ᴏᴘᴇɴ ᴘᴏsᴛ 2019-2020 ( ɢᴇɴ + sᴍᴜᴛ )

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[mucked]

Steve Rogers.

[ she practically drawls his name. the hour is too late to be chilly and distant. she misses him too much to switch her emotions off like some sort of lamp or lightbulb.

peggy picks up her hand and eyes the cards. ]

You're too nice for your own good. [ a pause. ] An enterprising individual might have bargained for more than letting me risk what's already his.

[uprightness]

Well, they're not mine. I'm giving them to you. Whether you hold onto them or not remains to be seen.

[ he takes his cards and looks at them before smiling at her. Honestly, he'd leave a box for her tomorrow, rested against a tea cup but this, tonight, is different. ]

besides, I have about fifteen other boxes. So about it? do we have a deal?

[ he's happy, he's earnest - it all comes from her softer nature, her banter, her not-as-professional talk. ]

[mucked]

Fifteen.

[ her tone is dull, disbelieving. she's barely had time to register her card-hand, let alone think ahead to any strategies she might employ. ]

Good God. Now I hope he shows his neck 'round here sooner rather than later. So I can wring it.

[ she's oddly envious. cooped up in this house, with him, but he's got all the goodies. it makes her wonder whether howard didn't somehow imagine this exact scenario. ]

[uprightness]

You'll cut back on our supplies if you do. Leave Stark alone.

[ it's nice, that they're close friends. Steve is still a little embarrassed about assuming too much about Howard and Peggy. He thinks, he suspects, they're closer friends now that they were in the war. He imagines they must have worked together during the last five years. He doesn't ask, though; maybe he'll hear about it from either of them some day.

They play, it's a chance to have a bit of conversation. Steve comments about the weather, about a book he's reading, about a game he's been listening to on the radio. ]

Have you traveled at all? Howard seems to do that a lot.

[mucked]

Here and there.

[ it's a frustratingly vague answer, she knows. as the game pauses for a bit of chatter, she leans her wrist on her leg - obscuring her card hand. ]

There's some back and forth with the London office - no surprise, really, that they prefer to send me over the pond whenever it's necessary.

[ there was california, too, but that was all rather unpleasant... ]

Howard's really the jetsetter. Me, I'm more than happy to stay put in New York. Put down a root or two. [ a pause. ] I've got a flat. And a flatmate, too.

[uprightness]

It must be nice, though, isn't it? seeing England.

[ it's where she was born and raised, after all. Steve often wondered if she were homesick at all. She never said but that has never been an indication - Peggy has always been, after all, a very private person. Every piece of information she offers him is treasured. ]

That's nice. D'you get along? Are you friends?

[ it's odd, thinking about her with a roomer. ]

[mucked]

[ he asks about england and she lets the question slide. glance away, ignored, because she doesn't really know how to answer him. england is home, and always will be, but it doesn't feel the same as it once felt. there's a strain, there, in the carter household. it came in the door the day her brother died.

best not to let the evening turn so dour. instead, she smiles a little. ]

It is. We do. We are.

[ peg taps her ignored card hand against her thigh, just where her skirt hem seems to hitch and give way to silk stockings. ]

Her name is Angie. And, I'm sorry to say, a fan of yours. [ peggy's eyes glimmer. ] If she knew where I was this month and what I was doing? Good Lord, I'd never hear the end of it.

[uprightness]

[ steve is interested, he is. Only she's distracting, too. There is a soft sound whern her fingernails touch the cards as she taps them with her fingernails, painted red. And then there's the stockings - he notices them again, they're different.

Still, she's just told him something. Something important, too. ]

She must be pretty great.

[ she's won over Peggy, after all. ]

D'you live in a nice area of town?

[mucked]

It's Manhattan. Theatre district. [ not brooklyn. ] And a nice enough part - not that the rough parts worry me, either.

[ she notices the way his eyes follow other movements, but she tries not to read too hard to long into it. ]

Near the office. Near enough that I can walk.

[uprightness]

That's a very nice area.

[ fancier than what steve has ever been able to afford. What must her apartment look like? classy and stylish? small but airy? he doesn't ask, it feels too personal. steve takes his card, looks at them and chances another question, ]

D'you like it? work?

[ she doesn't talk about it too often, even though that's what she's doing with him all these weeks. ]

[mucked]

...There's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

[ it only sort of answers the question. working with the ssr comes with a hundred little headaches, but the victories more than make up for it. she loves her purpose. she loves her grind. she doesn't so much love the people standing shoulder to shoulder with her on any given day, but those things take time to change. ]

Doubly so right now.

[ it's a strain on them, she knows, that her duty is him and he is the subject of her current work. even so, she wouldn't trade it away. she wouldn't want some other agent holed up in here with him. ]

There are worse assignments I could've pulled.

[uprightness]

You sure know how to flatter a person.

