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[ closed ] this is the first day of my life.
Who: steve rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
starspangle) & peggy carter (revlon)
What: a proposal befitting of two vintage war vets
When: forward-dated to post-november event
Where: back at the carter-rogers residence, olympia
Warning(s): none
[ It's good to be back in familiar terrain. The trek from Dranbu hadn't been particularly harrowing or extraneous, but between the mutated creatures and the constant manipulation of thoughts and memories of everyone involved, he's glad to know exactly who he is, where he lives, and whom he knows.
And honestly, at the end of the day, Steve had grown accustomed to the peace and quiet that he'd been afforded in the now-expanded home he shares with Peggy (and sometimes Bucky) here in Olympia. It's a strange thing to think that there could be a home to come back to, as though after all of his years of living and fighting and surviving, he could learn what it is to plant roots into a place, and to plan a kind of future for himself - and more importantly, with someone else.
It's a quiet evening and Bucky isn't home yet (but there's no need to worry) when Steve joins Peggy at their little kitchen table, placing two mugs of tea before them. Yes, tea. Peggy might have a word or two to say about Steve's steeping skills, but he tries. ]
We made it back in one piece, memories intact. I'd call that a victory.
starspangle) & peggy carter (revlon)What: a proposal befitting of two vintage war vets
When: forward-dated to post-november event
Where: back at the carter-rogers residence, olympia
Warning(s): none
[ It's good to be back in familiar terrain. The trek from Dranbu hadn't been particularly harrowing or extraneous, but between the mutated creatures and the constant manipulation of thoughts and memories of everyone involved, he's glad to know exactly who he is, where he lives, and whom he knows.
And honestly, at the end of the day, Steve had grown accustomed to the peace and quiet that he'd been afforded in the now-expanded home he shares with Peggy (and sometimes Bucky) here in Olympia. It's a strange thing to think that there could be a home to come back to, as though after all of his years of living and fighting and surviving, he could learn what it is to plant roots into a place, and to plan a kind of future for himself - and more importantly, with someone else.
It's a quiet evening and Bucky isn't home yet (but there's no need to worry) when Steve joins Peggy at their little kitchen table, placing two mugs of tea before them. Yes, tea. Peggy might have a word or two to say about Steve's steeping skills, but he tries. ]
We made it back in one piece, memories intact. I'd call that a victory.
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[ Disappearances are, arguably, her cup of tea in terms of work. Peggy may toe the line of law enforcement and private investigation at home along with being a federal agent and intelligence operative, but in El Nysa she's learned to juggle all those hats — and then some. She couldn't very well sit on her bottom and do nothing with this latest mystery afoot, but it's frustrating to have come up so empty despite their best efforts.
Well, maybe not their best. It's still something to solve. She's eager to reach out to her other contacts to see what other information she can dig up, but for now, they're done for the day. There's always the next. ]
Which is a grand total of nothing.
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[ And the fact that deities and dragons could exist still has Steve struggling to really believe in it even after spending this much time on El Nysa, surrounded by strange and oftentimes magical occurrences.
He slides his seat back and settles down, suddenly feeling both tired and alert all at once. ]
It'll lead us to something.
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I could try and shake up some of my contacts in the underground. [ Her lips quirk in a wry smile as she glances from her tea to his eyes. Steve knows now, of course. All of it. Her work with Cree, what it's led to. ] I can't make any promises since they are criminals, after all, but...
[ Peggy shrugs, an elegant one-shouldered thing. ]
They know more about this world than we ever will. Even though it has been a little over a year, now.
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[ She's right - the people here, criminals included, know a hell of a lot more about this world than they ever will.
He offers her a wry smile from his cup. ]
Kind of makes you feel like we're always gonna be on the outside looking in, huh.
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Maybe. [ She lifts her mug to her lips and blows gently, waiting for it to cool, then raises her brows at him. ] How did you feel when you woke up in the next century? I'm sure catching up took more than a few months.
[ It's a hypothetical question. But she knows this isn't his first time. ]
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His answer remains the same, because this experience isn't new for him, it's true. ]
Like I was always gonna be on the outside looking in.
[ He shrugs. ]
I had a list. [ He remembers that little book so well; for a while, he used to carry it around with him everywhere he went. ] Things that changed history or things that everyone seemed to understand. Pop culture references. Songs. Events in history.
