fillers or aus i would love to play running list; if you're interested in any of this, throw up a starter and i am there
steve + peggy
Peggy and Steve's reunion when he returns to the past.
That dance scene. /sobs
Anything about their life afterward.
steve + tony
Conversations about Peggy or Howard, or anything else they'd talk about during their 2-man mission to the past
First time Steve and Tony interact after Tony calls Steve out on how failing together sucks.
Did Steve and Tony ever talk during those 5 years? If so, what did that look like?
[au] Tony survives, but Steve doesn't know that when he goes back in time. So now Steve is really old and Tony is not.
[au] Tony survives and Steve comes back from returning the stones and they rebuild their relationship
steve + natasha
Awful life at Avengers compound before Ant-Man, basically lots of hurt/comfort with each other
[au] When Steve tells Natasha that maybe they should both move on, he asks her out on a date — it becomes a very sad attempt at moving on, but it's also a sad kind of solace.
steve + bucky
Honestly, they barely got any time back together. Steve and Buck MUST have talked before Steve just decided to go back in the past. Possible convo where he admits he's not coming back, and asking Bucky if he wants to return back to their time with him?
steve + anyone
So ... you can so Mjolnir now?
Conversations with various characters when he returns the stones to their rightful place in the past
Someone insisting on going back in time with Steve, and they return all the stones together and this person convinces Steve to come back (or, is convinced that he really doesn't want to)
shuri + anyone
Rebuilding the world from Wakanda
Meeting the other avengers
One-uping our science bros during reconstruction :D
tony stark (AI) + morgan/anyone
I imagine this will be mostly sass.
And with everyone who is not Morgan, this will basically be him joking about how he's going to live forever.
[ according to the laws of quantum physics and time travel, returning the stones to the moment they were taken should reverse any potential errant time streams. it won't impact the past or change the future, but simply eliminate any alternative realities from taking hold in the multiverse.
however, vormir's not exactly a particularly logical place. it's a barren planet at the center of the celestial universe, not the library of congress. it does what it wants, really, and when steve rogers shows up out of the blue to return the soul stone, things really get weird. you see, no one's ever tried to return the stone. people have come back after obtaining it, of course, in the hopes of gaining more power or the secrets to mortality, but they've never gone back to vormir looking to speak with customer service to process a return without a receipt.
there's not even store credit. the red skull simply tells steve to place the stone on the rocky ground and go, and no matter how long steve lingers or queries or pounds his fist on the ground, nothing happens. he might as well just keep going. he might as well return all the stones, and then go back to the real world. nothing should change after that. the world should go back to exactly as it was before the stones were collected, save for all those people they brought back — and the dissolving of thanos, a real nice bonus feature.
it should. it should be totally normal. and yet, when steve heads back to the compound, there's a familiar crop of strawberry-blonde peeking over the top of a pair of widescreen monitors... and a voice, arguing, rising in volume with each repetition. ]
No, [ the voice repeats, ] I'm not dead. Yes, no, I'm aware that I was dead, but I'm obviously not dead anymore —
[ and then, a beat, as her eyes skim up to spot the man crossing the threshold. ]
I'm going to have to call you back.
[ hi honey, i'm home ]
you decided to play with me, so you get heartbreak
[ Those who know Steve's relationship with the Red Skull might guess that for him, it would be the worst possible part of returning of the soul stone. But it isn't, not by a long shot.
Steve's reunion with Johann Schmidt, however, is a complete surprise. Neither of them says much at the beginning, and instead, they just stare at each other until the Red Skull speaks first.
I never thought I'd see the day where Captain America comes searching for power. And yet, I have a feeling that you're here for something else.
Steve shows him the stone, the one the Red Skull had just watched Barton wake up with, clutched in his hands, and he can't help but look over to the ledge, even if there's nothing there.
This cannot be. No one, as they say, has ever come to return the stone. But Steve's already gotten his first clue that something is off, and he's known from the start there was something Clint had refused to tell him about his mission with Natasha to Vormir. So, with the suitcase, now closed, and Mjoinir in his hands, Steve walks over to the cliff. He never turns his back to Schmidt, but he looks down. He knows before he sees her body, that he's about to witness something truly terrible, and suddenly, Steve nearly chokes on the emotion in his throat.
