#peggy carter is cool but steve moved on

[literaryavenger]

Captain America: Civil War - 2

Summary: After Peggy's funeral, Steve, Sam and you go to Bucharest to track down Bucky before the FBI kills him, or at least tries to.

Pairing: Avengers x Reader

Warnings: Descriptions of violence. Language. My poor attempts at being funny.

Word Count: 2.6K

A/N: Here's part two of Civil War and the first look into a Bucky x Reader relationship! That's my goal, anyway. Hope you enjoy!

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

It’s been a sad few days for Steve, he’s been crying a lot after the news that Peggy died.

You and Sam offered to go with him to the funeral so now you’re both sitting in the first row as Steve and five other guys carry the coffin.

“And now, I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words.” the priest says and Steve’s old neighbor Agent 13, steps up to the podium.

Your eyes widen a little in shock and elbow Sam while looking at her, then Sam nudges Steve and nods to her.

“Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of SHIELD… but I just knew her as Aunt Peggy.” Sharon starts the eulogy and you look at Steve who's just as surprised to see her. “She had a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool. But it was a lot to live up to. Which is why I never told anyone we were related.”

She looks directly at Steve before continuing. “I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. And she said, compromise where you can. But where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move… it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say ‘No. You move.’.”

Her words hit you deep, and you’re sure they hit Steve deep, too.

Peggy was clearly a very smart woman, and the fact that she helped found SHIELD and was such a badass made her your inspiration when you were a trainee and ever since you became an agent. Sharon’s words just made you more and more sure that not signing the Accords is the right thing to do.

-

After the funeral Steve asks you and Sam for a moment alone, so you hug him before letting him have some peace, making your way to the hotel you’re all staying at with Sam.

You’re in the hotel bar when the news comes on with the bombing in Vienna. You and Sam exchange a worried glance and set out to find Steve right away.

You find him near the elevators with Sharon just as the elevator arrives.

“Thanks for walking me back.” Sharon says and as Steve answers “Sure” you get close to them.

“Steve.” you grab his attention.

“There’s something you gotta see.” Sam finishes.

We all go up to Sharon’s hotel room to turn on the news that’s all about the UN bombing in Vienna and how the culprit is believed to be James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier HYDRA asset and formerly known as Sergeant Barnes, Steve’s best friend.

They talk about the death of King T’Chaka and you look at Steve who seems as concerned as you are as you quietly say. “That’s not good.” And he agrees with a nod.

“I have to go to work.” Sharon says and you all know what has to be done.

-

Sam, Steve and you flew to Vienna with Sharon and now you and Sam are in a coffee shop waiting for Steve while he talks to Natasha.

“How can you eat at a time like this?!” you whisper shout to Sam, annoyed.

“What am I supposed to do, starve?” He answers and you roll your eyes but before you can say anything back, Steve steps next to him.

“She tell you to stay out of it?” you ask him, knowing Natasha pretty well.

“Might have a point.” Sam comments casually.

“He'd do it for me.” Steve says back.

“1945, maybe.” Sam says and you roll your eyes and try to be a little more sensitive than Sam.

“I just want to make sure we consider all our options.” you gently say, but Sam cuts in.

“Yeah, the people that shoot at you usually wind up shooting at us.” He says and can’t really fight him on that, he’s not wrong.

Sharon appears next to Steve and starts talking quietly without looking at any of us.

“Tips have been pouring in since that footage went public. Everybody thinks the Winter soldier goes to their gym. Most of it is noise. Except for this.” She slides Steve a file. “My boss expects a briefing, pretty much now, so that's all the head start you're gonna get.”

“Thank you.” Steve says as he takes the file.

“And you're gonna have to hurry. We have orders to shoot on sight.” she says and leaves as the three of you exchange a worried glance. Without wasting any time, you make your way out of the coffee shop and to the airport, destination: Bucharest.

-

You get to the right address and go separate ways. Sam gets to the roof of the building that Steve enters to look for Barnes and you go to the roof of the other building, where you have an eye on both Sam and, thanks to the scope on your rifle, you can see Steve even through the covered windows.

You see Steve enter the small apartment and look around, then he goes to the kitchen and picks up what looks like a notebook and opens it. Then you hear Sam’s voice through the comms.

“Heads up, Cap. German Special Forces approaching from the south.” You notice movement behind Steve as Sam talks.

“Understood.” Steve says as you see Barnes has entered the apartment.

“Steve, turn around.” You tell him through the comms and he slowly does.

“Do you know me?” You can hear Steve ask, but can’t hear Bucky’s response because he's talking too quietly.

“They've set the perimeter.” Sam says, but you’re still focused on Bucky inside the building.

“I know you're nervous. And you have plenty of reason to be.” You hear Steve say, “But you're lying.” You can see Bucky’s lips moving, but at this angle you can’t really read his lips.

“They're entering the building.” Sam says and you finally take your attention away from the apartment and look around the building as you hear Steve talk.

“Well, the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive.”

“Sam, they’re on the roof.” You say through the comms.

“She’s right, I'm compromised.” He says.

“This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck.” Steve says.

“5 seconds.” Sam says in your ear.

“You pulled me from the river. Why?” Steve keeps trying to get through to Bucky.

“3 seconds!” You say as you see them about to breach the apartment.

“Yes, you do!” Steve almost yells before you hear Sam yelling in your ear.

“Breach! Breach! Breach!” you see a grenade crash through the window. Bucky kicks it to Steve, and he smothers it with his shield.

You see Bucky shielding himself with the mattress against an attack from the window, then he blocks the door with a table as cops swing in on cables. Steve pulls the rug from under a policeman, sending him flying. Bucky slams another policeman into the wall.

“Buck, stop! You're gonna kill someone.” you hear Steve say before Bucky slams him down and punches a hole in the floor right next to his face.

You faintly hear him say, “I'm not gonna kill anyone.” Before he pulls something out the floor, throws it out the building and it lands near you.

You’re about to go see what’s in it but are distracted by Bucky and Steve hiding behind the shield together before Bucky shoves Steve into a cop and you have to stop yourself from laughing. 

Bucky holds up his metal hand and repels bullets, then slams a cop into some shelves. He picks up a large cement brick and slams it into a cop and you can see Steve fighting another cop on the balcony.

You see Bucky punch through the wall beside the door. He steps into the hallway and you lose sight of him, a second later Steve steps into the hallway and you lose him too.

“You have a visual, Sam?” You ask through the comms and he answers with a simple ‘No’.

You hear Steve say “Come on, man.” and hear his grunting as he fights.

After a minute you hear Steve say “Y/N, he’s coming your way.” and you frown.

“What do you mean he’s-” Before you can answer you can see Bucky jumping out a balcony and you let out a quiet “Holy shit.” that makes Steve groan and Sam snicker.

Bucky lands not too far away from you and, before he can get to his backpack, you put yourself in front of him so he can’t get to it.

“Hello, soldier.” you say in a teasing and vaguely flirting tone, but he simply looks at you for half a second before throwing a punch that you avoid and quickly say “Not a talker. Got it.” Before throwing a punch of your own that he easily stops, holding your arm as he sweeps your legs and in a second you’re on the ground.

Bucky picks up his backpack and runs, but a big man all dressed in black, a full face mask with pointed ears, slams into him and knocks him down. He extends his fingers and sharp claws pop out and he attacks Bucky with sweeping kicks and slashes.

Bucky fights back but is kicked into a wall, the figure swipes his claws and spins gracefully. Bucky narrowly avoids being slashed, holding up a metal bar to protect himself.

You get up and get closer to them to try and help Bucky. You kick the man off of him and protect Bucky by standing in front of him in a fighting stance.

“Bad kitty.” you tell him and can hear Steve and Sam simultaneously say “Seriously, Y/N?”

“Sam, southwest rooftop.” you hear Steve say as the cat man lunges at you. 

“Who the hell's the other guy?” Sam asks.

“About to find out.” Steve answers while you try your best to not get killed by the overgrown cat you’re fighting at the moment. The man manages to slam you into a wall and lunges at Bucky with his claws, but Bucky grabs his wrists.

You’re about to help but a soldier fires a machine gun from a chopper, the ammo bounces off the man’s armored suit who’s now on top of Bucky, but you’re forced to hide to avoid the bullets.

You hear Steve call for Sam’s help and Sam answers with a “Got him.” before he flies down and shoves the chopper off course, then swoops towards street level.

Bucky breaks free from his attacker, slings his bag on his back, runs and jumps down a level, and the other man slides down the wall using his claws for traction. Bucky lands at street level and the chase continues. Steve follows and lands rolling along the ground. 

You watch them from the edge of the roof and sigh. “Okay, I can’t do that.” You look up in search of Sam. “Sam, I need a ride.”

“I got you.” He says as he swoops down and picks you up, taking flight again to follow the others while you hang on to him for dear life.

Gunfire from the chopper tears up the sidewalk, Bucky jumps down through an opening, lands in an underpass and he runs through the traffic. Cat Suit and Steve drop down and chase after Bucky as a Special Forces Vehicle pursues all of them.

You see Steve leap onto the vehicle and splinter the windshield and, when the driver stops, Steve yanks him from the vehicle and kicks the windshield out, then drives off.

Bucky runs over the top of a speeding car, outpacing it and Cat Suit is a few cars behind, keeping pace with him. Then he leaps on the back of the 4x4 that Steve's driving and Steve swerves from side to side, trying to throw him off.

“Sam, I can't shake this guy.” He says into the comms.

“We’re right behind you.” Sam says as you fly behind him.

Several police cars join the chase and you see Steve side-swipe another car and drive on.

Bucky leaps over a barrier and Steve drives through it, then you can see Bucky grab the handlebar of an incoming motorcycle and spin the bike around in mid air, throwing the rider off as he gets on the bike himself, riding away and sending cars careering out of the way. 

Steve keeps on Bucky's tail with Cat Suit holding onto the back of his car. They all rocket through another underpass and Sam flies into the underpass. 

Cat Suit leaps off the front of Steve’s car onto Bucky's motorbike and Bucky flings him over his head and the bike leans down on its side. Bucky kicks his assailant away, straightens up and rides on.

Cat Suit catches a ride on one of Sam’s legs and Sam tries to kick him away. Bucky throws a sticky bomb and blows up the roof at the end of the underpass, bringing down tons of rubble. 

Sam tells you to hang on and you can feel his grip tighten on you as he stops and throws the Cat Suit man into the rubble. He throws Bucky off the motorcycle as Steve swerves the car through the rubble and leaps out, running as Bucky and the Cat roll on the ground.

When they stop the Cat is on Bucky right away but Steve jumps on him and pulls him off Bucky.

Steve stands up, facing the sleek and muscular overgrown black cat as the police arrive and surround you all, guns aimed. War Machine leaps down from above and raises both his suit hands, guns drawn.

“Stand down, now.” Rhodey says, aiming at Bucky and Steve who are standing side by side and at the Cat Suit Guy. Steve puts his shield on his back again as Rhodey continues. “Congratulations, Cap. You're a criminal.” 

Police move in and force Bucky to his knees. The Cat raises his hands as a cop moves Steve's arms behind his back and you and Sam are also handcuffed and brought closer to the others by two police men. The cat retracts his claws and pulls off his mask revealing his face and you’re all shocked to see it’s King T'Challa. 

“Your highness.” Rhodey says as Bucky's hauled flat on the ground and getting handcuffed.

-

You all get arrested, forced to change out of our suits and gears and taken to Berlin. Bucky is restrained inside a glass-walled pod surrounded by armed guards.

In an SUV sits T’Challa on front, then you, then Steve and last Sam. You’re quietly going through traffic until Sam very respectfully breaks the silence. “So, you like cats?”

“Sam.” Steve warns him while you snort in amusement, looking out the window to avoid what you’re sure will be a disappointed glare from Steve. 

“What?” Sam continues. “Dude shows up dressed like a cat and you don't wanna know more?”

“Your suit…” Steve ignores Sam and addresses T’Challa. “Is it Vibranium?”

“The Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for generations. A mantle, passed from warrior to warrior.” T’Challa finally speaks up. “And now, because your friend murdered my father, I also wear the mantle of king.” Oh, no. “So, I ask you... as both warrior and king... how long do you think you can keep your friend safe from me?”

The silence that follows is deafening, as none of you know or want to give an answer to that, and you’re sure T’Challa doesn’t expect one.

“Sorry about King T’Chaka…” You say quietly after a moment.

“Don’t worry, miss Y/LN. He will be vindicated.” He answers back without missing a beat.

You look back at Steve and Sam and they both look as worried as you feel.

This is not going to end well, is it?

Requested taglist: @sapphirebarnes @aki-ham

#bucky barnes #avengers x reader #bucky barnes x you #sam wilson #steve rogers #clint barton #tony stark #peter parker #natasha romanoff #scott lang #tchalla #avengers x platonic!reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x you #black panther #marvel fanfiction #rhodey #james rhodes #james bucky barnes #captain america civil war #team cap #mcu

[musclesandhammering]

Unpopular Phase 4 & 5 Opinions

Quantumania is the worst Phase 4/5 movie. And it wasn’t even because “kang got beat by ants.” (I liked kang in this movie). It’s just that the Spy Kids aesthetic & bad acting & overall weird vibes just weren’t for me.

Love and Thunder is no worse than Ragnarok. I would argue that it’s better in a lot of ways, actually. I really liked it.

Taika Waititi ruined thor with bad humour all the way back in Ragnarok tbh, but y’all weren’t complaining about it then 😒.

BuckySarah is better than sambucky every day of the week.

The Marvels was a good ass movie & they’re one of my favorite teams in the mcu. I’ll never forgive cbm sites & online dudebros for killing the hype from the moment the film was announced.

I adore America Chavez & Kamala Kahn and I want to see them in everything. They must be protected at all costs.

Multiverse of Madness had shitty characterisation & basically just copy-pasted the ‘grief made me go off the deep end & hurt people, then I realised and stopped myself’ storyline from Wandavision… but Wanda was extremely selfish & apathetic to other people’s suffering from the time she was introduced in the mcu. MoM didn’t make her like that.

Wanda should’ve been looking for Vision (her actual real life boyfriend whom she spent years with irl) in MoM instead of the kids that weren’t even real that she spent like a week using as characters in her sitcom.

Making everyone forget Peter Parker wasn’t profound or poetic in any way- it was just frustrating and needlessly cruel.

I’m begging marvel to understand that heroes don’t have to be in constant suffering to be heroic & villains don’t have to sacrifice themselves to achieve redemption. Let characters heal and atone, you absolute weirdos.

What If…? is the most boring show ever. I’d rather watch Secret Invasion or She-Hulk.

Season 2 of Loki is, in a cinematic & artistic sense, the best marvel project period.

Loki season 1 was meh- more of a fun au than anything because his characterisation kinda sucked. Season 2 fixed it, though, and made it way easier for me to incorporate this version of Loki back into the larger mcu.

Having Steve stay in the past with Peggy was stupid af.

I don’t hate Peggy (or Captain Carter), though. I actually think she’s pretty cool.

I don’t really love Steve. He’s arrogant & they never really let him have flaws & something about him being a perfect metaphor for the American military industrial complex (and marvel painting that as a good thing) doesn’t sit right with me.

The Illuminati got done dirty and the only reason they went down so fast was because Wanda had all that plot armor.

I thought the retcon of having Wanda be “destined” to become the Scarlet Witch since birth was an annoying cop-out. Her powers originating from being experimented on with an infinity stone was way more interesting.

Loki & Wanda have almost the exact same powers.

Nebula deserved a bigger rule in killing Thanos & everything else moving forward.

I love Kathryn Newton but her acting as Cassie Lang was the worst acting I’ve ever seen in the mcu, like it was outrageously bad.

I’m glad Sam is the new Captain America and not Bucky.

The fact that Bucky probably isn’t gonna be one of Thee lead characters in the upcoming avengers movies feels sick and twisted.

Secret Invasion was actually passable until the G’iah scene at the end. That ruined it. And Nick Fury deserved way better for his solo series.

Kang is so much more interesting than Doctor Doom. I really hope they just recast him.

Carol Danvers does NOT deserve the hate she gets.

I actually disliked Carol until The Marvels. That movie made me a stan.

The way people treat Monica as Wanda’s little inferior pet creation or smth & then brag about it is uhh very sus.

I don’t like sylvie (bc she’s an amalgamation of 3 different comic characters- which killed any hopes of them appearing individually in the mcu, the creators used her existence to butcher Loki’s genderfluid rep, & she was written poorly) & I HATE sylki (bc it’s weird & unnecessary).

Marvel isn’t dead. I actually love where they’re taking things. But that’s just me.

#unpopular opinion #unpopular marvel opinions #unpopular mcu opinions #secret invasion #the marvels #loki season 2 #mcu phase 4 #mcu phase 5 #loki finale #the marvels spoilers #loki finale spoilers #carol danvers #monica rambeau #kamala khan #america chavez #anti sylvie #anti sylki #anti Wanda maximoff #Peggy Carter #buckysarah #quantumania #kang #Bucky Barnes #multiverse of madness #thor love and thunder #Thor #mcu #marvel

[doctorhelena]

I can't believe it's canon that Steve becomes an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct in every universe where he's separated from Peggy or loses her. Scratch that, I CAN believe it's canon, I'm just deeply concerned for Steve and his 'my wiwwwfie wife is running an espionage agency/saving the world/went through a wormhole and i miss her' work ethic

Good news, I don't think you have to be worried! I'm pretty sure your first instinct, not to believe it's canon, was in fact correct.

