#brooke you get peggy

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

20, 22, or 41 (I can’t decide) from the kiss prompts with George Russell 💚

this is an approximation of my face upon receiving this ask:

Prompt: Kissing in a stairwell, giving them an artificial height difference; a chaste kiss given to each other because they are in mixed company; Kisses shared under an umbrella

Warnings: George and Reader are Married™; smooches; truly this is just tooth-rotting fluff; my abiding fascination with Jay Gould and his place in George Russell's character creation

“You’re late,” You tutted softly, glancing from your guests as George pressed a kiss to your cheek.

“I couldn’t get away, I’m sorry.”

You’d expected him to say that he got caught up in paperwork, but if he couldn’t get away from that meeting—Your stomach flipped, eyes wide as you turned fully to get a better look at George. He gently waved away your concern.

“Mr. Gould and I simply become distracted before discussing business," He insisted.

“Distracted by what?”

“We were discussing our families. It was quite a genial conversation.”

“Alright,” You nodded, glancing back toward the party attendees. “As long as you’re sure.”

George chuckled, pressing a chaste, gentle kiss to your lips.

“Quite sure, darling," He reassured, "I was in the room, after all.”

You pursed your lips to fight back a laugh, instead reaching out and gently pinching his cheek in reprimand.

“Mrs. Russell?”

You turned to the question, smiling when you spotted Marian and Peggy.

“I’m afraid we must return to my aunt’s,” Marian smiled regretfully. “But thank you for the lovely afternoon.”

“Of course! Oh, do let me see you out. Excuse me,” You patted George’s arm before hurrying toward the stairs.

“Where are you going?” George frowned, following you and stopping by the banister as you stilled on the third step.

“To get my coat.”

“Send your ladies maid.”

“I don’t mind,” You insisted. He shook his head, a fond smile on his lips.

“My stubborn girl.”

You grinned, leaning down and pressing another gentle kiss to his lips before turning to Peggy and Marian.

“I won’t be a moment!”

--

“My goodness, it’s a wonder you made it over without drowning!” Ada tutted, eyes wandering the three of you. You, Marian, and Peggy were still giggling, your hair and clothes soaked by the sudden downpour that you’d gotten caught up in on your way across the street.

“Isn’t it,” Agnes agreed dryly. “Another moment and you would’ve been swimming across the avenue.”

“We are so sorry we couldn’t make it to tea,” Ada insisted, “Aren’t we, Agnes? We simply weren’t feeling well.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” You shook your head. “I’ve been meaning to look in for some time.”

“How kind.”

You knew from Agnes’ tone that she didn’t mean it as she said it, but you knew better than to quarrel with the woman when you were dropping water all over her front hall. You opened your mouth to ask after them, but you were drowned out by the sound of the bell.

“Who could that be!” Ada asked brightly, peering around you as their footman hurried around you to get the door. Your brows raised at the sight of George on the doorstep, and large umbrella in hand.

“Mrs. Van Rhijn, ladies,” He nodded to each of them. “I’ve come to collect my wife.”

“Your timing is impeccable,” Agnes muttered.

“Won’t you stay for some cake?” Ada offered.

“Thank you, no,” You shook your head. “We really should get back. It was wonderful to see you Miss Brook, Mrs. Van Rhijn. Marian, Peggy, lovely as always.”

You stepped out onto the stoop, away from their goodbyes, taking George’s arm with one hand and lifting your skirt slightly with the other as you took care walking down the slick steps.

“Did you really leave our guests without a host just because it started to rain?” You chuckled, picking up your pace as he led you across the street.

“I didn’t want you looking like a drowned rat when you returned.”

“Very thoughtful, but you could’ve sent a footman.”

George came to a stop on the sidewalk, turning to face you as he held the umbrella over your heads. You searched his face, stomach a flurry of butterflies as he fixed you with a warm smile.

“I don’t mind,” He insisted softly. You grinned, leaning in and pressing a tender kiss to his lips. He lifted his other hand, cupping your cheek as his lips tenderly slipped against yours.

“Come on,” You murmured, drawing away. “We ought to get back inside before we catch our death.”

“Mm. And before the guests grow suspicious.”

"Thank you for coming to get me."

"You're very welcome, my love."

Tagging all the fellow George Russell girliiiiiiies: @massivecolorspygiant ; @nominalnebula ; @foxilayde

#George Russell x Reader #George Russell x You #George Russell/Reader #George Russell/You #George Russell fic #George Russell imagine #George Russell The Gilded Age #asks #replies #requests #Prompts #Danny Tag

[the-feels-assassin]

A Pern/Avengers Crossover (That No One Asked for)

So I was reading a recent popular book involving dragons and dragonriders, and thinking how much I like the Dragonriders of Pern better (lol), and of course my brain did it's thing. So here you have it. My definitive opinion on what sorts of people the Avengers would be in the world of Pern.

We're gonna start with Steve/Peggy/Bucky because I HAVE THOUGHTS:

Of course this is during a Pass, because Steve/Peggy/Bucky have to be during a time of War and a Pass is the closet we have to War in the Dragonrider sof Pern.

Steve Rogers: oh, Steve. Poor, tiny, sickly Steve. He and Bucky are fosters at a Weyr, but no one expects/wants Steve to bond a dragon because no one is confident this sickly kid is going to live through the night at any given time. So either they keep him off the sands during a hatching or he's up in the bleachers. But Steve, being Steve, we get a Jaxom or Keevan scenario. No one means Steve to Impress a dragon, but of course you can't communicate that to freshly hatched dragons. And so of course between the sheer determination of Steve pulling himself out of the infirmary (ala Keevan in The Smallest Dragon Boy) and the stubbornness of the dragon refusing everyone on the sands (ala Ruth looking for Jaxom), we get tiny Steve Rogers bonded to what will be the biggest, most powerful Bronze Dragon the Weyr has ever seen. Steve becomes a Wingleader and everyone expect he'll be Weyrleader one day when Peggy becomes head Weyrwoman. Which leads us to Peggy Carter

Peggy Carter: Peggy is a rider of a gold dragon, of course she is. She was fostered in a different Weyr from Steve and Bucky (hence the different accent), but due to injuries and deaths during the passes, she gets redistributed to another Weyr that is lean on Golds and their leading Gold and Weyrwoman are aging. Peggy will be the next Weyrwoman. She is Peggy Carter in every way, fierce and determined, and like Lessa she fights the leadership of her time to enable Gold dragons to fight. Because Peggy Carter is all about sticking it to the patriarchy.

Bucky Barnes: Bucky Barnes is solid and reliable and dependable. He Impressed one of those Brown dragons that's as big as a Bronze (ala F'nor and Canth). He is Steve's Wing-Second. And then something happens while they are fighting Thread. Bucky is hit. Thread takes his left arm and sears most of his dragon on the left side. His dragon jumps Between and never comes back. Everyone assumes Bucky went with him, dead.

Everyone, of course, assumes wrong.

So what happens to Steve?

Steve just fought Thread, the battle is over and he's beat, and he's just doing a sweep to make sure nothing got through. It's time to go home; he goes to jump Between. He accidentally jumps time. He envisioned something off--something in the stars, maybe it was a night jump?--and suddenly he's in the future. He has no idea how to get back. Steve Rogers is a bit of a legend. His arrival sends both the Weyr into chaos, but also no one really believes it's him. They need the Harpers to verify, since the Harpers hold the history of Pern.

Which of course...brings us to SHIELD.

Because we all know the Harpers are the Spies of Pern, and the Masterharper of Pern is the most powerful man on Pern (search your feelings, you know it to be true) so of course I'm saying that:

Nick Fury: Nick Fury is the mother-loving Masterharper of Pern. Look, I don't care if he doesn't sing or play an instrument that we know of in the Marvel movies. In the Pern novels, Robinton has his fingers in EVERYTHING. He is the puppet master. Nick Fury is the Masterharper of Pern. I will brook no argument on this. Which of course means all of our SHIELD agents are harpers. Yes. It's wonderful.

Clint Barton: I mean how could Clint Barton NOT be a harper? He grew up Holdless. He picked up his acrobatic, juggling, and archery skills as a Holdless kid. But a Harper (probably Fury) saw his talent and potential and recruited him to be a Harper. Sure the kid is partially deaf, but he's a natural with an instrument and a born-entertainer. He's also so darn personable. Everyone immediately likes him and trusts him and tells him things. So of course, of course he's a perfect Harper, a perfect person to collect information and brook trust with the Holdless, Holds, and Weyrs alike.

Natasha Romanoff: There isn't really an equivalent of the Soviet Union in Pern. Natasha grows up in the Southern Continent, maybe the child of an Oldtimer exiled there. I think like Menolly, Natasha naturally Impressed a whole little flight of fire lizards, because she is like that. While Natasha is raised in an environment where all those in the Northern Continent are the enemy, eventually she meets Clint Barton and is recruited to Harper Hall and to the cause of ridding Pern of thread forever (the Ultimate Goal).

Phil Coulson: Look he makes Harper Hall run. He mostly stays in Harper Hall while Fury is out doing God knows what, and it's Coulson who is keeping tabs and getting reports from Barton and Romanoff.

Okay but what about Tony and Bruce? They are the last two Main Avengers left.

Tony Stark: Obviously the youngest Master ever at Smithcraft Hall. Could be on track to be the next Mastersmith BUT you know Tony. He likes to work on what he wants to work on. He's a genius and we love him, but staying within an authority matrix or running one isn't his strong suit. Eventually he becomes the head of Computer craft, when he meets....

JARVIS: Obviously the AIVAS analog. Tony is just bitter he didn't invent JARVIS himself. In this AU, I think it's Natasha who discovers AIVAS, while messing around on the Southern continent, doing her undercover recon thing. She sends her queen firelizard (the only one with two brain cells, obviously) to report back to Fury, who immediately gets Tony down there via Dragon. And of course that Dragonrider is none other than Tony's best friend.

James Rhodes: Rhodey was raised in Smithcraft Hall, went to be fostered at a Weyr for a short period of time, mainly to learn more about the Weyr's needs and how Smithcraft Hall could better plug in and whoops, impressed a dragon. Tony is still mad his best friend "abandoned him" for a "giant lizard" (which really Tony is just incredibly jealous. Who doesn't want to be a dragonrider?).

Bruce Banner: Bruce is basically the opposite of Rhodey. He was a dragonrider and he lost his dragon fighting Thread. This has left Bruce teetering between suicidal depression and complete rage. He's found new purpose in Smithcraft Hall and has become friends with Tony, but there is just a pain in him that is indescribable and everyone who interacts with him can feel it. In this AU, General Ross is the Weyrleader of the Weyr that Bruce was in--Betty is still his daughter and a gold rider. But since Bruce's bronze dragon is dead, well, there is just really no future for him and Betty.

Okay that's it for now. I have no idea what happened to Bucky (how does he come back? What is a Winter Soldier equivalent in Pern??), and I have no intention of writing a story in this AU, but inexplicably this keeps coming to me.

#long post #Avengers #Dragonriders of Pern #crossover #an AU no one asked for

[classicsapphicships]

The first round of preparations are finally complete, and that means the first round of the Classic Sapphic Ships bracket is almost ready to go! I'll be preparing the polls today and tomorrow to hopefully go live on Friday, and voting time for at least the first two rounds will run for a week. Check out the FAQ in the meantime, and feel free to send over any additional questions as well!

The full list of Round 1 Match Ups is under the cut!

