driftfleet | file 003

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file 003

Who: Commander
Broadcast: Fleetwide video!
Action: SS Golden!
When: 6/6

[lo and behold, we have video!

[commander is, for once, not in his gear. though he's in a simple t-shirt, he's holding the camera with his metal arm, making it hard to see it. you might be able to catch a glimpse of shine where his shoulder closest to the camera almost comes into view, but that's it.]

So I've talked to a few of you about doing some physical training and learning how to defend yourself. If you wanna come test it out, head on over to the Golden. I'll meet you in the cargo hold, and we can see what you're made of.

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[this is where those strange feelings come back into play. it's become obvious, albeit still hard to swallow. this is not his natasha.]

Intimate research.

[he leaves it at that, and leans over to set the weight in his hand down.]

[Not his Natasha at all, just like he isn't her Steve. A letdown, but a minor one, she thinks. Almost better that way. Having other people from home would only complicate things. If she doesn't have any loyalties, it'll be easier to get out alive. And yet somehow, she still can't stop searching his face. For something.]

We must have different definitions of the word. This is the third conversation you and I have had. I don't really think a few text messages count as intimacy.

[it's bizarre, how much of steve can be found if you look in all the right places. he makes the same expressions, carries his tension in the same places, stands the same way... it's just those eyes.

[the eyes that are colder than any ice.]

They don't.

[i just happen to have all the information, and you don't. ~~that i remember, anyway.~~]

[That's it, isn't it? There's so much of Steve, and yet all the things that, to her, make Steve what he is, are gone. She sees, perhaps, what the Winter Soldier program must have done to Sergeant Barnes. Because that's the obvious answer, isn't it? Steve became the Soldier instead. And she...well. She knows things he wouldn't. Her eyes meet his, and it's as though she's looking for someone else there.]

You know I'm not who you think I am.

And you know it's mutual.

[with that asshole around, that's been made perfectly clear to him. he's neither of theirs. barnes is dead. natasha knows way too much about him.

[these two don't check out.]

[his eyes haven't left her face, and he crosses his arms over his broad chest.]

[Maybe he was Steve Rogers once, but somewhere along the way he got lost. The man standing in front of her isn't the man she knows. He crosses his arms, and she shifts just slightly in response, head slightly cocked, hip canted.]

You might have been, once.

[It's only honesty, for once. Raw honesty, plainly stated. More or less a curveball, coming from her, but she's been known to do it from time to time. Testing, pushing. She can't not.]

[but to him, it just sounds crazy. a lie. far-fetched, maybe so much so that it wraps back around to being believable. still, he can't trust a damn word out of her mouth.]

"Might" isn't good enough. I've never heard that name.

Steve Rogers? Might not be yours anymore, but it was, once.

[She's sure of that much. The eyes, the way he moves, that damned conviction. He might not be Steve anymore, but once, he had to have been.]

You sound so sure.

[there's a dryness in his tone she won't miss. "dry" is pretty standard for commander, just as sounding sure of herself is standard for natasha.]

And you aren't.

[Her head shifts just a little, catching that tone.]

Who are you, then? If you aren't Steve Rogers. Who were you?

Commander. Have been all my life.

[the way he says it sounds less like a title, more like a label. still not quite a name. and he's sticking to it, no matter how hard she protests.]

Guess you got a promotion, then, Captain.

[It was practically a name for him, once. she still says it like it might as well be.]

[he doesn't react to the name; as much as it stirs the coals in his stomach, as much as it makes his mind start running circles, he's not giving in to it. commander stares her down, and does his best to answer promptly despite his internal struggle.]

Or maybe this "Steve" isn't all that great to begin with.

One generally doesn't tend to give the "not-all-that-great" titles like Captain America. There's a certain standard a guy's held to.

[He answers promptly, sure, but there's something in his voice that makes her press a little harder. Maybe she's imagining it. She doesn't know this man. Not like she knew Steve.]

I'd imagine it'd have to be pretty high, with a name like that.

[he doesn't seem impressed. that, at least, isn't faked.]

He set the bar.

[Interesting. No reaction, or at least not the one she was expecting. Was there never one by that title in his world? Has he buried it further down even than his name? She can't help but be curious.]

Did she call you Commander?

[it's not the hardest he's ever had to try to show nothing, but it's far enough along the scale that the easiest has become a myth.]

She did. Everyone did.

I won't.

[Flat refusal. She did, everyone did. But this one won't. He might not be Steve, but she's pretty damn sure she doesn't want to encourage whatever it is that 'Commander' entails.]

It won't be Steve.

[he sounds pretty damn sure of that one. even if she uses it, he's not going to answer to it.]

Then what's it going to be?

[It's a loaded question, but hers tend to be. Even the innocent ones, and this is anything but.]

Oh, no, you're not getting put of this that easy. You won't call me Commander, you have to pick something decent yourself. If you call me anything I don't like, I'll refer to you exclusively as your full name.

[were it not for the relentless sense of danger in the room, that would almost be a playful sort of threat.]

Her full name, you mean?

[It might almost be a playful threat, hers might almost be a teasing challenge. That doesn't make either of them any less dangerous.]

Thought we'd established I'm not her. Just like you're not Steve.

Fine, her full name. Every time. I won't even say "you" or "her".

It's not a name that means anything, here. [She shrugs, all nonchalance.] What would it matter?

Why does the name Steve Rogers bother you so much?

[his tone shifts to something completely flat and void of emotion. it's almost mocking.]

It doesn't. It's not mine, and it belongs to someone you know. If you use it, it implies that you expect me to be him. Which I'm not.

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tothefly - 2015-07-03 13:35 (UTC) - Expand

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