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Steve watched his daughter's dejected face; her pitiful eyes stared up at her mother. He started to realize that maybe there was something to Maria's insistence that Hope was taking after him more each day. Then he sighed as he listened to his wife try to explain why what Hope had done was wrong.
"But you both thought it was funny," Hope insisted.
"That was in a movie, sweetheart," Maria said.
It was obvious by the look Hope gave her mother that it still made no sense to her.
Steve took a deep breath and tried his own explanation.
"Hope, sometimes people do things in movies that we just shouldn't do in real life," he said.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Well, sometimes it can be something dangerous," he tried.
"But this wasn't dangerous," Hope complained.
"No, but it was still wrong," Maria interjected.
"But," she turned her eyes to Steve and he knew he was going to have to be the firm parent this time.
"Hope, you can't post photos of people, or even show photos of people, um…" Steve found himself tongue-tied. He didn't think he'd have to have a conversation like this with his nine-year - old daughter, ever. He'd assumed Maria would take care of things like this and all he had to do was make sure guys knew Hope's dad didn't need a gun to be intimidating. Of course, he also never thought his daughter would do what she'd done.
This wasn't how the day was supposed to go, Steve thought, as he looked to his wife for help.
She had mercy on him and took over again.
"Baby, you can't even take pictures like the one you took," she said.
Hope opened her mouth to argue but Maria’s face changed minutely and Steve knew she was done explaining. Hope realized it as well and was silent as she waited for whatever punishment her parents had for her.
"No swimming the whole three days you're at Mia's," Steve said, then tried to keep his face as firm as he could even as he watched his daughter's crumble.
It was the worst punishment Hope could ever face. She lived to be in the water as if she was born for it and one of the benefits of going to the Stark's was the indoor pool. When she visited she rarely left the water.
There was a knock at the front door and Steve used it as an excuse to leave and let out a quiet sigh.
Tony was at the door, with a smirk on his face.
"I've come to pick up our budding photojournalist," he said.
"Funny," Steve said, but his face told Tony he didn't find anything humorous about the situation.
He opened the door further to allow his friend inside.
"Hope will be down in a second," Steve told him. "Maria’s up there comforting her."
A smile came to Tony's face then.
"What?" Steve asked.
"Who'd ever have thought I'd see the day when that statement didn't surprise me," he said.
"Feeling old again, Tony?" Steve said as they sat down at the kitchen table to wait.
"I guess," Tony said. "At least I started to after I saw that photo of..."
"Tony," Steve cut him off as he watched amusement form on his friend's face.
"Come on," Tony complained. "It wasn't even revealing."
Steve gaped at him and shook his head. Of course, Tony wouldn't see what a big deal this was.
"Tony, she took a photo of Maria and me while we were, um," Steve's voice gave out. He didn't even want to say it.
"In the shower, yeah, I saw it," Tony said, as if it was nothing.
Steve was silent except for the occasional frustrated breath that escaped.
"Look, I scrubbed the Internet and, well, hopefully this will all blow over soon," Tony shrugged.
"It's not the most embarrassing thing she'll ever do to you," Tony said.
"It better be," Maria’s voice came down the stairs, along with Hope and Maria right behind her.
Hope dragged her feet across the floor to her "uncle." Then pronounced, rather dully, that she was ready to leave
Tony stood and walked toward the door. Hope followed after him and Steve caught a glimmer of hope on her face.
"Did you come in your suit?" she asked.
Tony turned and Steve thought he would say he had and Hope would feel the sting of her punishment less. But Steve was surprised by his friend whose face became serious.
"No," he said. "I couldn't. What you did was wrong and it hurt your parents. Your dad and mom are two of my best friends so it hurt me too. There are consequences. From me the consequence is no flying. And I got a text from your mom here that says no swimming."
Hope looked at Tony as understanding dawned. She appeared to think about his words for a moment then she turned and ran toward her mom and threw her arms around her.
"Oh, mommy, I'm so sorry," she said between sobs. "I didn't think it would ever hurt you. I just wanted to make a funny anniversary gift for you."
Maria knelt down and held Hope. Steve could see their daughter's emotions were affecting her.
Finally Hope pulled away, only to throw herself into Steve’s arms and issue the same apology. With many tears, she crawled into Tony's car.
Steve and Maria made their way back upstairs to get their bags so they could finally leave for the cabin.
"This is your fault," Maria commented.
Steve paused on the staircase where he'd been allowing himself the pleasure of being distracted by his wife's backside.
"What?"
"You and that stupid leg lamp," she said.
She turned as she reached the top of the stairs and cocked a serious eyebrow at him.
Steve opened his mouth to defend himself but caught her glint of humor just in time.
"Well, it could have been worse," he said as he continued up the stairs. "She could have taken the photo five minutes earlier."
Steve smirked at Maria's blush. It wasn't often he could turn her red from embarrassment and he enjoyed making her lose her cool.
"Yeah, that would have been bad," she breathed out heavily and Steve leaned into her as he took the top step.
He smiled at how her eyes darkened. He had determined, as he read through marriage book after marriage book before their wedding, that he would never allow theirs to become dull and lifeless. He liked to think he'd lived up to that.
He leaned down to kiss her slowly and seductively. Then he lay his hands on her hips and slowly pulled her to him. She whimpered and shuddered when their hips connected and Steve, who always thought himself in control of the situation when he started these things, knew he'd now just lost it. He tightened his grip and pressed into her more firmly. Her arms went around his neck and her hands into his hair.
Thirty minutes later they were a panting tangle of limbs on their bedroom floor.
"Well, we almost made it to the bed," Steve said as he rolled over and pulled her beside him.
She chuckled then sighed as she stared up at the ceiling.
"We were supposed to leave hours ago," Maria said.
"I know, but this isn't such a bad start." Steve turned to her and propped himself up on his elbow. With his other hand he began to trace patterns across her chest and abdomen. He smiled at her sigh.
"So, 13 years," she said.
Steve's hand stilled. He wasn't one to believe in bad luck, but he never again would fool himself into thinking that theirs was all behind them.
"It'll be OK, Steve." Maria assured him as she took his hand.
She smiled up at him.
"At least it will be as soon as we can live down Hope's anniversary present," she laughed.