Wherever Steve is living, no matter if it’s in DC or Brooklyn, the Avenger’s tower or a cramped cabin at sea, at any given moment Natasha is either in the process of or has already broken into it.
Steve can never catch her; she is Schrodinger’s Russian.
And while she certainly has the skills to make it appear as if no one had been there, that’s not really Natasha’s jam. She’s doing Steve a service. She is being an awesome friend.
Sometimes Steve will return to wherever it is that he sleeps (where he closes his eyes, where he falls unconscious, where he is completely unprotected and what the hell this isn’t funny, except it totally is, Steve, get with the program) – he will return, and he will find that she has brought him a little gift.
It is a gift of home decor.
She has found enormous American flag blankets and draped them fetchingly along his couch. She has found flag throw pillows and placed them artfully on his bed. She once carefully replaced all his dishes with ones that had the Declaration of Independence printed on them in full; on one fateful occasion, she found a framed Mount Rushmore lovingly rendered on crushed black velvet with generous layers of glittery acrylics. (That, she put in a place of honor above his television, with a picture rail and directional lighting.)
Her personal best, though, is the time Steve went to the deli down the street, talked for a few minutes with the owner, helped an elderly man at the crosswalk, and gave the rest of his spare cash to the homeless vet on the corner before returning home, opening his bathroom door, and finding that she (or someone that she had inexplicably let into his very private rooms, jesus Nat why) had somehow in the intervening time completely redecorated it in the most surreal and gut-heaving rendition of country-craft Americana that could possibly be managed in the time allotted. There were aw-shucks red and white gingham curtains on the window, tied back with burlap ribbon. The toilet paper was in a stand-up Uncle Sam holder whittled from basswood and handpainted by someone’s no-doubt-very-talented aunt. The now apple-scented handsoap was in its own knitted cozy with a red chicken motif along the bottom. The curtain was, naturally, styled as a cheery patchwork quilt. And the entire room had been retiled in a jaunty red-white-and-blue striped and starred pattern that only a severely colorblind or, failing that, terribly insane person could love.
The floor tiles shifted a little when he stepped on them, rendering an unfortunate dip in the previously perfect grouting. That was the only sign that the room hadn’t always looked as if the proud vendors of a town-wide craft fair had vomited noisily all over his home.
Natasha has never admitted this was her doing. She has, in fact, never admitted to doing any of it. Steve, she will always say very seriously from where she has propped herself on several flag pillows, are you sure you didn’t do it?
She will stretch her legs, and curl deeper into the flag blanket she would have immediately claimed upon entering his living room. Pretty sure it looks like your kind of thing, Steve, she will say, and at no point whatsoever, no matter how long Steve waits, will she admit to how she got into his building, went up the stairs, broke into his apartment and placed a four-foot mounted fish
above the toilet without a single goddamn witness.
Natasha will always just smile. (She is an awesome friend.)
i bet every time steve annoys one of the other avengers they just go and tell bucky about something reckless steve has done
steve steals natasha’s bagels one morning so she looks straight into his eyes and says ‘JARVIS tell james that one time steve jumped off a plane without a patachute’ and from the other end of the tower bucky shouts ‘STEVEN GRANT ROGERS’
he accidentally breaks tony’s favourite screwdriver and he is very sorry but it’s too late because bucky practically kicks the door of the shop down screaming ‘diD YOU NOT EVEN TRY TO LAND THAT PLANE I AM TOO YOUNG TO DIE FROM STRESS’
clint does it whenever he’s bored like one day they are just hanging out and he goes “hey so did you know steve jumped from an elevator that was at least 200 feet in the air that one time” ‘hey i was trying to escape hydr–’ “he landed on concrete” “EXCUSE ME ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND??? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU ABSOLUTE MORON” ‘i landed on my shield it absorbs the shock’ “DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR SHIELD?????”
