It was lunch time, and Steve was making himself, and both his husband and son a sandwich. Normally, Tony and Peter would come running whenever it was time to eat but it had been half an hour and Steve hadn't heard a thing. He knew where they were; they'd been down in Tony's workshop since 7am that morning. He had no doubt in his mind that they were so wrapped up in whatever it was they were building this time that they'd completely forgotten about both lunch and Steve.
He continued making the sandwiches, knowing he was going to have to take them down to the workshop if he was going to get his family to eat something. Peter had definitely inherited Tony's lack of self-preservation when working on a project. Both of them seemed to forget everything. They didn't eat, they didn't sleep, they didn't shower, all they did was work. The only way Steve could ever get them to do anything was literally forcing them. Luckily, he was much stronger than them so using physical force wasn't all that difficult.
It didn't take him long to finish making all the sandwiches. He'd made a couple BLTs for Tony, cheese and tomato for Peter and roast chicken and stuffing for himself, everyone's favourites. Putting them on a tray, he made his way through the tower to their workshop. After balancing the tray on one hand, he punched the code in on the pad and the door swung open, letting him in. He walked over to the nearest bench and put the tray down.
Peter and Tony were over in the other corner of the workshop, with Tony leaning forward with his elbows resting on the table, listening intently as Peter explained something to him, gesturing madly and bouncing around as he spoke. Steve didn't have a clue what they were talking about, and doubted he would have understood if he listened in; he'd managed to get the hang of most modern technology but the sort of stuff that Tony and Peter worked on, 99% of the world wouldn't even know where to begin with that.
There was a fridge in the corner, so Steve walked over and took out three drink – a bottle of water for himself and a can of coke each for Tony and Peter. He placed them down next to the word and watched his family for a few minutes. He was aware that neither Tony or Peter had noticed him there, they were much too wrapped up in their conversation, and that gave him the perfect chance to fully appreciate them.
He loved them both with all his heart. He and Tony had been married for around 13 years now, and only a few months after which they adopted Peter. He thought back to the war, back when he was fighting side by side with Bucky, with technology invented by Howard Stark; if you'd asked him them, he never would have thought he'd marry Howard's son and adopt a child together! He never even thought that sort of thing would have been possible back then in the 40s.
He'd been aware that he was bisexual most of his life, definitely leaning more towards men, but he could still appreciate the odd woman every now and again – such as Peggy. He'd always preferred men, but was grateful that at least he liked women a little bit as that would make pretending to be straight for the rest of his life much easier. He never would have thought that he would be able to tell the world that he wasn't completely straight, and he probably would have been stoned if he'd mentioned raising a family with another man!
He'd always loved Bucky too, ever since they were children. But as they got older and grew into their teens that love became something more. It stopped being the sort of love you would feel for a brother and became the sort of love you would feel for a partner. Bucky knew Steve better than he knew himself, and so he had figured out how Steve had felt pretty quickly and Steve learned that Bucky felt the same. They'd been happy too, even if they had to hide the exact nature of their relationship from the world. Bucky had suggested they try to date women too, to at least keep up pretences. They wouldn't stick with the same woman, they'd move around, never settling, to make it seem as though they either weren't happy with that particular woman or just weren't interested in settling down, so no-one would ever guess they were in a relationship.
And then he became Captain America. A symbol of everything America stood for – even if that included their heterosexual values. He was grateful he'd met Peggy; he didn't have to pretend to like woman if she was there because he genuinely did love her. She was strong, independent, clever and yet she was kind and once she cared about you she would do anything for you. He had been fascinated with her ever since he first saw her, when she punched Hodge in the face.
But then he lost Bucky. That hurt more than anything he'd ever felt before. All he wanted to do was find every single Hydra member and kill them. He didn't care for the consequences; they'd taken the one person he could completely be himself around, who knew the real Steven Grant Rogers.
