driftfleet | ship mingle: february is for starstruckers.

[ he arranges his notebooks, gathers them up and sends his rather obvious answers. ]

Where are you? I'm on my way.

Need anything from here?

[ it's entirely possible that she'd banked upon this very level of helpfulness from him. ]

Pack us an overnight bag. Some spare clothing, a few blankets, anything you think you'd need. I've got rations and shelter handled.

[ surprise! we're going camping. ]

[ he smiles a bit - she has a plan but then, he's not really surprised. ]

give me twenty. Where do I meet you?

[ and he sets to work. Some of the things she asked for are easy enough, blankets, his phone if only for the camera, some pencils and papers and sweaters - but as far as Peggy's things go, well.

Steve has gotten terribly used to spending his nights with her. there was the hotel and now there's here but he never actually made himself familiar with her things. he draws a blank for a moment, what would she take if she were here?

be brave, rogers.

he's perhaps a bit fascinated by her clothing, how her scent seems to linger on the fabrics. he has to remind himself that she's waiting.

he gathers up his senses. Peggy would go for comfortable and practical, he knows this, he knows her. this shouldn't be so difficult.

and evidently, she doesn't mind him searching, which is sweet, really.

it takes a little longer than he anticipates, trying not to move anything out of place, trying not to stare too openly at things that are hers and are private ( he definitely doesn't trace at the hints of lace and silk that are more familiar that they ought to be ).

he's running a little late, he realizes and that alone makes him put aside his nerves and finish packing up.

he packs her gift as well - at an inner pocket of his jacket. ]

Just outside the market in that small town we visited yesterday. Pick me up, and we can take the shuttle to the mountain's foot together. From there, it'll be a bit of a hike. I'm assuming you're up for it.

[ this isn't an off-the-cuff sort of plan. likely, she's been formulating it for days now. but putting him on the back foot by asking him to pack their bags is certainly intentional -- a way to game the day, perhaps, and keep the emotional high ground. with this pesky augment glitch, she fears she'll need every ounce of control she can find.

true to her word, however, she's waiting in a clearing at the market's edge. there's a pair of duffel bags propped up at her feet. she looks ready to go on a mission more so than a valentine's date. ]

[ it's a beautiful day outside. he's getting used to this planet, the clear air and the vast spaces; it's quiet, not as crowded as some other planets have been. after the raiders, it's a good place to be, especially today.

most would valentine's day is to be spent with candlelight dinners but then, he and Peg have never been ordinary even before space.

it's different, now, more comfortable. he takes her hand in his when he arrives at her side. ]

I know, I'm late.

Par for the course, really.

[ and when he steps off the shuttle, she steps on the thick canvas straps of both duffels at her feet. it wouldn't do to have them react to how pleased she is to see him -- sunlight hitting just so. slowly, she's learned to compensate for this awkward glitch. ]

I never actually believed you'd manage it in twenty minutes in the first place.

[ her expression crinkles but she takes his hand nevertheless. ]

I nearly did, got a bit sidetracked.

[ it's a light tease. It takes him a second to understand what she's doing and when he does, he almost laughs. So things are still floating. He thought he must have been dreaming one morning when he woke up to see one of her lipsticks floating above her table.

He figured out the why, mostly. He thinks that it has more to do with the light feeling of peace and simply being content. He says nothing, for now. ]

[ he says nothing and she can't say for certain whether that's a blessing or otherwise. she doesn't underestimate him; she knows he's bound to have worked out a pattern by now. you don't need to be a bletchley alum to figure it out. but she can't decide whether he's acting with discretion or merely chambering his understanding for a future strategic reveal. either way, she takes few chances. ]

Sidetracked. [ look! she plays it off all innocent-like. ] It wasn't that tough of a task I set you.

Not that tough.

[ on the paper, anyway. but for now, he's willing to play along and wait for the right moment to hit that specific nail on the head. ]

And I'm not that late. Let me get those.

[ he looks down to the very bags whose straps she's standing on. mostly helpful and only a shade daring. ]

I can manage. [ a sweet smile. she almost adds that they're not all that heavy but (admittedly) that would be revealing too much. as it is, she opts to heft one back onto her shoulder and nudge the second towards him. ] But if you insist? Take this one. It's got the tent inside. Spare tarpaulin. Sleeping bags.

And I do.

[ insist, that is. he picks up the bag and swings it easily over one shoulder. ]

They're not short for resources here.

