（ ＶＩＤＥＯ ）

[uprightness]

Who: peggy carter, steve rogers and all of you guys

Broadcast:  amazingly, yes

Action: on the starstruck, if you're so inclined
When: current.

[ New Year’s Eve has come and gone without anything exploding or going awfully wrong and so today is just safe enough for something else. Steve Rogers doesn’t address the network for no reason, after all. Only today he keeps looking back and eventually, calls: ]

Are you really going to stay there throughout the whole thing?

[ There’s a flicker to Steve’s left: dark curls and a flash of a silk blouse as Peggy leans into view. ] Perhaps. After all, of the two of us, you’re the one with experience in addressing the public.

[ But! Fine! Here she is, framed beside him onscreen, and refraining from making any more jokes about the old USO show. ]

Very funny.

[ but he is smiling, small but amused. For all of his experience, he seems as if he’s been practicing his lines for this one broadcast. ]

I know some of you will say this is long overdue, but after months of asking, mostly on her part, I’ve said yes and we’ve decided to get married.

[ -- and that’s when Peggy slaps the back of her hand against Steve’s shoulder, hissing something (something for him alone) about twisting the truth and tarnishing her well-earned cred. ]

I mean, after a careful observation of mutual interests, we’ve decided to get married. What this is really about is a simple matter of proving me right. I’d like you all to tell her three weeks is a perfectly reasonable duration for a honeymoon.

[ She reaches for the device, tugging its focus onto herself. ] -- For God’s sake, don’t encourage him. We’ve only just got engaged; it’s far far too early to start discussing the rest. [ Aside, to Steve: ] I warned you when I agreed to this ridiculous message. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

[ But she’s laughing. ]

It's not getting too ahead of ourselves. Call it careful consideration of facts.

[ he'll reach out and close the device for the sake of this banter. ]

Comments

[wingedman]

[and now he's speaking in a normal tone]

That was the idea.

On one hand, I absolutely think you two should have a three-week honeymoon, but on the other hand, I feel like that means I'll be the one in charge for three weeks. And I'm not sure any of us can handle that.

[mucked]

Thank you.

[ a pause. ]

Not that my gratitude is meant to cast any aspersions on your ability to hold down the fort, so to speak, whenever the pair of us are off ship.

[wingedman]

Sure it isn't. [There's a teasing note in his voice.] I know you just expect to come back to mayhem, me and Max living it up bachelor-style. Empty beer bottles everywhere.

[mucked]

Oh, dear Sam, quite the opposite. I think better of you than that -- as I expect you know damn well there's a teenager on board and you would never, ever risk being such an abominable influence.

[ peggy must be in a good mood 'cause she's teasing up a storm. ]

[wingedman]

Oh, yeah, that's me, flawless role model Sam Wilson.

Also, I've been informed that I have to be completely pro-honeymoon now. Your fiancee is blackmailing me.

[mucked]

[ fiance! oh, god, that makes her feel a bit heady. ]

Is that so? What dirt has he got on you, then?

[ -- she'll find a way to counter it, surely. ]

[wingedman]

Well, if I told you, then I'd obviously be okay with it going public.

[And it's not that embarrassing, but it's still something he'd rather keep private.]

[mucked]

Steve, darling -- [ she raises her voice, as if to imply she's talking to the man himself off-camera. ] You're going to have to tell me what exactly it is you've got dangling over our poor Sam's head like the sword of Damocles.

[ run, everyone, run. ]

[uprightness]

No can do. It's a secret.

[ look at least he's trying not to look amused. ]

[wingedman]

[Under his breath:] Man, I'm telling everyone all of Lang's embarrassing prison stories.

[Which, admittedly, Scott already shared with everyone on the Raft. The guy wouldn't stop talking.]

Peggy, if you find out, then you're going to be able to blackmail me. And you're already scary enough as it is.

[mucked]

Nonsense. I'm perfectly pleasant.

[ when she wants to be. ]

[wingedman]

Yeah, and a lion's perfectly pleasant until you piss it off.

[Really, Peggy, he likes you. But you're also scary.]

[mucked]

Well. In that scenario, it sounds like it was hardly the lion's fault.

[uprightness]

Sam.

[ warning tone in action. ]

don't let me tell the whole network what Lang told me about how you've met.

[ :| ]

[wingedman]

He wasn't supposed to tell you that!

[Not that he actually expects Scott to be capable of keeping a secret. Ever.]

[uprightness]

Just bring Bucky or Romanoff over, they'll help you manage things. don't give her reasons why not to, it'll take me weeks to convince her. she didn't give me more than three days to celebrate the engagement.

[ forever blue about that. ]

[wingedman]

[s i g h]

Okay, but I'm going to help plan the wedding.

[uprightness]

Deal.

[ lord knows how they'll get all of this past peggy but it'll be fine. ]

I hope you're done shouting.

[wingedman]

Oh my god, Steve, it was one word.

-I'll talk to Bucky about the bachelor party.

[Is he serious? Who knows.]

[uprightness]

[ w h a t ]

do we really need a bachelor party?

[ immediate reaction: concern. ]

[wingedman]

Gotta give you a proper send-off.

[And then he relents a little:]

C'mon, it's just a night of drinking with your friends. Either on the Iskaulit or whatever system we might be in then. It's not gonna be wild.

[uprightness]

-- no alien strippers, Sam.

[ :| ]

[wingedman]

First of all, you wouldn't even like strippers, and second, Peggy would kill me slowly and painfully if she ever found out I did something like that.

[He has a healthy fear of Peggy, okay?]

[uprightness]

You really should get over that fear of her, you know.

[ look who's talking. ]

[wingedman]

[Sam just stares for a long moment, because really, Steve?]

I'm not scared of her, I respect what she'll do to me if I do something she doesn't like. Especially if it involves you and strippers.