Some days it was pretty clear I was still some artifact from another time.
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[ She's done her best to play along with the locals this past year, but now that their secret is out, there's no point in keeping up the charade. A holiday, a previous monarch, the music, the theatre, languages... Everything is foreign to them and they won't have enough notebooks take it all down.
So they're left with the present, and it's enough to grapple with. ]
But perhaps I'm simply biased.
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Well, I'll take that compliment, biased or not.
[ It still means something that they can talk about their lives before El Nysa and the Storm and struggle with the displacement together. Shared experience - that'd been something he'd had trouble finding in any other person in the 21st century and he told Natasha as much at one point.
And sometimes, with Peggy, it could feel like no time has passed at all even with the complicated context that surrounded them: timelines and worlds, and the war being over but only one of them really able to live through each of those years. ]
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[ She takes a sip of her tea — which is fine, she's never going to be overly particular after years under wartime rationing — then stands to rummage in their cupboards for a bite to eat. It's past dinner now and they had a light meal on the road home at some pub or other, but she'll always be a little peckish for something more.
They've done their work today. Part of her wants to bring the discussion back around to it, but they'll simply talk themselves into circles with no clear solution or plan. And she'd rather not go to bed frustrated. Tea and biscuits seems the better choice. ]
Can I get you anything while I'm in here? [ she asks, just a few steps away in the kitchen. She has the biscuit tin. ] I may just finish these off myself, you know.
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No, go ahead. [ He lifts his mug, still more than half full of tea. ] I'm okay with this for now. [ Beat. ] What I wouldn't give for a couple slices of pizza right now, though.
[ Not that there are any pizza places planet-side, only something that vaguely resembles a pizza pie, but doesn't taste quite right. Without classic pepperoni and cheese, it's never going to be the same.
He watches her for a moment, quietly relishing in the mundanity of it all. ]
They made some great pizza in the 21st century.
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There's no improving on perfection, [ she teases, pulling her mug over. ] Living in New York did spoil me, but Roman made some delicious pizzas when he was still on the station.
[ It's strange, to live without the Natha. They were never very forthcoming with answers but they were certainly helpful. And they did their best to make the refugees feel at home. ]
I took Percy for some. [ And strange, to live without the friends they've made through these months. ] After the rescue missions last spring.
[ After she'd come close to losing him. ]
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[ Or anything that felt familiar - food, items, hell, even the people.
Hearing Percy's name reminds him, too, of the friends they'd made and lost back to stasis. He was a good kid - smart and brave. He remembers Tony Stark sitting across from him at this very table the day Peggy had locked the two of them in this room so they could forcibly talk and maybe reconcile.
And the rescue missions ... yeah, Steve remembers those too. He'd had trouble sleeping for months after that and he's never been able to figure out the reasoning behind those kidnappings in the first place.
He looks thoughtful. ]
I guess there really are a lot of questions still left unanswered, huh? Those kidnappings, that joke of a ceremony afterwards ... [ Losing Peggy to stasis a few months ago. He finds his hand reaching for hers absentmindedly. ] And now, this.
We've had quite a year.
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A little more than that now. But you're right; we have. [ She sighs, lowering their hands to rest on her lap, her free one wrapping back around her mug. ] Everything that's happened could be connected. I thought I'd have more information by now, but it's all a mess. I want to believe what's happening in the forests now is related, but it's so different from what I've been working on that I can't say.
[ The Institute's experiments, the man she kidnapped for Cree (a lead she intends to chase after now that the spymaster is back in town), not to mention the radicals who rose up against the monarchs. There's the Coalition, too, which feels like it was established to appease them rather than to do any real diplomacy, but she'd like to see it go that way. They have a right. ]
The one thing I know for certain is what we've built together. And that's certainly nothing to sneeze at.
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[ Getting dropped onto a new planet and expected to fend for themselves: blend in with the locals, find jobs, meet new people, and learn about the customs without any prior context?
No, everything they've managed to do, it's pretty miraculous.
Steve squeezes her hand in his. ]
I hate to get sappy but with everything we have been through, I'm glad I always have you to come back to.
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Just because I'm not overly sentimental doesn't mean you have to be.
[ It's only partially true. Peggy's heart is as big as his, as painfully capable of love, but she guards it carefully after so many years of hardship and war. It's instinct, too, learned on the job. But she's always softer around Steve. ]
But for what it's worth, you'll always have me, darling. Right here.
