Alex's This and That

Quotes:
“We have seen better days.”
~ William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene 2
Fandom: MCU

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Better Days

The memorial service was done and the survivors met all together one last time at Pepper and Tony’s home. The day was nice so there were tables filled with food and drink outdoors. People had moved chairs into little groupings so they could talk to each other as they ate.

Sam and Bucky had been inseparable since the last battle and they were the same now. Clint was talking to Wanda out by the lake. He had his arm around her waist. Steve sat alone and watched Morgan talking to Happy. Bruce was talking to Thor, rubbing his injured arm. Rhodey was sitting with Pepper, holding her hand as they watched all Tony’s friends and colleagues. Peter was talking to Harley. Peter Quill’s crowd stuck together, talking among themselves and eating quite a lot. Stephen Strange looked quite dapper as he chatted with Wong. Fury and Maria Hill lurked but they were there.

Steve wasn’t paying much attention until he saw Rhodes stand. He stood as well. Pepper got the helmet out of the box and handed it to Steve. Rhodes held up his hand and said, “Everybody, listen up for a moment. Tony left this message for Pepper and Morgan, but they have agreed to share it with us all. If you’ll gather in close, please.”

Steve held the helmet and hit the switch. There he was, Tony, looking tired but hopeful.

“Everybody wants a happy ending. Right? But it doesn’t always roll that way. Maybe this time.
I’m hoping if you play this back, it’s in celebration. I hope families are reunited, I hope we get it back and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was such a thing. God, what a world. Universe, now. If you told me ten years ago that we weren’t alone, let alone, you know, to this extent, I mean, I wouldn’t have been surprised, but come on, the epic forces of dark and light that have come in to play. And for better or worse, that’s the reality Morgan’s gonna have to find a way to grow up in.

So I thought I better record a little greeting, in the case of an untimely death, on my part. I mean, not that death at any time isn’t untimely. This time travel thing we’re gonna try and pull off tomorrow, it’s got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. Then again, that’s the hero gig.

Part of the journey is the end.

What am I even tripping for? Everything’s gonna work out exactly the way it’s supposed to.

I love you 3000.”

By the time the end of the recording came, even Fury was drying his eye. Rhodes got his glass and held it up. “To Tony and to better days.”

“To Tony,” they all said and drank.

Maybe the better days had come at last.

Quote:
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, Scene 1
Fandom: MCU

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( The Course of True Love )

Quote:
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
~William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1
Fandom: MCU

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Cry Havoc


As Steve lay there in the smoke and rubble, his mind flashed back to Wakanda, to the ending there – Bucky tuned to dust, the stone ripped from Vision’s head, Thor’s desolation, his own pain. He lost them all, lost almost everything. And he felt that it was his fault. Through all the years and all the pain, he’d believed that right would win, but it hadn’t won that day.

Every muscle and bone is his body hurt. His lungs ached from breathing the acrid air. He felt a wave of despair so heavy that he wanted to give in, to let himself die right then and there.

But he couldn’t. He’d vowed on that day that he would do whatever it took to restore the world, to make it right again.

He sucked in as much air as he could and hauled himself up to his feet. He knew he was trembling. It had taken almost all he had left just to stand. He tightened the strap on his broken shield and took another painful breath.

He thought he was finally dying when he heard it.

Sam’s voice in his ear.

Quote:
“We all are men, in our own natures frail, and capable of our flesh; few are angels.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act V, Scene 2
Fandom: MCU

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Our Own Natures Frail

Steve looked out the window at a world that made no sense to him. Carol had brought Tony home. Steve had hoped that they could put the past behind them, could become friends again, maybe become what they’d been again sometime. He had expected some anger, but not the hysterical fury that Stark had unleashed.

“You have to let it go,” Carol said as she put an arm around his waist.

“You don’t know how bad I hurt him.”

“I think I do. You and he, you were more than just pals?”

Steve nodded. “We tried to keep it quiet, not to let it interfere with the work.”

“He’s like a raw nerve right now. He nearly died in space and he feels guilty for the Parker boy. Give him some time.” She kissed his cheek.

“I miss him.”

“Come walk with me.” She reached for his hand and they walked out to the landing field.

“Tell me about you and Stark.”

“We hated each other on sight on the helicarrier and we were at each other minutes later, headed home after we captured Loki. Becoming friends took longer. But we did become friends and more. But when he tried to take Bucky back to the US, I went crazy, I guess. And he accused me of betrayal. I did betray him, but I didn’t mean to. I meant to keep him from more pain. I decided what was best for him. We met up a few times when I was in hiding. No one knew. We came to a truce of sorts. Most of the truce was that we hid in a hotel room for a day or two and fucked each other silly.”

Carol squeezed his hand. “Does he know you love him?”

Steve nodded. “He does. He loved me, too. I don’t think he does now.”

“He was so scared out there that he’ll never be the same. Will you have him any way you can?”

“He’ll marry the Potts woman. He will come back someday… he might want only your friendship. Can you live with that?”

