driftfleet | ✮ ( 001 ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ / ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ )

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✮ ( 001 ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ / ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ )

I knew I should have looked up 'reality shows' a few months back.

[ The man who appears on the screen is currently looking at what seems to be a little notepad before adding the word 'space' next to the words 'reality tv'. Really, he could have done this space setting if it included an inter-galactic war or helping planets in peril.

But in all honesty, Steve Rogers: entertainer has never been his career choice and it's not his forte, either. At least now the whole thing doesn't include singing and girls in scandalously short skirts. ]

My name is Steve Rogers, currently aboard the SS Pathstone. I've done a little bit of reading while aboard the Marsiva. I understand there are those who are trying to help the people on the moon we're visiting, if there is anything you need, I'd do whatever I can do to help.

[ you might catch a glimmer of red and blue and silver just behind him. A wink as the light hits metal ]

The same goes for going home. I imagine people have already looked into ways for us to leave this place. No one should be taken anywhere against their will. I'd like to hear about the information you have managed to collect and I'll do everything I can to make sure everyone will be able to go home safely.

[ you all get a little smile. he's so awkward at these things, can you tell by now. ]

I heard I've missed quite a party.

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I have a feeling I don't want to answer that.

[ either way, he might get in trouble with her and he was doing so nicely what with the smiles and the kissing. even so and if only because he will always, always reassure her of what he thinks ( felt, feels ), he touches his hand to hers just so. ]

They're in good hands. the best ones here, probably.

[ finger to finger. nearly palm to palm. they flirt a moment with the possibility of holding hands -- and she almost winds her pinkie up with his. but the second passes, peggy exhales, and all at once she's pouring water into a kettle. the hard clang of metal punctuates their conversation. ]

You said it. Not me. [ brisk, and busy. funny how after all this time -- even after their kiss, minutes earlier, she doesn't know how to be with him. they never learned how to be together; only how to be apart.

she clears her throat. ] 1947, by the way. Summer. [ and peggy wets her lips. ] How -- how far ahead are you?

Edited 2016-05-13 00:10 (UTC)

2015.

[ there isn't anything he can say to make this better or easier, so much is clear even to him. some things are simply as they are. steve rogers made a choice and has dealt with the consequences of it from the very day he woke up again, a man out of his time. now, out of time and out of place and with her, he's as hopelessly lost in this as she is.

he watches her as she busies herself with water and kettle, wants to put a hand on her arm and stop her for a moment, if only to find out what inner turmoils she's going through, to bring her any matter of comfort.

there has to be something to say - ]

You know. Fighting armies of robots. The usual.

[ ...ok perhaps that wasn't the best shot. ]

[ robots? now, that's surprising. peggy puts the water to boil and turns 'round to face him, hands still edged upon the counter. the year sounds close enough to the rest, however. far flung and mysterious.

she tilts her chin. ] I know about the aliens in New York. [ her brows raise as she tells it, as though she almost still doubts the veracity of that particular story. but jim had sworn to it, and shared the shield files besides. ]

But I know far less about any robots. It sounds a story -- one I'll doubtless hear, eventually. [ perhaps not right now. peggy isn't certain whether it was the most appropriate time to hash that difference out -- not unless he wanted to. ]

Edited 2016-05-13 17:18 (UTC)

There was that, too.

[ he smiles a bit at the raised brow. in all honesty, some days he finds it hard to believe that particular thing happened, too but then, it's not much weirder than stark's experiment gone out of control and a robot army. ]

It won't make much more sense than the aliens but I'll give it my best shot.

[ if only because it means they are planning ahead towards something, if only because it means they are talking about something they will talk about, if only because he has the right to plan anything with her after all this time. ]

Anthony used to be aboard the Starstruck, [ she informs him -- a little curtly, too. because she can't yet bring herself to explain the duality that had been jim barnes side-by-side with the winter soldier. for now, it's best if she blames her foreknowledge on someone else.

and yes, she calls him anthony. ] Howard's son. One of your...Avengers, isn't he? He did some work towards filling me in on the details.

[ oh, she knows a great deal. and there's a part of her that relishes showing off what intel she's gleaned in his absence. like a sharp reminder: i will always be in the loop, no matter how many decades stretch us apart. ]

Gone, now. But we do have a young woman on board who's familiar with you. Another Avenger.

[ she talks about other people while the water steams over her shoulder. her mouth still feels hot. her cheeks are still a little flushed. but maybe (just maybe) she can stave off her baser instincts a moment longer by tackling all the housekeeping that comes with a reunion. ]

Edited 2016-05-13 21:00 (UTC)

[ he huffs out a chuckle because, really. ]

You're the first one I ever heard calling him that.

[ maybe one day if tony annoys him too much, he'll start doing the same. ]

Wanda.

[ he nods, smile still sitting there on the edges of his lips ]

Vision mentioned. He's one of my team as well.

[ he eyes the kettle with a raised eyebrow ]

How's tea in space?

