closed » you're the horizon line -- i'm the last sunset

[mucked]

Who: Peggy Carter & Steve Rogers
Broadcast: Definitely not.
Action: Closed, aboard one of the occasional waypoint stations as the fleet drifts.
When: Mid-afternoon

[ today, peggy decides she's done with nudges and hypotheticals. done with veiled suggestions and unfulfilled promises. she and steve had danced around the concept of going steady; of being official; of committing. they danced around it without ever really dancing at all. he'd made overtures enough, even if his follow-through was rubbish. and she feels a concrete certainty about him, even though her overtures are shite. so, today, it changes. ]

...Steve? [ peggy rapsher knuckles loose against his bunk's doorway. she looks casual (by her standards) with her hair plaited and her sleeves rolled up. she watches him from the threshold, tilting her head with a flicker of affectionate admiration. ] Let's get out of here for the rest of the day. Just us.

[ although she doesn't use the word 'date', she decides it's been suggested often enough that she needn't so crassly underline her intentions in this very moment. to do so would surely insult his intelligence.

...right? ]

Comments

[uprightness]

Maybe it's the crews - doing a good job of calming each other down. Especially the newer people. Those first days are important.

[ there is a shade of a grin there. Does he remember the welcome she gave him? Yep. ]

[mucked]

-- Is that an opinion based in experience, Captain?

[ she looks askance just long enough to catch a glimmer of his grin. cheeky bastard. ] Fond of your warm welcome, are you?

[uprightness]

All too fond.

[ and there it is, hint becomes fact and he's downright grinning at her. Very pleased with himself, this one.]

That can't be a surprise.

[mucked]

[ gently, and with her eyes on the stars ahead: ] A surprise? No. But it's nice to hear it said all the same. [ ... ] I was rather fond of your arrival, myself.

[uprightness]

[ odd, he thinks, that he never told her that before. Perhaps the tip toeing around this, her and him, was what kept it all at bay. He reaches to her side, takes her hand in his, entwines their fingers together. ]

It's been months since.

[ that odd day on a dying moon, an old fashioned kiss to her palm that led way to a more meaningful one. ]

I could never regret it.

[ coming here, despite of everything ]

[mucked]

Funny sort of circumstance, isn't it? [ but that goes without saying, so must merely be biding time as she comes to grips with how he so readily takes her hand. they've lived in a liminal space for so long, now. ]

I forgot I could ever be so...content. I suppose that's the only way to say it. It's not as though the war left much room for it, but there were moments -- [ oh, some days she utterly hates being honest. it always stings. ] There were good moments.

[uprightness]

Yes, there were.

[ and maybe that is why adjusting to the time he woke up at was so difficult. He remembers them too vividly, too clearly. To some, they happened seventy long years ago but to him, they've always been too close. He remembers exactly how she looked on the rainy day when she renewed his convictions, remembers the exact shade of red on the dress she wore. It was never too far away, never a long time ago. ]

Made it all a bit easier.

[mucked]

[ easier. it's a small word for a large concept. peggy adjusts her palms against the shuttle's controls -- although it isn't as if she was actually controlling the vessel. but it offers her some semblance of control. his optimism awes her, and she wishes she could access it as readily as he could.

so long as he is at her side, optimism grows all the more in reach. ]

Listen to us -- reminiscing like two people far older than we truly are. [ a shake of her head. a signal to move on. ]

[uprightness]

Gotta watch it there before they start calling you a fossil, too.

[ it's 100% teasing; he rather doubts anyone will dare. steve likes to think that his team has basic survival instincts in them somewhere. ]

alright - so what are these way stations like?

[mucked]

Sparse. Cheap. A real make-do sort of place, but it's better than nothing. [ she pretends as though she has some sort of say in the docking of the shuttle, but really it's all automated. there's a temperamental rumble as the shuttle shuts off.

she unbuckles the belts fastening her into place and stoops while she stands to exit the shuttle. ] We'll make it work. You and I.

[uprightness]

Gotta say I'm curious now.

[ he rises, falls to his usual place at her side. there is a certain buzz of happiness when she says it, you and I, not in an overly emotional way but in a practical sort of manner which is better, somehow. walking into the ring, he arches an eyebrow. ]

huh.

