（ 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

video

[outstandingbalance]

It sounds like there are some congratulations in order.

[Natasha is smiling, amused by their announcement and the manner it's given in.

They don't really do things half way, do they.]

Though... [This part might be for Peggy.] Who should be talking to who about setting a bad example now?

video

[mucked]

I have only one thing to say: abandon ship now before you wind up like me -- bound by the siren's call of compromise.

[ she's teasing, right? right. ]

[outstandingbalance]

See? This is why I never transferred to Heron. That would be the beginning of the end.

[Archly, both brows rising.]

That's probably your first mistake.

[mucked]

In my defense, we absolutely did need a security officer at the time...

[ because that must have been why. look, even peggy can't keep a straight face on that one. ]

video

[uprightness]

What are you two talking about?

[ what have you been gossiping about ]

what example?

video

[passingthrough]

About time. [Totally different from saying "this is long overdue."]

I say make it all honeymoon.

[Because you never know how long you'll get, but she'll keep the defeatist bits to herself. She really is happy for them and she's going to do her best not to get too emotional, but they probably get she comes with some baggage. Like a whole baggage car on a train. Or maybe if you took the train and made all the cars for baggage? More like that.]

video, although he can also be heard yelling it from across the ship

[wingedman]

Finally.

[That's it, that's the post.]

[outstandingbalance]

I'm sure you did. There were no other motives at all.

[If Peggy can't be bothered to be convincing, Natasha won't either.]

[mucked]

[ the very last thing peggy wants to do is rub their quiet happiness in someone else's face -- in fact, that was the third point on her list of reasons why they shouldn't have made an announcement in the first place. but steve won in the end (for once) and now this is a delicate moment that peggy thinks, at least, that she can handle with grace. ]

Careful. You'll give him ideas.

[outstandingbalance]

We're talking about the fact you finally wore her down.

[TEASING.]

And publicly.

[mucked]

I suspect you know a thing or two about different motives being anything but mutually exclusive.

[mucked]

[ huff, really, sam! ]

We can hear you.

[uprightness]

Hey, the part where she asked wasn't a lie. I didn't do anything except say yes.

[ so what if he's pestered her for months. ]

thank you.

[outstandingbalance]

I never said they were. Though I do have to wonder what you're implying.

[She doesn't. Not really.]

So did you go down on one knee?

[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]

[ oh good lord what's he been telling her... ]

Not exactly.

[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.

video

[uprightness]

See, now that's a good idea right there.

[ steve misses him too but it's a whole other matter for kitty. she's been handling it with more grace than he has ever shown. peggy being in a coma was enough to send him reeling. the first party after winn's disappearance, he held kitty in a quiet embrace as they've danced.

the same gentleness exists here, today, too. ]

thank you.

[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.]

[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.

[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. ]

[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]

[s i g h]

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

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha will let that go unchallenged. How much he nagged her before she turned the tables on him is between the two of them.]

So can I call being best man? I look good in a suit.