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Steve ripped off another long strip of duct tape, pressing it over the seam where the two flaps of cardboard met and sealed them together. He put two more strips of tape at each end of the box to secure its contents before neatly stacking it onto the pile next to him.
One more box packed, just a few dozen more to go.
Time was crunching down on them with moving day just a couple days away. Tony had wanted to hire a crew to handle everything, but Steve had insisted they pack up their personal things themselves.
It was the end of an era. They were selling Avengers Tower and moving upstate to a larger facility just outside of the city. What started out as just a farfetched dream of six superhuman individuals was quickly growing into something far bigger than anyone could have predicted. With the team growing faster then they initially thought the current living space was quickly filling up so they decided to set up a bigger compound a few miles outside of New Yorker where there would be enough room for the new recruits and whoever else would come along to join the Avengers.
Besides, getting out of the city might paint a smaller target on their backs. Steve had never minded danger before, he welcomed it with open arms, but it wasn’t just about him anymore. Tony and him were married now with a kid, he couldn’t afford any dangerous anymore. Peter was almost two now and they needed a safe space for him to run around now that he could walk all by himself, so they were moving into a house just a few miles outside from the new compound.
Hopefully the distance from the main city might deter the crazy super villains from showing up at their doorstep. And if it didn’t, well the new facility was equipped with lasers so maybe that might keep them away.
He was going to miss the tower, sure, there were so many precious memories associated with the place – getting with Tony, marrying him, having Peter, but Steve was excited to move on and really get this whole family living situation going.
“Okay buddy, next one.” Steve said, setting down the empty box so that Peter could put things in it. Since Tony was busy packing up the kitchen, which meant sharp and potentially dangerous Items in the hands of a toddler, Steve was in charge of watching the baby.
He didn’t mind it, even if it made his job twice as hard by reminding the toddler every ten minutes ‘No no, were putting away the toys, not playing with them'.
Peter gave an excited and unintelligible shout as he picked up a random thing off the floor and dropped it into the box. There was no method or organizing to his packing, he just picked up whatever was on the floor and plopped it into the crate but hey, the kid was 22 months old, Steve’s expectations weren’t that high.
“Good job kiddo.” He encouraged when Peter dumped another item in the box.
The small boy made a happy sound and scurried over to grab another toy but wound up tripping over a big stuffed animal and tumbled, falling into one of the stacks of boxes and knocked them over.
Steve’s parental instinct took over, even if he could tell Peter didn’t have a scratch on him. “Oh, Peter. You okay?” He asked, hovering over the baby.
“Uh oh…!” The boy said, looking at the spilled contents on the floor. “Big mess.”
Steve laughed. “Big mess indeed. C'mon, let’s get this cleaned up.”
He set the box upright and started putting things back inside, struggling to make everything fit neatly a second time. Peter was helping him for all of 30 seconds before getting distracted. Again.
“No playing bud, we're putting toys away.”
Peter didn’t seem to hear him or care. Just like his father that one. He sighed heavily and snapped his fingers to get his attention.
“You can play later honey, right now it's clean up time.”
Steve saw the brief pout cross over his son's face, but he obeyed without throwing a tantrum, which Steve was infinitely grateful for because Peter was as stubborn as him and Tony combined when he wanted to be.
The toddler waddled over to put the toy in the box and that’s when Steve noticed the strangely familiar outfit that the teddy was wearing.
Fishing the toy out among the piles of Legos and action figures Steve examined it closely. The bear had white fur that had probably once been soft but had gotten rough over time. It was well used, he noted straight away, spotting where one of its original eyes had fallen out and been replaced with a small black button. The teddy bear would have been unrecognizable from any other if it wasn’t for the blue uniform that it was wearing, the iconic blue cowl with the ‘A' on it was a dead give away.
Peter had a lot of toys, something that was sort of inevitable with a wealthy billionaire father and half a dozen aunts and uncles who wanted to spoil the only baby on the team (Nat was surprisingly bad for that), but he’s pretty sure he would remember if someone gave him a Captain America bear.
“Kitchen's all done but we might need to get some new dishes – by the way, remind me never to make Dum-E or U help with packing ever again.” Tony walked in rambling, sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
As he made his way over Peter lifted his arms up in silent demand. Tony didn’t need to ask, bending over without hesitation to pick up the boy with a low grunt. “Geez squirt, what has Papa been feeding you, lead?”
“Hey, do you remember who gave us this?” Steve cut in, holding the stuffed bear up.
Tony furrowed his brows and knelt, sitting with his legs crossed and propped Peter up on his knee. He took the toy, his confused expression quickly fading into nostalgia.
“Yeah, I remember. This was my teddy from way back when I was a kid. Howard picked it up at an airport when he forgot my birthday.” He snorted, shaking his head as he stroked his thumb over the soft, black nose where threads had long separated and began to split. “I must have been, god, I don’t know. Five or six?”
He stared at the toy for a few more moments, probably remembering all sorts of memories.
“Where did you find it?”
“It was in one of the boxes.” Steve told him, scooting over to rest his chin on his husband’s shoulder. “Peter’s the one who found it actually.”
Tony smiled faintly at the teddy bear, reaching a hand up and gently placed it on the toddler’s back. “You know, I almost threw this thing in the trash when I grew up.” He said, nodding down at the teddy. “I wasn’t the nostalgic type, and I figured I’d never have a kid to hand it down to anyway.”
He glanced down at their son, who’s eyes where fixed on his father, wide circles of pure adoration. He smiled, looking back down at the toy in his hand and gave the bear a squeeze, remembering all the lonely days and nights where this little guy was there to keep him company.
Tony handed the bear to Peter, who grabbed at it with eager hands.
“I’m glad I didn’t.”
Steve grinned into Tony’s shoulder and pressed a small kiss into his skin.
“So am I.”