#because she thought that shield would corrupt tony

[themculibrary]

Pepper/Natasha Masterlist 2

part one

5 Times Natasha Bought A Gift, and the 1 Time They Made It All To Pepper (ao3) - Kuailong T, 3k

Summary: “You really are bad at this.” The words were followed by a laugh as Pepper approached her, until the other woman was standing close enough that Natasha could smell the faint scent of vanilla that seemed to be Pepper’s usual scent. Still, something about Pepper’s statement made her pull away suddenly.

“Bad at what?” She asked, hesitant and looking at the floor as best as she was able to.

“Asking someone out.” Pepper’s answer didn’t alleviate the sudden anger roiling in her gut.

A dash of black pepper (fanfiction.net) - Red Batons T, 6k

Summary: As the CEO of Stark industries and former assistant to Tony Stark Pepper thought she was pretty prepared for most things. But here comes this redhead and suddenly Pepper is stuck in a situation where she has to relearn what she thought she knew. T for language, but might change over time.

Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do (ao3) - copperbadge steve/tony, pepper/natasha M, 38k

Summary: The year is 1930, Prohibition and the Depression are both in full swing, and Chicago Police Detective Steve Rogers has his hands full. There's a dead body on the banks of Lake Michigan, the entire city's legal system is corrupt, and the king gangster of the North Side, Tony Stark, has taken more than a passing interest in him.

Buy My Lunch, Steal My Heart (ao3) - ChocolateXMyMouth G, 2k

Summary: Natasha hands in her two week notice for a job she was never intending on staying at.

She's going to be thankful she decided to do this right before lunch.

Close Call (ao3) - outlier M, 1k

Summary: One minute Natasha is there, sitting in the chair across from her desk, and the next she’s gone. It’s done so quickly and seamlessly that she begins to wonder if she was hallucinating Natasha in the first place because a person can’t disappear, right?

Codename: Strawberry (fanfiction.net) - Neon-Pirate T, 4k

Summary: Natasha’s on a mission. Her goal, get to one Pepper Potts.

Decompression (ao3) - frogfarm M, 1k

Summary: Pepper takes care of everything. Who takes care of her?

Post-Iron Man III. Natasha POV.

Fragile Hearts Have The Toughest Exteriors (ao3) - starttrekkingaroundasgard T, 1k

Summary: Natasha comes home from a mission bruised and bloody. Pepper cleans her up and they argue about the risks she takes for SHIELD.

Let Me Be Your Comfort (ao3) - Lady_Katana4544 (orphan_account), orphan_account G, 200

Summary: Pepper reaches out as Natasha stands.

Mix and Match (ao3) - anxiousgeek T, 4k

Summary: Natasha wears pyjamas and Pepper falls in love.

Natasha and Pepper's Great Night In (ao3) - Floris_Oren E, 2k

Summary: Natasha discovers Pepper in the bath tub; thing is she has a pair of cuffs that need using and the challenge to get Pepper out of the bath and into the bed. Pepper doesn't mind this change in plans what so ever.

Nothing That Isn't True (ao3) - schifaroo pepper/natasha, minor steve/tony, minor clint/phil T, 2k

Summary: Always the match-maker, never the matched—Natasha’s friends are starting to take notice that while she’s helped them find their happily ever afters, they haven’t returned the favor.

Natasha’s actually quite alright with that.

Taking a Risk (ao3) - Tamoline M, 1k

Summary: It'd been an awful day, thanks to Tony Fucking Stark. But maybe taking an additional risk would be worth it.

Useless in Different Ways (ao3) - Reioka G, 5k

Summary: Dr. Potts and Dr. Stark make a cute couple, Natasha has to admit mulishly.

Too bad no one told her that she was actually the one dating Dr. Potts.

Within Her (ao3) - art_by_daphneblithe, jeffthemermaid E, 6k

Summary: Pepper and Natasha explore the struggles of intimacy, honesty and openness.

Angst, with a happy, smutty ending.

you know just how to be cruel (ao3) - ellenuiene pepper/natasha, steve/bucky M, 3k

Summary: Not many people knew it, but Pepper was angry. That quiet anger always steamed underneath her soft skin which always smelled like her pineapple body spray and those chocolate candles she loved to burn. She was terrified and eventually, it turned into anger.

"I never told you that it isn't dangerous. I only promised you that I won't die without your knowledge," words felt ashy in Natasha's mouth. It felt as if she was swallowing mouthfuls of sand with every single syllable and it was choking her.

Pepper's breathing was ragged. Her warm hands were slightly shaking as she took one deep breath after another and was probably thinking how to stab her or any other sane way to bring her to her senses.

or: angsty lesbians who can't admit their feelings.

[ad1thi]

Your Pain (is my burden to bear):  P4

hey so i hit 100 followers!!

i asked y’all what you wanted me to write for this and i got italian!tony and soulmate!au so here it is!!

(this picks up exactly where P3 ended)

--

Tony’s first reaction, understandably, is to lift the gauntlet he’d been fiddling with and repulsor the fuck out of the man standing in front of him. 

What he isn’t expecting is to feel the burn on his lower abdomen, even as the figure in front of him crumples against the force of the blast.

it takes about 2 seconds for everything to fall into place, and Tony groans as he hides between his sofa

oh per l'amor di dio, he thinks, before pushing himself off the ground and pointing the engaged repulsor at his soulmate

to his credit, his soulmate doesn’t attempt to come near Tony again, just stands there

togliti la tua attrezzatura, tony says (before inwardly cursing) and repeating,”take off your gear”

Titling his head in confusion(? Tony isn’t sure because of the whole ninja mask he’s got going on)- his soulmate lightly runs his fingers over multiple buckles and shrugs it off to reveal a metal arm and-

qualcuno lassù deve veramente odiarmi, tony mutters as he takes in the intricate workings of his arc reactor displayed across the man’s admittedly gorgeous chest

“Natalie darling,” Tony raises his voice only an inflexion, knowing that JARVIS will carry his message, “you might want to drop your SHIELD fursona and join me in the living room. My soulmate just dropped in for a visit.”

It’s all he manages to get out before he abruptly falls to the floor, palladium poisoning coursing through his veins and making him feel. 

The last thing he remembers before hitting the ground is watching his soulmate rush towards him, and the odd sensation of fingers running lightly through his hair

--

James is unclear why his soulmate wilfully hurt himself, and why he insists on switching between italian and english in some inane way; but he’s willing to play along to his soulmate’s games 

When the repulsor is aimed at him a second time, he belatedly realises that his soulmate might not know who he is

(in hindsight, the mask covering his face no longer seems like a good idea)

While a small part of him preens at the idea that his soulmate was able to knock him back, the much larger part of him is debating picking up his pint-sized soulmate and carting him off to that workshop he saw in the blueprints and insisting that he work on the thing in his chest

arc reactor, he reminds himself, like the one powering the warehouse, but smaller

James has to routinely remind himself that his soulmate didn’t have the privilege of staying in a backwater flat in Romania and studying his soulmark until he figured out who it belonged to, and that James had the distinct advantage of knowing his soulmate was Tony Stark

(while all tony stark knew about james was that he died falling off a train)

He reminds himself of this when his soulmate asks him to strip (and bites his tongue on the comment that his soulmate owes him dinner first)

He reminds himself of this when his soulmate chooses to inform someone else of his existence

but he completely forgets it when his soulmate doubles over and also hits the floor

James reacts instinctively, falling to his knees and outstretching his flesh arm to cup Tony’s head- before delicately placing his head on his shoulder and running his fingers through his hair

From this angle, James can see the criss cross effect of the poisoning mapping itself against his soulmate’s neck, and valiantly resists the urge to kiss down his neck and leave marks of his own

None of this however, distracts him from the near silent set of footsteps making it’s way over to them and steadily making him prick with uncertainty

His hand is on his gun as the footsteps grow louder, and when he hears the hushed, Yasha? he doesn’t even think- just shoots

what was his soulmate thinking, calling a black widow?

tbc

Part 3

[blasphemous-tiefling]

I think part of the reason why there’s so much discord in the MCU fandom has something to do with the varying directors for TFA, The Avengers, Winter Soldier, AOU, Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame. And really, the backbone of the issue is how the different directors and how the audience interprets Steve’s character. Strap in. Because this is a long rant on a topic that normal people really don’t care about.

Joe Johnston created a Steve Rogers that was eager, begging to go to war. I absolutely adored the line in AOU when Steve says, “What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?” Because I feel that sums up Steve in TFA pretty well. He’s anti-bully. He wants to fight. But his whole life he’s been put down, stomped on. Steve repeatedly enlisting is both selfish and selfless. His conversation with Bucky in TFA is a great example of this. Steve says, “There are men laying down their lives. I got no right to do any less than them. That’s what you don’t understand. This isn’t about me.” And Bucky says, “Right. Because you’ve got nothing to prove.” And that’s it. Yes, Steve wants to fight because he’s always been bullied and doesn’t want anyone else to feel that way. Yes, Steve wants to fight because he wants to defend his country. But also Steve wants to fight because no one has ever given him a chance. Steve wants to fight because he wants his life to mean something. Steve wants to die in battle because he thinks it’s honorable. He wants to prove himself. Steve wants it so desperately for both selfless and selfish reasons, which is why he was so willing to take the serum despite the fact that Erskine told him about past failures. There’s even a certain selfishness to his sacrifice at the end of TFA. Many stories that involve sacrifice ride the line of selfishness and selflessness. By sacrificing himself, you could argue Steve is taking “the easy way out.” He’s distraught over Bucky’s death. He’s won the battle he’s been fighting since getting the super soldier serum. By sacrificing himself, Steve can effectively end the troubles caused by the Tesseract and leave without dealing with the consequences of his sacrifice. This point is a bit of a stretch, and not something that I personally agree with, but the thought it there.

Joss Whedon takes that selflessness and turns it into irrefutable righteousness, and it’s disgusting. Steve has a few goofy lines in The Avengers and AOU that I’ll laugh at, but ultimately, everything he does seems so out of character for him. His constant nagging and arguing with Tony is so unnecessary and doesn’t build friendship. His desire to do everything S.H.I.E.L.D. tells him to do is completely incorrect because Steve went against the military and broke the 107th out of the Hydra facility without permission and repeatedly did whatever he wanted without asking. His incessant need to have all the Avengers do as he says is totalitarian and unbearable to watch. Truthfully, this is where I think people misunderstand Steve the most because not everyone watches every solo movie. The Avengers movies are the biggies that most people won’t miss. So general audiences only see this righteous, dictator Steve Rogers and that really pisses me off.

This is one of the only times you’ll hear me praise the Russos, so get ready- Thank goodness Winter Soldier and Civil War follow Joe Johnston’s characterization of Steve. They even dig into his selfishness and rebellious streak, which I adore. Steve isn’t one to just blindly follow orders. Hello? Does “not a perfect solider but a good man” ring any bells? Perfect soldiers follow orders. Good men fight for what’s right even when the world is telling them not to. That’s who Steve Rogers is. What I adore about Winter Soldier so much is that we see Steve attempting to be this perfect soldier, but it’s just not sitting well with him. Something is fishy and weird. He talks to Peggy about her life. She says her only regret is that Steve didn’t get to live his. Steve talks to Sam about possibly getting out of government work. Sam is that representation for Steve- having a hard time finding out why he’s really in it to begin with. The entire film is about Steve going against the government, military, and S.H.I.E.L.D. with both selfish and selfless desires. He knows he needs to do something because Hydra is growing in S.H.I.E.L.D. but he also doesn’t want anything to do with it anyway, so why not tear it all down? Once Bucky is revealed as the Winter Soldier, Steve puts his life on the line to try to get him back. It’s selfish really. When Steve takes off his helmet and drops his shield, he made the decision to die because he wasn’t gonna continue to live without Bucky. Despite the fact that Steve made friends with Natasha and Sam, he didn’t care. All that mattered to him in that moment was James Bucky Barnes. This is very reminiscent of TFA when Steve breaks Bucky out of the Hydra lab. As the world’s only successful super soldier, Steve could’ve been very valuable to the American government and military. He was even doing mild good by helping sell bonds. But that didn’t matter. His country and his military was no longer priority number one. When it comes to Steve Rogers, nothing and no one means more to him than Bucky. Steve and Sam’s conversation that I previously mentioned also parallels this. After Sam lost Riley, he didn’t want to be in the military anymore. He said he felt like he was up there just to watch, nothing he could do. This is a direct parallel to how Steve feels about Bucky.

Civil War, while a trash movie, sticks with Steve’s selfish yet selfless motivations. “What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don’t let us?” Not wanting to surrender his right to choose is Steve Rogers. He just put down S.H.I.E.L.D.- an organization that was giving him demands. Why would he sign his life away to the American government again? Corporations can be run by greed and corruption- something Steve doesn’t want the world to be full of but also something he doesn’t want his world to be ruled by. When Bucky is framed for killing King T’Chaka, Steve knows the Accords will bring Bucky in and possibly execute him. He can’t let that happen. And he asks Natasha not to get in his way because he doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. He knows how dangerous Bucky can be, but he doesn’t want Bucky or anyone else getting hurt or in trouble due to this sticky Accords situation. Both selfish and selfless. I don’t even want to get into later in the film, but I guess I will. Guys, there’s no world, no universe, no place in time that Steve wouldn’t try to stop Zemo. Tony never even gave him the chance to explain himself. It was either, “Come with us or we fight.” Steve gathered that team together- not to fight Tony but to fight Zemo. It was never his intention to fight with Tony. He was just trying to stop Zemo. Now, when Tony learns about his parents’ death, anger is a valid emotion. Physically fighting and attacking Steve and Bucky to the point of death? Not valid or even remotely reasonable. It makes no sense as to why Tony would be that angry at Bucky- someone who was tortured and brainwashed to do what he did. Steve had his reasons for not telling Tony considering that when it comes to Steve Rogers, nothing and no one means more to him than Bucky. Of course, Steve was going to hide the truth from Tony in an effort to protect Tony, Bucky, and himself. Selfish yet selfless.

Infinity War gives us the glorious lines of “I’m not looking for forgiveness. And I’m way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender. So we’re here to fight. And if you wanna stand in our way, we’ll fight you too.” and “We don’t trade lives.” These lines beautifully sum up Steve’s rebelliousness and need to fight while also not risking others’ lives. He’ll always risk himself first. There’s not much to say about this film considering it’s mostly action and Steve shares the screen with just about every other superhero, so we’re not given a lot of time. But overall, the Russos kept that same Steve Rogers.

And then Endgame does a complete 180 and decides to serve us Joss Whedon’s Steve with a conservative, pro-military, unbelievably illogical twist. Steve’s obsession with Peggy in this film is so out of place. She would’ve died seven years prior in the MCU. Steve’s been living in the present with Natasha, Sam, Bucky, Wanda, Vision, and T’Challa. That was his family. He lost Sam, Bucky, Wanda, Vision, and T’Challa in the Infinity War. It only makes sense that he would be fighting for them in Endgame. Yet he’s not. We’re beat over the head about how much he misses Peggy and it’s so unbelievably weird. Steve is never allowed to mourn Sam and Bucky specifically despite the fact that they were his number one companions. He never mentions them. Never has a touching reunion with Bucky. Barely has any reaction to Natasha’s death. It’s disgusting honestly. This is not “I will fight to my death for the people I love” Steve Rogers. And the ending is the most pathetic of all. There’s no world, no universe, no place in time that Steve would willingly go almost a hundred years away from Bucky and Sam, somewhere he wouldn’t fight for others. “Pretending you could live without a war.” I mean, come on. He’s Steven Grant Rogers. It’s disgusting to paint him as this man who would throw away his friendships and a world that is being bullied all for some girl he kissed once and barely knew. No. No, no. Not my Steve Rogers.

