3229/Old Stories and Ghosts

Old Stories and Ghosts
Date of Scene:	04 September 2020
Location:	Safehouse Apartment, Brooklyn
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Peggy Carter, James Barnes

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Peggy Carter has posed:
The safehouse apartment was in Brooklyn, in an area that was rather rough hit by the mutant mess, but power had been turned back on and most clean up was happening apace. Just a nameless, second story walk up with fairly spartan furniture, a small kitchen, and a single bedroom. There are a few hints that Peggy's been here before, though. A second pair of high heels by the door, a few dresses in the closet, the desk in the bedroom actually being organized, and the fridge being totally cleaned (twice over) from when everthing spoiled at the power outage. She's event got a single, lovely little fern in some attempts to make it look like people live here, not just crash in hiding from other people.

She never put the address in anything digital. A single piece of paper marked 'Please burn' at the bottom and a very brief question about 'Come for tea?' She was too paranoid these days, but she trusted him to get the point. She's been there a few hours now, the tea kettle actually on and a mostly neglected cup at the top of the coffee table where she works. Three files are spread about, and an encrypted, private laptop that she bought with cash from a back alley vendor open in front of her, starting to cross reference old file names.

James Barnes has posed:
She should see Buck's own safehouse not far from here. His is a loft that's really a nearly unfinished attic with a tiny bathroom attached. Just enough to be legal: camp cot, foot locker, hot plate and sink.

He knocks, and it's the old shave-and-a-haircut pattern. Do people even know that now? She surely will. Lili's at his side, in her mesh vest and booties, already wagging her tail - she's caught Peggy's scent.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The start of the knock makes het stiffen, even if she's expecting him, it *could* be someone else. By the time he's finished the pattern? Peggy is grinning and standing up from the couch, abandoning her research as she crosses to the door on stockinged feet. She wasn't bothering with heels for a day around the apartment staring at dusty files. "I don't even think anyone *knows* that song, these days. Or what two bits is." She greets him warmly, ushering him and Lili quickly into the spartan place.

Once they are in, she swings out into the hall just a moment, ensuring no one else was on their tail and there were no strange sounds. She then shuts and bolts the door twice before turning to him for a quick, warm hug. Her arm was out of that sling, finally, and ribs even mostly healed. "Thanks for not minding the travel. Just...things I don't want to talk about back there." And then she drops, happily scritching Lili down and giving the dog a proper amount of love, "Hullo to you too, sweet girl..."

James Barnes has posed:
"I've had a shave and a haircut for two bits," Buck says, and the grin is his, the old crooked, insouciant smile. It banishes the grim lines that his face is so often set in, these days. She gets his human arm slung around her in a quick hug, pressed close enough for an instant to catch a whiff of his own scent: castile soap, mint shampoo, and warm metal. Then she's let go, even as he says, amused, "Nah, no tail. Not today. I mean, I warn ya, I know I got at least one tracker in me, but to the best of my knowledge, it doesn't record sound."

Lili's wagging delightedly, warbling at Peggy as if Peggy could be expected to understand Dog. "I hear that," he agrees. "I do. I'm generally all right with the trade-off of privacy for security, but...." There's a quick casing of the place. "Sometimes we all need to get away, eh?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Oh yes. Oh goodness, did you have quite the trip?" Peggy asks to Lili's warbling, giving her a few extra scratches for good measure on her chest. The comment about the tracker in him gets a momentary, unhappy look. Not unhappy with HIM, but with the situation in general. "...I understand why they... tagged you. I still don't *like* it. But..." She sighs quietly, unfolding from the ground where she was kneeling to be with the dog, "As long as it's not sound. The whole point of this is to take you out because *I* trust you and can work with you. I mean... also to clean up old messes," she motions to the pile of ancient manila files on the table, "But so you can get into the field again too."

Then she's headed for the kitchen, "Do you want coffee or tea?" A bowl of water is being filled for Lili and placed on the floor right inside the kitchen archway. The place smells somewhat of Logan, somewhat of Peggy, and somewhat of emptiness.