Right side:

Franky/Bridget (Wentworth) vs Regina/Emma (Once Upon a Time)

Watson/Moriarity (Elementary) vs Lucy/Amy (DEBS)

Gina/Rosa (Brooklyn 99) vs Debbie/Lou (Ocean's 8)

Jo/Blair (The Facts of Life) vs Peyton/Brooke (One Tree Hill)

Piper/Alex (Orange is the New Black) vs Bering/Wells (Warehouse 13)

Xena/Gabrielle (Xena: Warrior Princess) vs Trini/Kimberly (Power Rangers 2017)

Ripley/Annalee (Alien) vs Annalise/Tegan (How to Get Away With Murder)

Susan/Talia (Babylon 5) vs Chessy/Meredith (The Parent Trap)

Ann/Anne (Gentleman Jack) vs Scully/Reyes (X-Files)

Cat/Kara (Supergirl) vs Olivia/Natalia (Guiding Light)

Nikki/Helen (Bad Girls) vs Ola/Lily (Sex Education)

13/Cameron (House MD) vs Sara/Catherine (CSI)

Delphine/Cosima (Orphan Black) vs Emily/JJ (Criminal Minds)

B'elanna/Seven (Star Trek) vs Rachel/Quinn (UnReal)

Emily/Alison (Pretty Little Liars) vs Beca/Chloe (Pitch Perfect)

Carol/Maria (Captain Marvel) vs Raven/Abby (The 100)

Left side:

Grace/Frankie (Grace & Frankie) vs Shaw/Root (Person of Interest)

Callie/Arizona (Grey's Anatomy) vs Stef/Lena (The Fosters)

Eve/Mazikeen (Lucifer) vs Luce/Rachel (Imagine Me & You)

Tara/Pam (True Blood) vs Ally/Ling (Ally McBeal)

Alex/Olivia (Law and Order SVU) vs Miranda/Andy (The Devil Wears Prada)

Samantha/Janet (Stargate SG-1) vs Nomi/Amanita/Sense8)

Willow/Tara (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) vs 13/Yasmin (Doctor Who)

Sharon/Brenda (The Closer) vs Kalinda/Alicia (The Good Wife)

Max/Anne (Black Flag) vs Petra/Jane (Jane the Virgin)

Eleanor/Tahani (The Good Place) vs Kelly/Yorkie (Black Mirror)

Rory/Paris (Gilmore Girls) vs Aneela/Kendry (Killjoys)

Quinn/Rachel (Glee) vs Jane/Maura (Rizzoli & Isles)

Nico/Karolina (Runaways) vs Serena/Bernie (Holby City)

Laura/Danny (Carmilla) vs Peggy/Angie (Agent Carter)

Hecate/Pippa (The Worst Witch) vs Bobbie/Chrisjen (The Expanse)

Bo/Lauren (Lost Girl) vs Bette/Tina (The L Word)

#bracket poll #femslash ships #fandom polls #femslash #sapphic ships #round 1 #classic fandom

[blogger360ncislarules]

The season 2 finale of The Gilded Age brought many of the show's central conflicts to a head, including whether or not The Academy or the Met would win the opera war, who the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) would choose, whether Armstrong (Debra Monk) would ever stop being a pill — and most importantly, if Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) and Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) would ever get together.

The moment finally arrived in the season's final scenes, and it wasn't a mere chaste brush of a gloved hand either. Standing on the doorstep of the Van Rhijn household, Larry walked Marian home from a night at the opera in the early light of dawn. She promised that even with a move on the horizon, she would keep in touch with Larry. Larry's response was to kiss her, drawing a shy, pleased smile from Marian.

Executive producer and writer Sonja Warfield tells EW that the romantic moment came after she directly solicited creator Julian Fellowes. "Julian had long game plans to get them together," she says. "Back then everything was very chaste. You didn't really kiss somebody; you shook hands or something like that. So, I really did want Marian and Larry to kiss and asked Julian if they could please kiss at the end of the season. He granted me my wish."

Though Warfield warns that if they do secure a season 3 (HBO has yet to order more of The Gilded Age), it won't just be smooth sailing through the tunnel of love. Even if Marian will now have a newly empowered Ada (Cynthia Nixon) on her side against what will no doubt be objections from Agnes (Christine Baranski). "Relationships had their challenges in 1884, and they do today," she says. "The modern challenges aren't that different from those challenges. Yes, we're rooting for them. But everything will be complicated."

EW got Warfield to break down more of the finale, including Peggy's (Denée Benton) decision to leave the paper, Ada's sudden new wealth and its implications, and the possibility that Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) has sold her daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), to a duke solely to win a society war with Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy).

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You all brought Ada some romance this year, only to immediately kill off poor Luke (Robert Sean Leonard). So, I have to ask, why are you so mean?

SONJA WARFIELD: Because that's drama. And back then, most of the time when people had an ache or a pain, it did mean death. I wanted to disrupt the status quo with Ada. I just adore Cynthia Nixon, and her performance was mesmerizing to me, so I wanted her to be empowered to have a love. Agnes is oppressive, and so, I wanted for her to have love and to feel loved and to understand how that helped her in the world. The heart of the show, it's about the warring classes and Ada and Agnes represent that old money, and so, they need to remain intact. That's why he couldn't stay. 

Peggy decides to leave the Fortune (Sullivan Jones) paper. What will that mean for her future? She talks about a novel, but being a journalist seems like such a core part of her identity right now. 

In that time period, a lot of women were writing serialized stories for newspapers, so Peggy's done some of that too. There's versatility in her writing and in her work. Listen, Fortune is great, but he's a bad influence. He drinks a little bit; he's married. Peggy has a whole future ahead of her anywhere she wants to be. So I'm excited for her.

Will she be able to stay away though?

We shall see. He is pretty cute.

Watson (Michael Cerveris) gets this happy ending where he's going to actually go and have a life with his daughter. Will we continue to follow him and how that develops in the future? Or once he leaves the Russell household, will we not really check in with him?

Now, he's going to be living as a gentleman. We've already seen Turner (Kelley Curran) cross over. Anything's possible in America at that time.

Speaking of Turner, we learn in the climax of the finale that both Bertha and George did her dirty behind the scenes, both with the opera box and learning that Bertha wrote Mrs. Astor to get the new Mrs. Winterton kicked out of the Academy. If there is a season 3, how might that come back to bite them?

 Listen, she'll be conniving to take Bertha down. Turner, or Mrs. Winterton, will be in her orbit. There are crimes of opportunity that Turner will be looking out for wherever she can catch Bertha out. And remember, she was the maid and the maids know everything. 

One has to assume she already is blaming the Russells for everything.

Oh, absolutely. She's a smart cookie. She knows what's going on.

Season 1 ended with this very short-lived triumph for Bertha with her party coming off. But it wasn't enough. If there is a season 3, would that be similar? She won this battle. Are there more battles for her to win? 

The thing about power is that it's unquenchable. You get a taste of it, and you thirst for more. Bertha has her sights set on conquering American society.

There is a heavy implication that Bertha won the Duke of Buckingham by selling out her own daughter. Is that a fair reading of that scenario?

I think you're a smart woman and that's an astute reading. Sadly.

George also looks quite concerned with whatever might be happening with the Duke. And we did see him early in the season pledge that he was supportive of Gladys marrying someone she actually loves. So is he also suspicious? Is he still determined to stand firm to that promise?

That's something that will be tested, and we'll have to see where George and Bertha land. This season was great because we saw them, probably for the first time with their marriage, in some real jeopardy that they had not experienced before. What I loved about that is that they still emerged as this power couple, and so we'll see if they can sustain that and how much their marriage can take. Parents often want different things for their children and that can be challenging. 

We've really seen the servants branch out a lot more this season, whether that be going to the opera or this overarching plot line with the alarm clock. Are we trending toward a situation conceivably where servants are leaving their profession or their power dynamic is in flux?

That's the difference between America and the U.K. You're born into a position there, but in America it's supposedly the land of opportunity. Turner married up; we'll have to see what happens with Jack and how he fits into this new world, or if he gravitates back to his old world and what really happens with it. Businesses go bust, anything's possible. 

We've pretty much exclusively seen Larry interested in architecture to this point. So what would going into the alarm clock business potentially look like for him? 

Money. He's young and he gets to explore a lot of things because his father's a mogul.

In the final moment, Ada warns Agnes that things might be a little different. Historically, Ada is pretty good natured. So her being in charge, what do you conceive that looking like? I feel like we're gearing up for the battle of the century between these two sisters. 

Here's the thing, fighting with a sibling is so different than fighting with somebody else. You can go in and you can go deep and you can go back. It's so charged and it's so conflict ridden. At the same time, you can be at each other's throats and then the next minute, you can hug it out. What I love is that Ada didn't just get a lot of money. She was really empowered to be independent with Luke in that relationship. So the power dynamics, it'll be fun to watch what happens.

Does she hold any resentment toward Agnes for how domineering she was that we could see come out?

Listen, Agnes pushes people. Even if you were forgiving and didn't have resentment, she might stir it up again.

This cast is known for its stellar lineup of Broadway talent. Who would be your dream to join the cast next season?

Sutton Foster. That would be big fun.

#the gilded age #hbo

[siriusly-sapphic]

Music Interview (tag game)

I was tagged by @lemongrass77777, thank you! Basically you put your spotify on shuffle, and use the first 10 songs that come up to answer each of the 10 questions with lyrics!

1. first off, how would you describe yourself in one sentence?

"I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser." (Taylor Swift - Anti-hero)

2. what kind of [sun sign (Aquarius)] are you?

"No one wanted to play with me as a little kid // so I've been scheming like a criminal ever since // to make them love me and make it seem effortless"(Taylor Swift - Mastermind)

3. you're visiting your favorite spot, what are you thinking about?

"Please tell me what you think I've done wrong" (SIX the musical - No Way)

4. if your life was a movie, what do you think the first review would say about it?

"Call it pain, call it trauma // I just know that my guard's up" (Zolita - I fucking love you)

5. say you get a book deal, what are you titling your memoir?

"I'm a legend, I'm your majesty" (Flasch - Deadname!)

6. what would you say about your best friends?

"Thank God we grew up" (Thomas Rhett - Where We Grew Up)

7. think back to when you had everything all figured out in high school, what was your life motto as a teenager?

"Don't tell me it's not fair // believe me I've been there" (PEGGY - Villains aren't born (they're made))

8. describe your aesthetic now:

"And I hope what's left will last all summer long" (Halsey - The Tradition)

9. what's a lyric that they'll quote in your euology?

"Another gifted kid that burned out in the tenth grade" (Taylor Bickett - Quarter life crisis)

10. and for our final question, say we believe in soulmates, what do you think their first impression of meeting you will be?

"Guess I never gave up playing golden child // don't drink and don't do drugs // so I'm not cool enough" (Brooke Alexx - Oldest)

Some of these make absolutely no sense but this was fun lmao

Tagging with absolutely no pressure: @evadwrites @stonecoldhedwig @nymphadoratonqs @jennandblitz @fiestylilmetalbendingqueen @caitiewantstobeavadakedavrad @picklesonjupiter @broomsticks @lumosatnight

#tag games

[saiilorstars]

Love, Ours: Ch. 5 Reaching Through the Stars

Fandom: MCU

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC

Story Summary: One-Shots/AU collection of Seren and Steve outside of their fics (Darkest Before Dawn, Alignment, etc.).

Story Masterlist ○ Seren’s Masterlist ○

Also available on Fanfic ○ Ao3 ○ Wattpad

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​ @arrthurpendragon​ @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet​ @averyhotchner@foxesandmagic @kmc1989​

[If you’d like to be a part of any OC’s works/edits, let me know!]

77 years later

Year 2018

He brought his arms around Seren's back, though he moved one hand down to smooth out a part of her dress that had ridden up a bit. He let Seren continue to sleep peacefully. He had no idea what time it was and didn't personally care. That moment right there was the tranquility he needed in his life right now. He was grateful that the moment lasted for a long while. He began to feel Seren waking up but even then he didn't make a move to get up. Maybe he wanted to see what she would do…

Steve's eyes snapped open and was immediately met with his dark ceiling. He passed a hand over his forehead, staying still for a few minutes as he once again accepted it had just been a dream — a memory. Just another memory. Whether he was sleeping or wide awake, his mind always found a way — and the time — to think about the past. Sometimes—or very often—he wondered if escaping death had been more or less of his own personal hell. He woke up from a long, long sleep and found himself in a brand new world with new people and new threats. Try as he did, Steve couldn't "normalize" to the new world. At every corner, he thought about what he left behind. It was only after the first year or so after waking up, that he felt the first real spark of motivation in him to do something about it.

After 70 years, Peggy Carter was an elderly woman living in a retirement home with beginning Alzheimers. She was also the only one who was still alive. Everyone else was gone. Steve was fortunate that she recognized him and understood what had happened to him.

"I've lived a good life," she had said with a smile to match her sincerity the first time Steve showed up. "We all did. Have no worry about that." Truthfully, it did help Steve a little to know that his friends had gone on to live well after the hell they were put through. "Now ask me what you really want to ask," Peggy said only a few minutes into their silence.