I give the directors a little too much crap. I’m fully aware that a whole team of people make these movies, but you can’t deny that Steve changes from movie to movie depending on the director. Endgame is the exception in which the directors were the same, yet they diverged completely from their original interpretation of the character. I’ve heard people say that it had to be an anti-gay agenda- that ending Steve’s story with Bucky would’ve been too gay even if they weren’t romantically involved, but I still think that’s pathetic. Honestly, I would’ve rather seen Steve die than have his character trashed and pooped on like this. From a narrative perspective, what happened in Endgame is not okay. Marvel Studios’ treatment towards “sideline” characters like Natasha, Rhodey, Sam, and Bucky- particularly in Infinity War and Endgame- is not okay. Yeah, I’m aware I get too heated over this fictional universe. But the characters are the only reason I stick around. The stories are lackluster for me. I’ve never been one to watch movies for action sequences. But I’ve always been in love with Steve Rogers as a character- complicatedly riding the line of selflessness and selfishness, dedicating himself wholeheartedly to a cause and to the people he loves. When in the end that character was completely scrapped and shredded in the garbage disposal like crust on bread or the skin of an apple, I’m gonna be angry for a long time.

[midethefangirl]

Captain America: Civil War - My Thoughts

I know this is like 5 years late but for this, I’d like to resurrect a barely dead discourse that succeeded in not just dividing the Avengers but also dividing the fandom. Before we start, content warning for spoilers and let’s dive into this mess.

So, basically, the entire conflict of civil war stemmed from General Thaddeus Ross (who is a hypocritical dick, btw) coming to lecture the Avengers on being destructive despite conducting destructive experiments (ahem, the Abomination and the Hulk) but I digress. Then, Ross presents the Sokovian Accords which is really lengthy and we see Steve reading like a few chapters(?). Now, let us note that the Accords were presented to the Avengers after a mission-gone-wrong killed about 11 people in Lagos (lay-gos, not lah-gos that pronunciation gave me headaches as a Nigerian).

So, the Sokovian Accords were written by 117 countries and vetted by the UN asking for the Avengers to be under oversight (which SHIELD would have done if HYDRA hadn’t infiltrated it in the first place but it is what it is). Somehow, Steve made it about “our right to choose” (how?! Cause I’m not understanding) and decided to not sign*.

*he later got back to sign, then backed out when he learnt that Tony had placed Wanda under house arrest (even though it was for her protection. I do believe Tony should have fully informed Wanda about keeping her in the Avengers’ Tower)

My issues with the plot of Civil War are:

1. The Sokovian Accords were not read out loud or placed on some kind of PowerPoint slide for the audience to understand why Team Cap is against the Accords. No, the fandom wiki is not a source because that one is from Agents of SHIELD and not a lot of MCU fans are familiar with that show (yours sincerely included). Assuming the contents were read out loud or discussed by the Avengers, I’d have understood why Team Cap refused to sign the accords but since none of that was given, I’d remain Team Iron Man for this one.

2. The Sokovian Accords is not the American Constitution. Then again, the MCU fandom tends to be American-centric and most Americans seem to have this belief that the world revolves around them (and it manifests itself in Civil War discourse).

3. Contrary to popular opinion, the Sokovian Accords were about 117 (mostly third-world) countries asserting their sovereignty and boundaries, not taking away rights from the Avengers. If we go by what the MCU wiki claims about the accords, yes, some parts are absurd (like asking for blood samples and using trackers, why are those necessary?). However, when 117 countries state that they want you to respect their boundaries, I think it is best to comply. Unfortunately, respecting boundaries is one thing the USA has a problem complying with and guess who happens to represent America?

4. The Accords affected only their hero lives, not their lives as a civilian. I doubt the UN would limit the Avengers’ movements as civilians

5. Let us not forget how Steve and Clint protect Wanda from accountability and responsibility. Wanda in the MCU is like y/n in many fanfics where everyone (except for the “big bad villain” who in this case is Tony and 117 countries) seems to love her and want to protect her from facing the consequences of her actions. Anyone *ahem Tony* who has a bit of problem with her is suddenly the enemy. Not to mention how Wanda seems to have a knack for causing destruction in African countries (Johannesburg, Lagos, Wakanda)

6. And fandom behaviour from the Team Cap stans

7. Also, why is Civil War not an Avengers part 3? It’s better than making it a Captain America trilogy and then trying to frame Steve as being right.

8. I do believe that the accords were sped up which left little time for the Avengers to discuss and compromise on certain issues. If they were given more time to discuss, compromise and negotiate, I think the movie would have ended better than it had.

9. In addition, I also agree with Team Cap stans on how the UN arbitrarily deciding to shoot Bucky on sight is a human right violation.

10. “The safest hands are our own” why does this sound like a white saviour talk point from Steve? The accords is about 117 countries wanting you to respect their boundaries and the best you can come up with to refute that is saying something a white saviour would say?

11. “Even if the whole world is telling you to move...” just shut the fuck up, this is no way comparable to 117 countries trying to assert their sovereignty.

12. Look if I have to choose between surrendering a few rights as a hero and just dismissing that of civilians as potential damage, I’d go with the former because the people whom I’m suppose to protect come first. For me to dismiss their deaths as “we can’t save em all” is just not it.

13. “She’s just a kid”, a few years later and I still hate that term. One, it’s infantilizing an adult white woman (something white men have historically done and we all know how that went) . Two, while Tony was obviously wrong for not informing Wanda about her house arrest, he was right to keep her in the Tower when they were people who would harm her with every chance they could find. **

** after watching WandaVision, some people might find every reason to want to harm her.

14. Let us also discuss the motivation of those in Team Iron Man vs Team Cap

Team Iron Man

Tony: feels guilty for the events of Age of Ultron, believes that he’s stepped out of line and the Avengers need oversight.

Natasha: believes that the Avengers should listen to the public and the UN after all, if they had one hand on the wheel, they can still steer.

Vision: believes that the Avengers as a whole bring challenge which brings conflict and then catastrophe.

Rhodey: a soldier; believes in following orders especially when it is from the UN and 117 countries.

T’Challa: dude is just there to kill Bucky. I’m sure if Bucky was on team Ironman, my guy would have joined team cap, lmao 😂.

Spider-Man: not really there for a reason except to bring in Steve to Ross. I do agree that Tony shouldn’t have dragged him to the fight without Peter making an informed decision.

Team Cap

Steve: didn’t want to sign because it takes away his “right to choose”. Idk what that means or how it is relevant to the Sokovian Accords but okay. However, I understand his mistrust considering a few movies ago, we found out HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD and as much as I believe governments are corrupt and the UN is shit, you cannot just enter a country anyhow without warning ahead of time.

Bucky: was his motivation given? I mean, I believe he joined Steve’s side to stop Zeno from unleashing the other winter soldiers. Not that that’s a bad reason, it isn’t.

Sam: again, I don’t think the movie gave us a reason for him being against the Accords. Did he also believe it was taking away his “right to choose”?

Wanda: undecided as of moment of discussion. Joined team cap because Tony placed her on house arrest. While I agree that Tony should have informed her that he was putting her under house arrest and stated the reasons why, I believe it was for good reasons especially when some people might decide to carry out witch hunts (you get it, witch hunts? 😅)

Clint: only joined because Wanda was placed under house arrest. We aren’t given any reason why he would oppose the Accords.

Scott: fan boy of Captain America, need I say more?

15. Also, to Team Cap stans blaming Tony Stark for Team Cap being imprisoned, grow the fuck up. The people in Team Cap are all adults who made their own decisions yet Tony is to blame for them breaking the law (because they did break the law), wtf.

16. “Are you capable of letting go of your ego for one damn second?” Like Steve’s ego didn’t play a part in all this too, lmao.

17. Okay, the final battle was intense and while I believe Bucky was also a victim, I can understand why Tony lashed out at him. The one to blame here is Steve because even if he had no clue Bucky was responsible for the Starks’ death, he still lied to Tony by not telling him who was responsible. It is more appalling to learn that Steve, in an attempt to “protect Tony and Bucky”, was actually covering for HYDRA!

Also, the way Steve stood emotionless while Tony watched a footage of his parents being killed. Yet, he could shield Wanda from watching the news because of how it affected her, okay.

“I can do this all day”, fuck you, Steve

18. Clint exploding at Tony is so fucking hilarious. Tony is right, Clint has a family yet he decided to fight in a war that didn’t concern him. Also, his comments about breaking backs is so tone deaf after Rhodey just broke his back!

19. If Sam was Captain America, I think Civil War wouldn’t have happened at all, from the dialogue in the Raft.

20. Overall, this movie is a fucking mess and I hate it for dividing both the Avengers and MCU fans.

Before I close with this, I want to add that I am not anti-Steve but Civil War really made me hate him. I get, Steve is supposed to be a Boy Scout and shit like that, but he’s a Gary Stu in the MCU, let’s be honest about it. Civil War should have been an Avengers movie, rather than a part of the Captain America trilogy. The Avengers should have been given more time than three days to discuss the Accords and make necessary amendments; after all that went down in Lagos, Wanda should have been made to sit out missions and maybe we could have had someone like Doctor Strange help in training her; Crossbones would have made a great villain but it is what it is; Peter’s introduction to the MCU could have been as him actually interning for the Stark Industries and forming a kind of acquaintance with Tony Stark before Tony finds out that he’s Spider-Man; Steve should have told Tony about HYDRA‘s hands in his parents’ deaths. Anyway, I’ll go read Civil War fix-it fanfics and fanfics where the Avengers are more like family. Fuck Civil War and I’m outta here.

Edit: okay this was a thought I had when I was trying to sleep but it was too good to ignore. Rhodey has a point about Steve arrogance (if that’s the correct term) in saying “the safest hands are our own” and here’s why:

Like he stated “this is not the World Security Council...neither is this SHIELD nor HYDRA” (paraphrased). This is the UN as well as 117 countries. Look, I am as anti-government as one can go and I don’t believe that the UN are reliable (plus, if we really want to go by the AoS version of the Accords, the Accords are flawed and they need amendments), however, given the US records on disrespecting boundaries in many third world countries, I can understand why 117 countries are wary about a bunch of superpowered Americans entering their country.

To us, the Avengers are saving the world. To these 117 countries and the people who have families who were killed in the crossfire (Zemo is a good example), the Avengers are a bunch of nuisances who leave destruction wherever they tread.

I am still neutral on the whole Accords as I don’t know exactly what it entails but for Steve to go “we are surrendering our rights to choose” (again, how is the Accords threatening the Avengers’ right to choose?) when asked to be under oversight is tone deaf.

[carol-effing-danvers]

Steve Rogers is a Monster

Yeah, that’s a hell of a title, isn’t it? Strap in, it only gets worse from here. 

(click here if you’d prefer to read this on AO3)

Forewarning, if you enjoyed the epilogue for Endgame, this particular essay is not for you - and no, I am not bashing the Steve/Peggy shippers, you are beautiful human beings who make the fandom brighter and I’m happy that at least someone in this fandom got the ending they wanted.

Additional warning: if you expect this to be another Civil War debate, you will also be disappointed. There has never been a measurement invented that can adequately describe how much I loathe the verbal dick measuring contest that seems to pass for human interaction between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers in this franchise. It’s not funny or entertaining - it’s exhausting, uncomfortable, and frankly it’s rather lazy writing.

This is about the very specific way that the epilogue in Endgame completely changed the way the character of Steve Rogers can be interpreted, and I don’t just mean the very illogical and contradictory way that time travel is explained, both in the movie itself and the fact that the writers and directors have two completely different views on how that worked out. 

I mean that the choice made by Steve Rogers in the very last minutes of that movie alters the way I view each and every one of his actions starting from The First Avenger and that alteration is exactly what I want to talk about, because whether you view it as deserving or not, what Steve does at the conclusion of Endgame was the most selfish thing humanly possible. Time is a thief, but somehow Steve managed to steal even more than Time.

Side note here: I understand that I am a completely biased Stucky shipper, a friend to Barnes and Noble, a Starbucks aficionado - sorry. Anyway, I’ve always believed that Steve and Bucky were destined blah blah blah, but I was never expecting a Stucky ending. Disney wasn’t going to do that, and I knew that, I wasn’t bothered that Steve and Bucky weren’t doing the smoochies by the end. But Bucky’s facial expression during those last minutes was gut-wrenching. Like...I have no idea what kind of cues the script and directors gave him, but in the future, please don’t ask Sebastian Stan to look sad unless you want soul-crushing devastation. It’s not Seb’s fault, his features are just arranged that way - but the fact that the editing staff allowed Sam to be sad though elated to be entrusted with the Shield and Bucky looked like his soul was being physically torn out of his body was an… interesting choice. 

Other side note: if you’re writing about time travel, I’m begging y’all to get your facts straight. Or just don’t write about time travel. It almost always sounds better on paper than it does on screen and it means that you’ve opened doors to more questions than you’ve probably got the answers for. I know this was about trying to set up the idea of the multiverse, I get that, but there were better and less messy ways to do that, and I know that because I’ve done it before. @Marvel: Let me write you a six-way orgy you fucking cowards~

By going back in time, Steve robbed Peggy of the future that would have been hers - not only that, he’s robbed her of even the chance of making the choice between those futures, because you honestly could not tell me with a straight face that Steve told her the complete truth of what he had done and she would be okay with him alternating the very course of the future. It doesn’t help his case that he has a history of not disclosing truths that he knows will be painful or inconvenient for other people in his life.

He robbed his loved ones - Sam, Bucky, Wanda - of the years they would have spent with him. Sure, he ‘came back’ after Peggy passed away, but they are adults in the prime of youth who knew him sixty years ago in his own time and he is an old, old man who has lived an entire life completely separated from them. He is practically a stranger with a name they know, but a history that no longer belongs to any of them - not even his oldest friend. They have him back, but judging from his age, they’ll be lucky to get even ten more years with him. Assuming of course, that any of them can stand to speak to him - I certainly couldn’t blame them if they tell him to go to hell and take his dad jokes with him. 

Steve has stolen away their friend and dropped off an elderly and dying near-stranger in his place, and this is treated by the writing (and the majority of the acting) as a wild and unexpected but not tragic event. 

Is it really that unexpected, though?

I recall seeing a Game of Thrones essay on Daenerys across my dash (I’m sorry, love, I don’t recall who you are since it’s not a fandom I’m in, but if someone knows who wrote that, please post the link!) which detailed how her ending in the series was foreshadowed many times by her penchant for bloody killings and her habit of surrounding herself with her own fawning friends.

Months after reading that, I had the thought: though Steve is never really shown thinking about Peggy after Civil War, except in a few scattered scenes in Endgame, was this foreshadowed? Whether you believe that his actions are justified or not, what Steve does is still, in the end, selfish at its very heart, and Steve Rogers is not a selfish person. 

Oh no, my dear friends and readers. Because taking this action has solidified and clarified Steve Rogers as the biggest and most selfish asshole in this whole universe.

Steve does not do the right thing, Steve does the thing that will most make him feel better. The fact that this often happens to be the right thing in the end is more the result of happy coincidence than any special sort of moral authority that the man holds. 

Rescuing Bucky Barnes and his fellow captives in a prisoner of war camp from being experimented on by an insane Nazi eugenicist? That was not a moral stand, that was endangering himself, Peggy Carter, and Howard Stark because he couldn’t handle the reality of his best friend being killed in war.

Sacrificing himself by putting the Valkyrie down in the Arctic Circle? That was not about sparing human lives, that was about Steve seeing his friend die right in front of him and not being able to deal with the grief. There were ways he could’ve prevented the plane from killing people without killing himself.

