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Steve closed his eyes, he couldn’t bear to watch all the faces of the people gone in the Snap flashing in front of him. At some point, you started to get accustomed to people dying, or, better, that was what he thought. It wasn’t, living more than one hundred years proved him that much. Maybe, he hadn’t been alive for so long, or maybe it was just a stupid lie people told to each other in the hope that thing would have been better, that suffering would eventually come to an end.
He couldn't stand it. He looked at all the people in the room and understood that the meeting, another useless one that didn’t produce any effective result, was over so he walked out of the room, wanting to leave at his back the Compound, forever.
Steve knew he couldn’t do that much, but a couple of hours out in the streets always helped him more than everything else, so he took his motorbike and started to drive without a specific place where to go in his mind.
Somehow, Steve found himself in Brooklyn, or maybe, that was the place where he had always wanted to go. It was home, didn’t matter how long had passed since the first time he walked those streets, didn’t matter how much happened in between. That was his house, his home, a place that meant family even more than the Avengers Tower and Compound.
He could almost see his childhood playing in front of him while he walked down the street where his house used to be. Everything was different, now, and instead of the house he was born in there was a small memorial that brought Steve to lower his head so that nobody would recognize him when he passed by.
He could see a small crown and some of the people were securing with duct tape a huge sign which asked Captain America to bring them their loved ones. Steve couldn’t help but walk faster and hoped there was really something he could do. He was trying so hard not to lose hope but everywhere he looked there was nothing he could actually do to help the ones who stayed. He shook his head and walked over, finding a nice coffee shop behind the corner. It was far enough from his former house
He entered and went for the booth in the further corner to be as far as possible from the huge window that faced the street. The waitress, a teenage girl with dark brown hair and big green eyes appeared in front of him and took his order before disappearing back once again behind the counter. Steve looked around, taking in the few people inside of the shop and that was the moment when he felt someone’s eyes on him. He turned immediately to the source of it and recognized in the beat of the eye who the person staring was.
It was a young woman, in her late twenties, if he had to guess, with black hair and eyes so light to look as if they were almost made of ice. She was making a great effort to look everywhere but at Steve's direction, but he knew he caught her and couldn’t fight back the sensation of familiarity. He was sure he had never met her before, not since he woke up from the ice, but his brain couldn’t stop to look for a name in the recess of it.
He knew her. But had no idea of how it was possible. He looked once again at her trying to understand better and then something hit him. It was a memory from a remote past, but there was something, especially in the girl’s eyes, that reminded Steve of someone he knew far too well: Bucky. And he had met just one other person who had the same eyes, Bucky’s sister, Rebecca.
But she couldn’t be there, could she? She should have died a long time ago, after living a happy and full life. And yet he couldn’t help himself thinking that so should have done himself and his best friend too.
He got up from his seat and moved closer to the woman who still was looking somewhere else, somewhere where, probably, she hoped he couldn’t notice. “Sorry,” Steve said. “Do I know you?”
The girl looked down and Steve could see the eyes of someone who wished the heart could swallow them. She chewed her bottom lip for an even longer time and then looked up at him. When their eyes met, Steve had the confirmation of the identity of the person in front of him. “I don’t think so, Ste… Captain Rogers.”
He had to fight against his best instinct to just chuckle at her statement and instead signalled to the waitress where to bring his coffee. “Rebecca “Rikki” Barnes,” He said, pretending she didn’t say anything. “the last time I saw you, you were begging your brother to take you with us at Coney Island.”
She blushed, making every other attempt to deny her identity useless. “It’s been a long time since someone called me Rikki,” She said without looking up at him.
This time, Steve couldn’t help but chuckle. “Is this the first thing you are going to tell me? I thought you were dead.”
“So did I, and Peggy,” She raised an eyebrow, as to prove her point. “I thought Bucky was dead too. People have this tendency to avoid death, nowadays, they just show up alive out of nowhere.”
There it was, the same tone she used on him when she wanted an ally against her older brother. This time, though, there was nothing she might want from him, and it was interesting to witness. “I’m glad you are one of those people. I’m just…”
“Curious? Surprised? Trying to find a nice way to ask me how this is possible?” She smiled and he wondered if the girl he saw before was just a façade. It didn’t matter how many people he saw wearing masks, Steve still had no idea how to say if the person in front of him was doing that much.
