chapter fifty-four
i'd marry you with paper rings

"𝐇𝐄'𝐒 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐙𝐘!"

Grace and Steve glanced up from their different activities on the couch and looked at Adelaide who came into the apartment in a huff.

"Who is?" Steve asked.

"Pietro Maximoff," Adelaide replied, with a hint of disgust. Ever since Sokovia had been destroyed, Adelaide had been tasked with helping Pietro adjust to the life of being a hero — the same way that Steve was trying to help Wanda. Unfortunately, things seemed to be going better for Steve than it was for Adelaide.

Grace sighed and closed her book. "What's going on now?" she asked as Adelaide lay down on the ground in frustration.

"He won't leave me alone!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air making Steve and Grace chuckle at her. "Stop laughing at me!"

Grace pressed her lips together. "Well, I'm sorry but it's kinda funny seeing you so annoyed by him."

"Just because Steve made me help him learn how to be a good person doesn't mean that he has to keep following me around like a lost puppy," Adelaide griped, glaring slightly at Steve. "This is all your fault."

He shrugged and turned back to the newspaper he had been reading. Grace let out a breath and leaned forward on her elbows. "You know, there might be a reason why he keeps following you," she said.

"And what's that?" Adelaide replied with a frown. "Because he likes to annoy me? Because he likes to see me get wound up by the very presence of him? Because he likes—"

"You," Grace interrupted and Adelaide looked at her. "He likes you, Addy. He teases you because he knows he can. And he knows that, deep down, you haven't done anything to stop him."

"Because he runs faster than a normal person!" she exclaimed, shaking her head in denial. "No, you're wrong, Gracie, he does not like me."

Grace sighed and leaned back on the couch. "Let me ask you something, Addy," she said. "You're a girl who is very capable of hurting someone else. Especially when that person annoys you. And yet... Pietro still stands. Why?"

"Well, because—he—I—" Adelaide groaned. "Now you have me thinking about it!" she exclaimed, looking at Grace. "Why? Why would you do this to me?"

"Because seventy-two years ago, I had a friend who kept bothering me until I admitted my feelings for the man sitting next to me," Grace said, smiling softly at Steve. "Because the longer you deny it, the more it hurts. It's not a bad thing, Addy."

"But... it's Pietro Maximoff," Adelaide replied, crossing her arms with a pout. "Of everyone, it had to be him." She stood up and let out a breath. "Thanks a lot, Gracie. Now it's all I'm gonna be thinking about!"

Grace chuckled at the blonde as she left the apartment. Steve glanced at her. "You just like to tease her, don't you?"

"It's my job," she replied with a shrug. "So this is your official warning that our kids are going to be incredibly annoyed by me."

"I do not doubt that that will be true," Steve said and she smiled just as her phone started to ring. She looked down at it.

"Why is Sam calling me?" she asked. "He's at the compound..." She brought up the phone to her ear. "Hey, Sa—" She frowned. "What do you mean you're fighting a little man?" Steve quirked an eyebrow upward and she shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there soon. Don't lose your mind yet." She stood up and let out a breath. "I think he's starting to lose it..."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

"𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄, 𝐈'𝐌 𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔, I was fighting a little man," Sam said as they stood outside of hers and Steve's apartment. "He was trying to steal something."

"What was it?" Grace asked, crossing her arms.

"I think... Pym's signal decoy from when he was with SHIELD." Grace paused and looked at him. "What?"

She scoffed. "Hank Pym," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. "Unbelievable... You know, he could have just asked nicely, but no... he had to go and steal it."

"I'm confused," Sam said as she unlocked the front door. "Who exactly is Hank Pym and why is he using a little man to do his work for him?"

Grace sighed, walking inside. "He worked for SHIELD back when Peggy and Howard were still there," she replied, dropping her keys on the kitchen table. "Which means that if he needs his old prototype, he's up to something..."

"Something we should be worried about?" Sam asked and she shook her head.