Let's examine the Steves we've seen thus far. We have:

1) MCU Steve. Who yes, lost Peggy (twice, once when he was frozen, and once when she died of old age). But, I don't think we can say that his self-sacrificing streak and his not feeling like he can stop working comes from not having Peggy.

a) His self-sacrificing streak showed up well before he even met Peggy in CA:TFA. He was always picking fights he couldn't win, risking serious injury for people he didn't even know (eg. the fight he got into in the alley after telling that guy to shut up at the movies during the newsreel), and he risked jail time by applying to the army using false information, multiple times (after being previously rejected for being medically unfit) because, despite having a ridiculous number of medical reasons why he shouldn't, he wanted to go do his part to fight in Europe against the Nazis.

b) He hadn't only lost Peggy when he woke up nearly 70 years in the future. He'd lost everybody. Almost everybody he'd ever known and loved, every friend, every casual acquaintance, everyone he looked up to, everyone he disliked, EVERYONE. And the very few who were still there (including Peggy) were very old, and maybe, like Peggy, not completely there. The world was very, very different. He'd lost his cultural touchstones. He'd lost his sense of how he fit into the world. He was, quite literally, a man out of time. (And yeah, maybe he could have adjusted better to his new circumstances, but Steve is a very stoic guy, who is the type of person to tell himself that he's not doing so bad, that others have it worse, that he doesn't need help. That he can figure this out on his own, and if he can't, then he might as well keep helping others. And how many other WWII veterans were never quite the same again after the war? Were haunted by their experiences and who found that the world they came back to, their family and friends, had changed too, over the time they were away?) When Steve went back to 1949 at the end of Endgame, he wasn't only going back to Peggy (although of course, yes, he was going back to her), he was going back to an entire world that he'd lost.

2) Hydra Stomper Steve. Yeah, this Steve dealt with the loss of Peggy by teaming up with Bucky to try to wipe out the rest of Hydra. But - so did Bucky. Bucky was with him the whole time, they both put their lives on hold to fight Hydra. And after eliminating the last known Hydra base (the mission on which they believed Steve had died), Bucky moved on, got married, had kids, became Secretary of State (all of which we know happened after Steve was captured, because Steve didn't know that Bucky had settled down until Peggy told him in the What If S2 Winter Soldier episode). But, despite what Steve told Peggy in that episode (that he didn't see much point in "a wife, kids, the whole white picket fence life" if it wasn't with her), we don't know what he would have ended up doing after wiping out Hydra. We, and he, never had the chance to find out.

3) Rogers Hood. Yeah, this Steve was drawn to Captain Carter, another universe's version of his lost Lady Margaret, and she was drawn to him. But I wouldn't say that, before Peggy showed up, he was "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct" in this universe. He actually seemed to be having a pretty good time stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, living in a cool treehouse village with his buddies/band of merry men. I guess you can say he lived on the job, but - would you call Robin Hood an "obsessive workaholic"? I wouldn't.

4) Zombie Steve. No real data here. We have no idea what his personality was like before he was zombified (we only know that he was a member of the Avengers).

5) Steve Dressed as Christmas Elf. This guy was a very cheerful version of Steve. Yeah, he looked a little concerned about the soccer moms cornering him, and unknown to him he was about to get socks for Christmas from Tony, but he was really excited that he'd correctly identified Happy Hogan in purple monster form! I don't think there's any real evidence that this particular universe's Steve is "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct".

6) President Steve! No real data here either. Okay, I guess leaders of countries are usually workaholics to some degree (well, they are if they take the job seriously, anyway), but we don't know whether this particular Steve has Peggy or not, nor anything about him, really.

7) Steve who was unfrozen by Fury after Hank Pym killed most of the other Avengers (and then who Natasha from the Ultron universe ended up fighting alongside after the Watcher didn't send her back to her own universe at the end of S1). No real data here either: we don't know much about this Steve except that he was fighting on a helicarrier at one point in his life.

In conclusion, I don't see evidence that it's canon in any universe we've seen so far that it's Peggy's absence alone that makes Steve into "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct".

And I also don't see evidence that it's canon that Steve is "an obsessive workaholic with no self-preservation instinct" in every universe where he's not with Peggy, either.

It turns out that Steve Rogers is an independent, complicated, three dimensional character whose sense of self-preservation and ability to enjoy life are not, in fact, solely based on whether or not he's with Peggy.

Steve chooses Peggy in many of the universes we've seen him in. But it's a big multiverse. If you would rather see him be happy with someone else, I'm sure it happens! And if you do like him with Peggy, then that happens a lot too, over and over again.

Peggy and Steve love each other. They miss each other when they're apart. But they don't need each other in order to be whole people. (That said, they do choose each other, it seems, whenever they possibly can.)

#asks #answered #what if spoilers #what if season 2 #steve rogers #peggy carter #steggy #what if

[art-for-my-sake]

Dancers are essentially ambidextrous. So is the Winter Soldier.

There’s an expression: Never give a sword to a man who cannot dance. I think the Winter Soldier’s lethal coordination originates from Bucky Barnes’ dance prowess. While Bucky Barnes is a right-dominant person in his everyday actions – reaching for a wrench or using chopsticks – he is ambidextrous in his Fighting Mode.

When “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” came out in 2021, episode 5 established that Bucky is right-handed. Online, there were many people who cried out that ‘Hydra had brainwashed the Winter Soldier to be left-handed’ and included the supporting screenshots of him wielding various weapons.

Hydra did NOT brainwash Bucky to be left-handed, they trained him to be efficient. Efficiency is about removing unnecessary elements; what’s more efficient, having to move one gun from side to side or having a gun in either hand? But having a gun in a non-dominant hand requires more training to be a good shot. Hydra had to train him to be able to kill with either hand.

(Now, the knife-flipping in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is highly inefficient but it’s so. damn. COOL. It’s some of my favorite choreography. I don’t care that it’s ‘unrealistic’ I will die on this hill.)

I argue that Bucky was a prime candidate to become an efficient assassin, in part because of his dance background. Canonically, Bucky is a dancer (in both the MCU and the comics, but for this essay I’ll be looking at the movies). Dance requires a balance of the body’s abilities. Performance dancers must drill every technique evenly on the right and left sides, so they are prepared for any choreography given to them. But even social dancers must engage their whole bodies with surprising amounts of coordination.

Bucky would have learned to dance in the 1930’s and 40’s and many popular dances of the time could be adapted for three dancers. In “Captain America: The First Avenger,” Steve skips out of a double date, leaving Bucky to take both women out dancing. It is conceivable that Bucky would have been able to dance with them at the same time. This further indicates ambidextrous conditioning.

Another element of dances from the 30’s and 40’s is an ability to improvise. Yes, there are specific movements and sequences that are learned, but to lace these steps together while moving in a space with other couples (or trios) requires quick-thinking and a keen awareness of the environment, skills the Winter Soldier demonstrates consistently.  

Even though Bucky is never shown dancing, we can assume that his skills are at the very least proficient, if not outright exceptional. Again, in the first Captain America movie, he asks Peggy Carter out dancing when she looks stunning and he looks like he’s just survived a POW camp. This is not the action of a man who cannot dance. This is someone who is sure of his ability to provide a pleasurable experience on the dance floor no matter who his partner may be.

To circle back around to my original topic: brainwashing someone to be a lefty is stupid. But, speaking from experience, training someone to be so adaptable as to be ambidextrous makes a lot of sense.

-l'art pour l'amour de moi

#dance #bucky barnes #the winter soldier #falcon and the winter soldier #fatws #captain america #ambidextrous #winter soldier

[thevibraniumveterans]

S2 of WHAT IF…

Ep1- “…Nebula joined the Nova Corps?”

Love the bleak opening sequence

Fascinating how Nebula narrates the context. Her “five years of isolation” hits hard.

Nova Prime siding with Ronan was a surprise

Ep2- “…Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

Cool intro; Peter leaning into his inherent powers is interesting…

The Winter Soldier being Gorbachev’s tool to contain Peter is surprising, but not unexpected…

“Does anyone have a plan?”/“I have a plan; retreat.” 😂

Thor announcing that Peter killed off all the Nine Realms except Earth; Peter needed containment to prevent him being too powerful.

Hope breaking Peter out is unexpected.

But Peter defeating his dad is a great ending.

Ep3- “…Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

Cool X’mas riff in the beginning music

Avengers Tower… looking festive.

Happy getting accidentally injected with Banner blood is unexpected.

Beethoven’s 9th riff playing when Darcy discovers a whole collection!

“Time for the Hammer to get nailed” 🤣

Overall, great X’mas episode.

Ep4- “…Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?”

Cool that the Guardians of the Multiverse (from S1) are back!

Gamora’s origin story is a Tony Stark episode that looks to focus a bit on Valkyrie? Interesting…

Wonder what Gamora is doing there.

The little Chinchilla is adorable.

Tony with the nicknames (“Technicolor Dream Coat” is a Andrew Lloyd Webber musical reference) is hilarious

Also, Tony building a suit that reforms into a race car on command, and back, is AWESOME

Turns out, Tony inspired Gamora to be a hero.

Gamora melting Thanos, did not see that coming.

Ep5- “…Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”

Cool Avengers team; with Carter and Janet instead of Steve and Banner.

It’s kind of what if 2012’s Battle of New York went differently. Then we pick up kind of CATWS but it’s Peggy and Nat.

Peggy’s spin-twist was really cool.

The whole reverse-CATWS but instead of Bucky gone bad and Steve finding out, it’s Steve gone bad and Peggy finding out.

Bucky as a Secretary of State? Did NOT see that coming. But makes sense that Bucky would be the one to try to bring Steve back. Truly a reverse CATWS.

The Stomper Suit keeping Steve alive, I wonder how.

Carter’s hilarious Star Wars reference to carbonite.

Also, the camera panning around Steve and Peggy, is a mirror of the Tony/Pepper one in Endgame.

Melina being part robot is also kind of creepy.

Captain Carter having a musical is hilarious too

Also, the emotional vibes kind of veering into CACW and “Black Widow” territory is quite fascinating.

Peggy disappears thru a portal, only to be greeted by Wanda.

Ep6- “…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”

Ragnarok comes early…

Also, this episode isn’t the first time we see the horrors of Spanish conquistadors invading on native land; we last saw that in Wakanda Forever a few years ago.

But when the Watcher narrates the context, it mirrors the Black Panther movie’s narrative about how the Vibranium came to Earth and ended with the peacemaking between various tribes.

Also great to note that this is the first MCU entry where nobody, except the Watcher (and Stephen Strange at the end) speaks English.

It’s really awesome that the Space Stone energy gives the people from the Sky World (who are formerly Mohawk natives from Earth) and Kahhori very, VERY interesting powers.

KAHHORI MOVED THE PORTAL TO THE LAND!! That is an insane amount of power and strength! That’s wonderful!

Kahhori and her people sinking the Spanish Armada is a sight to behold.

Ep7- “…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

Hela suddenly being able to speak Putonghua was a surprise.

Odin says that the bearer of Hela’s crown be merciful, which explains why Hela is at first unable to lift it. Just like the first Thor movie.

I kind of wonder why Wenwu would invite Hela to wear a traditional dress; but more importantly, why does he have one ready?

MORRIS RETURNS!! Best fuzzy thing.

Hela visits Talo.

Folding paper. That’s basically Origami. IRL history has it that China has its own paper folding traditions long ago, just like Japan, but separately.

Hela being upset that Fenrir as a puppy was taken from her, is something interesting too.

Asgard, a realm of Norse legend, and Ta Lo, a fictitious Chinese fantasy realm, coming together to free the cosmos, is something I did not see coming.

Ep8- “…the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”

Tom Hiddleston as Loki narrating Hamlet? Not surprising.

Wanda summoned Carter from three episodes ago, and turns out Thor knew about this here.

But what are those portals? Wanda warns to stop them.

Wanda speaks of a lost traveler…

Tony says “Forerunner” but the caption says “person”.

Loki speaking of William Shakespeare writing about Iago in the play Othello.

Rogers Hood. Hilarious combo of Steve Rogers and Robin Hood.

Rogers and Carter double-teaming with the shield is really cool.

Where did the Destroyer come from?

Hogan throwing out all manner of old fashioned insults is hilarious 😆

Also, why is Hogan a hulk in this episode? He was one in the Christmas episode but this one?

Turns out the Forerunner is mainMCU!Steve?

The main effect is that Carter is alone again.

Strange Supreme makes an appearance. Which we leave on a “TBC” for next episode. The fact that he went to fetch Kahhori in Ep6 must mean something big is in the finale…

Ep9- “…Strange Supreme Intervened?”

Interesting; we get the full MCU theme for the title card. We never got the full theme in previous episodes.

Peggy speaks with Strange, who keeps dangerous beings inside their own little crystals.

If the Watcher is a metaphor for us, and Strange implying that the Watcher may not always be right, that means that we might not also always be right about certain things.

Peggy enters South Dakota… where Red Skull (HYDRA) exploded the Tesseract. But why would Kahhori be a danger to the Multiverse, considering Strange net with her last episode? Why is she considered a danger in this one?

Also, Kahhori now speaks English. Not odd, per se, but it helps. She says Strange is “a universe killer.” Which, in some way, he is.

Also, a dragon from Ta Lo, which kinda sells the point.

Hela being insulted that Kahhori sent the swords back is hilarious 😆

Peggy gets an Infinity Armor is pretty to cool. Also, Peggy and Kahhori vs Strange? That’s also really cool.

Peggy gets sent back to her home, but it’s an illusion, and she sees right through it.

Though, playing with the lives of so many people to face Strange, that’s a weird effect, perhaps meant to be “comedic” in a way, but comes off as cruel, which might have been the more intended effect.

Also, the characters falling to the portal just basically overpowering Peggy with their weapons? It’s very interesting because it’s not overpowering her for no reason, she NEEDS to be overpowered to stop an already over-powered Strange. She needs to be MORE than him to win.She gets Hela’s crown, a large sword, and multiple other weapons, while Kahhori uses her powers to lift Thor’s hammers and also uses the Ten Rings. Both Peggy and Kahhori MUST be overpowered to overpower Strange and stop him.

Strange becomes a huge devil monster and falls into the Forge.

Peggy goes to the Watcher.

S2E9 ending exactly as Loki S2E6 did, that’s interesting.

#mcu #what if season 2 #what if series #the watcher #captain carter #kahhori #natasha romanoff #happy hogan #hela odinsdottir #my thoughts #nebula #peter quill #iron man #strange supreme #my notes #mcu meta

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Every scene with Peggy in CATFA is infuriating. But the two scenes that infuriate me the most are: Peggy shooting Steve over petty jealousy and Peggy being so damn rude to Bucky at the bar. The last one is especially infuriating because Bucky was being polite and courteous to Peggy, but she just totally ignored him and continued to oggle at Steve. Like WTF was that all about??? What did Bucky ever do to Peggy???

That second scene is interesting when you factor in the period, and the fact that they thought they were writing a heterosexual scene.

Because you've got Bucky, who's supposed to know all about romancing the dames, who sees a woman walk up to his friend in a bar. And just... stays where he is.

Bro etiquette -- now and then -- dictates he should be hustling across the room to give Steve some privacy. But he doesn't.

(And Steve doesn't seem at all bothered that he doesn't either, does he?)

There is no reason why Steve -- even if he is busy giving his usual Live Slug Reaction to being hit on, yet again, by a woman who can't take a hint -- cannot answer Peggy's clumsy overtures himself.

But he doesn't.

So Bucky steps in, and prevents her from making even more of a fool of herself (twinkling at a man who just gives 🙂), by filling in the conversational gap. Picking up the anvil-sized hints she's dropping since Steve apparently doesn't care to.

(Hitting on a woman who walks up in a vamp dress and a bar would be considered less gallant by today's standards, but by WWII standards? Bucky is being the sole gentleman here!)

So why does he do it?

Did they mean to imply, by casting Jenna Coleman, that brown-eyed-brunettes are Bucky's type? 😬 Eeesh. Doesn't really say much for why Steve would be interested in her then, does it?

(In fact, it's like he only enjoy's Peggy pass as a do-over of the Stark Expo Double Date, but now he gets to succeed with the 'Jenna Coleman' instead of Bucky. It's just another version of Endgame's Hero's Journey-style 'Woman As Prize' motif. 🙄)

Bucky stays where he is and shows an interest because the dudebro writers so transparently wanted Steve to get the Nerd's Revenge; a little wish-fulfillment power fantasy. The handsome popular friend with the great personality, getting punished for being more popular and handsome than the hero in high school, by striking out with The Girl while the hero succeeds.

But -- since they're incompetent and/or cannot control what CEvans chooses to do with his performance 😂 -- Steve is not at all bothered when Peggy leaves, makes no move to go after her, etc. 🤔

No move to 'go dancing' when he has the opportunity, just like he didn't make a move on the original Jenna Coleman character, either...

(Contrast that with: actually-interested Tony Stark who couldn't be prevented from going after Pepper Potts, when he saw her in a 'hero' dress at the party.)

And those idiot writers think this scene is Peggy proving she's a Cool Girl.

Because she, who alone knows the Real Steve, has remembered that Steve is secretly just a great big loser inside...

(Never mind that he's a globally famous film star, a decorated war hero, a superhuman and a heart throb, obviously he's still beneath such an important person as Peggy Carter, nepotism hire!)

...So she has come, in Gaston Red, to announce that she will Allow Steve to date Her!

(Her Royal Highness the Most Specialist- nay, Only Special Person in the Whole Multiverse!!)

And she widens her eyes at him as if to say what a lucky boy he is, what a treat for him!

.

She is rude to Bucky, and won't look at him, because she is written by men who think a Strong Female Character means one who acts like a man.

In this case, it's a 'won't acknowledge the less-attractive female friend of the woman he's relentlessly targeting at the club' sort of a man. 🤡

Bucky's crime is being undateable and yet still in her presence. (Why can't he just have the common decency to not exist??)

No wonder Steve stayed with his bros! If he was a girl, he'd be a girl's girl. 😌

#CATFA meta #toAyourQ #dat's me #hey nonny #antipeggy #antisteggy #cynthia glass #p*ggy meta #mcu critical #steggy is hydra trash party #meta #mcu meta #remember folks: REBLOG 🔁 / DON'T JUST LIKE 🤍

[tobiasdrake]

One unfortunate limitation for a Multiversal arc like this is the reality of actor availability. Like. Tony Stark's dead in the 616, but that doesn't matter, right? Because there are parallel Tony Starks that we can get involved in things!

