𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒 || ( age of ultron )

↳ epilogue

↳ SLIPPING THOUGH MY FINGERS

" slipping through my fingers all the time, I try to capture every minute, the feeling in it, slipping through my fingers all the time "

new york cemetery
3 weeks later

it is a cold day in april when wanda maximoff sits at her siblings grave. she switches the flowers in front of the stone, the old ones long dried out. she bought chrysanthemums, evi's favourites. she watches the picture on the stone longingly.

it was taken when they were kids. it is one of the only pictures, wanda still has from her childhood. pietro held evi in his arms, one hand in her hair, the other around her little hand.

wanda has taken it. and she remembers the moment like it was yesterday.

"sit still I'm going to take a photo of you" ten year old wanda laughed at her siblings

"don't break the camera, wanda" her father said

"I won't"

"should I do this? or this?" pietro tested different poses that all looked ridiculous, but they made evi giggle at him.

"or should I tingle little evi?" he asked mockingly while he wiggled his fingers in the air threateningly. evi giggled even more and tried to hold his bigger hands in her small ones "pietro no!" she laughed. that were basically the only words she could say in english, understanding was easier for her.

pietro sat the little girl on his lap and held both her head and her hand while they both had to giggle. wanda snapped the picture in the perfect moment.

it is like a stab into the stomach when she thinks back like this. it only makes her remember all the time, they had lost and all the unlived moments that had been waiting for them.

"hello, wanda" says steve rogers as he comes closer to the grave.

"I like your hair" he says, while pointing at her head.

wanda strokes through her now red hair. "thank you, it might be stupid, but I did it because of evi, to have something that reminds me of her, that's also why I kept so many of pietros clothes"

"it is the opposite of stupid, wanda. they live through you" steve assures.

"thank you, steve" wanda looked down. "it feels like i lose them a little more, every day they're gone" she explains

"i understand what you mean"

"first I forget how they smelled, then I can't remember how it sounded when they laughed, they're slipping through my fingers and there's nothing I can do"

steve looks down, sadly. "you know the day that we lost them, you said you had promised something to evi, that she could be happy, a promise which you broke"

wanda nods at his implementation. "I promised something too. i promised her, that she could come home, when everything was over. that the facility and the avengers could be her home. her last words were-" he pauses, leaving a sob. "she told me, that I made her remember what it felt like to be someone's daughter"

steve looks at wanda. "i also promised her, that I would make sure that nothing could happen to her, because that's what a family does" he explains

"it's what a father does" he cries.

"thank you, steve" wanda says. "thank you for telling me this and thank you for being there for her when she needed you, I'm sure if we she had more time..." she leaves the sentence unfinished, but they both know what she wants to say

"I'm here because I searched for you" steve says, while he rises back to his feet. wanda stands up too.

"if you still want, we'd like to recruit you. you'll become an actual avenger, and I know it's not the same without your siblings, but if you still want we would be happy to have you on the team"

"i'm in" wanda smiles through tears.

they both take one last look at the grave individually and promise themselves something.

while wanda's promise is to make both her siblings proud, steve's is directed to evi.

they don't speak another word as they leave the cemetery, heading off towards the new avengers facility, in their heads the future that lays in front of them.

steve looks at the sky his promise in his head

'I'll be the best version of myself, so that i can one day be the father evina maximoff would've deserved'

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