#hellostarlight20

Several minutes pass before Steve sighs and turns to Peggy. “Everything’s changed, Peggy. Everything. I’m not the same soldier you met in the War.”

“You’ve changed, yes.” Peggy agrees without hesitation. All she has to do is look into Steve’s eyes to see the depth of trauma, loss, and pain of another life lived, and yet… How can that be? It’s only been a few years since the war. 

“I’m from the future, Peggy. From 2023. They found me in 2011, frozen under a sheet of ice trapped inside the plane, and since then, I’ve been.. I was part of a team,” he pauses, taking a ragged breath, “to save the world and the universe from… bad guys.”

Peggy stares at him in shock. His highly edited revelation explains so much about his reclusivity thus far, but before she can ask questions, he continues.

“From the moment I woke up in the future, I never felt like I truly belonged. I was out of my time and was thrust into a fight that never truly felt like mine. I even reunited with an old friend, but… He has his own life to live, now. When I offered to, uh, return the tools we used to save the universe back to where they belonged in the past, I thought I might try to make our dance.”

Breath hitching with emotion, Peggy places her hand on Steve’s chest. It’s rather forward, but then again, he’d come all the way back from the future to find her. 

A tear slips down her cheek as she struggles to find words. “Was I still alive in 2011? Surely I lived a life without you already. Won’t you coming back change the future? What if I had moved on?” She pauses, breathing deeply to collect herself. “I’d just poured the last of your blood over the bridge, you know. Right before you found me. I was going to move on.”

Steve smiles, then, and it’s a fair shade brighter than any she’d seen from him since his return. “I think you moved on about as well as I did in the future… even when you were gone.” He swallows heavily, his eyes drifting shut at what she imagines is a painful memory. “It’s only ever been you, Peggy. When I saw my chance, I took it.”

Peggy steps into his arms, wrapping her arms around Steve’s muscular torso. He’s fraught with tension, as though he can’t quite turn off whatever instincts drive his constant alertness, a hyperawareness to his surroundings she’s observed with other veterans of the war, including herself.

“But what about…”

Steve presses a finger to her lips. “I’ve been told time will work itself out. We’ll just make a new future, together.” He blushes fiercely and takes a half a step away from her embrace. Scratching the back of his head, he averts his eyes, cheeks still flushed. “If you want to, that is. I don’t want to assume…”

Without giving him a chance to answer, Peggy rolls her eyes and steps to Steve, pushing up on her toes to press her lips against his. In an instant, as naturally as if he were meant to do so, his hands settle firmly at her waist, and under her touch, she feels a fragment of the tension in his body dissolve. Their kiss is nothing scandalous, nothing quite so dramatic as their first, but it’s perfect. 

After several delicious moments in Steve’s embrace, Peggy lowers herself back to the ground. He makes a soft noise of disagreement at her actions, refusing to relinquish his hold on her. 

“I think I like the idea of this future together,” Peggy says, her voice slightly breathy after their kiss. 

Steve smiles, then, and she realizes that everything they’ve gone through to get to this moment has been worth it. They can talk through all the complicated issues and paradox preventing details later.