Trying to make Bucky remember who he was? And later on, saving him from the government agencies who wanted to hunt him down? Although, arguably, that last one is also just good common sense - Steve was already shown that government agencies could and were corrupted by HYDRA and he’d also seen how dangerous the Winter Soldier could be when unleashed. 

Steve did, I think, truly believe that this was the right thing to do, but it was also about keeping his connection - his very last, since Peggy had descended into dementia caused by Alzheimer’s before she ultimately died - to a past that for him, was only months or years ago, rather than decades. In some ways, this is completely understandable - Bucky might be the very last person left alive who truly knows who the real Steve Rogers is, because the rest of these people only know Captain America and we are consistently shown through multiple movies how uncomfortable this makes him.

This gets...considerably less and less understandable as we are shown Steve’s growing relationships with Natasha, Sam, Wanda - even Sharon, though she barely gets any screen time and they share the most awkward kiss I’ve ever seen - and indeed, what might be the most uncomfortable kiss in cinema history.

Side Note 3: This is made even more awkward by the director’s choice to have two of Steve’s friends watching them the whole time - seriously, who even does that? Why would you make them do that? Only sociopaths make out with their friends staring at them like that. It’s so fucking creepy - and don’t even get me fucking started on the fact that she’s also apparently his own niece. AHHHHH!

But we are shown, over and over again, that Steve is capable of building close meaningful relationships with people in the present. They don’t know his whole history, but they do know Steve Rogers rather than Captain America and they care about him deeply. 

Side Note 4: Notice that I don’t count Tony Stark among those people - despite this strangely persistent narrative that the various writers and directors tried to sell to the audience, Tony and Steve were not friends. They were never friends. They were colleagues at best, but these were two men who neither liked nor understood each other very well, but had to work together. And sometimes that’s okay, too. (Oh dear, I just gave the Stony fans a fit too, didn’t I? Sorry, guys. Enemies to Lovers is a great trope, I support you!)

But let’s set aside Steve’s gross betrayal of the people who loved him. We’ll also ignore the question of whether the motive for these good actions has tainted the actions themselves. Because even without questioning these, the conclusion of this story arc still transforms Steve into the biggest monster this franchise has. 

The very fundamental way that the writers and directors can’t agree on how the time travel mechanics in their own story work mean that Steve has just done one of two things and they range from shady and very questionable to absolutely fucking horrific. 

The first, that he’s created his own alternate universe to exist in, is morally dubious at best. Even the people who support this theory and liked the ending seem to feel that it wasn’t necessarily a ten out of ten on the moral goodness spectrum. They’ll say things like ‘he deserved to have his happy ending’. Even that phrasing seems to acknowledge that doing this was the opposite of the right thing. It just considers doing the wrong thing as being justified rather than horrifying. 

But let’s examine this first idea for a minute - even this, the more innocent of the two implications, means that rather than really processing his grief or dealing with the repeated tragedies and losses that have occured in his life, even as he was running group therapy sessions and grief counseling, Steve Rogers chose to escape his current life by creating an alternate universe that specifically allows he himself to live out his own fucking fantasies of the way his life should have turned out. 

That, in case you are not aware, is wildly fucked up. I thought I was playing pretty fast and loose with Steve’s characterization when I turned him into an extremely polite serial killer but as it turns out, I clearly just wasn’t setting the bar high enough, because that’s somehow even more fucked up than being an undercover child soldier with a small sadistic streak. 

Hm, and now I feel I should have been more creative there...

The second, and even more horrifying option, is that this older Steve Rogers has been in this world the whole time, watching as things unfolded just as we’ve seen over the past decade, taking ‘the slow way’ through time. 

Side Note 5: I do kind of understand why you would do it this way, because that’s really cool and shocking when you say that! Until you think about it for longer than three seconds and suddenly you realize…

Everything that has happened here, every tragedy and downfall these people experienced, happened because Steve Rogers lived his happily ever after with his beautiful wife and did absolutely nothing to stop it. He got to fuck Peggy Carter and watched as his wife built an empire of intelligence networks, knowing that her efforts were completely in vain because her agency was rotten to the core and he never told her.

Every horrifying act committed by HYDRA under the guise of SHIELD was permitted through Steve Rogers’ negligence. And that’s just the wider big-picture worldview, large and shocking, but not personal. 

What about the people that Steve claims to actually care about? 

This means that Steve lived his whole life in contentment with his wife and children while his best friend was physically and psychologically tortured for over seventy years and just...let that go. 

He allowed one friend to murder another in the nineties, when the Winter Soldier was sent after Howard and Maria Stark. Then their child was being advised by a greedy self-interested warmonger who paid terrorists to drag him off to be tortured and slaughtered, and Steve did nothing about that, either. 

Bruce Banner was exploited, experimented on, and made into a monster against his will in the failed pursuit of recreating what was done to Steve, resulting in billions of dollars in damage and dozens or even hundreds of lives lost, and Steve allowed that to happen, too. 

Like Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanov was physically and psychologically tortured for others to use her as a living weapon - except that this was probably happening to her since early childhood, and a man her future self loved and trusted implicitly did nothing to save her from this upbringing. 

The Maximoff twins are shown to have not wealthy but loving parents who are murdered in front of them and they both endure days of laying in the rubble of their ruined apartment, wondering if the bomb in their living room would go off and kill them. Later, they are taken in by HYDRA, experimented on, and recruited as child soldiers to the cause when they show signs of having supernatural powers. They start a series of events that result in the destruction of a major city and the loss of what is probably thousands of lives. Pietro is murdered while trying to help the Avengers to stop this, and Wanda suffers the loss of the very last living person she loved. None of these things seem to have bothered Future Steve. 

Steve “I can’t sit on the sidelines when I see a situation go sideways” Rogers, planted himself on that fucking sideline and observed for nearly eighty years as friends, colleagues, and his own wife were lied to, brainwashed, tortured, vilified, and hunted down like animals.

And then there Steve Rogers himself - not the Endgame Steve Rogers, the Steve Rogers who brought down a Nazi plane and will lie beneath the ice for seventy years while everything he knows disappear (mostly) innocent of these horrors, the life he would’ve lived stolen from him by a stranger with his name and his face from another universe.

What I’m saying here is that if you consider this idea for any amount of time, it took Steve Rogers less than ten minutes to become the most evil and disturbing figure in the entire MCU, only (not really tho) contested by Thanos himself. 

Gross and poorly reasoned libertarian ethics aside, Thanos genuinely believes that he did what he did for the sake of the entire population. It’s made fairly explicitly clear that Steve didn’t do this for anyone but himself. 

Call me crazy, but if everyone you know needs to suffer and multiple planet-wide devestations have to happen in order for you to get your happy ending, you might be the bad guy. 

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned?

[akajustmerry]

since you've been on a bit of a kick lately, how do you think buckynat could have happened in the mcu? hope you're well!

thank u 💕 i am well! hope you are too!

lucky for u i’ve thought about this a great deal over the years. ironically, a lot wouldn’t have needed to change since the important beats of bucky’s winter soldier arc are v much there in the mcu so:

Captain America: the winter soldier: most of the movie can be much the same just have both steve and nat be triggers for bucky’s remembering (”that man on the bridge i knew him....and the woman too.”). establishing a relationship between bucky and nat would have actually made nat’s motive to help steve find bucky stronger than just sort of......being there. then, in the scene at sam’s apartment, she could confess her n bucky had a past connection too and same result...steve trusts her more now cos he knows they want the same thing: bucky’s safety. her decision to stay back and deal with hydra and shield while sam and steve look for bucky would have better motive too i.e. she wants to ensure all her besties get pardons

captain america: civil war - no offence but i hate this fucking movie and would rewrite it into oblivion given half the chance. but just a buckynat rewrite? easy. instead of the plot twist being bucky killed tony’s parents, the plotwist is actually that hydra and the us government had already melded when that hit was ordered, and that the civil war avengers fight is engineered to make world leaders back legislation that would give the US international jurisdiction over superpowered people (which is BAD). 

nat can just brief tony on the winter soldier’s victims so tony knows bucky killed his parents. but nat explains he was not in his right mind, which tony understands but it's further motive for the political oversight at first. which bucky actually agrees with because why wouldn’t he- think about it. he can still be caught by Rhodes in Romania, then he can be interrogated by nat, they can bond over the fact that they agree because of their shared experiences of red room/winter soldier program that international oversight could prevent atrocities like the ones they committed and experience uwu. 

then, all the avengers can still have their pissfight in the carpark because steve thinks tony is holding bucky hostage because intel from sharon (which turns out to be fake intel from the gov to stoke the fight) indicates this. then, this time when nat lets steve and bucky go it's because a) she loves them both and b) comes to understand once again that the government is always corruptible and oversight from a corrupt government will mean nothing. which is the real plot twist...all of the avengers turning against the establishment that tried to make them enemies to justify imperialism. tony too realises bucky isn’t to blame because bucky was literally a mercenary being controlled so obvs the real enemy is whoever ORDERED THE HIT. steve and nat can then BOTH drop bucky off at Wakanda to get well soon

infinity war/endgame - agiAN u really don’t need to change much AT ALL. but buckynat would’ve just been a nice way to flesh out both these characters. it would have made natasha’s sacrifice a little more personal and understandable (i mean obviously i’d rather rewrite endgame so she doesn’t die at all in an ideal world, but i am just tweaking here). it would have made bucky’s willingness for sam to have the shield motivated as much by the burden of his past as one of double grief for the loss of two people he loved most.

this was fun! i realised as i wrote all this that the reason buckynat never happened in the mcu is mostly because buckynat in the comics are very much fuck the establishment, but the mcu is too much military propaganda to do that. anyways, thank you for asking! x

[wayward-mikaelson]

Winter's Doll--Final Chapter

Word Count: 1832

About: Nadia meets with the president and Bucky has a bad feeling about it

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OC (Female)

Warnings/Trigger Warnings: Language, Mentions of Corrupt Government, Talks of bribery

A/N: Sorry this is out super late. I got busy and then got sick and then my son started school.

Masterlist

Marvel Masterlist

Winter's Doll Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Favorite Fics

Forever Tags: @hobby27 @donnaintx @myinconnelly1 @elansaidaris @magssteenkamp @440mxs-wife

Marvel Tags: @soccer-100000

Story Tags: @supernatural-love14 @loudlylovingalpaca @kingkhibas

Seb/Bucky Tags: Open

Nadia stepped out of the car and onto the patio of the White House. Her entire body was shaking, the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up and her heart was racing like a racehorse who began their race. Nadia’s mind was also racing. She had so many questions to ask the president and when she tried to ask over the phone, the president wouldn’t let her get a single word out. Except that she wanted to talk to Nadia in private.

Fury had seen the expression on Nadia’s face when the president asked about talking in Private. Natasha was also in the room, and Natasha let Nadia know that this didn’t sit well with her. That she should think about it. But Nadia already knew what she wanted.

Nadia agreed to the meeting.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Bucky pulled Nadia around by the arm. He and Steve had insisted that they come as moral support. Well, Steve was moral support, Bucky was there to make sure Nadia was safe. “You can always send me or Steve in there to tell the president that you change your mind.”

Nadia shook her head and licked her lips. “I got this,” Nadia rested a hand on Bucky’s. She looked up at him and saw how those blue eyes stared right into her dark one. He knew she wasn’t sure but respected that. “If I had to send someone in, then it would be Steve.”

“Why Steve?” Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. There’s a hint of playfulness in his eyes that had Nadia’s lips twitching into a small smile.

“Because Steve will keep it diplomatic where as you,” Naida took a step closer to Bucky and hooked her index finger into a strap on his suit. She thought to the quickie the two of them shared before taking off a few hours before. “You’d probably be led out by the Secret Service or in handcuffs. Which I wouldn’t be opposed to as I seem to remember you liking them the other night.” Nadia winked at Bucky who smirked.

“You’re right,” Bucky’s hand slowly slid up to cup Nadia’s chin. “Just be careful. The government has given you every reason not to trust them.”

Nadia leaned forwards and gave Bucky a small peck on the cheek. “I will.”

Nadia turned on her heel and made her way towards the door where a man stood waiting. Instantly, Nadia got some weird vibes off him and turned to see both Steve and Bucky standing side by side with their arms crossed.

***

Bucky watched as Nadia turned towards the man and gave him a smile and shook his hand. Once they disappeared behind the closing doors, Bucky turned to Steve. “I don’t like this,” he said, dropping his arms. “This doesn’t feel right at all.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine, Buck,” Steve said. “Nadia knows how to handle herself.”

“I know that, Steve,” Bucky muttered. “It’s this whole government trying to silence anyone, like her brother. What if that’s what they wanted to meet or worse?”

Steve placed a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “She’ll be fine, Buck.”

Bucky shrugged and crossed his arms again. “Probably a good thing I called Sam and have him laying low on some rooftop.”

“You did what?” Steve shook his head. “You know what, if it does turn ugly, probably having Sam nearby will help. But we aren’t going on the run again.”

Bucky and Steve stood there in silence waiting for Nadia to come out. Bucky still couldn’t shake that something was going to happen. Bucky cared for Nadia deepy, probably just as much as he cared for Steve. He’d do just about anything to make sure Steve and Nadia were safe.

Come to think of it, Bucky was starting to realize that he didn’t care for Nadia. He loved her and would probably use Steve as a body shield to make sure Nadia was safe and sound.

***

Nadia sat in the Oval Office and twiddled her thumbs around. She’s toured the White House a few times and has seen the Oval Office. But Nadia never spent more than a few minutes there. Here she was, going on almost thirty minutes of waiting for the president to come and talk with her.

To be honest, Nadia was nervous as hell. She had a feeling that something was going to go wrong. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, she needed to have Bucky in here with her. But the moment Nadia looked at her phone, she saw that she had no signal whatsoever. The feeling in Nadia’s gut got more intense.

“So,” a voice entered the room. Nadia turned to see the President of the United States waltz into the room. Her ginger hair flowing about her shoulders and her bright green eyes bore right into Nadias.

“What are we going to do with you? ”Her beige pantsuit looked a little too tight and Nadia was sure that a button would pop off them the moment she sat down.

“What?” Nadia asked. She instantly got a bad feeling about the woman in front of her. “I thought we were here to talk about my brother?”

The president leaned back and took a glass of water from her person next to her. “We are,” she answered after taking a long drink. “We are also going to discuss how you will stay quiet about all this. How does a mansion and yacht sound?”

***

Steve’s phone rang in his pocket. Without taking his eyes off the guard that was staring him and Bucky down, he reached into his pocket. “Hello?”

“Cap,” it was Sam. “It doesn’t look too pretty in there.”

“You have a visual on Nadia?” Cap whispered.

“Yep, Bucky told me to make it happen so I have Red Wing hovering close enough to see in.” Sam answered. “That dude that knew Nadia is in the room with her and the President.”

Steve turned to Bucky who was now staring at him. “The mission where that dude knew Nadia? What was his name?”

Bucky’s heart stopped. Of course he remembered this dude. He got a bad vibe off him right off the bat. “Timothy Ketch? What about him?”

“You guys may want to head in there,” Sam’s voice sounded concerned. “Nadia looks pissed as shit in there. I don’t think I’ve seen her face look that red and deadly.”

Steve hung up the phone and looked at Bucky. Bucky knew instantly that something was up. “Who are you calling now?” Bucky noticed Steve put his phone back to his ear.

“Hey, we have a situation. You’ve been compromised. Take everyone and head underground.” Steve hung up his phone again. “Let’s go.”