Steve had been trying to find the right words and the right moment all while making it seem like it wasn't burning him from the inside to know what had happened with—

"Is Seren still alive?" Only after asking that did he start to wonder if Peggy even remembered her. His concerns waned when Peggy began to muse about their mutual friend.

"Ah, I haven't seen her for decades."

Admittedly, it wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for but it was a start.

"So…so she was okay after…after—?"

"After you had apparently died?" Peggy nodded. "It took a while but she was. She went back to New York with Howard. With her mother."

Steve's eyes widened. "Her mother?"

"Mhm, and they met with her dad. I forget his name—"

"Brooks," Steve said immediately. "His name was Brooks Soul. Did they — did it work out?"

Peggy nodded again. Steve felt another wave of relief.

"Seren spent a couple years with her parents right here in New York. Her siblings — she loved them. Fortunately, they accepted her exactly for who she was."

"She found a family…" The news brought a smile out of Steve, along with many other warm feelings. He could only imagine how happy Seren must have been with her new family. His only lament was that he wasn't there to see it.

"You said decades…" He murmured, Peggy's words hitting him like a brick. "What do you…? How would that…? Is she alive right now?"

"I…I would hope she is," Peggy answered truthfully. "After the war, the SSR offered Seren an official place with us but she refused. She never did get over the fact that we had kept Zola and I couldn't blame her. Being who she was and turning down a national job, the states and many world leaders began to grow wary of her."

"Wary of her?" Steve was not liking where the conversation was turning to.

Peggy nodded. "National security. Seren felt like she was being watched all the time and more importantly, she felt like she was putting her family in danger. She left, Steve."

And just like that, Steve's heart sunk to his stomach. "She's gone?"

"She kept in touch with us — between her and Howard, they set up this communication line. Nobody except for us knew."

"But — and her family?" Steve didn't want to imagine Seren being left on her own, or worse — with her grandmother of all people.

"Her mother followed soon after that, and she brought Seren's father too. Seren stayed away for many, many years. She popped in a couple times to see her siblings. She looked almost the same both times," Peggy chuckled.

Time works differently the further in space you are, Steve remembered Seren's words. "It was probably a shorter time for her."

"Mhm," Peggy said, "She said the same thing. She came for her siblings' funerals. Haven't seen her since."

Steve listened and replayed all of Peggy's words in his head multiple times until he came to a very specific conclusion. Peggy didn't expect anything less from him.

"So…she could still…she could still be alive…" He said, swallowing hard with nerves, "She could still be alive somewhere…up there…" His eyes flickered up above. Although the ceiling was there, he knew space was much, much bigger than what he thought.

That's the thought that kept him going in the new world. Seren was alive somewhere up in the sky, amongst the stars. For a while after the news, all Steve could do was just wish that she was doing fine and that she was, above all, happy. The more time he spent in the new world, the more he began to learn about her history before leaving.

For starters, although unofficially part of the SSR, SHIELD actually had a file opened on her. He found that out through, ironically, Howard Stark's son, Tony. During a mission — Steve's first mission after coming out of the ice — Tony snooped through SHIELD's files and came up with some interesting results. It was there that Steve learned that Tony was also familiar with the girl from the stars. Apparently, Howard had passed down the story.

"She's basically a Twinkle Star nursery rhyme," Tony said cooly the day after their mission together. "You know 'twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are'?"

Even the Asgardian Thor Odinson had once heard about the deal his own father had made with the Celessians. He promised Steve that he would look into the matter. After all, the Asgardians now owned the Tesseract again, the very thing that brought Seren to Earth in the first place. Unfortunately, that search never led to anything. The only thing that they knew of was that many years ago, the Dade family had cut all ties with the Asgardians, more specifically the youngest Dade had. Apparently, no one had ever told off the Asgardian King but Seren had, and furiously so.

Although Steve didn't quite care for Tony's attitude, he knew where his best chances for his crazy idea to succeed were. Surprisingly, Tony didn't put up a fuss when Steve shared what he had in mind. He was actually interested in it as well. Ironically, Steve saw a lot of Howard in Tony when he agreed to the impossible and created another transmission device that would hopefully reach Seren wherever she was.

The modern world had a lot more than Steve could have ever imagined, and he saw most of it in Tony's lab. Tony worked just like Howard on big and little trinkets, and more importantly on the craziest of things. Tony knew exactly what his father had once built for Seren in the 40s and merely copied the idea with his more modern tech. He was sure that it would work. The only thing he wasn't sure is if the famous Seren Dade would hear it, recognize it, and respond. But it was a risk that Steve knew and willingly took.

The transmission started in 2012, and for years it kept running without a response.

Tony lost interest in the thing only a few years later, but he kept it running for Steve. He was always checking in with Tony to see how it was doing and when the Avengers came to live together, Steve was almost always in the lab where the transmission was running. Try as he might, he just couldn't move on when the spark of hope was sitting on a table right where he lived. Even when they had one battle after the other, Steve kept a close eye on the transmission. It was essentially his life.

So when he was forced to go on the run as a fugitive of the law and he had to leave the transmission behind, he felt like he'd lost Seren all over again. He couldn't check on it like he used to, he couldn't ask Tony how it was doing — he wasn't even sure that Tony kept the transmission alive. He had to effectively abandon the idea that he would ever see Seren again. He had to stop wondering if she was alive, although that one was a lot more difficult and almost impossible to do.

There was supposed to have been a break from all that. A real break between his crazy dreams and the actual real word, but all Steve ever saw was a pause before the next battle and his next memory. It was on repeat, even for his biggest battle against, ironically, another alien. Even when this current one was lost, somehow there was still a battle within it.

One moment, the pager once belonging to Nick Fury that he and the remaining Avengers found, had stopped transmitting their signal and the next, they had come face to face with an unknown blonde woman hellbent on getting answers by any means necessary.

"Hey, hey, hey, HEY!" Steve managed to cut in between the blonde woman and Natasha before they went head to head with each other.

Banner was on the other side, trying to pull Natasha back with him while Rhodey tried pulling on the blonde woman's arm in vain. The moment she felt his hand around her arm, she shoved him back. Steve only just caught him before he fell and with his assisting tech around his legs, it would not bode well to have another injury.

"Alright everyone ENOUGH!" Steve yelled over the entire room, freezing the group in their tracks.

The blonde woman shook off Banner's hand and stepped towards Steve, repeating her question again. "Where's Fury?"

"Hard to answer," Steve replied in the same cold tone. "But it'd be a lot easier if you stopped with the hostility."

The woman scowled at him and the others. "That" — she pointed back at the pager — "is the pager I gave to Fury for emergencies. It went off all of a sudden and we raced back here and he's not here. So," she strode up to Steve, leaving them face to face, "where is he?"

Steve didn't appreciate the accusation in her voice. He didn't understand why this woman was on the receiving end of that pager except that Fury had to have a reason for it. Plus, it was their only other option right now. If it wasn't the pager, then they had nothing left to fight against Thanos. Bearing that in mind, he relaxed his voice and started again.

"Something's happened to Fury and we found this pager with no idea who was on the other side," he explained slowly, "We didn't know it was you."

"Who are you?" Natasha beat him to the punch.

The woman flipped her head back, glaring at Natasha. "I'm Carol Danvers, who the hell are you?"

"Hey," Steve called and got her attention again. "We're on the same side."

"Mm, I don't know you," Carol countered. "So who the hell are you?" she punctured her words sharply.

"Fair enough," Steve nodded, "We are on the same side. My name's St—"

"Steve?"

Steve froze in his spot. This wouldn't be the first time he imagined that sweet voice calling to him and during these hard times, it wouldn't be surprising if he imagined it to ease his nerves. But this time it was different. This time, Carol Danvers in front of him looked around, her lips curling into a frown as she muttered 'you were supposed to do a reconnaissance'.

But her partner seemed to ignore it in favor of walking a few steps, at least that's what Steve heard before he finally turned around and got the wind knocked out of him. She couldn't be a figment of his imagination this time, she couldn't be…

"Seren?"

There stood the woman he'd dreamed about for almost every night since he got out of the ice. She looked different now, he saw that in her eyes that seemed to hold a lot more emotion, more life in them. Her once long brown hair was now a ginger color and in a pixie cut with long side-swept bangs to the right of her head. And she wore a much more sophisticated suit than the one Howard Stark once made her.

Finally, the silence was too much and Carol cut in. "You two know each other?" She pointed a finger between Steve and Seren.

They had not stopped staring at each other until then, and even then Seren answered without taking her eyes off Steve. "Once…a long time ago…" She seemed to want to reach towards him but Carol moved and suddenly, Seren was dropping her arms on either side of her.

"We agreed that we would—"

"I know, but I didn't find anything," Seren shushed Carol. "The place is empty…much like everything else around here…" She met Steve's gaze again. "I…believe you rang?" Even her voice was filled with nothing but confusion and sheer shock. She had yet to be able to wipe the shock off her face and she honestly doubted she would be able to anytime soon.

Luckily for her, and for Steve, there were other people in the room and they had not forgotten why they were there.

Natasha was quick to introduce herself and the rest, though she like everyone noted that Steve had not stopped staring at the ginger who introduced herself as Seren. The name was special and they both knew it.

"You turned the pager on?" Carol made a nod towards the now inactive page on display behind the group. "How'd you even get it?"

"It was found near Fury's car," Rhodey explained. "It was already on. We've just kept it running. We were curious who was on the other end."

"He wanted you to get it," Seren whispered to Carol who agreed. She then cast a look on the humans and with a strange, yet not entirely unfamiliar authoritative tone, addressed them. "What physically happened? Because one moment, Carol and I were on galaxies away, and then suddenly people started turning into dust."

"It's happening all around the world then," Banner remarked thoughtfully. "That's what Thanos said he would do."

"Thanos?" Carol made a face.

"Who the hell is that?" Seren practically demanded. She happened to look in Steve's direction and sort of shrunk back. She couldn't ignore the way her heart raced. It hadn't happened in ages…

The remaining Avengers described their last battle against the alien Thanos and what his plan entailed with the 6 infinity stones. It was all going well until Seren heard Banner's side of the explanation.

"Wait," the ginger raised her hands in front of her, "the Tesseract was on Asgard? Again?" Nothing but hatred filled Seren's colored eyes and if looks could kill, she would've. She shot an accusing glance at Carol. "You told me that it was—"

"I left it with Fury in the 90s," Carol argued.

"We gave it to Thor," Steve finally spoke, instantly drawing Seren's attention. "We know more about Asgard now."

Seren visibly swallowed hard. "Then we have a problem…" We have many problems, she thought. "I was on my way to Asgard — I heard something was going on with the planet —"

"Thanos," Banner said immediately, "And Hella, Thor's older sister." Steve, Natasha and Rhodey all looked at him then. "Yes, Thor has — had — a sister. She was mean, basically. He would explain it better than me but he's currently, uh...dealing with some stuff in another room."

Seren wasn't sure what to do with that information so she moved past it to get to her point. "I was on my way but when I got there, there was no Asgard anymore. The whole planet had been destroyed."

"That was Hella," Banner pointed. "But Thor…he had all the Asgardians on a ship and that's where we stumbled into Thanos. He took the Tesseract from Loki—"

"Loki?" Steve threw a hard look at Banner.

"Again, yes," Banner nodded, "He took the Tesseract off Asgard and Thanos stole it from us, after killing Loki."

"The point here is that we need to do something," Natasha said sternly. "Thanos is out there."

"Along with Tony Stark," Steve said, meaningfully glancing at Seren. He saw the reaction he hoped for.

"Stark?" She whispered, and he nodded.

"Howard's son."

Seren's expression softened.

Once again, the others in the room noted the familiarity between the two.

Seren was the first to snap out and cleared her throat, flushing at her lingering attention. "Well, if there's a chance that Howard's son is alive in space, I'm gonna find him."

"We have someone trying to track the ship," Steve said, seeing Seren begin to move. It was stupid but he didn't want her to walk out just yet.

"Oh, okay," she nodded, "Let me talk to them and then we can go from there."

"I can—"

"We'll lead the way," Banner said over Steve without noticing, "Gotta check the scans anyways."

"Oh, okay…" Seren's eyes shifted to Carol as she backtracked, "I will be back. Please do not fight anyone while I'm gone." While Carol pretended that she hadn't heard, Seren stopped on her feet and called her again. "Carol."

