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capkink2014-02-11 08:29 pm
capkinkmod) wrote in capkink2014-02-11 08:29 pm
Prompt Post 1
Remember to title your comments, use appropriate warnings (or "choose not to warn"), and be civil. Embeds are not allowed.
At least one of the characters in your prompt must have been in Captain America: The First Avenger or Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
As of May 3, 2014, the spoiler policy is no longer in effect.
Update, April 22, 2014:
For fills, please use the following format:
Fill: Title
Including the pairing, warnings/CNTW, and any other information after the fill and title in the subject line or in the first line of the comment.
Links:
Page A Mod
Fills
Discussion
Delicious Archive
At least one of the characters in your prompt must have been in Captain America: The First Avenger or Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
As of May 3, 2014, the spoiler policy is no longer in effect.
Update, April 22, 2014:
For fills, please use the following format:
Fill: Title
Including the pairing, warnings/CNTW, and any other information after the fill and title in the subject line or in the first line of the comment.
Links:
Page A Mod
Fills
Discussion
Delicious Archive
Fill: Голубка [My Dove] {4A}
He stared at his face. Stared at the faint line of stubble, knife clenched in his left arm. He'd never shaved himself before this mission. His technicians normally kept up this maintenance, not him, but this was the first time he couldn't even raise the knife further than what it was. His right hand shook, clenched into a fist as he stared at himself.
Bucky.
The Soldier swallowed heavily. The name held so much meaning, yet meant nothing at all.
His name was Bucky.
He swallowed heavily, cast his gaze down in thought. The Soldier couldn't remember this Bucky, couldn't remember anything except what HYDRA wanted him to remember. Yet now, now things had come back. Things from before. Things with Наталья, with the Red Room in Russia. They were bits and pieces, scattered and broken, and brought with them feelings, memories, sights and sounds that often made no sense. He could remember vaguely, even, when HYDRA made him. Remember pain and fire and ice.
He could not remember Bucky, and for some reason that more than anything made his chest burn, made his head hurt. The Soldier sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. He tried to close his eyes, but they wouldn't listen. They darted back up to his face, traced the lines he'd seen on canvas. His right hand shook, his eyes burned.
His name was Bucky.
With a feral yell the Soldier punched the glass, he punched it repeatedly until he couldn't work up the strength to do so anymore. Until he collapsed, knife still clenched in his left hand. For the first time, for the very first time, the Soldier felt hate. Hate to HYDRA, hate towards himself, hate to this knowledge that he had a name and apparently a best friend which were all human things.
For the first time the Soldier hated that he wasn't human anymore.
Steve looked down at the drive he had in his hand, baseball cap tugged low. He couldn't walk outside without being recognized these days, and so often when he didn't want attention he took to dressing 'incognito'. He sighed, looked up and around and then back down at the drive which he shoved into his pocket. Calmly he started walking, keeping his head bowed both in thought and to quell anyone from taking notice.
He didn't know how long he walked, or where he was going. One moment he was standing outside his apartment building, and when he finally did deign to look up he found his feet had brought him to the memorial. Steve swallowed, hard. He looked over the names, skimming through them, until he caught the one he never wanted, never expected to see.
Sargent James Buchanan Barnes.
“We promised each other we'd come back,” Steve said. He didn't have to look behind him to know he had a shadow.
“You and Barnes?” Natasha asked, calmly stepping up until she was even with Steve.
“We promised each other,” Steve said, “that we'd return together. Victorious against Schmidt, against HYDRA, against the world. I'd get married to a great dame, we'd travel for maybe a year, and maybe I'd have a few kids, name him uncle after that.”
Natasha frowned. “Just you?” she asked.
“Bucky wasn't...the type to settle,” Steve admitted. “Said he'd only ever have one true love, and that was living.”
“Sounds like a great guy,” Natasha smiled. Steve shook his head.
“He was a jerk,” Steve muttered. “Half the trouble I got into as a kid was because of him.”
Natasha raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. “Trouble? You? America's darling sweetheart? I can't see it.”
Steve laughed, although it was a short, almost breathless sound. “Contrary to popular opinion I did not, in fact, lead a charmed life,” he pointed out. “But then you already knew that.” Natasha didn't need to reply to that. Steve sighed, glanced at her. “So, my neighbor. The Nurse. She's SHIELD.”
