#agentkarnstein

Peggy mimed zipping her lips.

“It all started shortly after our first real mission as a unit. Bosnia, right?” The other Commandos nodded, and Peggy pinched the skin between her thumb and forefinger to forestall her reaction. Her mission in Bosnia was still classified, and it would be bad form to reveal her participation in an op because she couldn't keep still when it was mentioned in the context of her significant other. 

“Right,” Barnes continued, “so Steve’s walking around the base like someone kicked his dog—”

“Probably because he struck out with a pretty girl again,” Dum Dum interjected, and Peggy willed herself not to blush as she remembered warm lips, warm hands, and the disappointment of disappearing into the crowd.

“Probably,” Barnes said, rolling his eyes. “He was terrible with women back then, constantly putting his foot in his mouth. Anyway, being the kind, caring sort we were, we decided to have a little fun at his expense. Because that’s what you do to your CO, right?

“Now, Steve’s a pretty patriotic guy. And he’s always had a way with words, ever since we were kids, able to say exactly the right thing at the right time to rally the troops, so to speak. By that point, we’d all been on the receiving end of one of Steve’s inspirational talks about protecting freedom, and democracy, and God and country or whatever. One day, after another speech, the foreigners among us—”

“You are in my country, Barnes.” Monty rolled his eyes. “Foreigner, my ass.”

Barnes shot him a look. “Like I was saying, Monty and Dernier were giggling to themselves in the corner about Mr. Truth and Justice, and—”

Monty sits forward in his chair eagerly. “And I said it’s like he’s Superman or something, but then Dernier said—”

Jacques Dernier had been fairly quiet throughout the night, laughing at the occasional story but rarely sharing his own, but his eyes danced as he recalled his words from all those years ago. “‘Non, non, Capitaine America!’”

“Exactly,” Barnes said, pointing decisively at Dernier, who was chuckling quietly to himself at the memory. “Of course, the name stuck, and we were muttering it to each other for about a week. And then Jones had a brilliant idea. You had just graduated from Howard, right?”

Jones nodded. “I had my degree in French and German, but I had started as an American History major. One of my first classes was about the home front in World War II, and we had spent a week talking about the use of propaganda. Well, my professor showed us this one old, old newsreel from the beginning of the war. I can’t remember what it was about, or the actual use of the song, but it had this melody that I couldn't get out of my head for the rest of my first year. I’m sure you know it by now.”

Peggy grinned. “I have a good feeling I’ve even hummed it a time or two.”

“So we were in barracks one day, and the tune came back to me, I can’t remember why now. But I started humming it and Barnes sat straight up in his bunk and said, ‘That’s it. We need a song for Captain America.’”

“We worked on it every spare second for a week and a half,” Barnes continued. “I’m sure Steve knew we were up to something, but as we mentioned, he’d been a bit distracted this whole time. Anyway, none of us can claim to be great at writing, but we came up with something that we thought would do the trick, and as the best singer among us, Morita was chosen—”

“I did not volunteer,” Morita added darkly

“—as the one to start the whole thing off. So on a bright, sunny July morning, which also happened to be the 4th of July—”

“And Cap’s birthday, which Barnes neglected to mention beforehand,” Dum Dum said, his mustache twitching as he tried not to laugh.

“—we all arrived to breakfast early and positioned ourselves around the room to make the best use of the acoustics. And then we waited for Steve to show up.”

“And when he did, I stood up on my chair and, as loud as I could, began to sing, ‘Who’s strong and brave, here to save the American way,’” Morita said, rising to his feet to demonstrate.

“We all joined in one by one, and Steve’s face got redder and redder.” Barnes grinned at the memory, and Peggy burst out laughing. “We got two months of KP for ‘disrespecting an officer.’ Totally worth it.”

Peggy ran a finger under each eye to catch a few errant tears of laughter. “Oh, I wish I could have seen it! But that was over two decades ago. How did the song end up attached to his campaign? And why does he want to kill you?”

Barnes flushed. “Well, to answer both questions, that was my fault. See, Steve declared his candidacy shortly before his birthday, and for his gift, just to keep him humble, the six of us had recorded a demo of ‘The Star-Spangled Man’ that we were going to play at his party, right? But, as campaign manager, I was also in charge of the music for his first big campaign rally happening the day before the party. I, uh, mixed up the CDs and instead of giving the sound technicians his actual campaign song—”

Peggy clapped a hand over her mouth. “You gave them the demo.”