Carol rolled her eyes and mocked a salute. "Aye-aye Captain."

Seren's eyes widened, gaze briefly landing on Steve then reprimanding Carol. "Not funny!" Carol's smirk said the opposite. "Watch her!" Seren basically told the others in the room then followed Banner out.

"Yeah, no way..." Carol's smirk was wider as ever and after a few seconds, she backtracked out of the room as well.

Not a second later, Natasha was turning Steve around, demanding for him to explain.

"Explain what?" He said, only for Natasha and Rhodey to deadpan him.

"You know that woman," Natasha pointed in the direction that Seren went in. "How do you know someone from space? Besides Thor!"

"It's…it's a long story…" And Steve wasn't quite sure he wanted to say it just yet, at least not to them. "I have to go find Chloe..." he murmured and walked off.

~0~

Seren was working hard in the lab when she heard footsteps coming into the room. "Weren't you supposed to be not here, not fighting anyone?" Seren didn't bother looking up from her screen, knowing Carol's steps all too well.

Carol passed her fingers along a few trinkets on the table behind Seren. "One out of two isn't half bad."

Seren rolled her eyes. She switched the holograms out to expand her scan. "According to Rocket — that's the guy — racoon — who had the info on the spaceship — the ship has a detectable signature we should be able to track. He's also given up the information on the bioscan of his crew."

"What if they're all snapped?"

"Then we'll find an empty ship."

"You're going to make us go on a trip that might be for nothing?"

"We have to. These are important people to, uh…these people."

Carol dropped what she was tinkering with and looked at Seren. Despite not glancing back, Seren felt the burning eyes on the back of her head.

"You said that you had no one left on earth," Carol began.

"That's not exactly what I said…"

Carol walked a few steps towards Seren's table, able to side-glance her as she moved to the opposite side of the table. "What are you not telling me?"

"What is there to tell?" Seren said as focused her eyes solely on the holograms despite Carol's burning stare again.

"You're being evasive."

"I'm being what now?" Seren moved a few steps down the table. The scan was finally going to start again with her new additions.

Carol narrowed her eyes. "You're only evasive when you're nervous. What are you nervous about?"

"I'm not nervous." Seren occupied herself with the computer.

"You're nervous about that guy, right? You couldn't stop staring at him. You almost drooled." Magic words were said.

Seren looked up from the computer, completely affronted, and slammed a hand down on the table. "I was not drooling!"

Carol's lips spread into a smirk. "Gotcha."

Seren's nose scrunched. "Shit," she muttered on the side.

Carol snorted. "Tell me already! What's the deal and how can I make it better?"

"You mean worse?"

"Seren."

Seren let put a breath and walked back to the other end of the table, standing opposite from Carol. "You remember what I told you about the first time I went to Earth?"

"In the 1940s, yeah," nodded Carol. "That's where all the shit went down and you lost your boyfriend."

"He wasn't my boyfriend and he's still alive!" Seren flapped a hand behind her.

Carol's eyes widened. "Wait — that was the guy?"

"Yes! That was Steve!"

"The one who—" Carol made a drowning motion that Seren wasn't very amused with.

"Yes — and stop that! That's so rude!"

Carol dropped her hands on the table and leaned forward on them. Once again, her lips curved into a smirk. "Talk about luck. Your old flame is alive and looking good."

"Shut up!" Seren exclaimed, her cheeks a bright red.

Carol opened her arms and shrugged. "What? It's true and because this is all true, what are you doing here?"

"What?"

Carol suddenly reached over the table and flicked Seren on the head.

"Ow!"

"Hello! You just found out that the guy you loved is actually still alive and you're here playing with a stupid hologram?" Carol made a face as she heard her own words. "That's ridiculous! You're ridiculous! Get to it, Seren!" She snapped her fingers.

"Get to what?" Seren shook her head. "That was…that was a long time ago. Ten years for me. I can only imagine what it's been for Steve. A lot could've happened in-between. He could've moved on. Wouldn't be surprised if he did."

"Yeah, I doubt that," Carol crossed her arms. "He couldn't take his eyes off you."

Seren continued shaking her head. She pretended to focus on the hologram again. "I have to get back to work. Get ready to leave at any moment."

"Sure…" Carol noticed a shadow drawing closer to the room. "Let me go do that while you talk to your old flame!"

"Stop saying that!" Seren shushed her and even more when she saw Steve walking into the room. "Carol—"

"I will be out there…" Carol made sure to say loud enough for Steve to hear her. She backtracked, truly enjoying Seren's distressed face behind Steve.

"Carol!" The ginger practically hissed.

"Byyye," Carol wiggled her fingers and finally left the room.

I'm going to kill her, Seren concluded. She rued the day she met Carol Danvers.

Seren forgot all her murderous thoughts when Steve turned around and they came face to face. She almost forgot how to breathe. She just couldn't help it. He was alive. She spent countless nights, countless years, with the same heartache that nothing could fix. He was right there with her, looking almost the same as the last time they were together. She wasn't a fool, there was no way either of them could look and be the same people they once were. He was still handsome as ever with charming eyes, longer hair and a beard. He seemed a lot more sure of himself, firm. Although charming, his eyes were older, experienced, and she dared to believe that it wasn't the good experience he deserved.

She didn't realize at what point her breath shook and tears crept into her eyes, but they did.

"Seren, don't cr—" Steve barely got the words out when Seren threw her arms around him. Not a second later, Steve hugged her back. He wrapped his arms around her as tight as possible as if she would slip away again if he loosened his grip even a bit. All the familiar things about her that he'd forgotten about came rushing back. Her sweet smell, her small figure, and her incredible strength.

Neither one knew how long they stayed in their position. There was a long time to make up for it and one hug just wouldn't be enough.

The only reason Steve dared to break it up was because he'd felt her body trembling with her tears. He needed to wipe them off her face. Seren's eyes fell shut as his fingers touched her cheeks. She dreamed of his touch way too many times to count. Steve could've stayed like that for hours. All the things he thought were lost turned out to be right. in. front. of. him. Seren was right in front of him again, after all this time. He felt himself leaning forwards, albeit slowly. The logical part of his brain wasn't functioning and that's what he would blame it on later.

Feeling his proximity, Seren opened her eyes and her breath caught in her throat seeing Steve nearing her. She could move away — the option was always there — but she was frozen, and in some kind of trance. And not the torturous kind either. Steve pressed her back against the table, fingers coming down to her jaw. He had just neared her lips when they heard a call from the hallway.

"Steve — hey!" It was a young woman who burst into the room and forced the two apart on instinct.

Seren turned to the table, taking a moment to ease her hot face, while the other woman rushed up to Steve.

"Natasha — she told me — is it true there's aliens here? More?" The woman was nearly as tall as Steve, and had long curly blonde hair that bounced each time she moved.

"Aliens?" Seren frowned at the woman, and Steve noted the offense in her voice…as well as in her expression.

"Oh!" The woman blinked at her. "You must be one of them!"

"Excuse me?"

"Uuh, Chloe, let's backtrack for a moment!" Steve cut in and grabbed the blonde woman's arm.

"Please." Seren's frown went deeper. "While you do that, maybe I'll go find Carol. It doesn't end well when she's unsupervised."

"Seren, wait a mo—" Steve stopped when Seren practically stormed out of the room. "Chloe," he turner on the blonde woman not a second later.

There stood Chloe cluelessly. "What?" Her eyes flickered past Steve. "Who was that?"

"You said it yourself, although very rudely."

"I didn't say it rudely!" Chloe rolled her eyes. "Natasha was telling me and then the Hive Mind popped into my head and told me there was an alien here — not Thor. Or the racoon."

"Her name is Seren and you sort of—"

"Seren?" Chloe's nose scrunched. "Why does that sound —" And suddenly she let out an ungodly gasp, clapping her hand over her mouth. "No. Is that — is she the—?" Steve had no idea what warranted her smacks on his chest but he yelled at her to stop and calm down. "You didn't tell me that was her!" Chloe still smacked his arm a couple times. "Star girl?" she pointed up above. "The one you built that thing for with Stark?"

"...yes," Steve answered very quietly, because he knew Chloe and how dramatic she tended to be when reacting to some things.

"Oh my goodness!" Chloe squealed, throwing her arms around him. "Talk about timing!"

But just how dramatically she reacted, Steve also knew that her heart was always in the right place, so he hugged her back. It was that which Seren saw when returned to the room. Disheartened, and dead silent, she turned to leave again.

~0~

Carol knew something was up the moment Seren returned and "got back to work". There was no working of any kind, but not for a lack of trying. Seren worked the other computers the team had in the room. They were still recording the people who had disappeared thanks to the snap. Carol decided to step in after Seren crushed a keyboard with her bare hands and made an enemy out of Natasha for temporarily interrupting the census scan. She grabbed Seren's arm and led her into one of the other rooms in the building, a kitchen by the looks of it.

"Usually I'm the hothead around here so I'm gonna be a little rusty at this." Carol turned on Seren the moment they were alone. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"Nothing." Seren moved past Carol, taking in the room they were now in. It was a kitchen that could've used a repaint and a good cleaning. It was a hot mess.

Carol turned on her heels, raising one eyebrow at Seren. "I've known you for a long time now and it's honestly not that hard to learn how to read you. What'd the idiot do?"

"He's not an idiot," Seren mumbled, slowly turning back to Carol. "And…I saw him with someone."

Now both Carol's eyebrows were raising. "He's dating someone?"

Seren shrugged slowly. "I don't know, I just saw him — there was this woman. Steve and I, we were, uh…" Her face flushed thinking back to what had almost happened between her and Steve before that woman showed up.

Carol watched the red tint on Seren's cheeks spread. "You were doing what?"

Seren cleared her throat and mumbled something about talking, but she was unable to meet Carol's eye for a few minutes after that.

"And?" Carol was nothing if not persistent. This, Seren learned very quickly after meeting and it was both a gift and a curse.

"Nothing! This woman showed up, calling him and I…I just left! But then I came back and…well, they were hugging. They both seemed happy."

"That's it?" Carol was finding it real hard not to deadpan Seren right now. "Did they kiss?"

"No, I…I left before I saw something I shouldn't have."

"You know friends hug, right? We do it all the time!"

"No you don't," Seren made a face. "And this isn't really a conversation I want to have! I was stupid, let's just leave it at that and move on, okay?" She decided to go search through the kitchen for something edible.

Carol trailed after her, stopping on the side of the aisle. "Seren, when we first met, I'm not going to lie, you were kind of annoying."

Seren slammed a cabinet shut and threw a sharp look at Carol. "And this is supposed to help me how?"

"You didn't let me finish," Carol shrugged, basically implying it was Seren's own fault for being offended. "There were many people who thought that the Skrulls were evil and you were the only one who believed me when I said what was really going on with the Kree. Your judge in character has never been wrong, even when everyone else thought the opposite. So maybe don't start judging before you actually know what's going on?"

"Carol, it's not…it's not a matter of judging people. I have no right to discuss this with Steve. I thought he was dead, and he probably assumed that about me too. He has every right to move and you know what? I'm happy if he did—"

Carol snorted. "Yeah, because you're so cheery."

"—because I would never want him to stop living because he was holding onto me and my memory." And Seren would stand firmly on that stance because it was nothing but the truth. As much as it pained her, and it did, she would be in much worse pain knowing Steve had not lived this new opportunity because of her.

"You're a good person, Seren," Carol nodded. Seren rolled her eyes and turned her back on Carol as she started going through more of the cabinets. "Unfortunately, I'm not one all the time…"

Seren had heard Carol mutter and turned to warn her that the conversation was over when she saw the same blonde woman from before had walked into the room. Immediately, Seren looked at Carol with an expression of 'you better not' but of course, that never worked on Carol.

"Well, I should probably go check on those scans again!" Carol said, giving Seren two thumbs up as she walked out of the room.

I have got to get better friends, Seren bitterly thought. Whatever else was running through her head, Chloe interrupted when she greeted Seren again.

"I'm…I'm Chloe Winters, and…I think we got off on the wrong foot." To her credit, Chloe did have a genuine look on her face when she held a hand out to shake with Seren. "I tend to get wrapped up in my things and not realize how I come off. I'm sorry." Seren's lips parted, but unfortunately she didn't know what to say. Chloe still smiled as she pulled her hand back. "Anyways, can I show you something?"

Seren nodded silently.

