driftfleet | April System Mingle

Hey -

[ he welcomes her hand in his, turns his palm, thumb sliding across her knuckles, feeling the strain - a boxing session, no doubt. ]

Yeah, I guess it was.

[ some would say that it's a miracle two people with a tendency to butt heads have made it nearly a year without any incident. It's like the first scratch on a car, really - unpleasant, unhappy and unavoidable. ]

Peggy, I'm sorry. You were right. The first reaction to - anything shouldn't be to hide it.

[ it's a mistake he keeps making in the last couple of years, learning the lesson time and time again. ]

What I said, I didn't mean it.

No. [ heedless and forthright, peggy has a gun or two to stick with. she lets her nose crinkle when he reads the state of her knuckles and deflects that examination into a tug. she pulls him into her arms. ] You meant it. You meant every last word of what you said. No use in pretending otherwise.

[ point is, she came back with her own edge of supplication despite his conviction. peggy could be awfully patronizing at the same time as being awfully right. he's not the first to underline that trait, and she doubts he'll be the last.

even without her heels, she'd have towered over him. peggy pulls him hard into an embrace and tucks her chin against the crown of his head. ] I may have been right -- but I ought to have gone about it in a gentler fashion.

You care.

[ he shakes his head, takes a moment to relax in her arms. It's oddly comforting exactly because of the height differences, she's strong and solid and warm. ]

Very fiercely. I'm one hell of a lucky bastard for having that. You.

[ especially now. ]

I always have.

[ cared. once a terrifying admission, it flies easily to her tongue. strife and absence makes the heart pliable (at least) and she finds herself eager to soothe both their ruffled prides. she cloaks him in her arms and pins him close. ]

I doubt you heard it. [ her heart beats a little faster; her usual symptom of vulnerable honesty. ] But when you started yelling in the Vita-Ray chamber, Steve, I tried to shout the whole lot of them into shutting it down.

[ agent carter, surrounded by top brass and visiting politicians, scolding the whole room because she was concerned. not her finest moment, she felt. ]

Well, you know, seeing neither of us felt it when this happened, it'll probably hurt less this time around.

[ ever the optimist and perhaps there is something else here too. She's such a strong individual, always was but even the strongest person could do with a little assurance from time to time . ]

It'd better -- [ a sulky sort of answer. it tells more than she's willing to articulate: she can't bear to see him endure pain, and so it's just as well that he's so hardy and hale most of the time. it frightens her (truly) to imagine that same struggle fighting its way through his body when the serum's effects return. if the atroma have any mercy, they'll make it painless.

peggy's unprepared to let him loose. no matter how enticing the tea smells as it brews. ] Not that I otherwise mind the change. You do understand that, don't you?

Yeah, yeah I do.

[ tentative, he moves his palm from her side to her back, rubbing circles there as he debates how to explain this. ]

When my mother died, Bucky wanted me to move in with his family, not be on my own. I refused him for days, kept tellin' him I was fine on my own. All them years and it seems I haven't changed that much. Not that good at accepting help.

[ it's easier if it's an OP or a war. Easier as a soldier than it is in his private life. ]

All at once, it felt as though you never had to accept it again.

[ but it's not true. steve had been right, of course -- there had been a time when she'd felt certain that he alone could carry the world on his shoulders. it took jarvis to disabuse her of that notion. ]

I can empathize -- that is, I've never been any sort of super soldier, [ she laughs hollow at the idea. ] But I know what it's like to look a gift horse or two in the mouth.

Edited 2017-04-18 16:08 (UTC)

That was my first mistake.

[ no matter the size, trying to do anything on his own was a mistake. Ending up in another century should have been enough of a lesson. There were people steve needed in his life and they were here now. Learning to accept their help was the best process in the world to go through. ]

Having help to accept, you were right - it's a good thing. About time I learn how to do that.

