Hiraeth/(HEER-eyeth): (n.) a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past.
At one point in his life, in his skinny pre-serum body, Steve Rogers thought that he would be alone forever. Nobody wanted to date a sickly scrap of a man that kept getting beat up in alleyways almost every week. At another point in his life, after the serum, before the end of the war, he thought that he would settle down, marry a girl, have a couple of kids.
But then Bucky, his best friend, his brother, was gone and he, himself went into the ice for seventy years. When he woke up he was lost, so lost. So much had changed. Peggy was old, and had gotten married, and it seemed everyone had moved on. It seemed he was stuck in time, and once again, he resolved that he was never going to live that picket fence dream. How ironic.
Then he meets Darcy Lewis. And his whole world spins.
She's five years old when she learns the man she calls father is actually not really related to her. She's at a loss. She feels betrayed to a degree, and she cries, until the man she calls father, John Lewis, picks her up into his arms and tells her she's always going to be his little girl, that he's always going to be her daddy. She never ever questions his love from that point on.
When she's seven, she's building a catapults and modifying nerf guns with her little brother, Andy Lewis, who's five, and obsessed with anything that shoots. She also meets her bio dad, who tells her to call her Tony when she's not sure what exactly she's supposed to call him. It's really awkward until she invites him to family nerf war, and she gives him a modified gun that she made automatic and he's impressed no doubt. Even Happy the driver joins in the fun.
Her life first changes in New Mexico, (Well, as much as it can already change, her father is Iron Man) She meets Jane, darling Jane, who is petite, but her personality and determination make up for her lack of size. Darcy knows the only reason she got the internship because everyone else thought Jane Foster was crazy.
And to be honest, in the beginning, she thought Jane was too, until she started looking into her calculations. Jane was a genius. But she still has to remind Jane to eat and drink often which her management skills of babysitting came in handy.
"Jane, come eat" Darcy says plating up a grilled cheese and some Tomato Soup.
"I'm almost finished, Darcy" Jane mumbled fiddling with a machine while her reading glasses slide down her nose.
"Jane, you won't be able to science if you don't eat" Darcy counteracts calmly.
"Darcyyyyy" Jane whines as she pops out from where she was sitting, the smell of cooked food making her stomach rumble.
"Jane" Darcy nudges.
"Fine" Jane relents sitting at the counter as she begins to eat her sandwich.
Then Thor fell out of the sky. Having Tony Stark be your father? That was one thing. Aliens?
Kinda weird experiencing first hand. Like, really weird.
Anyway, after New Mexico, after Thor, after he promises Jane he's return for her, they move to London.
She wonders if her Dad is aware the "Lady Darcy, Sister of Thor"
And Then New York happens. And it takes all Pepper's and Tony's reasssuring that he's fine and that she should stay in London.
"He's fine, Darcy" Pepper states.
"Are you sure Pep?"
"Healthy as a horse, Darce!" Tony cuts in."
"Okay." She sighs.
After the Dark Elf thingy, and when Ian moves to Ireland, and Thor decides to stay, she has a one night stand, which she thinks wasn't the best idea, but nine months later she wouldn't give up baby Mara up for the world.
It turns out Thor LOVES children and is a frequent partner in crime to a one year old Mara. If that doesn't make her heart melt, what would?
Anyway, here she is now. In front of Stark Tower, thinking about how she is going to introduce Mara to Tony, while Pepper is just cooing at the little dark haired baby girl.
"What's her name, Darcy? She's adorable!" Mara giggles in Pepper's arms. Mara enchanted everyone.
"Mara Elizabeth Lewis" she smiles at Pepper.
"Why don't you come upstairs, and let Tony meet this little monkey!"
They all clamber in the elevator and Jarvis begins to talk to Mara.
"Hello Mara Lewis, I am Jarvis" Mara looks around for the voice but doesn't and her little baby face screws up in confusion.
"Mini-me! Why didn't you tell me you had a spawn?" Tony says as the elevator opens.
"Cause I wanted you to meet her face to face. Here's your grandbaby." She says handing her to Tony who awkwardly holds her to his chest.
Mara looks absolutely entranced by his arc reactor, big blue eyes as she looks at the light.
"Entertaining her is going to be easier than I thought" Tony says before turning to the other man in the room reading a book on the couch.
"This is Steve," Tony says as he hands back Mara as gestures to an excited Jane to follow him.
"He'll show you to your suite, while I go show Point Break and his Lady Love the lab!" He points to Steve. "Take care of my girls, Capsicle"
Steve shakes his head, and looks at Mara wistfully. He had remembered taking care of Bucky's siblings and Mara reminds him of a young Rebecca.
"You wanna hold her?" Darcy asks, seeing how he looks at Mara.
"No Ma'am, I couldn't possibly—"
"Come on!" Darcy says. "She loves being held." She passes her to Steve who immediately tucks her against his broad chest.
Mara looks into his eyes with her own Baby Blue, the ones that Darcy has, and falls in love.
He's screwed.
**2 Years Later**
Darcy wakes up after a nap, cold, and rolls into where Steve usually sleeps next to her. Except the bed is empty next to her.
She slips into a robe and slippers and goes down the hallway prepared to go to the kitchen and get herself a snack.
But she stops as she hears Steve reading.
"Read anoftha one Daddy!"
"Okay sweetheart, what about goodnight moon?" Steve suggests, and Mara squeals happily as Darcy watches them from the doorway.
"In the great green room, There was a telephone, And a red balloon," Steve reads to their daughter as she snuggles into his arm and begins to nod off.
He begins to read quieter and quieter until her breathing slowed down. He tucks her in, and puts the book back in her bookcase before walking across the room to Darcy who reaches up on tippy toes and kisses him.
"I love you, Steve"
"I love you too"
Steve Rogers knew he was screwed moment he met her.