SHOULD NEVER BE TOGETHER

[wrongs]

the "should never be together" meme.

When two people come together in a relationship, it's a beautiful thing. What can be wrong with love, right? Right? Except when the union is completely and totally wrong, for whatever reason. Then things can get a little messy.

How To Play
1. Comment with your character, listing their name, canon, etc, along with any preferences.
2. Comment around to others, using the RNG to determine the scenario. It doesn't have to be a lovey-dovey relationship, obviously. There can be hate, sorrow, lust, whatever.
3. Thread! Have fun! Do things!

Scenarios
1. Warring Factions: You belong to rival organizations, armies, clubs, etc. Whatever it is, you're not on the same team.

2. Soldiers on the Battlefield: Or maybe you are on the same side, but this is the wrong time and the wrong place. Plus, attachments cause distractions.

3. Bodyguard and the Guarded: Just like the movie with Kevin Costner! One of you has been hired to protect the other for some reason, and feelings are starting to grow. Are you a professional and cut things off, or do you give in?

4. Prince/ss and Knight: Similar to the above, but with a whole 'nother level of wrong...one of you is royal. Courtly love is okay; still, don't forget your place.

5. Enemies: This vendetta is personal, and you totally hate this person! Don't you? Perhaps you're maybe just rivals, or something as serious as superhero and villain.

6. Family: The ultimate taboo. This person is related to you, so there's no way you should indulge this desire, even if it's the most pure love there ever was.

7. Age Difference: The years between you should keep you both at bay, but it's easier said than done.

10. Teacher/Student: Teachers and students have a unique bond, and to corrupt it is a dangerous thing. Will you dare to act on emotions that could put you both in a destructive place?

11. Already Spoken For: One or both of you are already involved with someone else, but the heart wants what the heart wants. Just know that you can't have your cake and eat it, too.

12. Not Compatible: Your personalities or jobs make it so it's hard for you to be together.

13. Not Compatible...in Another Way: You're both different species, which means you're either afraid to take your relationship to a physical level or you can't because of differences in biologies.

14. Not Ready for Love: You took a vow (or celbacy, of chastity, of dedication), you're married to your work, or you just don't want to be involved with anyone. Too bad!

15. Rich and Poor: One of you has the money while the other is from more modest means. Can the 1% and the 99% ever be bedfellows, literally?

16. Hurt Before: Your heart has been broken, and maybe there's been no time to heal. But here you are.

17. WILDCARD

Comments

тнe wιnтer ѕoldιer • мcυ

[prizrak]

[ws spoilers welcome. this could get awkward fast.]

[1stgenhero]

[Up for a Steve? Probably 17 for 'ALL THE OBSTACLES.']

[prizrak]

[i so am. lol this is what all those army obstacle courses really trained you for steve. right here.]

[1stgenhero]

[There was never any doubt that Steve would go after him. Hopefully after his trip to the Smithsonian, Bucky will realize that. Over hill, over dale, over an ocean in particular and then into Russia, Steve follows the traces of the Winter Soldier with a clumsy, but well-meaning determination. It isn't his fault he's terrible with technology, but it sure does make this sort of work harder.

In the end, he isn't even that surprised that Bucky has to be the one to come to him. He steps in out of the Moscow winter, into his shitty, chilly, divey hotel room, pulling off his mittens and hat and rubbing the icy tips of his ears. He's a little frustrated after what has been a very long and fruitless day, so takes a second to realize that someone else is in the room.

He closes the door behind him, and locks it all the same.]

SPOILERS

[prizrak]

[what the soldier remembers is fragmented and disjointed. he remembers seeing the other man's face swimming in front of his own in the dark. he remembers feeling ---he thinks the emotion is elation, but it's been so long since he's felt anything that he can't be sure.

"steve."

he remembers how the other man had stared at him on the bridge. he couldn't name the emotions in particular, but rogers knew him. the soldier knew him as well. he couldn't place when or how or why, but he just knew that he did.

he was malfunctioning. he had returned to russia with the intention of finding an operating cell, turning himself in, and being wiped and reconditioned. only no such cell was there anymore. it was all abandoned and cleared out labs.

there was no one to fix it. no one to give him orders.

left to his own devices, he begins to wonder; to question. it isn't long before he realizes he's very much not alone in russia. that someone was following what sparse trail he'd left behind. once he realized it, covering his tracks more fully was easy enough, and then, well, he might have watched rogers flounder in his own frustration for a little while.

okay, more than a little while. but his curiosity, the first honest to goodness thing he's felt in years that wasn't his initial confusion on the bridge, gets the best of him. he wants to know who this bucky is. he wants to know what makes rogers follow him like a man possessed. he wants to know why he knows rogers.

why he remembers flashes of a run-down neighborhood. turning down couch cushions to sleep on. a key hidden under a brick.