Then he'd crashed into the ice, thinking he was going to die, and promising himself that if he did survive he wouldn't hide who he truly was. He'd be himself, as much as he could anyway, without breaking the law. What he wouldn't admit, though, was that part of him, despite desperately wanting to survive, was grateful that he would finally get to be with Bucky again. And then he had survived, and woken up in the twenty-first century, 70 years after crashing.
It took a hell of a lot of adjusting to. It didn't help having to fight over the tesseract again only a couple weeks after waking up, but some good had come of that battle. He'd made friends, but they were more than that, they'd all quickly become a family. Despite their disagreements at first, him and Tony had quickly grown close. Steve wanted to get to know one of the few connections he had to his past life, so was instantly curious about Tony, and Tony had wanted to know what Steve was really like, if his father had been right to talk about him constantly.
It hadn't taken long for a relationship to grow from that. He'd been happy that he could finally be himself. Sure, they still got people telling them they were going to hell and were God's mistakes and all that sort of stuff, but they ignored them as best they could. Despite being so happy he could finally be who he was, he struggled with it. Hiding who he was had been such a huge part of his life and, even now that he didn't have to do it, he found it hard to let the world know such a private thing.
But Tony had been so patient with him. Tony had his flaws too, like what him and Peter were doing right now, never looking after himself and Steve looked after him and much as he looked after Steve. They'd quickly become dependent on one another, inseparable no matter what it was they were doing, whether it be fighting alongside one another or meeting up with friends.
Their relationship had gone from strength to strength, and after 2 years, Tony had been the one to propose. He knew Steve loved the view from the top of Stark Tower, he loved to paint the skyline as the sun set, so Tony had made the roof as romantic as he could, flowers and candle everywhere, and when Steve had gone up to paint the perfect sunset against the skyline, he'd found Tony, down on one knee surrounded by the flowers and candles, telling him how much he meant to him and how much he needed him in his life. Of course, Steve had said yes straight away.
They'd had as private a wedding as their status would allow. Of course there had been paparazzi there, and the odd protestor, but the day had been amazing. Shortly after, they'd decided they wanted to adopt. They both knew that the other wanted a child, and they finally decided that that was what they were going to do.
Tony had been nervous at first, worried he would be an even worse father than his own, but Steve had helped him work through it, had held him when he'd cried about how Peter was going to end up even more messed up than he was, and celebrated all Peter's little victories with him, like learning to read and building his first computer.
Peter was the best thing in their life right now. He was beginning to grow up, he'd be a fully-fledged teenager soon and they knew to expect him to start rebelling and distancing himself from his dads so they were trying to make the most of every day they got with him.
They were the perfect family, despite all being superheroes and the drama that follows that. Steve and Tony still tried to protect Peter as much as possible but as Peter began gaining his independence he would say he was going out with mates and then secretly go fight crime. They always found out, Spider-Man often made it into the news and of course they saw that, so in the end they decided that the best way to keep Peter safe was to take him with them. That way, they could keep an eye on him and help him out if he got himself in too deep, whilst also allowing Peter to follow his dreams and be just like his dads.
Watching them now, seeing how happy they were together, Steve felt nothing could ever go wrong, nothing would ever break them apart, no matter how hard the world tried to do so. Of course they would have their rough patches, where Steve and Tony would argue with each other, or with Peter, or when one of them got especially hurt fighting and the others would be worried sick about them, but they would always make it through, Steve was sure of it.
Picking the tray that was now laden with sandwiches and drinks, he made his way over to his boys, shouting out to them as he moved nearer.
"You two really need to look after yourselves more!" He said, grinning at them as they both turned to look at him at the same time. He placed the tray down next to Tony and put his arm around him, whispering a quiet "Hey, hon" as he placed a kiss on his temple. Tony didn't reply but did lean into him, seeming quite happy to stay in Steve's arms for as long as possible.
"I made your favourite, bud" Steve spoke, laughing when Peter dived for the sandwich and began eating it as fast as he possibly could. He passed Tony one of his sandwiches, silently encouraging him to eat, which he did, but with only one hand so he could keep himself wrapped around Steve.
"So, what have my favourite boys been up to all morning?"