James Barnes has posed:
"Coffee, please," James says. Avid for it, as always. It's strange to see him out in the modern world...but it's also weirdly reminiscent of their own old days. Safehouses in the south of France, part of the preparation for Dragoon. The smile's faded, but there's still a hint of the old, impish glint in his eyes.

A little moue of understanding. "I don't like it, either. But I'm glad of it. Lets them all feel a little safer about me, and makes it more likely they find me if I'm taken or otherwise go off the reservation. But yes, this is a *bit*," And he bites the syllable off, sharply, "Unorthodox. Guess I been a good boy for just a little too long."

Lili's vest is taken off and set aside, and she goes wagging over to slurp noisily from the bowl. "She started wagging the second we got into the building," he observes. "Knew you were here."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The coffee is smoothly put on, one of those somewhat crappy, tiny 4-cup apartment sized pots, but that's all that really is generally needed in this place. It's not an apartment that's seen a lot of life or love before. Once it starts burbling, she steps back into the front room, leaning in the archway to watchi him in the strange, new setting. Or, more so, a setting that felt far closer to where they started. This building was probably built around then as well.

"Good to know I'm loved. I have been quite neglegent in my visits of her. And you, as well. But...this..." She motions down to the scattered folders on the table, "Has been taking much of my attention and I don't want to do it there. So, thank goodness Logan said we're free to use this place as home operations until it gets compromised. We'll lose it eventually, but it's a start."

She then folds her arms, dark eyes narrowing upon him somewhat, the look more thoughtful but with a hint of something amused behind it. "Now...I have a very important questiont o ask you. Something Steve and I deeply discussed but... he said I needed to hear it from *your* lips..."

James Barnes has posed:
Buck's a quiet soul, these days. Given to silence and stillness....but she can see a whole other layer of it descend on him. The way he tenses, very fractionally, as if he were bearing up under a new weight. His mouth goes tight. Lili looks up from her bowl, but Buck gestures her to stay where she is. "What's that?" he says, softly. By the tension in him, he expects it to be nothing good.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"...What in *hell* is this about a poker game back in the field?? When you two were on assignment!?" Peggy can't entirely keep the mock-cross tone in her voice, a teasing edge of a smile touching her red lips as she watches him, desperate for that tension to melt away before it ever fully forms.

James Barnes has posed:
There's a beat where he peers at her, expression blank....and then Bucky dissolves into laughter. Not his nearly mute, shoulder-shaking chuckle, but a full throated guffaw. He's laughing hard enough he has to sit down. "Oh, my god," he says. "Steve never told you that story? I would'a thought...."

Lili's looking between them in clear puzzlement. Her human doesn't seem distressed, but.... Buck takes a hankie from his pocket, in some conservative blue plaid. "Did you know that Steve is actually a great poker player?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
The raucousness of that laughter is oddly reassuring, after she watched him tense up like an abused animal. Peggy cannot help but cough out a bit of a chuckle herself, boggling at quite how wild this story must be, "No! Steve never told me, and then he hinted at it and bloody well didn't follow the lead so I've been wondering for DAYS because he's cruel and unfair." Peggy huffs out, just a touch over dramatically, but she's a spy. She has a NEED to know. This has actually been driving her a little bit insane.

She ducks back into the kitchen to get his coffee, making it rather sweet and creamered so it's a bit closer to those frappicino things she gets him and not the stale, old coffee from the fridge that it is. She carries it back into the room and then settles down on the couch near him, staring. "No, I did not know that Steve was good at poker. The golden boy, sweet, never tell a lie Captain America is a good poker player. Come. I need the truth."

James Barnes has posed:
The old Buck in full, despite the hair past his shoulders (she's seen him rocking a man-bun, even, God help the both of them) and the thirty extra pounds of muscle and the prosthesis. He dabs at his eyes a last time, and relaxes back on the couch in a comfortable sprawl. "Okay, so. I don't know how much he told you about his childhood...about *our* childhood. But....even when he was little and frail and sickly, he wasn't just brave, he was a schemer. He mostly used his powers for good instead of evil, 'cause that's who he is, but....it was in there."