[ but he takes it as a compliment. He doesn't like to think he's making it difficult for her. It's not simple on either of them but for Peg, it's her job. She's being kind, in her own backhanded compliment sort of way. He wonders what else she does, how much risk she's at. She knows how to take care of herself.

Still, a part of him worries. Maybe it's best that he's her current duty, as much as he would have liked to be something else.

Besides, he likes this, sitting on her carpet, playing cards. ]

[mucked]

Is that what you're after?

[ her toes twitch. her posture stretches, briefly, as though sitting on the floor has become a little more trying. it's not that she's in pain or uncomfortable - it's just that she's become suddenly very aware of how they've never before sat so casually together. ]

A bit of flattery.

[ fuck it. peggy tosses her hand aside and instead reaches for a turkish delight, one of the ones she's meant to be gambling with, and pops it past her lips. ]

[uprightness]

I'm not - hey.

[ he laughs but it's far too late for him to reach over and stop her. Steve shakes his head at her. ]

I think you're the one who cheats in cards.

[ he hasn't touched his, after all. ]

[mucked]

I could tell you how considerate a housemate you've been. Or how you make the best pancakes I've ever eaten.

[ she teases him, somehow managing to wield her flattery like a weapon in its own right. peggy reaches for another candy. ]

Or how you look damned good for a man who just spent the last five years of his life on ice.

[uprightness]

[ it's all nice to hear, that she likes his company, that she's liked the pancakes, that she thinks he looks good. That's she's noticed how he looks like. He smiles, watches her eat the second candy, putting his cards aside. ]

Nice of you. Still doesn't change the fact you've cheated.

[ but oh, well. he helps himself to a candy, too. ]

[mucked]

I blame the stakes.

[ she uncrosses her ankles and then crosses them again in the opposite direction. the carts, the board, the playing pegs are all scattered across her bedroom floor and she's long since realized she gets more enjoyment out of talking to him than playing cribbage. ]

They simply weren't high enough.

[uprightness]

Oh that's how it is? I'll give you a call whenever I find a job, then, we can give that another go.

[ he leans back against the foot of her arm chair and helps himself to another candy. If they're not betting on them, he might as well eat them before she decides she wants to take over his stash. ]

We can bet on a fiver or two.

[mucked]

Believe it or not, you have a job.

[ she mirrors his posture and they sit - across from one another - eating turkish delights and not at all putting this bedroom to its intended use. for all the hopes and dreams howard might have had for them, they're wasting it all now. ]

And you always will. For as long as you want it.

[ she's adamant. hell, she'll go to bat for him again and again. to give him the sort of work he likes doing - not the pr crap or the touring shows. real, good work. ]

[uprightness]

Are you sure? I gotta tell you, I'm pretty sure I'll be a shit spy.

[ judging by the way he smiles, he's joking. whatever it is the ssr has for him, he knows it won't be that. He's a terrible liar and he's hardly subtle if to judge by the way he's been staring at her all night. He collects the cards and shuffles them. ]

D'you really think so?

[ the world has changed. Steve isn't sure just how much or in what ways but it may not be a world that needs Captain America anymore. ]

[mucked]

It's not all undercover costumes and fake accents. [ she promises. ] Often, it's throwing punches. Taking them, too.

[ it would be nice to work beside him again. he might never shape up as a proper spy, but he would make a good ground operative. he would be good for the sort of infiltration that don't requires grand cover stories or legends. and she'd always trust him in the field ahead of a great many others.

and maybe, just maybe, she likes the idea of more time spent in safehouses. more time alone together. if they spend enough time, perhaps all this tension will resolve itself. ]

I'll damn well quit if they don't take you back.

[uprightness]

--- is some of it undercover costumes and fake accents?

[ hell, what has she been doing? he smiles as he studies her, trying to imagine her as a redhead Parisian or a blonde girl from Alabama. Hell, she could probably pass herself as both. He almost wishes he could see it.

He shakes his head at her threat. In the end, even after five years, she's still his best girl who saw something in him when no one else did, not even him. ]

Can't let that happen. It'll be entirely their loss.

[mucked]

Costumes, wigs, aliases, accents - [ she ticks each element off on a finger.

there hadn't been as much need for that sort of thing during the war. at least, never while she was in sight of the howlies. if she had her own missions, her own assignments, she very rarely discussed them with the lads. they were (after all) confidential. ]

[uprightness]

Sounds a lot like acting.

[ he remarks. It's hard to imagine, he's always experienced Peggy as, well, uniquely herself, headstrong and independent, a fine markswoman, never anything less. ]

You sure you don't want to try your hand at it? Stark said he's making movies these days. Said he has his own studio.

[mucked]

[ her expression sours. ]

No thank you. I've turned him down more times than I can count - and it's always some ridiculous cheesecake of a role. Bar wench or femme fatale. All necklines and no meat.

[ it isn't as though she'd ever seriously consider a career in acting. that's angie's domain, thank you very much, and peggy's glad for it to stay that way. ]