"Most likely not," she said, looking at him. "Hank Pym is a good man, he was just... a man who lost his wife and then was betrayed by Howard. He resigned but Howard refused. Frankly, I don't really care if he got the prototype back."

"So I lost to a little man for nothing?"

"Stop calling him a little man!"

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

"𝐎𝐊𝐀𝐘, 𝐖𝐄'𝐑𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄," 𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄 said, walking into Steve and Grace's apartment a few days later with Sam. "Is someone dying, is someone being beat up by a little man?"

Sam stared at her. "How did you hear about that?" he asked. "Grace told you, didn't she? Oh, I'm gonna kill her."

"You forgot that the compound has cameras," she said with a smirk. "I watched the whole thing. He destroyed you."

Steve glanced between the two. "What are you two talking about?"

Sam shook his head. "Nothing. Is there a reason we had to rush over?" he asked, sitting down at the kitchen counter.

Steve dug in his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box, opening it and setting it on the table. Sam and Adelaide looked down at the ring in the center. "Oh, my God..." Adelaide said, her jaw-dropping. "You're going to propose?!" Steve nodded wordlessly and the blonde screamed in happiness making Sam wince from the sound. "This is so exciting! How are you gonna do it? Is it gonna be big? Intimate?"

"Will you calm down?" Sam asked with a frown. "You're making my ears hurt."

Adelaide stuck out her tongue at him and Steve let out a breath. "I don't know," he answered in response to Adelaide's many questions. "I'm not very good at the 'big romantic' things."

Sam shrugged. "Well... how did you ask Grace out in the forties?" he asked.

"Uh, she was working on bombs for tanks and when I asked if she wanted to get dinner with me, she bonked her head on the tank and didn't believe me."

Sam looked at him before nodding. "Okay, well, recreating that won't work," he said, letting out a breath. "You could cook her dinner—"

"I can't cook," Steve interrupted. "I burned water and Grace won't let me forget it."

Adelaide shrugged. "Take her out to dinner?" she suggested. "Except that everyone knows who you are and wants a picture..."

"How about if you just order takeout?" Sam said. "Just try not to be obvious about what you're planning."

"I think if we should be worried about anybody spoiling it, it would be Addy," Steve contradicted, looking at the blonde who looked at him, offended.

"Hey!" She paused before shrugging. "Actually, that's a fair point..."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐓 Steve from where she was next to the stove. "Are you okay?" she asked him, turning back to the spaghetti she was making. "You've been quiet all day."

"Yeah, yeah." Steve cleared his throat with a nod. "I'm fine."

She quirked an eyebrow upward and shrugged. "Okay. Well, how are the new people looking?" she asked. "The twins, Sam, Addy... Are they starting to get into Avengers shape?"

"Mostly we just listen to Addy and Pietro bicker with each other," he replied with a shrug. "And if it's not them, then it's Addy annoying Sam. But Wanda and I have been working on her powers and how she can use them for good."

Grace nodded and pulled the garlic bread out of the oven. "Well, that's good," she said with a smile. "Did you want any wine?"

Steve watched as she crouched under the kitchen island in search of their bottles of wine and he looked down at the small velvet box he was playing with in his hand.

"Steve?"

"Marry me," he said quietly.

"What?" she asked, still looking for a bottle. "I didn't hear you."

"Marry me," he said again, this time a bit louder. There was a clunk and he looked over to see Grace rubbing her head having hit her head on the counter.

She blinked at him. "No, seriously... what?"

"I am serious," he said, placing the box on the table and she looked at it. "Marry me, Gracie. I told you, I want it all. A family, a life... I want it all with you."

She looked back at him, feeling tears well in her eyes. "You're actually serious..." she whispered, walking over to him. She nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "Yes."

"Yes?"

Grace nodded, cupping his cheeks with her hands. "Yes. Yes, I will marry you." She felt herself lift off the ground as Steve pulled her into a hug and she let out a laugh. "It took you long enough, Rogers..."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

an: surprise!

you all deserved some
happy grace-stave
moments before civil
war starts in the next
chapter...