Beside him Natasha stiffened. It was a minute thing, combined with a slight widening of her eyes. She glanced up at Steve. She looked down, warring with what to say for a moment.
“How did you find out?” she asked eventually, choosing not to deny his accusation.
“He visited me,” Steve said. Natasha knew he could be honest to a fault, but this she did not expect.
“The Winter Soldier,” Natasha murmured. “Of course.”
“Why was SHIELD having me watched?” Steve countered, turning from the memorial to look at Natasha properly. Natasha sighed.
“Why else, Rogers?” she asked. “You're a guy whose been frozen for seventy years, in a time so very different. The All American Hero. She's there as much as for your protection as to ensure you adjust well.”
“The world hasn't changed much,” Steve pointed out. “I mean sure, the political climate is different. There's better medicine, better health care, better almost everything. And technology has changed, a lot, but it's not. Difficult to adapt to.”
Natasha pursed her lips. “You know, for a ninety-something you're surprisingly well adjusted.” Steve barked a laugh.
“I went from five foot four practically dying to six foot two practically un-killable in a few minutes,” Steve said. “You learn to adapt pretty quickly when a change like that happens.” Steve smiled at Natasha's laugh. He looked down to his feet, scuffed his shoes into the cement, and then sighed. “His visit wasn't just to inform me about my watcher.”
Natasha leaned against the memorial and crossed her arms. She gave him a look that pretty much demanded he come out with it. Steve stuck a hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the drive.
“Apparently he wanted to give me a gift,” Steve said. “The information we were looking for.”
Natasha snatched the drive from him, she stared in surprise at the word etched along it, before she shot Steve a look. “How the hell did he get this?”
Steve swallowed. “You remember how you told me that most of the community who thinks he exists views him as a weapon?” Natasha nodded. “He said the same thing,” Steve said softly. “Except he tacked on HYDRA as the ones behind the trigger.”
Natasha breathed out heavily, a muffled curse under her breath that Steve didn't understand. “How long have you known?” she asked.
Steve ran his tongue over his teeth. “Since Nick got shot.”
Natasha cursed again, louder this time. She appraised him. “He's not a lost cause you can save, Rogers.”
Steve snorted. “You're the one who said he's strangely attached to me, acting more human for my benefit.” He looked at her. Really looked at her, catching how she shifted from foot to foot minutely, how her trigger finger twitched. “There's something your not telling me.”
“I don't think your—” she started, then amended, “I'm not ready to tell you yet. It's from...before.” She stuffed the drive into her pocket and crossed her arms.
“But you will tell me,” Steve said. Natasha nodded. Steve accepted that with a short breath and a brief closure of his eyes. He took in another, deeper, more solid as he returned his gaze back to her. He knew that look. “I'm not being reckless, you know.”
Natasha shook her head. “I think you know exactly what you're being,” she said. “And I don't think it's healthy.”
Steve pursed his lips. “Then we'll have to disagree.” He started to walk away, hands stuffed in his pockets, back hunched down with his head pointed to the ground.
“You can't save him, Steve!” Natasha shouted after him.
“We'll see,” Steve said back, only under his breath. He figured Natasha knew what he would say anyway.
Nick paced back and forth with a frown on his face. The arm that had been shot rested against hist stomach, still healing. He could start therapy to regain motion in about a week but the doctor they had ordered no movement otherwise.
“Sir, it just doesn't make sense. Everywhere we look its all SHIELD.”
“Maria, run the numbers again,” Nick said. Maria sighed and shook her head.
“I've run then nearly a hundred times, Nick,” she said. “They haven't changed. By all rights at least half of our buildings, our headquarters, and our network of data centers should be HYDRA. It's highly unlikely we would have hit all of the SHIELD buildings only, even.”
Nick pursed his lips. “Phil, your thoughts?”
“HYDRA knows we're coming,” Phil said, his face taking up the screen of Maria's computer. “It's the only explanation, they know and they've been cleaning house.”
“They're tryna make you look bad, boss,” Clint put in, his face overtaking Phils for a second. “Make you look crazy.”
Maria's face pinched as she added, “It makes sense, Nick. They haven't even launched Insight yet, and you know that was schedule for launch almost a month ago.”
“And there are no news on the delay?” Nick questioned.