...well... No. No, there are not. Tony Stark's dead because RDJ felt like he'd put enough of his life into this character and wanted to move on. He's not coming back to play Tony-838 or Spider-Tony or Tony-Kang or any other cool Tonies you might come up with. For all intents and purposes, Tony is dead (or permanently just offscreen) in all possible universes. And that sort of thing is limiting for the sort of fun you can have with a multiverse.

What If? gets away with having Tonies because the nature of an animated medium makes Marvel more willing to recast. But even though No Way Home gave them a free license to cast new actors as variant characters, they seem reluctant to actually go through with it for their live-action products.

I use Tony as an example because he's relevant to this film, but the same limitation exists for any character whose actor doesn't want to return and for whom Marvel won't recast. We probably won't be seeing Steve Rogers or T'Challa any time soon. Natasha Romanov maybe, but I'd be surprised if there isn't bad blood between ScarJo and Marvel after she literally sued them for trying to screw her out of her Black Widow movie pay.

Though, plus side for Peggy Carter, Steve's unavailability means Captain Carter's getting a publicity push!

We see that here, with the Illuminati. Tony Stark is iconically meant to be one of the Illuminati. But without RDJ, they can't make that happen. And so we get Ultron soldiers evocative of Tony's presence, but without being able to actually bring him here and involve him in this organization that he's iconically so connected to.

It's a very effective workaround to the problem of No Multiversal Tonies. A clever way of keeping him involved when he cannot exist onscreen. But it's a solution to a problem that other mediums, such as comics and animation, simply don't have with their wacky multiversal jaunts. And the longer the MCU runs, the more they're going to run into this sort of thing.

They should really consider taking NWH up on that "Variants played by different actors is fine" thing.

#marvel #marvel cinematic universe #doctor strange #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #tony stark #iron man

[iam93percentstardust]

hello there!! happy advanced birthday :)) I saw this quote "“I went to sleep last night so I could see you.” by Frederick Seidel, from “The Last Poem in the Book,” These Days (Alfred A. Knopf, 1989) and I thought it'd be a great fic prompt for mcu stevetony post-endgame. Hope you have a great birthday weekend ahead <3

Thank you so much! Fair warning for this fic, this is Sad TM because, you know, post-Endgame and all that, but I think it still ends on a pretty hopeful note

~

Tony is younger and softer than Steve has ever seen him. His face is unlined, his smile freer than it ever was when Steve knew him (except once, except when Steve first moved into the tower). This is an age of wearing Rhodey’s discarded sweatshirts, huge on his lanky frame, and pulling his hood up over his face so that he doesn’t get recognized in the quad. The pants are tight, but Tony doesn’t even seem to notice them. His hair is curly, falling into his eyes, and Steve spots more than one person eyeing them like they’d like to see what Tony would look like with their hands buried in his hair.

He doesn’t blame them. Tony is lovely at this age, and his carefree smile and sparkling eyes are arresting.

“Are you my new bodyguard?” Tony asks him a week after he starts watching him.

Steve is startled. He hadn’t realized that Tony had spotted him lurking around the campus. He wouldn’t have expected him to, not this younger version of Tony who doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. His Tony, yes, but not this one.

He thinks quickly. The year is 1991, the month November. The Starks will die in less than a month, and though Steve will do everything in his power to stop their death, he also knows that he’s lost more fights against the Winter Soldier than he’s won, even when he didn’t know that it was Bucky. There’s every possibility that the Starks will die before Tony has a chance to check his claim.

“Uh—yes,” he says, possibly a touch too slow by the way Tony’s eyes narrow thoughtfully.

“That’s new,” Tony comments. “Never had a bodyguard start following me around before introducing themselves.”

There’s something deeply distrusting in his tone, and Steve scrambles for something to say that’ll keep Tony from questioning him. He just found him again after… after… well. After. He can’t lose him this quickly.

“Director Carter recommended it,” he lands on. He isn’t sure if Peggy is still the director at this time, but he’s pretty sure she still holds some sway if she isn’t. And, if he remembers correctly—Tony didn’t talk about her much, but he’d dropped a few gems here and there—Peggy is Tony’s godmother.

It does the trick. Tony straightens up. “You know Aunt Peggy?”

“We’ve met.”

“SHIELD?”

“I was special ops, actually,” Steve says, which is probably the best way to describe either the Avengers or the Commandos. “We met in Europe when I was on a mission once.”

“Cool,” Tony breathes, eyes dark and shining. He gives Steve an appreciate onceover, and that’s—Tony’s never done that before. Steve doesn’t even know if he’s attracted to men, though he heard plenty of rumors when he first moved into the tower. They’d never been close enough to have that conversation, and though Steve is certainly attracted to Tony, he has no idea if Tony returns—

An insistent beeping cuts through his thoughts.

His mind puts the pieces together in an instant, and then he’s shoving Tony to the ground, shouting, “Get down!”

Then—

~

“Uncle Steve?”

Steve slowly blinks awake, the last vestiges of his dream floating away on the dust motes he can see in the sunlight. The beeping of the alarm continues to annoy him, and he reaches over to slap it off, only remembering at the last second that this one wasn’t made for supersoldier strength.

A dream, he realizes. All just a dream. Another one to file away in the depths of his memory as the last things he has left of Tony, who is—

He looks at the black suit hanging up on the back of the closet door. Pepper had been kind enough to give as many people as she could the use of the lake house’s multiple guest rooms. More people, he knows, have rented out the other properties bordering the lake. No one is staying in a hotel. The news of Tony’s… the news about Tony hasn’t reached the media yet, and no one wanted today to become a circus.

“Uncle Steve?” he hears again.

“Hey, Morgan Pie,” he says wearily, scrubbing his hand down his face. “Come on up.”

He hears the pitter patter of  little feet and then Morgan is launching herself onto the bed, crawling into his lap like she can hide from the world. Steve understands the feeling.

She’s gotten so big, he realizes when he wraps his arms around her. He used to come by the lake house all the time when she was younger, but he stopped about a year ago when he’d gone downstairs after tucking her in, only to find Tony and Pepper dancing together in the kitchen to some song that came out when he was in the ice. He’d felt such an intense, burning jealousy—such an intense possessiveness—that he’d left without saying goodbye and hadn’t gone back until Scott had shown up on his doorstep.

“I miss my daddy,” Morgan says quietly. Pepper hadn’t believed in lying to her, so she knows what happened to him. She knows Tony isn’t coming back, and she knows why.

“Yeah,” Steve agrees, resting his cheek against her hair. “I miss him too.”

~

Tony laughs, bright and beautiful, and Steve doesn’t think he’s ever seen him laugh like this. Tony at nineteen laughs with his whole body like he just can’t help it, like whatever he laughs at is so funny that he can’t do anything except double over, chortling so hard there are tears running down his face. The Tony Steve used to know hid his laughter behind smirks and little huffs, reserving his laughs for the most private of occasions.

Steve can’t help but beam, proud of himself for making Tony laugh like that, even though he can’t remember what it is that he said (he should be more worried about that, shouldn’t he?).

“You’re funny,” Tony says and pulls a drink out of nowhere. That’s right, Steve thinks. They’re at a bar. “So which is it? MIT, Boston U, somewhere else?”

Schools. They were talking about schools—colleges—and Steve had made a comment about going to clown school.

“Boston University,” he plucks out of the depths of his mind. “Art degree.”

Something sparks in Tony’s eyes, something dark and heated that makes Steve shiver. “Must be a second degree, right? Big guy like you, little bit of—” He touches his fingers to Steve’s temples where he knows there’s just the slightest hint of silver beginning to shine through. He’s going grey a little early—his ma said Joseph was like that too.

“First, actually,” Steve admits. When he was younger, he hadn’t needed a degree for the political cartoons. And then—“I enlisted.”

“Let me guess: army?”

“Special forces.”

“My my, what a surprise,” Tony observes dryly. His mouth twists, and Steve suddenly wonders if Rhodey was already stationed somewhere. After a pause that’s just a little too long, during which Steve searches for something to say—he hates to admit it, but he hasn’t gotten any better at talking to people he’s in lo—interested in—Tony forcibly drags himself back to cheerfulness. “So… art. Oils?”

“Watercolors,” Steve replies. “Charcoals, sometimes. Sketches.”

“Could you paint me?” Tony asks, a mischievous grin crossing his face. Before Steve has a chance to get annoyed at the question, Tony adds, “Or on me?”

Steve meets his eyes, which have turned heated again. Tony, interested in him. He can barely breathe, feeling like he’ll got swallowed up in Tony’s pupils, which have already swallowed his irises.

“Yeah,” he breathes, thinking about Tony painted in swirls of reds and blues and whites. A star on his chest where the arc reactor will sit in twenty years. A smear down his stomach where the paint’s gotten smudged. Twin handprints on his hips where Steve grips him as he thrusts into him. “Yeah, I think I could do that.”

Tony leans forward, eyes sliding closed, and—

~

“Steve?” Bru—Hul—Professor? Whatever Dr. Banner is going by now asks, waking him.

Steve tries to cling to the memory of counting every lash resting on Tony’s cheek as he leaned in, but in the way dreams always do, it slips away from him. He thumps his head back against the pillow, staring up at the off-white ceiling.

“Did I wake you?” Dr. Banner asks hesitantly. Steve doesn’t answer. “You don’t normally sleep this late. Thought for sure I’d miss you. Traffic and all, and. Your run.”

“Right,” Steve replies. His run. Through Central Park. Since he’s back in the tower again. The new owner had never gotten rid of the team’s suites when they moved in, and he’d been only too eager to offer them lodging after Thanos blew up the compound.

As far as he knows, only a few of them took him up on it. The Wakandans went back to Wakanda. The sorcerers have the Sanctum Sanctorum. Clint flew home to Missouri. Dr. Banner, he knows, has been sleeping at the compound mostly, one of the few heavy lifters left now that Thor has taken off with the Guardians. Steve hasn’t driven back down there. He has no idea how the rebuilding is going. It could be finished for all he knows. The few times he drove by, he couldn’t stop staring at the spot where Tony had—

Anyway, he doesn’t go down to the compound anymore.

“What’s going on?” he asks, swinging his legs out of bed.

“You asked me to tell you when the Stones were transferred to Wakanda.”

Right. Because despite both Steve and Bruce’s protests, it was decided that the Stones would stay on this Earth in this timeline until the compound was rebuilt. Just in case they were “needed.” All the more reason to finish the compound quickly. Steve’s seen the unrest as a result of the Snap’s reversal (too long, he thinks sometimes, when he’s too weary to keep the doubts from creeping in; they waited too long). It wouldn’t surprise him if one of the newly formed councils tries to use the Stones to keep people in line. It’s why he asked T’Challa the last time he was in New York if he would agree to take them to Wakanda.

“Thanks, Bruce,” he says. Tony would have been better at these types of political machinations. He would have known how to get the stones back to their proper place.

“Actually… it’s Professor Hulk now.”

Right. Because the world hasn’t changed enough.

~

Tony at thirty is experienced and gorgeous. He rides Steve like he was born to do it, sweat glistening on his skin, strong thighs working. His hands are busy on Steve’s chest, cupping and pinching and tugging, and Steve can’t stop letting out little whines every time Tony’s rhythm slows even just the slightest bit.

Tony has come twice already, his spend splattered across Steve’s stomach. He hasn’t come at all, and he doesn’t know if it’s because Tony told him not to or if there’s something stopping him or if he just hasn’t yet. But he wants to. He aches to spend himself in Tony’s body, mark his claim there as Steve’s forever. Tony belongs to him and him only and—

“Easy there, soldier,” Tony murmurs, wrapping his hands around Steve’s shoulders and pulling him up. Steve kisses him desperately, only realizing when Tony gentles the kiss how much he’s trembling. “It’s okay, baby. We’ve got all night.”

All night, yes, but the morning will come eventually, and when it does, Tony will be gone again, living on only in Steve’s memories and dreams.

He chokes out another sob, burying his face in Tony’s neck. Tony slows and then stills altogether, running his hands through Steve’s hair. The air around them smells like sex, but this, here, this is comfort.

“What’s wrong?” Tony whispers, kissing every inch of Steve’s face that he can reach. He sounds worried. He sounds careful.

“You’re gone,” Steve replies.

“I’m not, honey, I’m right here. Steve, look at me, please. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“No, you’re gone,” he sobs. “And—”

~

He wakes up. The bed is as cold and empty as it’s always been.

~

“I don’t know if I can do this without him,” he confesses to Bucky one night while they’re working on paperwork to get Bucky’s KIA status lifted. It’s late, and all Steve wants is for them to be done so he can go to sleep and see Tony again. It’s the only place he gets to see him these days, other than the memorials that cover the world, but those don’t really know Tony.

“I know he was Pepper’s,” he continues when Bucky doesn’t say anything. “But—fuck, Bucky, I love him.”

“Yeah,” Bucky says quietly. “I figured.”

Steve shoots him a sharp glance. Natasha had—had known. She’d figured it out way back after they all moved into the tower, but that was Natasha. He hadn’t thought he was that obvious to anyone else.

“I grew up with you, asshole,” Bucky says, punching his shoulder lightly. “And it sure as shit wasn’t me you kept thinking about calling with that phone.”

Steve very deliberately doesn’t touch his pocket, where he still keeps the flip phone even now, all these years later. He hadn’t realized Bucky had even noticed the phone. He hadn’t noticed any of them had, except for Clint, who had helped him choose it as the only one of them used to working with burner phones.

“So. What are you gonna do about it?”

Steve laughs, but it isn’t funny. “What do you mean, what am I gonna do about it? Nothing. There’s nothing I can do. I lost my chance, and now Tony is—” He stops before he can say the words.

Bucky’s expression softens, and when he touches Steve again, it’s a gentle nudge against his elbow, not a punch to his shoulder. “It’s been three months, Stevie. You still can’t say it?”

Of course he can’t. Saying it means admitting that Tony is gone, that he’s never coming back. Saying it means admitting that he failed, that he took a husband away from his wife, a father away from his daughter, and promised him they would all come back and broke it. It means admitting that the man he loves is—

He can’t say it.

~

There are lines on Tony’s face that weren’t there the last time they saw each other. His hair is a shade of silver Steve never saw in life. But his eyes are still as warm a brown as they’ve ever been, sparkling amber in the morning sunlight streaming in through the breakfast nook windows. Steve suspects, that if he looked in the mirror, he would be just the same.

“Harley called while you were on your run,” Tony says, crossing the kitchen as Steve enters. He pulls him into the sort of kiss that you give someone when you’ve known them your entire life, and Steve melts into it, winding his arms around Tony’s waist to keep him where he wants him.

“Mm, what a wakeup call,” Tony says when they finally pull apart, some sun-drenched minutes later. “Coffee? Or tea this morning?”

“Tea,” Steve says, digging in one of the cupboards for wherever Tony put the sugar this time. His husband, always so absent-minded. “What did Harley have to say?” In his waking hours, he has no idea who Harley is, but his dreaming mind supplies him with a grin that reminds him of Tony in his younger days and a job interview at SI.

“He’s getting married next year. He wants us to be there.”

“Isn’t that what the RSVP is for?”

“He wanted to check with us personally, seeing as next year is forty years together, and he thought we might have plans already.”

“Ah yes,” Steve says warmly, catching Tony’s wrist as he passes by and placing a delicate kiss on the inside. “Because I’m going to whisk you away for a whole year just to celebrate our anniversary.”

“Careful there, mister!” Tony chuckles, passing him his mug. “I might whisk you—”

~

Someone is knocking on his door. Steve fights back a snarl and the urge to hurl his shield at the door. For a moment, he wonders if whoever it is will just go away if he doesn’t answer, but all that happens is the knocking gets louder and more urgent.

“What?” he snaps, flinging the door open.

Dr. Banner looks taken aback at his response. “Oh, hey, cool, man,” he says, holding up a case. “Just thought you’d want to know that we got the Stones back. You can take them back to their timelines as soon as we’ve got another time machine up and running.”

“Gre—” Steve starts to say, only to stop when his brain catches up. “Me?”

“Well, yeah,” Dr. Banner says with a shrug. It’s very strange-looking on the man that Steve once remembers looking ill-at-home in his own bedroom. “Rhodey’s was the only one whose mission went relatively smoothly, but he’s still on bereavement leave, so I thought it was best to leave him alone. But yours and—” Steve doesn’t know what stricken expression crosses his face, but Dr. Banner just clears his throat and skips over Tony’s name. “Well. Yours was less chaotic than Thor and Rocket’s. I thought you’d be the best candidate to take them back.”

Is it Steve’s imagination or is there a slight green pulsing light emanating from the case?

“Thanks,” he says. “I appreciate the trust.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

Dr. Banner looks like he’s going to companionably punch Steve’s shoulder, and Steve automatically takes a step back. He doesn’t know if Dr. Banner’s learned to pull his punches yet—literally—or not, but he doesn’t want to risk getting thrown through a wall.

~

“You’re dead,” he admits for the first time in nearly six months. It’s only in the comfort of his own dreams, but it’s there. This Tony is the most familiar to him out of all the ones he’s dreamt. This Tony is the one he talked to the night before their mission, soft and sweet in a pair of flannel pajamas that Morgan got for him.

They’re curled together on their sides, facing each other, and Tony is squinting a little because he apparently needs glasses and refuses to admit it. Steve’s hand is resting on Tony’s hip, thumb sweeping back and forth beneath the flannel.

“You’re dead, and I killed you,” he admits, tears welling in his eyes.

“I don’t think that’s true, honey,” Tony whispers, leaning forward to kiss the tears off his cheeks.

“I did, sweetheart. I dragged you back into this life. You were out. You should have gotten to go home. I shouldn’t have had to bury you.”

“You didn’t make me do anything. No one makes Tony Stark do anything. I’m a law unto myself.”

Steve can’t help but smile at that, and it might even be true that he didn’t make Tony come back to the Avengers (come back to him), but he doesn’t know that he’ll ever stop feeling the guilt. His fault or not, it was still his request that brought him back, and that is, ultimately, what killed him.

