driftfleet | April System Mingle

Yes ma'am.

[ the words are drawled, lazy and happy. He's both pliant and obedient but he thinks that if this passes before they're out of this planet and he would have enough strength to push back and trap her beneath him -it'll be exactly the sort of battle he would favor. ]

Do I stand a chance at all?

[ if he manages to keep her on one spot today he'd be lucky. He catches her hand in his, brings it to his lips yo press a kiss to the knuckles. ]

[ after his kiss, her fingers uncurl and stretch across his cheek. mouth on his throat, she can feel the rumble of his voice -- it, too, is practically unchanged when listened to at such close proximity. ]

A slim one, perhaps.

[ it's a familiar gesture, almost automatic; she splays her fingers and steve leans into the touch, smiling and pressing a kiss to the center of her palm. ]

that's the best news I've heard all week.

[ making slim chances into successes is sort of his legacy, after all. ]

[ she smiles against his collar bone -- thin and evident in his narrow frame. peggy kisses his skin once more before rolling to the left, still within reach, and propping her head up on her hand. ]

It will require a bit of compromise, however.

Of course.

[ it's a well known routine by now, these negotiations. Odd to some, Steve is terribly fond of these back and forth exchanges. He turns to look at her, reaches to twist a finger in her necklace again. ]

I'm listenin'.

Once we're -- [ she smiles, not because of the negotiation but because of the way his touch gravitates towards the necklace's charm ] -- finished? I'm calling Barnes. It's a better idea than me trying to spook some clothing out of the rancher's family, at least.

[ finished. the what hasn't been properly defined, but she realizes she doesn't need it to be. part of her would be happy simply hugging him close for the next forty-five minutes. for once. ]

Oh no - Peggy.

[ he groans, this is the worst. ]

He'll worry. It's bad enough that you worry.

Come, now. Would I still be here, in bed with you, if I was worried?

[ arguably that might be most of why she's still in bed with him. ]

If you thought it would help somehow, yeah.

[ the look he gives her is absolutely dry. ]

It'll pass in a few days.

You're still going to need something to wear. [ peggy reaches to brush a bit of hair back from his brow. ] And he knows what sizes to grab, doesn't he? There's no one better to call. Don't argue otherwise.

I can manage without him worrying about what this could mean. I'm not that bad with pins and needles, I'll alter what I have.

[ and here is the truth, no part of him wants to tell any of his friends about this predicament. ]

Steve. [ she shakes her head. ] You can't avoid him the entire time. Might as well call him up and get it over with.

We don't even know how long it'll be. If it doesn't pass in a week -

[ then maybe. He was very happy to be equal to bucky. Going back to being a cause of concern is even more annoying than the actual glitch. ]

[ at the risk of spoiling the mood altogether: ] I will be calling him. As I said, I'm still your captain. And I'll do what I know will be most helpful.

That's not helpful, that's patronizing.

[ it's a tale as old as time, two stubborn souls digging their heels over the same issue. He almost says something else but reins it in; a strike that might hurt her feelings is never the road to take no matter how ticked off he may be.. ]

[ patronizing! she may very well be patronizing, but she sure as hell won't swallow being told so by steve rogers. peggy decides she can't take this while laying down (literally) and so sits up in their modest farmhouse bed. her hair is mussed and the colour in her cheeks from their earlier play stays in place. ]

He's your best friend. For God's sake. If I had a best friend and I got hit with a glitch, I'd damn well hope you'd call them on my behalf.

[ that might not exactly be true. (un)luckily for her, the point can't be proven because she clearly doesn't consider herself to have someone who ticks that same box. ]

Really? You'd want me to do anything on your behalf? Or would you want to be the one calling the shots regarding the situation?

[ he steels himself in his spot, crosses his arms over his chest. ]

You wouldn't have any problem with me telling you what you need?

[ he's right. of course he's right. were their positions reversed, her objections would be both louder and less judiciously made than his. she bites down on her first retort, swooping instead to argue: ] After what happened with Barnes you shipped me from one bed to another and I rather think I took your shot-calling rather gracefully, for one.

[ but it's not the same; it can't be the same. she'd been broken and bandaged and bruised. this isn't some emergency. better, indeed, that she cut to the very quick of what's bothering her: ] And what if I hadn't been here, hm? Would I be treated as you're treating him? [ she sounds almost more offended on barnes's behalf than on her own. ] Days going by while you wait for it wear off.

That's not the same - I don't need medical attention. You're comparin' apples and oranges.

[ it hits a nerve, somewhere, an old, hidden spot that he thought he grew out of. ]

I'd trust you to listen but you're not doing that right now. You're too busy being right.

