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afewfantasies · 1 month

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🏔️The Retreat 🏔️- Chapter I

Prologue | Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III | Misc references & details

Summary: Set after the events of the war Gale and Lorena are recovering from what they thought life would be and their new realities. Gale and Lorena were deeply in love with their respective significant others before the war, they had big dreams and grand plans for their futures together. Only it was not to be. Gale takes to a Lakeside retreat in the mountains away from city life when things with Marge don’t go as planned. After a hard breakup and subsequent divorce from her husband Lorena ends up at Gale’s retreat looking for work and a place to stay. This is an angsty fic that follows the themes of love, loss and recovering from trauma.

Pairing: Gale Cleven x Lorena (black fem oc)

Warnings: Race is a factor but there will be no overwhelmingly racist outbursts. It is more so a discovery element and explorations, different worlds, a little forbidden love element.

Chapter I - Retreat

*Three Months After Prologue*

The birds woke before everyone, even the sun on some days. Their cheerful chirping allows Lorena to watch the sun rise over the trees and above the mountain. It was a wonder how one day she was traveling scared, heartbroken and lost, then another she’d found this place. The expansiveness of the wilderness the antithesis of everything she had ever known. There was solace in that fact. She’d driven for days, but something stopped her from taking root in other places. There were little things that reminded her of home, of the loneliness and failure she now found as a single woman in a mans world. Families, children, schools, social settings and society life. It was all too raw still. She had never considered the mountains. Although she had enjoyed hotels and banquet halls in her adolescence, the lakeside retreat was the furthest thing from what she expected. A great stone building with many wings for the kind of people she’d never known in the city. It was the perfect place to get lost in, the great beyond was so expansive sometimes it would be impossible to find people even when you went looking. Showering she refreshes herself for the day applying perfumes and fluffing her hair. The prettier she could make herself the better the tips. Fully dressed and in uniform she heads downstairs to see her landlord and employer Gale Cleven. He sits in the same spot as always a man of routine, holding a coffee in his right hand and the paper in the left. Lorena smiles, in appreciation of her unlikely company. it wasn’t something she was conscious of but his routine and predictability brought her peace after years of uncertainty.

“Good morning” Gale says in his even tone.

“Good morning” Lorena responds.

Gale Cleven was her third stop. Unlike the others he was a soldier and his eyes weren't like a predator looking waiting to pick off easy prey. He was quiet and didn’t ask a lot of questions, seeming to want the same in return. It was a dream to Lorena who didn’t want to talk about the past. Thus far he always paid her fairly, and minded his own business. Where his wife was was the greatest mystery of all. Gale was a handsome man, blonde hair, blue eyes, muscular and rich from his lake house retreat. However, his reputation in town was less favourable. He was regarded as a seriously bitter man, who threatened to shoot trespassers and would employ all measures of diversion to maintain his property and the respect he said it deserved. There were scores of scorned women who’d lost their husbands and thus had been denied the passionate trysts they yearned for when they knocked at Gale’s door. He’d turned away more damsel’s than any other man could. He also seemed completely without vice. He ever smoked, never drank and only cursed on rare occasions. He also didn’t talk much to anyone unless something needed to be said. It had taken Lorena some time to get used to the silence and longer still to decide whether Gale liked her or not.

“You have the day off today” he said interrupting Lorenas first sip of tea. She raises a brow in question. “Bunch of rowdy ones arrived late last night - I don’t want any trouble” Gale says plainly. In his experience men became worse in the presence of a beautiful woman, worse still when they had strong opinions and she was likely to deny their advances like Lorena. In just shy of three months Lorena had come to know no one was a better judge of character and behaviour than Gale.

“Okay” she nods applying jam to her toast. Unlike most men Gale didn’t have to love her to treat her well. She hadn’t arrived batting her long lashes or with a sob story, just well manicured fingernails that looked like they hadn’t done a days worth of honest work in their lives. He’d met his fare share of women from the city, it always took him no time to pick them out. But it was the pain in her eyes that he recognized first, it was the heartbreak that made him give her the job. Lucky for Lorena, Gale didn’t need to like a person to take care of them, he was a Major after all. The safeguarding of others was his forte.

“You have some mail” Gale mutters standing. He heads to a locked drawer pulling out three unopened letters. One is large, the other are undoubtedly personal letters. Gales eyes are attentive as always. Opening the first two Lorena shakes the letters and out fall two cheques. One from her father and the other from Reggie. Enough for her to survive for the next three months with frivolity and not a day of work.