“I have the chance to see you again,” he says eventually.

“So what’s holding you back?” Steve gives him a startled look, and Tony just smiles wryly. “You think I could have known you for as long as I did and know recognize your moods? You want to find me, but you don’t think you should.”

“I killed you. What right do I have to find you again just to make myself happy?”

“And what about what I want?” Tony argues. “Maybe I want you to, did you ever think about that?”

Tony is starting to take on the hazy quality that means Steve is waking up naturally as opposed to being startled out of his dream. Steve can nearly see through him to the bed below. He leans forward and kisses Tony’s forehead, the tip of his nose, his chin, Tony’s beard tickling his lips.

“What if I don’t get to be happy?” he breathes, barely more than a sigh. He doesn’t mean for Tony to hear him, but this is his dream. Of course, Tony hears him.

“Honey, what if you do?” Tony kisses him sweetly, then pulls him into a hug, the touch so faint now Steve almost can’t feel it.

He wakes up to Tony’s whispered, “Come find me.”

~

“Five seconds,” Dr. Banner says.

There’s not a lot that can happen in five seconds. A handshake. A smile. A kiss.

But a lifetime can be lived in the spaces between the seconds.

~

Five.

~

“I’m not your Steve, Howard,” Steve says to the astonished man standing in the foyer of the Stark Mansion off of Park Avenue. Steve never visited this place in his lifetime. Tony sold it only a year after his parents’ deaths and moved out to Malibu permanently. It’s ostentatious. Steve can see why Tony sold it. “Your Steve died when he went into the ice.”

Which is true. Back when they’d first been planning the time heist, they hadn’t had the time to determine if they were really time-travelling or visiting alternate universes, which had been one of Clint’s theories. During the six months following the battle and sending the Stones home, Dr. Banner had apparently found the time to do the research that they hadn’t done initially (maybe they should have; maybe if they had, Tony and Natasha would still be alive) and determined that it was a mix of both. And when Steve had made the decision to stay in the past, he’d done it by finding a universe that no longer has a Steve Rogers. He won’t upset some poor guy’s life like that.

“But you are a Steve,” Howard says slowly.

“Yeah,” he says with a little shrug.

“Why are you here?”

There’s movement at the corner of Steve’s vision: Tony Stark, nineteen and beautiful and perfect.

“I’m here to fix things,” he states.

“Right,” Howard says slowly, clearly not understanding, but he will. “I—uh—I got married? Um, I think Maria’s asleep, but, oh—let me introduce you to my son.” He pulls Tony out of the shadows, a proud look on his face. Steve hates that he can’t tell whether he’s prouder over Tony or having Steve back. “Steve, this is Tony. Tony, this is Captain Rogers.”

“Call me Steve,” Steve says, sticking his hand out to Tony.

A slow smirk spreads across Tony’s face. “Steve,” he purrs, and Steve shivers.

~

Four.

~

Tony is twenty-eight and beautiful at their wedding. Their marriage wouldn’t have been legal even just earlier this year—still isn’t in a lot of places around the country—but Steve’s opinion holds a lot of sway in this state, and he’s been backing gay marriage since he came back.

Tony is dancing with a pretty, young paralegal that he dubbed Pepper the first time he met her and promptly stole as his assistant, but his gaze keeps returning to Steve like an iron shaving to a magnet. His tie is loose, the first few buttons of his dress shirt undone, and his hair is mussed because Steve can’t stop running his fingers through it every time they kiss.

“Last of us to get married, huh, Captain?” Dum-Dum says, dropping down into the seat next to him. He’s nearly ninety now, but still spry, still kicking.

“There’s still Bucky,” Steve comments. It burns that he still hasn’t been able to find him though Hydra has been forcibly routed from SHIELD. Maria and Howard are safe, and Maria even attended their wedding though she left after the toasts. Howard didn’t bother to show up. Tony had declared it no great loss.

“You’ll find him,” Dum-Dum promises, clapping his shoulder. “And in the meantime, you’ve got yourself a pretty, young thing to keep you plenty busy.”

“Don’t let Tony hear you say that,” Steve warns. “He’ll rig your doorbell to explode.”

“Good. I need more excitement in my life.”

As if summoned by his name, Tony flounces over and drops into Steve’s lap, giving him a messy kiss. He’s champagne-loose and sun-bright, laughing into Steve’s mouth.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Steve murmurs fondly, hardly believing that he gets to have this.

“We should say our goodbyes,” Tony informs him, eyes dark.

“Goodbye, Dum-Dum,” Steve says immediately.

They leave the reception to Dum-Dum’s uproarious laughter.

~

Three.

~

“Sometimes, I think I dreamed you,” Tony whispers in the early morning hours before Steve is more than a little bit awake. Steve can’t drag himself out of his sleep-hazy state to reassure him that he’s real, he’s very real.

Tony is forty and whole, the arc reactor nothing more than a pet project for Tony to work on in between releasing new technology to make the world a better place. Morgan, three years old and the light of both of their lives, is asleep down the hall, the newborn twins, Peter and Harley, in the room next to her.

Soon, Steve will have to wake up. One of the twins will be hungry. Morgan will remember that it’s Christmas. Tony will want to slide down the sheets and fit his mouth around Steve’s morning wood.

But for now, the world is still and quiet, and Tony is brushing his hair back from his face.

~

Two.

~

Tony is fifty and maudlin because he went grey late and only just found a grey hair for the first time yesterday. It likely doesn’t help that his over-the-hill birthday party was yesterday, and Morgan has recently decided that she’s too old and cool to hang around her parents.

But that’s what he has Steve for. Steve, who’ll kiss his greying temples and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and his laugh lines, who’ll fuck him like he’s young and twenty and capable of coming three times in an hour, who’ll hold him in the aftermath and tell him that he’s beautiful, he’s perfect, he’s all Steve’s.

And then, of course, Harley and Peter will rush in since neither of them has any tact, and Steve will throw the blankets over them and worm his way into his clothes underneath them before emerging to deal with whatever the twins want.

“What were you doing?” Harley asks curiously as Peter’s hand slides into Steve’s.

“Your father and I got hot,” Steve replies, which is true, after a fashion.

Rhodey, sitting at the kitchen table, chokes on a scone. Bucky, sitting next to him, just as he has every single day since Steve introduced him to his Tony and Tony’s flyboy best friend, unsympathetically pounds his back.

“I want an omelet,” Peter says, badly mangling the pronunciation. “Uncle Rhodey said he doesn’t know how, and Uncle Bucky only burned it.”

“What do we say, kiddo?” Steve asks, already getting out the eggs.

“Now,” Tony finishes, joining them. He ruffles Harley’s hair, drops a kiss on top of Peter’s head, and deliberately brushes up against Bucky, just to see his nose wrinkle when he inhales what he and Steve were up to.

“That is not what we say, sweetheart,” Steve says amusedly. “You’re teaching our children bad habits.”

“Please!” Peter shouts cheerfully.

“Yeah, honey,” Tony purrs, hand ghosting across the front of Steve’s pants. “Please.”

~

One.

~

“Remember what we were like at our wedding?” Tony asks. His hair is completely white now, but then again, so is Steve’s.

“I remember you convincing me to leave early,” Steve says, kissing him.

Tony chuckles. “Yeah.” He looks at Peter, dancing with his new husband in the middle of the dancefloor. Peter never did learn how to dance, not like either of his siblings, but that’s alright. The people who love him don’t care about his flailing.

“You want to leave early again?”

Steve grins at him. “Of course.”

~

Zero.

~

“You wanna tell me about her?” Sam asks, looking younger than Steve can ever remember being.

A lifetime passes in five seconds. Tony, smiling at him when he’s nineteen and ninety and all the years in between. The way Morgan’s hair twirls around her when she dances at her wedding. His first kiss with Tony, in the middle of a parking lot in the pouring rain. Harley throwing a snowball at the girl down the street—he’ll grow up to marry her one day. Tony’s eyes lighting up as the miniaturized arc reactor turns on for the first time. Peter tucked into his side as he reads him a bedtime story. Bucky and Rhodey and Pepper and Natasha, piling in for a family photo on Tony’s birthday.

Tony, Tony, Tony.

“No,” he says, smiling to himself. “No, I don’t think I will.”

#alle writes #stevetony #if you like please reblog

[secretswiftymarvelfan]

The Demigod From Asgard - Steve Rogers x Reader (Part 54)

Summary: There’s another blast from the past when you and Steve travel to London for Peggy’s funeral

Word Count: 5.2k

Warnings: Angst! Canon Typical Violence! Language!

Dividers by @firefly-graphics​​

Series Masterlist / Masterlist

Chapter 54: Honourable Discharge

The morning of the funeral Steve didn’t say a word. You watched as he fixed his tie in the mirror before buttoning up his black waistcoat, and slipping on his jacket. You slipped on your shoes before standing up from the bed and walking over to him. Taking his hand in yours and squeezing it reassuringly. He gave you a weak smile before you made your way out of the hotel room to go meet Sam in the lobby.

Once you got to the cathedral you saw some of Peggy’s family going over to exchange condolences with them. Far too soon for Steve’s liking, he got asked to get ready to carry the coffin in.

“I’ll be right there for you,” you tell him squeezing his hand before he left.

“How was he this morning?” Sam asked as you made your way inside and sat down at the front.

“Silent, I’ve never seen him like this before, I just hope I’m doing enough to help him” you sigh shaking your head.

“Just being here for him is enough, he’ll let you know what he needs when he needs it,” Sam says putting a reassuring hand on your shoulder.

Once everyone was seated inside the choir began singing and everyone stood and turned to look as Peggy’s coffin was carried down the aisle. Your heart shattered as you saw Steve desperately trying to hold back the tears as he carried the coffin.

Once the coffin was placed at the front you watched as Steve took a deep breath before turning and sitting beside you. You took his hand squeezing it, stroking his hand with your thumb soothingly. He wiped away the stray tears that had fallen before giving you a weak but appreciative smile.

Throughout the service, Steve fiddled with your hands as he listened to the readings. Trying to keep his mind occupied to prevent the breakdown that threatened to crash over him. Once the fiddling stopped working, he pulled out the proceeding and began reading those over and over again.

Someone had just walked up to say a few words when he felt Sam nudge him and you put a hand on his knee. He looks over at you confused before looking up to see Sharon standing at the podium.

‘Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of SHIELD, but I just knew her as Aunt Peggy” Sharon started.

“She has a photograph in her office, Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK, as a kid that was pretty cool but it was a lot to live up to, which is why I never told anyone we were related,” she says glancing down at the three of you.

Steve let out a small huff as he looked back down before glancing over at you, you had an unreadable expression on your face but Steve could tell you were as blindsided as him. He recalled the time when he told you that Kate wasn’t actually a nurse, but a SHIELD agent and you’d reminded him that you always thought she was hiding something. Well, you definitely weren’t wrong, although he was sure you didn’t expect it to be this.

“I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman to succeed at either. So she said compromise where you can, but where you can’t, don’t. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree and look them in the eye and say no you move” Sharon continued.

Steve glanced over at you, the words hitting so close to home that he couldn’t help but think of the last piece of advice Peggy gave him. Telling him to be selfish every once and a while. He had already firmly decided he was going to retire with you, even if it was the selfish option. However, if an opportunity ever came to change and fight the accords, he knew he would.

As the service ended everyone made their way out of the cathedral. However, Steve hung back wanting to have that last moment.

“Sam’s gone outside, do you want me to head out too?” You ask him rubbing his arm soothingly.

“No it's okay, I um-“ he says clearing his throat trying to get the words out, to say he didn’t want to be alone.

“It's okay I’m not going anywhere,” you tell him wrapping your arm around his waist.

He wraps his arm around you pulling you closer and kissing the top of your head “thank you so much for this, I know you must be finding it hard too” he sighs.

“I will definitely miss her, I loved the stories she had about you,” you say earning a small chuckle from him.

“But right now… I just want to be here for you, like you were there for me when my mother and Loki died” you tell him your voice catching slightly.

He gives you a small smile kissing the top of your head once more, rubbing your arm gently before looking out over the front.

The two of you stayed there, you waiting until Steve was ready, not wanting to push him into leaving too soon. However, when you heard the door shut behind you and the sound of heels walking towards you, you looked over your shoulder to see Nat.

She gives you a small smile silently asking how he was as she approached. Steve glanced over his shoulder when he felt you turn spotting Nat too letting out a sigh as he turned to lean against the pew beside him.

“When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I had known was gone. Then I found out she was alive I was just lucky to have her” Steve admits glancing down at you.

“She had you back too,” you tell him making him smile slightly.

He nods his head before looking over at Nat remembering that she was supposed to be in Vienna for the signing of the accords.

“Who else signed?” He asks her.

“Tony, Rhodey, vision” she lists off, none of them coming as a surprise.

“Clint?” You ask.

“Says he’s retired” Nat explains.

“Wanda?” Steve asks.

“TBD” she sighs “I’m off to Vienna for the signing of the accords there’s plenty of room on the jet if you two want to join”

You glance up at Steve as he lets out a deep sigh. While you both had made your decision, you could tell he was still hesitant to completely hang up the shield.

“Just because it’s the path of least resistance doesn’t mean it’s the wrong path” Nat sighs “staying together is more important than how we stay together right?”

“What are we giving up to do it?” Steve sighs before shaking his head “I’m sorry, Nat. We can’t sign it” he tells her.

“I know,” she says with a small knowing smile.

“Then what are you doing here?” Steve asks.

“To make sure my friends were okay,” she tells you glancing between the two of you.

You let out a shaky breath having not expected her to say that. You watch as she first pulls Steve in for a hug before turning and hugging you too.

“Call me if you need me,” she says quietly to you.

“I will thank you,” you say with a small smile.

“We should probably head over to the wake,” Steve says looking down at you.

“You sure?” You ask him.

He looks over at the photo of Peggy one last time before letting out a deep sigh and looking back down at you “yeah I’m sure” he says.

He takes your hand as the three of you make your way out of the cathedral. Stopping on the stairs outside to say goodbye to Nat.

“Have fun with all those politicians” you say making her chuckle.

“I will see you guys back at the compound, maybe we can throw you a retirement party,” she says making the two of you smile.

“Yeah that would be nice” Steve smiles.

You hug her goodbye before making your way down the street to the pub where the wake was being held. Sam greeted you both with glasses of scotch and a cone of chips.

“You okay?” He asks.

“Yeah I’m good,” Steve says nodding his head.

“Well then, here’s to an honourable discharge” Sam toasts as you all clink your glasses together.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” Steve asks after taking a large sip of his drink.

“I’m not worried about me, I make a great civilian, you guys could too,” Sam says shrugging his shoulders.

“Yeah, maybe we can finally start looking for that house we’ve been talking about,” you say smiling up at Steve.

“And a dog” Steve suggests making you chuckle.

“Nah I bet as soon as you guys are out of the compound you’ll be knocked up, I was surprised you weren’t after the honeymoon” Sam smirks making you gasp with laughter.

“Sam!” You laugh smacking his arm.

“What! I see the looks you two give each other, you’re not sly, I was surprised you kept yourselves apart so long on new year’s” Sam snorts shaking his head.

You look up at Steve to see him chuckling to himself as he sipped on his drink “he’s not wrong” he says shrugging his shoulders.

“So I’m guessing you guys had no clue Sharon was a Carter” Sam says changing the subject and nodding over to the person in question.

“No not at all, but I do see the resemblance now” Steve admits looking over at Sharon who glanced back at him and started making her way over.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Sam says stepping away.

You look up at Steve silently asking if he wanted you to stay or not. He smiles down at you warmly shaking his head.

“I’ll be fine,” he tells you kissing the top of your head.

“Okay,” you say leaning up to kiss the edge of his mouth before slipping away after Sam.

“Marking your territory?” Sam asks as you join him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you say taking a sip of your drink as you watch Steve orders him and Sharon a drink before sitting down at a table.

“So when you were spying on me from across the hall…” Steve says as they sat down.

“You mean when I was doing my job” Sharon corrects.

“Did Peggy know?” Steve asks.

“She kept so many secrets” Sharon sighed “I didn’t want her to have one from you”

Steve gives her an appreciative smile before glancing around “CIA got you stationed over here now?” He asks her.

“Berlin, working for the joint terror task force” She explains.

“Sounds fun,” Steve says making her laugh.

“I know right” she chuckles.

“So this accords thing is happening?” She then asks.

Steve sighs glancing across the pub at you, watching as you talked to Sam and a couple of others around you.

“Yeah, looks like I’m taking some time off” he sighs taking a sip of his beer.

Sharon scoffs slightly “when we the last time there wasn’t a uniform hanging in your closet?” She smirks leaning closer over the table.

Steve raises a brow slightly. This wasn’t the first time someone made a comment about him not being able to stop being Captain America. It probably wouldn’t be the last either.

“why you don’t like the outfit?” He asks.

“Oh no, it suits you believe me” Sharon smirks as she sits back.

Steve furrows his brows at her, slightly surprised at her tone. He then quickly finishes the rest of his beer “yeah well just because it’s there, doesn’t mean I always wanna wear it” he says standing up.

“I’m gonna go get another drink, feel free to join us if you like” Steve offers nodding over to you and Sam.

“Oh um- yeah got some people I should probably talk to first,” Sharon says clearing her throat.

“No problem, talk to you later,” Steve says nodding his head before turning and heading back across the room to you.

When he reaches you, he wraps his arm around your shoulders pulling you close and kissing the top of your head. You look up at him raising a brow and smirking slightly.

“Enjoy your catch-up?” You ask him.

“It was… pleasant,” he says shrugging his shoulders slightly.

The three of you remain at the pub for another couple of hours before the crowds began to thin and you decided to head back to the hotel. As you were making your way through the pub Sharon walked over.

“Hey is that offer of a walk home still standing?” She asks looking straight at Steve.

You raise a brow in question before glancing up at Steve whose brows were furrowed slightly.

“Uh yeah of course, we were just heading out now,” he says nodding his head slightly.

“Where are you staying?” Sam asks her as you all step out of the pub.