Bucky followed Steve into the White House and towards the Oval Office. The closer they got, the more Bucky could hear Nadia’s voice. She didn’t sound at all happy. In fact, Bucky could hear all the fowl language coming from Nadia’s mouth.

“No!” Nadia’s voice echoed around the corner. “Get your fucking hands off me.”

Steve and Bucky rounded the corner to see Nadia being held by two secret service men. The look on Nadia’s face brightened up when she saw them. Bucky saw a forming bruise on her hand and he knew that Nadia had thrown all she had into that punch.

“How's the other guy?” Bucky asked, a smiled pulling on the corner of his lips. Steve nudged him. “What? I want to know?”

“Oh Tim,” Nadia chuckled then groaned. The two men that held her pushed her onto a wall. “I’m certain I broke his nose. Hey, fellas, gentle there I’m a woman. Or do you not care since I won’t comply with your order to shut the fuck up and tell no one about how you’re selling off soldiers.”

Steve stepped forward. “I’m going to need you to let her go.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” one of the men looked at Steve. “President Tyler ordered her to be arrested. She’s a traitor to the country.”

“Oh for fucks sake,” Nadia groaned and faster than the two men that held her, Nadia snapped her head back and hit one man. He let go and that was enough for Nadia to whip around and free herself from the other man by chi blocking him. “Now, that was kind of pathetic. You should have known to go up against someone your people have trained to sell off.” She knelt down next to the guy with limp arms and smiled an evil smile at him. “Not only that, but against an Avenger.”

Nadia stood up and looked at Steve and Bucky. “Clint has your family safe,” he whispered when Nadia was within ear shot.

“Good,” Nadia looked behind her and back at Steve and Bucky. “I have a press conference to go to. Call Stark, make sure he can keep at least one camera rolling.” Before the two men can say anything, Nadia quickly walked away.

“So she wants us to have Tony hack into the government?” Bucky asked, looking confused. Living for a little more than a century, there were times Bucky was still stuck in the 40’s. “Can he even do that?”

“He’s Howard's kid,,” Steve answered. “He will be more than happy to.” Steve pulled out his phone and dialed Tony’s number.

Bucky turned to the nearest television and watched as Nadia took over. Her dark hair hung around her shoulders. He could see the small tremors of her hands. Nadia was nervous but the look in her eyes pretty much said that she was going to do this no matter the consequence.

As Nadia spoke, Bucky could hear the small shake in her voice but the firmness as she spoke of her brother, that told Bucky that she had it all under control. Bucky ignored the chaos that was ensuing around both him and Steve. No matter how many times the feed was cut off, it was always brought back. Tony was working hard to keep it all running. Bucky made a mental note to thank Tony for doing this.

Then something happened.

Reports were being made about how the press conference wasn’t just being broadcasted to those who were watching it on the news. It was being broadcasted just about everywhere from Malibu to London. Tony was making sure that it literally got everywhere.

Getting Nadia out wasn’t hard at all. Not after the threat she made, one that would have both Fury and Steve hiding her out until all this was blown over and taken care of. Bucky didn’t like the thought of having Nadia away so who knows how long. It literally made his heart ache. So he volunteered to go with her, to help keep her safe.

“I got you,” Bucky said as they loaded up the SUV with bags. “I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I’ll keep you safe, Doll.”

[chasing-classics]

About Time- Steve Rogers x Reader

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: angst, sadness

Summary: You and Steve were each other’s lifelines, ever since you first met all those years ago during the battle in New York and you were recruited onto the Avengers. You showed him love was still possible after Peggy. However, things drastically change when you are on opposite sides during Civil War. After the fallout you are reunited for the Battle of Wakanda during Infinity War only for the tragedy of Endgame to follow closely after. Inspired by Myra Granberg’s ‘’Bitter Heart.’’

 Suddenly you look like a stranger

A face I knew, but I must've forgotten

Emotional flicker, you were my everything

 ‘’Steve put me down,’’ you squealed, laughing as your boyfriend of nearly three years tossed you over his burly shoulder. It was extremely rare that the two of you could be like this, carefree and teasing. You were currently in your shared apartment, the typical fight for the television remote quickly escalating into a  full-blown tickle fight.

 ‘’Not a chance, doll. You accused me of sitting on the remote, now you’re gonna pay,’’ his deep laugh was something you could never tire of. That laugh was reserved only for the people who were closest to him, and you were at the top of that list. You two met when Natasha recruited you a little over three years ago, given your history as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent and your ‘’gift’’ in telekinesis. You and the super soldier were instantly drawn to each other, like your souls were previously intertwined and in sync with one another. Loving Steve came easily, it was like second nature.

 ‘’Steve what are you- NO! Nooo,’’ you shrieked as he dumped you in the bathtub that was filled with cold water. Your clothes stuck to your skin as your laugh ricocheted off the walls of the bathroom. Steve just grinned down at you, shaking off his jacket as he got in with you, clothes and all. This was the little moments you both lived for. Saving the world from corrupt gods and villainous robots was rewarding, but it was the simple moments you learned to appreciate most. You smiled up at him softly, grinning when he leaned down to press a kiss to your forehead.

 ‘’I love you.’’

 You swam so deep into my river

Your footsteps lead everywhere I go

I never was a weeper

But I'm still holding on

  ‘’Because I’ve been competing with a ghost for the past three years!’’

 The flash of hurt across Steve’s face nearly made you back down, but the damage was already done.

 ‘’Face it, Steve. I’ll never be enough for you. If there a time machine that could take you back to her, you’d jump in it in a heartbeat,’’ the salty tears streamed down your face, washing away the dust and debris from the skirmish just moments ago. ‘’I’ll never be her,’’ your voice was quiet and defeated, cracking at the end. His silence spoke volumes as he just looked down at you, those baby blue eyes you loved to get lost in were shiny with unshed tears.

 ‘’Steve,’’ Bucky whispered, his gaze alternating between the two of you and the quickly approaching King of Wakanda alongside Nat.

 Steve opened his mouth to speak, choking on the things he wanted to say but couldn’t find the words to do so. You shook your head, still clutching the gash on your side that Bucky had unintentionally given you. Your gaze remained firm on Steve as you nodded towards Bucky, ‘’go.’’ For a split second you thought he would stay. That he’d hold you in his big, strong arms and tell you that you were going to get through this, that he’d never leave his best girl behind. That he’d tell you he loved you and you’d figure this out as a team despite your conflicting views. That belief died the second he ran into the jet, taking Bucky with him and leaving you behind. You let out a breath you hadn’t realized you were even holding. Your breathing became labored, the tears falling uncontrollably as you let out the most devastating, ear-piercing shriek, collapsing to your knees as the ground beneath you collapsed into a crater. You barely felt Nat wrap her arms around your shoulders as you sunk into the emptiness.

 From the jet, Steve choked on his own sobs, leaving a decently sized dent in the floor of the aircraft as he struggled to process what just unfolded. He let out a yell of frustration and despair as he tried his best to restrain himself from tearing the jet apart. He lost you. You begged him to stay, to work it out. And he had just left you behind. He left you believing you meant nothing to him, that you’d always be second-best when it came to Peggy. He left without tell you he loved you. He sucked in a shaky breath, feeling Bucky’s hand on his shoulder to offer the slightest bit of comfort as he drifted further and further away from you, leaving a large piece of him behind at that airport.

 We know we could've done it better

Fought for the little things that we wanted

I know we were so good together

It's too hard to let go

 The years following Steve going MIA were not kind to you, but you managed to adjust to not having him in your life. You didn’t consider this living; this was merely not dying. You left your superhero days behind you as the team broke up, opting for the frequent check-in from Nat and Tony from time-to-time. You moved out of your apartment that you had shared with Steve, relocating to Tony’s summer cabin. It wasn’t until you received an urgent call from Natasha saying that she needed you in Edinburgh asap. She mentioned something about Wanda and Vision needing to be brought back home. Had it been anyone else you would’ve politely declined, but she had always been like a sister to you and the one constant in your life. She had been the one to pull you out of your depression and pushed you to keep moving forward.

 ‘’I’ll be there by tonight,’’ you sighed, already pulling out your suit from the ‘’glory days.’’

 By the time you exited the jet, you had very little time to wrap your head around the situation. One minute you were going over frantic missed calls from Pepper, the next you saw news reports that stated Earth was under attack and Tony was missing. And now you were currently face-to-face with a ghost.

 ‘’Hi, doll,’’ Steve offered a small, sad smile.

 You stood there like a deer in the headlights, anger bubbling inside of you despite the tears coating your lower lashes. ‘’You have some nerve, Rogers,’’ you scoffed, approaching him from the other side of the now vacant train station. You hated how good he looked. You hated that he took your advice on growing out his facial hair after the two of you split up. You hated that he left you and still had the nerve to act as if he didn’t rip your heart out years ago. You absolutely hated that you were still in love with him.

 ‘’I can’t believe you right now. You have no idea what you put me through. The kind of pain you put me through. And now you’re standing here with those big stupid baby blue eyes thinking I’m-,’’ you were silenced when he encompassed your face with his strong hands, his lips crashing against you in a kiss that sent you into a whirlwind of nostalgia. After a moment of hesitation, you slowly rested your hands on his cheeks and kissed back, the world literally fading away. He slowly pulled away, pressing his forehead against yours.

 ‘’You’re as beautiful as the day I lost you.’’

   Oh, I wish that you hadn't pulled the trigger

Shot me down with my bitter heart

My blood is getting thicker

Oh, you shot me down, you shot me down

  ‘’S-Steve?’’ the air left your lungs when your e/c met his. You staggered to your knees, your lungs suddenly feeling like they were on fire. You could vaguely see Steve sprint towards you, his hands still coated in the ashes Bucky left behind just seconds ago. He held you in his arms, just like he used to and you curled into his embrace, hands gripping his biceps. Tears rolled down your cheeks, whether they were yours’ or his you could no longer tell.

 ‘’No, no. Oh God, no,’’ he cried out, holding you to his chest as his sobs racked through his body.

 ‘’I-I’m s-so sorry,’’ you whimpered.

 ‘’You’re going to be fine, baby. Please just hold on,’’ he shook, eyes purposefully not looking at the way your legs were fading into ash. You offered one last smile to him, lifting your hand to caress the side of his face one last time.

 ‘’I love. . .’’

 Steve’s arms fell into his lap and the cries that erupted from him were sounds that no human-being thought possible.

 Oh baby, look at me just one more time

Tell me that you don't regret it

I really thought we were fine

Then you shot me down

 Steve looked down at his broken shield, every inch of his body was screaming in pain, for him to give up. But as he looked into the mad Titan’s eyes he was filled with undying resolve, his only thought being of you. If it hadn’t worked, if this had all been for nothing then at the very least he was going to die with thoughts of you surrounding him.

 ‘’Cap. On your left.’’

 He felt you before he saw you, your presence giving off waves of warmth and comfort that he hadn’t experienced since the snap. Once he turned around, all he saw was you. You beamed at him, both of your resisting the urge to run to each other as you calmly took your place beside him along with Bucky and Sam. You both turned your attention to Thanos and his army, getting ready for the fight of your lives.

 ‘’If we live through this,’’ he began as he gripped Mjolnir , you raising your eyebrow in question. ‘’Will you marry me?’’

 Oh baby, look at me just one more time

Tell me that you don't regret it

 You watched with glossy eyes as Pepper held her daughter, slowly making her way to the lake. There was not a single dry eye amongst you mourners. You shakily exhaled as the service continued, memories of Nat and Tony orbiting your mind. You felt Steve wrap his arm around you, filling you with some comfort despite the immense pain. You leaned into his embrace, a sad smile on both of your faces as you mourned the loss of your family. The water on the lake shining as the sun peeked behind the clouds, a profound promise of what was to come.

 After the service you stood by Bucky and Sam as Steve was given the instructions on how to place the infinity stones back in their designated locations. You felt uneasy, wondering if Steve would leave you a second time. He had his chance, his one chance to get his happily ever after with his first love. Nonetheless, you offered an encouraging smile, despite the feeling that this was going to be the final time you’d see your Steve. You nodded slowly, your own little way of saying it’s ok. It wasn’t until after he vanished that you released your gasp, your heart heavy in your chest. ‘I knew it,’ you ruefully thought to yourself, turning away and wondering how you’d manage to survive his absence this time without Tony and Nat there to be your anchor.

 ‘’Y/n,’’ Bucky whispered, his eyes looking past you. Your brows furrowed as you turned around, eyes widening at the sight of Steve on one knee, holding a diamond ring.

 ‘’Steve what are-,’’

 ‘’It’s my mom’s ring. I had to get it. I wasn’t going to do this if I couldn’t do it right. You told me a long time ago that if I had the chance to get in a time machine, I’d choose differently. Well, I’m showing you that in a billion lifetimes, in a billion different situations, I’d always find a way to you and I’d always choose you. And I’ll keep choosing you for the rest of our lives. I love you, doll. And after everything we’ve been through, it’s time we get our happy ever after. So, y/n y/l/n, will you marry me?’’

 ‘’I-It’s about time, Captain,’’ you joked through your tears of absolute happiness, kneeling to the ground and tackling him in your embrace. The two of you laughing, the very same laugh that he had made all those years ago in your apartment before he through you in the tub, the same laugh that was still to the day only reserved for you. The one that would always be meant for you, Mrs. y/n Rogers.

[uhthor]

the thanos storyline should have never happened. the damage is done now and anything that comes out of the mcu from 2019 onwards is :/ bc of the ooc consequences of endgame

MILLIONS OF KISSES FOR U ANON!!!!!!!! (with consent ofc)

i have so many thoughts about this one. imo, thanos is one of the worst villains in the mcu. his goal was only ever one of stupidity and greed and had NO substance whatsoever. personally, the best villains in the mcu to me are the ones that are so deep-rootedly evil with corrupt and inherently evil plots. all thanos did was want to kill some people. shut up u big fuckin grape talk to me when u get on zemo's level?

i feel like the thanos storyline in iw was completely ok, but its how the fallout was handled in endgame that fucked everything up. there was no need for there to be a time jump at all. that's what caused ALL the problems if you ask me. had it not taken them five years to get their shit together, had scott not been gone, the consequences post-snap would have been catastrophically smaller. no need for the GRC and other issues that rose from that. we lost a lot of good mcu content because of the consequences of the snap: maria rambeau's death and the one movie appearance of yet another black character in the mcu because they killed her off off screen, lack of scenes between steve and sam and the handing down of the shield (and how we could've had important scenes of them discussing the larger issues of this, and of sam and bucky's anger/sadness of the trauma they experienced by losing steve).

not to mention the fact that marvel seem to treat the biggest thing that ever happened in their universe like a JOKE? i will literally never forgive them for calling it "the blip". WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IT WAS GLOBAL GENOCIDE!!!!!! the handling of the post-snap consequences in spiderman: far from home was poor. the only real, properly interesting and mature content we've gotten of the "blip" consequences have been with monica rambeau reappearing in 1x4 of wandavision, and the GRC and the displacement camps that popped up in tfatws. there was so much more that we should've been given in order for it to be delivered with the severity it needed.

all of endgame was a joke honestly. a rat saving scott from the quantum realm?? professor hulk? fat thor and the blatant harmful representations that came with? steve going back to the past? the choice to not bring loki back? thor ignoring loki when he went back to 2013 asgard? rocket slapping thor when he was having a panic attack? (gets me FUMING you would not even know). nat dying instead of clint? clint being FORGIVEN for his literal homicidal rampage no questions asked? spending time on howard fucking stark? NO NEED? the only arc that endgame managed to complete successfully was tony's. the rest of it was BULLSHIT

also with wv, wanda getting away with literal terrorism? does NOT sit right with me idgaf if you think she's cute or hot or that "grief was the real villain", SHE WAS THE VILLAIN? YOU DON'T TAKE AN ENTIRE TOWN HOSTAGE BECAUSE YOU CAN? BECAUSE YOU WANT TO?

i've had an endgame rewrite in my drafts for the last few years now and lets just say all of what i mentioned is fucking excluded lol

tfatws was VERY ooc honestly because they couldn't acknowledge the hot mess that endgame was. bucky's arc would've been VERY different if they were able to acknowledge steve leaving and the hurt this caused bucky, how he would handle adjusting to the world without steve, WHO WAS HIS WORLD, etc. etc. and i'm a big believer that sam should've been able to express his anger and sadness at the loss of steve too, because he definitely would've been angry and sad at the position steve left him in after all the loyalty and devotion he gave steve over 9 years. tfatws would've been a LOT different if bucky were female, were allowed to acknowledge his feelings for steve and how this affected him joining society as a civilian for the first time AND how bullshit steve's ending actually was. i could say a LOT more but i'll shut up now lol

put your unpopular mcu opinions in my inbox anon or not and let’s discuss

[captainjimothycarter]

Prompt: Peter Parker mourning Tony is going through his things and accidentally transports himself back in time. But he also just so happens to bump into Steve...whose now married to Peggy

Your ideas <3. Please be kind, I’ve only written Peter for some RPs and they’re not great, so…

--

Where was he? Or when was he should be the question, Peter supposed. He didn’t know what happened. Pepper had asked him if he wanted to go through some of Mr. Stark’s things to keep and Peter had agreed. That’s what he’d been doing when his hand had touched a strange device and it vibrated to life, latching around his wrist. It refused to let go no matter how much he had tugged it. He’d just been about to scream for help when his voice was ripped from him and Peter found himself. Here.

