In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

30

Sliding an arm around my waist, which turned my head toward him in question, he took the chance to catch my lips in a kiss.

"Are they kissing? I know that silence is not them kissing," said Tony.

Breaking apart, Steve sighed.

"You forgot to switch the lines, again?" I asked.

"Cap, did you kiss her?" asked Tony eagerly.

"In the middle of what could possibly be the end of the world?" asked Barton.

"Relationship goals, or what?" said Natasha lovingly. Coming closer, she winked at Steve, causing the blush on his cheeks to darken.

Directing the team back to a serious mode, Steve asked, "What do you got, Stark?"

"Nothing great," he admitted, "Maybe a way to blow up the city."

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. You're going to have to make a choice."

"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." said Natasha.

"Not 'til everyone is safe," disagreed Steve.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there."

"If we can gather the civilians here, I can open portals to get them off," I offered, "I can't leave knowing there's still people on here."

"I didn't say we should leave," mumbled Natasha. She shrugged."There's worse ways to go... Besides, where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

Pondering her thought, Steve looked out over the cliff. Wispy clouds were all one could make out, not that there was much to see in the sky anyway. Calming, in the time of doubt we were going through.

"I suppose if I had to go, by your side wouldn't be bad," I whispered.

Although our eyes were on the clouds, Steve's hand found its way into my own.

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff," a familiar voice said through our earpieces, "It's about to get better."

From under the rock of Sokovia emerged a helicarrier.

Steve squinted to see it, but his lips curled into a smile. "Fury, you son of a bitch."

"Ooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Zipping in front of us, Pietro asked, "This is S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D is supposed to be," mumbled Steve proudly.

Pietro glanced back at us, a small smile on his lips. "This is not so bad."

Gaining my sense of determination back, I said, "I say we load those pods up."

"You heard her, team," said Steve.

Near the edge of the rock, a pod dropped a ramp on the ground. Standing on a car in front of the pod, I waved my hands in a circle, gesturing for civilians to enter the pod. Masses of people fled through the intersection, filling two pods in a couple minutes.

"Hold it, Clara!" called Steve.

I halted the civilians from running. I waited for the pod to slide from the edge. Once it was replaced, I dropped my hands for the remaining civilians to load it up.

"Avengers, time to work for a living!" shouted Tony.

Helping me down from the car, Steve asked, "Where?"

"The chapel."

"We passed it," remembered Pietro, trying to refresh my memory, "It's near the--"

"Right, right," I said, nodding, "Got it. Find your sister."

Waiting no longer, Pietro sped in the direction of the chapel, in search of his sister.

Steve and I jumped through a portal.

Being the missing two, Stark teased, "Romanoff, you and Banner better not be playing Hide The Zucchini."

"Relax, shell head. Not all of us can fly."

Punching a hole through part of the chapel, Hulk joined us.

Ducking past him, Natasha asked, "What's the drill?"

Stark pointed at the cylinder in the center of the chapel. "This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."

It was then we heard the stampede of feet against the pavement. We all sent each other nods of agreement, ensuring protecting the core was our shared responsibility, before we fanned out along the edge of the chapel to see what the stampede brought.

Ultron hovered in the sky outside of the chapel. A dozen or so robots were positioned underneath his floating figure.

"Is that the best you can do?" bellowed Thor.

Ultron raised his hands. From every which direction, the remaining robots on the rock of Sokovia were summoned to meet us.

Steve sighed. "You had to ask..."

"This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted: all of you against all of me," said Ultron, humorlessly chuckling. "How do you possibly think you can stop me?"

"Well, like the old man said," said Stark simply, "Together."

With a roar from Hulk, the fighting commenced.