[ By his side. ]
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[ After the Storm, when the Natha had come to collect them and save them from blinking out of existence, Steve couldn't imagine the possibility of being given a second chance with the one person whom he'd given his heart to all those many, many years ago.
He'd waited for the right partner and then he'd lost her, but in the devastation of their worlds and their timelines, somehow they'd found each other again.
He gives her hand another squeeze before he lets go and slides his chair back. ]
Give me a second.
[ There's something he needs to get from their bedroom. ]
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She takes the biscuit tin under her arm and both their mugs to set on the coffee table before toeing off her boots and settling on the cushions with her socked feet tucked under her. It's late November now, which means it's getting chilly out, and she's wondering if they should start a fire if it isn't too late in the evening. In fact, it's the question on her mind when Steve returns, her mug balanced on a bent knee and her head tipping back to look over at him. ]
In here.
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In his hand is a simple band he'd found in the market place on a sunny afternoon, something that felt right when he held it. It felt like something Peggy would like: simple, elegant and reminiscent of a time long ago; their time.
He hadn't expected to feel nervous, but the moment he leaves their bedroom (where he'd stored the ring a few weeks prior to their Dranbu excursion), he can feel his heart begin to pound with just a little more intensity than only moments ago. ]
Hey.
[ He slows his steps by the time he reaches the side of the couch. Here he is, here they are, and as history's most patient man (or most hesitant one), he's tired of waiting. There's nothing left for it. ]
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It's nothing bad, she thinks. He'd have lead with that, if he'd gotten a message from someone (especially if it was Bucky). But she can't suss out anything else beyond that and she isn't worried until she has good reason to be. ]
Not changing into your pyjamas just yet, I see. [ She gestures towards the fireplace with her mug, taking her eyes off him for now. ] Do you think we should build a fire?
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We could, if you want to.
[ He moves to join her on the couch - but he doesn't quite sit, not yet. She might want to put her mug down for this. ]
But before that, I have something to ask you.
[ He lowers himself to one bent knee and turns his palm up. ]
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Maybe as far back as 1944.
Peggy does put her mug down for this, slowly and carefully, onto the end table. And then she straightens, takes a breath. ]
Steve.
[ Not, what are you doing, and certainly not, wait a minute or are you sure. But it's bracing, all the same. ]
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[ And for all the motivational pep-talks and off-the-cuff speeches he can (and does) give, this time he's a little at a loss for words. Everything else sounded cheesy in his mind. ]
But it's simple for us, it always has been the moment we both wound up here. When everything else made no sense, you and I always did. The Volkkran Pact we made a year ago felt like the beginning of that second chance. And now, with everything that's happened since then, I don't want to wait anymore.
[ For the other shoe to drop, for no real reason at all. He'd never had a doubt in his mind who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with if given that chance.
And now they have it. ]
Peggy Carter, will you marry me?
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He doesn't need to say the rest because she already knows it in her heart. And she doesn't even realise she's tearing up until she blinks and one falls with his question; and it startles a laugh out of her. ]
Yes, [ she answers, voice hushed, then she cups his face and leans in to kiss him. Soft, against his lips: ] Yes, of course.
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He pulls back a moment later, ring still in his hand. ] Can't forget this part. [ He says, finding her left hand with his.
He slides the band over her fourth finger and grins. ]
It fits.
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It's beautiful, darling. [ It's perfect. Elegant and understated. It reminds her a little of something her mother may have worn. ] I love it. [ She flicks her eyes up to meet his. ] And I love you.
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Steve reaches out with his free hand, gently tracing her cheek with his thumb. ]
I love you too, Pegs.
[ He leans in to kiss her again. ]
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Be honest, Michael had implored her at her engagement party. Is he really the love of your life? No, Fred wasn't. And she thought Steve had been lost to her, too. Surreal, indeed, to finally have this. ]
My brother would have adored you, [ she murmurs softly, taking his hands in hers. Then she exhales and smirks, teasing a little, ] Even if you are an American.
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[ Like a particular positive quirk to this whole thing.
Steve smiles, because when she still lived with them in their old apartment, Claire had voiced a similar sentiment in regards to his American-ness. ]
I'm sure my mother would have loved you too.
[ His father? Well, who knows. Steve hardly knew the man either. ]