Chapter 1070: A Mundane Daily Life Before Christmas (Part 2)

A Christmas tree covered in colorful lights and baubles spun around. A hand clutching an American flag straightened a branch that had been knocked askew. Steve carefully inserted the small triangular flag into the side of the Christmas tree.

The sound of high heels approached from afar. Natasha, with her graceful figure, walked over while greeting her colleagues. Seeing Steve wearing a Christmas sweater, she raised an eyebrow, whistled, and said, "Hey, sweetheart, why are you dressed so sharply today?"

Steve smiled at Natasha, which left her stunned. Then she spoke up, "Captain, what kind of medicine did you take wrong?"

Natasha looked Steve over from head to toe again, finding nothing unusual, but this made her feel very strange.

This sexy and beautiful female agent was accustomed to flirting with men. Almost no handsome agent or superhero in S. H. I. E. L. D. had escaped her teasing. Most people were used to it, and many even took pride in it, such as Stark.

After all, Natasha's standards were very high. If you could get this battle-hardened female agent to take the initiative to flirt with you, it meant you stood out among the males.

However, not everyone was so open-minded. Captain America clearly belonged to the more conservative camp. In the past, whenever Natasha spoke flirtatiously, Steve would frown and turn away to check if there were any minors nearby, ensuring he wasn't setting a bad example.

But Natasha had clearly just seen Steve wink at her. The experienced female agent felt that this absolutely could not be a hallucination; Captain America was in an unusually good mood today.

Natasha crossed her arms, stood in front of the Christmas tree, and asked, "What's wrong, Captain? Did you run into something good? Tell me about it."

After speaking, Natasha leaned toward Steve, resting her arm on the railing behind him, getting very close to him.

Steve was busy tidying up the Christmas tree, but he didn't dodge away as he usually did. Instead, he turned around, glanced at Natasha, and said:

"What good thing? Isn't Christmas the best thing? The holiday is tomorrow; shouldn't I be a little happier?"

"Forget it." Natasha tossed her head and said, "You've been back for several years now; which Christmas have you ever been this happy?"

Suddenly, as if she had noticed something, she reached out and patted Steve on the back, saying, "Maintain your current state; the person you're waiting for is here."

After saying this, Natasha turned and left. Just as Steve was looking at her back with some confusion, he heard another female voice ring out beside him: "Um... Captain, that, are you free right now?"

Steve turned his head and saw Sharon Carter, wearing exquisite makeup. This younger female agent was clearly not as seasoned as Natasha; she stood at least two meters away, her hands clasped together, looking somewhat nervous.

"... I'm here to apologize to you. My invitation last time was too presumptuous. I know you haven't been able to move on from the heartbreak over my aunt. As her niece, it really wasn't very good for me to do that..." Carter said with some difficulty.

"However, Captain, please believe that even without this connection, I truly admire you. After all, I grew up listening to your stories..." Carter appeared exceptionally nervous, as if she were intently reciting lines.

As soon as she looked up, she saw Steve's deep blue eyes staring at her intently, which made her forget all the words that were to follow. She stood there blankly, as if bewitched by Steve's good looks, unable to even speak.

Suddenly, a cough came from afar. Carter tilted her head slightly to look, and at the end of the railing, Natasha was leaning against it with one hand, fiddling with her phone with the other.

The communicator at Carter's waist suddenly beeped. She scrambled to pick it up, and a text message from Natasha appeared on the screen: "Rush up and kiss him."

Carter took a deep breath, put the communicator back at her waist, brushed her hair, took two steps forward, looked at Steve, and said, "Mr. Rogers, may I invite you to be my dance partner and attend this year's Christmas ball with me?"

Steve's eyes sparkled, as if he had kneaded all the lights on the Christmas tree into his eyes. He took Carter's hand, kissed the knuckle of her middle finger lightly, and said, "My honor, Miss."

Just as Carter was shyly thinking of running away, she saw Natasha in the distance kick the railing with the tip of her boot and cough hard twice.

Carter covered her chest, took a deep breath, quickly leaned forward, kissed Steve lightly on the cheek, and then turned and ran away.

Steve reached out, touched his cheek, and shook his head with a smile. Suddenly, a hand rested on his shoulder. Feeling the hardness of the mechanical arm, he turned his head and, sure enough, saw Bucky's face.

"She's still a bit like Peggy, right?" Bucky watched Carter's departing back and said, "At least in appearance, she's a bit similar."

"They are aunt and niece; how could they not be similar? However, their personalities can be said to be completely different." Steve shook his head while saying, "If it were Peggy, she wouldn't care what the occasion was; she definitely would have kissed me already."