“The Kensington” Sharon answers pointing in the direction of her hotel.

“Ah, that’s just down the road from ours, nice and easy” Steve agrees taking your hand in his as he starts walking down the street.

As you made your way back to the hotels, Steve and Sharon started up another conservation about Peggy. Due to the narrow streets, it was impossible for all of you to walk in a line so you dropped back to walk beside Sam. Steve did glance over his shoulder at you when your hand slipped from his but you just gave him a small smile.

Once in the hotel lobby you and Sam hung back while Steve and Sharon continued over to the elevators. You sighed slightly looking around the room as you waited for Sharon to leave. Sam curses under his breath catching your attention.

“What?’ You ask him as he looks down at his phone.

“Someone bombed the UN meeting in Vienna,” Sam says turning his phone around to face you.

“Shit, Nat’s there” you curse pulling out your phone instantly trying to call her, while Sam went over to get Steve.

“Steve, there’s something you gotta see,” Sam says grabbing Steve’s attention.

Steve instantly notices the grave look on Sam’s face and when he looks over at you, he sees you pacing back and forth biting your nails anxiously as you tried to call someone.

“What’s going on?” Steve asks.

“There’s been a bombing at the UN meeting” Sam explains.

“Nat” Steve mutters instantly working out who you were trying to call.

“I can’t get hold of her, what if?” You say voice shaking as you walk over.

“We don’t know that yet, she’s probably helping everyone else and can’t pick up,” Steve says moving to wrap his arms around you, rubbing your back soothingly.

“They’re probably covering it on the news, we can go watch it in my room? I might hear something from work too” Sharon offers.

Steve looks over at her nodding his head “thanks Sharon” he says before you all head upstairs.

Once in the room, the TV was instantly turned on to the news and the three of you watched while Sharon was on the phone. You watch as the story updates, hearing the number of injured and dead rise, including the King of Wakanda. The news that caught in your throat was that they had identified the bomber, and it was Bucky.

“I have to go to work,” Sharon says as she hung up the phone and walked back over.

“So do we,” Steve says.

You arrived in Vienna a short while later and changed out of your formal wear into casual clothes so you could remain low. You and Sam made your way into a cafe nearby while Steve called Nat.

“Yeah?” Nat sighs when she picks up.

“You alright?” Steve asks her.

“Uh yeah thanks, I got lucky, tell Y/N I’m sorry I missed her calls, hope I didn’t worry her,” Nat says just as an ambulance drives past Steve.

He hears her sigh as she stands up “I know how much Barnes means to you, I really do, but stay home. You’ll only make this worse, for all of us, please” Nat tells him firmly.

“Are you saying you’ll arrest me?” Steve asks.

“No. Someone will if you interfere that’s how it works now” Nat sighs shaking her head.

“If he’s this far gone Nat I should be the one to bring him in,” Steve says looking over at her.

“Why?” She asks.

“Because I’m the one least likely to die trying” he states before hanging up the phone.

He walks the short distance to the cafe where you and Sam were, spotting you sitting at the counter cup of coffee in hand. He walks over standing in the space beside you keeping his eyes up so as to not arouse suspicion.

“She tell you to stay out of it?” You ask taking a sip of the coffee.

“Might have a point” Sam adds picking at his cake.

“He’d do it for me” Steve sighs shaking his head slightly.

“1945 maybe,” Sam says “I just want to make sure we consider all our options, the people that shoot at you usually wind up shooting at me” he adds with a small smirk.

The space next to Steve then becomes occupied as Sharon joins, sliding over a brown folder.

“Tips have been pouring in since that footage went public, everybody thinks the winter solder goes to their gym, most of its noise except for this” Sharon says nodding to the folder.

“My boss expects a briefing pretty much now so that’s all the head start you’re gonna get,” she says glancing over at Steve.

“Thank you” Steve mutters.

“You’re gonna have to hurry, we have orders to shoot on sight,” Sharon says before heading out.

Steve sighs shaking his head, before turning to face the two of you.

“You guys go home, I can’t drag you into this” Steve tells you both.

“No way, I’m not letting you do this alone,” you tell him shaking your head at the idea.

“Doll please” Steve sighs glancing over at Sam for help.

“Nope I’m on her side, we’re coming,” Sam tells him.

Steve glances at you one last time, the look in your eyes telling him not to bother arguing. He sighs in resignation before nodding his head.

“So where are we heading?” You ask him as he opens up the file and starts reading the information.

“Bucharest,” he says closing the file.

“Let’s get the jet fired up then,” you say hopping off your stool and walking out of the cafe.

As you flew to Bucharest you all changed into your suits. Despite hoping the obvious you were all expecting some form of fight. Whether that be from Bucky himself or those coming to kill him.

“We have to expect the worst, he’s likely to be volatile. I want you too stationed on the roofs of the nearby apartment building covering the exits while also keeping an eye out for the feds. I’ll go in alone he’s less likely to attack if it’s just me, hopefully, I’ll talk him down and come to a peaceful resolution where nobody else gets hurt” Steve says pointing to the map on the tablet.

“Call for backup if you need it, there isn’t a river to fall into this time,” you tell him firmly.

“I will I promise,” Steve says nodding his head.

As you all continued to get ready Steve could see your mind was at work. Your brows furrowed as you bit your lips in thought.

“Hey if you’re having doubts, you can still pull out,” he tells you quietly.

“It's not that, something about this doesn’t add up,” you say looking up at him.

“What do you mean?” Steve asks in confusion.

“I don’t think he did it, I think it’s someone else” you explain “think about it, how many crimes did the winter soldier commit and get away with and now suddenly his face is getting caught on camera, that and how on earth has he gotten from Vienna to Bucharest so quickly”

Steve sighs a lot of what you were saying made sense, and he really did hope Bucky was innocent.

“I dunno doll, but either way we need to get him and protect him from those who think he is at fault” Steve sighs.

As you all split up you pulled Steve aside kissing his cheek before telling him to be safe. He nods his head kissing the top of yours before heading off towards the apartment building.

Steve was able to get inside the apartment Bucky was staying easily. The lock gives no resistance at all. As he stepped inside he held his shield up just in case Bucky was home. However the apartment was empty, Steve only hoped Bucky hadn’t already abandoned it.

He started looking around at the run-down apartment. The newspapers covering the windows making it dark and dreary inside. The bed on the floor which consisted of an old mattress and a thin blanket.

As he walked over to the kitchen he spied a notebook on top of the fridge. As he flicked through it, he could see that Bucky had been writing all the memories he could recall. As he turned one page a newspaper clipping fell out onto the floor. Steve picked it back up and turned it over his breath catching when he saw it was a picture from his and your wedding.

Steve’s mind began to race. Bucky could clearly remember his past, and seemingly still remembered Steve. If that were true could he really be behind the attacks? Had someone from Hydra found him and forced him into it?

“Heads up cap, German special forces approaching from the south” Sam warns him over the comms.

“Understood” Steve responds closing the book.

He then hears something behind him. Turning around he sees Bucky on the other side of the room watching him wearily.

“Do you know me?” Steve asks him.

“You’re Steve,” Bucky says a waiver of doubt in his voice as if he didn’t truly know him

“I read about you in a museum,” Bucky tells him, Steve knew this was true after seeing the footage from the Smithsonian, however, he doubted that was the only way he knew him

“Steve they’ve set the perimeter” You warn him.

“I know you’re nervous, and you have plenty of reason to be, but you’re lying,” Steve says taking a few careful steps towards Bucky.

“I wasn’t in Vienna, I don’t do that anymore,” Bucky tells him.

“Cap they’re entering the building” Sam warns.

“Well the people who think you did are coming here now and they’re not planning on taking you alive” Steve warns Bucky taking a few more steps closer.

“That’s smart, good strategy,” Bucky says sadly.

“They’re on the roof, we’re compromised” You whisper into the comms followed by the sound of shuffling as you hid.

“This doesn’t have to end in a fight buck,” Steve says as he hears footsteps above and outside the apartment.

“It always ends in a fight” Bucky sighs as he begins pulling off his gloves.

“Five seconds” Sam warns.

“Steve get out of there” you whisper harshly.

“You pulled me from the river, why?” Steve says ignoring you and Sam.

“I don’t know” Bucky answers looking back over at him.

“Yes, you do” Steve presses.

However, the conversation was cut short by the sound of a smashing window and a flashbulb being thrown into the apartment. Steve instantly reacts using his shield to bash it away. When a second one gets thrown in Bucky kicks it towards Steve who then puts his shield over it.

The apartment door then begins to get smashed in but Bucky throws a table wedging it against the door. However armed police then smash through the window, Steve taking cover behind the counter. He then pulls on the rug the officer was standing on, pulling it out from underneath him and sending him to the floor.

As an officer opened the door to the balcony Steve grabbed hold of his rifle holding it up out of the way. Bucky then kicks the officer down and goes to leave but Steve grabs his arm.

“Buck stop” he shouts before Bucky turns around in his grip to face him.

“You’re gonna kill someone” Steve warns.

However, Bucky then pushes Steve down to the floor pinning him with his metal arm. He then punches the space right next to Steve’s head, his hand going straight through the floorboards.

“I’m not gonna kill anyone,” Bucky says as he pulls a backpack out from the floor.

He then chucks it out of the building, he doesn’t get to go after it though as more officers climb through the window and start shooting. Bucky holds up his arm shielding both himself and Steve from the bullets. Steve gets up and moves around Bucky using his shield to cover him better.

When another shooter appears at the kitchen window Steve moves his shield to protect them from the bullets. However, Bucky then shoves him hard through the window knocking the shooter down. The officer goes to shoot Steve but he grabs hold of the gun and twists it out of his hands.

When Steve climbs back into the apartment he can hear the fight has moved to the stairwell. As he steps out of the apartment and looks down he hears one of the officers talking on the radio. Growling in frustration he grabs the radio smashing it in his hands.

He then jumps down the stairs to a lower level to catch up with Bucky. As he does Bucky knocks an officer over the railing, but Steve manages to catch him in time.

He sighs giving Bucky a look “come on man” he says before pulling up the officer and throwing him into a wall.

Bucky then grabs the railing breaking it and using it to jump down another level leaving Steve with the officer. he grabs the guns of the two that approach him using them to pin them to the wall as he grabs their graphing hooks and attaches them to one another. He then pushes one of them over the side leaving them both stuck.

He follows after Bucky once more spotting one of the officers taking aim at Bucky’s back. He quickly throws his shield stopping the officer before he can take a shot. Bucky looks up at him before jumping over the side and falling down a few floors.

Steve grabs his shield taking out the last of the officers before running after Bucky. When he reaches the balcony on which Bucky jumped off of, he sees Bucky fighting with someone. However, when he saw you and Sam approaching from the sky he knew it was neither of you.

“Southwest rooftop,” Steve tells the both of you.

“Who the hell is the other guy?” You ask looking down at the fight.

“I’m about to find out” Steve sighs moving back to give himself space.

Then he runs towards the edge of the building before jumping off of the balcony to the roof below. As he lands, he sees a police helicopter arriving, gun at the ready.

“Y/N,” he says.

“Already on it” you respond.

He watches as you approach the helicopter firing ice at the machine gun blocking it, before sending a large gust of wind at it knocking it off course. You then tuck and dive moving out of the way of the blades.

Once he was certain you were okay he ran after Bucky and the guy in black who was chasing him. When the helicopter righted itself it began shooting once more but Bucky had jumped down into a tunnel, Steve following soon after.

As they ran through the tunnel police cars began to chase after them. One was driving more or less level with Steve, so he threw himself onto the car to stop it. Once the car stopped, he jumped off running round to pull the driver out and jump in the car, kicking the smashed windscreen free. He then started speeding after Bucky and the man chasing him.

Steve did manage to overtake the guy chasing Bucky but he jumped up onto the car he was driving, clinging on to the back of it. Steve purposefully swerved left and right hoping to lose him, but to no avail.

“Y/N, Sam, I can’t shake this guy,” Steve says in frustration.

“We’re right behind you,” you tell him.

As Steve looked in the wing mirror he sees the large group of police cars following after him. Hoping to kill two birds with one stone he starts swerving the car towards the police car next to him, hoping to take it and the guy clinging on out.

Steve spots Bucky up ahead jumping over the barrier onto the other carriageway to avoid the police cars approaching him from the front. Steve followed close behind causing the police cars to block each other off. However, Steve’s job of catching Bucky gets a lot harder when he steals a bike and speeds away.

Steve then heard the guy clinging onto the car jump onto the roof, he watches powerlessly as the man jumps from the car towards Bucky. Bucky however grabs him in a choke hold, the man tried to flip the bike over but Bucky reacts quick enough and kicks him away. Steve swerved the ensure he didn’t run over the man.

When he looks back he sees Sam approaching from behind however he was trying to kick loose the guy who had jumped onto him. Steve could only hope you were flying ahead and could cut Bucky off.

As they approached an opening however Bucky threw a small explosive to block the tunnel Steve came from. However, Steve reacted quick enough to turn the car and jump out of it. As he ran over he saw the man going to attack Bucky but you swooped in tackling him to the ground. Leaving Steve to stand guard over Bucky.

Police cars surrounded you all from all angles leaving you no space to escape. Steve put his arm out to both stop and protect Bucky. If they were gonna be arrested they needed to go peacefully. To Steve’s surprise, Rhodey then landed in front of his aiming at both him and you.

“Stand down now” Rhodey orders.

Steve glances over at you, a silent conversation passing between the two of you. Ending with you nodding and both of you lowering your arms. Steve slung his shield onto his back. The both of you holding up your hands in surrender.

“Congratulations cap” Rhodey say “you’re a criminal”

The armed police move in and start restraining all of you. When one approaches you with a collar you instantly recoil dodging it. The police start shouting at you to comply forcing you down onto your knees. Steve knew how much you hated those collars, glancing over at Rhodey for help.

“It’ll only be for a moment,” Rhodey says.

Your eyes meet Steve’s and he nods his head reassuringly. You look down before begrudgingly letting them attach the collar around your neck, your powers instantly draining.

As the police move to cuff the man in the black panther-like suit he removes his helmet to reveal that it was the now king of Wakanda. King T’Challa.

“Your highness” Rhodey greets.

Sharing is caring so please reblog if you enjoyed this and maybe even leave a comment to make my day!

Series Masterlist / Masterlist

I don’t have a tag list so follow @secretswiftymarvelfanlibrary​ and turn on post notifications for updates!

#NiamhWrites #the demigod from asgard series #Steve Rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x you #captainamerica #captain america x reader #captain america x y/n #captain america x you #marvel #mcu #chris evans

[violetfaust]

I mostly enjoyed the Captain Carter/Hydra Stomper episode of What If...

It's cool to see a storyline that's giving the Peggy/Steve romance the real emphasis and emotion that the main MCU never bothered to (Peggy's longest arc in the MCU was two seasons of her own show devoted to getting over Steve, only to have her dropped back into his arms as his reward in Endgame, a movie in which she had not one single line.) And I loved Peggy/Nat best friendship.

BUT

--and it's a huge BUT--

WHERE THE HELL WAS SAM WILSON?

Sam's an integral member of the modern Team Cap. He's Steve's best friend (and successor).

You're telling me that a major plot point was a daring midair rescue of Peggy and Steve--and it wasn't by Sam? The literal Falcon?? The guy who has a signature move of rescuing people in midair???

You're telling me that we actually got GILF civilian Bucky--and his protector was fucking RUMLOW? Not Sam?? (The next Captain Carter installment better have Rumlow, a HYDRA agent, kidnapping Bucky. Maybe Sam can rescue him then. [I haven't finished s2.])

What If had the chance to finally give us all the members of WWII Team Cap (Peggy/Bucky/Howard) and the modern one (Sam/Nat/Bucky) in an adventure together. And it dropped the ball. What a disappointment.

#sam wilson #what if spoilers #captain carter spoilers #the mcu ignoring sam was ... bearable the first year #darkly funny the second year #and now is just infuriating #nothing but respect for my captain america #also weird to see a red room story without yelena #but that's someone else's hill to die on #sam is mine

[imaginedreamwrite]

Tea party Tuesday with breach of contract Steve and his beloved intern. What could they possibly gossip about? And how it turns out in the end? 😜

“Did you hear,” Steve raised his head and peered across the table toward you, his eyes catching and holding yours, “that the opposition’s teams went out and partied all night, then got caught in the morning with a baggie of coke?”

The news settled with him quickly, and the morsels of food that he was swallowing had nearly gotten caught in his throat. He had heard the oppositions position wasn’t matching up with their camps day to day routines, or rather their nightly expenditure of pent up energy, but he never would have suspected cocaine.

“Where the hell did you hear that?” Steve coughed painfully and sipped on his beer to assist clearing his throat.

“I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it,” you shrugged and took a swig from your own bottle, the ale cooling your throat as it slid down, “it is true. They’re trying to keep it quiet but…”

“Baby,” Steve set his bottle down on the table and wiped his hands on the cheap napkin sent with the takeout containers, “seriously, how did you know?”

“A few of the interns for the other side have switched camps, and they know the party habits of the opposites. They sent me the article early this morning.” You picked at the food in your container and ate slowly, watching Steve contemplate what you said, and the own gossip lingering beneath the surface of your relationship.

“My marriage is over,” Steve finally spoke, his eyes fixated on one of the universal photographs hanging on the wall in the hotel room, “maybe it has been for a long time. Peggy won’t settle for a divorce, she’s trying to sway me.”

“Peggy Carter is a real class act.” You scoffed and picked up your fork, angrily stabbing a piece of chicken.

“An act,” Steve finally returned his gaze to you, “that’s all it is. Its an act. She had been born with a gold spoon in her mouth, she was raised in the political field and she thinks that makes her invincible and all important.”

“Gold spoon?” You hummed under your breath. “Isn’t it silver spoon?”

