Reality in Motion

taking it day by day

"Is everything alright, dear?" her calm voice pulled him from his thoughts. Eyes moving away from the horizon in front of them, he turned his head so he could look at her instead. A semi-embarrassed blush colored his cheeks at the realization that he had been caught daydreaming. If you could really call what he was thinking about daydreaming. More like reliving a moment from the past. He ducked his head down and let out a slight laugh.

"Yeah, sorry, just thinking." he told her and she tsked.

"You do too much of that." she lightly chastised, lifting her teacup to her lips before reconsidering her statement, "But also not enough." he grinned at her, twisting the ceramic coffee cup around in his hand.

"Heard that before, Peg." he sighed, leaning back in his chair, "Mostly from you." she gave him a brief smile, her eyes twinkling a bit as she took a sip of her tea.

Today was a good day. Which was a miracle in Steve's eyes. There hadn't been many of those in a long time. The last good day he had with Peggy was the same day he got coffee with Sharon almost three years before. Every time since, when he came back to D.C. to visit Peggy, it had been painfully obvious that she was just getting worse. Limited time. A never ending theme in his life — especially with Peggy.

But that day he came to find her actually out of bed, up and moving around. Excited and happy to see him. She had gotten her nurse to bring them tea, coffee and a few pastries to eat out on the small balcony she had. Since the weather was nice, despite the cold spring they had been dealing with, and they could properly enjoy each other's company instead of her being stuck in a bed and him sitting by like they were in a hospital rather than assisted living.

Another dead end in the hunt for Rumlow had brought him back to D.C. The tip he had gotten from Q hadn't led anywhere helpful, but he couldn't fault her for trying. At least they were talking again. And even, on a rare occasion, Skyping. Talking about the new Avengers, or whatever sort of thing Dawson had a compliant about. Never about her missing person's case or his search for Bucky. Still, it was the small steps - and actually having contact with her was one big small step.

So while the rest of the team went their separate ways: Sam to the VA to attend a meeting, Natasha to check in on how the Triskelion clean-up was going, and Wanda at the safehouse, Steve had decided it was the perfect opportunity to visit an old friend. Which turned out to be exactly what he needed.

"What were you thinking about?" she asked after a moment, "Something good, I hope." he gave her a quick grin from behind his coffee cup.

"That time you tried to introduce the Commandos to English tea." he reminded her, "After one of the Hydra raids, we had all come back to base and found our coffee supply was gone, so you brought out tea." Peggy smiled a bit as she remembered what he was talking about,

"Yes, right and it was Dum Dum who told me that tea was just wet leaves." Steve laughed, ducking his head down to hide his smile, "And Barnes forced everyone to act incredibly proper - dramatically so." he glanced at her with a grin, remembering how straight Bucky sat, pinky out and mocking Peggy's accent. All in good fun, of course, but it didn't stop her from gently slapping him upside the head.

"I think that was the first - and last, time any of them had tea." he told her with a slight furrow of his eyebrows.

"I'm not surprised." she sighed, relaxing into her chair a bit, "How are the men doing now that the war is over?" she asked. It took a beat for Steve to realize she was serious - and had forgotten that almost all of them were dead.

"Uh," he cleared his throat, "good," he played along with her, not wanting to trigger anything or ruin their mood, "Good, all back home with their families, living very boring lives and avoiding tea." she smiled at his joke, and he tried to do the same - ignoring the dread in his stomach and the sadness in his heart at knowing the truth.