Steve nodded. “I prayed for his safe return and I’ll be happy for him if he’s happy even if he isn’t even in my life.”

“You’re a good man, Steve Rogers.” Carol hugged him. “You don’t have to be perfect.”

“I’m far from that,” he told her.

“If we hadn’t just been talking about your lost love, I’d ask you to prove it.” Her tone was teasing.

“Next time you come through maybe?” he asked, his voice teasing but he meant it, too. Maybe he should move on, too. Carol Danvers was certainly tempting enough to make him think about it.

“I’ll hold you to that, Captain.”

And five years later, after they’d put the world back together, she did hold him to it. All night long.

Quote:
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
~William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5
Fandom: MCU

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( More Things in Heaven and Earth )

Quote:
“What, will these hands ne'er be clean?”
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5
Fandom: MCU


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Will These Hands Never Be Clean?

Sam and Bucky began to train together after Steve was gone. Despite the way things began for them, they became friends. Bucky had Steve’s abilities, but Sam had the shield. They avoided talking about it for quite some time until one day Sam came to pick up Bucky and he found him sitting in his chair by the window, looking haunted.

“Hey, man, what’s wrong?” Sam knew the look. He’d seen it in the vets he’d counseled at the VA.

Bucky looked up at him, surprised he was even there. “I didn’t hear you come in, man.”

“What’s happening?”

“I was thinking about all the things I’ve done.” He absently rubbed the stump of his missing arm. He seldom wore his arm when he wasn’t training. Shuri had made this one removable so he wasn’t a walking weapon all the time.

“Bucky, you know you were a programed weapon. You had no choice in the matter.”

He looked at Sam, his face so sad that Sam could feel pain radiating off of him. “But I remember. I remember most all of them. The mind wipes took away who I was but not my memories of what I was, what I did.”

Sam knelt by him and put an arm around him. “I’m so sorry, man. I wish I could fix it for you.”

“I’m glad he chose you. I was terrified he’d try to get me to do it.” They both knew who Bucky meant.

“I think you’d have been better. You are a super soldier like he is.”

“You have his heart. You want to do good things, to help and not out of guilt, but because you’re a good guy.”

Sam leaned closer and kissed Bucky’s lips very briefly. “You have my heart, Bucky. Maybe we can figure this all out together.”

Quote:
“For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.”
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 147
Fandom:
MCU

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( My Love is a Fever )

Quote:
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
William Shakespeare-Hamlet, Act I, Scene III
Fandom:
MCU

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To Thine Own Self Be True

Steve finished with the Infinity Stones. He had picked a year – looking at a file on Peggy Carter from SHIELD. She’d married in 1949 though her husband’s name had been redacted. Peggy had married in December, a few months after she met her husband to be.

He had prepared. Bucky had helped him. He’d gotten money and clothing that would not make him stand out. He’d found out where in Washington, DC, that Peggy lived in 1949. He set the GPS on his arm and just like the other times, suddenly he was there.

He found the right house and stood there, looking at it for a long time. Would she be happy to see him? Would she be terrified? Was this the right thing to do?

Yes, it was. He’d missed her every day he’d been without her. He had loved other people – Natasha, Tony, Bucky – but never the same as he loved Peggy.

He walked up to the porch and up the steps. He tapped on the front door.

She opened it. She didn’t say a word, just stared at him for perhaps a minute or more.

“Hello, Peggy.”

She opened the door wider and motioned him inside.

“You’re older. Older than you should be,” she said as she looked at him.

“I am. I’ve come a long way and a long time to find you.”

“I’m going to need a drink, aren’t I?”

He smiled at her. God, she was so much the same.

“I think so.”

She poured herself a double gin and tonic and motioned him to her sitting room, gesturing that he should sit on the sofa while she sat in the armchair so she could watch him more easily as he talked.

He began. “In 2011, I was thawed out…

*

Peggy woke in the middle of the night and looked beside her in the bed. He had a few wrinkles now and his hair was not quite as fair as it had been all those years ago. There was a sadness there that he wasn’t ready to tell her about yet. She’d seen it in his eyes when they’d danced.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her, positive that he’d done the right thing.

Quote:
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.”
~William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2
Fandom:
MCU

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( Boundless as the Sea )

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”
Williams Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene II

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The Bravest Hero (That the world would never know)

Clint was still angry with her. Hell, he might always be. She had a lot of nerve, Natasha did! After all the things he did in that five years, he deserved to die. She’d fought hard for the life she’d made. She never deserved to sacrifice herself on some godforsaken planet way out in space. No one but those close to her would understand that she’d done as much as Stark to save them.

She deserved a long, happy life with Rogers. He was no fool. He knew they’d been a thing for years, even if they kept it quiet. He saw the anguish and the pain on Steve’s face when she didn’t come back from Vormir. He didn’t envy Steve having to learn to live without her. He knew how it felt to lose the ones he loved the most.

Damn her. She’d lived life as stubbornly and as bravely as she’d died.

Damn her! She was bravest hero that the world would never know.

Damn her. She should have let him do it.