“Yes, all three,” He admitted then realized that it was something she needed to know before deciding if she still wanted to speak with him. “I know you’ve probably read the news, but Bucky, he had been brainwashed by Hydra, broke free and then someone framed him. He didn’t kill the King of Wakanda, but he spent the last couple of years in Wakanda trying to gain back control of his mind. He fought against Thanos. And disappeared along with half of the world population.”
“I imagined,” She smiled, and, this time, her smile was sadder. Steve tried to hide his confused expression behind his cup of coffee, but she saw through it. “He would have been with you otherwise. You’ll bring them back. And I don’t mean you as in Steve Rogers, I mean you as in the Avengers. Those people asking for Captain America to step in, I get the feeling, but something like this, no single person can stand against it, even if that person is you.”
In a weird way, those words were comforting. It was what he was hoping to hear from someone didn’t really matter. No, he wasn’t hoping to hear that much, he needed it. “You got a lot wiser.”
“All you remember is a little girl wanting to spend time with her big brother.”
Steve nodded. Sometimes he’d like to go back to those times. They were dark times, difficult ones, but things made sense, you could see the enemy, knew their names, and they were, especially on the battlefield, everything you needed to take care of. “And all I were was a skinny boy with too huge ambitions.”
“I hope you kept those. Because nobody needs a huge boy with skinny ambitions who keeps avoiding asking the important questions.”
Steve laughed and then indicated an empty chair by her side. Rebecca nodded and after having taken a bite of her muffin, started to explain: “Sarah… My mother… She told me that while my dad was at war she met another man. Two days after, she received the news that my father died. She was destroyed, Bucky was five years old, she was alone and… She slept with this man. The day after, he disappeared. She told everyone I was my… Bucky’s father’s daughter and everyone believed her. They had no reason not to.”
Steve pretended not to notice that there was a certain animosity in her tone when she spoke about Sarah, but he could understand why. He nodded and leaned closer trying to offer all the support he could. “Growing up, though, I realized I didn’t age. I was alone, Sarah was dead and Bucky, we thought he was dead too. So I moved, trying to track my father down. He found me,” She ran her hands in her hair. “Long story short, he told me I didn’t age because he was a Celestial, a sort of alien god or something. This, he told me, gave me powers. He offered to teach me, but I refused and he just left. I started to live in the shadows, moving from place to place when people started to understand I didn’t get old. When they found you, I thought maybe Bucky would have shown up too, he didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you look for me?” He was trying to understand all of what she said, but it was too weird even for him, who fought by alien gods’ sides.
“I don’t know,” She admitted. “Maybe I was afraid to tell this story, maybe I simply thought you wouldn’t care. Life in this century can be overwhelming, and adapting to it, coming straight from the 40s. You already had enough troubles. I never thought about it, not until Bucky was all over the news. You told me the rest of the story.”
Once again, Steve knew what she was speaking about. He was just glad he met her. Even if she tried to do everything in her power to avoid him since he walked into the coffee shop. He understood that much too. “It’s a lot.”
“I know,” She said, voice going back to a softer tone, almost a whisper. “I didn’t mean to stare at you, but seeing you walk into here, I just… My mind went back to when I was a kid.”
“I’m happy you stared at me,” He realized it didn’t sound as good as he was planning, but somewhen told him she understood what he meant. “So, about those powers? We might need every helping hand on deck, now. You don’t even have to become an Avenger and I know this sounds out of nowhere but…”
“I’d like to help,” She stopped him, the carefree smile was back on her face, even if more stained with worry and urgency in her eyes. Steve was still surprised about how easily he could read them. “But I have no idea of how to use or control them.”
He nodded. “It’s ok, I don’t want to force you.” He meant it for real, but a part of him wished Rebecca had accepted his proposal. It was weird to know she was in New York and had powers but couldn't help them. It was weird because for a moment it was like having a part of his old life back.
“I can come with you. I’ve seen tons of weird stuff in my life, maybe there is another way I can help.”
Steve felt like the weight of the world had been lifted just a bit from his shoulders. He blinked and when he opened his eyes he saw in front of him the same young girl who always wanted to be with him and Bucky. She grew up, metaphorically so, and yet it was always good to have her around.