“No,” Maria said,
“If I may, sir?” May's face appeared this time. “Maybe we should quit looking for HYDRA information within SHIELD data and instead look for HYDRA agents within SHIELD that we can exploit.”
Nick shook his head. “We have no intel with which to begin with on that front. This team was pulled together to find that intel so that we could begin purging SHIELD.”
“You mentioned Rogers and Romanoff ran into SHIELD agents wearing pins,” May pointed out. “If I remember correctly we never had a reason to hand out SHIELD styled pins. You in fact said that it would advertise our agents too easily. What if HYDRA is using that very same idea to identify their moles?”
“May's right,” Phil sighed. “We wouldn't expect HYDRA to proudly wear the SHIELD eagle.”
“It makes a sick sorta sense,” Clint agreed. “Make your agents look like they're super proud to be a part of SHIELD. Especially since y'know you think almost all of the upper levels have been infected with the HYDRA disease. This way they know one another, and yet they get away with it cuz they're strong enough to take on competition that the pins mighta been bringing.”
Nick snorted. “I hate it when you three talk sense together. Maria?”
Maria tugged the computer towards her, clacked a few keys carefully minimizing the communications program. She began to run some numbers, her gaze focused, before she nodded. “It'd make sense,” she said.
Natasha smiled, leaning against the door frame. She looked to Nick, to Maria, and decided to interrupt. She already knew Nick and caught her presence earlier, but now seemed as good a time as any to interrupt.
“Well I've got something even better than a pin equals HYDRA.”
Nick turned. “And what my that be, Natasha?”
Natasha tossed the drive Steve had given her onto the table, walking forward until she could place her hands on the surface.
“How about all the intel we were supposed to be getting?” she countered. “A little...puppy dropped something off for Steve. He in turn gave it to me.”
Maria grabbed the drive, frowned at the Russian carved into its side, as Nick demanded, “Who?”
“Winter,” Natasha answered.
Nick groaned. “Is he breaking programming?” he asked, his tone implying that he doubted it was so simple as that.
“I don't know,” Natasha said. “But he's attached to Rogers.”
Nick scowled, “Is this attachment dangerous?”
“I don't know,” Natasha replied, her hands clenching into fists. “I really don't know.” Nick nodded.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes with his fingers rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “Keep an eye on him,” he said. “If it starts to look dangerous, you intervene, am I clear? We can't lose Rogers.”
Natasha nodded once. That was what she had planned on doing anyway.
Re: Fill: Голубка [My Dove] {4A}
(Anonymous) 2014-04-23 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)I love how you write the characters, and hope you update soon darling! Can't get enough of this <3
Re: Fill: Голубка [My Dove] {4A}
Fill: Голубка [My Dove] {4B}
Steve leaned against the wall, watched the proceedings inside the room. His gaze darted from Sam, to the veterans who shared. He stood, silent. He didn't want to intrude, didn't feel he had a right to. Steve knew he wasn't without his own baggage, but sharing wasn't a thing that had been overly encouraged in the 40's, and even now he often found himself adverse to it.
The only person he shared things with was Bucky. Steve swallowed.
Sam was a good man. He could see it in the kind way he addressed the veterans before him. Steve could see it in the way the man joked with him. Hell even the way Sam was just happy to help, this one Steve knew was a kind soul, deep down. War hadn't torn that from him, and Steve doubted it would.
When the meeting was over Steve slipped away, down the hall. These people didn't need to see him, to be reminded of what they weren't. The Super Soldier serum didn't make him remarkably well adjusted although he played at it, because the media seemed to think most days he was Super Human which, Steve knew, wasn't far off. These men and women who fought for their country would look at him, and see the pure, well adjusted soldier who didn't need help and that, Steve figured, wouldn't help them. They didn't need that reminder.
He waited until the hall fully cleared before he approached Sam. He tried to keep himself open, not slouched, with a congenial smile at his lips. Steve tried to appear happy. He knew he failed when, as he greeted Sam with a smile, Sam gave him this look. This eyebrows raised piercing look that said, I know what you're tryin' to do, pal, and it ain't workin'.
“You know I figured you'd stop by weeks ago,” Sam said, calmly folding up all the cards.
“I've been busy,” Steve shot him a wry grin.