Nothing quite like tea back home. [ home, in this case, being england. and hampstead, specifically. there is no cuppa quite like the one poured by a familiar pot and stirred by a familiar hand. peggy doesn't make it her business to look backwards, nor to pine her way through nostalgia. but she misses the tea her mother would make. and clamoring with michael over who would get the first pour... ]

But it suffices. A little bitter, at times. And we don't always have milk in the kitchen. [ she pours almost-boiling water over leaves. ]

I rather like Ms. Maximoff. She's got spirit, that one.

I'm glad she had you. She's young.

[ and she had seen too much, far too much. So much that Steve would have spared her, if he could.

With so much uncertainty hanging about, at least Wanda had Vision and Stark to guide her as well as Peggy.

She makes tea and it's so mundane it's ironic. A passerby might think that he meets her for tea on a regular basis. ]

I heard Natasha was here. You must have met.

We spoke. [ but not about steve, although she certainly doesn't rush to put that potential concern to bed. let him stew in it for a while longer. ] Remarkable woman.

[ she selects two standard issue mugs and walks them the bare few feet to the galley table, leaving them to stand empty while the tea continues to steep. peggy doesn't go into greater detail about natasha. the woman is, after all, another spy. she wants to hear steve's take before she commits anything beyond her brief compliment. ]

She is. She's a good friend.

[ though good friend or not, he'll be forever unsure if he wants natasha speaking to peggy, of all people. she had her own sense of humor and a tendency to meddle that steve usually found endearing but in this case, it has a terrifying potential and for a moment he thinks, she better not have mentioned anything about that kiss.

but then again, hadn't steve meddled at least a bit in Natasha's love life too? admittedly, she did it first but still. ]

The entire team seems...close. [ her voice is even. perhaps, once upon a time, she might have felt a flare-up of envy. but the circumstances had all been changed. peggy had about as much right to lay claim to his heart as he did hers -- and she, certainly, had made a bold attempt to move on. her jaw shifts uneasily when she remembers the still-missing jason wilkes.

but she does have one bone to pick: ] Who's idea was the name? Avengers. It's all a bit, well, dramatic.

[ natasha had implored steve time and time again to do the unthinkable and get himself a sort of life going. he mostly tried to gently slide away from the suggestion of why won't you ask her out? out of a need to avoid having to explain to natasha that the whole matter of building a life and settling down wasn't for him, not anymore, anyway.

captain America, god's righteous man, pretending you can live without war, rings through his head in ultron's voice and he walks to the galley to chase it away. a moment later he looks at her again, his first love and she would probably be his last, too because seeing her now, the notion of seeing her again is overwhelming to the point that loving her will probably be his undoing. ]

Fury. He used to be the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. It kinda grew on us.

[ ah, yes. one of her eventual successors. peggy knows the name, if not the man -- although she's certainly not yet even begun to imagine what shield might be. her devotion (to varying degrees) remains with the ssr, however much it might be a dinosaur in the post-war era.

peggy puts a small sugar dish on the table, alongside a squat bottle of milk. peggy herself only takes milk in her tea, having long ago eschewed sugar during rationing. but the option is there -- and it occurs to her, almost with a pang, that she doesn't know how he takes his tea. ]

SHIELD. [ her breath catches. jim had suggested to her that the agency had not come across that name by accident -- and that was when she first started to realize her impact on the future. ] I might as well come out and say it; you need not speak gently about what happened to SHIELD. I know all about Zola. I know all about HYDRA's infiltration. I've...I've been well-warned.

[ curt, and almost sour in the way she speaks of things she hasn't yet determined how to avoid. ]

Edited 2016-05-14 11:53 (UTC)

[ he sighs a bit. would he have told her? steve's first instinct is to spare her the future, especially when it cannot be changed, especially since he would have preferred her not to go through the turmoil he had when he and Natasha found zola, had discovered what was hidden inside SHIELD, who they've been working for, in a manner.

he would have spared her, no doubt. ]

None of us could have known.

I know now.

[ stiff -- and assured. despite having 'returned' home to live more of her life, and having remembered none of what had passed here within the fleet, peggy can't shake loose the feeling that she might be able to put her knowledge to use. furthermore, that she might be able to spare james barnes the worst of his deterioration.

she piles it all onto her shoulders -- and, in some moments, it shows. she is weighed down by a future she's far off from living.

but for now, she tries to hide her burden. instead, peggy pours them a pair of steaming cups of tea. only then does she take a seat at the galley table. ]

The question is whether that knowledge can ever be acted upon.

[ and steve sees it, sees the moment it comes to surface. the contrast between past and future and present, something he knows well and while he has been giving her the space he knows she needs, he closes it now, kneels at the side of her seat instead of taking the seat next to her and reaching for her hand. ]

if it can, I know there is no better to do it. if it can't - Peggy, this isn't your doing. It isn't your doing now and it'll never be that. Never.

