I Will Always Come Back for You

Chapter 7: Sharing is Caring

It was refreshing, to say the least, getting to see her family again. With everything that had been going on in the past week or so, getting to fly back to Iowa with Clint for Thanksgiving was like a breath of fresh air. She swore Cooper and Lila had somehow gotten bigger since she'd last seen them, despite it only having been a couple of months since her last visit.

There was always something about the way the air smelled on the farm and the isolated part of the world they were in that let Lily unwind and let out stress she may not have even known she had. Every time she went, she would ask herself why she didn't come back more often and promise herself that she would fix that, but almost every time, she somehow managed to break that promise.

The only reason she didn't stay longer this time around was because she'd promised Steve she'd make it back in time to eat dinner with him. A late dinner, but dinner nonetheless.

The two had started the tradition - if you could really call it that yet - the previous year. They'd gotten back from a mission too late for Lily to make it back to Iowa in time for dinner, so Steve and Lily had gotten takeout from KFC and had their own little makeshift Thanksgiving dinner together. Lily didn't only want to carry on that "tradition" this year because she had fun last year, but because Steve was her best friend and she didn't want him to have to be by himself on Thanksgiving.

With her and Clint in Iowa, Natasha away on a mission, Tony in Malibu with Pepper, Bruce in Dubai for a conference, and Thor and Loki being Asgardian - a.k.a. having no interest in the holiday whatsoever - that left Steve all alone, and Lily wasn't going to have that. So, she promised him she'd be back in time to get some KFC before the one around the corner closed down for the night.

So, having left Clint in Iowa to spend more time with his wife and kids, Lily flew back to New York and, as promised, picked up a meal fit for a king from their local KFC. It was times like these, with her arms being fully stuffed with bags on her way upstairs, that made her really appreciate having JARVIS around. All Lily had to do was tell him what floor she wanted to go to, and he would take her there without her having to press any buttons. She'd just gotten the right grip on all of the food and she was worried that if she put it down, she wouldn't be able to pick it back up.

Finally having made it to the correct floor, Lily carried their takeout down the hallway and over to the lounge.

"You know, I get that you're, like, super-human or whatever, but did we really have to order enough food for a family of eight?" she called into the room.

Looking over at Lily from his spot on the couch, Steve's eyes widened.

"Geez. Okay, let me help you," he said, practically jumping off of the couch to jog over to her.

The minute she felt the weight of one of the bags leave her arms, she let out a huge sigh of relief. Together, the two of them brought the food over to the counter and set them down. Once the bags were out of her arms, Lily shook them out to get some of the feeling back into her fingertips.

"Thank you," Lily breathed out. "That was way heavier than it looked."

"Of course," Steve said. "If I'd known it was gonna be that much, I would've offered to go with you. Or at least I would have met you at the door."

Lily waved her hand. "Nah, that's okay. I needed the exercise anyway. Gotta pre-work off all those calories I'm about to eat."

Steve chuckled and began emptying the bag's contents onto the counter. When they finally finished and threw away the paper bags, they stared at their food with wide eyes as they realized their error.

"Geez, this really is a lot of food," Steve commented.

"Maybe next year we cut this in half," Lily suggested. "Just looking at this amount of food makes me feel sick."