The next mission
I didn't really relax until we were on the approach to the complex and Clint was throttling back so we could land. Conversation started up again, and we made an agreement to hang out the next night in the rec room, but right now everybody wanted to decompress in their own way. Steve and I walked home, to be greeted by a thrilled Torburn and Sigurd. Laura and the kids had collected the mail each day and put it on the kitchen table; I was pleased to see an envelope from the county in with the catalogs and junk mail and a small box. I stopped to open it, smiled, and showed Steve. I'd had his name put on the deed to the house, just in case anything happened to me. He gaped at me, then followed me up the stairs. I was desperate to get out of the suit, wash off Asgard, and get into some natural fiber clothing that fit. Steve joined me in the shower. So the whole natural fiber clothes thing could wait.
The privacy was such a privilege, though. The silence. No other beings, no other people. No crisis, no killing. It was such a blessing to be home.
After, I was just falling asleep when Steve awkwardly thanked me for putting his name on the deed. "It's our house now," I murmured, then went to sleep with his arm around me, in our bed.
I woke up when there was vigorous movement on the other side of the bed and my back was chilly. Rolling over, I smiled to see him wrestling with the small box from the mail. He looked over at me and smiled. "Wait a sec," he directed, as he finally defeated the tape and opened the box. Then he lay back down so that we were face to face. He pushed my hair off my face. "Listen, we need to talk. It's not bad," he hurried to assure me as the smile slid off my face. "I've been thinking about it for a long time, but this last mission has made me certain, beyond any doubt. I love you more than I thought was possible. I need you like... like water. I need your love and caring, your kindness, your strength, your brain, and your body. Will you marry me? I know I'm not much of a catch, I'm kind of an old guy, I have some trauma, I--" I cut him off with a kiss.
"Yeah, ok." I looked into his beautiful eyes. "Throw in a new uniform design and I'm yours."
I started to laugh when he did, and I nipped his lower lip. "Never heard of a proposal where the guy makes sure the woman knows what he thinks is wrong with him."
"I know it wasn't very romantic," he sighed. "But I wanted you to take everything into consideration. Our lives aren't easy. You could find a guy with more to offer, but you'll never find someone who loves you more."
I teared up. "I love you too. There's nobody who could offer me more, because you're everything I need. Yes."
We kissed, then he remembered something and took something out of the box. "I guess I'm supposed to show you this when I asked you to marry me, kind of an inducement," he said, joking, as he opened the ring box and showed it to me.
"Oohhhhh..." I breathed. "It's so beautiful."
"It's not a diamond," he said nervously, and I struggled to sit up since I was laying on my left side.
"It's the most beautiful sapphire I've ever seen," I said, and held out my hand. He slid it onto my finger and sighed in relief.
"It's different. And elegant, just like you. I wanted to get you a ring that is one of a kind, just like you." I was touched to hear how he thought of me.
"I love it," I said, sighing in pleasure. This time, I was on top, my hand flat on his chest so that I could watch the light play in the fabulous sapphire, the little diamonds winking, feeling him inside me.
"I got a lot of crap for how I said it in the arena," he said later, and I laughed. "So maybe you could be sure to say it was more romantic this time? We didn't go out to dinner, though, maybe I should have asked you with champagne and chocolates--"
"I thought it was romantic," I assured him. "The clothes-off option was definitely the way to go." He started to laugh, relieved, I think. "I might edit it a bit to remove the part where you were apparently telling me why you think you're not a catch, though."
"I would appreciate that," he agreed. We ordered pizza to celebrate.
After dinner, we stayed downstairs with the dogs and talked about how to incorporate his things into the house better, but he really liked the idea of the attic for his personal library and art studio. Then I called Peter to let him know we were all still alive and back on the planet.
"We just got back a few hours ago," I assured him.
"You don't look all that good," he said, looking at me closely. "I mean, you seem really happy, but you seem stressed out too. Was it that bad?"
"It was pretty bad in parts," I said, reflecting. "You'll be hearing about it in the debrief tomorrow. I'll be sure it's during your study hall. You can still get excused if they think it's about your internship at Stark Tech, right?" He nodded.
"Thanks for including me, Emma," he said. "I appreciate it."
"Did anything happen while we were gone?" I asked, and he had a few things that were New York-specific to report, but nothing that was beyond his capabilities, and I praised his handling of the situations, he'd had to bring Daredevil in on one.