Where was here?

He stuck out like a sore thumb in his jeans and hoodie, but luckily no one looked at him too much in this alleyway.

The air quality was cleaner, almost. And there were people in suits, hundreds crowded on the street. He watched a woman wearing a red hat, the color sticking out amongst the sea of dark-colored suits. His best guess? Back in time or another reality. A newspaper he’d passed said June 1951.

The year sent a shiver down his spine. He was back in time. Holy shit. He time traveled. Now, how the hell was he to get back?

The weird watch around his wrist lit up white and Peter bit his lip, figuring no harm could be done before hitting it. He found his outfit changed to something of a suit. It felt stiff and rigid and really itchy but it was a good cover.

Right, time to figure out where the hell he was.

It wasn’t like Peter was following the woman in the red hat. They were just going to the same place. She looked vaguely familiar like he’s seen her face somewhere. An article, a textbook. A photo. Maybe she was some scientist or someone who shaped history. He couldn’t place it.

When she turned to go into a diner, Peter’s stomach grumbled. He’d forgotten to eat this morning, too caught up in his mind to focus. His eyes followed her as she watched her bend down to kiss a man dressed in a green button-up. She smiled brightly at him and Peter saw the ring on her finger. He laughed at something she said and cupped her face lovingly. Normally PDA made him sick but something about this…softness made his heartache.

Maybe it was a look in their eyes that told the young teenager that these two had suffered so much and were lucky to be together. Maybe he was a soldier in the war.

Peter sighed and figured he needed to go elsewhere, maybe a library, maybe…somewhere with a lab. That would be a hard thing to find. He had to figure out about this thing on his wrist. He turned but something told him not to. Told him to turn back. He’d heard the front door open but hadn’t looked. He was still hidden in the alley.

The last he expected was to turn around and find himself face-to-face with Captain America. Steve. Steve Rogers in the flesh.

He’d known Steve had gone back in time, Bucky had told him.

He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry when Steve smiled at him and enveloped the scared teenager in his arms.

“Hey, hey,” he breathed as Peter hugged him tightly, a little too tight given Steve’s hitched breath. He combed his fingers through his hair. “Peter, what are you doing here? Did someone send you?”

There it was. The question made Peter breakdown even worse and through a terrible amount of tears and sobs, he managed to tell Steve everything. About how he was in Tony’s things, how this stupid bracelet wrapped around him, how he couldn’t get back. How he was scared. And his stomach growling just made it worse.

“Come on,” Steve sighed, shaking his head. “No use thinking on an empty stomach. Just keep your head down, if anyone asks you’re my nephew. Pegs and I will take you home to figure this out, okay? I’ll answer your questions later.”

Knowing Peter, there were questions.

Peggy raised an eyebrow when Steve brought Peter back inside and let him sit beside him. Steve ordered a large breakfast platter for the boy, looking back at Peggy’s poised face. Peter was trying not to stare too much.

“You’re Director Carter,” he whispered in awe. That caused Peggy to smile. “I-I read about you! In textbooks and did projects about you! The stuff-“

He stopped when Steve cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at him. Peter looked a bit sheepish and shrugged.

“Sorry…”

“it’s perfectly alright, Peter,” Peggy mused, patting the boy’s hand. “Steve has explained some things to me but nothing about another visitor. I suppose its another mystery to figure out. I’ll call into work, I can do it from home. You two can’t be left alone to this.”

No one questioned Peter or his huge appetite. Or why Steve was holding him close to his side as they got a cab home rather than risked walking.

Peter was confused about seeing Bucky at the Rogers-Carter home. He was in the back, tending to the garden, his left sleeve tied into a knot. “I rescued him,” Steve explained, earning a slap to his shoulder from Peggy. “We rescued him, I wasn’t cutting you out, Pegs, geez.”

He sat Peter down and got him some water, sitting across from him with Peggy beside him. Bucky had come in and looked startled at the young boy. “Did…you two…adopt while I was gone? I thought you were just meeting for breakfast? Why aren’t you at work?”

“Anyone tell you that you’re too nosy?” Peggy teased, leaning back into her seat, the phone cradled in her ear as she dialed a number. “Steve, it seems found a friend from his…future. We’re trying to figure out the rest. I’m working now, excuse me.”

While Peggy spoke to someone named Phillips and Devin on the phone, Peter looked around the home. It was warm. Homey. Loving. Filled with bits of life. A total difference from the one time he’s been in Steve’s apartment. There was evidence of these two lives together from photos to trinkets, to Steve’s jacket over the back of the couch, Peggy’s heels on the floor. He couldn’t decide if Bucky lived here or not. The man looked different. Happier. Much happier. Even if he was confused at the concept of Peter. Fuck, he was confused too.

“You two married?” The question came out in almost awe to Steve. He looked excitably happy at the rings. Peggy, for her sake, covered the receiver end to just laugh.

“We did,” Steve mused, giving a smile. “Maybe not the most…safest of weddings but it was one fitting for us.”

Peter wanted to question more but couldn’t. Not when Peggy was done with the phone call and Bucky was sitting in the recliner. They asked what happened again. And Peter told them everything, showing them the watch that wouldn’t come off.

Odd. It didn’t look like what they’d use to time travel earlier. Peter even knew that. It was something much older, making Steve wonder if Tony had fucked around with the idea of time travel beforehand. Maybe. He wouldn’t put it past him.

“We have to call Howard,” Peggy sighed. “The last I want this man to do is know about time travel but we have no choice. It looks like his work, not the work of your friend, Steve.”

Peter’s eyes lit up. Howard Stark? As in Tony’s father? The inventor and father of so many branches of science? Steve just laughed at how giddy the boy was. Like father, like son.

Howard didn’t exactly buy the nephew's story Steve tried to give him. He was a terrible liar. Plus, Peter looked nothing like him. In the end, they told Howard everything from Steve’s time travel to Peter’s. Even Peter learned some new things he didn’t know before the situation.

The man just sat back in his chair, rubbing at his jawline. His eyes falling to the boy’s wrist. “Right. We’ll talk about that later, Stevie but for now let’s help your friend out. Pegs, for now, I suggest you return to work like normal after tomorrow. Can’t let anyone know somethings wrong. Peter, was it? You’ll need to stay inside but it's fine. The house is secure and Steve and Buck can stay with you. Just don’t let them corrupt you.”

Bucky’s yelling could be heard from where he was taking a shower, Howard smirking as he bent back over Peter’s wrist.

There was something catatonic about working with Howard Stark. Howard didn’t know about Tony whatsoever and Steve never told him and warned Peter not to tell the man. Peter didn’t know much about Tony and Howard’s relationship but he could guess it wasn’t the healthiest by how Tony sometimes spoke of him. Like he was annoyed Peter worshipped him. He got the feeling that Steve was going to change that by how he’d look when they spoke.

Steve had changed lots. He was a married man but he was still Captain America. He told Peter that he was Grant Rogers in public and yes, it weirdly worked because people didn’t pay attention. The beard sometimes helped. He loved Peggy with all his heart and Peter saw how devoted he was to her and his best friend. They had a system.

Every morning Steve would wake up first and work out in the garage, sometimes jogging around the neighborhood. Sometimes Bucky joined. Peggy never did, she was not a morning person. Steve would make her coffee and breakfast unless it was a Tuesday and Thursday because then she met someone named Angie at the diner. For lunch, Steve would fix her something at the house and bring it to her. The rest of the day was spent fixing things around the house. He told Peter he bought it as a fixer-upper to give himself something to do in between Shield's work. He worked at Shield as strategic. He admitted he couldn’t go back to being Cap and Peter saw just how tired he was. The same tired he saw on Tony’s eyes when he passed.

Their routine worked around Peter. He got to join Steve in making dinner or lunch, learning how to cook on old technology, or just cook in general. He talked to Steve about everything, from Ned to MJ to school and how he missed them and he wondered if they knew he was gone. He got to help Bucky in the garden lots. He said gardening helped him out lots, to keep calm. He even met Bucky’s sister and her kids when they’d come over for Sunday dinner.

He got to watch Peggy and Steve work together as a couple, dancing in the evenings when Peter would read by the light. He’d watch them spar when neither could sleep, listen through the wall about nightmares and talking about their day, and how the war still haunted them, mistakes made, and decisions they wished they could change. Most of all he listened to how they loved one another. Yes, they bickered sometimes, especially if Peggy was exhausted, Steve was….a safe place and sometimes that came out as she could snap and get upset. The same went with Steve with Peggy but in the end, they’d always worked it out. Most of all, he got to watch them be Director Carter and Agent Rogers. Steve had started to work from home to take care of Peter and watch over Howard while he worked on the device.

Steve got a call from Peggy one evening when she was an hour overdue for dinner and mentioned an 084 in Florida. Steve was on the phone at once, calling in agents, and going through plans. Peter got to help by bringing him the paperwork, setting up another phone line with Bucky’s help [he guessed the man lived here now?] so Peggy could talk to Steve privately. This 084 situation lasted well over three hours before Peggy came home at 3 am and found Peter asleep Steve’s chest, the blonde still holding the phone, an arm curled protectively around Peter.

Yes, she took a photo.

The device took well over three months to figure out what exactly it was and how to reverse the effects of time travel. Howard went into some detailed explanation that only Peter seemed to understand because Steve just looked as confused. They had one more night together, one last dinner, and Peter thanking the Rogers-Carter family for everything.

“I’ll tell them you’re okay,” Peter said once they were outside in the beautiful garden he helped plant. “That you’re happy and Bucky’s happy too.”

“Thank you, Peter,” Steve sighed, pulling the kid close and hugging him tightly. “You’re gonna do great things. I can’t wait to see them. He loved you, you know?”

There was no doubt who Steve was talking about. Peter’s eyes grew misty and he nodded, patting the hand Steve held to his face. “Yeah, I know. It…hurts sometimes but he’s not hurting now. And working with his dad…it somehow helped. You promise you’ll…look out for them? My parents?”

Steve smiled. “Of course. I don’t go back on a promise. It won’t affect your timeline, but…the one here? He’ll have an amazing life with his whole family.”

The hug meant everything to Peter. It was one last round of hugs and goodbyes between the hero and the found family. Howard even showed up to wave goodbye as Peter set the time into the watch and hit it.

And just like that, he was back in Tony’s old bedroom, kneeling on the floor, with his hands in a box. No time had passed. It was still evening, still Manhattan.

Yet, Peter felt changed somehow, almost older in spirit. He touched the watch and gently pulled it off to throw it inside, making good on that promise to destroy it. He touched his pocket where Steve had given him his compass.

To keep him on the right path, always make the right choice, even if it was the most difficult one.

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Soooooo... Couples therapy didn’t go well for SamBucky... TFATWS THOUGHTS (long post + spoilers)

Ok. Ok some depth to dude in a suit.

Not a bad guy. But the good guy Erskine always hoped for???

Mmmmmm some parallels between Sam and dude in a suit. Nervous to fill that suit.

“You’re not Captain America”

Aww they referenced his song

“Punch your way out of problems” hmm

Well yknow this is very early Captain America when Erskine gets killed and all Steve could do was be a figurehead of the war and put on shows...so interesting parallels

Bucky finds outtttt and he’s probably gonna deck Sam for giving up the shield

Ahhhhhh I knew it. Boi believed in what Steve believed. And seeing the shield being touted by some other guy gotta hurt.

Wait. But how did Bucky know Sam was gonna be there. Is he even allowed on this base??? Who gave him access???

Bucky my love you can’t help but latch onto the only friend you have huh? Wanna protect the dude that Steve believed could take up the mantle.

Instant chemistry on screen I adore this.

Dear god the sexual tension

Awwww “DONT call me Buck. Only Steve can call me Buck” WHATS THE BET BY THE END HES CALLING HIM BUCK OR THERES A CALL BACK WHERE SAM CALLS HIM BUCK AND BUCKY SAYS STILL CANT CALL ME THAT

Ahahahhahha what happened to the cool guy who caught Caps shield??

Cant even jump out of plane with no parachute. No wonder you didn’t get chosen to be Captain America XD (I kid. Don’t come for me)

Yknow what glad they showed them putting in those ear pieces. Every time they do that, the nonsense of every single Avengers movie and Civil War gets whittled down a little bit more

Sam we need a brooding non blinking dude or else who else will be your comedy prop

That was a flirty smile. Stop flirting Sam you’re on a mission.

Also love that Bucky is kinda caught up in saying all the cheesy sort of “casual” mission banter lines

Wait is that his new hero name orrrr? Bc he’s trying not to be the Winter Soldier anymore..

Their ongoing banter is really refreshing when before in other MCU movies (and this is very back to classics) there was time for maybe one quirky line mid action and the rest is just serious on a mission mode unless Tony was around

Bucky running oh my god I forgot

We had the whole running scene in Civil War too XD

Oop she’s not a hostage

Bucky has to love redwing in future right? (Sike they kill Redwing)

Oooh Sam got the hero music playing!!!

I was wrong. Dude in a suit got CAPS MUSIC????

Oh damn roll through the grass guys take it easy XD

I’m sorry subtitler what are you doing. “Captain America”???

Ok but that tracking shot of them just walking and bantering is great

This is a fun shot oh my god

BIG THREE

Baby there is a bit of difference to Steve jumping on a grenade pre-serum no protective gear of any kind using HIMSELF as a shield and expecting to blow up but hoping to save everyone else in the process... vs you knowing you can get out of it unscathed despite intentions being similar

Not a bad guy but not the “good man” just yet. But hey am appreciating his character depth.

Wow love that they’ve pointed out Bucky’s staring XD

But also this guy was raised up by the government. Steve was the embodiment of freedom.

“Battlestar??? Fuck yo nickname!” Hahahahaha

Oof John really just said they were his wingmen huh

Sam was right tho. I can get behind what dude in a suit is going for but he just has to end it poorly

So Super Soldiers came back as a plot point after the tease that was Civil War huh?

Wait wait so Sharon is still an enemy of state???

