folkmeme | leap night tfln

[ Natasha’s face is inscrutable as she takes in the cacophony — hey, the cat-cophany, she’s hilarious — of cats.

She follows Steve and his two favorites to the designated table and takes the menu.

She has. So many. Questions. ]

All right. Which one is Sesame and which one’s Miso?

The snooty one's Sesame and the friendly one's Miso.

[ True to form, there's a tuxedo who seems to have claimed Steve as his human, and bats the other away when he tries to come over and join in with them, and the other one is a larger orange kitty who seems to be lively and happy to claim any lap or shoulder. He headbutts Natasha's hand when she looks at the menu, to say hello. ]

I think Sesame likes me best, but there's another theory that he just wants to sit on whoever's warmest.

[ He already knows what he wants to order, so he'll wait for Nat. ]

So, what do you want to know?

[ Natasha glances down at the orange cat. Her feelings toward animals in general are ambivalent at best, but it’s hard to ignore such earnestness. She offers her hand to be sniffed, and when she passes inspection, scritches about the ears.

Her gaze cuts back to Steve at his question, searching and intensely observant. ]

How long have you been here?

A year and a half.

[ He smiles because he didn't think that she expected that answer.

He places his order when the waiter comes over, but he pets Sesame, who's
now apparently jealous of Nat, because he lazily tries to reach over to bap her on the mouth. ]

[ Swifter things than you have attempted to punch Natasha in the mouth, Sesame. She leans easily out of the way.

Her expression remains neutrally sent, intent, as she observes, ]

You don't seem to be suffering from it.

The opposite. Retirement's great. I've got a house. No enemies coming to my door. And no terrible motels to live off of, or bad intel.

The only thing's missing is the rest of the team.

[ He smiles, sadly. ]

But people drop in and out. Wanda just left, and I got to see Sam for a bit.

[ He doesn't mention that he'd gotten to see Natasha too, at some point, because clearly she doesn't remember it. ]

And, well. Tony and I made up.

[ Clearly, if they go see cats together regularly to have favorites. He's pretty proud of that. ]

[ He describes this as "retirement" and begins to list the benefits. It's so... out of her blind spot to hear what he is enjoying. She thinks she'd be bored out of her mind. Her entire life has been a series of successive terrors, except for the small chunk when she thought she was working for the good guys and she was the terror, but then that had turned out to be HYDRA, and then there were the aliens, and then it was trying to figure out how many holes you could patch in a leaky boat before just ripping off a board and trying to make a new boat. How do you live?

She's glad he knows. She's glad he's found a place where... it looks like he's happy, like he's safe, like he's free to be Steve Rogers, and not a caricature or the hero the world demands because someone's got to keep them all from dying, goddamnit.

It sounds like a dream, a familiar but untraceable fragrance, sounds which she can discern as language but without understanding the words. ]

That's a big deal. [ People drop in and out, huh? ] He was pretty mad at you.

[ Not just for not signing the accords, but the whole thing with Barnes...

And she'd know, she'd been there with Tony... until she wasn't. (She'd just wanted to keep everyone together, to keep Ross from driving them off a cliff by leaving a hand on the steering wheel... when it came down to it, though...) ]

What happened there?

Edited 2024-03-07 01:22 (UTC)

[ Meanwhile, Steve thinks about his retirement and how good it's been for him. He's gotten to do exactly what he'd wanted to do before the war - get a job selling his art, and live a mostly anonymous life. He has friends he gets to talk to daily, hobbies he gets to pursue, his own house, and a partner to share his life with now.

Any time he looks on, he realizes how happy he is, now, only having to fight sometimes. Never having the whole of Folkmore sitting on his shoulders. Not being Captain America to everyone. Even those he'd talked to who'd been affected by Thanos, who he'd wanted to retain his memories for to go back and warn everyone - they'd forgiven him. They'd told him not to sweat it, that they ended up in a good spot regardless.

Aside from the trials, he's found peace. ]

Time, mostly. Getting away from the Accords, and from politics. And plenty of opportunities to work on our friendship.

