Starting Life From Zero: Far From Home

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Steve knocked lightly at the door to the room where he had been asked to come as it was urgent, when it opened he found himself face to face with Roswaal Mathers. The Margrave was standing in his night clothes, a silken pajama set that seemed to be made especially for him. Probably all of these clothes were, there was no planet in the universe that Steve believed sold the stuff this man was wearing.

He set his jaw and glared at him as he stepped past, Roswaal smiled at him. A deep closed lipped smile, but said nothing.

Inside of the room, standing around a table were Emilia, Lady Crusch, and Anastasia Hoshin. When he had been summoned here, this wasn't the grouping that he expected to see here.

"Ladies," Steve said with an abrupt wave.

"Captain Rogers," Emilia was the first to speak, her voice more formal than he had heard it when addressing him in a long while. "I apologize for asking you to meet us here on such short notice, but there was a question that directly involved you—and well, it involved Peter too."

Steve stared down at the table that was laid out in front of the three of them, multi-colored push pins jutting up from the the faded and crinkled paper. He nodded to Emilia. "No need to apologize, this is something I recognize—a war room."

"A war...room?" Emilia said as if she were testing out the sound of the combination of the words.

"It's usually a room where battle maps with troop movements and plans are maintained," Steve explained.

"Yes, then." Emilia swept her silver hair away from her face. "Then this is our war room."

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about our first meeting," said Anastasia, her hands were clasped in front of her. He had been sure when he first met her that she was both a teenager and older than he thought, but now he was leaning more toward the latter. She looked small, but there was something about how she spoke that seemed to convey a savvy for what she was doing.

Playing at looking innocent.

"I actually didn't forget, I was kind of shocked to see you at the ceremony earlier."

"You know the girl?" Roswaal asked.

Steve looked to him, but resigned himself to be polite for the time being. "We met the first day I was here in the capital."

Anastasia's smile deepened. "Had you stuck with me you could have been part of a winning team," she said.

Emilia looked like she might burst from embarrassment, but said nothing.

Steve cracked a smile and even let a little chuckle escape. "Maybe if I had gotten to know you better over the course of the last month things would be different, but I'm part of Emilia's team and I believe in her goal."

Emilia stared at Steve, her big purple eyes welling up.

Anastasia leaned back on the table, kicking her legs up. "Well, doesn't mean we can team up just for this little endeavor," she said.

The door opened and everyone turned to look as two figures pooled into the room. "Ah, there they are, my associates that I spoke about before," Anastasia waved her hand toward the door as they stepped in. "Rocket and Miss Kate Bishop."

A dark haired woman stepped into the room next to a—wait, did Steve know that raccoon?

"What the fuck? Steve Rogers, what the Hell are you doing here?" Rocket the Raccoon asked as he strutted through the room nonchalantly tugging at the crotch.

Kate kicked at him. "They'd itch less if you used soap, maybe—oh my God, that is Captain America."

"I—do I know you?" Steve said.