cap. || steve rogers one-shots

agent carter.

"I'm invisible. I'm turning into you, it's like a horrible dream," Bucky joked.

Steve turned to him, a small smirk on his face. "Don't take it so hard. Maybe she's got a friend."

SEPTEMBER 2014

That day in the bar, when hopes had been so high and thoughts of death and growing old so low, seemed like a million years ago to Steve Rogers. He had been chipped away and thawed from the ice several years previously, but still, adjusting to the modern world was a challenge. He didn't truly grasp what the Internet was, or why iPhones were such a big deal, and why everyone was freaking about about rumors of a new Stars Wars movie. He didn't get the fashion, or the hair, or the makeup. Nothing about those lit-up neon signs in Times Square made sense to him. 

He had nothing from his previous life, nothing except for the few artifacts that had gone into the ice with him. Bucky had been dead for nearly seventy years, the rest of his team for decades. There was only one person, in fact, who still tied him to his old life. She was old and frail now, and barely able to move around on her own, but she was still the Peggy Carter that Steve had so deeply loved for so long. She was still so vibrant, intelligent, still so beautiful in her old age. 

He'd been visiting her for almost a year now, ever since he caught a whisper that she was still alive. The visits, although a sort-of therapy for him, weren't without heartache. Steve was lucky if he made it through a visit without his throat feeling thick with tears as he had to re-meet Peggy again and again, and see the pain and sorrow in her eyes as she recognized him. Steve wasn't even sure that Peggy realized that he was real, and not a figment of her imagination, dreamt up from her bloody past of battle fields and front lines. 

There were good days, though. Sometimes, Steve would walk in the door, usually carrying a bouquet of flowers, and Peggy's eyes would light up with recognition. She would smile so brightly at him that his heart ached, and then she would eagerly gesture to the chair across the room from her bed. They would continue their conversations from his previous visit, and if Steve tried hard enough, he could nearly make himself believe that it was 1943 again, and he and Peggy were young, and he was in his uniform and she in hers, and they were dancing. They would twirl around the floor, bodies pressed close together, and say all of the words they'd held back for far too long. 

Then, Peggy would have a coughing fit, and Steve's eyes would jerk open, and the pleasant dream would vanish. His heart would feel with sorrow, and he would tell Peggy yet again that someday, they'd have that dance that he owed her. She would laugh weakly, and pat his hand, and tell him that she was far too old to be swung around a dance floor like a young woman. 

Steve would try to smile with Peggy, but his insides would churn with guilt. In truth, he had met someone: You. You were a beautiful girl in your twenties-- smart, vivacious, and lovely. You filled a hole in Steve that had existed long before the war, and you made him feel at peace with the world he now lived in. In a way, you reminded him of Peggy. Your strong-headed nature and iron-clad will made you infuriating and irresistible all at once, so much like the woman that Steve had loved so many years ago. 

Peggy knew about his new love, and in fact, was the one who encouraged Steve to pursue your relationship. When Steve had insinuated that he wasn't sure that he was ready for to be with someone, Peggy had lightly slapped him on the arm and told him to go after you before he lost his chance. She then reminded him, somewhat sadly, that she had lived a full life, and it was now his chance to live his. 

So, the very next day he had asked you out. You were working at Stark Industries as a lab tech when you met, but soon after, Tony Stark had recruited you to work as the head doctor of the Avengers' medical team. Steve had caught you after you finished a shift one day, and you had dinner that very same evening.