#capsiocul

halloween prompts (send me a pairing and a prompt for a ficlet/fic)

tawghasa

Steve has been dead for a very long time now. He's seen a lot of things in his living life, and even more so as a ghost. Being a ghost for the most part, is rather boring. He can't communicate with the living unless they have what the other ghosts refer to as a spark, and even then only some of them will actually want to interact with you. 

Other ghosts, for the most part, made poor company. Most were too obsessed with their old life, while others were bent on getting revenge. Steve never bothered with any of that. Most everyone was amazed that he had lived to even make it to twenty five, and with how sick he was his whole life, its nice not to feel pain with every breath. 

Steve has embraced death, and its working for him. 

He just gets lonely sometimes. 

Ghosts, apparently, are attracted to death. Steve doesn't know why he goes some places sometimes, but he'll wonder off to where people have died. Most of the time, a person passes on almost instantly, but there had been times where Steve got to meet the other ghost, This one was of a man who looked mournfully in front of him as two police officers tried to calm down a very frightened and bloody boy. 

"My son just watched me die..." He says sadly, never taking his eyes off of the boy, who was now crying at his dad to wake up. 

"I'm sorry," Steve says, meaning it. Death doesn't mean the same thing anymore for him, but he remembers what its like loosing people he cares about, and he feels for the father. "But if you feel a tug of any sort, you need to follow it and leave your son behind. He'll be alright." 

The other man gives him a thoughtful look, the smile on his face sad. "You can't possibly know that," He states, and Steve shrugs because it's true. Even ghosts were unaware of the future. 

"I can look after him sometimes," Steve offers and the man looks over at him, eyes looking so grateful that something in Steve swells up. He's never promised anything of the sort to anyone else before, but watching the young boy slowly gain control of his emotions when he realized his father was dead, made Steve want to look after him. No child should ever have such an adult expression on their face. "I can't promise I'll be any good at it, I never got the chance to be a father." 

The man smiles, holding out his hand, and Steve can see that he's starting to fade away, accepting his death and moving on. Steve takes the other ghosts hand firmly. 

"Phil doesn't need another father figure in his life, he just needs a friend." The man says, and Steve feels him fade away before he can say anything more. 

Across the table Melinda and Skye both shot him identical worried expressions and Phil just smiled tersely in return. He couldn't hide his symptoms from them, not when they were constantly watching him. Steve had told him that it just meant they cared, and while the thought gave Phil some sort of comfort, it also made him feel bad. He's never been able to accept that people worry about him, especially family members. 

Melinda cocks her head to the direction of the hall, and Phil takes the hint and politely excuses himself from the team dinner, and makes his way slowly to his office. Happy that the lights in the hall were dimmer than the ones in the communal kitchen. 

Once he's in his office he closes the door with a sigh and leans his head against the door. Being Director meant he had a lot of work to do, the amount of papers on his desk was reaching deforestation levels, and Phil knew that he should just sit down and get to work; but the thought of trying to even read at the moment just made him nauseous.

Decision made, Phil worked on getting himself more comfortable. Rolling up his sleeves, and taking off his tie, all the while ignoring the tremor in his hands.

He sits down on the couch in the corner of his office, and leans back against the cool leather, enjoying the silence and willing his migraine to go away.

Phil isn't sure how long he's there, but he awakens from a doze when his phone rings, and he picks it up without looking.

"So Skye called me," Is Steve's greeting, and Phil can't help but smile despite the pounding in his head. "She said you looked like you were going into another- ah...episode soon." 

"Migraines tend to be a warning sign," Phil admits quietly into the phone. There was a time not to long ago where he would have denied any weakness, but he has long since learned not to argue with the people who gave a damn about him - Steve's words, not his. "My hands are shaking too." 

There's a sigh on the other end of the phone, and Phil just closes his eyes, wishing that the man on the other end was there in person, but also being glad that he wasn't hear to witness Phil breaking down. 

"We have people working on it Phil," Steve reminds him gently, but doesn;t add on to the subject. They both know that without having any of the serum itself, its going to be hard to fix whatever it was that was broken with Phil. They ignored the fact that they were running out of time. "And Skye has made progress with the map. We'll get you there Phil, just have faith." 

"I know Steve," Phil replies, not really agreeing. He doesn't want to argue though, and its been days since he's heard Steve's voice, he sure as hell isn't going to start an argument now. He changes the subject, "How have you been?" 

"I've been alright. Sam and I have a new lead on Bucky, but we're stopping at Stark's first, he says he has something that might be able to help." Steve sounds tired, but relatively alright on the other line, and it brings Phil some comfort. "I miss you." 

"I miss you too," Phil says, gripping his phone tighter in shaking hands. He can practically see Steve's answering smile, and the mental image is so much better than strange alien carvings. 

There's a crash on the other end of the line, followed by what sounds like Stark and Sam cursing and Phil laughs at Steve's incredulous sounding sigh. 

"I think something just blew up, I should check it out-" Steve says, sounding apologetic. "Take care of yourself Phil. Don't be afraid to tell the team when you need a break." 

There's a short pause, followed by a quiet, "I love you." 

so what if Steve had amnesia and the last thing he remembers is being turned down by the army again, and suddenly he's in the future, and he's in this new body, and Bucky has a metal arm, and there's this kind agent who is being very helpful that he's apparently living with 

...

"So Phil and I are..." Steve waves a hand over his - their apartment and Bucky gives him a sympathetic look. 

"You two are practically married, its adorable." Bucky pats his hand, thankfully not with the metal one, and Steve drops his head to the table with a sigh. 

Bucky only laughs harder when the table cracks. 

"Super strength Steve, remember?"