Bucky huffs, a half smile at his glass that he pretends to check out. ' Didn't bring my trunks or I would've. ' He'd expected nothing less from Stella, but it was worth a shot anyway. It's what they did, isn't it ? Offered up bait for a deeper conversation disguised as a jibe and left it all up to the other to choose which way to swing with it. It's what Stella gives back to him, right after shooting him down.

Alura had just gotten to Earth. As in, she's been a resident alien for roughly twenty minutes. God, that emergency transport really scrambles your brain.

Her disorientation was almost a mercy, allowing momentary relief from the horror she'd just escaped. Her wristband told her she was somewhere in the planet's northern hemisphere (upstate new york) A remote area, surrounded by dense forest.

This was good and bad for multiple reasons. At least no one had seen her yet. Sure, she may resemble the local population. Though the armor strapped to her body, with its glowing bands on a few plates of the metal, and holographic HUD framing her face would put her straight out of a sci-fi flick.

@abrooklynboy liked for a starter with Captain Carter

One moment she was blinded by the light from the Tesseract's portal, and the next Peggy found herself standing in a strange room that was not a part of the castle she'd been in previously.

Blinking, Peggy looked around her, sword and shield still in hand.

Nothing was familiar, least of all the group of people who looked ready for a fight.

The Avengers were not on the water often. These days, they seemed to spend half their time in the sky--whether in a plane or flying by their own accord through the Iron Man armor or Thor’s hammer or Wasp’s wings--and plenty of fights kept them grounded. So it was pure luck that they were in the water that day, the Avenger’s jet still hovering over the ocean after a fight with Namor. Dumb luck that they were mending their wounds, talking strategy and next steps when Steve Roger’s body went floating by with the ice still melting around him. 

It didn’t seem real. Even after they’d dragged him inside, even after they’d gotten him to medical, even as the ice melted enough for them to see the white star on his chest and the A on his cowl, Tony had a hard time believing the body he was sitting vigil beside was the man he’d spent his whole childhood hearing about. For as long as he could remember, his father had been obsessed with the ending of Captain America, searching the seas for any sign of him, drunkenly recounting war stories and, after Tony, like every other kid his age, had made his own Captain America shield by hand so as to be like the hero he’d read about in comic books, he’d been told he would never live up to the man Steve Rogers had been, that he didn’t deserve to hold even a copy of his shield.

Tony had given up on Captain America then, thrown away his Cap lunchbox and his comics and any hope that heroes existed or that Tony could ever be considered one of them. 

It was as Tony Stark that he now sat at Steve’s side, glancing distractedly between his phone and the emails he was supposed to be replying to, and the sleeping man on the hospital bed. They had brought Steve back to Avenger’s Tower where the medical wing was private and the doctor, used to treating super heroes and celebrities, wouldn’t be distracted by the fact that she had a long dead national hero on her table. Tony had kept the media at bay, kept this--Rogers--their secret for now, but that wouldn’t last forever. He had also figured that, when Rogers did finally wake up, it would be better to see a man, human and unpowered, than a 6′6″ red and gold metal suit, so, as the world still thought Tony Stark and Iron Man two separate people, Tony had told his “bodyguard” to take the rest of the day off and sent the empty armor home. The other Avengers had drifted off one by one, vowing to return as soon as there was an update. 

Roger shifted, and Tony put down his phone to watch as the man’s eyes finally opened. Until that moment, he hadn’t really been sure it was possible. After all, it wasn’t every day that someone woke up after seventy years on ice. 

@abrooklynboy​ asked: ❝ Do you always sing like that in the shower? ❞

Wanda held Tommy on her hip as she made herself a cup of coffee. “Thank you for inviting us over. I apologize for not having anyone to watch the boys. Pietro is upstate visiting Charles and my normal babysitter is sick.” She turned to face her friend and teammate while lifting the mug to her lips. Her wild curls, which were a little wilder due to the sleepless nights she’d had taking care of the boys, framed her face as she looked up into his friendly, familiar gaze.  “What is happening? I heard that there have been... riots... in the streets against the GRC. Is it true?” Her home, only an hour from the city itself, had been pleasantly preserved in its tranquil peace. Word certainly got around, but she had been trying to simply... blend into the background. To become just another woman. Another mother. A normal citizen. 

As idyllic as that life might be she would never not come when her Captain called. Although she was not a soldier, Wanda had fought by his side time and time again. She would always come when he needed her. 

Her heart stopped for a whole half a minute. On the screens before her was Steve. Steven Grant Rogers. Alive. He looked exactly how she remembered him-- well... how she remembered him right before he left for England to join her big brother.

Her hand came to rest on her chest. He was still asleep, but he'd wake up soon.

"We're planning to send someone in. We thought that someone might be you." Fury looked at her.

"We think he'll be more receptive to a familiar face." Hill smiled at her.

It made sense to her.

"We brought you some clothes."

She looked at them and laughed. "Those look nothing like what I would wear back then. He'll know something is wrong if I show up like that." Becky shook her head. "I have a trunk of my old things back at my apartment. Let me go change and I'll be back."

When she returned her hair was curled, makeup done like she used to wear, tights on with the lines up the back of her legs, and her favorite yellow dress. Becky looked as if she just stepped out of a 1950's movie.

"Wow..." Hill raised her brows.

Becky didn't wear many dresses these days.

"What's his status?"

"Awake. You got here just in time." Fury handed her an earpiece. "You're on."

Becky took a breath to calm her nerves before she walked through the door of the set Shield had created for him. He was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Steve..." Becky smiled softly. "Welcome back."

"I would never presume to say that I know Jane as well as you do," Yuri said. "But I don't think I could work with anyone for thirty-five years without coming to either hate them or care for them. And it's very hard to forget that someone is human when you've spent so many hours piecing them back together after they've been injured."

Vasily Karpov and Alexander Pierce might have treated the Winter Soldier like a weapon, like a machine, but Yuri had spent too much time with his hands in her viscera to see her as anything but a living creature, a person with the same flesh and blood and beating heart as everyone else around her. HYDRA had likely never intended for him to see her as his patient, but that was what she had become: someone whose well-being was in his hands. There was a certain intimacy that came along with that -- not romance or friendship, but a degree of trust and care that was uncommon enough within HYDRA that Jane had remembered it. She had remembered it, and she had come to him for help.

I trust you, she'd said. Yuri was trying to be worthy of that trust.

When the captain mentioned Jane's dislike of being under lock and key, Yuri couldn't help frowning. "General Karpov liked to lock her up," he said. "Not just her; he used the technique with several of his operatives. When Jane wasn't being compliant enough to suit him, he would put her in an unlit, soundproofed room and leave her there. It was...highly effective. Her handlers under HYDRA did the same, naturally."