Winter & Vision's (not so) Excellent Adventure

[reconstitution]

Who: Winter, Vision, & You
Broadcast: n/a
Action: Forest, planetside
When: July 9th

[ This thread is going to serve both as a canon update to post Captain America: Civil War for Winter and Vision, but also be used as a monthly catch-all with prompts. ]

[ It's been a few weeks since they've landed, so Winter's finally gotten over most of his initial uneasiness. Enough to finally venture into the forest for a hike and get the lay of the land. He's familiar with the beach and the markets, and he's heard things about the forest and a certain tree, so he needs to see for himself if the rumors are true.

It's relatively peaceful, and he hasn't come across anyone else yet. He's making his way around a fallen tree when an animal jumps out of a nearby bush and startles him. Winter stumbles back, and his immediate reaction is to reach out with his left hand to steady himself. Unfortunately it's still broken, so it doesn't cooperate like it's meant to. Which means that he trips and falls. Down a steep hill. Only having one functioning arm means he raises his right to shield his head until he can manage to slow down or run into something. Which is exactly what he does before his head smacks solidly against a hard surface. ]

[Meanwhile, the Vision is similarly engaged in heading toward the tree to investigate it. He’s heard you need someone’s hand to hold in order for the magic to work, but his curiosity has the better of him and he’d like to observe it in action first. A scuffle down below his flight path catches his attention, and he swoops into the forest to see what’s going on just in time to see Winter, of all people, taking a tumble down a steep hillside. He rushes over to try and intercept the man before he seriously hurts himself, and in his rush he miscalculates his own density and slams down hard enough that Winter smacks his head against the Vision instead of catching himself safely.

Oops.

The impact is enough to snap the Vision’s head back and hit it against the tree he’d been trying to prevent Winter from hitting. So now there are two enhanced individuals knocked out on the forest floor. How very impressive.]

Comments

[reconstitution]

[ Anyone else sitting this close to him would have wigged him out by now. He's comfortable about Wrath, especially now. They had their heart to heart when she was still bedridden. It's gotten through his thick skull, at least. ]

Have to do okay in order to be okay. [ The second one is a long time coming. ]

[ There's a brief feeling of exhilaration, quickly followed by tired relief and a grumbled word with more meaning than three letters can convey.

He's safe. Someone has his back, and he has theirs. The highest form of trust. ]

[pain_train]

If you can't do it from the inside out, then you gotta do it from outside in. [Oh, she knows that one. Charles has already pointed out that she tends to assure the world that she's okay, not because she is, but because she wants to be.

She leans to rest her head briefly against his, because doing anything else would be highly stupid. She has a tendency to ruin everything she touches by throwing herself head first into the fray and not giving a shit about consequences; being a wrecking ball is only really a good thing when you're supposed to be breaking everything down. She might not have any mental separation between deep friendships and partnerships and physicality, but she's finally figuring out that other people do.

But she loves Winter solidly, like a twin to that trust, a thing that comes with no expectation and a conviction that she'd tear hell in half to get to him and make sure he has someone at his back. She doesn't do anything half-assed, and she doesn't hold back because if she ever knew how, she's long since forgotten.]

[reconstitution]

[ Fake it until you make it. Sometimes convincing yourself that you're okay has to be the first step, even if it's not true. Maybe if he says it enough times it'll happen. Winter can't really convince himself that it's okay to not be okay. It feels a bit like admitting some personal defeat, and he's stronger than that. ]

Have to start somewhere, even if it's from the ground.

[ He trusts Wrath. How could he not after everything? She still wants to be his friend, doesn't begrudge his lack of control, only her abilities pitted against his own. For as much as she'd fight for him, nothing short of killing him would stop Winter from defending her. They both have darkness and minds that are fucked up, possibly beyond repair, but that's what makes them who they are. ]

[pain_train]

[Softly:] But it is okay if you're not okay sometimes. We're not under fire, and I've got your back.

[She's still not sure how the empathy thing for the planet works, what gets picked up and what doesn't. But as much as she can, she offers that feeling of caring and support and just how damn important he is to her.

It feels good to be trusted. It feels good to be around someone who understands all the shit that can't even be put into words.]

[reconstitution]

You'll have to remind me sometimes. When I get too unfocused or on edge?

