Seeing the look of joy on Peggy's face, Steve couldn't help but recall their last kiss atop the snowy peaks of the Alps.
At the ti, a HYDRA transport plane loaded with toxic gas bombs was preparing to take off.
He was just about to leap onto the landing gear skimming over his head, embarking on a journey from which there might be no return.
Then Peggy suddenly stood up on tiptoe from the backseat of the jeep, hooked her arms around his neck, and kissed him—so fervently, as if she were pouring all the luck and courage in the world into his body.
In that mont, Steve had no doubt that he could save the world.
And in truth, he did.
He stopped Schmidt, crashed the gas-loaded plane into the polar ice, and indeed saved the world.
He lived up to the expectations of everyone in the world—Everyone except the girl who had stood on tiptoe in that jeep to kiss him so passionately.
The dance they had promised each other after the war had been delayed for half a century.
The girl he loved now bore hair silvered by the years, while he had only just awakened, as if from a dream.
That dance seed destined to be left unfinished.
Unless...
Steve's right hand rested against his pocket, gently clutching the jade vial through the fabric.
He was feeling impulsive at this mont—but also deeply hesitant.
Soone like him, a relic of the old world, didn't belong here.
Peggy's life should have been a happy one.
The nightstand beside her bed was filled with family photographs.
Though there were no pictures of a man, it was clear she had two children, a boy and a girl, and in the photos, their smiles radiated pure joy.
Steve stared blankly at everything around him, listening to Peggy as she recounted stories of the past.
After a long while, he slowly loosened his grip on the jade vial in his pocket.
He gave a faint, bitter smile and sat down beside her bed, accompanying Peggy as they looked out the window at the world bathed in the red glow of the setting sun.
"This world is still so beautiful. Although compared to seventy years ago, there are so many unfamiliar things now… there are even aliens," Steve said.
"Of course it's beautiful, because you saved it, Steve. But… we also ended up turning it into a ss again," Peggy said with an apologetic expression, gently holding Steve's hand.
"No, you didn't." Steve clasped her aged hand in return. "The S.H.I.E.L.D. you built was remarkable. No one wanted what happened with HYDRA to happen. And half the reason I joined the current Avengers… was because part of it originated with you," Steve said sincerely.
"The Avengers…" Peggy Carter's expression grew complicated. "No one can truly predict what the future holds, Steve. This world is changing so fast—you must be careful."
"Of course. I will." Steve's eyes shimred with overwhelming affection—and deep sorrow.
The two of them talked for a long ti.
Steve poured out his confusion and longing that had spanned decades.
Peggy listened quietly, occasionally squeezing the hand of the tall boy she once knew.
"The sun is about to set… maybe I should co back next week," Steve said, preparing to say his goodbyes.
His gaze casually swept over the picture fra on the bedside table once more.
This ti, he smiled with peace in his heart.
He was just about to get up and leave—
But suddenly, Peggy Carter began coughing violently.
Her body, weakened by age, trembled as she leaned against Steve's shoulder, eyes shut tight, brows furrowed in pain.
"Peggy!" Steve quickly laid her back onto the bed.
"I'll get the nurse!"
He turned to rush out and find soone from the care ho.
But before he could reach the door—
Peggy's coughing abruptly eased, replaced by a startled, almost disbelieving gasp: "Steve!?"
Steve froze in his tracks, then spun around anxiously. "Peggy, I'll be right ba— Peggy?"
Peggy Carter, propped up against her pillow, looked as if this—no, as if the past several decades—were the very first ti she had seen Steve.
Her expression shifted from confusion, to a close scrutiny, then to disbelief, and finally to overwhelming joy.
"You… you're alive, Steve, you're alive!" Tears welled up in Peggy's eyes, her gaze filled with uncontrollable love.
Her lips trembled from excitent, her breathing grew rapid, and her voice cracked with emotion. "You're alive—you… you ca back!"
Steve stood frozen at the door, his mind montarily blank.
But he quickly understood what had happened to Peggy.
"Yes… I'm back, Peggy," he nodded gently, his anxious expression softening.
Yet the sadness in his chest only deepened. His eyes brimd with tenderness and sorrow as he looked at her.
He quietly walked over to the bedside and knelt down, allowing Peggy to pull his hand into her arms and hold it tightly.
"I knew you wouldn't die, Steve. You ca back… you still owe a dance."
Peggy's skin was slack with age, her eyelids drooping.
But her once-clouded eyes now glead with vivid clarity.
Because before her stood the lover she had waited half a century to see.
"Well, I couldn't leave my best girl. Not when she owes a dance," Steve said, clutching Peggy's hand tightly.
He gazed at her, his heart stirring with indescribable emotion.
It was different now from the mont they'd reunited just an hour ago.
Back then, when Peggy first saw him, there had been only a mont of surprise and a mix of other complicated emotions.
That version of Peggy made Steve feel like she had already moved on from their past feelings and found happiness of her own.
But now, in her expression, there was an incredible, almost disbelieving joy—and a love so intense it seed ready to burst forth.
If earlier, what she had shown him was a quiet warmth born of years gone by…
Then now, it burned hotter, tinged with the shyness and intensity of youth.
It was as if they had returned to that mont of their last kiss.
Steve didn't know why, when Peggy had her episode and lost her mory, she beca like this.
But without a doubt, this was Peggy's truest emotional response.
What could prove that more than the fact that, even after losing her mory, she still rembered his face and was moved to tears at the sight of him?
In that instant, Steve suddenly understood everything.
It must have been that Peggy, knowing she had grown old and frail, had pretended to let go of the past so as not to hold him back from his future.
But in truth, no one longed more than she did to hold him tightly again, to fulfill the promise they never had ti to keep.
With deep affection, Steve gently brushed back the silver hair from Peggy's temples.
This incredible woman was still as willful as she had been when they were young.
"I'm sorry, Peggy. I understand your good intentions, but I can't let go of the past. I'm still just a soldier who inexplicably crossed through ti—a soldier who has lost his commander. What aning is there left in that?"
"Steve?" The Peggy who had lost her mory looked even more innocent than she had in her youth.
Beneath that aged face, Steve saw the very definition of endearing.
He took a deep breath, as if resolving sothing deep within himself.
Peggy had already given her life to this world, to her family. She deserved the right to chase after a new life of her own.
Steve took the jade vial Tony had given him from his pocket.
Gently twisting off the stopper—fush
A sweet, vibrant fragrance full of life spread throughout the room.
For a mont, it seed even the withered vines by the windowsill had turned green again.
Peggy stared blankly at the vial. In her briefly restored clarity, there was a visible ripple in her eyes.
"This is… what is it?" She felt as though her very body were crying out, urging her—shouting at her—to drink what was inside that bottle.
______
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