"C'mon," Chloe motioned Seren to follow her. They left the kitchen, though Chloe promised that they would find something to eat soon enough. "This isn't our place — least not anymore. We left it behind 2 years ago when we ran."

"Ran?" Seren repeated, confused.

"Mhm," nodded Chloe. "Steve, me, Natasha, Sam and Wanda. It was, uh — basically, we were fugitives."

"Fugitives?" For a moment, Seren was going to think that the idea that Steve was a fugitive of the law was completely wrong…but a few minutes later, she realized it wasn't that far of a stretch. "Who did Steve disagree with and how wrong were they?"

The question made Chloe laugh. "Wow, guess you do know him very well." Seren ducked her head as she flushed. "Truth be told, I still think Steve was right. The Government wanted us to sign over our freedom to them and work for them. Steve didn't think it was a good idea because then we wouldn't be able to help the people we wanted to, just the people the government would want us to." Chloe led Seren into the room where the scans were still ongoing.

"If that's the case, then I agree with you," Seren admitted. "I know a thing or two about working for others and not getting a say about said work. It's nice to do some freelancing."

Chloe chuckled. "Yeah." She came around the table where the scans were. "So then, according to your friend over there, the snap happened all over the place."

Seren nodded, mumbling a 'yeah' under her breath. Her eyes watched the census keep going. The number was insanely high. "Thanos…did all this?"

"We only learned about him a few days ago," Chloe said, leaning her hands on the table. She too watched the number of snapped people go higher and higher. "Had no idea what we were going up against."

"You all could've been slaughtered," Seren whispered. She felt a special ache of fear for one specific person.

"Mm, nothing new to us," Chloe said, leaning around the scan hologram to meet Seren's face. "We're the Avengers. Fighting is what we do. I just never pictured losing this badly. Tony's hopefully still alive and if he is, that means he's stranded up in space somewhere—"

"We'll find him," Seren said firmly. "If there's even a small trace of an alert from that ship, Carol and I will get him."

"You'd go that far for a stranger?"

"For anyone in need."

Chloe's lips spread in a long smile. "You and Steve are very alike. Now I know why he likes you so much." Seren looked away from the scan as pink dusted her cheeks. "And I say this confidently because I know how much Steve worked to find you after coming out of the ice."

Chloe's words were much too interesting to ignore. Seren's eyes flickered back to the woman. "What was he working — wait, ice?"

"There's a lot you don't know about these past years," Chloe said. "It was 2011 when we found him. Our best bet as to how Steve survived that plane crash is because of the serum and the ice mixed together. I don't know, I'm no scientist. SHIELD, previously known as the SSR, got word that a man had been discovered under ice somewhere in the ocean near Russia."

"That was…?"

Chloe nodded. "It was Steve. For him, he was asleep."

"Frozen," Seren corrected with an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Almost 70 years spent in darkness, frozen, cold…I should have been there." She shook her head and started to pace. "I should have gone after that damn plane — I told him I would but he—"

"Said no?" Chloe's seemingly deep knowledge of the story stopped Seren mid-pace. "He told you to stay away. Told you to live your life."

Seren let out a breath, unsure how comfortable she was with those special moments of hers — theirs — being common knowledge to this woman. "What else did he tell you?"

Chloe sensed the double meaning behind the question and wagged a finger. "It's not what you think. It's far from that. I used to work for SHIELD. I was there when Steve woke up. We've been friends ever since. He's told me all about his life before and the one thing he struggled most to talk about was about a girl he left behind. A girl who, if there was any justice in the world, would still be alive somewhere up in the stars. You."

"If I had known—" Seren had started with a voice filled with guilt because truthfully, that was all she felt right now. She had left Earth, left him, and he was deep under the ocean the whole time?

"He doesn't blame you, far from that," Chloe said gently. "You don't know it, but the first thing that Steve did, after dealing with all that, is learn what happened to you. He visited Peggy Carter."

"Peggy…" Seren whispered, glancing at the year marked on the scan. By this point, she must have already been—

"And after that, he knew you were most likely still alive…so he and Tony worked to build some kind of transmission device…like the one you made for your mother?"

"He did that?" Seren's throat felt pretty dry, and she felt a familiar sting in her eyes.

"Yeah, didn't you ever get it?"

The look on Seren's face said it all. "N-o," her voice cracked. "I was….I was deep in some…I was on other planets, galaxies away — I was always going from one place to another and all this time he's been trying to reach me?" If she felt bad before, she felt completely horrible now.

"Shit, if you cry, I'm in trouble!" Chloe was in full blown panic-mode and hurried around the table to comfort Seren.

"I'm not — of course I'm not crying," Seren sniffled, quickly wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. She tried to calm herself starting with her shaky breathing but she started thinking about her time in the HYDRA base. It always happened like this, once she started thinking about that awful year — no matter how long ago it was — she spiraled.

"Good, because I'm sure Steve would kill me and this time, to my misfortune, Bucky's not around to help me." Chloe was just reaching for Seren's arms to bring them down when Seren froze, eyes wide.

"What?" Seren's mind flashed to the old sergeant she spent a lot of traumatic time with.

"What?" Chloe soon found her wrists being seized by Seren.

"What did you just say!?" the ginger exclaimed.

"What—?"

"About Bucky? Bucky Barnes?"

"Y-yeah," nodded Chloe slowly, "He's — he was—"

"Alive!?" Seren practically shouted. "He was alive too!? And I didn't know it!?" She let Chloe and ran her hands through her hair (or rather pulled at it).

'Bucky, you and I both know that there was a reason Zola used you a lot. There's a reason we were in the same room so many times.'

Vivid moments of Zola pumping out blood from her filled Seren's head. She could feel her skin being prodded, her life dangerously fleeting…

And then she heard Bucky's screams in the same room.

"They were both alive and I just — I just left them!? I abandoned them!?" Seren fell back against the table, completely in shock and now more than ever wanting to crawl into some hole where she could just…disappear.

Chloe went back to panicking the more Seren spiraled. Finally, when it looked like Seren was close to hyperventilating, Chloe had no other choice (nor idea) but to go get help. In no less than five minutes, Steve was running into the room with Chloe trailing behind him.

"Seren! Seren!" He went directly to the woman supporting herself by the table. He had very little context from Chloe except for the part where she said that Seren wasn't well. He pulled Seren from the table and held on to her so she wouldn't fall. "Seren? Hey, hey, what's the matter?"

Seren was breathing hard, yet it sounded like it wasn't enough for her. Her eyes were glossy when they met Steve's. He noticed familiar star power around her fingers switching on and off like a power switch. Through her state, she heard Chloe's small gasp and she swore that the woman's eyes had flashed blue.

Steve heard it as well and glanced back at Chloe. He knew what the blue eyes meant. The Hive Mind had tapped in to give her some insight. Sure enough, Chloe soon came out with the answer.

"She's having a panic attack!"

"What?" It wasn't that Steve wouldn't believe it but last time he remembered, Seren didn't have that kind of stuff. Bucky had it, he remembered. They were both in the same ward, undergoing similar procedures and it was common knowledge that Seren took the worst hit in those days. He himself had some PTSD he dealt with on occasion.

Maybe it was something she picked up after everything, he realized with a heavy ache in his heart. He hadn't been able to help her this whole time…

Well, not anymore. He grabbed Seren's hands, pushing down the terrible sting of her powers burning against his palms. "Seren, breathe with me. C'mon, do it with me. Breathe in…breathe out…" He mimicked the act until she started following.

"Steve, we should get her somewhere more quiet," Chloe said gently. She and Steve looked out to the room and agreed that the ongoing beeps from the scans and computers probably weren't helping. "Maybe the med-room."

No sooner had she said those words than Seren threw a strangled cry. She tried pushing Steve away from her, and Chloe, all while fervently shaking her head.

Chloe's eyes widened. "Sorry — what did—"

Steve ignored her initially as he tried to win Seren's trust again. He reached for her swatting hands, trying to catch them before she decided to throw star matter at them. "Seren, it's okay, I'm not taking you there! I promise! You — you remember me, right? I don't lie to you. Ever."

He finally caught her hands and to his relief, she didn't fight him anymore. He took the opportunity and swept her off her feet and carried her into the hallway. Chloe was right behind him and offered to get Seren something to calm down. Steve barely heard her and when she left; his entire focus was on Seren and helping her. He brought her into the first open room he came across and sat her down on the foot of the bed. He moved and sat down beside her, still instructing her to breathe with him.

"I know what this is, I know it feels like everything is shrinking around you…" Steve took hold of her hands and gave them a gentle grip. "Breathe, Seren. Just focus on this. We are here. You're not…where you think you are."

Even through her frantic state, Seren managed to get startled. He knew where her mind had gone to?

"You're here now," Steve went on, "You're safe. They're not here. Breathe…" He mimicked the act until slowly, but gradually, Seren managed to get control again. "There we go. You did good, very good." He squeezed her hands affectionately. "Now, can I do something else to help you? Is there — is there something you need?"

Seren shook her head as her throat just wasn't quite ready to let her speak yet. It usually took her longer to come out of these things. Still, her silence didn't deter Steve's urge to help her. Not knowing what she needed at the moment, he scooted closer to her and kept hold of her hand. Sometimes, a comfortable silence was the best kind of help in these situations when the person didn't have an idea of what they needed in the moment.

Seren drew strength in those few minutes of silence to put herself back together and to realize that her world wasn't as small as it felt moments ago. She was just about to say her first words when Chloe walked in.

"I brought—" she stopped herself upon hearing her loud volume and adjusted it to a much quieter one for Seren's sake. "I brought something that might help," she motioned to the mug in her hands. "Surprisingly, they were stocked up on chamomile tea around here. Go figure."

Seren couldn't really look at Chloe when she offered her the tea. She couldn't look at Steve either. Of all the things to do…She sighed.

Chloe and Steve sensed her embarrassment. Chloe handed the mug to Steve, telling him that she would be in the lab overseeing the scans if they needed her for anything else. Seren heard the door close and the bed shift as Steve turned to face her.

"Trust me, it helps," he said as he once again offered her the mug. "Plus, I'm sure you might be a little hungry too…not that this could really fill you up." The moment Seren turned her head on him, Steve stammered. "I meant — not that — I didn't mean to say — you eat what's considered to be norm—"

The chuckle that left Seren's lips was small yet it brought such a summer warmth to Steve's heart. "You haven't changed a single bit," she murmured and reached for the mug he held.

Steve felt her fingers gently brush against his when she took the mug from him. He hated that he forgot how soft her skin was. His dreams didn't compare to real life.

Seren took a sip of the tea and breathed. With each second that ticked by, things felt more normal to her again. Now that her mind was pieced together, she glanced at Steve again, but with flushed cheeks. "I'm sorry."

It took Steve a few seconds to understand what her apology was for. His eyebrows shot up as he shook his head. "N–n-n-n-no, this isn't something you have to be sorry about. It happens. It happens to all of us."

"You mean humans. It happens to humans," Seren said quietly as she brought her mug up to her lips. "Not Celessians."

Once again, it took Steve a moment to figure out what she meant. She was half Celessian, half human. Celessians didn't get—

"Apparently, panic attacks are common in humans…" Seren said, lowering her mug with a sigh. "My father told me that the first time it happened." She looked at Steve from under her lashes, her voice falling into a whisper. "That was a few weeks after, um, my last mission for the SSR."

Translation: after you went under the ice. Steve felt horrible.

"I didn't really know what it was or what was happening…" Seren continued, "One moment I was with my parents in this open market and then the next…I was back in the room with Zola…" She shuddered and took another drink from her tea. "I remember I heard something…it sounded like when…"

"Something triggered your memories," Steve said, sounding like he knew exactly what she was talking about. Seren nodded silently. She looked at him again, studying the way he was so confident about his words. "And it's the stupidest thing but it can bring back so much. And in such a short amount of time too." His eyes flickered and met Seren's. "And it is nothing to be embarrassed about."

Seren swallowed hard. "I—" she ducked her head. "I've tried my hardest to get past it but no matter how much time passes, sometimes…"

"The past just creeps up on you," Steve finished the thought for her.

For a moment, they stared at each other, their mutual understanding rendering them both silent. Then, it was like a waterfall of emotions falling down.

"If I had known that you survived, that Bucky survived, I would've never left," Seren said, her voice strained with feelings.