“You know what I mean,” Steve exhaled then ran his hands over his face, “I’m a Brooklyn boy-“

“-born and raised, spent some time in the military. You’re favourite colours are blue and red, little patriotic but you like them because they remind you of your mom and dad. Your dad always wore something red, always had something red and your mom had these blue earrings and matching necklace she adored.” You cut him off with a few facts you knew about him, not for a moment entertaining the idea that those few facts would make Steve’s affection for you grow.

“How’d you know that?” Steve’s breath hitched in his throat, amazed that his own wife didn’t even know those minute details.

“I saw a picture of you and your parents when I was working on building your profile, I also know that when your parents died, you get your mom’s jewelry and your dad’s favourite cap and shirt. They were listed on the items to be moved from a storage facility to your home.” You spoke softly, whispered even, as you recanted the details.

“You are so much more,” Steve’s husky voice was pleasant to your ears, stirring warmth in your belly, “than my wife ever could be. You’re…everything.”

[robb-stark]

Shipping Shasam

This post that nobody asked for is a long time coming and it is mainly here because of @thorst and @chimerrobang who ruined my plans and asked for it (💞). So, let's go ahead and talk about how much I adore Sam Wilson and Sharon Carter as a ship (Shasam, because every ship needs a cool ship name and I'm trying to make this one happen) and why I think they would be perfect for each other.

Origins

Sharon Carter and Sam Wilson joined the MCU in the same excellent movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. CA:TWS is undoubtedly a gamechanger within the MCU, contributing to the overall story in a big way with the fall of SHIELD and still acclaimed as one of the franchise's best movies. It is also one of my personal favorites and though it was not when I started shipping Sam and Sharon, I do think it a nice parallel that were both introduced here as side characters in relation to Steve Rogers. Sam has a better introduction than Sharon, I would argue, but this film was enough to interest someone (me) in them despite not having any familiarity with either character prior to that.

Although they have limited screen time in CA:TWS, we are nonetheless able to catch glimpses into Sam and Sharon's respective personalities. Both of them are extremely loyal, for starters: Sam is ready and willing to assist fugitive Steve and Natasha and Sharon likewise proves her loyalty to Steve when she takes on Rumlow. Their action sequences make it clear that they are very physical fighters, which is by necessity due to the work they do. We also find out that both of them have no issue questioning authority when needed, a topic that comes up again when we see them in Captain America: Civil War.

She Didn't Write It

Sam and Sharon's shared qualities are further emphasized in CA:CW, where they end up working together to help Steve. After Steve sees Sharon at Peggy's funeral, she reminds him that she was doing her job when she was spying on him and seems proud of her new role within the CIA. At this stage in her life, I think it is safe to say work is one of Sharon's highest priorities, and her choice to move to the CIA after SHIELD's dissolution suggests that she feels what she does is important enough to do no matter what form it takes. As for Sam, he also comes across as someone who values his work above most things. He worked as a pararescue whose role was literally to save lives, and he disagrees with the Sokovia accords because he doesn't trust the government to keep tabs on who the Avengers should and shouldn't save.

It is CA:CW that seals the deal in my personal opinion that Sam and Sharon are both workaholics who have never paid much attention to their personal lives. While I don't doubt that there are probably racist reasons for Sam to have never been given a love interest in the MCU, in-universe the only explanation that makes sense to me (I mean, look at him) is that he hasn't had time to worry about that in between working with the Air Force, working for the VA and then becoming an Avenger. He alludes to this in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, when he talks about missing his nephews growing up - I, at least, got the impression that it wasn't just because he was blipped. I don't think it's a stretch to assume that Sharon is similar, although admittedly we don't see her much outside of professional situations.

All of the qualities I've mentioned so far are ones that I could see as being points of connection for Sam and Sharon. I like relationships that are founded in common ground, and I see plenty of it to work with here. I don't think Sam or Sharon would be happy with someone who didn't understand the importance of their work to them, and being with each other would allow them to be fully open about that aspect of their lives. Likewise, they share a strong moral compass, which could permit them to understand and empathize with each other's decisions. Crucially, though, I also think together they could also have that personal life that they've been brushing to one side for so long. Having those shared values could allow them to make space for each other, and for something more than what they do.

One of my favorite scenes in CA:CW now is a two-line exchange, where Sam objects to the term 'bird costume' and Sharon counters with: "I didn't write it." It's a very small moment, and I'm not saying for a minute that the writers did this intentionally, but looking at it from a character perspective, Sharon absolutely did not have to defend herself in that moment. She is interested in Steve as far as we know and she barely knows Sam, but she still makes a point of making sure that he knows she didn't write it. She doesn't say much, but she could be saying a lot, like that she respects what Sam does and wouldn't dismiss him in that way. If anything, the fact that she is later the one to steal his wings back together with the shield, only underlines that idea.

All the Sh*t Sharon Had to Go Through

I first started thinking about Sharon and Sam as a ship around the time it was announced that Sharon was going to be in TFATWS. Even though the show panned out differently than I had imagined with respect to Sharon, I think it is full of breadcrumbs that could lead to a relationship in the new Captain America movie. The Sharon we see in TFATWS is hardened, disillusioned and, in my view, playing the role of her life. In order to survive, she's had to seal every crack of vulnerability, like the one that made her kiss Steve in CA:CW. She is cavalier when she asks about Captain America in Madripoor, but she does still ask, and then uses it as an opportunity to show how little she supposedly cares. The actions she takes in the show don't make sense just on the basis of her being the Power Broker, and I think this is partially bad writing, but if we take it at face value we could see it as her wavering in her commitment to her newfound attitude. She helps Sam in situations where she could have gotten rid of him and Bucky or ignored them, even to her own detriment. At the end of the show, she even saves Sam's life. Sam, meanwhile, seems to be the only person who really cares about what has happened to Sharon. He reminds Bucky that she was branded enemy of the state, he apologizes to her more than once for the situation she ended up in, and he brings her up again much later when he is laying out on the table all the trouble the shield has caused. He promises her a pardon and asks her to come back to the United States, all because it seems to matter to him whether or not she is OK.

There is also all the flirting, of course. Sharon's reaction to seeing Sam shirtless is to say "Much better." In that same scene, after making his agreement with Sharon, we see Sam grinning and watching her as she walks away. Sharon calls Sam "a friendly voice" and Sam smiles when he is messaging her. In the last episode, Sharon, who had spent so much time previously mocking the idea of Captain America, tells Sam the suit looks good on him. It would certainly be possible to look at this cynically, and perhaps suggest Sharon is putting on a performance to help secure the pardon she wants. The way I choose to look at it is that Sharon is being who she has always been, someone dedicated to service and who is extremely efficient at what she does. Those qualities are, incidentally, ones I think Sam would look for and value in a partner. They could also be indications that Sharon as she used to be is not entirely gone, and that Sam gives her the opportunity to allow that idealistic version of herself to come to surface.

The Future

Going forward, I think with all the groundwork that has been laid out, Sam and Sharon could flourish into a great love story in future Captain America movies and shows. We could see Sharon start to doubt the image she felt she had to build to survive, in parallel with her developing feelings for Sam that she never expected. For his part, I think even if there was some initial conflict, Sam would ultimately be understanding about what led Sharon to where she was and value her for who she is.

United, they could make an incredible team. Just as they complement each other in many ways, they could also bring out the best in each other. Sharon is someone who very much sees the world as it is and I think Sam does too, but he also sees the world as it could be. There's a beautiful push and pull there between a spy who deals with threats on the ground level and a former soldier who can literally fly. Sam also takes things less seriously than Sharon, and I think could help bring out a lighter side to her, as we got just a hint of in some of their banter in TFAWTS. Logistically, Sharon as Sam's love interest also makes a lot of sense given that she has been in his orbit for a long time already and they have a pre-established relationship. Developing that would be more interesting in my view than try to introduce somebody new.

Zooming out to a more meta perspective, I think there's some serendipity in the fact that both Sam and Sharon have at times been underrated/undervalued by the fandom at large. Sam has been repeatedly dismissed as Captain America even since having officially taken up the title, and Sharon has a long history of being reviled mainly (I guess) for having the audacity to kiss Steve Rogers. I am a Steve fan myself, but since he clearly isn't going to be a big part of the movies going forward, I am thinking about what the MCU looks like without him. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, obviously, but how great would it be to see two people that formerly were seen mostly in relation to Steve find love with each other and become an unstoppable power couple?

The beauty of Sam and Sharon is that they each can totally stand on their own, as independent characters, and they could also be incredible together. I, for one, would absolutely love to see them as our Captain America and Agent 13. ❤️🤍

#SamSharon #Sam Wilson #Sharon Carter #Sam x Sharon #Shasam #My Writing

[rorickwolf]

Just saw Multi-verse of Madness wanted to put down my thoughts.

Potential spoilers but I'll try to avoid them

Ugh America Chevez great a failed comic book character that was insufferable.

Strange a bit sinister and tries to take AC power interesting

Big fan of Strange, loved Christine sad that she moved on but completely understand, bit rude to invite him to the wedding though. He handled it well.

AC already annoying me.

Wong finally gets to show how kickass he is. All about that.

Oh Wanda!!! 😍🥰😘

Oh Wanda. 😢😭

Oh Wanda!!

Oooh they're actually letting her be a villain. None of that bullshit from Monica at the end of WandaVision?

why is there a minotaur? Is this something I missed from the Disney+ stuff?

America is still pretty annoying but not as bad as before, also no where near as bad as the comics.

wanda decimating kamartage (don't know how to spell it) nice you may be the villain but you're Still my fave with Steve gone.

use that reflection!

Coming out of the gong like the girl from the Ring, definitely love the horror themes.

Interesting world where the color pallet is switch the drab and grayscale are colorful and covered in plants. Fashion is fairly uniform and grayscale.

Mordo is a bitch, still, I'm okay with this.

oooooohh redder red head love interest movie you get me

Ultron bots? Wanda won't like that

cool handcuffs I want a set for totally not kinky reasons.

okay Black Bolt cool, didn't watch Inhumans but I have read a bit about the character.

Oh look they can change her race but Captain Marvel is still an insufferably smug c*nt. Thos character is just so unlikeable to so many people Disney just needs to cut their losses and scrap her. I'm okay with even being gaslighted that she was ever a part of the MCU

hey Mr. Fantastic! Didn't watch your movie because 19th reboot but I do like you John.

Hello Peggy, love you, not as much as I love Steve and although I wasn't a fan of him staying in the past I'am so happy you got your dance. And the Captain Carter angle is nice. I do know about that what if!

PROF. X IN THE 90S CARTOON CHAIR!!!!!!!! SIR PATRICK STEWART!!!!!! Was this in the trailers I didn't watch them for this specific reason this is amazing.

Oh Wanda, now I'm happy, sad, excited for a fight and scareroused.

Oh Wanda. That was a fantastic Villain line but how far you have fallen. Poor Susan

Black Bolt goes down a bit to easy but Wanda is just that powerful, was definitely freaky so it gets a pass.

Just made the stretch man into spaghetti. Brutal. Love it.

Ugh really. These two get an epic fight scene. This was so predictable, of course the men get put down like dogs and the women get to shine even though it makes no fucking sense. Carter should have been toast immediately and Captain Marvel wouldn't have lasted much longer.

God can't Peggy have her own thing without stealing everything from Steve? It's not a fucking homage or call back, let her be her own fucking character without giving her his lines! It doesn't fit her character at all. She wasn't the scrawny and sickly man living in the 30s and 40s looked down on everyone and getting the shit kicked out of him all the time for standing up for what was right before he had the body to back it up.

Captain Marvel isn't this strong, she can't put this kind of fight against Wanda. Just let her stay dead. The theater was happy when she died. And of course we can show the men blowing up their brains and being cut apart while screaming I agony but the women just get a pretty close up and an off camera crushing where the arm falls over to signify death. Where is the equality? a woman can die just as gruesomely as a man can.

Awww poor real Wanda trapped under the rubble from the building. My poor girl I know you won't but please save her Prof.

Oh shit that jump scare got me.

chase sequence with a limping and "bloodied" (oil) Wanda with perfect horror movie visuals? Fantastic!

Wanda2 is released by DarkholmWanda and first thought is about her children! Fantastic mother and I love her more.

I love Wong

you know AC hasn't actually been to bad, the scene from her memory was a bit too focused on the fact that she has two moms. I knew that she did and it's whatever but treat them like they were straight if you want it to be "normalized". A straightest of parents wouldn't have been pointed out like that. Being normalized does not mean going !LOOK TWO MOMS!!! Just have them be there and don't draw attention to it.

Ooh fourth wall break by Wanda very nice.

Heh, fight music

Zombie!Strange very nice. Though way too much decay. He's been dead for like 24 hours max.

hmmm Christine knows mystical artifacts she has a relationship while Stephen was a sorcerer and actively took part in that part of his life. So nice.

Hmmm third eye is freaky.

Wong just rolls with Strange's nonsense and I love it.

yay more of the nonsense the power was always inside of you and you just didn't know you were already perfect. Just let her keep struggling but in her desperation get it right. So that she can build from there later. It's okay to let your character struggle and be flawed. That's why so many female characters suck. They don't get to have flaws that make them "real" and relatable. Instead they're just "quirky" or held back. It's boring and a disservice to the characters. America has been fine up to this point. Sure I'm not a great fan of her but I'm willing to give the character a chance despite how repulsive the comic version was. Despite the laziness of her being the only one and that fer some reason she is always louder than all the other characters. It's like the actress is always projecting a bit too much.

Two Wanda's, seeing how she looks in her children's eyes. The best way for this to end. Plus Wanda2 showing compassion to the other Wanda is amazing after everything and being that amazing example to her sons. See that's a strong female character in Wanda2 and it's not forced at all.

Wanda destroys all Darkholm in the Multiverse. Going out like a true hero. I hope so much that that isn't the last we see of Wanda. She deserves a bigger exit as a character. Maybe Wanda2 helps out later?

Damn it Disney you couldn't help yourself. Ac is a special one of a kind girl, the only AC in the Multiverse, able to punch through the multiverse and doesn't cause incursions, but is also going to be a sorcerer. Why? Why can't she just have her own powers?

Hello freaky consequences.

Final thought... Good movie as a whole. America Chavez not as bad as expected but doesn't fit with the tone of the movie very well despite her powers, Can we keep Captain Marvel dead and not just not have the character in the MCU anymore, especially the Brie Larson one? If Wanda really is gone I'm not sure how much more MCU I can do. Strange is the only one I'm curious about anymore which is heartbreaking because Thor was my #3 behind Steve Rogers and Wanda but I have almost zero excitement for L+T.

#Initial thoughts #multiverse of madness #dr strange #wanda maximov #scarlet witch #Possible spoilers #spoiler territory

[endollvors]

Health Check! Sneak Preview

The Pitch: MCU Steve Rogers, guy who never quits, is quietly sent home after the serum "fails." It did not, in fact, Fail. Steve Rogers, 5'1' Super Soldier, 6 time recruitment office applier, makes up a new fake name and Joins the Army anyway.

Thus starts the legend of Reeve Dodgers.

Below is the entire text of the document for this AU, including some planning materials, in roughly chronological order.

Content warning: I was left unattended with the crackfic and it got a little a The Horrors of War™ in it, sorry.

Steven Grant Rogers’ Shitty Aliases

Rebecca Stoker (pornlord)

Barney Harrison (recruitment office)

Jim “Jimmy” MacKenzie (recruitment office)

Abraham Buckner (modern NY “Cult Survivor”)

Corporal Reeve Dodgers (Military injoke)

Grant Carter(SHIELD Analyst)

Clint: he’s called Dodge because he’s so small no guns can ever hit him

What’s Wrong with him :)

Asthma

Scarlet fever

Deaf in one ear

Color blind

Scoliosis

Heart murmur

Yearly Pneumonia

Anemia

December ’39 Bucky discovers that Steve Rogers, 100 pounds soaking wet, has been rationing his food in order to save money to bribe a guard at the docks and get to Europe in order to join the war effort. He moves into Steve’s apartment immediately in order to prevent his favorite flight risk from dying of his own stupidity.

Feb. ‘42 A new recruitment office has opened just outside of Brooklyn, which means it’s time for Steve to come up with a new fake name. Jim “Jimmy” MacKenzie has shoved enough newspapers into the heels of his shoes to pass as five foot one and has mastered the art of breathing shallowly enough that the rattling in his lungs could be missed, probably. He ignores the twinge in his joints as he stands straighter than his body can really support and smiles as the doctor.

~

Bucky’s eyes flick over Steve in an automatic pattern. Steve can almost see the checklist in his head. His legs to see if he can walk, Chest to check his breathing, cheeks for fever, knuckles for fighting. He’s not even doing bad today, except for his mood. So he’s a little irritated when Bucky falls in step with him, firmly settled on his good side, and then deliberately slows his pace.

~

Steve meets Howard Stark once before he gets the serum. It’s kind of a whirlwind.

~

The vitabed is cold against his skin, the metal leeching what little warmth he’s able to produce. He hisses through his teeth as rows of needles inject him with a burning cold that sears through his body. He presses his palms flat against the table as it tilts up and the metal encases him, close and dark even with the reinforced window he’s not really tall enough to see out of. Things must have gotten really loud, because even he can hear it with his bad ear. Someone is screaming.

The light fades and he feels weirdly floaty, like something that should be there isn’t anymore. The metal casket opens with a burst of steam and the air of the lab feels cool against his chest. He opens his eyes to a dizzying sight. He squints at the scene in front of him, there’s something different. He blinks again as the world once again fails to coalesce into something that makes sense. He stumbles over the footrest as he tries to stand and Peggy rushes forward to try and catch him. He palm flat on his chest. It’s loud in here, so loud he wonders how they can stand it with two ears. There’s a high pitched humming coming from, somewhere, his left he thinks. And there’s paper shuffling and Peggy is asking him a question, her hair is weird right now but that’s not important, he should answer. It would be rude not to answer. It’s bright in here. How does he feel? He takes a breath, the shallow kind that doesn’t rattle in his lungs and manages to stand under his own power this time. His spine feels wrong, but it doesn’t hurt, there’s none of the tingling numbness he feels occasionally either. 

