uber driver, be my shrink for the hour

[memesmemes]

{The Road Trip Meme!!} It's that time of the year again! You decided to take a road trip! Either to your friends, relative, or perhaps an event, but oh, my goodness, what will happen along the way? • Post with your character name/fandom/options preferences. • Use RNG to pick your possible scenario - or just go with what you'd like most. • Reply to other people's tags. Use RNG, mix and match, or just wing it! • Enjoy! Situations: 1. BREAK DOWN Oh, snap, your car decided to break down out in the middle of nowhere. WHAT DO? Is that Leatherface? Will this be "Children of the Corn"? 2. TRUCK STOP You've stopped at a gas station. They're out of gas, snacks and the bathrooms are out of order. Wat do. (Zombie attack optional.) 3. HITCHHIKERS? Is this even a good idea? Why is their backpack leaking suspicious substances? Go wild. 4. WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST HIT? Dude, I hear deer mess up cars... or I think that was a deer. 5. DON'T MAKE ME TURN THIS CAR AROUND! Alas, you're the parent or the disgruntled friend who has had it up to here with all the fighting in the back. 6. OMG, I WANT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THIS LANDMARK! No, no, and no. You tell that person that they're going to be driven around and they're going to like it. 7. THE GREAT ESCAPE Either dinosaurs or the mothman is chasing you. Don't stop now. 8. MAKE OUT~ You're now parked in one of the make-out points in this town. Did you know? Well, that's up to you, as is what you do next. 9. WE'RE SO LOST The map blew away when you were stupid enough to open the windows earlier. You know that old stereotype about how men never ask for directions but women will? Time to see if you're going to prove it right or not. Try not to fight over it too much, driving partners. 10. BUT OFFICER... Those flashing lights in your rearview mirror? Definitely not just for decoration. Relationship (optional): 1. BUSINESS PARTNERS: The jet was undergoing some heavy repairs, so you have to drive to that big meeting. 2. BFFS/ROOMIES: On your last hurrah before you join the 'real world.' 3. NEWLYWEDS: You're a young couple on your honeymoon! Hope this doesn't ruin your relationship. 4. SIBLINGS: Whether this is a trip to reconnect or to fix things or to just deepen your bond as epic sibs is up to you. 5. PARENT & CHILD: It's like a family vacation for the two of you. try not to get on each other's nerves too much? (taken from memeonic & arspaulina @ lj)

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[morethanmagic]

HYDRA had encouraged her to use her magic at every opportunity, and in training with the Avengers she brings it forth often (except during hand-to-hand training with Romanoff, when it is not allowed). But now they are in disguise. She has no magic, he has no enhancements, they are just two people, she cannot simply fix the hole in the hose, and the magic beneath her skin is beginning to itch.

The words are a welcome distraction. Wanda considers his point, then flits around to the side of the car and peers into the mirror, assessing with a frown how she might look with blonde hair. After a few moments, she nods thoughtfully and straightens again. "We should have thought of this before leaving. Too late now. We will simply need to not be murdered," she says with a little shrug, as if it will be such an inconvenience.

[redactions]

James thinks of Bucky's sisters, watching her, and wonders if Wanda is anything like them. Only Rebecca is still alive; the rest lived long, full lives and passed away before he was unmade.

'You make that sound very difficult,' he retorts. In all of his time as the Winter Soldier only one person ever got the drop on him (that he remembers). No one is as good as Romanoff, when it comes to surviving. There's nothing out here for miles. Even a stealth craft has a telltale sound, which he knows to listen for.

'Come here, do you want to see how to fix this?'

[morethanmagic]

"It will be a struggle, but between us, we may survive." It's dry, amused, a sense of humor Wanda has always had, and while HYDRA had added a bitter edge to it, they had not burned it out of her entirely. She might have grown up to be very like one of Bucky's sisters, if not for the bomb.

This is something she should know, so she drifts back to the front of the car and leans over. "We did not need to drive often," she says as she peers at the engine. "Sokovia was a small place. Yes, show me how."

[redactions]

'It's our specialty,' he answers, simply, without a trace of amusement. There is a comfort and a terror knowing that hell exists, and hell is over only to be put beside one's heart and carried to the end of one's days. But that's strength too, Sam says. James doesn't believe him, but he knows the facts. Whoever walks through the fire HYDRA makes for them is a survivor.

He steps away only to fetch duct tape, and returns to find her peering into the parts. He pulls out a torch, attaching it to the top of the hood, and moves clockwise, showing her each part, what it connects to, and what it does. Always had a knack for machines, perhaps it comes with being one himself.

