couch in a living room, it wasn't so detailed but once we moved in here, and saw how we furnished the place...I realised that it was the place I had drawn," she explained.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked surprised. "Almost two years together and you hadn't mentioned it."

"I didn't want to push anything, serce," (heart) she mentioned. Her eyes twinkled when she saw Steve's expression become more lovely when she addressed him in that way. "I wanted us to figure out things naturally...not think about some drawing of the future."

"Well...we did it, didn't we?"

"Yeah," she kissed him softly. "Took us a little while though."

He chuckled softly. "Yeah. You know...Buck told me to make a move sooner," he told her. "Before it was too late."