It all happened so quickly. One moment, Steve and Percy were walking down the street, hand in hand. The next, a building was burning and people were screaming as they ran. Chaos had risen on the streets of Manhattan. It was supposed to just be a visit with Percy's mother.
While Steve was getting ready to bolt into the building, Percy gripped his hand. "Please, just don't for once. Don't go. Let someone else handle it."
Steve opened and closed his mouth a few times, blue eyes sympathetic. "I have to." And then he was running away, away from Percy who stood there with a scowl on his perfect face and sadness in his heart. Sure, maybe it would take a lot to hurt Steve, but that didn't mean he didn't worry every time the man up and left to protect someone. Except, this time, the person he needed to protect was right there.
Steve helped to carry out survivors- he even took those who hadn't made it. No one wanted to hear that their loved one had died, but everyone deserved to be able to give them a proper going away.
He brought out the last one, a young girl who had gotten separated from her mother on the stairs. She was covered from head to toe in ash and soot, but she was alive and that was what mattered the most to Steve. He handed her to her panicking mother, who pulled the girl into a loving embrace. She checked her for wounds, kissing her face repeatedly, before thanking Steve many times over. Steve smiled, simply mumbling a, "just doing my job."
Amidst all the chaos and the growing crowd, Steve heard his name. It was a worried call, panicky, as Percy shoved his way through the crowd in an attempt to get to his lover. But he never made it there.
Before anyone could react, the building began to crumble- something shook like a bomb had gone off inside- perhaps it was one of the gas stoves. The windows heated to the point that they cracked before shattering. Glass and debris flew everywhere, and poor Percy had been one of the unfortunate few to be in its way.
Much like the wife of Otto Octavius, Percy Kim had been outdone by something as simple as a shard of glass.
By the time Steve reached him, the light had faded from Percy's eyes. "No", the blonde choked out. "No. No. No." And all Steve could think about was that his boy had died alone, mere feet away from where Steve stood. "No." And Steve knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that it had been a painful end. The kind where you choked on your own blood, the kind where you couldn't breathe, the kind where you couldn't even utter the word "help."
Steve had saved many lives that day. But, while he sat cradling Percy's broken body, only one mattered. The one that he had lost.
October 12, 2018