But - well, there's trials here. Things that Thirteen does to try and challenge us into improving, whatever she says. I don't think it holds a lot of water, but, Tony passed in one of them. I didn't think he'd come back, but he did. And - I guess we just wanted to stop wasting time avoiding each other.

[ Natasha has been sitting down, looking at him intently, but at this, somehow, she grows even more still. There is a coiled readiness and a hidden sharpness to the stillness, a quiet cold breath being held.

The moment passes, and most, even those who know her best, would miss it entirely. Steve is one of the few who could catch it, if he was looking.

She tilts her head slightly to the side and clarifies, ]

Death... isn't permanent here?

[ Well, it helps that he knows what happens to her. He'd had that conversation with the last one, over fries and between hugs. He reaches out his hand, to cover hers, a small but confident smile on his face. ]

No, it's not. Not as far as we've experienced.

[ Which is yet, another reason why he wants to stay. Here, even if he keeps having to have the same conversation with Natasha who comes and goes, he never has to say goodbye to her. Not really. ]

People will come in and out and forget their time here. Anyone can acquire new powers, or just... start over.

[ ...his hand on her hand is unexpected data. Comfort. Huh. Interesting that he'd think she'd need that.

(He knows Thanos is coming in two weeks from his time. What else does he know?) ]

So Tony's fine. [ That's good. Hopefully she can see him later. She flips her hand in his to squeeze it and then pulls away from his grasp. ] Who else is here?

Another Steve. Two Buckies. Peggy Carter.

Wanda just left. I was kinda hoping she'd stay for awhile.

[ He leans back a bit. ]

Tony threw himself a funeral party.

[ Bit morbid, but, hey. Of course he'd deflect with humor. ]

You could, too.

[ Tony threw himself a funeral party. Of course he did.

She snorts and leans back in her chair. ]

Of course he did. [ Two of the Winter Soldier? She backs away from the "brooding tolerance" joke because it's too easy, and it'd be wasted if Barnes wasn't there to hear it anyway. ] But I don't see any reason why I should throw him another one.

[ Deliberately misinterpreting him? You'd better believe it. ]

Ha-ha. No, not for him.

[ But he knows that she probably doesn't want to talk about her own death, so. ]

I think you'll like it.

[ He says, as their orders come. Miso, as always, curiously sniffs both of their orders before realizing that there's no meat, and therefore, he's no longer interested.

Sesame just butts his head against the treats basket. ]

You'll get some later.

[ Natasha has a cortado, and is prepared to order straight espresso shots if need be for the sake of having enough caffeine to get her through this new genre of nonsense.

She cradles the cup in one hand as she regards Steve. Then she tilts her head slightly. ]

Are you trying to tell me something, Steve?

[ She won't proceed on assumptions. She hadn't planned to tell anyone that she'd won on Vormir. What kind of a messy conversation would that be? She'd much rather they all not know.

But if Steve is taking the effort to be subtle, then hell, does everyone know?

(She thought the upside of dying was supposed to be not having to deal with people looking at you weirdly after. She'd like to speak to the management!) ]

[ It was obvious, wasn't it? ]

Well. Tony might cry when he sees you, I'll warn you about that.

[ Steve tries not to alert people in case they don't know their fate. And maybe now that it wasn't going to be a surprise, Tony might not cry. ]

It hadn't happened for me yet.

[ Clearly. ]

But Clint was here for a spell. And uh, he had a lot of guilt. I would've too, if I'd been the one to come back.

Anyway. I know this is a lot. But you're welcome to stay here. We can ask the fox to keep you.

[ Her heart seizes painfully at the thought of her best friend and partner, one of the few people in the world she trusts and who sees her, having to deal with the guilt... of his years being so lost, and then - it wasn't the first time they'd fought each other with all their teeth bared, but... she'd been very, very determined.

Lila, Cooper, and Nathaniel wouldn't grow up without their dad. Laura wouldn't lose her husband. Clint would have his family back.

So she just shrugs. ]

He'll live with it.

[ And takes a sip of her coffee, well-content with that outcome. Half the universe and the happiness of the Bartons' vs. her life? It wasn't even a contest.

