Steve Rogers/Captain America One Shots

Lost

The sound of the heels on your brown boots echoed around you, as they advanced across the glossy floor beneath you. The flooring almost so clear that you could spot your strolling reflection across the white tile. With one click after another, the noise surrounded you, as you wandered down the wide open hallways of the new compound. Your eyes instantly drawn to every corner and crevice you passed, as you took in your new and somehow brighter surroundings. Large windows lit the way, and the afternoon sun shone through them with rays that bathed the floor in warm light. It was a beautiful place with the sunlight and the bright white surroundings, and yet somehow... it all felt cold. As though the very soul of this place was missing, and perhaps, in a way... it was.

There wasn't a single place that you could turn and not see something relating to the devastation that had plagued the world . Thanos... the snap... half of all living creatures vanishing as though never there to begin with. You had seen the way the Avengers lost, how all life suffered at Thanos's hand. You had seen the memorials, the walls with millions of names etched in stone. And even here, in this large building, you could still feel the underlying grief and loss within it's walls. 

"It's been too damn long since I last saw your face around here."

A warm and familiar voice made your head perk up, and spinning on your heel, you came face to face with an old friend. A playful smirk toyed at her lips, but her green eyes shimmered with the sincere smile you knew was beaming on the inside. And her red hair had now been braided back as streaks of bleach blonde bled their way throughout, but she was everything you remembered her to be. Beautiful, strong, and as you looked to her with a growing smile, someone you had missed dearly. 

"Hey Nat," You breathed your voice out softly, and stepping forward, you wrapped your arms around her neck. "I've missed you." You embraced her tightly after all the time that had passed you both by, and as you felt the warmth of her own hug soak right into you, it felt as though the years had never passed to begin with. 

"We've missed you too," She murmured softly in your ear, and it felt good to hear her voice again. "it's really good to see you. Here... and alive."

Pulling back slowly, you smiled bittersweetly at her, before your eyes dropped to the shiny floor. "Is he here?"

If you hadn't caught the way her chest lifted at the sharp intake of her breath, you could hear it in the dense silence that followed your question. And watching the way her eyes scanned your face for the faintest moment beforehand, Natasha finally nodded her head hesitantly. 

"Yeah," She hummed cautiously. "he's here."

It felt as though someone had strapped a heavy ball and chain around your ankle, and thrown you into a crashing tide. Leaving you struggling for a breath beneath the waves that threatened to drown you the deeper you sank. For your chest burned from the lack of oxygen to your lungs at the thought of seeing him after all these years. And your stomach felt full of stones and yet you feared you might throw them all up from the churning that swirled inside of you. But there was a breath of relief that released from the depths of your heart that you hadn't been expecting, and you knew it was from the knowledge that Steve Rogers had survived. That he wasn't another name on the walls, that he wasn't just a memory in your mind. He made it and your heart swelled at the news. 

"Can I see him?"

Your voice shook with the words, that pained your heart to ask. For the memories and the pain instantly rushed back to you as soon as the nervous words escaped you.

Nat spared you a kind smile, and nodded her head. "Of course. He's looking over some data with Bruce, they should be in the first room on the left."