“Taller.” He says, grasping onto the only really familiar sensation he’s felt since the experiment started. He knows what taller feels like. He’s faked it often enough. He opens his eyes again, not really sure when they closed, and looks up past Peggy to the rest of the room. Something sharp and sick twists in his gut. Without being lost in the buzzing sensation under his skin, he can focus on the faces around him now, the tension in their shoulders, the techs studiously avoiding eye contact. This too, is familiar. They’re disappointed. Some hide it better than others, Peggy’s wrapped up in real concern, her hand still ready to support him. Dr. Erskin’s in guilt, cleaning his glasses compulsively. He watches Howard turn back to his overloaded console with a sneer that shows teeth.

“Oh, uh.” He feels small and exposed for the first time in a while, since he was handpicked to try. Since he finally managed to get as far as basic training. He knows that there’s not much left for him here, that they expected it either to work or to kill him. He runs his fingers through the stretches he uses before drawing to keep them busy.

~ i'm considering having the nazis explode the lab anyway~

He blames the way emotions choke his throat for how long it takes him to notice. He knows his pace is too fast, he knows that his bag is too heavy, he knows that he’s pushing himself past his hard learned limits. He puts his key in the lock to his front door, already resigning himself to days of recovery when he blinks and realizes that he hasn’t had to stop to rest, on benches and garbage cans and strangers' front steps. He knows how this is supposed to go. Resting for longer and longer, measuring his path from block to block in single desperate steps. Instead, his twenty minute walk home had actually taken twenty minutes. His legs don’t even hurt. He takes a deep breath and feels his chest expand smoothly, he can’t taste blood in his mouth. His back doesn’t ache under the weight of his duffle. He’s thinking so hard about that he forgets to use the trick to get his door open, too long away and too much in his brain. It screeches as it opens smoothly under his hand. Too smoothly considering how poorly hung it is, considering that Steve’s almost dislocated his shoulder trying to get it unstuck before. He closes and locks it behind him before dropping his duffle only a few steps into his shoebox apartment. He scrubs one hand harshly over his face and back through his hair before taking the final two steps to drop onto the dusty bed. He’s tired, exhausted really. It’s strange to experience without the all encompassing fatigue that makes his bones ache. He’s asleep in seconds.

He wakes up the next morning to a painless existence and the fact that his door is definitely broken.

How to Make Friends and Influence Wars

Basic training is weird the second time around. Steve thinks that maybe he’s doing it wrong, but it’s an improvement over the first time, when, to everyone except Dr. Erskin and Peggy, he was doing it wrong, and they told him so constantly. He knows he can do what they ask, he knows that in a pinch, he could do it before, if he wanted to taste blood in his mouth and pain in his spine and be a bit feverish and bedridden doing paperwork the next couple of days. This time he focuses on control, on learning how hard ‘as hard as you can’ is for regular people, on learning how to fight with too little weight to offset his brand new strength. Because being able to deadlift a jeep matters a lot less than it should when he still weighs a buck fifteen and his sparring partners can pick him up just as easily. He’s considered putting weights in his shoes.

He gets into fights, at basic. He finds himself oddly off kilter to be on the other side of an uneven fight. He learns more than during actual instruction, mostly because, no matter how accidentally, breaking the bones of his fellow soldiers is a bad way of making it to where there are people who deserve their to have bones broken. He ends up settling on a surprisingly underhanded method of sort of tripping them, either onto the ground or his fist. It puts a kind of limit on the force he exerts.

~

Dear Miss Peggy,

It’s been a couple weeks since I last saw you, hope you’re doing well and keeping the boys on their toes. I’m thrilled to announce that after eight applications I’ve been accepted into the army for the second time. By the time you receive this, Private Reeve Dodgers will have already shipped out to put those bullies back in their place.

Your friend, Steve Rogers.

P.S. Find me, finally fighting fit in the 74th infantry regiment. Hope to receive your letter.

~ Horrors of War™ interlude~

There’s not a lot for him to do, his first couple weeks on the front. His above average assessments can only do so much in the face of his short stature and weedy build. Personally, he thinks that somebody that everyone believes couldn’t possibly be in the army is probably pretty suited to infiltration training. He’s put on ambulance duty, instead. It’s not as exciting as he’d hoped, but he enjoys it. It feels like helping. The girls at the nurse’s station are smart and no nonsense and they usually listen to him when he says he can do more, even if the first time they’re clearly trying to punish him for overpromising. He feels a smile spread across his face the first time he hears Sue call for Dodgers across the tent because she needs him to do heavy lifting. It’s more immediate than anything he could be doing with an M1911. The M1911 still feels heavy on his hip though. He stands in the medical tent and flexes his hands as he watches another ambulance full of stretchers get unloaded. He’s fast and strong and sturdy in a way that the men he helps the girls care for aren’t, and he knows it. It itches in the same way that made him go to the recruitment office eight times.

Sue catches him halfway through lacing up his boots, even though it's the middle of the night. He ties a knot and straightens up. She stops tapping her foot and sighs.

“Dodgers.”

“Ma’am.” Steve doesn’t fidget under her gaze. “Thought you’d be asleep.”

“Medical doesn’t sleep, Dodgers.” He nods, and she uncrosses her arms to grab his elbow. He follows as she drags him back to the main tent. “You want to be a hero? Take your gun and go kill some nazis?”

“Ma’am.” He says again. She laughs, and it’s tired. The gray in her hair catches in the dim lights of the ward. They come to a halt in front of the curtain to the intensive ward.

“Ok, Dodgers, here we go.” Her fingers tighten on his sleeve. They stop in front of a bed that’s sectioned off to protect burns. Steve can hear his breath rasp from where they’re standing at the foot of the bed. He doesn’t know if Sue can. “This is Sargent George Richards. He’s a hero. He saved the rest of his squad when their shelter was firebombed.”

She leads him to another bed. The shape under the blanket is missing pieces. There are dried tear tracks on his cheeks. “This is Captain Dume. He’s a hero. He and his men got cut off behind enemy lines and he brought almost forty of them back with him.”

The last bed in the ward has a man in it that’s even younger and thinner than Steve is. He’s twisted in his bed to keep pressure off his wounds. The pattern reads shrapnel. Most of his face is covered in bandages. Sue lets go of his arm and smooths her skirt. “This is Private Jones. He’s a hero.”

Jones twitches as Steve looks at him, takes a sharp gasp and shudders all over. It’s a nightmare, probably. “Who did he save?” Steve whispers, unwilling to break the silence of the ward. Sue looks at him, looks right through him.

“Nobody.”

Steve takes off his boots and goes back to bed. He lasts another week before he walks out of camp at one in the afternoon. He comes back a week later with eight men and a mostly healed knife wound in his side. He tells everyone but the nurses that he got lost. Everyone but the nurses believe him.

~Horrors interlude ends~

Private Reeve Dodgers, as is becoming true to form, has once again disappeared while on mission. Godspeed.

~

Bucky has lost track of time, the ceiling is fading in and out of focus and he’s pretty sure that he’s started hallucinating since the last scientists left, some, days? hours? ago. For example, He can hear Stevie talking to him, Stevie’s at home in Brooklyn. He shouldn’t be here, it’s dangerous. He opens his mouth to tell the Steve hallucination that, and only manages a hoarse creaking noise. 

His head turns with what feels like monumental effort and he sees a familiar face juxtaposed with a short military haircut and baggy green fatigues. His eyelids flicker and he decides to listen to what Stevie is telling him instead. “Those nazi bastards are too dead to hurt you anymore, Bucky.” His split lip starts bleeding again when he cracks a wobbly smile. Steve always did know what to say. He feels the steel bands bolting him to a table release to the familiar sound of Steve’s pleased “Yes!” 

He leans forward with as much of his strength as he can muster and promptly collapses against his own knees. He blinks back into awareness to the sensation of being carried. Yes, he’s being carried, and Steve is holding him like he doesn’t weigh anything. He knew he was hallucinating. He tunes back into the one sided conversation.

“Stevie,” He says to the ground as it passes by, and coughs. “I think I’ve been drugged.”

“Really?” His hallucination says, apparently not concerned with Bucky calling him by the wrong name. “Why do you say that?” It does sound just like Steve.

“You’re here.”

“Buck, I am here. Joined the Army and everything.”

Bucky nods and feels his whole skull try to rattle apart around him. “Ok, punk.” He says and loses consciousness before his hallucination can reply.

~

Phillips turns to Peggy and says, with a carefully even tone, “I know that man.”

Peggy brushes an imaginary stray hair out of her face and says, tone light. “Do you?”

“Don’t.” He says through gritted teeth, his jaw so tight it had to hurt. “You know. I saw your face, you weren’t surprised.”

~

Bucky’s spoon stops halfway to his mouth, the mess tent gruel threatening to slop back onto his tray. He fixes Steve with a look of deep disappointment. “Reeve Dodgers?”

Steve smiles back, unrepentant, and tugs his tags out from the collar of his shirt. Bucky puts his spoon all the way down and hooks his fingers in the chain to haul Steve halfway over the table and look himself. He groans.

“Reeve Dodgers.” He says again while Steve resettles. He picks the spoon back up and some porridge drips off it into his peas as he points at Steve. “That, is the worst one yet.”

“It worked.” Steve says, and watches Bucky try and fail to keep a straight face as that fact sinks in.

Under direct orders from Captain Reeve Dodgers.

Steve has been awake for several minutes longer than anyone realizes. Eyes closed and breathing steady while he listens to a ballgame for the second time. The room is quiet, outside of that, there’s no street noise that he can hear. The announcer takes a familiar 5 second silence before he continues his chatter. It hits him then, that he can’t smell cigarettes. He opens his eyes to gentle yellow light and rolls his head on the pillow while he tries to take in the room. It’s too clean, is one thing he notices immediately. There’s no life in the place, no ashtrays, nothing hung on the hooks, no forgotten coffee cups or scattered notes. The walls are freshly painted. There’s no scuffs on the floor, or grime built up in the corners of the room. His fingers tighten in his pristine sheets and he turns his head to the door to meet the heels clicking down the hallway.

The nurse comes into the room with a wide smile and too little urgency. Every nurse Steve has ever met either walks with a brisk efficiency that could cow generals or with the exhausted slump of too long hours. It’s the afternoon, or it’s supposed to be, and her uniform is still crisp. His eyes go to the top corner of her uniform pocket, looking for the reinforcement that’s always sewn there to help it handle the extra weight frontline medicine requires. He smiles at her and her too elaborate for daily work hair.

“Hello, Ma’am.” He rasps around a dry throat and smiles, bright and a little confused. “Where,” he trails off with a slow blink. “‘M I stateside?” he asks and he doesn’t bother to smooth out the brooklyn accent. He watches her face through carefully half lidded eyes for the tells he knows will be there and finds them. He already knows she’s lying to him.

The not-nurse hurries forward when he wavers a bit trying to sit up with too stiff muscles. Hes tired, more tired than he’d thought he was while lying in bed pretending to be unconscious, but he knows tired, he’s worked through tired worse than this. She catches his shoulder with manicured fingernails and he nods his thanks as she helps him slowly scoot back to lean against the headboard.

“There we go, Corporal.” She says, and the accent’s subtle in a way most people can't fake and American without a hint of anything else in there like his has, after almost two years in Europe with necessity upgrading his understanding of German from conversational to fluent. It occurs to him for the first time since he woke up from what he’s pretty sure was dying, that he might actually be in the United States.

~

New York is wrong. But it’s a better kind of wrong than the friendly cream colored room he woke up in. It’s real, and it is still New York. He survived six weeks alone in occupied France while only knowing how to say ‘I’m with the French Resistance’ and some extremely specific conversational German. It was the first time he’d ever been accidentally recorded as killed in action and when he learned that when he gets shot he has to get the bullets out immediately. All in all, an interesting trip. He can handle New York in– he squints, too quickly to be noticed, at an abandoned newspaper on a bistro table as he passes by –apparently the new millennium. He tucks his hands into the pockets of his slacks, picks a direction, and walks without urgency. Eventually, he finds a building he recognizes. He tucks his hands into his pockets, turns at the next corner, and walks a brisk couple miles to the library.

He ducks into the stacks the instant he arrives, and tries to remember his dewey decimals enough to not have to ask for help. He manages, though he’s deeply suspicious that some of them have changed since the last time he was in a library. He collects what he expects is an eclectic pile. He collects a few books on current events, an entertainment magazine, and a book on technology that, based on the size of the text and density of its pictures, is probably intended for children. He refuses to be embarrassed, if anyone deserves introductory material it’s him. He also, after his book on the state of the world names too many countries he’s never heard of, gets up and grabs an atlas.

He pretends to startle when the librarian approaches his table because he probably would have been engrossed in his book if he couldn’t hear her conversation with the woman at the circulation desk. His head snaps up and his eyes go to her hands before her face. He lets how unsteady he really feels slip through his wobbly smile in a way he didn’t at the facility he woke up in.

“Hello ma’am?” He looks at the page number for appearances’ sake and closes his children’s encyclopedia of technology. Her expression is briefly calculating before it smooths out and she asks the question that she’s been workshopping with the rest of the staff all morning.

“Hi honey, you finding everything you need?” Her smile is neutral and encouraging and he’d compliment her on it if he hadn’t decided to play into her assumptions. “Us Librarians are here to help.”

He can’t blush on command anymore, so he averts his eyes and lets out a slow deliberate breath through his mouth. “I, thank you.” he says and tugs a little at the collar of his shirt, aware after his jog through the city that it’s obviously old fashioned. “I’m, new here?” He makes it a question to avoid the way the truth is exactly opposite, smoothing out his accent into the broad neutral one he learned during the war. “And I don’t, really,” he trails off and shrugs helplessly at the bank of computers off to his left. He’d thought they were new study corrals, at first and then made an abrupt retreat once he saw it was set up like some kind of telegraph office. According to the encyclopedia, he’s kind of right.

The librarian’s face softens, “That’s exactly what I'm here for. I’m Emma.”

“Abe, uh, Abraham Buckner.” Steve says and starts to gather his books into a pile. Out of the corner of his eye he watches her watch him.

“Biblical.” She says.

“Yeah, it’s-” he starts, and almost says Jewish before he remembers that he’s supposed to be escaping a cult. “Catholic, mostly.” The verbal stumble apparently looks natural enough because the concern is back on Emma’s face as she hands him his last book.

~

Fury stops in the doorway to his own office at the sight of a stranger sitting in his visiting chair, the top of his blond hair and enormous ears peeking out over the back of the seat. The boy turns at his entrance and he catches a glimpse of blue eyes. “Hello sir!” It’s that kid, the one they found in the ice. Corporal whomever from World War II. The one who somehow managed to rabbit out of a secure facility and disappear. “That was a lousy fake 1943, I was at that ball game.”

“You don’t say.” He drawls, deciding to ignore the elephant in the room. “We worked with what we had.” He sits at his desk and focuses on the human museum exhibit that’s been missing the last three weeks.

“So I gather I’ve been, out of action, for a while.” The kid says with half a smile, apparently to break the tension. It doesn’t work, but he almost respects it.

“Longer than anyone expected, I’ve got some questions I’d be pleased if you could answer for me.”

The kid’s face scrunches up with a familiar distaste.

“What’s your name, Corporal?” The kid blinks at him, surprised for apparently the first time since getting defrosted.

“Carter.” He says finally. “Grant Carter. I’m uh,” he pauses and flashes a sheepish smile. “Pleased to meet you?” Well, that would explain some things. He narrows his eye at the kid.

“Any relation to a Margaret Carter?” A question and a test all in one.

“You mean Peggy?” The kid asks, leaning forward for a smile, his hair flopping over his forehead.

~

Agent Grant is pretty sure he pissed off Director Fury somehow. He doesn’t remember doing it, in fact, he’s only spoken to the man a couple of times, but Carter feels like a punishment for something. He showed up out of nowhere, said Fury hired him directly, and has been making his life complicated since. Grant Carter is a bizarre little mystery. This is not an opinion his other coworkers share for the simple reason that they’re not around him that often. Derek has to work with him directly, and thus gets a front row seat to the blue eyed boy wonder’s many idiosyncrasies. It wouldn’t be nearly as bad if the kid weren’t genuinely fantastic at his job, and also the at least two other jobs he’s invented in the footnotes and margins of his analysis, or if the two of them didn’t work well together. They’re referred to as a unit now, which bodes poorly for his chances to escape. They’re The Grants. He is, much to his chagrin, Old Grant, which everyone insists is because he was here first, and not because, outside of his jawline, New Grant looks like he should get carded at movie theaters.

The thing is, that there’s something wrong with Carter. None of his pieces fit together. When they’re not assembling reports that, despite being the same length as everyone else’s, contain vastly more information, he’s drawing what looks like comics at his desk and trying to make the oddest small talk that Grant’s ever heard outside of Strike Team Delta debriefs. He should just write Carter off as a liar, considering how often his stories seem to directly contradict each other, but this is SHIELD, and Carter was hired by the Director personally. So he just has to put up with it when he drops really alarming anecdotes into normal conversation. Field agent anecdotes. Things that pint sized twenty somethings who say they had asthma as a kid should not have experienced, let alone survived.

~

Two weeks into his job as Grant Carter, SHIELD Analyst, Steve is in the vents. He doesn’t technically have to be in the vents, but they’re surprisingly clean and he’s finished his assignments early enough to work on his extracurriculars. He’s in the process of investigating a new path to The R&D labs when he hears something. He goes entirely still, before turning his head to angle his good ear toward the sound, not that he has a bad ear anymore, but old habits die hard. There’s definitely a scuffling sound coming from the next junction. He assesses his options. He probably won’t be able to get away without alerting whoever else is in the ductwork with him. But he’s strong, and his size tends to give him the advantage in close quarters like this. So he sits and waits for what is definitely not a raccoon to turn the corner.