"Seren—"

"I wouldn't have gone back to New York and I definitely wouldn't have left the whole planet! I would have stayed and I would have searched for you through every single part of that ocean!" Tears had rolled down Seren's cheeks and in her ramble, she had spilled some of the hot tea on her lap. It didn't phase her. "I would've looked for Bucky through those mountains! I would have never left, I swear, I swear…"

Steve took the mug out of her hand before the whole thing fell on her. He set it on the ground behind him and then took Seren's hands. She squeezed his before he got the chance, still apologizing to him.

"Seren, it's okay! It's not your fault!" He managed to cut in. "I didn't even know I had survived, okay? The last thing I remembered was telling you that I…well…I remember talking to you and then…suddenly, I was in some room in New York."

At her confusion, he explained how his awakening with SHIELD had gone like. Her heart ached imagining what he must have felt waking up in a brand new world.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Seren said, bringing her hands to his face. As she did, there was a sort of awed look in her eyes, like she couldn't believe that she was able to do that again.

It was the same for Steve. His eyes followed her fingers along his face until her touch became too much and he closed his eyes to truly relish this privilege. All the times he tortured himself thinking about a moment like this and now it was reality. He leaned his forehead against hers and stayed like that for several minutes.

"I never forgot you," Seren whispered. "I spent a couple years in New York getting to know my dad, my siblings trying to be happy but I kept thinking about you. I…even when I left…I couldn't do it. I've been to so many planets, galaxies…and you were always right here…" She took one of his hands and placed it over her heart. "And I swear if I had known you were trying to send me a message, I would've come back."

Steve leaned back from her, eyes wide. "You know about that?"

"Your friend Chloe told me about it. I'm sorry, ever since the government turned on me, I haven't trusted any transmissions directed to me from this planet. When my siblings passed, I had no reason to believe anyone would try to contact me. My parents…" Seren smiled, "When Howard passed, and Peggy retired, there was no one else. My parents are offshore as well, you see. We have our own line of communication."

"Aah," Steve nodded, "I'm glad they got to travel together then."

Seren chuckled. "All thanks to you. I did what you said…I went back to New York and I met him. And it was wonderful." When the tears welled in her eyes, they were of gratitude and nostalgia. "My brother and my sister…they were amazing. I even became an aunt. I had a family. Thank you for that." Without really thinking about it, her hands came to Steve's face and she kissed him. It wasn't a proper kiss by any means but it was the first domino that knocked rest. Because after so many years of being apart, it really only took the smallest move to light the fire.

Steve slid a hand around Seren's neck until it rested on her nape and brought her body flush against his. Their second kiss was much longer, and passionate. Seren wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him. There were so many different emotions to convey in one kiss that it was virtually impossible, but they still tried.

Seren didn't know at what point she came to be on Steve's lap until she leaned back and almost lost her balance. Steve's hands grabbed her by the waist to keep her in place.

"This is—this is probably coming late…" Seren panted, her face flushed, "but are you seeing anyone right now?"

Steve laughed. "No, absolutely not." He passed a hand through her short hair, picking at some of the longer strands on the side of her face. It suddenly felt like they were back in the 40s, sitting on the couch of his old ruddy apartment.

"So you and, um, your friend Chloe…you're not…?" Seren trailed off as Steve began to look at her with a teasing glint in his eyes. Her cheeks grew warmer.

"Chloe's just a friend, Seren. Actually, she's more like a sister," Steve explained, holding back the teasing he wanted to do. "And actually, if you must know—"

"N-no," Seren shook her head immediately, "I don't—I shouldn't have asked, I'm sorry. I had no right…"

Steve chuckled at her. "It's okay, sweetheart."

Seren's heart fluttered at his pet name. She heard it a dozen times during her travels and it never sounded anything like Steve's way.

"Chloe and Bucky sort of, uh, had a…" Steve purposely stopped to watch Seren's reaction and it didn't fail to make him laugh again.

"No way! Seriously?" Seren brought a hand to her mouth in shock.

"They never said it explicitly but I picked up on a few things here and there," Steve said, sounding mighty proud of himself.

Seren lowered her hand and giggled. "You picked up on a few things about women? Yeah, that one I'm not exactly buying."

"Hey now," Steve frowned for a moment until Seren started giggling again. Steve would take the moment in a heartbeat. Suddenly, all the things he had once thought about doing with Seren were rushing back. They seemed a lot closer now, perhaps at his fingertips…

"So, um, listen…I know the world's basically in disaster mode right now…" Seren brought her arms over Steve's shoulders, "And I imagine there's going to be a lot of fighting against common enemies in the future but, um…"

"I owe you a date," Steve said bluntly and before Seren would say something about not wanting to force him, he gave her a short kiss on the lips. "And you have no idea how much I dreamt about it these past years. Seventy-seven years to be exact."

Seren cupped his face and set a kiss on his nose. "Long time," she agreed. "Ten for me. Space, it's a gift and a curse."

"I wouldn't want you to suffer seventy-seven years," Steve said, "But if you let me, I'd like to pick up where we left off."

"Me too," Seren couldn't grin any wider. She kissed him again, winding her arms around his neck. "On the plane," she murmured against his lips, "the last thing you were saying…"

"That I love you?" Steve of course remembered those last minutes before he went under. It was all he had. But now he had so much more. "I do. I loved you then, and I love you now."

"I do too," Seren promised him. "I've been…I've been to so many places, Steve. I-I left Celessia almost immediately after returning there from Earth. I kept thinking about what you and I were supposed to do and I did that…just offshore. I told my grandmother everything, and I told her I was done working for her and our stupid matriarch and I just…left. I traveled, I saw so many new things, new people…and I, um, I tried to-to move on…" Her voice shook slightly and Steve knew why, which was why he told her that it was all fine. "But I couldn't do it," Seren reiterated, "I kept thinking about you. Those two years of war and HYDRA and constant fighting were also the years that I grew the most and a lot of it was because of you. I have loved you since then and that is the truth. And if we have to fight Thanos and his minions then I'm gonna do it, but whatever happens after that — whether good or not — I'm staying here, with you."

"I'd want nothing more than that but what about…what about your friend…?" Steve said, "Your…your travels…? Your parents? Aren't they—"

"My travels can continue with you, here. On earth. Or anywhere, really, I don't care. And truthfully, I'm almost positive that both of my parents were snapped," Seren ducked her head. "My mother always communicates with me every day to check up on me. She's done it ever since I left earth but a few days ago, that stopped. My father, he learned how to use our tech…" She sighed. "He hasn't called me either. I'm alone again."

"No," Steve said, hooking his fingers under her chin to lift her gaze up to his. "You're not. I'm here. And Carol — you two seem close — she's here too. Plus, I know your father's children had children and they're still here."

"How did you—?"

"I've kept my eye on them ever since I tracked them down," Steve admitted sheepishly. "I've never gone up to them. I didn't want to freak them out but I...I wanted to make sure that they were safe."

Seren's face softened with his confession. "Thank you," she whispered. "I...I haven't seen them in a long time now. I don't even know if they're still here or...if they were snapped."

"We can find that out together," Steve promised her. "Seren Dade, you and I can do so much here."

"It's, uh, actually Seren Soul now. Has been for the past 10 years," Seren said with a sheepish smile. Steve smiled with her. Seren leaned her forehead against his, taking a moment to really grasp their situation. Truthfully, she couldn't believe it. Time did all sorts of things but she never really saw it doing anything good for her after the 40s.

"Seren Soul, I have no idea what's going to happen but it won't be that bad if you stay with me…" Steve said, matching Seren's smile again. She absolutely agreed with him and went in for another kiss. Whether she intended on it being a short kiss remained unclear as Steve did not let her go for a while after that.

A/N:

Part 5 of 5, we're done! Now onto some spooky season writings even though I have no idea what to do. " and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow

#ocapp #marvelocsdaily #allaboutocs #ochub #fyeahsuperverseocs #marvel #mcu #avengers #fd: mcu #steve rogers #steve rogers fics #steve rogers imagines #steve rogers x oc #captain america #captain america fics #captain america imagines #captain america x oc #mcu fics #mcu imagines #marvel fics #marvel imagines #marvel ocs #avengers fics #avengers imagines #avengers ocs #oc: seren soul #fic: love ours

[seancamerons]

1, 10, 15, 44 for the ask game :)

1. - who is/are your comfort character(s)? sean cameron (degrassi), seth cohen (the oc), lucy wagner (crossroads 2002), veronica mars (show of the same title character), kat stratford (10 things i hate about you 1999), zig novak (degrassi), alex nunez (degrassi), tara knowles (soa), jax teller (soa), jay hogart (degrassi), peggy olson (mad men), joan holloway-harris (mad men), summer roberts (the oc), max Mayfield (stranger things), robin buckley (stranger things), spinner mason (degrassi), brooke davis (oth), emma nelson (degrassi), peyton sawyer (oth), marissa cooper (the oc), julian baker (one tree hill), steve Harrington (stranger things), el hopper (stranger things), georgia miller (ginny & georgia) mimi marquez ( rent) andie walsh (pretty in pink 1986) manny santos (degrassi), lola pacini (degrasi next class), bianca desousa (degrassi), fiona coyne (degrassi), - i think there's more from here but i don't feel like adding right now (also i kind of forget when i gotta list people so here goes!).

10. - would you slaughter the rich? probably not. i don't wanna go to jail. just tax 'em.

15. - are you a parent? (all answers qualify) no. not to get super personal, but i don't think i want to have kids. however, a dog mom might be in the cards for me, down the road though.

44. - you get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it? another with the killing? eh. not something i'd be interested in doing. crime don't pay, i ain't violent.

thank-you! for anybody else, ask box is always open. 💌😊

#asks #💌 tysm for the ask!! #unholybinchicken #answered #about me

[adamsvanrhijn]

what are 5 things you want to happen in tga2

okay. selected items from the very long list of things i want to happen, regardless of likelihood

romance for Peggy, ideally in the back half after development of her story with her son and further progression in her career. i hope she will have as many suitors as mary crawley vying for her attention over the course of the series.

Larry Russell is eaten alive by Laura benanti's hot gorgeous rich 1880s widow cougar character. Want awkward embarrassed responses to plausibly ambiguous remarks and touches that make it clear that he has never done this before and then steamy ones. make his father George "my son needs to get laid" Russell proud

brook 👏 family 👏 trauma. bonus points if oscar's new marriage interest is a rich orphan who was well provided for by her late parents, who had excellent relationships with their siblings or cousins whom she has always known and is now living with, as a direct and obvious contrast to marian and Henry and their relationship to Ada and agnes. bonus points if Robert Sean Leonard's priest is involved. bonus points if oscar getting beaten half to death kicks any of this off

i want the trained professional renowned tony award winning and tony nomination receiving vocalists to sing.

i want Bridget to get a last name

#the gilded age tag

[imperialstark]

shades of cool

Based off of this post from @docdracula

Steve travels back to the past to change things but finds that some things are inevitable. Like the undeniable attraction between him and Tony Stark.

TW for infidelity and age gap between silver fox!steve and twink!tony

When Tony dies, Steve feels something inside of himself sever, like the fissuring of glass and stone. He watches Tony's eyes go dreadfully blank, the arc reactor flickering before fading out completely, and feels as if he's going to vomit.

The screaming and cursing will come later when he's all alone in the Brooklyn apartment he's called home for the past five years. But for now, surrounded by his teammates and the ashes of their enemies, all he can do is sink to his knees like the rest of them.

He makes up his mind then and there. It's not that this timeline has nothing for him anymore; he has Sam and Bucky and the other Avengers to think about. But a dark, buried part of him can't help but whisper, "Don't I deserve it? A moment of peace?"

Guilt eats at him, corrodes his insides until he feels like he's the one turning into ash.

He hides it as well as he can before anyone can talk sense into him, and for a moment, he thinks he'll get away with it scot-free.

But then there's Bucky. Bucky with that cool, assessing gaze, the ghost of the Soldier at the edges of it.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Bucky asks him one night over a couple of beers. The drinks are merely a practicality. What else is there for two worn-out men to do?

Steve takes a long draw from his Budweiser, wishing that it still had an effect on him. Maybe it would have made things easier.

"No," Steve says, keeping his voice light. "Making plans hasn't worked out for me recently, so I figured winging it was worth a shot, right?"