He takes a breath, goes on, "He wasn't much of a liar, but only because he mostly scorned it. Anyhow....I knew the Howling Commandos before he met 'em, but I never told 'em all that about Steve. I mean, hell, the first time the Germans had me, I thought Steve was dead, I could barely stand to mention him at all, it hurt so bad. I still haven't forgiven the censors for keeping our letters from each other..."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The smile on her lips is genuine and more relaxed by inches than she's been in a long while. Just seeing that old look on Bucky's face makes the whole world a little better. She scoops up her own cold and long neglected tea, just to try and give it some respect before she makes a new mug, but she's not going anywhere else for the rest of this story.

"Alright... so, Steve *and you no doubt*, got a little good at the side hustle growing up in Brooklyn. This city has that habit on young men, I've noticed." She mostly teasing there. "...And you knew the Howlers already. So...how does this translate to poker in the field?" Peggy tucks one leg beneath her, sitting up a bit straighter and closer. She is literally on the edge of her seat.

James Barnes has posed:
Buck takes a hasty mouthful of the coffee before he answers. "So, Steve was kind of the odd one out, and he was a greenhorn, in terms of field training. He got picked on and pranked some. He mostly took it in stride, you know him. But it came to a head one day - it was that time we were off in the forests of Belgium for like a week. We were supposed to be waiting to ambush a HYDRA column, but they never showed. They had us waiting and waiting and waiting, so at one point we took turns going off to a stream nearby for a bath. When it was Steve's turn - Monty stole his clothes and hid 'em. Steve eventually came back naked, having walked through the woods all that way. Monty gave 'im his clothes, and we thought no more of it...."

Then there's that puckish, curling grin. "Until the next night, when we decided to play poker to pass the time."

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Oh hell, Monty..." Peggy's comment is in the tone that, where she able, she'd go back and chide the man now. But it's also fond, a touch missing of him. She hadn't thought of that name in years now but she could suddenly smell that aftershave he'd clung to getting every last drop out of the bottle all through the beginning of the war. She tries to shake off the memories, staying in Bucky's present, even as he talks of the past.

Her tea is sipped, too intrigued to even worry about the fact it's cold and tannins bitter by now. The enjoyment in Bucky's voice is enough to keep her smile in place. "...this was the first time Steve got in a game with you all?"

James Barnes has posed:
Buck lifts a finger, admonishingly. "No, actually. He'd done a little bit, but lost his shirt every time, you know? I mean, that big, dumb, honest face, right?"

Then he leans in, and says, "And that's how this game started. First few hands...he's losing like crazy. He had all this good stuff to bet, too, like chocolate."

A beat, and he goes on, ".....and then he started winning, every hand. It looked like luck at first, and then it so clearly wasn't. He took back what he'd lost, and then we ended up betting articles of clothing....and we lost those, too. Down to our shorts, that was when he called it quits." Buck shakes his head at the memory. "We all got bit to hell by mosquitos."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peg's lips purse just slightly, in the manner she gets when she's trying not to laugh at someone, but it's not exactly working. Around those she trusts, as few as they may be, she's read like an open book. Her head tilts curiously, the motion making a few soft curls of dark hair fall across her shoulder, but she's not moving from the couch otherwise.

"...Alright, so... not a streak of luck, while he makes the whole lot of you practically streak. I'm...now just *cross* I was back at base and missing this mess."

James Barnes has posed:
He gives her a fond look, and then lifts his coffee mug, as if in a toast. "To Captain America and the Howling Commandos," he proposes. But that habitual chill sadness is still absent from Buck's face. The warmth of memory is enough to ward it away, at least for the moment. "It was a hell of a show," he adds. "We were all of us pale as milk, except for Gabe, o' course."

Peggy Carter has posed:
That laughter finally escapes, not able to hold it for poor Bucky's expense any more, "I would have paid good ration coupons to see that..." She admits, lifting her cold mug of tea and warmly clinking against his. "To the Howling Commandos... No better men I could have ever hoped to have serv... Worked with." There's still a part of her that knows she never was proper military. A liaison, at best, while one that did a lot of important work. "It was Belgium, you're lucky you weren't all frozen stiff. Besides. Some sun was good for you lot."

