Chapter Text
Steve was shaking uncontrollably as he walked up the steps to her door. He clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to make them less hot and clammy; failing miserably. He lifted one hand to the door, then withdrew it. Should he just leave a note? It was a little rude to just knock on her door at 7 o’clock in the evening without any prior arrangements. Prior arrangements. He chuckled to himself. It wasn’t as if he could just call her up and say ‘Hey Peg, it’s Steve from the future. Hope you’re doing great, just wondering whether I could pop in later for a friendly chit chat.’ No. he had to do this now.
He was still in his time travelling suit, his hair was tousled and falling into his eyes and he needed a good shave. It wasn’t exactly the reunion with Peggy he had dreamed about for so long; but it would have to do.
He rapped on the door once, his fingers trembling as he shoved one hand into his pocket and the other tightened its grip on the shield. She opened the door with a sigh, not looking up to see who it was.
“I admit that punctuality on a date is rather sweet Daniel, but I didn’t expect you so ear-.”
She finally looked up, their eyes locked. Her mouth formed a small ‘o’ whilst she raked her eyes up and down him. His mouth went dry. He wanted to tell her everything, to spill his heart out to her and hold her like he envisioned he could. But those were only dreams; in reality, Steve was a bumbling mess.
“Steve?”
After a few moments had passed, he quickly gathered himself and blurted out a sheepish, “Hi.” His face growing redder by the second.
She was still looking at him with an unreadable expression, her eyes filled with confusion and apprehension. But as soon as he had awkwardly muttered his greeting- just as he had done back at Camp Lehigh- all her previous despondency had vanquished. It really was her Steve.
“Get inside before someone sees you.” She chided quickly, but the ghost of a smile bloomed on her face, no matter how hard she tried to conceal it.
Steve took a few moments to comprehend the sheer grandness of her house, he admitted it looked rather big from the outside but looking at the interior it felt like it would go on for miles. He didn’t think the pay roll for an SSR agent could even begin to cover how much this place must have cost.
Almost as if reading his thoughts, she said softly, “It’s Howards place, me and my friend have been living here ever since that ass managed to kick us out of our boarding house.”
Steve raised his eyebrows in curiosity and slight amusement.
She smirked. “That’s a story for another time.”
But her smile quickly faded, “I just don’t understand, how are you… here.” Her expression grew dark. “This isn’t another one of my nightmares, is it?”
If Steve wasn’t red before, he was definitely red now. Does she have nightmares about losing him too?
He proffered his hand to her, his eyes searching hers. She took it hesitantly, their fingers touched. He placed her hand over his heart and held it there. Her breath hitched evanescently, but she soon regained her former composure. She felt his heart thrumming rapidly in his rib cage as she stepped closer to him. Instead of retracting her hand- as Steve thought she would- she just held it there. They stayed like that for a few moments, listening to the comfortable silence between them- the sounds of their hearts in sync.
“How?” She asked eventually, looking up at him with soft brown eyes that made his knees weaken every time he gazed into them.
“Would you believe me if I said I was from the future?” He couldn’t meet her gaze.
“Probably not.”
He chuckled wryly, “Well, it’s true.”
She inched closer towards him, her left hand firmly against his chest whilst her right rose to card through his hair. It felt as soft as she imagined it would, her fingers itching for more of him.
“Tell me.” Her expression unreadable, but her eyes were glimmering with piqued curiosity. Her hands gently ran through his hair, scraping her nails slightly as they traced his skull. He leaned into her touch like a cat, craving it. He nuzzled her wrist with his nose and finally looked down into her hazel eyes.
“I’m afraid its much too long of a story for tonight.” He breathed, trying to suppress the yawn that was brewing at the back of his throat. She opened her mouth to say something but was quickly interrupted by rapping at her door. She removed her hands from his hair and chest: Steve felt the sudden heat loss- causing him to almost let out a petulant grumble. She reached for the gun, stashed in her garter. Steve was far from surprised at her reaction. He stifled a laugh at the thought that Nat thought his type was girls from accounting.
She opened the door slowly, her gun up against the wall besides it. The hand her gun was in dropped, so Steve took this as a sign that they were safe, but her face was pensive and almost dour as she looked at the person on the other side of the frame.
Steve stepped to the right to get a better look at the person: he looked freshly shaven and was dressed up in an immaculate black and white suit, he was also leaning rather heavily on crutches. So not just a recent accident then he thought to himself, what if this is the mysterious war-time husband everyone said she married.
He hadn’t properly acknowledged it before, but Peggy was rather dressed up too: she was wearing a slim, figure hugging crimson dress with glossy red heels to match; her hair was done up in soft curls which tumbled down over her shoulders- a far cry from the messy bun she used to wear during the war. Steve’s eyes met with the mysterious man lurking in her doorway and the man dropped agape and looked back from Steve to Peggy and back to Steve again.
Steve flushed as red as Peggy’s lipstick as he looked down to his shoes, fumbling for words.
“I-I’m sorry. I- I didn’t realise you had plans o- or anything, not that I’m insinuating that you wouldn’t have plans or anything I just didn’t…”
Peggy raised her eyebrow at him, watching him intently. Steve had gathered that Peggy and this other man had intended to go out on a date before he had foiled both of their plans. He wasn’t mad at Peggy for moving on, as long as she was happy...
But he just wished he could be the cause of her happiness. He fumbled awkwardly for a few more moments, never managing to meet Peggy’s pressing gaze, so he ran: straight out of the door, past Peggy, and the other man.
What am I doing? He thought as he drowned out Peggy’s futile attempts at calling him back with his own deafening thoughts. When had he ever run away from something? Not even when he was a skinny 90-pound asthmatic had he run away from a fight. Yet here he was- running like a coward. It was just the sight of seeing Peggy with someone else that drove him to this state. Of course, Peggy’s already moved on, he thought to himself what were you thinking? All the pain of the past few years suddenly resurfaced, and even more tears started to stream down his face. Tears for his missed chance with Peggy, tears for Bucky who he had left behind, tears for Tony and Nat and all the others who had sacrificed themselves for the rest of the universe.
Now that he had a shot at happiness, he found her with another partner. The right partner, he thought. Didn’t that used to be him?
He didn’t know where he was going, just that he needed time to think. He continued to run, all the way to the Brooklyn docks and eventually up toward Capitol Hill- the sky was growing dark behind him as dusk settled but Steve didn’t care. Without looking at where he was going, he ran into a tall, lanky looking man.
“I’m so sorry, I ju-,” Steve started.
“No, no it’s alright, I should’ve been looking at where I was going too.” He replied with a small smile.
A confused expression was etched onto Steve’s face as he looked back at the man.
“You sound oddly… familiar.” Steve replied with his brow furrowed.
The man laughed, “And you look familiar…” He extended his hand. “Edwin Jarvis.”
“Steve Rogers.” He gladly reciprocated, having finally dawned on him that this was Howard’s butler that Tony talked about and eventually made into his AI.
Well, this is going to be interesting, Steve thought, his mood brightening. His heart still longed for Peggy, and he knew a small part of her yearned for him too. But he could never pressure her into anything, he would still wait. For her. After all, isn’t that what he’d been doing for the past 78 years?