It's the only confession Bucky's going to get out of him.

Bucky sighs, but it's not just any sigh. It's the "You're an idiot, but I'm not going to stop you" sigh, a relic from their childhoods a lifetime ago.

"For your sake, I hope you're right," Bucky says and downs the last of his beer.

"Can't screw up any worse than I already have," Steve says.

They fall into silence, although the buzzed droning of the other bar patrons more than makes up for it.

Bucky claps a hand, his flesh hand onto Steve's shoulder, and Steve's eighteen again and all alone. "I guess this is the end of the line, pal."

Steve damns him, damns him for his earnestness and his understanding and the tears currently pricking the corners of his eyes. Bucky blinks, and the telltale shimmer of tears is gone.

Steve swallows pasts the knot in his throat. "I'm gonna miss you, but I can't do it, Buck. I can't be here."

"That's okay," Bucky says firmly, his tone brooking no argument. "We'll be okay."

And just to be a shit, Steve throws Bucky's words back in his face. "For your sake, I hope you're right."

It has its intended effect, Bucky snorting before punching Steve in the shoulder. "Punk."

"Jerk," Steve replies, not missing a beat.

"Yeah," Bucky says, smiling now, and Steve allows himself to breathe. "I'm gonna miss you too."

That doesn't stop Steve from leaving 2023 behind for 1947 with a heavy heart.

After much yelling and a few bullets sent his way, Peggy cries when she finally realizes it's him. She's still breathtakingly beautiful with her soft curls and graceful, full lips, painted a striking shade of red he has not seen in years. He hates himself for making her cry. Not once has he seen her falter in all the time he's known her until now.

Something about her eyes makes him tense. Maybe it's their darkness or the length of her lashes, but something about them is off. It isn't until much later that he realizes he was looking for another set of eyes long gone.

Howard welcomes him with open arms, engulfing Steve in a bone-crushing hug. As Steve returns his embrace, Peggy watching them with unbridled joy, Steve vows that things are going to be different this time.

He's going to free Bucky before HYDRA even deploys him on his first mission as the Soldier, and Howard will die old and gray surrounded by his family, not at the hands of someone he once called friend.

And Tony. Tony. Tony is a problem for later. Much later.

Years pass, and Steve spends every waking moment fighting to make things right. Except when it comes to Tony. With Bucky and Howard, he's confident; neither of them deserved the hands they were dealt, but Tony? Tony, who had loved being Iron Man more than life itself? What right does Steve have to take that away from him?

In 1969, Howard introduces Steve to Obadiah Stane, and it takes all of his willpower not to punch him in his grimy fucking face. Howard's no idiot, he knows Steve isn't fond of Stane, but if he has an issue with Steve's indifference, he keeps it to himself.

In this second lifetime, Steve has perfected the skills that SHIELD had instilled in him; it would be so easy to have Stane quietly disappear. But with no Stane, there was no Iron Man. And with no Iron Man...Steve doesn't like to think about a future where he's not fighting by Tony's side.

But Steve is getting older, granted, he may not look it. He only just started getting silver in his hair in the eighties. It's not like he would be doing much fighting by the time Tony becomes the hero he was meant to be. In a way, it's like losing him all over again.

So Steve keeps his distance. The universe needs Iron Man alone more than they need Captain America and Iron Man together, so he figures that if Tony's formative years remain unchanged, everything should go as planned. And if it's too painful to look Tony in his face, so young, not yet worn by betrayal after betrayal, that's between Steve and his conscience.

But Tony is stubborn. Steve should be used to it, but it's been years since he's dealt with Tony Stark's particular brand of bullheadedness. Tony's twenty-one when he corners Steve at a barbecue Howard's hosting in honor of Steve's birthday.

The younger man ambushes him in the kitchen, the rest of their little family none the wiser, just outside lounging around the patio. He's never let himself be alone with Tony in this timeline, so his sheer presence has Steve hot under the collar. Tony's all fire and brashness, and it's so damn familiar Steve can almost pretend they're on the quinjet post-mission, adrenaline and lust fueling their words.

It's no surprise that Tony kisses him. Steve's noticed the not-so-subtle looks sent his way, the ever-present innuendo peppered throughout Tony's words. Tony wants him. And fuck it all, because Steve wants Tony. Steve will always want Tony, even when his wife is waiting for him to return so he can blow out the candles on a cake at a birthday party he didn't even want.

Tony gets on his knees, hands already tugging at the leather belt around Steve's waist. Steve's used to Tony, his Tony taking his time, teasing Steve until he's practically begging for it. This Tony is still so young and inexperienced, so Steve's the one who eventually takes the lead.

Any guilt he feels for doing this to Howard, doing this to Peggy, flees the scene the second Tony takes Steve into his mouth. They make a wretched sight, he's sure of it, with his pants around his ankles and Tony's face buried in his groin.

Tony's lips are so soft, softer than Steve remembers. Stretched around the girth of Steve's cock, they're obscenely pink. He aches for charcoal and his sketchbook to commit this moment to memory, add it to the collection of memories from another lifetime.

Steve buries his hand into Tony's dark waves, longer than Steve's ever seen on him, tugging at the roots the way he knows Tony likes. This time though, Steve's the one with gray at his temples, and a little detail like that shouldn't bring tears to his eyes, but it does. This Tony is gorgeous, but it's still not him.

Tony moans around his cock, just like Steve knew he would, and Steve comes with hot pulses down his throat like he's an actor playing out a scene he's rehearsed hundreds of times.

"Why did you do that?" Steve asks tiredly after they get themselves looking somewhat presentable. The guilt hasn't set in yet. Maybe it will when they leave the sanctity of the kitchen.

Tony just looks at him with those big brown eyes that know far too much and says, "I wanted to make you feel better."

#stony #stevetony #anyway here's the fic for that post almost a month later 💖💖 #steve rogers #tony stark #marvel #mcu #imperialstark fic #lemons hehe

[ducknotinarow]

📝Peter Parker

| Send Me A 📝/[Memo] 

Okay so I mostly use the Peter / Spiderman from the 2017 cartoon aka Marvel's Spider-Man. Because this would be the same one in the same verse for the Avengers we write for.

Peter attends Horizon High but before he transferred schools he went to the same one as Nina. (Nina and Brook in the start tots au)

Tony knew Peter's identity first because of the time they meant and interacted it wasn't hard for him to connect the webs (ha!) between the spider hero kid and the awkward teen kid that both fanned over him in the same manners.

As Spidey Peter accidentally lost Cap's shield in a villain's home, HE DID GO TO THE DOOR TO ASK FOR IT BACK! but yeah that turned into a mess.

In star tots au he would for sure notice that Brook was getting bullied because...he also got bullied before he got to transfer schools. He joins Nina on the revenge for Brook quest though.

When it comes to Nina and Brook they are basically his sisters. Nina and he share interests in heros and science gadgets. Not to mention you never want to be thier target when it comes to a sassing marathon. They are both bad on thier own but when they can bounce off each other?

Peter loves getting to be a nerd in another sense with Brook. They like a lot of similar book series and have a sort of book club. They watch the movie adaptions and annoy Nina because they don't shut up about everything that was done wrong.

Not from this show but other things that I think fit well, Petes birth parents were in SHEILD as agents. But of course, died he doesn't know about the connection but a few members of the team have found out. So Peter having a spot with the team now is kind of a nice way to have something he lost. I don't plan him, ever finding out. Just a fun connection for him.

Peter often dose do a lot of solo work getting work outside of the whole avengers stuff but if he in need of help he's asking Nina and Brooke to come with him

Tony's the one who brought Spider-man in to the tower, he went around in full costume for about six months.

Nina and Brook were the first he told his identity to, likely holds more weight in the star tots au, but it was still a big moment for him. he still keeps the whole secret identity for a bit longer before feeling full comfortable with sharing it with the rest of the team

Really really really needs and wants Steve to like him to but he feels like he aint doing enough there. He feel the same towards Tony as well but least with Tony the being smart thing helps.

Pete actually has helped Nina study a lot for school. And she dose the same they are study buddies.

Peter walks on eggs shells the most around Peggy, he was raised by his Aunt May so he's good about manners. But he gets a bit nervous on how to properly be respectful to the Peggy Carter.

Brook has someone to share cursed food with because Peter is one a growing boy and already eats trash and apparently likes gross food combos u-u yes im disappointment but hey someone on Brooks side at last.

#muse| peter parker #aflockoffeathers #madamkezzie #meme answer #send emoji promt #[muse head cannons] #muse bio: peter parker #((Also this version of peter is a personal favorite which is why I use him ;3;))

[remedywriter]

Till The End Of Time.

Issue 5

(Steve Rogers x fem!OC)

As Steve and Brooke made their way down to the front of Steve's apartment building, Brooke had a couple of questions.

"You're friend," She began. "How did you meet him?"

"We've been friends for... quite awhile actually." Steve said. He didn't want to lie, but he didn't exactly want to tell her the truth either. He knew she wasn't H.Y.D.R.A., but he still didn't want too many people knowing who Bucky really was.

"Awhile as in before S.H.I.E.L.D. was infiltrated?" Brooke pushed.

"Yes." Steve nodded.

"He looks awfully a lot like one of the H.Y.D.R.A. agents S.H.I.E.L.D. is looking for." Brooke stated.

Steve didn't know what to do. There was no way he could protect Bucky without flat out lying to her. He didn't want to, but he needed to be sure he could one hundred percent trust her before he told her who Bucky really was. He had no choice. He had to lie.

"Bucky's not H.Y.D.R.A." Steve shook his head. "He's just a friend who needed a place to stay for a little while."

Brooke sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm just a little... paranoid, I guess. Too many long work days."

"It's ok. Trust me. After I found out H.Y.D.R.A had taken over S.H.I.E.L.D., I was paranoid about everything." Steve laughed. "I know how it feels, and it's ok."

Brooke smiled. "You really do know how to give someone a pep talk."

"Well, I've had a lot of years of practice." Steve joked.

"So just out of curiosity, how old are you?" Brooke asked. "Legally. Not physically."

"Ninety six." Steve laughed. "Feel great though."

"You look great." Brooke smirked. "I would've never guessed you were older than my grandfather."

"Not even by my shirt?" Steve chuckled. "My friend, Sam, makes fun of it a lot."

"It gives character." Brooke smiled. She then decided to change the subject. "So where are we going?"

"There's a little cafe just down the block from here." Steve explained. "It's small, but I like that it's pretty quiet and not a lot of people go there."

"So you like to go there because you can be Steve Rogers and not Captain America?" Brooke asked.

"Yeah. Exactly." Steve nodded.

The two kept talking as they walked down the street to the cafe Steve had been referring to.

"This is really cute. I like it." Brooke said.

"And the food here's not bad either." Steve added.

They both went inside and ordered. Steve insisted on paying for Brooke's lunch, no matter how hard she tried to pay for it herself. Then once the food was ready, they both went to sit at one of the outside tables.

"You come here often?" Brooke asked.

"A couple times a month." Steve nodded. "I like to come and draw the city."

"Captain America draws?" Brooke asked. "Are you any good?"

"Good for an amateur, I guess." Steve shrugged. "I never went to school for it or anything like that. It's just something I like to do. It helps me take my mind off of stressful things."

"I do the same thing with Jeopardy." Brooke joked. "But that's really cool. You'll have to show me sometime."

"Oh, you probably wouldn't be impressed." Steve shook his head.

"The best thing I can draw is a funky looking stick man. Anything better than that would be impressive to me." Brooke said.

Steve looked embarrassed. Like Bucky had said, he never really did get to go on a date with Peggy. If things went well, Brooke would be his first girlfriend. He didn't realize how shy and awkward he could be in front of someone he could easily converse with a few days ago.

"You said you like Jeopardy?" Steve changed the subject.

"Yeah. I watch and play with my roommate. He's my cousin and he thinks he knows everything." Brooke laughed.

"That sounds like fun." Steve chuckled. "Jeopardy's the trivia show, right?"

Brooke tried not to laugh at the almost one hundred year old man. "Yes. It's hosted by Alex Trebek and it's for really smart people. So I'm not really sure why I watch it."

"You seem brilliant to me." Steve said.

"Thank you," Brooke smiled. "but although I am good at noticing details and retaining information, I have no idea what the thirteenth largest river in the world is."

