ᴛʜᴇʏ'ʟʟ ɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴀ ᴄɪᴛʏ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴜs ( ᴏᴘᴇɴ )

[uprightness]

Who: steve rogers circa civil war + you, yes you
Broadcast: nope
Action: various;
When: throughout january



[ new year, new memories and what begins as one monstrous headache.

it takes a couple of hours to sort through everything that's new, to make sense of a kaleidoscope of memories, images and sounds. at first, he starts writing it all down, lagos, the sokovia accords, the UN, black panther.

Only the dry details and nothing of what starts to weight down on his shoulders, faces and names that inspire a heavy, intimate, terrible sort of pain.

And so an avoidance of a sort begins that lasts through the two days the new year. Hours upon hours spend on the library aboard the Iskaulit, reading books and making nothing of them. It's an odd sight, Steve Rogers in one of the corners of the room, staring at a book and randomly picking up a notepad and writing something down ( another detail that comes up, scott lang or spiderman ) and then staring at the notepad only to go back and stare at the book.

He might also be found at odd hours at the gym; evidently, taking out his burdens on a punching bag, seemingly lost in thought even as takes out what seems to be a world of trouble on the thing.

It will take these two days of isolation before those of the fleet start seeing steve rogers off the Iskaulit. He'll make a return to the Starkstruck, though this return, too, will be a reclusive matter one will have to actively seek him to find him in the weaponry or otherwise, in his room. ]

Comments

[uprightness]

Lagos. Only a part of the team was there - Sam, Nat, Wanda and me. We were tracking Rumlow for a while. He and his team got their hands on - I think it was a biological weapon.

[ there's a frown, pieces putting themselves together. ]

It went well at first, but I froze.

[mucked]

[ she doesn't know who rumlow is -- but that's perfectly alright. the context of the tale doesn't require that she does. a named someone, she gathers, who was working antithetically to steve and his team. by all accounts, it probably should have been a routine op. ]

What froze you? [ he leaves her an opening. she takes it. ]

[uprightness]

He talked about Bucky. I was never really aware who in HYDRA knew. Nat said the Winter Soldier was a ghost story but Rumlow talked about him, he said his name and that's all it took.

[ and now when he says it, it becomes clear that, ]

He was buying time and I should have realized that.

[mucked]

He went for the belly. So to speak.

[ peggy's fingers slide from his crown to the back of his neck -- she explores, carefully, for any knots in the muscle. heaven knows if he even gets knots, she realizes, with the serum keeping him in such peak human condition. ] He gambled on your emotions.

[ and she knows that were she toe-to-toe with steve, and inclined to hurt him, she would have done the same. he's a brick wall of a man; one would need to find a different weakness to stymie him. ]

[uprightness]

Well, he was right.

[ which is the infuriating part, really. one might think that at some point, there will be a learning process, that he and Bucky could simply be without becoming each others' weakness. ]

It worked. Wanda had to step in and people got hurt. Many of them.

[mucked]

And those are the grounds upon which the governments of the world are building their desire for the Accords?

[ she won't discuss his mistake. admittedly, it's an awfully grave one. she's constantly reminding the people around her not to let their heart get too swept up in such matters. you never know when you'll need to sacrifice a colleague for something greater. she'd expect the others ought to treat her the same way.

but in the end, it never works like that. ]

[uprightness]

That, Sokovia, D.C, New York.

[ though honestly, he can't see how it could have been prevented in New York or in D.C. when a battle has to be fought, there's so little to be done about it. Ultron might be Tony's doing and Lagons was entirely Steve's fault but the other two -

it seems like the Avengers were never popular among politicians and it's not surprising and still. ]

Still. We did our best. It was never perfect but many lives were saved. I just think - it'll never be without flaws.

[mucked]

[ -- it's hardly just, is it? she's been allowed to make her mistakes behind the veil of secrecy. as often as she mucks it up, the ssr is there to at least shield the mistakes from greater publicity. steve, the avengers,...they don't have that safety net. ]

And you're right to fear tripping over red-tape. [ so she agrees to that extent, at least. ]

[uprightness]

I think they forget we're people. There were people on my team that are parents to children, others are very young. People make mistakes but I think - at the end of the day, we're all just trying to do our best. I'll never ask anyone for more than that.

[ but where had it gotten them to? they're all criminals, that's the part that really gets him. ]

They put a shock collar on Wanda when they took her in.

[ his voice is rough, fingers curling into a fist. these people followed him and where has he led them? more importantly, where will he lead them now? ]

[mucked]

[ -- she feels the tension return to him. feels the curl of his fist up in his shoulders before the first few fingers even move. peggy lays her cheek against the top of his head and kneads her fingers against the nape of his neck. hush, darling.

what he's describing is horrid. stomach-churning. but more importantly, he needs to know: ] That's their failing -- [ whomsoever 'they' are. tony, maybe. the governments. ] Not yours. They did it to her. Not you -- you did nothing wrong in leading her.

[uprightness]

That's the thing. These people trusted me to lead them somewhere and now they're on the run, that's where I led them to.