Nice. (I don’t remember what this was for)

Wow. And now we see the reality. Bucky, albeit pardoned, was considered a war criminal.

But they still think Sam is the aggressor in a situation where, I think, he would be justifiably upset. A hero, a black hero, was erased from the history books, effectively.

Racial profiling doesn’t stop. They see colour first and person second. And it was only after they realised who Sam was that they apologised. Actually even worse, it took Bucky reminding him to realise who they were.

How goddamn messed up.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmn ok dude in a suit you are overstepping boundaries here.

Bucky definitely needs the therapy, and while I would like him to have more freedom, it should not be on your authority????

Oooh tell em Doctor Raynor.

COUPLES THERAPY TIME

Ooooooh gazing hell yeah time to fall in love lads

Hahahhahahah their legs oh my god

Bucky’s “ha I won” look

Awww no Bucky really believed in Sam because it meant hope for him too I cant

I was rooting for this guy but he is getting on my nerves SNATCH THAT SHIELD OFFA HIS BACK

Yo but I feel bad for the Flag Smashers a lil? Their cause isn’t bad. Their target is governments, corruption etc. but idk we’ll see how things play out.

Jfc Zeno chill out. This music tf.

SHUT THE FUCK UP HOE THATS IT

—-

So we finally have some Falcon and The Winter Soldier bonding action, we love to see it.

Clearly they’re not best of pals, nor do they have Steve as their mediator... gotta navigate their relationship together, and once they nab a bad guy together for the first time, they’ll have better bond and it’ll be nice.

That said, gotta appreciate Bucky was actually more honest with Sam present. So that was some progress.

I am still neutral about Dude in a Suit... he’s not Captain America but idk if he’s earned me calling him just John and he’s not the USAgent yet?? Is that his name??

I can see where his motivations are coming from but he is really buying into this government mandated position that was only possible because Sam gave up the shield, when we’ve looked at him by himself wanting to live up to expectations... but dude is just coming off as a leech??? And I do hope he has a moment where he realises that, despite being the perfect soldier, there is someone who is more of a “good man” that Steve was, that Erskine wanted to take on the power...

And yknow the meeting with Isaiah does set up the very real concept that POC figures of significance are forced to remain in the shadows, or are straight up erased by a white-dominant society that wants to present a specific type of person as a hero for the masses to look up to...

Which is why I found the convo with that kid calling Sam “Black Falcon” interesting. The dad, who told the kid to call him that, might’ve wanted that distinction. In a society that continues to vilify and destroy their “racial minorities”, having a black hero like Falcon (and Black Panther and War Marchine) is important... and that idea leads into Sam’s outrage about Isaiah being unknown for so long... (as a non-American, non-black but POC woman, these are just some thoughts I have)

But yeah. Behind this very MCU veneer, we have some real character-led drama coming through and I’m all for it!

[astraeagreengrass]

The Queen’s Husband [2/?]

When her reign is threatened, the Queen of Ergona must find a husband to secure her throne.

Word Count: 1.791

Warnings: None! Just an anxious queen and a very good-looking Captain.

A/N: I had to split this chapter in two because it was getting too long (and now I feel like it’s too short 🤷🏻‍♀️), so this story will have more parts than I originally intended (maybe four or five instead of just three). And thank you so so so much to the lovely people who commented on the first chapter. It took a lot of courage for me to start writing again and post it online and I appreciate every one who took some time to let me know their thoughts! It means more to me than I can say. I hope you like part two ♡

Series Masterlit

My Masterlist

On a sunny summer morning, you asked Captain Steve Rogers to marry you.

He arrived three days after the council meeting. From a palace window you saw him dismount his black stallion, shield on his back, and make his way inside. He was still wearing his travel clothes when you met him in the courtyard.

"Your Grace" he curtsied when he spotted you.

With a nod you dismissed Wanda, your handmaid, and walked over to him.

"Please rise, Captain Rogers. Could I interest you in a walk in the gardens?" you asked. 

He quickly offered you his arm, apologizing for the lack of garb of his outfit.

"I was told you wanted to see me as soon as I arrived."

"Indeed" you answered, right hand on the crook of his left arm. The worn-out leather of his sleeve felt nice against your hand. "It is something of urgency."

He stopped, clear blue eyes suddenly attentive.

"What happened, Your Grace? How may I be of service?"

You pointed to a stone bench next to the roses - beautiful pink blossoms that were your mother's favorite. You sent a silent prayer to her spirit, wishing more than anything that she could be here to hold your hand as you defined your future. 

"My cousin Margaret has given birth to a son. The baby has a claim to the thrones of both Beathan and Ergona. As long as I am unmarried and childless my reign is threatened." 

Captain Rogers stilled. He was a very handsome man, with shaggy blonde hair curling around his ears. The full beard that adorned his face made him appear older than he actually was, but it probably worked on his advantage whilst amongst more seasoned military officers - he looked fierce and powerful, yet his gaze was kind. 

"You need a husband" he finally said. 

"Precisely” you gulped. The skin between his eyebrows was creased and, as the rest of him, the small imperfection looked like it was carved out of marble. Would it even soften if you caressed it with your thumb?

"I sent for you today because I would like you to consider becoming my husband and the King of Ergona" you said in such a rushed whisper anyone less attentive wouldn’t have heard.

But Steve did.

He rose so fast it startled you. Tall and imposing, Steve stared down at you, beautiful face twisted in shock and… Was he offended? 

"Is this some sort of joke?" he exclaimed running his hand through his face. "Did Tony put you up to this?" 

“What?” If you weren’t so confused by his reaction you’d be more insulted by the way he was scowling at you as if you were his opponent rather than his queen. “How dare you speak to me like this?” 

"Who told you of my affections?" Steve's voice was stern, clearly unfazed by your authority. You could suddenly picture him in the battlefield, strong and commanding. But that thought quickly vanished in the midst of your disorientation. 

"Your affections? To whom?" you questioned.

"To you of course!"

You gasped, lips opening in a perfectly shocked "O" shape.  

"You have… Affections… Towards me?" you stuttered, baffled.

"Of course! Of course I do, Y/N". He had lost all courtesy now, referring to you without your title. His hands gripped his hair furiously. “I honestly thought you knew!”

Oh.

"I… I had no idea" you stammered, shame flooding your veins faster than you could come up with an apology. "Captain Rogers, I'm sorry. This conversation should never have happened. Please forgive me.” 

You tried to rise from the stone bench, but Steve stood still in front of it, preventing you from escaping.

"Did you truly not know?" he asked, right eyebrow slightly raised in suspicion.  

“No!” you exclaimed. “And even if I did I would never poke fun of your feelings. What kind of person do you think I am?”

Steve sighed and dropped his head, ashamed. If you were an artist you’d paint him, shoulders slumped and hands on his narrow waist, Adonis himself personified in the soft summer light. 

“Forgive me, Your Grace. I was incredibly disrespectful.”

Something in his expression tugged at your heartstrings. 

“You don’t have to apologize” you whispered. “It must’ve been shocking for you. I just hope you believe me when I say I had no idea about your… Affections.”  

Heavens, why is it easier to to lead an army than have this conversation?

Steve looked up and you couldn’t tell if his eyes were green or blue. The air felt thick with embarrassment, even if there were no witnesses but the roses surrounding the courtyard. 

You thought he would finally make way for you to stand and leave – free to wallow in shame and self-pity – but Steve wasn’t done surprising you.

"Was I your first choice?" he asked. "To become your husband?

"Yes. The council suggested you but I wouldn't be here if I hadn't made the choice out of my own free will." 

"Considering I’ve already ignored every single courtesy and protocol, may I ask what willed you to make this choice?" 

It wasn’t an easy one, but then again, which decision from the past five years had been? You may have been desperate but you couldn’t afford to be anything less than rational. Fury was right: the news of Margaret’s son spread like wildfire, snuffing out any jubilation from the defeat of Zerbolia. You had purposefully averted any talk of marriage, hoping that the time would come when only you would be enough for Ergona, but it never did. Duty came knocking at your door sooner than you expected.

Proposing to Steve Rogers was a shot in the dark. Love wasn’t a luxury you could afford and you held no expectations this marriage would be anything other than a business transaction, but you could wish for safety. Knowing Steve’s character, it seemed unlikely he would turn out to be like your father. 

However, power changed people. 

You couldn’t say that you chose him out of hope - hope that he would be a good husband, a good king and a good father. Hope that a crown wouldn’t corrupt him as it did to so many others rulers before you, the dead kings and queens immortalized in fancy portraits and terrible deeds.

However, you should give him something. 

"You are a good man" you replied. “I’ve wondered about you and your motives constantly. You’re young yet incredibly respected and successful. Men have crowned themselves kings with less than what you have. But even so you’ve never threatened me or my reign. You’ve always been kind - the kindest, actually. Ruthless in battle but not cruel. Aware of others beneath you. Loved by all.”

“I kept waiting for the moment when you would betray me, revealing yourself to be just like every other men I’ve encountered in my life. But you never did, you were just nicer, friendlier, more trustworthy. And I don’t mean trustworthy as a Captain, but as a friend. I started seeing you as a friend and I have very few friends.” 

“And I thought: ‘If I must have a husband, then at least I hope he is a good man’. And you are the best man I know.” 

Steve took a step forward and kneeled. He was closer to you now than he ever had before - closer that anyone dared to be. His boldness was disconcerting and, in the back of your mind, you knew the right thing to do was to chastise him for being so forward. Instead, you let him take your left hand in his.

Steve kissed your ring finger, before cradling your palm to his face. His beard was surprisingly soft but his pillowy lips were softer as he lightly pressed them to your skin. Eyes closed and frown softened, he looked as if he had found peace with your touch. 

"I have loved you since you were eighteen” he said. “On your coronation day. You were so young but showed no fear as you walked by those old lords and ladies who all secretly wished you failed. Your head was held high and as you looked at nowhere but the throne sitting on the dais. I had never seen anyone more beautiful or more brave."

"I don't need to tell you that my father disapproves of my military career, this gossip has been well spread at Court. He is a proud Western man and it churns his stomach to see his son serve an Eastern queen. But if I am a good man it is because I serve a good queen and a good woman. Five years in your presence have assured me that there is no greater right in my life than the love and admiration I feel for you." 

Sometime during his speech, Steve’s voice turned husky and you blushed profusely. Not from the heat or from shame, but something different you'd never felt before. There was a fluttering in your stomach you couldn't place, but maybe, just maybe, you liked it. 

Looking up, he smiled, the stretch of his pink lips resembling a boy, not a warrior.

"I would be honored to become your husband, Your Grace. Nothing would make me happier." 

"Thank you" you whispered in relief. Anyone would tell you that it was unnecessary for a queen to thank a suitor - to thank anyone. But did this rule apply if the suitor was you?

Steve’s smile widened as his eyes sparkled with mirth. You amused him, and instead of annoying you, the realization just made the butterflies in your stomach flutter harder.

He lowered your hand on his face, but didn’t drop it, as he stood. His own palms were calloused where he gripped usually his sword but it didn’t bother you - they felt grounding, and reassuring: This is real. You’re not dreaming. 

You didn’t have to look to know you were being watched from nearly every palace window overlooking the courtyard. The queen wasn’t granted much privacy. Rising from the stone bench, hand still on Steve’s, you discreetly nodded towards the windows. He smirked and squeezed your hand.

One.

Two.

Three times. 

“I’m ready when you are” he said. 

Unsaid words left a bitter taste as they died on your tongue. You weren’t ready - would you ever be? You thought you were ready to be queen, but time showed you there was no preparing for all the frustrations you’ve encountered. On the secret corners of your mind you still felt like a child, anxiously looking at the adults surrounding you wondering what their next steps might be.

Marrying Steve was your own step. And for the first time in a long while, it felt like a hopeful one.

[language-rxgers]

Four Words (Steve x Reader)

Summary: Steve is simple. Steve is a planner. So why can’t he just say four simple words to the best thing he never planned?

Characters: Steve Rogers, Female Reader, Bucky Barnes

Request from @witch-of-letters​ :

“Can I request a Steve Rogers one-shot, where he wants to propose to Stark!Daughter!Reader? They've been together since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and after Sokovia, Steve realizes that he can't wait any longer (after the wedding, the R gets pregnant with twin girls). When the Civil War starts, R stays on Steve's side, much to Tony's fear (and chagrin).”

A/N: I’m thinking this will probably be a 3 parter. This chapter is the proposal!

masterlist

part 2

Steve Rogers is a man with a plan. Every morning, he wakes up at 5:30 with the alarm and checks his emails. He then pours himself a cup of black coffee in the kitchen while reading the morning paper and going over his schedule for the day. At 6:00 he returns to the bedroom to wake you up after your half hour sleep-in, and lovingly drags you back to the kitchen where the two of you prepare breakfast and Steve relays to you the morning news. Of course, you could read the damn paper yourself, but it sounds so much more interesting coming out of his mouth. After breakfast, you both get dressed and ready for the day. Day in, day out, Steve knows every step of the domestic part of his life to a T. In a job where you go in without the slightest idea what might happen in the day, it’s nice to have even a morning’s worth of stability, if that. So yeah, Steve Rogers is a man with a plan, simple. Simple. So why is it so hard to add one teeny, tiny, simple step to his routine? For chrissake, it’s just a four-word, yes or no question. 

“Will you marry me?” 

The young man gazed up with hope glimmering in his eyes, sunlight sparkling off the golden band clutched between his fingertips. His partner’s mouth dropped open in shock and surprise before reality caught up to him, and his answer tumbled out of his lips. “Yes- yeah, yes, of course!” He stood from the park bench that the couple had been sitting on as his now fiancé rose from his knees to meet him in a tight hug. Steve felt a spread of warmth in his chest for the happy couple, but also tried to ignore his guilty jealousy of how easy it had seemed for that man to ask the question he himself had been trying to spit out for so long. 

He looked down to you at his side, admired your beautiful wide smile as you watched the newly engaged couple, and he wished with everything in him that the two of you would soon be in their place. 

Steve had met you when you moved in down the hall from him only a few months after he himself had rented a home in the building. At the time, he believed you to be a quiet nurse named Kate, but it wasn’t long before he discovered this to be extremely untrue. It was only two weeks later when you admitted to Steve that you were in fact Y/N Stark, a SHIELD agent sent by Nick Fury to keep an eye on him. Far from a nurse, you actually worked as a field officer, tech specialist and information broker for the law enforcement organization. You were also the daughter of Tony Stark- someone with whom Steve could certainly do without interacting again. Needless to say it was difficult for the soldier to hide his shock, hurt and betrayal, especially since he had already begun to develop feelings for you in the short time he’d known you- or whoever you led him to believe you were. Did this mean you weren’t actually the sweet, selfless girl who had become the reason he looked forward to returning home right after work every day? He knew it had only been a couple of weeks but he already found himself craving your late night hallway interactions and that sweet, warm smile that always seemed to be hiding in your eyes. 

You patiently allowed Steve to come to terms with your revelation, before disclosing that you genuinely did want to be his friend, and felt that lying when he would undoubtedly become suspicious and figure out your true identity eventually was just unnecessary. After the fall of SHIELD, you revealed to Steve that you had been the one to alert Fury of the organisation’s corruption from the beginning after some suspicious encounters with, and inconsistent reports filed by, the STRIKE team, led to a fruitful independent investigation. It was then that you’d been assigned to watch over Steve. 

In the years that followed, you became one of Steve’s closest friends, a beautiful constant in his eternally unstable life. The development of your relationship to something more than friendship was only natural… ish. One day you asked if he would join you for coffee- nothing out of the ordinary for the two of you to do, but this time there was a certain intimation of deeper feelings in your tone. Of course, this subtlety completely went over Steve’s head, and he proceeded to spend the next hour speaking of nothing but the results of your latest mission with you in the corner of the nearest crowded Starbucks. 