so he breaks into the hotel room that rogers is staying in, and sits in a chair facing the door. his back is to the wall, and he's shrouded in shadow. he watches him try to warm himself up from the cold of the moscow air. he has been inside for nearly half an hour, but his exposed skin from the hooded sweatshirt and jeans he wears is still pink and chilled, though he seems unfazed.

weather is just another obstacle to overcome in regards to any mission. this is no different. he bypasses the thoughts of discomfort and pain, and rewires his thinking to suit. it's like turning a switch. he's ignored it so long before that by the time he'd completed the mission his hands had been near frozen and cramped from holding a rifle in one position for so long. he remembered watching with no small amount of confusion as the feeling returned to his extremities and his hands shook of their own volition.

mission. that's a dangerous word. rogers is his mission. a failed mission. why hasn't he tried to regroup and complete it yet? why doesn't he try to now? he doesn't know the answer.]

With how you stumble over your own two feet, it's a wonder you've managed to survive as long as you have.

[1stgenhero]

[He's here, and he's talking. Even if what he says isn't particularly polite, it's better than profanity or a fist to the face or Bucky pulling a gun on him. Better by far, obviously. It's an in. A chance to convince him of all the things he needs convincing of.

Steve unbuttons his coat, and pulls that off as well. Underneath it he's in a plain, long sleeved knit to help fight the cold off. Not that the weather should impact his super soldier physiology, necessarily, he just... hates the ice.

But still. It's the least Captainy and most human he's ever looked around this incarnation of his friend. If he feels vulnerable at all, crossing over to sit on the edge of the bed across from him, it doesn't show.]

That's always been me. Someone once told me they'd think that I liked getting punched in the face.

[Watching him avidly, to see if the memory sticks at all. Whether or not he's at risk for that right now, he still finds himself smiling like Bucky is the one that hung the moon. He's alive, and more than that, he's here. He looks different, and he looks so much the same, and Steve's heart might burst. Enough that he adds, not entirely deliberately;]

I know you're not- I know this is confusing as hell. But I missed you.

[prizrak]

It's possible that person was correct.

[he watches him cross the room and take a seat in front of him on the bed, tensing only slightly as he does. the only real movement he gives is that of his eyes as they follow each movement, classifying it as a threat or otherwise.

nothing in his stance or demeanor comes off as threatening. if anything, it comes off as welcoming, if a little wary. he knows what the emotions themselves look like, but he doesn't understand them. then there's something---he smiles. he smiles like he's just heard the best news in the whole of the world, and he's looking at him. he knows what a smile is, of course, but he can't ever remember doing it. he doesn't understand why the other man is giving him one now.

it makes something in his chest ache, and he feels vaguely uncomfortable.

when he speaks, it's confused and slow:]

Missed me? I don't understand how I know you.

[1stgenhero]

Okay. Well, if you'd be all right with it, I'd be happy to tell you everything I know. I have some blank spots in there- like how you went from the man I knew to the person who can't remember me now, but I can make some pretty good guesses about them.

[And he takes Bucky's presence here as a sign that he has permission to go on. He mentally corrects himself; he shouldn't think of him as Bucky entirely. This is still the soldier, who has a right to his own identity, and who Steve can talk to, but can't really control.

Still. He starts from the beginning.]

We were kids together. I was small for my age, and scrawny, and I got the straw kicked out of me a lot. You were bigger and stronger and you looked out for me. I probably owe you my life, a time or two over. Then, the war started. I don't know how much you know about that.

[If he exists only as a tool, or if he has a little world history to go with it, as well.]

[prizrak]

[he doesn't know the proper thing to say to that. he imagines it would be something along the lines of "i'd like that", but he's been so long out of the proper way of things that it only serves to confuse him more.

he settles for a nod, and waits for the other man to continue.]

That's--a lot of information. [just starting off too. he's not sure how to process any of it. he's got no bearing.

"why don't you pick on somebody your own size?"]

I remember---the cold. Falling.

[1stgenhero]

Well- yeah. Before that, you were a soldier, and you were captured and experimented on by the Germans. Earlier that year, I'd gone through the American version of the program, albeit with full consent, and I went from being a little weed to being what I am now.

[Obviously there's a lot more of him now.]

So in a roundabout way, I got out there too- and when I heard you were missing in action I went out to find you. I got you out.

[Even just retelling this story, the relief is palpable in his expression.]

[prizrak]

[he lets his gaze rake over him, as if he's trying to remember what the other man used to look like before all of---this. he can't bring it to mind fully though.

he does remember small things though.]

We---had to hoof it all the way back to our camp. Everyone was excited.

[1stgenhero]

Yeah, yes, exactly.

[Grinning. He remembers. Steve reaches out and puts a hand on his arm.]

How many pieces like that do you get?

[prizrak]

[he looks down at the hand on his arm in confusion. it's a kind, alien gesture.]

A few. It just happens sometimes.