James Barnes has posed:
Buck waggles brows at her, without a hint of shame. "Worked with, indeed. You served, just like us, even if they never formally commissioned you."

Another generous mouthful of the coffee vanishes down the hatch, before he looks down into it. "You know," he says, "You made this real sweet, just like I like it. Thanks....and yeah, God knows we needed sun, back then."

Peggy Carter has posed:
As he comments on the coffee, her smile somehow both softens and grows. It's not teasing, loud stories of the old days. It's a smile of what they've found now -- the comfortable, deeper friendship and understanding of each other. Of where they both came from, yes, but also how they've changed. "Of course. I know damn well how you take your coffee by now. It's not quite fancy and ice-sweet but...It's what I could do in this place." She gives his knee a bit of a fond chuff with her knuckles before finally shifting forward to stand again. "...Ice cold, however, is not how I drink my tea."

Then she's bustling back off into the kitchen. She walks comfortable enough around the place that it's likely she's been living here more often than not for a week or two. She doesn't move like a stranger in the space. Lili's ears are given a gentle ruffle as she passes. "Frankly, not just back then. You could use the sun *now*, James. Maybe I should have you and Steve over for poker."

James Barnes has posed:
"I'm no good at poker. We should play cards in general, though. Parlor game stuff," Buck suggests, chuckling to himself. "Games in general. People still play actual board games, not just all this stuff on screens." He's not scornful of it, but he's got no love for digital technology.

He drapes his metal arm along the top of the couch's back, slouches down a little further. "I try ta go out. I go to parks. I even play handball, sometimes."

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Mmhmm. And how much of that is because dear Lili drags you out?" Peggy asks, only slightly skeptical of Bucky's answer, considering how pale the man naturally is. She smiles to the dog as the mention of her name definitely gets some perked ears, "Yes, love, you're doing well. I'll need to get biscuits if you visit more."

She finally gets the water from the kettle, that gunpowder, smoky tea she's so fond of poured over so the bitter, strong scent lines the air of the kitchen. She's returning to his side with the mug then and, this time, she doesn't set it down. Maybe it'll get drank if she keeps it in her hand.

James Barnes has posed:
"I'd be the first to admit she's good for me on that front, too," Buck allows, brows arching. "No question, right? I don't tan, now, actually. Tanning is a kind of scarring, in a way, and i really don't scar unless there's something to scar around." Like the arm.

Lili, hearing her name, comes padding over in a spatter of claws to look between them, hopefully.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"I... never even thought of it light that. Huh. I suppose I shan't worry *overly* much then, if you look ready to go to one of those gothic clubs wit your hair and pale as you are." Peg grins to him over her mug, pushing her knee against his a moment as she sinks back into the couch.

She then stares down at Lili, arching a single brow, "Mm, miss. You think there is room up here for you on the couch, hmm?" She looks to Buck, just double checking it's alright, and then she nods towards the pocket between them on the couch. "Come on, up. Certainly not the first time this couch has seen a fair amount of fur." ... Was that just a comment about Logan's rather hirsute nature? It sure was! Not that prim and proper Peggy would ever admit it. She smiles innocently behind her tea.

James Barnes has posed:
"What's a gothic club?" Buck asks, innocently. Certain aspects of pop culture have definitely passed him by. He gestures for Lili to join them, and she clambers up to lay her head on Peggy's leg with a conented sigh. A snicker from Buck - apparently he gets the joke. "Still as fuzzy as ever, huh? Guess he's gotta have some way to keep warm in the frozen North."

Peggy Carter has posed:
As he asks about Logan being fuzzy as ever, there is just the slightest blush that creeps up Peggy's cheeks. She made the jest, she opened the door. She carefully hides it behind a sip of her tea and lets her free hand bury into Lili's coat. The dog wouldn't judge her! "...Em. Yes... rather. I'm just glad to see him in one piece." She's being particularly, oddly sealed lipped about it?

Oh! Files. Very interesting files. A wonderful distraction of files. She nods towards the coffee table, "...First free HYDRA agents someone in SHIELD never wanted in digital record. Well, Richter was the first, but...I cleared all that. These are the next rabbit holes."