[ he sees her suddenly, years from now, smiling at him, you saved the world. We rather... mucked it up. ]

It'll never be that.

[ I won't let it, he wants to say. he'll never let her heritage be anything but protection and goodness. ]

[ he kneels so swiftly -- so suddenly -- that she's almost taken aback. peggy clears her throat, and draws her ankles beneath the chair. but she puts her hand immediately into steve's, pleased to have that pressure against her palm as the tea turns fragrant. it fills her nostrils. it smells better than it's ever smelled before. ]

Maybe. Maybe not. I don't think either of us have the right to decide that, yet. [ too much hangs in the balance of this place, and what it can offer them in the way for foreknowledge.

her opposite hand raises from her lap. tenderly, she touches her fingertips to his jaw -- tracing the line of his chin with her thumb. he is so bloody earnest, and well-meaning. blinded, she supposes, to her craggier flaws. most of them only began to truly expose themselves after the war. she'd not transitioned well to peacetime.

then again, she doubts he did either. ]

But it's awfully kind of you to say all the same. Downright charming. Maybe there's hope for you yet.

Edited 2016-05-14 13:56 (UTC)

Peggy, I fought an army of aliens and then an army of robots. You went against commands to land me in enemy's territory in the middle of the war, I think you and I at least deserve the right to decide on that.

[ said with a little smile. he had sacrificed a lot, she had done the same and both of them wouldn't do well in peacetime as they have shaped themselves in times of war. it's a good thing that this meeting is accompanied by kidnapping and a poisoned moon, otherwise it'd almost be normal and they threw normal out of the window a long time ago.

charming, she says and he huffs a chuckle ]

You mean I might yet learn how to speak to a woman?

I'll thank Agent Romanoff should I ever see her again, shall I?

[ peggy teases, convinced that it's easier to needle and rib than it is to melt nearer, touch more, and give way to the mounting sentimentality in her stomach. after all, they will always have an audience. the kiss itself might net them both some extra credits in their account, but there's no need to air their entire whirlwind romance to a galaxy of viewers.

she inhales so deeply her shoulders seem to lift. he must have questions, peg decides. but she can't bring herself to steer things back to business quite so quickly. not with him still taking a knee, and her so happy to relearn the well-shaved planes of his face with small, gentle sweeps of her fingertips. ]

[ it might be comical, all that comes later, the arching of an eyebrow, the slightly startled ( very startled expression that makes its way to his face as Natasha's name is thrown in regard to women and -

and then the clearing of a throat. ]

-- I'll take that tea now.

[ he knew these two together would spell trouble. a moment later, he's sitting beside her, still oddly comical holding his cup.

next subject, then. ]

[ peggy's laughter is low, melodious, and generously given. it steals upon her naturally, and in a fashion that simply doesn't occur on a run-of-the-mill day upon the starstruck. it isn't that she leads an unhappy life aboard the ship, but she's a muted sort of crew-mate. she saves her smiles for genuine moments, and there are few more genuine than this one. as strategically as she mentions natasha's name, she knows better than to think...

well. the last time steve had been present, he'd given her no cause to suspect. and even if he had, she'd long ago resolved that she could not blame him. they both had their lives to live.

as steve takes his seat, she relaxes. rubbing her palms together as if she might hoard the heat of his hand between her own. peg pours a dash of milk into her cup, and stirs it with a clink.

she clears her throat: ] Are you liking the Pathstone?

[ he wants to protest about this not being funny but she laughs and the sound is warmer than the tea she made and e can't bring himself to mind, not really. he looks down his own cup, smiling a bit; he is a coffee man but this is so very like Peggy, it's so wonderfully familiar. ]

I haven't spent much time there. I've spent most of time on the moon or visiting the other ships. The bed is alright.

[ he isn't the sort to mind these matters and coming to think about it, perhaps he should know his own assigned ship a bit better ]

[ she knows, of course. he'd have preferred coffee. and it isn't that she doesn't care, but more that she doesn't kowtow. not even to him, although he's the one person in any world for whom she might break her patterns. even now, she feels herself ramping up to a detour from her usual behaviour.

but there is no use in wasting what time they have left. from the moment he stepped onto the starstruck, the timer was turned. the sand started to fall from one half of the hourglass to the other. ]

We have room on the Starstruck. We didn't, not so long ago, but we do now.

[ the offer hovers in the air -- and peggy appears almost sheepish to have offered it. she isn't embarrassed, or shy, but she understands how sudden an offer it is. ] In case you're looking for -- a change.

[ ahem. peggy doesn't take her eyes off his while she takes her first sip of tea. ]

[ he looks at her for a moment, tea forgotten yet again as she forms the question, suggestion, offer. there isn't a matter of thought or discussion regarding his answer. ]

I could do with a change.

[ and then, with a small smile ( he won't dream to show her how happy he is. space audience and all of that ) ]

are we still required the odd 75 push ups?

[ he still remembers boot camp, thank you very much ]

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