driftfleet | （ＶＩＤＥＯ｜ＡＣＴＩＯＮ）

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（ＶＩＤＥＯ｜ＡＣＴＩＯＮ）

Who: steve rogers + you.
Broadcast: yep
Action: on the starstruck if you're so inclined
When: current

[ there's no need to address the last few weeks. others have done it, offering drinks and comforting words or just a down to business attitude. steve would have normally gone for the latter but today is an exception.

there are boxes scattered around the starstruck's cargo bay and it seems he is slowly unwrapping them all and unpacking a collection of decorations. they're not strictly christmas decorations but one must make do with what one is given.

and speaking of which - ]

I know the last few weeks have been difficult but I also know we're approaching the holidays. Those can be a little rough around here.

[ but look at him gesturing to those boxes ]

I thought we might start making it a little easier. I got these at the Kayanni system a couple of months ago. If you want to take a box for your ship, you're more than welcome to.

[ lord knows they have too much tinsel. ]

and if there's anything else you need help with - you know where I live.

[ oh look, it's a smile. apparently those do happen, still. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I would have escalated them last year if I had access to all of these. I got some wrapping paper for the gifts this year, too.

[ much easier than drawing his own patterns. He's quiet for a moment, doing nothing but feeling her presence and the comfort it brings. ]

We should do something this year. Maybe dinner.

[ and here's that quick mind of hers, off like a rocket and without missing a beat: ]

You mean to say with other people, don't you? Not 'we' as in only you and I and a cornish hen split between the two of us.

[ which...sounds nice, come to think of it. ]

We can do that, too. On Christmas day.

[ god knows he favors that idea. Last year he sought just that, him and her alone and uninterrupted. ]

But think about it. Jarvis and Sam can do the cooking, I can help. Nat and Buck must have some drinks. We can ask Thor over. We can ask Howard.

So, we're putting Howard and Bucky at the same table now. Are we? [ progress, progress. peggy approves -- and maybe for that reason alone, she's warming to the concept. ]

What's my part in your little plan? [ a beat. ] Clearly, it's all been very well thought out.

Don't know.

[ brightly, happily. So far - no objections. He knows Peggy well enough to recognize it as a good sign. When she opposes an idea, she makes it known from the get-go. ]

I was hoping you'd tell me. I figured you could pick one for yourself. You know me, you simply being there is more than enough.

[ he does know how to butter her up, doesn't he? and carte blanche to write her own responsibilities for this less-than-hypothetical affair is certainly doing him a world of favours. she sways with him a moment, as though dancing to a tune that's only in her head...

aha. ]

I'll do us all a favour and be on record duty. We'll all be better off without you wearing out that dreadful holiday one Max just got saddled with.

It's full of classics.

[ it's a mild protest. He might have done better if it weren't for this quiet embrace. As it is, he'll agree to just about anything she'll have to offer. ]

We lucked out with that one.

Oh, I don't know. I think I'm with Max.

[ she curls her fingers into the fabric along his spine. it's a needy grip, in its own right. more than a little bit possessive after all the mess that's transpired. ]

It would been better suited to the airlock. It's all so...saccharine.

You know, I don't buy it at all.

[ but he loves her complaints, every each one. they are usually a cover for something a little softer than steve knows he'll get to see sometime during christmas day when it's just him and her.

they need this. at the end of the day, they need a win, they need something to go according to plans without chaos and without destruction. they haven't had that in months. these days, steve wants nothing more than spend his days in bed, watching her creating her puzzles and riddles.

the simple life, he told tony once and he thought the man who wanted it all had stayed behind in the ice. what a time to rediscover the notion. ]

I think deep down, you're just fine with a bit of saccharine.

[ maintaining his hold ( firm, unyielding ), he bends down to scoop a fistful of glittering confetti and sprinkle it above their heads. faux-snow of a sort. ]

come on. help me decorate, it'll be fun.

[ there are times when it benefits peggy carter to keep a straight face and a disciplined expression -- times when even a firm line is preferable to a smile. not so just now, as glitter rains through the air and she curls closer, as though tucking her head just beneath his chin might somehow spare her from the ersatz snow.

in the end, it's a hug. peggy doesn't give them often -- and rarely ever in public spaces. but without a doubt what she's doing right now is hugging him. tight, almost as tight as he's holding her, and with her smile buried against his chest.

if she sputters, now, then it's only for show. ]

Alright. [ it sounds like surrender, except: ] If only to make certain you don't go getting carrier away all by yourself.

what are the chances of that happening?

[ innocent-like, as if steve rogers has never gotten carried away, he's a down-to-earth sort of fella, after all. but now, even when he has her agreement, he's reluctant to step back and get to it, to opening boxes and sorting through decorations and putting them up. not when the alternative is this. ]

maybe it can wait a bit, though.

[ an hour or so. that sounds reasonable. ]

Can it? [ she prompts -- not bothering to hide her delight over the nudged goalposts. ] An hour, maybe. Perhaps two.

[ she'll get to spend some time with him which is all well and good. but the truth is, she thinks she can dilute some of this christmas ambition if only she can drag him away from the decorations for a little while. keep him pleasantly occupied. ]

Perhaps.

[ he's willing to consider the whole ordeal, certainly. though there's a very specific charm at seeing her like this, hair covered in confetti. steve thinks he should seize this chance, she might find something else to busy herself with in an hour.

and yet, ]

I think we can work something out.

