from the minute he heard sam through the comms he knew that they at least stood a fighting chance.
with each passing second more heroes arrived and success looked more likely. they came and they came and they came, all summoned by doctor stephen strange and his friend wong.
steve didn't see delilah, he didn't hear her either. she was no where. he then realized maybe there was a chance that the reversal of the snap hadn't saved everyone.
but then, just as they were about to charge, a voice rang out over the battlefield.
he didn't turn around right away, but he would recognize that voice anywhere.
"well gosh, i hope you weren't going to start without me!"
floating above everyone on the ground, she dropped down right next to steve, a smile toying on her face although they were about to go fight for their lives and the lives of many others.
she just looked at him, taking all of him on for the first time in five years. the beard was gone but he was still steve, he was still good.
"well, are you going to kiss me or not?"
he just laughed and smashed his lips against hers, despite the chaos going on around them.
"i missed you." he breathed out, just as they were about to head into battle.
"i missed you times twenty. million."
he just rolled his eyes and turned to face the onslaught of alien assaulters, weapons poised and t'chari machines of war at the ready.
"avengers!" he paused as mijolnir flew into his hands, "assemble."
delilah scoffed as she flew forward and began blasting the aliens left and right, "i want to lift the hammer!"
she kept fighting on until she reached thanos, he just sat, untouched. he wanted the gauntlet, everybody did. which confused delilah seeing as it was just an ugly metal glove that was slightly iced out, but the colors didn't even match.
he looked up to her, the glow that was streaming from her body was enough to attract attention from anything. especially bugs, which did kind of suck.
"the goddess," he addressed her, similar to her dream, "you've come back for more?"
delilah just smirked and watched him with a smug look as her eyes gleamed with beams of light.
"you know what they say. kill me once, strike one. but kill me twice, strike three." she blasted him backwards, not killing him yet, just preparing him for wanda to beat the shit out of him, "so for your sake, you probably shouldn't kill me twice."
time skip brought to you by my non air conditioned dorm room right now
"and i. am. iron man."
and that was the end of it, they had won. thanos and his army had been snapped away like they were nothing. if they had won under different circumstances, delilah definitely would've waved them away, flipped them off, or done something obscene and rude. but tony was going to die and time was fleeting.
half of his face was burnt to a new level, he just sat, slumped against the wreckage with peter, rhodey, and pepper by his side. the people he loved the most, the people he deserved to be surrounded by in his final moments.
steve just stood and watched, tears streaked down his face as they mingled with the dirt and blood that also was stuck to his skin.
it broke delilah's heart, he was so happy to win, but his happiness faded immediately as he realized how they had won.
tony, who had been with him since the beginning. just like nat, but now they were gone. the few people that had seen him at the best and the worst, and the few that bothered to stick around. but now, without them, the present seemed partly empty.
even after the funeral, it felt wrong. it felt like it wasn't even real, like it was just a bad dream and no matter how hard he tried to pinch himself, he could not wake up.
his heart ached everytime he looked at delilah, who was trying so hard to keep it together for him, she had barely let herself cry. steve needed her, she couldn't be vulnerable until he was done grieving.
delilah met morgan, the little girl named after her. steve watched her as delilah braided her hair and played barbies with her. he thought she would be a great mother someday, just maybe not to his kids.
he could go back, to peggy, to the forties, to a time where he belonged.
"delilah." steve started one night as she sat in the room reading her book.
instantly she recognized the heaviness in his eyes and the guilt that plagued his voice and knew what was happening. he had to put the stones back tomorrow, he had an idea.
he could go back to his time, he could feel right.
"i know." she said softly, trying so hard to accept the unacceptable.
his heart broke a little when a tear slipped from her eyes, "what do you mean?"
"i know, steve. i know that it's been over for awhile and i just didn't want to accept it. i see it in your eyes, the pain. i see it now because i saw it in myself, i still do. you've become distant and you're so careful with what you say and what you do around me, like i'm just going to break. steve, you're turning into a stranger right before my eyes. but i understand."
"how did you-"
"i understand. if you're better off with her, back then, without me, then go. i'm going to miss you, fuck, i'm going to miss you so bad."
he shook his head, "no. delilah, this isn't fair. i can't do this to you."
"if you're going to stay here, with me, i want it to be because you want to. not because you feel obliged to."
"i don't feel obliged to, you're not making sense."
she held his hand and no matter how badly it hurt she continued on, letting him go.
"i am making sense, you know it too. i'll be whoever you want me to be, but i won't be the person that holds you back."
delilah was trying so hard to stop from sobbing when they released from the final hug, her heart aching because she knew what was about to happen.
she pressed a tear soaked letter in his hand, "please read this when you get there."
he nodded and smiled once more, kissing her forehead for the last time.