Bucky also laughed and said, "Precisely because of that, no one will mistake you for treating this Agent Carter as your old lover. Their personalities are poles apart."

"Why did you come?" Steve asked.

"Howard called me over. He said he made me a new mechanical arm as my Christmas gift. It uses the latest technology and is much better than this one."

Bucky looked down at his hand, while Steve lowered his voice and said, "Howard seems to think that your accident was his fault. Two days ago, he almost stormed the military to question those people: why did they give his technology to Hydra?"

"Unfortunately, most of the generals who worked with him before are dead, and those who aren't are mostly unable to move. Looking at those generals who already had one foot in the grave, Howard didn't have the heart to find trouble with them."

Bucky shook his head and said, "My capture back then had nothing to do with Howard. It was my own tactical error. If anything, I should thank Howard's technology for being reliable enough. If it had been Hammer Industries, I would have had an arm as temperamental as 'Ex-Wife'."

Steve patted his arm and laughed. Clearly, the joke about Hammer Industries had already spread through the circle.

Steve walked out from behind the Christmas tree and introduced it to Bucky: "Nick handed the job of decorating the ball's Christmas tree to me. I think he chose the right person."

Bucky took two steps back, looked at this huge Christmas tree decorated in a colorful and splendid way, and nodded, "It's really quite good. Will it be decorated in the center of the ballroom?"

"That's right. When the time comes, everyone will dance around this tree. We will pray together, and then until midnight, start a new year."

As he spoke, Steve felt a bit emotional: "I haven't been this happy in a long time, not even counting the years before I woke up. This is the happiest Christmas I've ever had."

"No war, no strife, only many friends and a beautiful future..." Steve lowered his head. When the light from the Christmas lights shone on his eyelashes, it looked like a group of colorful little elves dancing across the branches.

"By the way, have the list and dance partners been confirmed?" Bucky asked, "Tomorrow is Christmas Eve; we can't wait until then to confirm, right?"

Steve looked up from between the branches. He held up a finger and said, "You reminded me... Natasha! Natasha! Don't leave yet. Where is Coulson? Is he responsible for tallying the personnel list?"

"He's upstairs." Natasha said while walking over. As she passed Steve, she tossed him a set of keys and said, "Move this tree to the warehouse later."

Bucky waved at Steve and said, "You go upstairs first; leave the Christmas tree to me."

Steve turned and left while putting the keys into Bucky's hand, and flashed him a smile.

Arriving upstairs and passing through the busy office, Coulson was sitting in an office full of clerks answering the phone. Steve heard him say:

"That's right, it's thirty thousand people. What's wrong with that? One mage for every thousand apprentices; that's not excessive, is it?"

"How can you apply the rules of a regular university to mages? Do you understand what magic is? Do you know how complex and dangerous magic is? What's wrong with one mage for every thousand apprentices?"

Coulson hung up the phone in a huff, and soon picked up another, saying, "... What? The Sanctum Sanctorum's customer service is understaffed? Then go find the Sorcerer Supreme! What does that have to do with S. H. I. E. L. D.?"

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"How many people do you want?... Ten??!! My God! You're not joking, are you? You have so many simple and convenient magic items there, and you still want ten people??!! Keep dreaming!!!"

Steve felt he couldn't listen any longer. He waved to the others in the office, greeted them, and then came to Coulson's side. As soon as Coulson saw that it was Captain America looking for him, he immediately put down his work and asked enthusiastically, "What is it, Captain?"

"Nothing much, you go ahead with your work. I just wanted to ask, has the list for the ball been finalized? Can I take a look?" Steve said with a smile, "I'm actually quite curious about who the dance partners of some of them are."

Coulson, sitting next to the phone, showed a somewhat awkward expression. He pursed his lips, looked up at Steve, and said, "Captain, I can tell you're looking forward to this year's ball. This year, our development momentum has also been very good. All walks of life have made great progress, and society is getting better and better, right?"

Steve nodded. Coulson rubbed his fingers and said, "Correspondingly, everyone is also getting busier. Between now and the New Year, I still have five or six cases on my hands that haven't been processed, and the others should be the same..."

Steve heard the subtext in his words. His originally excited and high spirits were dampened a bit. He looked at Coulson and said, "Don't feel embarrassed. Give me the list. I'm an adult; I know I can't force others. Just follow my arrangements..."

Coulson sighed, took a piece of paper out of the drawer, and handed it to Steve. Steve just glanced at the content on the paper, and the corner of his eye couldn't help but twitch.

Half an hour later, Coulson found Steve, who was already half-drunk, in the bar under S. H. I. E. L. D. Coulson patted him on the shoulder, walked to his side, sat down, picked up a beer, took a sip, and said:

"... We're all adults, aren't we?"