The next morning, you corrected your mistake of assuming the most clueless man on Earth when it came to women would pick up on your vibe change, by marching up to him in the kitchen and informing him that you would like for him to accompany you on a date to the movies that evening if he so wished. Taken aback at not only your bluntness but also the fact that you fancied him in return, what was he to do but nod his head and respond with a cheeky “Yes, ma’am.”?

Evidently, one date turned into two, three, four, and so it goes.

After Sokovia, you both became brutally aware of how easily life could change in a split second. Steve realized that he didn’t want to wait anymore to continue his life with you. You were all he wanted, all he could see when he imagined his future. He never thought he would want a family again after coming out of the ice, but with you, it was so easy to picture that. Steve didn’t want that to stay as just a dream when he slept next to you. Now, it was his turn to take the leap, yet he found himself hopelessly lacking the same self-assuredness that had never failed you. 

“Oh, Steve, check the time, we should be heading back.” You tugged at Steve’s sleeve as you stepped to continue your walk back to the car. 

“Huh?” Steve shook his memories back to their storage cabinets and glanced down to his watch. With a start at how much time had passed, he followed you promptly. 

For the rest of the day, Steve couldn’t for the life of him shake that nagging voice in his head, urging him to pop the question on the spot. It was maddening; every time he spoke to you he had to plan what he was going to say so he didn’t accidentally blurt out an impromptu proposal in the middle of the conversation. It was even more annoying because on top of planning his words, he also had to focus on keeping you out of his thoughts. He had always been able to keep his thoughts guarded when he didn’t want you reading him, but he loved that for the most part, you were the one person he wanted in his head. But ever since he started seriously thinking about proposing to you, he’d had to keep himself exceptionally blocked off, which he knew frustrated you.

The most frustrating thing of all, however, was that logically, he knew there was no reason to be so nervous. You had discussed your futures together before- marriage, kids, retirement. You both wanted to be married eventually when the time was right, but you also knew there would never be a right time. Your entire relationship had consisted of playing things by ear and “taking the next step” as it came naturally. Nothing felt more natural than marrying you, nothing felt more right. He knew you would say yes. But there was also that annoying, little punk in his subconscious egging on his insecurities. 

“She’s still free to leave any time without consequences until you tie the knot.” 

“Things are perfect the way they are right now, don’t screw it up by asking her to make the biggest commitment of her life.”

“You can barely work the tv remote, how are you going to navigate a marriage?”

“What if she’s about to break up with you right when you propose?”

Steve stared with wide eyes at the ring in his fingers, overwhelmed with all the reasons he shouldn’t propose. He was pulled from his anxiety by a rap at his door, and looked up to see Bucky leaning against the doorframe.

“Stare any harder and it’ll burst into flames.” Steve put the ring back into its box and let out a sigh.

“Part of me wishes it would. It’s too nice, isn’t it? She won’t like that it’s too flashy.” Bucky scoffed.

“It’s a plain metal band, bud. Don’t think you can get any simpler than that.”

“Well it’s got the infinity twist, might snag her sweaters or something. I don’t know. And there’s a couple diamonds.”

“I don’t think a diamond the size of a crumb is gonna snag any of her damn sweaters. Steve, she’s gonna love it. Quit procrastinating. Sam’s got 100 bucks saying you’re gonna take more than a month to pop the question and I don’t like how cocky he’s been since they upgraded his suit’s wingspan.” Steve exhaled a laugh and shook his head, rubbing his eyes. 

“I know I’m being ridiculous. It’s just a big step, you know? I don’t even have a plan.”

“No plan, just ask.” Bucky quipped. “You and your goddamn plans, I swear I’m gonna rip my hair out. Steve, Y/N’s the simplest person I know. She doesn’t want any of your plans, she doesn’t want you to make a show of it. But she does deserve a little bit of effort. Make her dinner at your place, something she likes, get down on one knee and fucking ask her to marry you. Soon, before she does it first.” Bucky raised his eyebrows to show he was serious. And he was. You would ask Steve to marry you. But you were always the one to make the first move, and it was Steve’s turn. “Tonight, pal. Tonight’s the night. No missions, no meetings. Take advantage of the time you have. Stop putting this off.” Bucky held Steve’s gaze with stern eyes until the lovestruck soldier nodded with gratitude. Satisfied, Bucky stepped back. “Alright, I’ve got some paperwork to not do, I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Star Spangled Man with a Plan.”

***

That night, you returned to your and Steve’s floor with curiosity blooming in your chest. All day you had had this… feeling. A phantom expectation, an unwarranted sense of anticipation tingling in your fingertips. You just couldn’t shake this feeling that something was going to happen, and you had no idea if it was good or bad. You’d attribute it to the telepathy, but you hadn’t heard anything suspicious all day. Actually, you did notice one thing. Steve had been unusually guarded lately- you could read people when their guard was down, but if they really didn’t want you to know something, you were as good as powerless. At first you weren’t too concerned; usually after a tough mission, like the ones you had been having pretty regularly of late, Steve would board up like a closed down mine shaft. It was impossible to read him until he let you in, which was the most frustrating thing you’d had to accept when you met him. He was like a brick wall sometimes, and all you wanted to do was break through to help him. But he always came around, in his own time. However, it seemed like lately he always had his guard up.

You arrived to an apartment filled with the homey aroma of spices and cooking meat. Steve was making Y/F/F? Oh, lord, what did he do this time?

You made your way to the kitchen, increasingly suspicious. “Steve? What’s up?” Your boyfriend spun around to face you, oven mitts on and your gingerbread man apron tied around his waist. 

“Hey, I thought I’d make supper tonight. You know, to celebrate the end of the week.” You raised your eyebrows. 

“Um, okay, but why? I’m not complaining, but you haven’t made Y/F/F since you spilled red wine all over my suede jacket.” Steve smiled nervously.

“Right, don’t worry, I didn’t ruin anything else, I don’t think.” You narrowed your eyes. “It’s just been a while since we sat down and had a nice meal together that wasn’t half-hour delivery. You go get changed into your sweats and I’ll finish up.” You shrugged and muttered out an okay before heading to your room.

When you returned, the table was set and Steve was pouring the two of you drinks. He pulled out your chair for you and set the meal on the table before taking a seat himself. As you ate, he asked about your day, as he usually did, and you asked about his. You shared funny work stories about the interns in your department and told Steve about how far you’d gotten in your training session with Wanda to continue controlling your similar powers. Throughout the meal, Steve listened with a gentle smile as you gestured animatedly, admiring the passion in your eyes. By the time your plates were empty the wine was half done, Steve began to feel his nerves building up. He tapped his thumb anxiously on the tabletop as he tried to listen to your story about your father’s latest experiment with a stretchy material for Bruce to wear that wouldn’t rip when he turned into the Hulk. Steve couldn’t believe you were in his life. He couldn’t believe you were here, right now, living with him, in love with him, choosing him. 

“For now, you mean.”

“She’s going to get sick of you eventually, or find someone better.”

“She’ll get tired of you choosing missions over her.”

“You won’t have time to raise kids, you’ll be too busy fighting another battle you sought out.”

“You can’t live without war, what kind of father are you going to be to children, let alone a husband to a wife?”

“You can’t do this, coward.”

“You can’t-”

“Marry me,” Steve breathed out. You halted yourself in the middle of your sentence, leaning forward.

“Sorry, what was that?” Eyes wide and beautiful with curiosity. Steve blinked, unsure if he had even said anything at all. Did he just say that? Out loud? To you? The words fell out so easily despite how much that stupid voice tried to stop him.

But Steve was never one to back down.

“Marry me, Y/N,” he repeated. “Will you?” Your mouth opened slightly to form an O, the breath seemingly knocked from your lungs. You stared blankly at him as you realized what he had asked, and that he expected an answer.

Was this what had been consuming his thoughts lately, what he had fought so hard to keep a secret from you? You felt an exhilarating tingle run from the center of your chest to your fingertips, so strong you clenched your hands into fists to contain your elation. You and Steve had talked about marriage before and you both knew you wanted to be married someday, but you never knew whether Steve would be the one to take that step towards making it a reality. All you understood was that Steve was all you knew in this moment, all you saw, all you felt, all you wanted. It was laughably easy to answer his question.

“Yes.”

part 2

____________________________________________________________

Tag List:

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Steve Rogers: @promarvelfangirl​

[dontcallmecarrie]

I loved the latest chapter of TWIFFON! Thank you so much for continuing this and all your stories no matter how much they fight you or how long the gaps between posts are! I am wondering though, the small percentage of personnel that remained in SHIELD must have heard of their former colleagues branding themselves as SWORD and acting as basically the stark authorized version of what they are supposed to be doing (intelligence, combat with/against enhanced, etc.) and have to have opinions on this

So…this ask has been sitting in my drafts for a while since things got hectic again [very ironic, I know] and I forgot I hit save instead of post but…

1) anon, I’m very happy you liked it! At this point in time, TWiFFON’s the single most shameless self-indulgent AU I have going on and the Civil War arc reflects this the best.

2) as for the latter part of your ask: 

Due to time constraints [and things hitting the fan so often it’s basically background noise at this point], a lot of subplots got axed from what’s showing up in TWiFFON and is going to be covered in FtOS, the SHIELD/SWORD thing being one of the biggest. 

I must preface this by saying that thanks to the unreliable narrator thing we’re mostly seeing Team Tony [Eat Something And Take A Nap Sometime This Decade, GDI]. 

also because some POVs are harder to write than others and same way trying to map Steve’s train of thought gives me a headache, some of the stuff SHIELD’s pulled has me gritting my teeth and I’m not even a political science major, just someone derping around after having seen one too many tv shows, but shh

Okay, with that out of the way, here’s how it would’ve gone down had I possessed the time and energy to write this at length:

SHIELD wasn’t exactly happy about losing roughly 2/3 of its personnel [I’m approximating here for simplicity’s sake]: DC dealt them a huge blow, and the less-well-known part is that it was quickly followed up by an unintentional backhand from Tony when he ended up keeping the people he did. 

At first, SHIELD assumed that Tony was being Tony and going “finders keepers”, but attempts at reaching out and getting ‘their’ [SHIELD’s a bit of a douchebag in this AU, I guess] people back quickly show that this is not the case. 

No, their old personnel simply…don’t want to come back. 

And any attempts to convince them otherwise simply ends up netting SHIELD a very up close and personal encounter with SI’s Legal department over harassment and trade secrets and the risk of pissing off someone they cannot afford to alienate. 

So they stop. Reluctantly.

Bear in mind that SHIELD isn’t actually a villain in this; it still aims to fulfill its original role of protecting people from threats, but…it’s been shaken to its bare foundations what with DC, is desperately trying to stay afloat while under extreme scrutiny from everyone and with only a fraction of the people it once had [thus why they were trying so hard to get their people back].

Another thing that’s probably useful to know: post-DC, SHIELD’s composed largely of the bases that weren’t on HYDRA’s radar [between, say, Colorado and the nation’s capital, where do you think they would’ve focused?] so the fighting wasn’t typically as intense as it was elsewhere. There’s more to it than that— if I were to go down this route, it would’ve culminated in a civil war in SHIELD while Tony’s trying to put out the fire Steve keeps fanning. 

…and I got off track. Whoops.

To sum up: SHIELD isn’t actually that bad an organization but it’s in a very sticky situation and so when people who used to be SHIELD don’t want to come back, it’s…something. Some people are more understanding than others [cough, some of the people Tony rescued and chose to go back, cough], so the perception varies from ‘all but a traitor to the cause’ to ‘sellout’ to ‘was so traumatized the mere idea of fieldwork is almost enough to trigger a breakdown’.

That’s how it was at first, anyway, back when it was just ex-SHIELD people with their Unnamed Support Group staying in touch via SI’s emails and memos and JARVIS.

Then Ultron happened, and Maria Hill saw that Tony needed help and she was able to give it, which was the spark that turned into a roaring fire. 

Which alone would’ve been bad enough in SHIELD’s eyes, because if it’d just been that it would’ve been seen as “oh shit SI now has a privatized security force aka private army” and “…wait so that’s where they went, *glares* I see now” 

but then

it comes out that this entire company is as much of a douchebag as the man who owns it, because these assholes have the gall to call themselves SWORD.

That is 100% an insult to SHIELD, straight-up. 

SWORD did it as a form of empowerment, of ‘I was in a bad place but I put myself together again with the help of my friends and am now here to kick ass and take names’, but to SHIELD? 

That’s the ultimate middle finger, especially with that insignia. Because just by staying with Tony it’s obvious enough that they don’t intend on going back, but now it also looks like SWORD’s just living it up and enjoying the resources that come with being Tony Stark’s minions while SHIELD is barely able to stay afloat [which…isn’t actually inaccurate].

Again, there’s different perceptions of it—but even the most optimistic of people can’t help but feel the new tension between SHIELD and SWORD. 

And again, even if they’re not happy about it, SHIELD still can’t afford to piss them off. Not when SWORD’s protected by SI, their CEO is terrifying, and they’d rather not cross the former Merchant of Death. 

tl;dr: SHIELD isn’t happy about this development, but…it’s not like they can do anything about it.

.

also this and the SHIELD Civil War subplot reminded me of an unintentional parallel would’ve really pissed SWORD off, if it were ever brought to their attention: they accidentally copied HYDRA with the ‘got hired by this other force, proceeded to make themselves at home’ thing. Of course, they’re the exact opposite of HYDRA and 100% focus on helping out their new home rather than corrupting it, but. The origin story’s similar enough that everyone involved would   h a t e   i t 

[imagine-loki]

Forever and Always

TITLE:  Forever and Always CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT:  One Shot AUTHOR: ginakatie ORIGINAL IMAGINE:  Imagine being Loki’s wife and trying to stop him during the attack on Midgard only for him to not listen. Months later, when he imprisoned on Asgard, you try to speak with him again. RATING: General  NOTES/WARNINGS:  None

There she was, with her head stuck in a book, curled up in Asgard’s magnificent Library. I gently make a slight cough to get her attention, her head comes up from the book and her beautiful smile appears on her sweet face. “Good evening my prince” Her soft voice rings out, “What brings you here on such a beautiful night” “The books mostly my dearest, or most importantly, the one reading them.” I watch her carefully as a slight tinge of red appears on her cheeks. “I have been looking for you, I would like to speak to you about a matter that has been on my mind.” She smiles and pats the chair next to her as he sits beside her.

“Loki, LOKI, LOKI” A bang at the glass brought Loki back to earth, there he was, back in Midgard, stuck in a Shield cell face to face with Thor, the image of her smiling disappearing in his mind.

“Y/N, was he always this cold hearted?” Cap looked down at me, his face concerned at what he was watching on the screens. I watched in horror as Natasha spoke to him, the way he was, wasn’t the man I had loved or remembered, he wasn’t the man I had shared my life with, I watched the screens trying not to cry wishing we could turn back the clock, back to one of those nights with only the moonlight around us as we made love in Asgard’s lake. “Not always, but somehow his thirst for power became stronger and his love for me disappeared. I smiled gently at Thor was he walked back into the main sector, knowing that he was hurting just as much as I. “Thor I want to see him” “Y/N that is not a good idea. He is dangerous and will use his words to only hurt you further.” “Maybe, but I must believe that somewhere inside of him, is still some goodness. He is my husband after all” “Very well, but I will be keeping an eye if I think we need to get you out of there” “Thank you Thor, you have always been so kind to me” I took a deep breath and walked down to where he was being kept.