Steve laughed. Being around Brooke felt good. He hadn't felt this happy since he was with Peggy. He thought that after he went into the ice that he would never be happy again, but the young woman sitting before him proved him wrong.

#captain america tfa #captain carter #avengers endgame #infinity war #captain america x oc #captain america comics #captain america and bucky #bucky barnes #brock rumlow #crossbones #james barnes #steve rogers #steve rogers x oc #winter soldier #captain america civil war #captain america #james buchanan barnes #steven grant #steve rodgers x reader

[classicsapphicships]

Round 1 Polls are posted! Each poll will be up for a week, so good luck to everyone’s favorite ships!

Right Side:

Franky/Bridget (Wentworth) vs Regina/Emma (Once Upon a Time)

Watson/Moriarity (Elementary) vs Lucy/Amy (DEBS)

Gina/Rosa (Brooklyn 99) vs Debbie/Lou (Ocean's 8)

Jo/Blair (The Facts of Life) vs Peyton/Brooke (One Tree Hill)

Piper/Alex (Orange is the New Black) vs Bering/Wells (Warehouse 13)

Xena/Gabrielle (Xena: Warrior Princess) vs Trini/Kimberly (Power Rangers 2017)

Ripley/Annalee (Alien) vs Annalise/Tegan (How to Get Away With Murder)

Susan/Talia (Babylon 5) vs Chessy/Meredith (The Parent Trap)

Ann/Anne (Gentleman Jack) vs Scully/Reyes (X-Files)

Cat/Kara (Supergirl) vs Olivia/Natalia (Guiding Light)

Nikki/Helen (Bad Girls) vs Ola/Lily (Sex Education)

13/Cameron (House MD) vs Sara/Catherine (CSI)

Delphine/Cosima (Orphan Black) vs Emily/JJ (Criminal Minds)

B'elanna/Seven (Star Trek) vs Rachel/Quinn (UnReal)

Emily/Alison (Pretty Little Liars) vs Beca/Chloe (Pitch Perfect)

Carol/Maria (Captain Marvel) vs Raven/Abby (The 100)

Left Side:

Grace/Frankie (Grace & Frankie) vs Shaw/Root (Person of Interest)

Callie/Arizona (Grey's Anatomy) vs Stef/Lena (The Fosters)

Eve/Mazikeen (Lucifer) vs Luce/Rachel (Imagine Me & You)

Tara/Pam (True Blood) vs Ally/Ling (Ally McBeal)

Alex/Olivia (Law and Order SVU) vs Miranda/Andy (The Devil Wears Prada)

Samantha/Janet (Stargate SG-1) vs Nomi/Amanita/Sense8)

Willow/Tara (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) vs 13/Yasmin (Doctor Who)

Sharon/Brenda (The Closer) vs Kalinda/Alicia (The Good Wife)

Max/Anne (Black Sails) vs Petra/Jane (Jane the Virgin)

Eleanor/Tahani (The Good Place) vs Kelly/Yorkie (Black Mirror)

Rory/Paris (Gilmore Girls) vs Aneela/Kendry (Killjoys)

Quinn/Rachel (Glee) vs Jane/Maura (Rizzoli & Isles)

Nico/Karolina (Runaways) vs Serena/Bernie (Holby City)

Laura/Danny (Carmilla) vs Peggy/Angie (Agent Carter)

Hecate/Pippa (The Worst Witch) vs Bobbie/Chrisjen (The Expanse)

Bo/Lauren (Lost Girl) vs Bette/Tina (The L Word)

#Classic Sapphic Ships #Round 1 #fandom polls #hopefully all the links work

[my-everything-ao3]

Random Things About “My Everything” That No One Cares About...But I Do lol

Like most fic writers, I actually had to do a bunch of research for this story to make sense and I put a lot of work into it so I thought id come on and point out minor details in the story that where interesting but you may have missed while being enticed by the plot lol. THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MY EVERYTHING SO DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT FINISHED IT YET!

ok Im not going in order of the chapters so i’ll probably miss a few things but whatever.

lets start with ‘the baseball scene.’ When peters getting whipped, i made him dissociate and the memory he latches onto is the baseball scene. Its actually a thing in the comics that peter loves the mets and ben would always take him. The quote i used between peter and tony is taken straight from the comics. (the one that’s like “maybe nexy year.” Its actually something said between Peter and Ben since he took him to a game every year and thats what the whole scene is based on.) And since im a boston girl and a red sox fan, i decided to include a real life game between the sox and the mets. I followed the actual weather patterns, as well as the time of day, and the things that actually happened during the game. I wanted it to be as realistic as possible. 

And speaking of weather patterns, all of them are real. Every time i described the weather in my fic, it was actually real. Like go look up the weather in new york on some random day in the story and its real. Like every time it rained, i made sure to include that. Same with the temperatures in the different areas. I was really thorough lol

ok next lets go to the scene between tony and wanda at cho’s funeral. wanda says something to him and tony goes “now you sound like steve” and she goes “i think he got it from someone.” Its actually the quote Peggy tells him in winter soldier. 

okay now lets do random little details. When Peter ‘escapes’ during one of the chapters after ned and mj die, he leaves a little hand print on the wall. In chapter 15, steve and tony walk past it without knowing its actually peter’s. 

When young mason and spencer escape outside, i described the surrounding area as being barren with trees off in the distance. And how they came across a little brook that they skipped stones across. In chap 15, the avengers walk past it, but its very dried up since many years have gone by at that point. 

that clock/countdown in the later chapters (00:00:00) went away after peter was activated because it doesnt MATTER if they rescue him anymore. Hes being controlled now.

All the medical stuff and ingredients in the drug are from criminal minds lol. The characters were always talking about random crap the unsubs drugged victims with and id be like “oh shoot thats perfect for my fic lol”

in the chapter where the bomb goes off, steve has a dream that he has to choose which one of his friends gets to live and everyone else will die. Vision ends up exploding, killing two of his friends. Later on once steve is awake, an explosion causes two of his friends to die (fury and hill), and he has to choose between saving wanda or fury.

tw for rape! okay i needed it to be bucky and nat that killed justin. Justin was a disgusting rapist so he obviously needed to go, but i needed it to be nat and bucky that did it. Nat was kidnapped at a young age and put in the red room where they forcibly sterilized her. Its not hard to imagine they also did sexual things to her too. Same with bucky. He was with hydra for years and in falcon in the winter soldier, there is a scene where zemo strokes buckys face and tells the lady “he’ll do whatever you want” and idk about you but it seemed very sexual to me. And it implied that bucky has been raped before. So writing a story that heavily mentions rape, i really wanted it to be them that dealt with justin.

moving on to the may thing, i literally foreshadowed that ish from the very beginning. Every dream/feeling peter had of it being fake/not real or how it all felt wrong was actually his senses telling him that it was fake. Thats why he was always so on edge during all the flashback scenes. He wasn’t just grieving for four months, his senses were literally driving him insane.

also peter has glowing blue eyes now, dont forget. 

this ones hella random, but i mentioned that mj was going to school in england, and before she was kidnapped, there was a scene with ciaran talking to his scouts about “bringing in ned and mj (the pawns or whatever i called them).” I didnt use their actual names because it was a shocking moment later on, but i mentioned that one of the scouts ciaran was talking to had a british accent. That was meant to show you guys like “oh shit this scout is from/in england...who else do we know thats there right now.....MJ”

theres probs more that im forgetting but its 4am lol so ill add on to this if i remember anything else

[lya-dustin]

get divorce with, raise a child with, or have a restraining order against, Gilded AGE,

Bertha Russel, Peggy Scott, Marian Brook!

Divorce Bertha(sorry george/bertha 4ever) rasie a child with Peggy (they shouldn't have killed her baby istg) and restraining order against Marian (Sorry you were really annoying in s1)

[c0mplex-heroes]

Not quite a wishlist but some ideas for muses/characters I'd love to throw my girls at that I haven't done before/it's been a long time. If you see any of these and think "oh I have that muse and would love to go for that" drop me a DM.

ALEXIS ROSE

Any Supernatural muses. Would love more TFW interactions, with the boys or with her dad, Cas. Would also love to write her being a big sis to Jack. Also open to OCs too, throw your hunters and supernatural being as Alexis.

ARIANNA YANNA

Modern verses for Merlin muses maybe, could be reincarnation or brought back to life (like Arianna). Would also love more knights to write with, whether canon or oc.

CHARLIE HARGREEVES

Always just all the Hargreeves siblings, I love family threads (this also includes Lila too). Would also kind of love a Luther or Diego to write with, I don't get to write with them often enough.

CHRISSIE CONNORS

Uncharted muses, I haven't have much of a chance to actually write her in a proper Uncharted verse. Would love to write with any of the Drakes (especially Sam), Sully, Elena, Chloe or Nadine. Just throw anyone at me. (Same goes for Uncharted OCs too).

ILIDARIA ROSEBUD

Dungeons and Dragons muses in general, can be original characters, from Critical Role (I've never watched it but know of the characters), Baldur's Gate 3 (I've played a little of Act 1 with Ilidaria) or from the newer movie. Just let my girl go on adventures and make friends.

KIMIKO

Just more One Piece muses in general, especially more Strawhats (I haven't written at all with Usopp, Franky, Brook or Jimbe yet). Also would love other characters too, just anyone you wanna throw at her (would kind of love a Bepo because Kimiko would befriend him straight away). OCs too!

KYOKO MISAKA

Just any Bleach muses. I haven't written her really at all yet. So any muses canons or OCs would be really awesome.

LUCY BOONE

As much as I would love Dark Matter canon muses, I know it's kind of an obscure show so I know they probably aren't really out there. So just give me some good sci-fi stuff. Or I would love to write her Zombie AU verse as a Last of Us verse with some Last of Us muses (can be show or game based, I love both)

MAGGIE ROGERS

Just more Marvel muses, would love a Torres to write with or just more new Team Cap shenanigans. Or family threads with Sharon, Steve and Peggy. I love this universe a lot but here's a few of my faves that I'd love to throw Maggie at too - Matt Murdock/Daredevil with added Foggy & Karen, any of the Guardians, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Yelena Belova or just any of the Thunderbolts. Honestly just open to anyone really, OCs included. Also would be down for crossovers with DC characters too.

NICO PARKER

More the Boys muses, would just love to throw her at any of the group - especially Butcher, give me sibling threads.

REY ASHFORD

Any of the Hargreeves siblings, would be open to writing her alongside Charlie too.

SERENA YANNA

Any Merlin muses really, also getting to explore her modern verse more.

#[ooc post.] #[ooc- just me rambling with some wishlisty things.]

[newsninjablog]

The Raven vs. Little Town of Bethlehem

It was December 25, 1997. We were taking our traditional ride through the country looking at the lights, after a full day of Christmas presents and food and family time.  We pulled into St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ellicott City,  to look at the live Nativity first. 

My heart was heavy, but it shouldn’t have been.  It was a beautful day, but punctuated by this deep down feeling that things weren’t right anywhere, not in our family and definately not in our world.  The county was blanketed in the most beautiful covering of snow, and it was just getting dark, so the surface of the snow was reflecting the moon and other lights.  It was quiet and peaceful, when we turned on the radio to hear Dr. D. James Kennedy introduce what I have come to believe is one of the most inspirational Christmas sermons I have ever heard.  

He contrasts the utter bankrupt unbelief of Edgar Allen Poe, as brilliantly represented in his poem, The Raven.  

This is the dark shadowy backdrop of his perfect word painting of the simple faith of the Right Reverend Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts for the Episcopal Church. who looking down on the dark but peaceful little town of Bethlehem, penned an inspirational poem on Christmas Eve, 1865, from the Holy Land.   This poem would later become a nationally sung traditional Christmas carol.  

Dr. Kennedy pretty much nails it!  His performance of Poe’s classic, is not only a commanding performance, its a perfect interpretation of the mood and intentions of the author.  With this as the dark backdrop, he then goes on to deliver a flawless representation of the glorious hope of the gospel message.  

As I listened, I was transported from the darkness of this present world to brilliant light of the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its hope and glory.  I have been on a mission to find the sermon and I’ve finally found it.  I listened yesterday for the first time in 25 years. It had the same effect.  I can only pray that my link will work and that you will take the time to listen to this epic sermon. It’s my Merry Christmas blessing to you.  

 https://soundcloud.com/peggy-neilson/o-little-town

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