[ he bends his head, his lips find the bridge of her nose first and the corner of her lips a moment later. ]

[ agent -- captain peggy carter isn't above using their mutual attraction as a means by which she might postpone christmas. oh, she'd stop the calendar if she could.

they kiss. it's slow and sweet and, frankly, more than she's usually willing to indulge in the middle of the cargo bay. but the moment lingers just long enough to whet appetite before she tries to retreat a step -- a hand on his chest. ]

After all, we're drifting.

[ and she's being much much much too obliging. ]

[ this is all a wonderful, wonderful ploy. steve is at least aware of that - in two hours, there will not be any decorating done, he's pretty sure. trouble is, he knows and falls for it all the same. she steps back and he follows, hands on her hips, boxes entirely forgotten. but it's just one step and he scoops her back into his arms again. ]

we are, thank god for that.

[ he's had enough of horrible planets and besides, it's a very enticing bait. ]

...We'll never get there if you don't let me go.

[ there being the captain's quarters. but peggy doesn't wrestle free from his hug, instead taking a beat to press her cheek against his chest and listen for his heart. that steady, predictable thud.

(he's alive, he's alive, he's alive. she falls in love a little more with every moment where it's proven true.)

peggy pulls him with her. step, step, stumble. ]

That might be a bit of a problem.

[ to say the least. something gets knocked aside and steve is pretty sure that their peach preserves might no longer be a thing. but the moment she stumbles is the moment he pulls her closer, balancing her against a possible fall. it elicits a chuckle but he doesn't look away, not even at the sound of jars rolling and scattering about. ]

I don't really intend to do that anytime soon. We'll have to manage as it is.

[ sod the preserves. the bells, the tinsel, the ruddy snowman. peggy doesn't care for them one whit when faced with the promise of an afternoon alone, together. she pulls at his collar -- grateful for the way he anchors her, and devastatingly certain that a little over a year ago she would have dreaded such easy support.

in tandem, they navigate their way to the cargo bay doors. ]

It makes for slower going. We'd get there faster if you'd just -- [ but she stops to kiss him.

Yes, it does.

[ he breathes out his agreement in the momentary pause between one kiss and another. his tone suggests that he's rather in favor of this slow-going which, just now, doesn't seem like a bad thing, not at all. after all, it lands them here, in this sure embrace, with steve brushing their lips together, toying with the edge of another kiss, one he doesn't hurry to claim. in the wake of another battle fought and won, of another chance granted, he stops and presses his forehead to hers, lets their noses bump, lets himself breath in her perfume and the slight traces of black tea and pigment on her lips. ]

It's either this or me carrying you.

[ another option he doesn't mind whatsoever. ]

[ she grumbles (softly) when he teases her. almost-kisses, feathering against her lower lip and coaxing her along at this incremental and clumsy rate. there's no rhythm to the way her heels scrape the floor, but she can feel the way the texture changes when they transition from the cargo bay to the corridor.

peggy pushes upward. she takes a kiss -- hard and impatient. ]

Don't you dare, Steve Rogers.

[ carry her. ]

Why not?

[ this, right here, is a rather abrupt, pleasant change. steve has been at her side for more than a year but it has always been a sweet enough dissonance. professional on the outside, filled with things unsaid and keener implications exchanged only through looks.

but something changes and steve knows its roots are in the recent disasters. it's been one thing after the next, one near-death experience after the other. it leads to a certain escalation, to peggy's harder kiss, to steve gripping her waist. ]

it'll be faster. it'll take less than a minute.

[ because she can rely on him to keep her upright, peggy lets her hands travel upward. past his chest, over his shoulders, only to settle firmly in twists in his hair. nails just-nearly scraping the nape of his neck. in reality, he's practically carrying her as it is -- she certainly isn't stumbling backward with any help from her own balance.

peggy pulls at his bottom lip with a kiss. ]

Provided that's the only thing that will take less than a minute.

[ look, she really wants to postpone all this decorating. for as long as she damned well can. ]

[ the only time Steve Rogers ever carried Peggy Carter anywhere was last year in February when he scooped her into his arms just to throw her into the water of a lake. He misses those times now; the way the sun kissed her skin and the sound of her laughter.

Those were easier days, the fleet heading to known as many troubles back then. But now, he seizes the same chance. Her hands settle behind his neck and bends down and scoops her up. ]

There's no one in the halls, I'd here them.

[ oh this is lovely. This is a lovely, lovely day. ]

[ it's not her favourite thing: the sensation of her feet leaving the ground, the way her whole world seems to shift and pivot and suddenly depend wholly on him. but peggy doesn't hate it, either. perhaps with someone else (anyone else) it would feel like something of a necessary evil. with steve, at least, she can curl toward his chest and settle her nose against his neck and find all the little ways she might enjoy him while he carried her to their room.

it's ridiculous. it's wonderful. it's the sort of thing she'd perish of embarrassment if she tried to explain to someone else. ]

If there was, would it even stop you? [ peggy teases, kissing the shell of his ear. ]

Yes ma'am.

[ it's a light, easy assurance. He's always leaning on these protocols, on official military language. By now, it's never used without a flirting edge, something sharp and sweet that pours from those words. But this is brand new and utterly delightful. Steve rushes it, still, doesn't risk an intrusion on this little moment.

He's dangerously infatuated. He doesn't need the ring, he'd have asked her to marry him right now if he didn't think it'd endanger the mood. ]

I have some survival instincts, you know.

action.

action.

action.

action.

action.

action.

action.

action.

action.

action.

action.

carried* omg. why do you let me rp.

idk all you end up doing is hurting me

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