Miss America

Chapter Ten

You and the rest of, as you're now known 'The Avengers' take Thor and Loki, who is handcuffed and muzzled, to a blocked off area away from people. The sun is shining, and the beauty of the day makes you all feel like something great was achieved. You all shake Thor's hand in gratitude of each other as well as goodbye, at least for now. You're standing next to Steve as Tony opens the Tesseract's case, allowing Bruce to take it out and place it inside a glass tube, held by Thor. You watch in intently as Thor offers the handle on the other end of the tube to Loki who reluctantly takes hold of it As Thor twists the handle they both disappear upwards you watch them go, finally feeling like it was over. You say your goodbyes to the rest of the group, Bruce and Tony driving off one way. 

"Will we see you in HQ then?" Natasha looks at you and Steve. 

"We'll think about it" You shrug, you and Natasha knowing full well there wasn't anything else you could do with your life now. She nods, says goodbye to Steve as she and Clint head off in a SHEILD car and drive away. 

"And then there was two." You look up at Steve. 

"And then there was two" he repeats "you know, I really thought I might loose you when you went through that hole." He looks at you. 

"Someone had to, if I hadn't Tony would." You shrug. 

"Y/N. .  you saved a lot of lives and I know you did the right thing but. . . if we go to SHEILD if we do this, you have to. . . " 

"Have to. . .?" You look at him frowning. 

"Remember that, you're no good to the world if you're dead. . . You said flying up there its what Bucky would have done and well he did, but he wouldn't want you just to die for the sake of it Y/N. . . he would want you to be happy, live a life." 

"It makes me feel a little nauseous and guilty to think that but you're right, I know he wouldn't want me to die." You both being walking towards the Harley. 

"He would want you to be happy, you have the rest of your life in front of you, all the stuff you never got to do." 

"What are you suggesting?" You pause and look at him. 

"That we don't have to be alone. Either of us." You blink at him "seeing you unconscious, dead I, I don't know I just, apart from Peggy I guess no one has ever stirred feelings of any strength like that for me before and maybe its always been there, maybe it was just seeing you back to a little of how you were before but, I really think we could. . ." 

"Steve?" 

"Hmm?

"I won't lie I still need some time. . ." you pause "can we see what happens?" 

"Of course" he hugs you and you hug him back "you need a lift?" He motions to the Harley. 

"Sure" you smile, jumping on the back of the bike, arms around Steve. You sigh as you lean your head against his back, maybe it was time to move on, start anew, Bucky had been dead for 66 years, he wasn't coming back so why did it feel so wrong to even consider moving on. You started to let your reality close in on you, you were 66 years into the future and things were never going to be the same again so you could either try to make it work or spend the rest of your life waiting for Bucky to come back from the dead. 

. . . . . . 6 Months Later . . . . . .

"Remind me again why you're still not agreeing to a date with Steve?" Natasha asks and you both storm through the halls of a building taking out gang members. 

"Because" you blast three out the way "It still feels like I'm betraying James." 

"The one that died like nearly 70 years ago?" Nat slid across the floor wiping out a guy before tasering another "we're in" she says through comms. You both receive some instructions about where some hostages were being kept. "You two get along so well, he adores you, he's cute" She shrugs.