“Sure you have,” Sam nodded. “That boss of yours keeping you on your toes I take it.”
Steve laughed, “Never a dull day.”
“Yeah,” Sam grinned. “Still working with that girl, the red head?”
Steve rubbed the back of his neck with a smile. “Natasha? Yeah.”
“Think you could hook me up?” Sam asked.
Steve looked shocked. Hook Natasha up? He could imagine the look she'd shoot him, imagine the horrifying things she'd subject him to (Clint's offbrand humor and Tony) and shook his head. “I'm pretty sure she's taken,” he said, instead of voicing the horrors that came to mind.
“You sure? Damn,” Sam sighed. “All the good looking ones.” He finished stacking up the cards and looked Steve over. “Hey, you wanna grab a bite to eat? I'm famished, and you look like you haven't had a decent meal all day.”
Steve shook his head, a grin on his face so large it almost hurt. “Is that how it is?” he asked, teasing back to their first conversation.
“That's how it is,” Sam shot back, a smile to his own face.
Steve laughed and decided why not. Sam wasn't going to try and kill him, and he could use a few minutes time just not thinking about Bucky, about the Soldier, about Natasha and the lies and HYDRA. He licked his lips, face only briefly indecisive before he said, “You know what, sounds good. Let's go.”
He watched, from a shadowed corner, ball cap down on on his head, hair in front of his face, a bandanna wrapped around the lower half of his face in a parody of his mask. He had on a hoody instead of his leather and kevlar, and jeans that were loose, looser than the BDU's he normally wore. His left arm was wrapped tight, fingers covered in gloves to hide the brilliant shine of the metal.
The Soldier had followed him from his morning walk, to his meeting with Наталья in a graveyard. He'd slipped from them then, searching for something, something, he hadn't been sure what until he found it. A single, white headstone, a single name. He licked his lips then tugged the bottom one between his teeth, turned, and walked away. The Soldier tried not to think of the second headstone, placed next to it, with another name that he recognized, understood. He headed back towards their meeting point, hands stuffed in his pockets.
He followed Steve to the building where there were men and women who had fought and come back broken.
The Soldier likened himself to being broken, too. A broken weapon because he kept ignoring orders, kept putting the mission off for this. Whatever this was. He craved, craved the silence and yet, somehow, he craved this chaos more and it hurt. He grit his teeth, hunched down, and slipped into an unused room. From here he watched, he waited. When Steve met the strange man who gave him smiles and laughter the Soldier had to look away. Had to clench one fist in his jeans and bite down on another.
The Soldier bowed, curled into a ball. His blood was on fire again, this strange encompassing feeling that made him want to step out of the room and wrap his metal fingers around and squeeze. He couldn't do that, though, it'd bring attention to his presence and he'd have trouble completing his mission and HYDRA wouldn't be pleased. When HYDRA got displeased the Soldier became useless and that, that he couldn't be.
Never again.
It took time, like the last time where he ground his gun to scrap, but the Soldier came back to himself, curbed the dangerous urge with reminders of what he was. A weapon. A tool. This, this emotional output was a malfunction. When his mission was over it'd be wiped from him, making him new again. He hissed a breath through his teeth and straightened.
He barely caught sound of the interloper getting Steve agreeing to grab a bite. His hands clenched into fists, his jaw snapped shut and his teeth ground together as his nostrils flared. The Soldier narrowed his eyes, slipped out of the room, and followed.
The hell was his punk going on a date with some, some, (lounge lizard spook who don't know when ta--) he didn't have a word for it, but he knew he didn't like it.
Natasha flopped back on her bed, phone pressed against her ear as she stared up at the ceiling.
“So, you remember when I told you about Winter?” she asked, looking over her fingers and pursing her lips. She could do with a manicure, actually.
“Yeah, why, what's he got to do with anythin' Nat?” Clint asked back. He was over in Srilanka looking down a sniper scope double checking the guard routes with the simple bluetooth device pressed into his ear. Natasha could see him with the displeased frown that half wanted to quirk up into a smile as he kept his fingers far away from the trigger of the gun he held distastefully in his arms.
“I told you he's back in town, right?” Natasha asked, instead of remarking upon what she knew Clint had to be doing. She had a small smile to her face.
“Well yeah that's why we're doin' all this clean house bullshit, right?”
