Epilogue
You guys wanted it, so here ya go.
Two years.
Two long years filled with tears of both joy and pain, belly laughs at stupid jokes, waking to hear him screaming in his sleep, confused glances from across the room, revelation within old memories, reliving days that had long since passed, and elation at his recovery brought you and Steve to this day. It was a day that you had lived in another life; a day that had begun as the best of your life and ended as your worst.
You were getting married. Again.
"Déjà vu is a bitch," you groaned, putting the finishing touches on your makeup and glancing at Natasha in the mirror behind you as she once again pinned your hair into place. "I can't seem to shake this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach."
"Let me help you, darling." Wanda rested her hands on your shoulders, standing behind you with her eyes gently closed and a peaceful glow in her delicate features. A warm red haze grew around you and enveloped you within it, and an immediate sense of tranquility was awash over you. You could have stayed in this moment forever, allowing yourself to be lost in it until a knock on your door broke your connection to your friend.
"Am I gonna see anything if I come in?" Sam asked from the other side of the door, opening it only a small crack.
"Just a masterpiece," Natasha murmured quietly, turning to summon him inside but doing a double-take to be sure that your groom wasn't with him.
He pushed the door open fully and stopped at the sight of you, shaking his head in awe and maybe a just a hint of a little jealousy that he hadn't found this for himself yet. "Wow, (Y/N), I didn't think that you could be more beautiful than last time, but you proved me so wrong." You stood and made your way to him, but when you were close enough he held his hands out to stop you at arms length to admire you. "No marshmallow fluff this time?"
"Crème puff," Wanda corrected. "But no, Sam. We thought that maybe sleek and elegant was the way to go, don't you agree?" She looked at you with so much pride in her eyes that you began to wonder if this meant as much to her as it did to you. You took a small spin in front of him, the gentle waves of silk flowing around your feet as you turned.
"I thought about putting my thigh holster under this thing, but it made weird lines."
"I promise, there won't be a need for that today," he said in his best official tone. "We've got a massive perimeter secured and every spare ex-SHIELD member that we could find watching your back. This is gonna be the day that you guys were meant to have."
"You ladies have room for one more?" Tony asked as he peeked his head into the room. "I'm here to pick up," he paused, casually pulling one of your wedding programs from his suit coat, "Mrs. Steven Rogers. Hmm, you sure you don't want to throw a hyphen in there? Stark it up a little?"
"It's been two years, Tony. Let's move on."
"Yeah, okay," he relented. "Can't blame a guy for trying." The rest of the party left the room for the two of you to talk before he walked you out to Steve, but you looked at each other with expressions full of anxiety and worry; a far cry from how you should be feeling on what was such a happy day that you thought would never be realized. "Shit, I might be more nervous than you."
"Not possible. The last time we tried this, it didn't exactly go well." Closing your eyes for a moment, you took a deep breath and stood straight, opening them again with a new resolve to not think about that day again and to enjoy this new one. The last two years had been hell for both you and Steve, struggling to find anything that was locked away in his mind. You had to rebuild trust and familiarity with someone that you knew as well as you knew yourself, facing the pain that he didn't know you at all. You had both worked through hell for this, and you weren't about to let those memories taint it.
You grabbed your bouquet and took his arm with a small squeeze, feeling the tremor in his muscles from his surging adrenaline. "Tony, you brought one of your suits...didn't you?"
"You might have one extra groomsman..." he mumbled as he pulled the door open for you. "Do you know how hard it was to get that thing into a tux?"
~~~
When the time came to recite your vows to each other, Steve paused and turned to Bucky, taking something from him before he began. "I have something for you," he whispered, taking your hand and holding an antique gold band for you to see. "It was my mom's. I know we were just going to use the rings that we already have, but I feel like this needs to be yours now."
"This is freaking me out," you said shakily, turning to Natasha and taking your own surprise from her. "Because Tony found this for you. It was Howard's, and he thought that he would want you to have it."