Steve would have done the same thing, now that she thinks about it. Heh. Look at her. Acting like Captain America.

She tilts the cup away from her and examines it. ]

Not bad. [ She looks back at Steve. The word "keep" has her hackles raising, as memories more horrible than any dream gnaw at the corner of her mind. She's never told Steve about the Red Room, not in any sort of detail. But he knows her, he knows enough. She gives him a hint of a smile. ] What do you mean, 'keep'?

Edited 2024-03-09 02:40 (UTC)

She's the one that decides when everyone comes and goes. She brought us all here, and she's the one who sends us back. She won't tell us when or how, just that we're here to find our potential.

[ And honestly, he thinks that the last time Nat was here, she accepted her death and finally that she got to be a hero, that it wasn't that none of the other stuff she did mattered, but that her conscience could rest. They'd had a few heart to hearts, and then, she was gone. ]

I think it's a lot of nonsense, but as long as I get to stay, I don't mind.

--If time starts moving again at home, or if I have to choose between going back with my memories of here or staying, then, I'll choose to go.

[ Because he knows that it's necessary for him to go back and fight Thanos. He really does believe, however, that this is a pocket dimension and that there's more stake in leaving than not. ]

Uh-huh. [ That's a lot to absorb. She does not like it when things are so far out of her control; she's had to learn to live with that. She still doesn't like it.

(Again, things that she wasn't supposed to have to worry about anymore!!)

She looks at her cortado and takes a long sip before setting it down with a sigh. ] It's weird to hear you talking about 'if time is moving' at home when you're from five years in my past and I just saw you. It sounds like it might not be as simple as freezing time -- or that you've already gone back, somehow, because time is actually made of Swiss cheese. But you've also confirmed the multiple universe theory like 15 minutes ago, so who the hell knows.

[ She visibly shakes off trying to figure this out as a problem for future!Natasha by shaking her head. Then she looks at Steve and smiles a little, allows the bizarrely wonderful circumstance of seeing him again to hit her, just a little. ]

Either way, it's good to see you again.

[ It's a lot to take in, and he's sympathetic towards Nat not wanting to deal with another situation in which she can't decide to stay or leave, and gets forced into doing things she may not want to participate in, but he knows that Nat will be fine, too. ]

It's confusing, but, strangely enough, I think Loki might be the best person to ask about it.

[ Weird, right? Not that Steve ever talks to Loki unless he has to, but, Folkmore's not too big of a place. ]

It's good to see you too. I'll help you find a place to stay. Trust me - I was uneasy when I first got here, but, eventually when that subsides, it's really not bad.

[ Natasha blinks.

Loki. ]

Way to bury the lead, Steve. [ A little smirk. She’s not that worried; fooling someone as she fooled Loki once often makes it only easier to do it again, because they want to see her broken so badly. The problem, of course, is that breaking is painful, even when she allows it for a purpose, and she doesn’t have a purpose in mind to endure that sort of breaking at the moment. ] Anyone else here who’s tried to kill us and/or take over the world that I should know about?

[ Uneasiness subsiding… could be good, could be bad, she’ll have to wait and see. ]

...Well, there's two Lokis. So there's that.

Other than that, no.

[ But on the other hand, Loki's been calm and hasn't tried to kill them. And - even if he did, they'd just come back immediately. ]

Not that I know of.

He mostly keeps to himself.

Er, one of them. The other one's Tony's neighbor.

[ Two Lokis. Two.

Why?

Well, at least Clint wasn't there. ]

...and Tony's living next to Loki on purpose? And they haven't blown up the block?

[ Amazing. ]

Tony's been living there for a year now. Loki just moved in.

[ It had been a surprise to Steve, too, who'd gone to answer the door while Tony was busy doing some sort of work. ]

They might just blow up the block. It hasn't been very long.

[ And though typically he doesn't trust Lokis further than he could've thrown them when he was skinny, the new one also hates Thanos. So, there's that. As long as they have a common enemy, they can be allies. ]

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cw: death, but like, it wasn't permanent

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1/2

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