A head of shaggy blond hair appears around the corner, purple hearing aids hooked around his ears. The vent under his chin casts thin stripes of light across his face and the underside of his jaw. The tension in Steve’s shoulders relaxes when he recognizes the guy even as he freezes the same way Steve did when he realizes he’s not alone. Specialist Clint Barton turns to stare at Steve. There’s a few moments of what would be silence if the break room they’re situated above had been empty. Instead there’s the subtly surreal background noise of a man humming some 90s pop song people always expect Steve to recognize while he goes through the ritual of fixing himself coffee. It almost breaks the tension. Clint’s as allowed here as Steve is, by which he means not at all, but it’s not a matter of national security, so he smiles and presses a finger to his lips. The thud when Clint’s head hits his forearms and his shoulders start shaking with repressed laughter is probably quiet enough that other people couldn’t even notice it. He’s had to learn that all over again, what’s normal to hear, some funhouse mirror of when he lost his hearing in the first place. He props his chin on his hand and waits for Hawkeye to finish. Eventually he picks his head back up, gives a sloppy wave and shuffles through the intersection towards whatever his destination is. Administration was that way. Steve thinks through the building layout while he waits for Barton’s feet to clear the path. The guy is genuinely enormous. Steve has no idea how he fits his shoulders through here.

~

He meets Hawkeye twice more before they ever talk. Dubiously legal vent travel just doesn’t provide many opportunities for it. The closest they’ve gotten is Steve looking up the modern ASL sign for “criminal” and the two of them almost blowing their cover when he used it to tell him to go ahead. He had somehow failed to consider that they might see each other outside of dusty metal tubes. He puts his lunch tray down on the cafeteria table without looking and continues to make bewildered eye contact with Barton from across the room. Hawkeye changes his path and beelines to his table. Steve blinks for a second before just sitting down and poking at his potato hash. Hawkeye’s tray clatters in front of his eyes and a second later the man himself is sitting cross legged and grinning on the opposite side of the table.

“So,” he says, and gestures with his spork, “Agent or Analyst?” Steve swallows his bite and smiles his ‘I didn’t do anything wrong’ smile. He holds his hand out to shake.

“Agent Reeve Dodgers, at your service.” Barton’s holding his hand in a firm grasp and opening his mouth to say something else when his hand spasms in Steve's grip and he starts wheezing.

“Oh my god, that's amazing.” He says, to Steve’s confusion. “Reeve Dodgers. I’m gonna use that.”

“What?”

“Your name can’t actually be Reeve Dodgers, right?” Hawkeye says, and finally releases his hand. It isn’t, but he has no idea what would make Barton react like that.

“It is when I’m in the vents.” 

Barton makes a noise like a wet shoe on tile and continues to shake with laughter. His fingers curl over his smiling mouth as he rests his elbow on the table and leans into it.

“What’s so funny?”

“You don’t know? You have to know. Captain Reeve Dodgers?”

“I-” Steve starts, It can’t actually be about him, he was never technically promoted past corporal and surely if SHIELD knows who he is they wouldn't let him be Grant Carter instead. “Captain?” 

“He’s not a real guy. It’s this old military thing, ‘Under direct orders from Captain Reeve Dodgers?’”

“From the forties?” he says, somewhat strangled.

“Yeah! So you do know.”

“I’m familiar with the name.” He says helplessly, and takes a bite of his food.

“It’s when a guy goes rogue but he nails it. Crazy odds, excellent results. Save the base stuff.” Barton picks up his sandwich and shredded lettuce falls out of the bottom as he gestures with it. “They don't want to court martial him for going against orders. So they say he got orders, and then everyone pretends to believe him.”

Steve blushes from the tips of his ears down to his neck. He takes another bite.

~

“Hey, Pintsize. How was the espionage?” Steve barely pauses before he wiggles the rest of the way out of the vent. He brushes off his pants before he glances up at the man who caught him. Tony Stark is leaned up against the battered table out of the line of sight from where he crawled out.

“Hey, Stark.” He says, and checks how gray the dust has made his palms before he can track that into his hair. The answer is very, and he grimaces. “Can I get you a coffee?”

“You have to know I’m harder to bribe than that, kiddo.” Stark says with a disparaging snort at the pile of single use pods next to the machine. “I’m a billionaire.” His eyes go back to his tablet though his focus never wavers from Steve.

“Bribe?” Steve glances up from where he’s washing his hands in the tiny kitchenette sink. Through a well ingrained habit, he scrubs briskly and efficiently up to his elbows. “Why would I try to bribe you? It's manners.” He dries his hands and turns to the cupboard for the mugs.

“Is it also manners to break into the R&D labs?”

“No, that’s a hobby.” Steve says and flashes a smile over his shoulder. He sets the machine, then spins and hops onto the counter next to it. Just to be an asshole, he pulls the newest prototype he liberated from the labs out of his pocket and starts fiddling with it.

Stark’s head tilts a full thirty degrees.

“Is, are you confessing right now?” Stark asks and his eyebrows furrow over his sunglasses. “Because usually it’s harder than this.” One of his hands snaps up to gesture at where Steve is perched on the counter with a shaking emphasis on the prototype. “There’s a whole process to this, you know?”

“Oh?” Steve says encouragingly, and reaches out with his free hand to grab his coffee. Stark continues on like he hadn’t heard him.

“You deny it, maybe pretend to get angry. I pull out the security footage, read out part of your personnel file,” He flashes the tablet screen, paused on a view of Steve in the east R&D lab. “You cry or threaten me or something.”

Steve looks at Stark for a moment. “Do you, want me to threaten you?”

“Yes! No. Don’t tell Pepper I said that.” He points sharply at Steve. Steve takes a sip of his coffee.

“Are you threatening me?” He asks, entirely unthreatened. “Because, I don’t think this is SHIELD protocol.” He takes another sip of coffee while Stark vibrates in place.

“I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense. You don't make sense! You put everything back. With notes. Good notes, even. for an analyst.”

Steve nods.

“You don’t steal from me though.” Stark says, accusatorily, angry for the first time the whole conversation. “Is Starktech not good enough for you?” Stark waves the tablet in his off hand with a sharp nonchalance that would make Steve worry if he didn’t know that Starktech tablets aren’t actually as fragile as all that glass makes them look. Steve puts down his coffee and pauses a moment to gather his thoughts.

“You haven’t pissed me off yet.”

“What?” Stark says, snapped out of the anger as quickly as he fell into it, and minimizes the security footage. He taps out a note in some incomprehensible shorthand even as he cocks his head at Steve in question. “I piss everyone off, it’s one of my many charming qualities, ask Fury, ask anybody.”

“Fitzsimmons’ stuff never leaves the lab. If Natasha didn’t exist I think Clint would be in platonic love with them.” He juggles the prototype sub sonic grenade between his hands. His ankles bounce lightly off the cabinet doors.

“I steal from Granger the most because he's an asshole who does shit work with unintuitive design.” Stark nods, sharply, and opens his mouth for what would almost certainly be a pretty amusing rant about Granger’s many various deficiencies. Steve smiles at him before continuing. He likes this Stark far more than Howard.

“Nothing makes him madder than a polite little post it note on the gizmo he’s just started the loss paperwork on. Admin thinks he’s embezzling.”

Stark starts to laugh like it’s been surprised out of him.

“So Granger deserves it, and your dad was a rat bastard. But I don’t know you, Tony.” He says, and leans back against the wall. “You seem nice.”

“Me? Nice?” Stark seems to be stuck somewhere between theatrically offended and genuinely bewildered. Steve shrugs.

“Yeah, you know the names of the whole R&D department and design almost all of the good armor and recon tech.” Something complicated and vulnerable flashes across Stark’s face for a moment. Before being replaced with a practiced smirk that would look more at home on Howard’s face.

“You’re also,” Steve starts, and leans forward into the edge of Stark’s space, dropping his voice into a conspiratorial tone, “not going to snitch.”

“You’re a weird kid, Carter.”

“You’re probably the only person in existence to sneak expensive equipment into a lab. We’re both weird.” He hops off the counter to go back to his job and Stark’s face snaps back to normal.

“Hold it, pipsqueak. I hacked SHIELD for this.” He says, and goes back to his tablet. “I mean, it’s not hard but-” he cuts himself off and flicks his wrist as if to dismiss something that's not actually there. “No, what I want to know is why your recruitment file is classified. Your birthdate is sealed, which I've literally never seen, by the way, and you’re talking like you knew my dad.”

“I did know your dad.” Steve says, because it's true. “He was an asshole.”

“You look like you escaped a daycare. You can’t be older than 30.”

“Yeah, and I knew your dad.” Stark looks like he’s winding up to scream, then he takes a breath that hisses through his teeth.

“He died in 1991.” He says, flat and accusing.

“I wasn’t there for that part.” Steve takes another sip of coffee.

~

Pepper’s heels clack on the tile before coming to an abrupt halt in front of Steve and, by extension, Tony. On account of the fact that Steve is all but carrying him.

“Hiya Pep!” Tony says cheerily even as he continues to flop bonelessly over Steve’s head and shoulders. Tony continuing to take shameless advantage of being six inches taller than him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Potts. I’m Grant Carter.” Steve says, as polite as he can manage with Tony’s elbow mussing his hair into his eyes.

Pepper’s eyes snap to him and narrow in calculation. “Tony.” She says, a very particular note in her voice, one that Tony, at least, seems to recognize immediately, if the way his head snaps up is any indication.

“No!” The arm on top of Steve’s head repositions into an incredulous point. “No, Pep, he isn’t.” Pepper gestures at the two of them with the stack of paperwork in her hands and Tony makes a noise in his throat. “I know what you’re thinking, and frankly I’m appalled. He’s a consultant. I stole him.” Tony smiles. From what Steve can tell at this angle it’s one of his better ones, if a bit manic. “As if I would stoop so low-” and there’s the short joke, Steve shrugs his shoulders and Tony’s free arm swings wildly as he tips off balance before Steve rights him.

“I’d apologize for him, ma’am. But I think you might know him better than me.” Pepper’s eyes focus back on Steve and she smiles. 

“Hello, Mr. Carter, what’d you do to get saddled with this idiot?” There’s a whine from Tony. Both of them ignore it.

“Stole from him.” Steve smiles broadly. 

“He disrupted his inner ear all on his own”

~

Steve’s deskmate is ignoring him again, he’d thought they were getting along. He refills his water bottle at the station in the office hallway and tries to think of anything he’s done that would warrant it. It’s not a work issue, he’s pretty sure, because all of their evaluations have been almost glowing. He gets his part of the work done quickly, he doesn’t make that much noise when he’s in their shared office working on his other job, and he tries to get the dust off when he gets out of the vents. He’s jarred from the thought when Rosa tries to draw him into a conversation about a television show he’s never heard of. He extricates himself in his favorite way, by telling the absolute truth with a smile.

“You know me, Rosa. I’m a 90 year old man.” She laughs and waves him off. He flips his water bottle in his hand with a showy toss and turns back to his office. Dirch is standing in his direct path and glaring. Steve winces.

“Hey Derek,” Rosa calls, “Always good to see The Grants together.” His attention snaps to her for a moment and an insincere, closed mouthed smile before returning to Steve.

~

“Ok, I don’t get it.” Clint says conversationally from where he’s hung himself upside down from a support beam in the ceiling.

“Get what?” Steve simulsigns along with his words from his place on the other side of the hanger.

“You were in World War 2, Dodge. Why do you ‘mostly’ know Canadian French?” Clint makes air quotes before he nocks his next arrow. He draws and fires all in one motion, and it strikes the bullseye next to Steve’s head.

Steve considers how to answer the question, then considers whether he knows enough ASL to actually say his answer. Instead he says, “You’re from Iowa,” He signs ‘Corn’ instead of just finger spelling the name. “Why do you speak Russian?” He catches Clint’s eye and makes a point to look genuinely curious. Clint laughs loud enough for it to echo and fires another arrow at his head.

#my writing #reeve dodgers

[captainjimothycarter]

Okay Hi this might be an extremely long shot but would you happen to have any good Peggy/Bucky fic recs...?

It's totally cool if you don't

I have a few, but unfort, a lot of Buggy fics are labeled World War Threesome.

Which Part Of You Will Let You Live Again? Bucky survives the war but Steve does not. Eventually, he ends up at the SSR with Peggy

January 1st, 1950 It's New Years Day, 1950. Bucky, rescued from the bottom of a ravine, has been living his life in Brooklyn for the past five years, just trying to do his best to move on. Peggy Carter has been doing the same. Somewhere along the line, they learned to lean on one another, and now, at the start of a new decade, Bucky takes a moment to reflect before the start of something new

Heaven A man may take himself out of the war, and the war out of himself, but what does he put back in

#Buggy #Bucky/Peggy #Fic Rec #I tried Nonny

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Ik your probly tired of hearing about the mcu and its fans but I just remembered that some on Twitter argued that it was ok that peggy carter or cyintha glass to exist in the mcu because that's one less nazi.

Like how do you miss understand a very important part of history and not understand why it's problematic to have a character who was a nazi be good this is the whole reason I don't like mcu zemo and peggy carter because I feels like it's ignoring a part of history.

Uugh. Twitter.

To say MCU Peggy is one fewer Nazi is uhhhh. Incorrect.

Because: they didn't JUST take the character design of Cynthia and leave all her Nazi behaviour in the comics.

MCU Peggy's Nazi behaviour is NOT just a one-off retconned thing from the WS movie, and exhibited nowhere else. She is linked to the hiring of multiple foundational Hydra members in SHIELD.

(Arnim Zola, shown three times if we're including other universes so it's definitely an intrinsic part of her character; she, alone, job interviewed Werner Reinhardt; she, personally, alone, hired Johann Fennhoff when he was pretending to be good, because she is The World's Most Rubbish Spy... (Fun fact, that means if you killed Peggy off in 1945 then Bucky would never have been turned into the Winter Soldier, since she hired both Hydra members responsible for his torture/mind-control!) ...Mitchell Carson, and since the Winter Soldier program seems to be linked with the early Red Room, then her buddy Dorothy Underwood the Black Widow also counts! And as the saying goes: if you have 10 people at the table and one Nazi, then you have 10 Nazis.)

...And now they've bought the comics and changed comics-Peggy to match comics-Cynthia/MCU-Peggy, their solution to all this is to claim Peggy simply didn't know Hydra were in SHIELD.

W o w.

IIRC, new-comics Peggy calls Bucky "insane" for questioning her integrity (right before she viciously attacks him of course, like an innocent person?? uhh… authoritarian much?) and she describes the mere suggestion of her knowing about Hydra as being "unthinkable".

(Well now, to be fair, everything is unthinkable when you're an idiot.)

So that's the MCU's retconned fix for this: not even claiming she didn't do it, just saying she was incompetent and oblivious for decades before. Which is also: nonsense.

Because Zola was in her bunker. Her photo and office were 1 short elevator ride away from his. He was on the front page of the news. Even if she were illiterate, he was still in the photo!

Who did she think Howard was talking about all those years, whenever he mentioned Arnim?? Where did she think he was getting all this tesseract-based innovation from, the fairies??

Most damning of all, in CATWS as soon as Steve comes sniffing round, telling her he's having second thoughts about SHIELD, her response is to laugh at him, tell him he's being melodramatic, and then that he should not focus on the past (eg. which "we" rather mucked up, she admits… that's the Royal we!) And days later Zola is free to try and kill Steve for the second time. Even when she's supposed to be demented, she's still conveniently covering her own ass!

The problem goes right back to the comics...

It was a colossal tin-eared giant oozing dick of a move to pair off Captain America, the Hitler-punching Jewish Golem, with a Nazi character in the first place.

That, and giving a Nazi character a chance to 'redeem' themselves, is directly antithetical to what Steve was created to represent, and so disrespectful of a choice for a Jewish creation (let alone one created with the specific purpose of encouraging anti-Fascism) that it's bordering on antisemitism imo. No one in their right mind would believe this specific set of Jewish creators could be cool with that.

Also, the belief (you can kind of tell they had in the Cynthia comic) that a Nazi killing another Nazi somehow makes that killed Nazi less of a Nazi?? Like, Red Skull killed her so she must be okay?? Uhh, no??

(The Agent Carter s1 book also tries to push the idea that Cynthia died to save Steve, which is - again - nonsense. If you look at the panels, all she did is throw Steve his shield in Red Skull's presence, and Red Skull shot her because he was annoyed. She didn't leap in between them or anything!)

And, to draw on that Nazi character at all, when there are multiple Cap love interests they could've used - many of them brunette too, if they were stuck with brunette casting - including at least one Jewish woman?? MCU were drawing on the Ultimates run, where iirc his love interest was a Betsy Ross (brunette!) who could easily have been swapped out for the Betty Ross from the Hulk movies who they already had on-tap, as it were.

Picking Cynthia was just an unnecessary, unethical move. That character should've been avoided at all costs, not seen as inspiration fodder (doubly so, to avoid associations with Julia Koenig, another brunette Nazi villainess - AKA Kreigerfrau - who was also was present in Project Rebirth in the comics and stole superserum for herself, like multiple villains and MCU Peggy!)

And if they were that desperate to have Steve's love interest 'know' him before the serum, then they should've A) had her actually deign to speak to him in the movie, B) just picked a damn character who actually knew him before the serum! Like his fiancée Gail Richards!

But they wanted to water down Steve's motive for fighting Nazis (because he hates them and what they represent, which makes Disney uncomfy), and water down the homoerotic undertones of his devotion to Bucky (which makes Disney uncomfy; only gay villains, pls!) So they replaced it with 'wanting to be big so he can get a girl', so that MCU Peggy could seem important to him.

Then assuming (as that creepy dead-eyed fuck Kevin Feige heinously continues to do) that being short and disabled somehow therefore precluded Steve from having a lover is so... ugh, ableist and incel-y and again completely ignores the actual character of Steve, for whom women are not and never have been the main drive.

#toAyourQ #cynthia glass #long post #antipeggy #antisteggy #p*ggy meta #steggy is hydra trash party #mcu critical #julia koenig #mcu meta #meta #more on cynthia in the comics under the cut #my salt on this subject appears to be neverending lol #old ask #dat's me #also still suspicious that you get no results when you search my blog for eg. julia koenig #kreigerfrau #steve rogers #steve meta