Helping
The weeks went by and Kat and Steve fell into a routine. For the first week, Kat stayed inside while he went to the tower to work with the foundation. She still wasn’t ready to immerse herself into the world. She still hurt. She still missed Loki. She had replaced the picture frame she broke and had it sitting on her end table next to the bed. She bought all kinds of books to keep her occupied, her new favorite spot becoming her hanging chair. Steve found her asleep in it several times that week.
By the second week, she was going to the tower with Steve, bringing a book, but always just hanging out in the background. She had begrudgingly agreed with Steve when he said she needed to get out of the house. Pepper had given the reigns over to a man named Jared, who had been her assistant with The September Foundation. He was peppy. Too peppy for her, but she liked it. He was nice, and she could tell he really liked his job and wanted to help people.
He and Steve decided where to set up support groups and where help was needed the most. The most tragic part about it all was all the children that were now orphans. Kat’s head popped up at this. So many children had lost their parents to the snap, from newborns to teenagers. There just weren’t enough group homes and foster homes to go around right now.
“So, we need to make more.” She said from her chair at the other end of the table. “Make more?” Jared asked. Kat nodded. She looked to Steve before getting up and walking closer to them. “We have to make sure these kids have somewhere to go, whether it’s a group home, or foster families. We can’t let them be on the streets. It’s no place for a kid, especially now.” She told him with a cracked voice. She looked down when she felt Steve’s hand on her arm. He knew this was a sore subject for her and he was happy that she wanted to help.
“We can check and see if we have any houses that we could use for homes and see who could run them.” Jared said, puling up some properties on the screens.
“Kat, you could run them.” Steve said.
“I wouldn’t know the first thing about running one. I was on the street as a kid, not in a home.” She told him. “But that’s exactly why you should run it. You know what these kids need better than anyone.” He reassured her. She nodded and looked over to Jared. “Whatever we have to do to help these kids, let’s do it. Every child gets a home.” She said. She was determined to make this happen. She did not want any of these children to have to go through what she did.
It took almost a week to go through all the police files of the kids. Most had wondered into police stations, wondering where their parents had gone. There were over five hundred children without parents in Manhattan alone. That made Kat’s stomach turn. How many were there in the country? Could she really help them all?
The first step was to find houses big enough to put the kids, then she had to staff them. She kept siblings together at all costs and was able to put kids in homes by age groups. There was one for babies from newborn up to a year, then there was one year up to five years, six to nine, ten to thirteen, fourteen to sixteen, and then seventeen and eighteen-year olds had a house. Those kids could go out and gets jobs, to prepare them selves for when they were too old for the group homes.
There were also a lot of people willing to take in kids. People who had lost theirs in the snap, or people who had always wanted kids, but could never have them. There were no outrageous fees to adopt, Kat had made sure of that. She just wanted these kids to go to a good home and be loved.
Steve was incredibly proud of Kat. She fell into the role so quickly, and it suited her. The look she got on her face every time a child got adopted or placed with a foster family is the reason Steve wanted her to live with him. She was healing. This was helping her heal. She laughed more. She looked healthier.
Kat was teaching Steve how to cook. He thought it was a terrible idea but agreed when she gave him her best puppy dog look. They started off with simple things, like spaghetti, and mac and cheese. Things that she was sure there was no way he could screw up. She had been horribly wrong.
“Oh my God, Steve, what did you do!” She yelped as she let the mac and cheese fall from her mouth back into the bowl. Steve took a bite and did the same. “I don’t know! I followed the instructions!” He said, getting the box off the counter and handing it to her. His face turned into confusion when she started laughing.
“Well not only did you not cook the noodles long enough, they are like rubber, but you didn’t put milk or butter in it. So, it’s noodles and cheese powder. That’s why it’s awful.” She said holding her sides she was laughing so hard. Steve pouted and got up, taking both their dishes over to the trash can, dumping the gross powdery noodles in, followed by what was left in the pot.
Kat came up beside him and patted his arm, laughing again when he glared at her. “Oh, come on Steve, admit it, that was pretty funny.”
He crossed his arms and turned to her. “I told you I couldn’t cook. I told you this was a bad idea.” Oh. He was mad. “Hey.” She said softly, placing a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. If you don’t want to try anymore, that’s okay, I really don’t mind cooking all the time.” She told him. He sighed and shook his head. “No, I want to learn. Maybe next time, just…I don’t know, hang out and watch me? Make sure I do it right?” He asked her. She smiled at him. “Deal. Now, can we order some pizza, I’m starving and somebody ruined the mac and cheese.” She teased. He flicked the hand towel at her and she yelped, pulling the pizza menu off the fridge and picking up her phone, jumping up on a bar stool, tongue between her teeth as she read over the menu.
Steve watched her as she ordered their pizzas. He had grown very fond of her over the past few weeks, and he knew she shouldn’t even think of having feelings for her but he couldn’t help it. She was beautiful, he knew that from day one. The way she had been with the homes and helping all these kids made Steve like her even more. He had no right to though. Not after everything that she had lost. He would push the feelings he had for her deep down and focus on being her friend and helping her heal.
She looked up at him and winked sticking her tongue out at him while she was on the phone with the pizza place.
He just smiled back at her. Yeah, push those feelings down Steve.
Because that’ll work.
Right?