IMAGINE BEING AN ORPHANED CHILD AND STEVE ROGERS ADOPTING YOU FOR CHRISTMAS.

You remembered being scared - not knowing what had happened to your parents and family. You remembered seeing a man approaching you - a man with a shiny shield and a funny helmet. If you hadn't been so scared, you probably would have giggled at the sight.

But in the middle of all that devastation, was a blink of light. After Steve had noticed you, he knew why you were alone. It was war, and the war was cruel - you probably had no family alive. He smiled at you, trying to offer you comfort, but the more he looked at you, the more he felt his heart shatter. He took you under his wing and he looked for your family the best he could, but after their bodies were identified next week, his fears were confirmed. You had been orphaned.

He took you to the orphanage with the other Avengers - but as he tried to sign you in, he found himself being attached to you in a special way. The thought sparked within him for weeks - but he brushed it aside for so long, reminding himself that he can't take care of a child. He was Captain America, his job was full of traveling, and it wouldn't do good for you - even after Thanos had been dealt with, he would be busy. But the more he had looked at you sitting there as the orphanage nurse tried to talk to you, asking your name, age, what you like to do, that thought just wouldn't leave him alone. It stung his heart to see you sitting there, tears in your eyes and refusing to answer to the lady who had knelt beside you.

And after he opened up to Sam and Bucky and asked for their opinions, he just knew it. He would apply for adopting you. Sam and Bucky promised to help Steve to raise you - and so he applied. It took several months, but he did it.

And just before Christmas, almost two years after he had first met you in that battlefield in your torn clothes, Steve got a letter - his adoption application had passed, and now there were just the last formalities ahead before you could officially become Steve's daughter. And it was almost Christmas - and Steve knew just what he would give you as a present.

So after the Christmas dinner with the whole Avengers team, Steve took you aside and knelt beside you.

"Y/N... how would you feel if you got a new family?" he asked, and you smiled shyly at him and tucked your hands into your pockets.

"Yeah... I'd like it... but I don't wanna leave you." you muttered, and Steve smiled at you warmly.

"Well, I got this letter a few weeks ago..." he pulled out your adoption papers. "How would you feel if I was your new dad? Like, for real?"

The smile on your face was the happiest Steve had ever seen, as you threw yourself into his arms, muttering, "I love you, dad."

And Steve shed a few tears - not because of sadness, but because this was the first time he felt like this was what he was meant to do. He was going to go back to the past, to marry Peggy - and he would have done that but seeing you on that battlefield made him give that up, and it was like something had decided that this was where he was meant to be. He was meant to take care of you, a traumatized child without a family, but who now had a loving family with the Avengers.