“I gave them the demo.” Barnes winced. “Steve was the consummate professional, as always, but when he walked onto that stage to the tune of our twenty-year-old practical joke, I knew I was a dead man walking. We never used that song at a campaign event again, but it was too late. Every news channel used it as their intro for him, and they even played it when they announced he had won the presidency. Still, to this day, we’ll hear it during a news report, and Steve will glare at me like he’s imagining my death.”

“Why am I imagining your death, Buck?” Steve walked back into the room, and they all turned in unison to face him. Each of the guys shrank back slightly, and Peggy smirked as he surveyed the scene grimly. 

“You assholes,” he ground out between clenched teeth, “you told her.”

“I tortured it out of them, darling, I swear,” Peggy replied, darting to stand between Steve and his friends. “It took all my tools of persuasion.”

Steve snorted. “I bet it did. What, did you say please and Buck opened his big mouth?” He glared at Barnes over Peggy’s head, who just shrugged, unaffected.

“Come now, Steve, this sort of bitterness is unbecoming of the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan,” Peggy said, placing a hand on his chest. He looked down at her, shocked and betrayed, and she laughed. “Did you forget I knew the song before? I sang part of it for you once before, let me see if I can still remember it.”

She drew a breath, but before she could begin singing, he spun her around and began pushing her toward the door. “Okay, fellas, Peggy needs to go back to 10 Downing now, say goodnight.”

“I can have you kicked out of my country, Rogers,” Peggy retorted, biting her lip to keep herself from laughing. “Do you really want to start an international incident on Christmas?”

His steps faltered for just a second at the thought, and she took her chance. She slammed a heel on his toes and spun neatly out of his grip as he hopped on his other foot, groaning. “Oops,” she said, not even a little sorry.

Steve hobbled closer and pulled her into his arms. “You’re breaking the rules, Peg. Aren’t I the one who steps on your toes?”

She sighed dramatically and let herself be molded into a dancing hold. “You’re not supposed to step on the girl’s feet when you’re dancing, Steven.”

“You’re right, I don’t know what I was thinking. You better show me how it’s done, just so I don’t forget again.” Steve spun them in a slow circle and dipped her, his warm hand splayed across her lower back. He smelled like his favorite aftershave and peppermint, and his horrid sweater was soft under her fingers as she clutched his bicep.

“Not too shabby, Rogers. But what comes next?” she said, hoping her voice wasn’t actually as breathless as it sounded to her ears.

Steve grinned and leaned forward, bringing them chest to chest as he held her, suspended above the floor. “Something like this?” he murmured. He kissed her, gently and then thoroughly, and Peggy felt the world spin as his tongue touched her bottom lip, and his hand shifted, pulling her closer against his chest, and as she melted into the heat of his embrace—

A chorus of groans and boos effectively ruined the moment, and Peggy pulled away reluctantly. Steve set her back on her feet with a wink and a small smile, still holding her waist as she struggled to regain her equilibrium. 

“What did I say about plausible deniability, Steve?” Peggy looked over to see Barnes covering his eyes with his hand, his mouth turned down in a deep frown. “If I ever get called before a congressional committee, I can’t say I don’t know anything if I know something.”

Steve shrugged. “That’s what executive privilege is for, Buck. I’ll give you a heads-up next time, so you can protect yourself.”

Steve’s tone was sarcastic, but Barnes nodded seriously. “Please do.”

“Okay, Bucky, avert your eyes. Things I’m not talking about with you are going to happen again.” He leaned down to kiss her again, but before his lips could touch hers, there was another round of groans from the other Commandos, and he sighed.

“Fine, fine. I don’t know why I spend time with you guys anymore, honestly.” Steve glanced at Peggy and mouthed, “Later,” and Peggy felt warmth pool in the pit of her belly at the promise in his eyes.

They returned to their seats on the couch, and Steve wrapped an arm around Peggy’s shoulders.

“I knew that photo of your hand on his ass wasn’t fake,” Morita quipped, and Peggy felt her face redden.

“What can I say?” she retorted. “I was just performing my duty for Queen and Country, doing my best to reconquer America by way of its Captain.”