driftfleet | (no subject)

To go be agent Carter.

[ life and death shape everyone in different ways, it would seem. Steve lost a father to a war and wanted to follow in his footsteps, Peggy lost a brother and followed the path he wanted her to take and in the end, they met each other, loved each other and lost each other. ]

Well, I may not have had the honor but I think it's safe to say, he would have been damn proud of you, Peggy.

[ for what she has done so far and for everything Steve knows she is destined to do in her future. ]

Proud of me? [ her laughter is protective. and indulgent. it hides how happy she is with steve's proclamation. ] He'd never let me hear the end of it, I imagine. He'd have gotten a thrill out of those horrible radio programmes, too.

[ it's almost as though she can already hear michael teasing, calling her betty carver. and yet-- ]

Maybe it's selfish of me to hope I might turn some corner on the Iskaulit, some day, and see him standing there.

[ -- like she did with steve, the first time around. starstruck, indeed. ]

-- They did radio programs?

[ oh good grief. he could handle the captain america cards and the action figures but a radio program, that's - ]

did they get my voice right?

[ a bit of a tease there before he shifts to stand before her ]

Hope is never selfish. Especially not from you.

Never. Not once. [ they made his voice too loud, too brassy, too beefcake. and in the wake of the war, when she missed his voice most, it had been a paltry replacement. oh, how she'd hated that programme. ]

Even so, it's popular. Plays all the bloody time -- and it has fans aplenty.

-- At least the Atroma never got their hands on it. Tony wouldn't have let me hear the end of it. He keeps asking about the song and the - USO girls.

[ he shakes his head. ]

Anymore Captain America merchandise and people around here might start getting the wrong ideas.

[ that he's a show off of a kind. or enjoys this sort of attention. a moment later and something else registers - ]

what did those programs made of you?

[ that caused all this irritation ]

As far as the Everyday Person is concerned, they made nothing of me -- [ she would never allow anyone, not for a moment, to mistake her reality with that persona. those who'd lived through the war with her knew better. on occasion, howard got cheeky and called her carver. such moments often ended with her surly and him slapped.

with an edge of annoyance on her voice: ] But there's a velvet-voiced nurse named Betty Carver who manages to get herself kidnapped by Nazis nearly every week, you know. And our dashing hero saves her every time.

[ -- she buries her bitterness just long enough to needle and tease: ] She always sounds dreadfully grateful to him, you know.

[ there is a definite snort coming from his end that's followed by a rather pained ]

oh no.

[ because that does sound as if they made her into some disney princess of a sort. A damsel in distress and it makes him shake his head. A part of him is irked that their lives, love, story was warped into some sort of children fantasy but it still beats the hell out of them trying to tell it as it actually happened.

at least children tales have happy endings, absurd as they might be. Maybe in tales, captain America gets to keep his Betty Carver. ]

Don't think I would have liked her very much.

Oh, hush. Say that too loudly and you'll break the heart of every housewife in America. Captain.

[ has she handled it well? her flame -- her soulmate, of sorts -- commoditized and adored by great swathes of the public. even angie, sensible angie, had used a few choice descriptors when describing a man she'd never met. ]

Not that America's housewives are listening to us, I suppose. God only knows how the Atroma market us, if they market us at all.

[ -- if this whole 'show' malarkey isn't just some elaborate ruse. ]

I think they'll get over it, eventually.

[ waking up to the 21st century, he could have just been steve rogers again but then, the Avengers happened. at the very least now, he shares the spotlight, merchandise and child costumes with the rest of them. There's nothing quite like seeing a 5 year old dressed as Thor. ]

If they do, they're doing a rather lousy job. No one on any planet recognized us until now. Maybe it's like daytime soap operas, the only watching us are some elderly ladies in front of their television sets.

Elderly ladies, and each other. [ after all, they all of them do a fair bit of watching on the network. don't they? peggy, at least, does. ]

Your poor star-spangled ego. [ she teases. ] A shock, is it? To stride around unrecognized again?

[ she know he must appreciate it, on some level. but it's easier to make fun. ]

And to think I signed all those pictures of me, too.

[ tragic, really. ]

Looks like I'll get to be Steve Rogers for a while. He was never as good for ratings but it is what it is.