"i love you."
it took every ounce of self control that she had to not fire back with, "obviously not enough."
that's what hurt the most, the fact that they probably could have made it work between the two of them. that if steve was actually, truly, completely in love with her, if he was actually twenty times a million in love with her. but he didn't, she loved him more than he loved her. she always would.
she leaned on bucky as they watched the quantum tunnel pull him in. and just like that he was gone, to live on without her.
"are we going to be okay?" bucky asked, fear and worry laced within his voice.
delilah nodded slowly, "maybe not today, but someday. we'll be okay, i promise.
"where the hell is he?" sam was fuming as bruce was failing to bring the captain back.
bucky just shook his head and turned the other way, he too had been exposed to what steve was going to do: his plan, his stupid plan.
clear as day, the outline of an elderly man was seen against the lake as he sat on a bench, overlooking the water.
"go on." said bucky, urging sam to go. lord knows barnes couldn't go right now, he was too broken, too hurt.
sam took his turn, he was handed the shield.
delilah smiled slightly, the only light in the dark tunnel, as she turned to bucky, "let's hear it for captain america!"
they started to clap, all ecstatic for sam. this was his chance, he was going to fight to keep the legacy alive, but delilah knew he would be just fine if not better.
when she yelled for him steve turned around, his expression softening as he locked eyes with her tear stained face.
slowly but surely, delilah approached the old man that was once who she thought was the love of her life.
"everything turn out alright?" she asked, struggling to find her voice.
he nodded, "more than alright."
delilah couldn't lie, it did hurt to hear that he was just fine, perfect even, without her.
"how many?" she questioned him,
obviously referring to the number of kids he had.
"two," he smiled, pulling some incredibly old photos out of his wallet. they showed a little girl next to a slightly older boy, he pointed to the boy and then to the girl, "anthony oliver rogers and delilah natasha rogers."
she smiled softly but it was far from genuine, "naming your kid after me doesn't make this alright."
steve just laughed, knowing that she would definitely say something along those lines.
"i had a while to think about it and i've figured out that you're the first type of book. don't dim your own light, delilah."
she nodded, "i won't."
"promise me." he begged her, his eyes pleading.
"promise you what?"
"promise me that you'll move on. promise me that you're going to live a long and happy life without me. do whatever you want to do with whoever you want to do it with."
"i'll try. i just, god, i just wanted to do whatever i wanted with you."
that's it.
that's the end.
delilah's letter to steve
dear steve,
by the time you've read this, you're long gone. i guess i've spent this time trying to be a big girl because the last thing i want to be is the reason you don't leave. i just want you to be happy, even if maybe it means sacrificing something i care about. i love you, i always will. below are a few of my realizations and a little old trip down memory lane.
one of my realizations is that possibly good people are like books. i read something about it in the fault in our stars. it was beautiful, but you'll probably never read it. there's the books that you think are so wonderful, so important, and so prominent and life changing that the world must read them. but there's the ones that remain special and sacred to you, that if you share them they'd lose their magic. for awhile i've wanted to classify you as one or the other, but i don't think i can. i'm not sure anyone really knew you like i did. i mean, a few people thought you were the worst person in the world while others worshipped you, your bravery and your sacrifice. but me, i wanted to let the world know how good you are, but i guess that's her job now. i feel like that first day that we trained and we really talked, that night on the rooftop, and even when you came into my cell in the early days. we gave each other little parts of ourselves, and i don't think i'll ever share my parts of you to anyone. people scream your name everywhere, even me, but now you won't say mine back.
when i enter a crowded room, honestly any room for that matter, i always look for you. mostly because your laugh is so damn loud and the way you throw your head back when something is really funny. i thought you were so full of yourself, god, i hated you. at those stupid benefits and press conferences you were always at the mic and saying the right things. it was then that i realized maybe you weren't the worst person in the world. even still, when i was in prison and you came to see me, i would always look for you whenever i heard any noise outside the cell. i searched for your beaming smile and the bright blue of your eyes that shone brighter than the sun, brighter than me. i never told you that i was falling for you. then we moved on, but you were still the one i looked for in any room. i just wanted to catch your eyes so you would look back at me and i would feel like, even just for a second, that there was something about me that was worth looking at. when you didn't smile at me i would get so down on myself and felt like you were over me and i couldn't let that happen. a year later, and it's still
you. so, maybe, even if you're in some stupid dancing room with her. even if you're just in any room, crowded or not, i hope you look for me. i hope you look for me like there's something in me that you need to see to fill whole, even if it's a lie. because even if i won't find you in the rooms anymore doesn't mean i'll stop looking.
i want you to be happy, i really do. but i hope someday when you're all old and wrinkly, i hope you think about me and wish that you didn't let me go. god, i loved you. i always loved you. i still love you! i hate that it's not enough just because it doesn't make sense. it feels like a lie, like what we had never happened. how could you let me go? but you did it so easily, and i let you because i loved you.
i love you more, steve, i always did and i always will.
love,
delilah