Bucky let out a quiet laugh and leaned back slightly into Sam, "those two are so perfect for each other that I'm starting to feel a little bit nauseated."
"More perfect than that Peggy chick?"
Bucky straightened and turned around with a look of shock and disbelief across his face, his mouth open in complete surprise. When Sam realized what he had said, and that it was louder than he thought it was, he finally noticed Steve looking at him too, with you leaning to see around him with a hint of murderous rage in your eyes. "Dude, you did not just say that," Bucky groaned into his hand, now covering his face.
"Sorry, guys, sorry," he faltered and stammered, "I uh...I think maybe I hit the sacramental wine a little too hard and it's gone to my head..."
~~~
"Steve, I could easily take the easy route and recycle my speech from the last time you two did this, but I won't. I won't repeat myself and say that the road to this day was crazy to say the least, and how only you two could traverse it all and still be together because you're meant to be. I won't say again how when I see you look at her, I feel hopeful that maybe true love really does exist," Nat smiled with a glance to Clint. "I definitely won't talk more about how since the night you two came home from your first date, we all knew that we would end up here to see this day. We all knew that weeks of coercion, plotting and manipulating to get you to that date would pay off in the long run. But don't you worry, I love you guys too much to use that same speech twice." She raised her glass and then tipped it back and swallowing what was left of her champagne, smiling to the crowd and quickly returning to her seat, satisfied in her efforts.
"Smooth, Nat," Steve whispered coyly with a wide grin, "very cleverly done."
"Hey, I do what I can."
"(Y/N)," Bucky now stood quickly from behind Steve, "I feel like this would be the perfect opportunity for me to really embarrass the hell outta you. I could regale this crowd with stories that they wouldn't forget for years; stories that will go down in Avengers history as ones that would've had to have been seen to be believed. But don't worry, (Y/N), I'm not gonna do that." He slapped his hand against his chest and leaned forward, lowering his voice as he looked at you, "I'm a man of trustworthiness and I protect my friends. I protect them from stories being told, like that time we all went out right after I moved into the tower." You groaned and lowered your head, knowing where he was going. "After a little too much celebration, (Y/N) was so hungry on the way home that we had to stop at McDonalds just to keep her quiet, but we didn't have any cash left. When we were asked to pay, she grabbed my arm and asked how many chicken nuggets we could get for it in trade, trying to barter fingers away until she had given away the whole thing as if it were no big deal. She almost had them convinced and I had to make a run for it just to get free of the hangry beast over here when she actually tried to remove it. But hey, I would never tell a story like that because I just love you too much, doll," he winked, raising his glass as Natasha had and emptying it with similar efficiency.
Steve shook his head with his gaze cast to the floor, though he was still smiling like a little kid. "Barnes, you are soooo dead."
~~~
The lights dimmed in the lounge of the tower, leaving only a few lights to brighten the dance floor that Tony had installed again as you and Steve made your way out for your first dance. Well, your second first dance. He held his arms out, waiting for you to find your way into them, wrapping one around you and taking your hand with the other.
"You know, there's only one thing left to do after this, and we'll have made it all the way through."
'Hush," you warned, "don't jinx it." He gently pushed you away and gave you a slow spin to the beat of the music that filled the room, quickly bringing you back in and against him. "I just want to enjoy this moment before I have to worry about the next one."
"Hmm," he murmured in agreement into your hair as he held you. "It's been quite the trip, hasn't it? That we've made it here? Twice, at that?"
"Well, you can't get rid of me that easily, Rogers. I'm tenacious."
Steve pushed you back slightly again, this time giving you a spin into a gentle dip, leaning down to face you. "That's what I'm counting on, sweetheart." He leaned in just a little more to leave the trace of a kiss on your lips, "end of the line, remember?"
"Yeah," you sighed with a flutter in your chest, just as it had done the very first time you looked into those same mesmerizing blue eyes. "End of the line."
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