Natasha hummed noncommittally and rolled over onto her stomach.
“What? Oh don't tell me he hit you on again,” Clint groaned. “Fuck don't tell me you're actually thinkin' of it!”
“No,” Natasha denied. “He's not interested. I doubt he even remembers.”
“Well good,” Clint grumbled, “because stealin' you away from him once was a pain in the ass.”
“Careful, Clint, your sounding a little possessive there,” Natasha teased, kicking her legs up behind her as she reached for the television remote.
“Oh stuff it. I have every right to be possessive and you know it.”
Natasha laughed. “That's not why I brought him up, bird boy.”
“Seriously? Fuckin' Tony,” Clint grumbled.
“It suits you,” Natasha said.
“Fuck you.”
“While the idea of phone sex is wonderfully arousing,” Natasha's voice grew a bit deeper at the thought, licking her lips at how she could make Clint come undone over the phone. Given his little hitched breath he knew exactly what she was thinking. “That's not why I called either.”
“Then get to the point!” Clint whined. “And don't tease a guy, Nat. It's cruel.”
Natasha laughed again, flicked on the tv with a press of a button. “Fine, fine. He's been stalking Steve.”
There is a pause, then a yell of, “Wait, WHAT?!” followed by cursing, the distinct sounds of a weapon being dismantled and running. “Please tell me there isn't a hit out on our All American Pie.”
“Would that make this better?” Natasha asked. She could here Clint pause to think even as he was running.
There is a rough, “No!” as Clint realized what Natasha was implying and Natasha laughed.
“You should see him speaking,” she said. “His tones gets all sappy and he turns the most horrifying of phrases into these adorable little moments.”
“What is with,” Clint pants, pauses for a breath and Natasha could hear him fire an arrow, “you Russian spies,” another arrow and an explosion, “and Captain Tight-Ass?”
“It's a fantasy, Clint,” Natasha laughed. “I doubt it would ever happen. Besides, you know I'll always come right back to you.” Clint doesn't respond but Natasha isn't worried, she can hear the combat all the way on her end and it makes her smile.
“Yeah,” Clint eventually said when it all goes quiet. “I know. Love you.”
“Ты нужен мне,” Natasha replied. She looked and sounded pained by the admission, and she knew logically she always was.
Clint murmured, “I know.”
They hung up at the same time.
Re: Fill: Голубка [My Dove] {4B}
OP
(Anonymous) 2014-04-24 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)Re: OP
Fill: Голубка [My Dove] {4C}
Sam took them to a little Mexican joint he knew with a laughed, “Hope you don't mind Mexican?”
Steve shook his head with a smile, and a laughed, “No complaints from me.”
The place wasn't crawling with people, which helped Steve relax. He didn't like walking out in public much anymore with how easy he got recognized. When he did walk the streets of DC he was usually hunched down with a ball cap tugged as low as he could get it, staring at new and old buildings, categorizing all the changes in the world to what he knew. They stacked up, often left him breathless as to how much the world was different. Even the back alleys were changed.
Sam walked up to the hosts stand and talked to a hostess in low words. Steve turned his head away, stepped back and tried to focus on something else to give at least the facade of some privacy. He could hear still plain as day how Sam requested an isolated booth, caught the motion towards Steve and the little half-smile Sam had on his face.
The Hostess led them to a back booth in a somewhat darkened corner, gave them their menus and left them to order. Steve looked it over, debating what he wanted to eat. Sam only glanced at his and put it down.
“You ever have Mexican before?” he asked, curious.
“I've had a lot of different things since coming back,” Steve replied with a smile. “Tony took us out for schwarma after New York, actually.”
“Really?” Sam blinked. “How was that?”
“Interesting,” Steve shrugged. “But then food has changed.”
Sam laughed. “Yeah, they used to boil everything you said.”
Steve set down his menu, “said, “They sure did,” with the half-shake of his head and the smile on his lips. The waitress came by, got their drinks and their order, and then took off with the menus. Sam pursed his lips once she was gone, looked at Steve who was glancing around the restaurant in curiosity.
“Steve,” Sam said, carefully. “I know some of what your going through.”
Steve just sort of froze for a second, then turned back to Sam. He caught the serious face on what he hoped would be a friend and shook his head. He put on that winning smile, said, “I don't know what you're talking about.”