The doors opened silently and I slowly made my way into the round room, his lean figure had his back to me and I couldn’t see his face. “Thought you would join the opposing team to take down the monster did you Y/N” His voice as cold as ice, echoing through the wide chamber. “Opposing team? I thought we were supposed to look after and support each other through thick and thin, I thought we were on the same team? Or did you not mean that Loki?” He swung his body around, his face full of anger. Yet his face seemed to soften just a tiny bit when he saw my face. “Loki, I spent years looking for you after you disappeared over the bridge, you’re anger and hatred clouded your vision and all you could think about was the throne. “That was my birth right, its rightfully mine. Not that oafs” “You mean your brother’s” “He is not my brother, just a man who always thought he was the best and strutted around.” “Oh Loki, how sad this is. To watch you corrupt yourself. Family doesn’t always have to be related; you know this.” “But what about my throne?” “Who gives a shit about some stupid gold throne Loki! Yes, you will be powerful, that’s just grand. But what have you lost on your journey to power?” “What do you mean?” “You lost your family; you lost your home and you lost me. Do you not care?” Loki huffed and rolled his eyes dramatically. “I loved you more than anything in this galaxy, I would have done anything for you.” “That is all lies” “Is it Loki? Then as the God of lies yourself, tell me why I have spent every waking moment looking for you since you disappeared?” Suddenly a huge explosion ripped though the ship and I was blown backwards, hitting my head on the wall. Though I was dazed, I could see Loki grinning like the Cheshire cat. “Loki, stop this. Whatever your plans are, you can stop them before it’s too late” I slurred, trying not to pass out. “Oh my precious creature, its already too late. Nothing can stop what is about to happen.” I heard him say before I passed out against the cold floor.

“Loki, come on my beautiful trickster, follow me.” “Where are we going dear?” Loki chuckled at his wife “To the lake.” “Why are we going to the lake” “Because it looks beautiful in the moonlight, I thought you should see” She practically dragged him to the edge of the water before looking up at him, her face grinning in the moonlight. Mischief written all over her. “Y/N what in the lords above are you doing!” Loki exclaimed as she stripped in front of him and began to make her way into the water until you could only see her hips upwards. “Do you trust me Loki?” She asked “More than anything” “Then come and join me” Loki used his magic to vanish his clothes and elegantly followed her into the water, until he came face to face with her. She raised her hands to his hair, stroking it softly, feeling the curls in her hands. He wrapped his arms around her waist and slowly brought his lips to hers. She moved her hands to his toned chest and made patterns on his moonlit skin as they both stared into each other’s eyes. She began kissing his chest and up towards his neck, while he grabbed and caressed her body. “Y/N?” “Yes Loki?” “Thank you” “For what my dear?” “For the joy you have brought into both mine and my families life. I can never thank you enough but will spend the rest of my days trying to show you just how much you mean to me”

I could feel the wetness of my tears on my cheek as the harsh white lights above me brought me back to reality. Those beautiful memories could never be tarnished no matter what. I tried to wipe away my tear, but my hands were tightly bound to whatever I was sat on. I tried to get a grasp of my surroundings, but the light was blinding me, making my vision blurred. “Awake I see” Loki’s voice shattered through the chamber. “Where am I? Loki, what happened?” “The plan went well, and now I am free. The ‘avengers’ are divided, and I will rule the earth my sweet. The question is, will you be by my side?” “Excuse me?” “You are my wife after all, and you have always been loyal to me. I am giving you a chance to rule by my side, if you decline you will become one of my mindless minions anyway.” “Oh Loki, you just do not get it. Do you?” “Get what?” “I never married you for the throne or power. I would have gone straight to Thor if that had been the case. I married you because after years of my life, unhappy and afraid. You were the one person that loved me for me, the one person I could be totally free with. The person I could cuddle up next to with a book and not have to talk but be totally content in one another’s existence. You were the person I loved more than anything, I did not care that you were from another planet or were not Odin’s biological son. You were still their family and I loved you all the same. I never wanted the throne or the power. I just wanted you” “Y/N, think of the power we could have. To rule over Midgard, then maybe Asgard.” “You can do that Loki, go for it. But I will not continue to watch you lose yourself. You have no idea how much it broke us all when you fell from the rainbow bridge. We all mourned you, as a son, as a brother and as a husband. But here you are before me, yet you are less like my Loki than ever. I don’t want to be a part of your plans. So do your worst Loki. Because it cannot be as bad as what you have already put me through.” “What a lovely speech my dear, shame it will not save you. Willingly or not. You will fight alongside me” I closed my eyes tight as he brought his Scepter over me. Yet nothing happened, I opened my eyes to see Loki, the Scepter raised, but for the first time. His hands shook, his eyes were closed. Like he was trying to form the courage. I watched him, trying not to cry as he tried to muster the courage. “Loki” I breathed. He opened an eye and stared at me. “I love you, it will be okay” suddenly with a flash, he was gone. The shackles had disappeared, and I was back on the Shield ship, unable to hold back the sobs, as Steve and Tony ran to my side.

 5 Months Later

I slowly walked down into the cells, just as I had 5 months before. It was the first time I was able to muster up the courage to see him since New York. It was nice to be back in the beautiful Asgard clothing, though I had grown quite fond of the black jeans and tighter tops. My footsteps seemed to echo along the walls as I slowly walked to Loki’s cell. “Good evening my dearest, thought you would come and gawk at the prisoner?” “Drop the facade Loki. I know that isn’t you, you may be the God of lies, but you can’t fool me.” The image evaporated and Loki sat at the edge of his cell, with a book in his hands. I looked at the cover and smiled a little “What are you smiling at?” “The book you are reading” “What about it?” “That was the first book you gave to me. I stayed up all night reading it, while you played with my hair. Do you not remember?” “Of course I remember” He grumbled “How could I ever forget such precious memories?” I looked down slowly, a smile on the edge of my lips. Frigga had shown me the way to get into the cell, so I carefully looked at Loki, “May I join you?” he almost looked surprised but gesture for me to come and sit with him. I made my way into the cell and sat next to him. “Y/N?” “Yes?” “Why did you come and see me?” “Because even after everything, I still love you. We all do. But through your hatred you forgot that.” I gently laid my head on his shoulders and though he tensed up, he soon calmed to my touch, my hands making patterns over his clothing. “How can you still love me? I did the worst things, I murdered and destroyed.” “Because you are mine, and yes right now things are not great, we are broken. I am still very hurt from what you did. But in time that will heal, if you are willing to try and become better, I believe that we can try again. I took an oath Loki, through good or bad and I would walk through heaven and hell, so that you could be happy, so that we can be together.” I felt Loki’s head move away from me as he turned to stare at me. “Really, do you mean that?” “Always”

[lovelyirony]

@chikinan has wonderful art of samsteve, which you know i just had to write! 

Steve and Sam meet when Steve’s being a little imp. It kind of defines their whole relationship, honestly. But Sam deals with the “on your left” quip while running in DC, they talk about trauma, and then Sam gets to help overthrow a secret organization that was very corrupt. 

He also got to brag that he jumped into a helicopter off a skyscraper-type-building and he got to help Captain America. Steve for short. 

Sam visits Steve in the hospital, bringing a shield that was fished out of the Potomac and a playlist of Marvin Gaye to play. 

There’s a blonde woman sitting by his side, grinning as she tells him something. 

“Oh, Sam,” Steve says. His bruise from yesterday looks a lot better--unfair, by the way, because it still hurts Sam to turn too much--and his smile is wider. “This is Sharon. She was my neighbor for a bit. Also a SHIELD agent.” 

"Used to be,” Sharon says with a shrug. “Thinking about a new career.” 

“The coffee shop down the street needs baristas,” Sam jokes. Sharon smiles, laughing. 

“And you’re Sam, aren’t you? Nice to see Steve finally has someone who can keep up with him and keep him grounded.” 

“I’m fine,” Steve says. 

“Nah, you’re a freak of nature,” Sharon says. “And I need to focus more on making sure that Maria doesn’t take on all the work herself.” 

“And so you can utilize her wine collection,” Steve says. Sharon flips him off easily, laughing. 

“I’ll see you nerds later.” 

Sam gets the most distinct impression that Sharon could probably take over a country if she so wanted to. 

When Steve gets out of the hospital, he stays at Sam’s for a bit. 

And then that little bit turns into a lot longer when Sam decides to go for it and kiss Steve on the lips. 

Steve is a very nice man to date. They go to art museums and little coffee shops and the places that Sam says Steve has to go to. 

“Why did we go to Burger King after midnight?” 

“Tastes better. You go in the daytime and it’s shit.”

“...okay.” 

They’re both stubborn, Steve all the more. But Sam can talk with him and they communicate well, even on the days where Steve remembers things that he doesn’t want to or the days when it feels like just a year ago he was looking forward to the premiere of Meet Me in St. Louis. 

About a year and a half after they meet, Bucky enters the scene. 

Bucky is an asshole, once you really get to know him. Sam says that that’s a redeeming trait, although Bucky flips him off every single time. 

Bucky, Sharon, Steve, and Sam all form a friend-group of sorts and have a fun time hanging out together. Bucky and Sharon often gang up on the couple, laughing as they talk about all the dumb shit they’ve been up to. 

Steve actually needs Sharon’s help when he decides that marrying Sam would be the best decision ever. Well, he decided that about three months into their relationship. But now, it’s more...real. He’s ready to settle down, look at the man he loves, and say “I do.” 

He calls her and cajoles her into breakfast at eight in the morning to beat the usual people who go out for breakfast on Saturdays. 

“This better be good,” Sharon says grouchily. “I could’ve been having my own coffee and watching the show about puppies.” 

“I need to go ring-shopping with you. You’re the one who knows Sam best.” 

Sharon grins, hugging Steve and expressing the fact that they’d find the perfect one. 

They go to a lot of stores after-hours, the most-trusted experts on-hand. Steve doesn’t want this getting out until he wants it to break, and they understand that. 

And if they didn’t before, Sharon makes sure they do after. 

Steve decides on simplicity. Sam isn’t one for flashy declarations, so a gold band will do. 

Sam knows that he and Steve will get married one day. They’ve talked about the details, said that they don’t want to get married in the winter. He just doesn’t know when. 

He gets surprised by a beautiful picnic and a trip to the art museum, one of their first dates. 

Steve proposes in front of one of Sam’s favorite works of art, and Sam exclaims his surprise and his love so loudly that it makes headlines and memes for the weeks to follow. 

Sam can’t stop introducing Steve after that. 

“Oh, have you met my motherfucking husband?” Sam asks the Avengers. “Becuase here he is. See the wedding band?” 

“You’ve bragged about this eight times,” Bucky deadpans. 

“And there will be more to come!” Sam replies glibly. “Meet my husband. He has questionable taste in cocktails and thinks that the best invention of the twenty-first century is gel pens.” 

“They were invented in 1984, pick another one,” Tony says. 

“I wasn’t alive then, I consider it then,” Steve responds. 

“No,” Bruce says. “You weren’t alive for the invention of fire, do you consider that a twentieth century invention? Sam, you’re marrying an idiot.” 

“But he’s my idiot,” Sam says. 

All of SHIELD, once it’s rebuilt, gets the low-down. Steve Rogers is Sam Wilson’s husband, and Sam will remind you of that at any possible moment. 

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t interrupt my training session with new recruits to remind us all of your impending nuptials,” Maria Hill responds frostily after Sam walks in and shows off his ring for the new recruits to “ooh” and “ah” over. 

“Too bad, I’m getting married,” Sam says. “Now, I need your guys’ opinion. This is very important.” 

The smile drops, and the recruits lean in. Any lesson or advice they could give to Falcon could potentially lead to a status-upgrade. 

“How do I tell Steve that we’re not doing vanilla frosting without hurting his feelings?” 

Maria groans and says if Sam doesn’t get out, she’s throwing knives at him. 

Then comes the topic of who will be in the bridal party. Sam’s family, obviously. But they need a maid-of-honor and a best man. 

“For the best man, it has to be Bucky,” Steve says. “I won’t have anyone else.” 

“If you must,” Sam sighs, pretending to be annoyed before pressing a kiss to Steve’s cheek. “Have him over for lunch. But I get to choose the maid-of-honor then, and I go with Sharon.” 

Steve is in charge of the color schemes, and they choose navy blue and dove gray. 

“Dove?” Clint asks. “There are kinds of gray?” 

“I live with idiots,” Bruce says. “Of course there’s dove gray.” 

Bruce is...surprisingly helpful when it comes to procuring wedding materials. 

“How do you know these things?” Sam asks. 

“I watch too many shows and keep tabs on materials. Do not ask about it.” 

He nods, and makes a note to get Bruce to ask about custom-suits, or Tony. 

The wedding goes off perfectly. Tony has threatened everyone in a thirty-mile radius that if they attack anywhere near the wedding, he will eviscerate them until they’re nothing but a dark spot on the sidewalk. 

Sam is whisked away on the morning of, Sharon dragging him to a dressing room. 

“Bad luck to see the groom the day of the wedding.” 

“Isn’t that for brides?” 

“Nope, no gender-bias,” Sharon says. “And I guarantee if Steve saw you, he’d trip over himself. If he trips down the aisle, I win two dollars off Jane.” 

“You guys are betting during my wedding?” 

“Obviously, it’s what the Avengers and company do, Sam. Now, to the suit.” 

Sam is in the dove gray, Steve in the navy. They make a pretty good pair, the two of them. Of course, Natasha nabs Steve’s phone away when he’s trying to show Sam what he drew on the bottom of them. 

“No!” She declares. “You are not allowed to do any of this. I am turning on your wedding playlist.” 

“I have a wedding playlist?” 

“Technically it’s Bruce’s.” 

“Why does Bruce have one?” 

“I don’t ask him questions and neither should you, now onto hair,” Natasha says. “We’re going to make you look great for your wedding.” 

Sharon makes sure all the bouquets are set, the caterers are doing their job (and not serving cold potatoes like so many other weddings have had before) and that everyone is ready. 

“Do I really have to wear a tie?” Clint whines. 

“Yes,” Bruce says, not even looking up from his newspaper. “Wear it and suffer or don’t wear it and you’ll be replaced.” 

“I doubt Steve or Sam could find a replacement on such short notice,” Clint scoffs. 

“They couldn’t, but I could. I have two people on stand-by.” 

And then, the time comes. The bridesmaids and groomsmen look immaculate, and Steve can’t stop thinking about the day they met and how lucky he is to see his husband every day and be able to kiss him in the mornings, nights, and any time else it suits. 

Sam looks like a vision. His smile is radiant and he gets up to the aisle and smoothly turns to look at the priest. 

“We’re ready.” 

The ceremony is beautiful, and Steve can’t take his eyes off his husband. 

Sharon cries and tries to hide it behind her bouquet, although it ends up making a lovely picture for the photographer. 

The reception is wonderful. The food is great, the dancing is great, and Steve and Sam show off a very impressive first-dance that involves Steve near-hurling Sam out of his grasp. All in all, a very nice start. 

Bucky delivers an excellent speech on how lovesick Steve is, and how he told him one night that “he would marry Sam, even if it did kill him.” Sam cries. 

Sharon lightens up the mood with various stories about how stupid both of the grooms are, and how Sam had walked into a light-pole once because Steve happened to be wearing a rather nice shirt. 

They dance through the night, and end up in their bed, breathing hard. 

“Love you, Steve.” 

“Love you too.” 

“You’re my husband now. Like, for real.” 

“What a thought,” Steve teases, pulling him close. “You’re my husband too.” 

“A surprise,” Sam says, laughing. “Love you.” 

“Love you more.” 

“Love you most.”