Quite mature of you, darling -- [ but there is a certain sort of injustice still permeating the conversation. peggy's alluded to her own share of the blame, but she hasn't articulated it quite as humbly as steve has. given the opportunity, she never will. but that doesn't mean she isn't feeling contrite.

she curls her fingers against his nape, dragging her thumb up the back of the neck. ] So perhaps you'll do the proper thing and accept my help in putting those extra blankets to good use.

[ -- blanket fort. she's talking about a blanket fort, so that it can be scratched off the list. though it's entirely possible she's left the interpretation dangerously open. ]

All of 'em? It's not that cold.

[ though it might be, outside. He moves his hands to her arms - no goosebumps. ]

Is it?

Not at all. [ peggy relents, then, and puts enough space between them that they can see one another. plainly. ] I'm not talking about staying warm. The tea'll help with that.

[ you'll be drinking some, won't you? steve? ]

[ it takes another moment before it clicks into place and he smiles. ]

We'll have to move that mattress down. Think they'd mind?

In this instance? [ -- his smile makes her heart flutter. brief, but potent. ] I suspect it will be better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

Good point. Right. I'll get the right end, you'll get the left.

[ it's said with a bit of a tragic sigh; as embraces go, this one is a really good one. ]

Yessir -- [ a calm, quiet dig. he calls her ma'am often enough. and, on occasion, the reverse is warranted. peggy offers his brow a further kiss before she untangles herself and rolls her sleeves up to the elbows.

she heads to the left and digs her fingers underneath the (thin, really) ranch house mattress. ]

On your count? [ she'll invite him to try a bit of lifting, certainly. but he'll be the one dictating the pace. ]

On three.

[ the real blessing is, steve spent most of his life this way rather than the other, bulkier way. it would be a lie to say he wasn't happy with the change but at lease he remembers functions and limits. there's isn't a count down, only air taken into lungs and - ]

three.

[ thank heavens it's not a thick one. moving it is doable. ]

Have you ever built one of those?

A fort of blankets? Heavens, no. [ said very much in the tone of someone who (under other circumstances) might find the project ridiculous. peggy offers a sharp hup when they lift the mattress, and she takes a step backwards to facilitate their clearing of the bed.

she follows his lead -- anticipating, if she can, where he'd like her to deliver her half. ] Not unless you count constructing a lean-to on the Belgium side of the Ardennes in winter as relevant fort-building experience.

[ oh so slightly sassy. ]

I suppose it has to count, different circumstances and all.

[ he may not have done this in years but it's a rather simple operation, at least. he eyes the space before looking back at the blankets. ]

I think the chairs will have to move and then we can drape those over them at the corners, make it stable.

[ he's rather determined to make her like the blanket fort, thank you very much. ]

[ it underscores the madness of it all: two antiques from the battlefield, now bending their backs to some recreational fort-building. peggy nods her understanding and grabs one of the wing-backed chairs. she hauls it across the wooden floor with a scrape.

a little impish, though, she adds: ] I think I saw a coat rack down the hall. You should go requisition it.

And what will I tell them when they ask why we need it?

[ he unfolds the blankets, tries to think of an excuse. she'd have one, he's pretty sure, a good one, even. ]

-- I've got nothing. Not a damn thing.

[ she'd have a great one. and yet: ] How about you try and take it without being caught, hm?

[ a challenge. she trusts he'll rise to it. ]

You want me to steal their furniture?

[ it's said with nothing short of amusement. in all honesty, it might be useful for the last corner but retrieving things is a job he'd usually give her, seeing he tends to me much more straightforward when he takes jobs like these, a bull in a china shop. ]

If they have me arrested for takin' it, you're the one who'd have to bail me out.

[ he informs her as he heads to the door. ]

Just so long as they don't set your bail too high. I'm not a rich woman, you know -- [ certainly not now that she'd spent much of her account balance on clothes he'll wear for (maybe) a week. ]

I doubt they would. Look at me - I'm harmless.

[ or at least, right now, he looks harmless enough. He'll return with the item in question. ]

Got it.

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