[ he's not really surprised. only - perhaps still fascinated by the beings which inhabit this planet. ]

[ she ducks into the shuttle and deposits the bag behind the passenger seat. from the town's edge, it should only be a shortish jaunt to the mountain's foot. peggy flattens the map against the shuttle's dash. ]

True enough. Funny looking folks, however -- the only tents I could find are sized more like small barns.

They're smart and - curious. They spent an hour looking at my phone, they were very excited to see something they didn't know.

[ funny, indeed. ]

Besides, a barn-sized tent doesn't sound too bad.

-- I believe you just volunteered to assemble it, then. [ she offers him a sly grin. ] Fair warning: it's designed to claws and beaks, not fingers and thumbs.

I'll have to start thinking like one of the locals.

[ all too cheerfully. ]

It'd be an adventure.

[ an adventure, he says, and she's pleased with the verdict. it's a bit of a thrill to look forward to an adventure that doesn't involve raiding space-pirates or lavish hotel rooms. peggy buckles herself in to the shuttle's passenger seat -- relinquishing the piloting duties to him. all the better to navigate, really. ]

The spot's not far. We can leave the shuttle on flat ground and then hike a ways up the mountain -- there's supposed to be a lovely little bluff with a fresh water source. We can spend the night. Make our way back to the fleet tomorrow morning.

That's a good plan.

[ it's been a while since he flew one of the shuttles but it's not something one forgets. it's a solid plan, he has to wonder how long it's been in the making. ]

It's good to be out in the air again. It's been a while.

I thought so. [ her expression is one of pleasant vindication -- as though proud of herself for having planned an adequate outing. peggy isn't one to dive all-in to something like valentine's day. apart from appreciating the gestures steve makes, she's not altogether swayed by flowers or candlelit dinners or such sentimentality. yet she is wearing the matching bracelet gifted to her by wanda, though it shows only occasionally from underneath her cuff. ]

-- God, I haven't had a proper camp out since... [ russia, she realizes. ] '46, back home. Three years past, nearly, if you count time spent here.

[ It'll be a memory, he realizes, and that's a good thing. in a month or two, this will be a good memory and maybe it's not really Valentines Day at all, it's just the idea of another date, another holiday he can spend with her. They've had Halloween and Christmas and Steve's birthday and now this. ]

Somehow -

[ he begins, taking a second to grin at her ]

I really doubt it was an ordinary camping trip back at '46.

-- It came with a bottle of bourbon and Dum Dum Dugan so. No, not at all ordinary. [ her tone gentles just a little. for her, dugan is an absent friend. she doesn't see him as often, back home, but he's alive and she takes advantage of certain ssr clearances to keep tabs on the commandos. their work, their whereabouts, and their hijinks. for steve, she knows, dugan and the others are dead men. men he used to lead, once upon a time. ]

It was good, though. Seeing the lads again. I never would have snagged the assignment without them.

It's been a while -

[ since he had last thought of them. he remembers the uniforms at the museum and every now and then, his thoughts still stray. It's something that happens less and less. some would say it's a good thing, a sign of moving on.

For Steve, it's mostly a sign that he's been busy. ]

Were they mostly sober?

We started that way. [ an impish smile. notably, nothing floats around her -- perhaps because she's harbouring some pieces of the story like a secret. junior juniper's death, for one, despite the fact that steve was in the ice when the young man joined the howlies. ] I met up with them in Russia -- brought the bourbon myself. Can't come to Dugan empty handed, you know.

Took some the SSR agents along with us. Showed them how it's done.

Russia?

[ That's a rather chilly camping trip. or more accurately, a mission. SSR agents, the Commandos. It's a missing piece of a history of people he cares about and for a change, it's a source of comfort, not grief. ]

Well if anybody can.

[ show them how. ]

[ she doesn't bother explaining how it was the same mission that brought her to the red room academy -- one of them -- or the same mission where she recovered a leviathan agent masquerading as a prisoner. some details aren't worth souring their expedition. ]

We talked about you. [ a half-smile. the map on the dashboard twitches. ] There aren't many left I can do that with.

Not many would understand.

[ that much he get, at his own end. there may be those who'd like to think they knew what sort of connection he and her had but that would always be exaggerated and dramatic and far from the truth. But then there are the commandos, there's Stark.

For him, there's Bucky. A pillar, someone who knew. ]

I know.

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