He didn’t need to ask to know what happened to Lorena, he could see the heartbreak in her pretty brown eyes. Still, he respected his commitment to life more than he pitied the heartbreak that befell her. No matter how she sobbed some nights she always came downstairs ready to work without excuse. She had a thing for doing her hair like the starlets of the time. It was good for business to have someone as pretty as her working at his retreat. Service with a smile and surprisingly good conversation for a woman of her standing. She treated everyone equally well, learning about the local fishing from solo travellers and old men and even offering to be a beautician for women on their honeymoon. Her tips were handsome and Gale knew he’d never have another staff member like her. Even if his generous salary offer had been charity at first; she’d earned it. Clearly without needing to work to earn her stay. But he knew better than the most, the key to not being levelled by heartbreak is to keep busy.

“Your folks still worried?” He asks not wanting a search party at his door.

“My mother and sister want me home so I can be remarried” Lorena responds with a bitter smile after briefly looking over the letter.

“Is that such a bad idea?” Gale asks.

Lorena scoffs shaking her head at Gale as she folds the cheques putting them into her breast pocket. “It’s a terrible idea” she responds with folded arms. Her offence is clear.

“I didn’t mean to pry” he says meeting her scowl with surrender. He’d been fearless during the war but something about an angry woman always took him back. It was the only kind of battle he wished to retreat from.

“No you’re just trying to get rid of me” Lorena snaps throwing an accusatory gaze at him. He’d never met a women who could switch from sweet to fierce so quickly.

“I’m not gonna carry on with you Lorena” he warns putting some bass in his voice not wanting an argument. He takes a quick sip of his coffee before putting on his jacket and leaving the house to head into the main lodge. Signing deeply Lorena looks to the large envelope and tears it open to view the finalized divorce decree. Silent tears roll down her eyes. Heading upstairs she takes the safe she’d purchases and places the cheques and letters inside it with all the others. Sobbing silently Lorena loses track of time wallowing in self pity until she hears hooting and hollering from the unruly guests. Sitting in the bay window she watches them scamper around the grounds drunk already before they strip down and head into the lake.

She spends the day writing replies to letters from the past month to each of her parents, her older sister and finally the first since she’s left to Reggie. Looking down at the men returning before dusk she considers a dalliance with one of the young men. It’s been too long since she’s given into the needs of the flesh. So long since shed been desired, since she felt truly desirable, since she’d been held. Since she’d awaken to a strong warm body beside her. Even if it was only for a night perhaps it could do well to quell the loneliness. Twisting her wedding band around her finger, her commitment to Reggie is still too strong. He was who she had wanted then. No one but Reggie would do then and still now. Everyone always told her she was beautiful, men gave her longing looks since she’d began to mature but the words had been empty until Reggie gave them new life and meaning. She wanted to be all the things her friends wanted to be for their beaux’s for him and she was. No preparation was too slight for him to notice, even the change of rouge he saw and complimented. Reggie held his head high as they walked the town together. Everyone could tell it was real and everyone wanted what they had. The feeling was second to none and Lorena had wanted it for everyone too. If it hadn’t been so real perhaps she could go along with an advantageous marriage with an old man. If it wasn’t so real maybe she could stomach moving forward, moving on. If it wasn’t so real maybe she wouldn’t be thousands of miles away crying in her bedroom housed with a stranger.

Giving her wedding band a final twist she removes it placing it into the safe. Maybe the gold would be worth something some day if she fell on hard times. Wiping her tears she gets a tissue blowing her nose. She begins folding the paper placing them in envelopes and lighting candles as the last of the suns embers cast a fading glow on her bedroom. Another day wasted to tears. Putting on the record player only enhances her somber mood she sits folded in her chair with the curtains closed staring into space.

Gale holds the tray as he heads upstairs with hot food. He knocks twice with his elbow hearing the record playing. He’d left men alone all day only to find them no longer living. He’d lost his last man to sadness during the war. With no response he pushes the door open finding Lorena seated at her desk with teary eyes. There’s no judgement in his, he’d been where she was before. He swallows hard placing the tray down in front of her.

“You need to eat something” he says collecting the letters on the table in frnt of her.

Getting a whiff of dinner Lorena smiles wiping her eyes, “Kurt made me Italian style pasta?” She asks.

“Rose stopped by and made it” Gale responds uncovering the pasta dish.

Rose, the mother of his bartender an older woman with a sweet but no nonsense disposition is who he called when he deemed having Lorena working the lodge too much of a headache to him and the others who’d grown protective over the woman.