'You should learn how to put one together, as well as steal a car,' he says, as he's sealing the hose. The tape tears and cracks. Borrowing, Steve says, but James doesn't dress it up. It's stealing. The Avengers had to go on the run once, and there's nothing to say it won't happen again. Magic won't help her, it'll just draw attention. So for now, he gives Wanda some new tools. Romanoff can fill in the rest and polish up, if she wants.

[morethanmagic]

"I know how to break into a car," she says absently as she watches him point out the different parts of the engine. "But only old cars. Nothing new, nothing with computers." Growing up orphaned in Sokovia had not been a soft childhood.

She rips off another strip of tape and offers it. "Will you teach me?" she asks, interested as much in his answer as in the idea of learning how to steal a car. Barnes—or James, that is what Wilson calls him, but she would not like to presume—keeps to himself, and does not speak of the skills he had learned as the asset. This is the longest conversation they've had, and if not for the car breaking down, it might not have happened.

[redactions]

Now that's a tidbit you don't find if you watch the news on "the Sokovian incident" or browse the salvaged HYDRA files on the experiments they conducted on subjects much like her. James gives her a look of mild interest as he seamlessly takes the tape and securely presses it to the hose. Nobody talks about it, but everyone knows where he was trained and what particular skills were honed to their peak.

'Why me?' he asks, after a moment, and then, as an afterthought to soften it. 'Rogers not working you hard enough?'

[morethanmagic]

Of course. No one had taken notes on that part of their life. "I am reaching out," she says lightly, thoughtfully. "I am a part of a team. I am not on my own in this, remember. Lots of people on my side now." Rogers' words, now delivered flat and thick. She knows he means well, but it will take time. It will need to come naturally.

And there might still be a streak of that rebelliousness that had led her to the forefront of Sokovian protests. "So, I am reaching out. To someone who is on my side." She gives Barnes a rather bland, inquisitive look. "I assume this is what he meant, yes? So. Teach me to steal expensive cars. Please," she adds as an afterthought.

[redactions]

Reaching out, she says, like it costs nothing to do so. James closes the hood of the car with precise force. A flicker of open fondness crosses his face. He recognises Steve's words, the same way one always knows the voice of one's best friend across a crowded room, or across a century of being made to be everything except someone who remembered him.

'I'm on your side,' he answers, affirming it. He was anyway, but things placed in between them can more directly picked up and examined. It's not an offer of friendship: it's a fact. 'Well... since you said please...'

He has a plan forming already — one of Stark's. He'll ask first, of course, but the man has one of the most advanced systems in the world, if she can steal one of his cars everything else will seem pathetic in comparison.

[morethanmagic]

Some people do think it costs nothing. That everyone is secretly desperate to reach out, instead of desperate to hold everyone back. But he knows it is an effort for her, and he is still not commenting on it, he is just accepting it, and that is more valuable to her than she expects.

And if it is one of Stark's cars that they will eventually steal, she will do anything he needs her to do. That will buy him an ally who will be almost unshakeable. For the wrong reasons, perhaps, but the right reasons do not always matter when the end result is the same.

"Do you want me to drive?" she asks, passing a silent dark red hex between her hands. "You fixed the car, I drive, it seems only fair."

[redactions]

It's an effort. Asking often feels like defeat, no matter how much Steve reassures him it isn't — there's a level of pride involved, in being able to function properly and independently (It's not tactically wise, to be proud, but nobody said James had to follow logic like that). They're all fragmented people, on the team. Everyone has lost, or seen those close to them suffer. Pepper and Sam might be the only sane ones there.

James regards the hex sphere with some suspicion, and ultimately dismisses it as a threat. He hands her the keys.

'Remember your seatbelt,' he replies, in a tone that could almost be genial. 'I'll navigate. We have about several hundred miles of road left.'

[morethanmagic]

At least someone is there who could be considered sane. Wanda would add Colonel Rhodes to that list, if not for the fact that he is best friends with Tony Stark, which clearly takes away any claim to sanity that he might have had. But there is a team. and she is slowly learning to remember that.

It isn't until he passes her the keys that she realizes she is holding her magic in her hands at all. Somewhat embarrassed, she banishes it and takes them. It is something to work on, keeping a hold on her magic during long periods of being unable to use it. "No speeding, either, I suppose," she says as she hops in and, yes, obediently fastens her seatbelt.