Sam groaned. “C'mon man, everyone knows your story,” he pointed out. “You can't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Look, I. We've all lost someone. We all deal with the grief, the guilt.” Sam breathed out slowly. “You're not alone, Steve.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Steve said, a bit more firmly as his smile slipped from his face.
Sam sighed. This wasn't working right, so he turned his head to the side and thought, for a moment, of Riley and what it took for him to open up about the guilt of what happened. He wasn't lying when he said people knew Captain America's story, knew that the man had lost his SiC, lost Bucky Barnes the best friend. Most people forgot that for Steve Rogers it'd barely been three years, and even then that wasn't nearly enough time. It'd never be enough time.
Sam lowered his head. “I lost my wingman, my best friend, Riley,” he said carefully, “over there.” He swallowed. “We were flying a night mission, a standard PJ rescue op.” Steve swallowed heavily. “Nothin' we haven't done before,” Sam continued, gave a brief sort of half-grimace half-smile, “until an RPG knocked Riley's dumb ass out of the sky.” Sam looked down, then looked away. “Felt like I was only up there to watch.”
Steve swallowed, face pale. “Sam, I--”
“Believe me,” Sam said. “I've got an idea of what you're going through. And, and while it doesn't ever stop hurting, it sure as hell gets easier to move on. Talking about it,” Steve gave him a look here and Sam raised his hands, his smile coming a bit easier, “hey, hey, I know what that sounds like, but it's true. Talking does help.” He grimaced, added a, “Sometimes,” and a wry sort of smile.
Steve didn't quite smile, his face a bit pained at Sam's admission, at how well Sam had read him but then, they'd both been in war, they'd both lost someone close, and so Steve figured perhaps that was why, better than anyone, Sam spotted it. He sighed, said, “I don't,” backtracked because he was going to sound insensitive and he didn't want to do that and instead said, “Thanks.”
“I know its not the same,” Sam said, correctly guessing what Steve was going to say. “I mean, hell, if half of what is speculated is true...”
“What?” Steve looked up, confused and almost ashen sick. “What's speculated?”
Sam grimaced, cursed his loose tongue, and said, “You know what, it doesn't matter. I mean I don't want to force you out of the closet if you're even in it.”
“What does that mean?” Steve demanded, leaning forward.
“Wait, what do you mean what does that mean?” Sam blinked, shocked. “Haven't you been given the highlights? Don't Ask, Don't Tell? The LGBT movement?”
Steve shook his head, brow furrowed, confused. “I don't know what you're talking about,” he said instead, lips pursed.
“Fuck,” Sam hissed between his teeth. Now he felt like he really blundered this. He bowed his head, palmed his face for a second, then sat up, said, “I don't know if I can explain it good enough, so. So when you get home, google it. Please. And if you have any questions after that just ask.”
Steve frowned, opened his mouth to ask what Sam meant, but then their food arrived and so he fell silent in favor of eating. He honestly felt starved.
He paced outside the building, debated actually going in and slitting the bastards throat who thought to take Steve out for a meal, then took that thought back with a grimace, imagining how Steve would look, and paced some more. He had to make a point, though, he wasn't sure what that point was. He paced some more, hunched his shoulders, clenched his fist.
Finally the Soldier breathed out, a steadying, fortifying breath and stepped into the restaurant.
“I'm meeting a friend,” he said to the hostess, nodded to the back corner after quickly taking stock of the room. “It's a surprise.” When she continued to stare at him, stare at his face, he sighed. “I have scarring, I'd prefer not to be stared at,” he added with a scowl. He didn't, but it was the easiest way to have his face hidden and not be called on it.
The hostess laughed, nervous, said a quick, “Oh, go ahead then,” and the Soldier slipped past her and moved towards the booth that held Steve and the, the, he didn't have a name, just a narrowed eye'd stare at this churning of acid in his gut. He walked until he was right next to them, stood there for about a full minute while they ate and didn't talk.
It was Steve who noticed him, hands shoved into his pockets and back hunched slightly with a baseball cap tugged low. Steve's eyes went wide, in shock, and the other beside him blinked.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
The Soldier had to withhold himself from reaching out and tugging this, this (remember!) interloper up by his neck. He swiftly moved his gaze back to Steve he looked pale, but reached up and tugged him into the booth with a hissed, “Sit down.”