“She still here?” Lorena asks.

“No, it’s late.” Gale responds.

“Please give her my full days pay” Lorena says taking the fork up.

“I will” Gale responds watching her take a bite. “Do you need me to have these mailed?” He asks looking at the letters on her desk.

“Yes please” she sniffles. He notices the absence of her wedding band on her left hand and puts the letters in his back pocket. He steps back ready to leave without a goodbye. “Gale?” She calls.

“Yes?” He stops turning to face her, no judgement in his eyes.

“It’s just the war right? There’s nothing wrong with me? The war changes people right?” She asks breaking down again. Sighing he closes the distance between them pulling Lorena into an embrace. He’d held countless men during the war, broken men in their last moments wailing as he promised them it would be okay with a terrible pit in his stomach. This was somehow harder holding a woman who was not his and was in his care. Her ex-husband an enemy he couldn’t commit to killing for his slights because they’d fought on the same side of the war. Her sobs soak through his shirt and he strokes her hair whispering assurances to her. Lorena had never been prone to hysteria or sorrow. Her parents had raised her better than that. She was a woman of composure. She’d left her marriage without grandiose demonstrations of emotion and yet somehow with Gale she felt safe. In the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, without friends and slow to making conversations; Gale was as good as it gets for a secret keeper.

“Nothings wrong with you. It’s just the war doll, just the war” he repeats in affirmation. Only the war could make a man crazy enough to leave a good woman like Lorena.

_________

Authors Note:

Thanks for reading lovlies, the second chapter should be out soon. Don't forget to like and comment if you'd like me to continue with this story. 😊😘

#austin butler imagine #austin butler x black reader #austin butler #black authors #masters of the air #masterlist #the retreat #mota #major gale cleven #gale cleven x oc #gale cleven

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16woodsequ · 1 month

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NOT THE CABIN!!!!

your first headcanon is my canon because from agents of shield it sounds like steve lived in the cabin soon after he came out of the ice, and by the time the battle of new york comes around it's already been a year. he must have felt so lost and unwanted and abandoned when they took him to a place like that 😭

steve being stressed out when he meets the avengers because he doesn't want to be forced back to the cabin oh my god. i have to think about this nonstop for the rest of the year i look forward to rejoining society in 2025

the fact that shield/hydra had this cabin as well as that armoured van with supersoldier-sized shackles is so unsettling AAHH

(response to this post)

HEHEHEHE When I tell you I cackled getting this ask, because I love spreading Steve-cabin angst!!

I agree! It does sound like Steve went to the cabin soon after the ice. (Although I headcanon that Avengers was actually very soon after Steve woke up, I know the wake up scene was in a movie released in 2011 and the movies are supposed to happen when they were released, but in some of the deleted scenes for Avengers Steve is confused about wi-fi and he's looking over files of the dead Howling Commandos and his apartment is so bare, and just the way he acts like he hasn't been out for long, I tend to headcanon Avengers is soon after he came out of this ice. But! That doesn't really change the cabin headcanon, besides shoving two traumatic things closer together.)

Either way I think the cabin has a huge impact on Steve in Avengers. I think it's part of why he acts the way he does, and why he's repressing everything so much and playing the role of Captain America Super Soldier. Is it no wonder Steve reactions to Coulson's death the way he does? Tony is visibly upset and lashes out because he thinks Steve is acting like he should brush it off because their soldiers (Is this the first time you've lost a soldier? We're not soldiers) but I think Steve was equally effected, especially since Fury threw the bloody baseball cards in as a further emotional barb. But Steve keeps everything inside. He keeps it all locked down, and I have got to believe it's partially due to his experience with the cabin and whatever kind of twisted mental health screening he got from SHIELD after coming out of the ice.

He's not about to give anyone any more reason to send him back to the cabin to help him adjust to the future. I think that cabin had a profound impact on Steve's willingness to reach out to people and I think it made him reflexively cling to the only other option he was presented with: SHIELD. Which is exactly what SHIELDRA wanted.

Anyway, if you want an in depth look at cabin angst, I just finished a fic about it: Ice and Empty Spaces. Eventually this will lead to a Tony and Steve friendship, but first, angst.

#this kind of turned into a ramble #but i hope you enjoy #i could rant about the cabin and SHIELDRA's goals with it and its impact on Steve all day #steve rogers #the terrible horrible no good very bad cabin #the retreat #the cabin #steve rogers has ptsd #steve rogers needs a hug #asks

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