@artificiallyimplantedmemories said: “ spending the rest of my life with you doesn’t sound so bad ” (EVA VERSE EVA VERSE) starring @nowand4eva
The fact that he wants to marry Natasha one day was not a secret thanks to a blurt-mouthed Eva who’d exposed Steve the very day that he’d confessed to the girl that he wanted to be in Natasha’s life for the rest of his life, and by default to be in Eva’s life, too. In hindsight, perhaps that had been a heavy thing for a girl so young to hear, but Steve wasn’t in the business of sugar coating facts or dancing around the truth when it came to Eva, or any of his kids, really, though some questions did require some creative work-arounds.
He wouldn’t have said it if he hadn’t been sure. He’s never felt the pressure of being in Eva’s life, never felt trapped just because they’d clicked instantly and never felt the need to search for an escape from it all ---- he’s never been one to half-ass anything and especially so when it came to the people he loved.
It’s years after Steve had been thrown under the bus by Eva, having to spill his confession of wanting to one day marry Natasha to the woman’s face despite not being ready for her to hear about it, despite not wanting for a hurried, embarrassed admission of his feelings that sounded more like he was making excuses because Eva had all but accused him of not wanting to marry her mother to be how he would one day, eventually want her to find out.
They’re at Eva’s school, leaning against the side of Steve’s car as they wait for Eva to come out after her last class. A lot of anything that they do seems to revolve around Eva’s schedule, but that was the joy of parenthood. Steve had never envisioned if to for himself; he loves children, hence his chosen career. But he’d never really had the spouse, the two children, the white picket fence dream. Even before enlisting. He’d never understood how it could be in any way fulfilling . . . until, of course, he’d met Eva. And Natasha. He’s not sure who he’d fallen in love with first; they’d both kind of just struck through his heart without warning, embedded themselves so deeply within in his life that he couldn’t for a moment imagine what it would be like without them.
Natasha’s admission, or, revelation comes as the children start filtering out of the building, high pitched screaming and rush of little legs taking them to their friends and waiting parents. It’s chaotic. And there’s Eva in the middle of it, arm in arm with one of her best friends. Steve turns to Natasha, wondering if he was taking too much meaning out of a simple statement, triggered by what Steve can only assume is the mundanity of their lives --- lives that the neither of them had envisioned for themselves, possibly never even thought was possible. Whether he deserved this happiness that had swept in with the hurricane that was Natasha and Eva was a different question, but it was something he would learn to make peace with to ensure he still got to have this. Just as Natasha and Eva are good for him, he knows that he’s been a welcome addition into their lives, too.
Steve looks at her and swallows, eyes searching hers for the real meaning to her words. He finds it, amidst a whirlpool of green, something that he’s been waiting for for years now. I’m ready.
When Eva finally reaches them after dropping her friend off at her father’s car, Steve has pulled Natasha close to his chest, her face tucked into his neck, his chin resting on top of her head as he blinks defiantly against threatening tears. It had never been about the ceremony or the official certificate. Marriage couldn’t offer any greater permanence than what already simply was. The two of them, with their second doover at life know better than anyone that there’s nothing permanent about life, but for the foreseeable part of it, Steve wants it to be them. And that vision goes and on and on and on over the horizon. He wants it so badly it’s stifling, and to simply know that Natasha was ready for the same thing . . . well, it’s only barely that he stops the tears from falling.
‘ Daddy ?? Mommy ? You okay ? ’ comes Eva’s concerned voice, and Steve lifts her up so she can be part of the hug.