The Soldier sat mechanically.
“Do you know him?” the interloper asked, and Steve raised a hand to quiet him. The Soldier couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips, hidden behind the bandanna, at that.
“Have you been following me?” Steve demanded, voice low. The Soldier tilted his head.
“I take it from your tone that this is not something that is allowed,” the Soldier stated calmly.
“Yeah, it's creepy and borderline illegal,” Steve said lowly.
“A lot of what I do is illegal,” the Soldier pointed out, then amended, “All of it, actually.”
The interloper glanced between them, asked, “Should I call the police?”
“No!” Steve snapped, but he glared at the Soldier and not at the other. “It's okay, Sam. Right?”
The Soldier shrugged, said, “I'm not here for anyone.”
“Except me,” Steve pointed out so the Soldier corrected, “I'm not here for a mission.” Steve sighed, scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Budge over, I need to. Use the bathroom,” he said with a sigh. He needed to clear his head, more like it, but the Soldier willingly slipped out of the seat to let Steve out. Steve added, “Stay here, please,” under his breath and the Soldier calmly sat back down and watched Steve leave.
Sam blinked, surprised at the interaction, but looked over at the Soldier who stared at him with narrowed, furious eyes.
“Uh, you didn't by any chance lie to the good Captain, did you?” Sam asked, just a hint of nervous.
“No,” the Soldier said. He pulled out a thin, butterfly knife from his pocket and toyed with it, leaning back in the booth. Sam swallowed, but kept his nerves otherwise under control.
“Good,” he said. “What do you want then.”
The Soldier smiled. “You're good. You recognized that I didn't walk in for him.” Sam nodded and the Soldier nodded back.
“I can recognize intimidation when I see it,” Sam pointed out.
“Good. Then this will go easier,” the Soldier replied. “Touch him, come on to him, do anything I see that I don't like, and I will slit your throat in your sleep. Hurt him and I will do much worse.” At these words the Soldier leaned forward, held the knife loosely but firmly in a semi-threatening manner.
“The overprotective big-brother talk?” Sam asked, and when the grip tightened he sighed. “The jealous boyfriend talk. Does he know you think of him like that?”
The Soldier glanced away, then back, then away again. He had a snarl on his face.
“He knows me,” he said simply, because Steve did. Steve just didn't know it yet.
“Really?” Sam asked, skeptical.
The Soldier growled, glanced away, glanced back, glanced away again. He leaned across the table, towered over Sam, snarled, “He knows me,” and tugged down the bandanna for a brief second. His eyes were dark, infuriated, and Sam sucked in a sharp surprised breath. Sam only recognized him because he'd seen the photographs, visited the memorial, and not five minutes ago had Steve pulling out a beaten picture from his wallet, the only surviving photo he'd had.
The Soldier tugged the bandanna back up and leaned back int the seat, playing with the butterfly knife again.
“Does he know its you?” Sam asked, his voice slightly higher. “How the hell are you even alive?”
The Soldier shrugged, said, “You tell him, and I'll make you beg for death,” coldly. He didn't know how to answer Sam's other question, didn't even know the details of what happened to him, himself, so he kept silent.
“He has a right to know,” Sam pointed out.
The Soldier shrugged again, but gave a pointed glare in Sam's direction as Steve stepped out and returned. He got to his feet.
“I hope you enjoyed my gift,” the Soldier said, and turned to walk out of the establishment.
“Where are you going?” Steve asked, a frown on his face.
“Research,” was all the Soldier said. He glanced back, looked at Sam, and felt himself smile before he turned right around and left.
Steve shook his head, looked to Sam. “You okay?” he asked. Sam laughed.
“Yeah,” he said, a bit breathlessly, a bit wide eyed. “You have one crazy ass stalker.”
Steve grinned and shrugged. There wasn't much he could say about that. Sam stared at him, sighed, and closed his eyes. He knew, somehow, that this was just one more notch into how deep down a rabbit hole Steve was. He wondered if there was any dragging him out and back into safety. Sam doubted it.
Re: Fill: Голубка [My Dove] {4C}
(Anonymous) 2014-04-28 02:50 pm (UTC)(link)But no matter where this is heading, I really really hope you update soon <3