Anger flows through him in a way that he didn't think would be possible after the snap had been reversed. But now, he knows that Tony hadn't been the only one to willingly give his life for the sake of the world. Natasha had done the same but to much less fanfare. She'd made her ultimate sacrifice in the shadows, on a planet inhabited by no one, appreciated by no one.
Bring her back. He demands, holding the stone towards Schmidt as if this could somehow reverse the sacrifice. But no, nothing. Schmidt says he cannot, that he has no power over this place, and that if Steve truly wishes to return the stone, he can leave it on the ground. No amount of anything results in anything more.
Soul, however, wasn't the last stone. Steve makes many more trips, some easy, some taking their own toll on him before he's finally back at the compound and sees Bucky and Sam and Bruce again. He smiles, even if it feels like he's now a different man than when he left. ]
Where's Clint? [ is the first question he asks, when he steps off the platform with an empty suitcase and Thor's hammer in tow. He can call him inside, they tell him, and sooner rather than later, Steve is entering the compound to do just that until—
I'm going to have to call you back.
He doesn't say anything. Instead, he walks around the television set, dropping the suitcase and Mjoinir — right, that part should be new news for her — to the ground. Then, he just stares at her, like he's trying to figure out whether this is in any way real, or even possible.
Then, finally: ]
He told me the stone didn't work that way. That sacrifices can't be unmade. [ Steve doesn't even know why he sounds so accusatory at that moment, like the Red Skull lying to him was somehow the most treacherous and important thing to talk about right now. ]
[ the universe works in mysterious ways. it's the sort of hokey, antiquated garbage stephen strange might parrot at her in the middle of an argument, as if the laws of the cosmic multiverse existed simply to thwart any attempts at logical action. but in this, natasha has realized, there is allowance for mystery.
she still doesn't entirely understand it herself. there had been a finality in death, a peace; it may have been a second or an hour or a millenia in between her own crash onto the stone floors of vormir and her awakening, but time had passed all the same. clint had taken the soul stone and gone back to the present, leaving her and her pym particles behind, and natasha had woken up alone.
the fact that she'd woken up at all had felt like a strange cross between a bad hangover and a dream. the red skull hadn't been any help — not that she'd particularly expected him to be, given his maddening refusal to give straight answers before — but even he had looked shell-shocked by her awakening.
probably just as shocked as natasha looks when steve drops off the hammer like it's a television remote, come to think of it. ]
That's what you want to talk about? [ not the fact that he's wielding mjolnir and a suitcase like he's the business casual dad version of thor? ] Where'd the hammer come from?
[ Steve looks from Natasha to Mjolnir, then back to Natasha, his own eyebrows raised in question that that's what she wants to talk about.
But stops wasting time being frozen after that. Instead, without a word, he walks toward her. He moves swiftly, past the table where they'd spent so long, planning their missions back in time, and then the desk where Steve had first seen tears in Natasha's eyes after the snap.
She's still sitting in the chair, so he kneels. And before long, both his arms are around her and he's hugging her like never expected to be able to hug her again. As he closes his eyes, he can still see the image of her body at the bottom of the cliff, and it's only through how real and warm and alive her body feels now, in his embrace, that Steve is able to believe that this is real. ]
[ natasha has never been big on physical touch. if the mission calls for it, she can fake it like the best of them with sweet smiles and flirtatious laughter and touches that draw attention to the promise of more, but it's always for the mission. she's all too aware of the power of body language to casually drape herself in intimacy on her off-hours.
so hugs, as it happens, have always been few and far between. she's more likely to offer a quiet smile in reassurance than a hand on a shoulder, more drawn to supportive words of encouragement than palms rubbed against someone's back; hugging, either received or given, has always felt too much for natasha.
and yet, in this moment, as steve's arms wrap snug around her body, natasha finds she doesn't mind. she doesn't pull away because, for once in her life, she doesn't feel the urge. whatever panic or preference might have kept her at arms' length from him before her death has melted away in her revival, and so she simply leans in, forehead pressing against his shoulder as if to bury herself under his skin.
for once, natasha finds that protection in steve rogers that america has always had. not under a shield, but in his arms.
[ It's true that in all the time he's known Natasha, they've only ever truly hugged once before. She had been trying to comfort him then.
But in all the other times they've been this close — when Natasha practically curled herself into his embrace and beneath his shield against bombs and blasts and the cave-in of an entire facility, it's never been like this. It's never been because he just wanted to be close to her, to tell her that he's missed her, and to feel how real she is.