Oh, I wouldn't say that. [ her throat is tight, and there's something coy about her tone. but she can't help but stress a preference that developed even before he stepped out of the vita-ray chamber: ] I fondly recall rating Steve Rogers quite highly. There was a clip-board. I ticked many boxes.

[ lord be merciful and strike her down where she stands before colour reaches her cheeks. ]

'twas my luck, really.

[ professionally speaking, personally speaking. he thinks that supposedly dashing hero captain america would have probably been far more bold than he is. would have probably damned the Atroma to hell and back and sweep Peggy off her feet, anyway. and a part of steve is always very keen on exactly that but if their world made them into some foolish version of star-crossed lovers, turning Peggy into some sort of helpless girl - he's not about to let the Atroma do the same thing.

so there is no bold damning the atroma and there is no literal sweeping of anyone off their feet. there is, however, a somewhat indulgent, gentle tug on her hand until they stand closer together and he can tuck a curl behind her ear. It's fine where it is, really. But it's an innocent gesture that comes instead of a more intimate one. ]

I should have at least gotten a good score for that flag.

[ -- she resists the urge to rise up on the balls of her shoes. somehow, deep in her chest, she still associates longing with weakness. vulnerability with a soft, tender vein that must remain protected. so peggy settles for the electric sensation of his fingertips across her ear and the unfulfilled promise of the inches still between them. ]

You got a lift back to camp, didn't you? [ and with her, no less. ] Gold star, Captain America.

That I did. It was very helpful.

[ they linger in each others' space now. He could take a more appropriate step back but allows himself this for a moment longer, being close to her, fingers resting just behind her ear. He suddenly hates the ship and the week of travel, thank you very much. This whole matter might have been easier on a planet, away from the Atroma's chosen means of travel and their supposed presence.

He shrugs ]

Besides. It was the first time I saw you smiling.

[ -- cheeky bastard. she displays enough good grace to look indignant. scandalized, even, that he should paint her with such a cool brush. there's a lump in her throat. ]

What? [ brows up, breath hitched. ] Can't have been. Was it? You're remembering it wrong.

[ no -- he's right enough. but she can't sort the romantic bloom of her own memories away from the harder truths. she'd hid her admiration well, and from very early on. ]

Don't think I could ever forget.

[ he was more than a bit over the moon back then, to be the one who got to see agent carter smile. Men like he was, small and awkward, didn't normally do or say anything to merit a smile from a woman like her. ]

Talk like that, and you make me sound like some sort of -- dragon lady. [ breathing fire and deigning to smile only on the rare occasions. and yet wasn't that exactly the way of her, back then? middle of a war. and leers, jeers, and fears hounding her from every side. decking hodge on her first day in camp hadn't been pure spontaneity; she knew what sort of reputation she needed curating.

time and circumstance has, at least, tempered some of that within her. paradoxically, the fleet has smoothed out some of her harsher attitudes. ]

Or my mum. God forbid.

-- hey, that still beats the hell out of that damsel in distress nurse girl. Nothing all bad about dragon ladies.

[ as long as you're not caught kissing other girls, that is ]

[ laughter, half-caught by the back of her throat. she places her palm over the back of his hand -- still tucked, as it is, against her cheek. ]

Speaking of dragon ladies. [ tread careful, darling steve. ] I've been attempting to -- ah-- reacquaint myself with Ms. Romanoff.

[ ....oh boy. ]

Natasha?

[ he arches and eyebrow and smiles ]

That's great, Peggy. Always thought you two could work well, together. How'd it go?

Slowly. Still does -- which makes sense. I understand where her mistrust comes from. [ -- peggy feels a great deal of it, herself. ]

Natasha's - special. I know her for quite a while but I don't think I'll ever know everything about her. She confused the hell out of me, at first.

[ with her missions and her secrets ]

Once she gets you, it'll be all inappropriate questions and poking fun. At least that's how it was with me.

[ that and the weird dating service she seemed to have become back in the day but he keeps that part to himself. ]

-- And how does she poke her fun at you, hm?

[ oh please tell her, steve. peggy wants in on this. ]

[ sensing troubles ahead. ]

Not sure I want to give you both a reason to team up against me -

[ especially as peggy alone is scary and natasha on her own is scary, too but the two combined? he stands no chance. ]