I have died every day waiting for you.

[buckingham]

I have loved you for a thousand years... Some say that if a pair of lovers die together in tragedy, they will get another chance when they are reborn. Even if the two of you keep losing each other, you'll get to meet again. This meme is that meeting. For the first time? For the hundredth time? That much isn't clear. What is clear is that on this, your seeming first meeting - Everything rushes back to you. Memories, emotion, and all the comes with it...including the memory of how you two died. Overwhelming, isn't it? Some people find it hard to accept, for good reason. What will you do? You can't just bring it up, they'll think you're crazy! Maybe you don't want to bring it up, as you refuse to believe it yourself. And even if you do believe it, that doesn't mean you have to embrace it. You're your own person, after all. You refuse to love someone merely because of who you were in the past. Or maybe you can't help but let these feelings rise to the surface because they're too strong. No matter what, you can't repress it. In fact, the more you two meet and spend time together, the more you find yourself falling back into the old roles...and making the old mistakes. That isn't good, though; there's one more thing. One of you, when you first met, had a vision about how the two of you would die this time. You can't let that happen. Not again. Comment with your character and your preferences. Feel free to do a modern AU of your character. Assumed CR and AUs are a must here. Don't feel obligated to stick with first meetings. Play that the characters have known each other for a while, are trying to have a relationship while trying to be their own unique selves, not having a relationship because THE PAST DOESN'T DEFINE ME, or even trying to avoid death in an adventurous fashion! Reply to others. ...I'll love you for a thousand more.

Comments

[therightpartner]

If Peggy hadn't had time to think about the situation, she may have blamed him for his tardiness. But she did understand some of what had happened. It probably wasn't Stark's fault - Tony not Howard. It wouldn't have surprised her if Howard had set up some precautions that even his son hadn't known of.

SHIELD had its own reasons to keep her locked up. Probably afraid she'd go mad and try to kill people. Or she'd try to make an escape the way Steve had.

Whatever the reason, Steve wasn't the one to blame. "I had a feeling they hadn't. If they had..." Pausing, she gave him a wry smile. No, she might not have needed help escaping but she knew that Steve would never leave her behind. Not because she wasn't capable but because he would never stand by when someone he cared about was in trouble. "I know there would have been a rescue attempt and these people who think of themselves as agents wouldn't know what hit them."

As she moved closer, she couldn't help staring, awed that he was alive and safe. There were so many things she could say, how lonely it had been without him, how she had missed him without that pain ever truly disappearing. Their date was easier to focus on since she wasn't quite certain she could say any of those things without giving in to tears. "I would be offended if you didn't want that dance."

[noblecaptain]

Slowly, Steve moved closer, reaching out to gently take her hand in his. For the longest time, it felt like an eternity as he just stared at her. She was just as beautiful as he remembered her. The picture in his watch, the memory of her that he couldn't forget. It was as if time stood still for him. Lifting her hand to his lips, he brushed them over her knuckles, kissing them while still keeping eye contact with her.

"It's long. And... And complicated. Howard... He died. And Tony didn't know what to do. I was still in the ice at that point. Not knowing where I was, he didn't want to wake you. He wanted to keep you safe." As he spoke, he thought it over. He didn't really hate Tony. He never could. Still, she should have been woken up sooner. "When they found me, Tony didn't know what to do. And then... Then things happened."

He sighed, gazing down at their hands intertwined. "I was trying to adjust to this new era. Tony... He was trying to look for the right time, I know he was. He's a good man, he just doesn't always think right. SHIELD was compromised, Peggy, by Hydra. Bucky... He's still alive. There... There's so much I need to tell you."

Stepping forward, Steve let go of her hand and wrapped his arms around her for a hug. "I'll always want that dance," he murmured, clinging to her.

[therightpartner]

Her resolve not to cry wavered as he kissed her hand. It was a gesture she could easily imagine him doing if they had not been so caught up in their roles in the war and had allowed themselves to take certain risks. This was real and now it was possible that all the hints and hopes that had passed between them could be real.

"I've read a bit of it. They didn't allow me to see much but I could read between the lines and..." Peggy wasn't quite willing to admit that she had learned more about the technology around her until she knew that she would no longer be under survalence.

She had had enough time to think and consider the situation from different perspective. When she had agreed to the project, she had known the risks and that things might not go as predicted. Tony was a factor that they had never considered and she was sure that he had never expected to be responsible for her. "I don't blame Tony for any of this. He was put in a difficult situation that wasn't his making. And the two of you have been rather busy lately." That was accompanied by a hint of a smile.

"Perhaps he did think correctly. Better to wait to wake me up than if Hydra had gotten involved." Then what would have happened? Their feelings for each other had been documented well enough that she would have been an ideal hostage to use against Steve.

"Bucky..." Alive. And they had done nothing. They hadn't even known. "You know that if there had been even a hint of him surviving, I would have searched for him." Hopefully Steve didn't blame her or SHIELD for that mistake.

"We'll have to find a place. I've heard that all the best clubs are gone now." Sighing, she buried her face against his shoulder, still not quite believing he was real.

[noblecaptain]

"Peggy..." Everything had seemed so complicated to Steve. Even though he knew it wasn't his fault, Bucky becoming the Winter Soldier was still a heavy guilt he carried on his shoulders. If somehow he'd rescued Bucky, if he'd gone back for him. Something could have been done. "I don't blame you, Peg. It wasn't you. It was Zola. Whatever they did to him before I rescued him. Something must have happened to make him able to survive the fall. Something... I don't know, maybe something like what Erskine did to me? He... It was bad, Peggy. They messed with his mind."

At least with Tony, in a small way, he felt like Tony was trying to carry on his father's work. Both Stark's wanted to try to use technology for the better, not the worse. It had taken Tony a little longer to get there, but he didn't make war machines anymore. "If anything would happen to you, Tony would never have forgiven himself. Howard recorded a message for him. He let me see it. Howard..." A heavy sigh escaped him. "He wanted Tony to protect you at any cost. He felt he let you down in never finding me."

Shaking his head, he pulled Peggy in close and vowed to never let go. His eyes closed and he breathed in a deep breath, as if he could smell a hint of the forties on her. Finally he was back with Peggy, something he never thought he would ever have a chance at. Peggy. His Peggy. His lips brushed lightly against her cheek as he clung to her, enjoying the embrace for every moment he could while he could. "We'll get our dance, Peggy. I promise."

It still haunted him, a life without war. It was a vision that he couldn't get out of his mind. He'd always been a soldier. Being simple Steve Rogers was something he never, ever thought he'd be able to have. Did he finally have his chance? "What do you say we get out of here, hmm?"