Into the War || A Captain America Love Story

epilogue.

STEVE
five years later.

The sun peers through the thin curtains in the bedroom, shining across our bed like a spotlight as bright as one you would find in a theatre. The bright morning rays manage to find their way through my eyelids, white light engulfing my vision. I go to pull my pillow over my head to shield myself from it, but I feel a weight on top of me, and it isn't my wife.

"James," I mutter, trying to peel my drool-drenched t-shirt from my skin and pulling my pillow to cover my face. I hold my five year old son up on to me by having my arm right under his rear to keep him from rolling off the side of the bed. His dark brunet hairs stick out in every direction underneath my chin.

I glance to my right, searching for the only person who is supposed to be in here. Sure enough, Tori sleeps soundly with her arm draped around our small three year old daughter, whose long dark eyelashes curl as her eyes flutter in her sleep like her mother's. My eyes dart to the clock, and it's barely past seven. If the kids aren't going to wake up soon, then we'd have a little bit of an issue, even if we already have one.

I bring my dominant hand to interwind my fingers with my wife's hand, trying to get her to wake. It works, and Tori's eyes shoot open. Her brown orbs are wide, but they close as she realizes that it is only me.

What time is it, she mouths to me.

Seven, I reply.

She groans softly, throwing her head back into the pillow. She runs her finger's through our daughter's, Sarah Willow, curly blonde locks. Sarah soon wakes, burying her face into her mother's chest. She was named after my mother and Sam, as we promised all those years ago.

"I don't wanna get up, Mommy," she mumbles, holding Tori's hand in her smaller delicate one.

"You don't have to, baby," Tori replies, holding her closer to her, "but Auntie Nat is coming over soon, and so are Uncle Sam and Uncle Tony and Uncle Buck—"

"Uncle Bucky?" James asks sleepily, rubbing his eyes as he wakes up. "When is he coming?"

"This afternoon for your birthday, buddy," I tell him, smiling. It's been five years already, and he's already getting so big. "Happy birthday, Jay."

James's eyes widen with surprise as he bolts upright, looking down at me. "It's my birthday? I forgot!"

"You didn't forget, silly," Sarah says. "You've been telling Mommy and Daddy all the time that your birthday was soon."

I nod, glancing up at my surprised son with a smile. "Your sister's right."

"But Mom!" he exclaims. "How did I forget?"

"I'm not sure, but now you remember, right?" Tori says.

James bobs his head up and down in confirmation.

"Happy birthday," she says. She sits up, leaning over Sarah to give him a big embrace. "You're getting to be so big."

"Ugh, Mom!" he giggles, shaking his head. He, however, sinks into her embrace with a satisfied grin.

"Happy birthday, Jay," Sarah smiles at her big brother, squeezing in between him and my wife to hug him. He eventually gives in, wrapping his arms around her.