Then I smiled. "And there's something else." I looked at Steve. "Steve and I are engaged. You're the first one to know."
"Really?" Pete said, sounding excited. "That's awesome. Congratulations!" Steve poked his head into the camera angle and Pete congratulated him too. "So when are you getting married? Can you do it during the summer so I can be there too?"
"I hadn't even thought of the logistics end," Steve said ruefully.
"We just got engaged this afternoon," I said. "I haven't even thought about the wedding. But yeah. The wedding will be when you can be with us."
After some more happy chatter, we hung up, and we went up to bed.
We slept in the next morning and took our time getting ready to go back to work. On our way over, Steve handed me a plastic ziplock baggie with a fine chain inside. "I almost forgot. When you're working, you can put your ring on the chain so it doesn't get damaged or lost." I smiled and stretched up to kiss his jaw. This is one reason why walking to work is much better than driving. Kissing without having to worry about a wreck. We kissed me a little more at my workshop, then he left me to my work and went up to get a head start on the paperwork for this last mission. I had a lot that I could be doing, but I spent an obscene amount of time that morning just smiling goofily and looking at my engagement ring. I did do some real work, though, and I spent time on the floor grooming the dogs and telling them what had happened. "I wish you'd come too," I told them as I brushed them and clipped their claws. "But I really appreciate that you looked after Odin." Sigurd spent a lot of time looking at me reproachfully or with concern, and Torburn barked anxiously at key points in the story, like when I was telling them about that orange guy. Then I asked what had happened here while I was gone, and they barked a lot, then gave the canine version of shrugging. I'd give a lot to be able to understand them the way they understood me. Then we went up to lunch, and security wanted to know what to do about Loki's cell.
"I don't actually know," I said, frowning, "but you can probably pack up everything, leave the boxes there until we figure it out." The senior man on the rotation nodded and we discussed it a little more before I had to go up to the debriefing.
It was closing onto five when we had explained everything to Nick's satisfaction and signed our statements about the action; our verbal statements had been made into documents by software and printed out; all we had to do was sign. "I think that's about it then," Nick said, gathering everybody's reports and stapling them.
"Not quite," I said, smiling as everybody looked at me. "Uh, Steve and I got engaged." I held up my left hand.
There was an audible intake of breath at the news and Steve looked smug, taking my hand and lacing our fingers. Then there were hugs for me and slaps on the shoulder for Steve, questions about when the wedding would be that we couldn't answer.
We adjourned the meeting and went down the hall to the rec room, where we had dinner brought up and an impromptu engagement party started. Tony put bottles of champagne into the refrigerator to chill during dinner, then offered the first toast. Later, he refilled my glass and asked, "So you're really ready to do this?" he asked quietly, and I smiled.
"Never more sure."
Natasha asked about wedding plans and where we wanted to honeymoon. Everybody had suggestions and opinions.
After the party broke up, we walked home, the stars winking overhead in familiar constellations. I took a moment to appreciate that.
"We don't have to get married right away," Steve offered. "We can take our time."
"Forget it, pal," I said, snorting, swinging our hands. "If I wait too long, you might come to your senses." He grinned a little, looking down at me. "But we can manage this however we want. We don't have to announce our engagement right away. Maybe right before the wedding." We walked along, thinking.
"Small wedding?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Definitely. Here? That way we can control the media access."
"Yep." We strolled along in silence, probably each of us picturing it our own way. There would be compromises as we agreed on things we both could enjoy.
"Where do you want to go for the honeymoon?" he asked, and I shrugged.
"I don't really care, since I plan on spending most of it in our hotel room," I said, and winked at him. He grinned.
"Can I surprise you, then?" he asked, and I agreed.
"Just tell me if we're going somewhere hot or cold so I can pack right," I requested, and he smirked.
"I thought you said you weren't planning on going out," he ribbed me.
I sighed and shook my head. "Gotta go to and from the airport, dear." He laughed and picked me up in a hug, swinging me around.
"But let's just spend a few days enjoying this," I said as we resumed walking. He held the gate for me. "Once we signal that we're planning, you know everybody's going to get involved, have opinions, all that. And that's nice and will definitely cut down on the work we have to do, you know what the team is like. Single-focused and determined. God knows what we'll end up with."
"Yeah," he said, chortling. "Let's relax a little before unleashing them on a wedding scenario."