[ it's a shopping mall of a sort - there is a little smile there as he looks around, peeks out to the courtyard ]

you really hit the nail on the head with sparse but I gotta say,

[ he looks up, to the vast stretch of space and stars above ]

they do have one hell of a view.

[mucked]

Breathtaking.

[ -- she half-smiles. and true to her description, the station is just emptied-out enough that their steps cause a sort of rolling echo. peggy doesn't mind the isolation. by degrees, she welcomes it. one presumes the atroma might be always watching, but it's nice to step out from under all the other eyes.

peggy's pace slows. she lets him drink it in. ] Take your time. Holo-billiards can wait.

[uprightness]

the - what?

[ curiosity has him turning away from looking up, turning to face her. billiard is familiar enough, but - ]

what are holo-billiards?

[ apparently, he has some catching up to do. ]

[mucked]

It's exactly as it sounds on the tin: billiards, but a hologram. [ here is an upside to having been in the fleet for a full year, now: peggy knows what 'hologram' means. ]

[uprightness]

They play those with holograms 'round these parts?

[ should he even be surprised at this point? highly likely not and yet. ]

you played these before?

[ first the paintball and now this; another little detail to add to the puzzle. he smiles. Peggy. billiards. makes perfect sense when he thinks about it. ]

[mucked]

I may have done a little recon earlier in the week. [ -- she isn't so ashamed to admit it, either. if anything, it better strengthens her position to express how well-thought-out this excursion has been. ]

[uprightness]

I'm at a disadvantage, then -

[ he's not as nervous as he used to be around her, all those months ago. perhaps it is simply the effect of time itself or maybe the fact that they can have this, these moments, simple and yet deeply cherished. ]

I'm going to try and avoid another whole month of brewing tea.

[ so maybe captain america did lose to agent carter at paintball but surely billiards - right? ]

[mucked]

Something tells me you might hold the advantage in this contest. [ a quirked brow. peggy felt confident about her use of angles -- she's no slouch. but it's hard to compete with a man whose very weapon depends on hard physics and ricochets. ] Why -- are you eager to lay another wager?

[uprightness]

Wouldn't temper with a winning system.

[ there is another reason, there. any repetition here will create a routine of a sort, almost a tradition in the making and maybe he is a bit too eager to have those with her, things that are theirs. ]

Never really got that coffee date, did I.

[ after that spectacular loss ]

Might be my lucky day.

[mucked]

Bold strategy: wagering the next date on the current one. Someone's feeling bold. [ and she doesn't much mind. ]

[uprightness]

You know what they say, never do anything by halves.

[ and it has been an advice he somewhat failed on following when it came to this, to him and her, alone like this as they are. at times, it felt selfish, in other times, an old fear - that the steve rogers of the 21st century isn't quite the same man she remembered, that he had made some painful compromises, since, that he has become a shade jaded.

the world’s leading authority on waiting too long, that's how he very accurately defined himself to one bruce banner and it is a bit frustrating, realizing that he had spent days, weeks, years - grieving this loss of her only to fall into the same old dance here.

it's natasha of course, who was the eye opening authority to this entire thing, who moved on from matchmaking randomly chosen women to figuring out steve rogers was still emotionally attached to one very certain woman.

he turns to look at her, all challenge now. ]

so, agent carter. if you win - what's it gonna be?

[mucked]

[ it's a fair question. peggy taps steve gently on his elbow, as though guiding him down one of the narrow alley-ways between two of the generic shops. all of these nook-and-cranny places served bottom-barrel beer and well-shots, but they supplied a smokey atmosphere similar to what she remembered during the war. low-lit pubs and sour ale.

she holds the door open for him for no other reason than she likes to watch his chivalry squirm. ]

If I win? Instead of a coffee date, it'll be dinner. A proper dinner.

[uprightness]

Almost an incentive for me to lose.

[ his frown turns into an arch of both eyebrows. For all that she is unique, she's still a lady and yet he decides to stay silently confused - only god knows why a lady like her will hold the door for a man. Obviously there are things about her he still needs to learn. ]

We have a wager.

[mucked]

Don't you dare throw the match, Rogers -- [ peggy pauses long before the table, if only so she can grab for his hand. not to hold it, per se, but to shake on their bet. ]

[uprightness]

Wouldn't dream of it -

[ and if he holds onto her hand for a moment too long, thumb brushing her knuckles, then what of it? ]

How does this thing even work?