[ He knows she's seen him like that once or twice. Close to jumping out of his own skin from the hyper-vigilance or when the programming tries to settle into place again like a dense fog that's hard to move through.

Winter's quiet for a few minutes before he reaches for her hand to lace their fingers together. If he has to share with anyone, he wants it to be Wrath.

If there's anything to pick up on, it's a heart-swelling feeling. It's what he used to feel every time Steve gave him a hug, or clapped him on the shoulder with the look on his face like he was the most important person in the world.

He trusts her with this. With everything. ]

oh my heart

[pain_train]

I promise I will. Will you do the same for me?

[She's a little surprised, when he reaches for her hand. Winter's like Maine in a lot of ways. He's not normally the one to close that gap, which is fine--that's her job, the one thing she's really any good at. But when one of them does reach out, it's important. More important than her doing it a million times because it's so rare.

And--oh. Oh. She leans a little more against him, because even after everything, he's her point of safety. He's the one person that she doesn't have to try to be okay around if she's not.

Quietly:] You are.

[The most important person in the world. In her weird, fucked up, broken world.]

;; no you

[reconstitution]

'course I will.

[ With anyone else, he wouldn't dare. Wrath is special. She keeps letting him in, even when she should just sever the ties. They're stuck together, now. They've seen each other at their worst.

Her hand is warm, and it's something good to focus on. It feels like his heart skips a beat with that one word. He's letting her down if he lets her go on thinking that he's worth that type of honor and trust.

There are plenty of people more deserving than him. ]

winter no ;;

[pain_train]

[This close, she can feel that as well. It's a sad sort of irony, that Winter thinks he's undeserving, when she knows everything she has is undeserved because she hasn't been able to serve any mission before now. It's a thing written indelibly in her brain, like a message carved in stone: You don't matter. Only the mission matters.

Winter is a person. An amazing, strong person who cares a lot more than he lets on. She always knew that, now she knows it. She's a person because he put them at that impasse. Because he's an asshole, and that's another thing that she loves him for.

She's sticking with him, whether he thinks she should or not.]

'til the end of the Line. [Like Envy always said.]

[reconstitution]

[ It's jarring, hearing those words come from somebody else. Hard for him to disconnect them from Steve or even Jim. Yet it doesn't feel like it has the same meaning to Wrath as it does to him.

Maybe it does. There's at least the same comraderie and intention behind it. She's got his six no matter what, the same way he'll always have hers. Winter doesn't know what the fuck he would do if Wrath ever disappeared. ]

[pain_train]

[Wrath gives Winter's hand a squeeze. It's funny how certain words and phrases seem to echo through time. But her Line isn't the same thing as Winter's line. They each had their own wars.

She focuses on the memory of that, or one of the memories. It was something she and Envy said to each other a lot, as the Line stretched from its first one hundred days to over four hundred. But most vivid is

A sunset molten in the sky, and the battlefield stinks, three hundred and seventy-nine days of blood and weapons discharge and burnt corpses and melted metal. And they sit back to back on a hill that once was green and is now sticky black mud, and eat their ration packs. The warning siren sounds in the distance, and she's so goddamn tired, it's the third wave today, if it's more goddamn kids turned to monsters she's going to lose her fucking mind, and Envy starts pelting her with his fucking protein nuggets. Because he's nuts, they're all crazy by now, but it makes her laugh and call him an asshole.

Envy picks up his gladius and starts the plasma cycling up and says yeah, til the end of the Line. In the distance, figures break free of the wreckage, running toward them.

She picks up Howl, and her hand fucking aches, but they've got a job, and it's just the two of them now in this sector, no relief. They stand until they fall. And she says, No, Octavian. You'll always be a fucking asshole.

Yeah. But I'm your favorite asshole.

And they both know what it really means.]

[reconstitution]

[ It's a peace that's difficult to explain. Hard for anyone to understand who hasn't really been through war. You find camaraderie in the trenches, with your fellow men. Much different than grabbing the hand of a friend back home. You trust a man to have your back, and they put their life in your hands, doing the same.

There's no way to replicate that.

I'm with you 'til the end of the line. Those words pulled him through the dark. They do so, even now. His hand remains firm in Wrath's. ]

[pain_train]

[Wrath snugs her head lightly under his chin.]

Always.

[There's always a light in the dark, no matter how small.]