It feels like one long breath that's been drawn out on purpose. The hug itself is the inhale and Steve is breathing her in for along as superhumanly possible. And then the release, the exhale, of him finally being willing to pull back.
When he finally speaks again, Steve's hands are still on her shoulders, almost like he's still a little scared that if he doesn't maint any physical contact, she'll disappear before his eyes. ]
How long have you been back?
[ There's added meaning to that question. He still doesn't fully understand how time is supposed to work, despite how much Bruce and Tony try to explain the intricacies of it all. Vormir, for Steve, was a long time ago, but he's come back to the same moment when he's left. How long has Natasha been alive for, since he returned the stone? ]
[ vormir hadn't been kind to the pym particles still in the notch of her belt. though she'd intended to come back to regroup as planned, she'd wound up hovering just outside their dimension, stuck in a purgatory space while the team mourned and fought and mourned again. it was only once the second snap rebuilt the avengers compound that her body tumbled into reality again — and now, a day or so later, here she was.
she's still not totally sure what all she's missed (a funeral, mostly) but she figures she'll get caught up sooner or later. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
noble_sentiments) wrote2019-04-28 12:02 pm
you asked for more nat, you get more nat.
however, vormir's not exactly a particularly logical place. it's a barren planet at the center of the celestial universe, not the library of congress. it does what it wants, really, and when steve rogers shows up out of the blue to return the soul stone, things really get weird. you see, no one's ever tried to return the stone. people have come back after obtaining it, of course, in the hopes of gaining more power or the secrets to mortality, but they've never gone back to vormir looking to speak with customer service to process a return without a receipt.
there's not even store credit. the red skull simply tells steve to place the stone on the rocky ground and go, and no matter how long steve lingers or queries or pounds his fist on the ground, nothing happens. he might as well just keep going. he might as well return all the stones, and then go back to the real world. nothing should change after that. the world should go back to exactly as it was before the stones were collected, save for all those people they brought back — and the dissolving of thanos, a real nice bonus feature.
it should. it should be totally normal. and yet, when steve heads back to the compound, there's a familiar crop of strawberry-blonde peeking over the top of a pair of widescreen monitors... and a voice, arguing, rising in volume with each repetition. ]
No, [ the voice repeats, ] I'm not dead. Yes, no, I'm aware that I was dead, but I'm obviously not dead anymore —
[ and then, a beat, as her eyes skim up to spot the man crossing the threshold. ]
I'm going to have to call you back.
[ hi honey, i'm home ]
you decided to play with me, so you get heartbreak
Steve's reunion with Johann Schmidt, however, is a complete surprise. Neither of them says much at the beginning, and instead, they just stare at each other until the Red Skull speaks first.
I never thought I'd see the day where Captain America comes searching for power. And yet, I have a feeling that you're here for something else.
Steve shows him the stone, the one the Red Skull had just watched Barton wake up with, clutched in his hands, and he can't help but look over to the ledge, even if there's nothing there.
This cannot be. No one, as they say, has ever come to return the stone. But Steve's already gotten his first clue that something is off, and he's known from the start there was something Clint had refused to tell him about his mission with Natasha to Vormir. So, with the suitcase, now closed, and Mjoinir in his hands, Steve walks over to the cliff. He never turns his back to Schmidt, but he looks down. He knows before he sees her body, that he's about to witness something truly terrible, and suddenly, Steve nearly chokes on the emotion in his throat.
Anger flows through him in a way that he didn't think would be possible after the snap had been reversed. But now, he knows that Tony hadn't been the only one to willingly give his life for the sake of the world. Natasha had done the same but to much less fanfare. She'd made her ultimate sacrifice in the shadows, on a planet inhabited by no one, appreciated by no one.
Bring her back. He demands, holding the stone towards Schmidt as if this could somehow reverse the sacrifice. But no, nothing. Schmidt says he cannot, that he has no power over this place, and that if Steve truly wishes to return the stone, he can leave it on the ground. No amount of anything results in anything more.
Soul, however, wasn't the last stone. Steve makes many more trips, some easy, some taking their own toll on him before he's finally back at the compound and sees Bucky and Sam and Bruce again. He smiles, even if it feels like he's now a different man than when he left. ]
Where's Clint? [ is the first question he asks, when he steps off the platform with an empty suitcase and Thor's hammer in tow. He can call him inside, they tell him, and sooner rather than later, Steve is entering the compound to do just that until—
I'm going to have to call you back.