[ her question goes unanswered. what if i hadn't been here. peggy pauses to take a breath, glancing at the ceiling once before glancing at him. what she feels in her gut is a strange stab of frustration and admiration. directed at anyone else, she might have applauded the way he went for the jugular. but as it's her, she feels a rise in both her pride and her indignation.

peggy stands up. and she thanks heaven she's already dressed, because this would be far less effective were she still most of the way towards naked. she grabs her duffel (there'd been no opportunity to unpack, last night) and hikes it onto her shoulder. ]

You's realize how right I am if you weren't so busy turning tail. Never thought I'd see the day. [ even without the serum, he'd been idiotically brave. had he come to depend on it so much, she wonders, that he feared being seen without it again? that's not the steve rogers she remembers sitting next to in the back of that ssr car. not the steve rogers whose multiple 4f rejections are pinned in his permanent file. ] Cowardice doesn't look good on you, Steve.

[ it reminds him of something but suddenly it all clicks into place and he laughs, mirthless, at the clarity of it.

( my father made that shield, you don't deserve it! )

In the end, it'll always come to this, to his true legacy. There are people who think so highly of him and steve's talent lies in disappointing them. ]

I know.

[ he accepts her anger and this -this disappointment, perhaps, as he accepted tony's. There are no more arguments to be made. ]

I hoped you wouldn't.

[ and oh did he try. He's almost sorry she has to see him like this now, the man who grew out of the young recruit she met all those years ago. The world had been disillusioned with steve rogers for a while now. It stings far more to see this on her now. ]

Edited 2017-04-17 23:09 (UTC)

[ now is a moment best served by a sharp turn and a hasty exit. she's shown more grace under more scorching fires than this one. and yet there's something achingly disquieting about being without her customary armours -- her bitterness, her lipstick, her chip on the shoulder -- and instead feeling more sad than angry. her mouth twitches, and for a moment she looks prepared to give in and wave the white flag right there and right then.

but then he says it. i hoped you wouldn't. and the defeat in his voice nudged her over an edge. as altercations go, this is hardly their most bombastic. for one, she's got no gun and he's got no shield. so it ends anticlimactically as she stoops to pick up her shoes and turns to leave the room.

even barefooted, her steps are heavy on the farmhouse stairs. it only takes her about ten minutes to take control of her emotions long enough to do exactly as she'd promised: she texts bucky. ]

[ it's not something that's meant to last and thank goodness for that. It's late evening when steve realizes that maybe he had a good point and she, too, had an excellent one and maybe she was sharp and stubborn and he was more than a bit of a jerk but point remains, there isn't any part of him that's happy with this and he can either wallow in self pity or try and fight back for what - who he wants.

Steve's ma always said that lettin' the sun sink on your anger was stupid and imagining a night without her solid, comforting presence makes him awfully miserable and so a plan forms. The sun sets by the time he finally sends her a message, late evening turns to night but he has a feeling that he won't be waking her up. Still: ]

you know I never knew there's such a thing as white tea? They say it's very healthy and not that common.

So I was thinking, if someone was an idiot to someone else and wanted to apologize, they better have white tea with lavender and berries to offer. Least they could do.

[ peggy carter has had a day. ever since their argument, she's been ping-ponging between two very troubling extremes: well-stoked fury and gut-wrenching regret. ordinarily so thrifty with her credits, she's gone and spent nearly all of the currency to her name on stupid overpriced slim-fit clothing that likely still won't fit him the way his shirts would have done back when his mother likely altered them for him. and after she died, maybe barnes's. these dreary thoughts stalked her as she couriered her bought goods back to the starstruck and proceeded to beat the stuffing out of the punching bag. today had a great many frustrations to work out, it seemed.

and yet his guess is accurate enough. when he messages her, she isn't asleep. the captain's bed felt cold and empty in a way it had never done before he'd moved in. worse yet, the loneliness made her wonder if this is what it would be like when he eventually (inevitably) left. peggy scrunched her eyes shut and willed herself not to cry.

when the bzz of her device sounds, she grabs for it. the worst knife-twist of all is to see him call himself an idiot when she suspects -- when she knows -- he's no more guilty than she is. peggy touches the text with the edge of her thumb before keying in a quick response -- unwilling to leave him waiting for her answer. ]

Sounds like a little more than the 'least' they could do. If you ask me. I daresay such a peace offering would be dramatic.

[ distant, almost dispassionate. but it's telling enough that she replied at all. ]

[ it makes him smile, only a bit. It was terribly stupid to let her leave at all, idiotic to make her go through an entire day without making it clear that he would fight for her no matter how dire of an argument they'd have. No part of him should accept disappointing her, not so easily, not when she inspired him to be more than he ever thought he could be, serum or not. ]

seems like I have a flair for it. I remember someone mentioning that once or twice.

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