[ but the anger seeps out quickly, making room for what it was meant to hide. he frowns for a long moment before smiling, bittersweet and uncertain. ]

I joked with Bucky, you know, back in the war, asked him if he was ready to follow Captain America to the jowls of death. He said he would follow Steve Rogers and he did but I led him to - terrible things.

[ death, he used to think but bucky's fate, some would say, was even worse. ]

And now this. People follow me, alright; but I'm not very good at making sure they won't get hurt in the process.

[mucked]

[ a soft sound. like a breath, but heavier. her chest sinks. and she remembers the sight of a murdered girl in her bed -- no crime committed, except sharing her flat with peggy carter. for a time, she was convinced that everyone around her died. still believes it in her darker moments.

most importantly, however, she can empathize. edwin jarvis has no abilities and barely any training but he marches blithely into their little 'adventures'. perhaps a little too blithely, she thinks. and suspects that some day he'll be taken from her, too. ]

They chose to follow. They felt a calling, my dear, and they joined a cause. You did the same. Once.

[ tried to hard to join he left minor fraud in his wake. ]

Doesn't make it any less tragic -- but you can't tell me they never knew the risks.

[uprightness]

[ he finds himself, ironically, confessing something to her that he already did. only, she was that much older. ]

At the end of the day, I just want to do what's right. Only, I'm not really sure what it is anymore.

[ but his thumb returns to the center of her palm, rubs little circles there. he can almost feel the shift, the heavier air in the room. at once, he's in tune with her as she is with him. ]

[mucked]

[ a quiet, saddened hum of noise. she understands that uncertainty; it cuts deep. it had haunted her all throughout her parallel investigation of howard's stolen inventions. at every turn she had to wonder whether she wasn't simply digging herself -- and others -- into an even deeper hole. ]

Deciding what's right and what isn't -- it won't always come easily in the heat of any moment. [ she sighs. ] I wish I had an answer for you. I really do.

[ she she knows is that (like the others) she would follow him to the ends of the earth if the cause was justified. ]

[uprightness]

[ oddly, this conclusion makes him smile. maybe because it means that there is no one way to get it right that he somehow missed, maybe because it comes from her. there's a measure of tiredness coupled with sadness but that's not all there is and this, this helps. ]

That's an answer, too.

[mucked]

Not a terrible good one. [ she admits. but it's kind of him to imply otherwise. ] But tell me -- truthfully? Those Avengers that followed you into the fray and defended your choice with regards to the Accords. Do you really believe they regretted it? Even Wanda?

[ they made their choices. her point, as she drives it home, isn't all that different to the one she made in europe years ago. back then, they'd been discussing bucky's death. and she'd stressed to him the importance of letting his friend maintain the dignity of his choice. even in death.

not long afterwards, she'd been forced to do much the same with steve's. ]

[uprightness]

No.

[ he admits. he doesn't understand it some days but that, at least, is clear, even now. ]

No, I don't think they did.

[ he sees the parallels and smiles. ]

Allow them the dignity of that choice. I know.

[ there isn't a single lesson she taught him that he forgot. ]

[mucked]

I know you know. [ mock-stern, like it's a lesson she's still giving him. ] But I also know it's not the easiest thing to come to terms with. I'm not proud to admit that there are days I wish -- I wish I could have deprived you of yours.

[ his choice to sacrifice himself and save god knows how many people. ]

But those days are few and far between.

[uprightness]

I let Bucky go. He went under, asleep. He was - worried about the HYDRA programming, felt it would be safer.

[ and he wanted, more than anything, to tell him to stay, to work it out with him together. still, he listened and he took a step back and bid him a temporary goodbye and he thought of the last time he had to honor his choices, he thought of peggy who he helped lay to rest only days before. ]

[mucked]

It's just as well. [ she aims to sooth. ] He was right to worry about it -- look at what happened here.

[uprightness]

Yeah it - it felt like Bucky, him saying that's what he wanted. It felt right.

[ and in a way, it made the whole thing a bit easier. ]

He's safe; that matters, too.

[mucked]

-- And what about the others? What do you intend to do about them?

[ because all he mentioned was that they were jailed. that they'd put a collar on wanda. she can't imagine he's keen to sit tight and wait on the course of justice, funnily enough. ]

[uprightness]

Oh.

[ well. he shifts, clears his throat. ]

They're uh - fine. They'll have to stay below the radar for a while.

[ neutrally: ]

there was a break-in, where they were being held.

[mucked]

A break-in? [ she feigns surprise. ] Of course there was. Good -- you see, someone still knows their rights from their wrongs.

[ you did well to free them. ]

[uprightness]

Seems like.

[ well, he has to accept the compliment now, having not openly saying it was him though they understand each other well. Still, he can't very well dismiss compliments on someone's behalf. it's clever, the mixture of two manners of support, both gentle and strict; he may still feel exhausted and heavyhearted by it all but here and now, there is an undeniable measure of comfort.

it's a rare occurrence, for him to simply soak it up and not maneuver back to his more professional duties but he had lost and found her again all in the same week and this, he and her pressed together like this, feels like reclaiming a part of all that came before the influx of memories. what might have once been an indulgence is now a necessity and still, another moment passes and he remembers that he is leaning most of his weight against her and ask, ]

am I too heavy?