The Sapphire Legacy (Steve Rogers)

Chapter 4

"What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Thor yells in his face. Thanos smirks and opens a portal behind himself, falling through it. "Thor? Where'd he go??" Steve stands up, pulling me with him. Steve holds onto my hand tightly, scared to let go.

"Steve..." We whip our heads towards Bucky who is turning into dust in front of us. "Buck?" "Ste-" he falls to the ground, dropping the gun, completely vanishing.

"Sam? Sam?! Where you at?!" We hear Rhodey yelling. I look around and see Wanda slowly turning to dust. I let go of Steve's hand and run to her. "Wanda..." I grab her hand as a single tear falls down her cheek. Steve walks up behind me and I stand up, burying my head in his chest and cry. He holds onto my body tightly as if I might vanish at any moment. Nat runs over to us and embraces me in a hug. "What the hell is happening?" Rhodey asks as Thor, Banner, Steve, Nat, and I stand around Vision's lifeless body. Steve kneels down next to him and then sits down, "what do we do now?" Nat asks.

"I don't know..."

- back at the avengers compound -

Rhodey, Nat, Thor, Rocket...a talking Raccoon..., Steve, and I arrive back at the Avengers compound and exit the quinjet. As the jet opens, I see Pepper standing at the front of entrance. I don't even wait for the jet to finish opening before jumping out and running towards her. She wraps her arms around me as my body collides with hers, "I came as soon as I saw what was happening." "Tony...?" I whisper and I hear her take in a shaky breath, "I still don't know." I squeeze her tighter as tears threaten to fall down my face. She pulls away and wipes a stray tear off my cheek before tucking a piece of hair behind my ear and giving me a weak smile. She looks behind me and smiles at Steve before turning around and walking inside.

He grabs my hand and we follow her inside with the others. "Let's all take a minute, get cleaned up." Steve suggests and everyone agrees. Steve and I walk towards our old rooms and he pulls me into his own, shutting the door slowly. "I was so scared that I would lose you..." He places his hands on my cheeks and I look up to see his blue eyes watering. I place my hands on his cheeks, "I'm okay, I'm here." He pulls me into a long kiss, not wanting to let go.

I break away from him and wipe the few tears off of his cheeks, "let's take a shower, yea?" He kisses my palm and we walk into his bathroom. We remain fairly silent as we change out of our suits slowly and step into the warm water. Steve rests his hands on my hips and his forehead on mine as we stand in a comfortable silence under the stream of water. Dirt and blood flow off of us and down the drain from the earlier events in Wakanda. I run my fingers through his wet hair and gaze into his eyes.

"I'm thinking about shaving the beard, what do you think?" He looks deeply into my eyes and pulls me closer. I run my fingers over his beard and lips, "I will love you with or without a beard." He kisses my nose and grabs the bottle of body wash and my blue loofa. He lathers the soap in the loofa and runs it all over my body carefully. I do the same to him and he winces a few times as I run my hands over a few forming bruises. "You're hurt?" "I'll be okay." He gives me a quick kiss and we rinse off before stepping out of the shower. I wrap a towel around my body and he wraps one around his waist.

"I'm going to go to my room and put on a change of clothes." I kiss his shoulder and walk out of his room and into my own. I sigh and look around seeing all the things I left two years ago. I walk into my closet and pick out a pair of leggings and one of Steve's t-shirts. I pull it on and it still has the faint smell of his favorite cologne. I smile to myself and walk back into Steve's room and see him in a white tank top and sweatpants, leaning against the bathroom counter, looking at his reflection after having shaved his beard. I walk up behind him and wrap my arms around him, "I think you look very handsome." He gives me a small smile and turns around, "I love you." "I love you too." I smile and stand on my toes to give him a kiss but hear a low rumble. I look towards Steve's mirror and see it shaking slightly. "Steve?" I point at it and he looks up.

We quickly make our way outside with Pepper, Rhodey, Nat, and Bruce to see someone flying a large ship in and landing on the large lawn. I grab Pepper's hand as the ship opens and Tony and another person slowly exit the ship. Steve quickly runs over to him, helping him down the stairs. They look at each other as Pepper and I run over to him quickly.

"Tony! Oh my god!" I throw my arms around his neck and let out a soft sob. He wraps his arm around me, letting out a sigh of relief and kisses my head, "I'm okay, I'm here." I let him go and grab Steve's hand so Pepper can hug him as well. Steve and Pepper help him walk into the compound to get him looked at by Bruce.

Pepper and I stay by Tony's side the entire time in the med bay while he is on IV fluids.

"Taylor -" "Tony don't, I'm just glad you're alive." I squeeze his hand tightly and lean my head against his shoulder. I hear him sniffle a little and look up into his eyes, "Taylor...I'm so sorry. I let my anger get out of control that day." I place my hand on his cheek and feel tears start to fall down my cheeks. I shake my head, "no, Tony. I'm sorry too. I'm sorry I never told you the truth about that night." He removes his hand from mine and wipes the tears that are falling on my cheek. "For what it's worth, I always knew where you were. I was sending Ross in all the wrong directions when I could." I smiled and let out a small laugh. "You finally got to see the world kid. I'm happy for you, and Rogers. If I had to choose someone to love my little sister, I'm glad it's him. Just, don't tell him I said that." I smile and stand up to place a kiss on his cheek. "I love you, Tony." He gives my hand a tight squeeze, "I love you too, Taylor."

Tony looks past me and towards the door. I turn around and see Steve leaning against the frame, "we know where to find Thanos." I nod and turn back to Tony, "I'll be back." I squeeze his hand and walk past Steve.

Steve's POV

"I'll be back." Taylor squeezes Tony's hand and walks past me. I start to turn around, "Steve." I look back at Tony laying on the bed. "Thank you for keeping her safe." I give him a nod, "I always will." I turn on my heel and follow Taylor into the conference room where everyone is gathered.

"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask "where would we go once his plan was complete?" His answer was always the same, 'To the Garden'." Nebula explains.

"That's cute, Thanos has a retirement plan." I look at Rhodey and he shrugs. "So where is he?" I look towards Rocket who pulls up a hologram of a planet, "When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago...On this planet." He points at the planet in the hologram. "The stones are there." Taylor leans towards the hologram, "so he used the stones again?"

"Hey, hey, hey...we'd be going in short-handed." Bruce stands up and walks towards us. "And he's still got the stones..." "So...let's get him. Use them to bring everyone back." Carol shrugs and looks around at all of us. "Just like that?"

I look at her and nod, "Yea. Just like that. Let's go get this son of a bitch."