He doesn't say anything. Instead, he walks around the television set, dropping the suitcase and Mjoinir — right, that part should be new news for her — to the ground. Then, he just stares at her, like he's trying to figure out whether this is in any way real, or even possible.
Then, finally: ]
He told me the stone didn't work that way. That sacrifices can't be unmade. [ Steve doesn't even know why he sounds so accusatory at that moment, like the Red Skull lying to him was somehow the most treacherous and important thing to talk about right now. ]
no subject
she still doesn't entirely understand it herself. there had been a finality in death, a peace; it may have been a second or an hour or a millenia in between her own crash onto the stone floors of vormir and her awakening, but time had passed all the same. clint had taken the soul stone and gone back to the present, leaving her and her pym particles behind, and natasha had woken up alone.
the fact that she'd woken up at all had felt like a strange cross between a bad hangover and a dream. the red skull hadn't been any help — not that she'd particularly expected him to be, given his maddening refusal to give straight answers before — but even he had looked shell-shocked by her awakening.
probably just as shocked as natasha looks when steve drops off the hammer like it's a television remote, come to think of it. ]
That's what you want to talk about? [ not the fact that he's wielding mjolnir and a suitcase like he's the business casual dad version of thor? ] Where'd the hammer come from?
no subject
But stops wasting time being frozen after that. Instead, without a word, he walks toward her. He moves swiftly, past the table where they'd spent so long, planning their missions back in time, and then the desk where Steve had first seen tears in Natasha's eyes after the snap.
She's still sitting in the chair, so he kneels. And before long, both his arms are around her and he's hugging her like never expected to be able to hug her again. As he closes his eyes, he can still see the image of her body at the bottom of the cliff, and it's only through how real and warm and alive her body feels now, in his embrace, that Steve is able to believe that this is real. ]
no subject
so hugs, as it happens, have always been few and far between. she's more likely to offer a quiet smile in reassurance than a hand on a shoulder, more drawn to supportive words of encouragement than palms rubbed against someone's back; hugging, either received or given, has always felt too much for natasha.
and yet, in this moment, as steve's arms wrap snug around her body, natasha finds she doesn't mind. she doesn't pull away because, for once in her life, she doesn't feel the urge. whatever panic or preference might have kept her at arms' length from him before her death has melted away in her revival, and so she simply leans in, forehead pressing against his shoulder as if to bury herself under his skin.
for once, natasha finds that protection in steve rogers that america has always had. not under a shield, but in his arms.
(she's going to need a minute to process that.) ]
no subject
But in all the other times they've been this close — when Natasha practically curled herself into his embrace and beneath his shield against bombs and blasts and the cave-in of an entire facility, it's never been like this. It's never been because he just wanted to be close to her, to tell her that he's missed her, and to feel how real she is.
It feels like one long breath that's been drawn out on purpose. The hug itself is the inhale and Steve is breathing her in for along as superhumanly possible. And then the release, the exhale, of him finally being willing to pull back.
When he finally speaks again, Steve's hands are still on her shoulders, almost like he's still a little scared that if he doesn't maint any physical contact, she'll disappear before his eyes. ]
How long have you been back?
[ There's added meaning to that question. He still doesn't fully understand how time is supposed to work, despite how much Bruce and Tony try to explain the intricacies of it all. Vormir, for Steve, was a long time ago, but he's come back to the same moment when he's left. How long has Natasha been alive for, since he returned the stone? ]
no subject
[ vormir hadn't been kind to the pym particles still in the notch of her belt. though she'd intended to come back to regroup as planned, she'd wound up hovering just outside their dimension, stuck in a purgatory space while the team mourned and fought and mourned again. it was only once the second snap rebuilt the avengers compound that her body tumbled into reality again — and now, a day or so later, here she was.
she's still not totally sure what all she's missed (a funeral, mostly) but she figures she'll get caught up sooner or later. ]
How long were you gone?
[ that seems like the better question. ]
no subject
Five seconds.
[ But he knows that's not the answer she's looking for. ]
But it took me three months.
[ Exactly two of them had been spent with Peggy. It wasn't the reunion Steve had hoped for, even if it was better than anything else he's ever had. ]