“The Avengers and Their Favorite T-Shirts” Series. (Post 1/3)
If you are interested, these t-shirts really exist (except Sam’s, it was a bit modified): Tony- Steve - Bucky- Sam
Next batch - 2016: Thor, Natasha, Clint and Bruce. Then: Wanda, Pietro, Scott and Rhodey. I’ll add The Vision and The Wasp later. Also in 2016: a Supernatural version feat. team Sam-Dean-Cas ♥
i really enjoyed how at no point in this film, did Tony actually look scared of Steve, at no point did he look worried that he wouldn’t make it out of this fight. Until, Tony blew off Bucky’s arm. And then Steve was gone, he went off, he was erratic, he was full fury and rage, and Tony? Tony looked fucking terrified. Tony looked like he was realising that this is what Steve was talking about when he said Tony hadn’t seen his dark side yet. This was his dark side, and his dark side comes in the form of an unwavering devotion to protecting Bucky Barnes.
Growing up, how many times do you think Bucky took/gave a beating to protect Steve? How many of those fights do you think Steve started? Tony knew Steve was willing to die to protect Bucky, but it never crossed his mind until that moment, Steve might kill for Bucky. Well, Tony should trust Steve now that he’s seen his dark side.
I’ve been thinking about this all day, and like, I don’t think Tony really knew, until this moment, just how much Bucky meant to Steve. Like I think he thought that the way Steve felt for Bucky was in some way comparable to what he’d found with the Avengers. Like when he says “You’re going to turn Barnes over and you’re going to come with us, because it’s us” and the whole “He’s my friend” “So was I” like, Tony really doesn’t seem to fully grasp just how deep the bond between Steve and Bucky is until that moment, there’s no way to compare it to anything Steve has with anyone else. Like it’s literally in that moment where he’s having to analyse Steve’s fight pattern for some way to fight back, that he realises there was no way he was ever going to win this, not when Steve has something to fight for now, something he believes in with everything that he is, something that really means something to him. Steve loves Bucky so completely that it actually terrified Tony the lengths he would go to for him.
“
Tony knew Steve was willing to die to protect Bucky, but it never crossed his mind until that moment, Steve might kill for Bucky.”
I keep seeing a lot of posts about how Steve was in the wrong in CACW because while Tony had a plan, Steve didn’t offer any alternative to it, he was just like NOPE. The thing is though, something that immediately struck me when I watched the movie was the timing of everything. Ross and Tony bring Steve and the others the Accords THREE DAYS before they are to be signed. Those Accords were not drafted, approved and supported by 117 countries in a week. This was 100% intentional. This is also very, very common in American politics. When politicians want to pass a bill they don’t want people to look at closely, they schedule votes at weird times or when a large # of people are away from the Hill (Capital Hill). So you get these 11th hour bills that are hundreds of pages long that no one has had a chance to read, ask questions about, or negotiate on about changes. These bills are stuffed with completely unrelated stuff that gets passed as well because the whole thing has to be signed off on/approved. It’s called “pork barreling.” Those are the questions Steve tries to bring up to the group. When he’s like ‘what happens when…?’ And Tony brushes aside his concerns like ‘oh, I’m sure we’ll get to make changes later when everything dies down.’ But Steve is like what are we agreeing to NOW though? And practically as soon as they are given the “generous” 3 day warning, Peggy dies. Steve flies off to London and everything goes to hell. What time is there to propose or discuss an alternative plan??
The timing was 100% intentional to make sure the Avengers would be subject to the Accords as written–no matter what was lurking on the bottom of page 440 in fine print. Steve is 100% right to be suspicious. This is one of the dirty tricks of American politics that Steve would be totally aware of. And sure, maybe there’s a chance that everything was above board, reasonable, and so on, but you would NEVER sign a thing like that w/o actually checking/reading it. that would be foolish. I mean, did we forget that Project Insight was authorized and approved by The World Council? I guarantee you that Steve hasn’t. I absolutely believe that Steve would have been willing to talk everything out, negotiate, listen to everyone’s pov, and really consider everything carefully…but there’s no time given to do that. It’s all last minute, non-negotiable, and shady. Steve is a master tactician, natural leader, and a reasonable, thoughtful person who is a Big Picture thinker. It’s weird that people just assume he rejects the Accords because he’s being childish or something. That’s not Steve Rogers at all.
THIS. THIS. ALL OF THIS.
Steve was not being unreasonable or being “I DO WHAT I WANT BECAUSE CAPTAIN AMERICA FUCK YEAH” or incidentally “selfish.”
a. All of the points that op makes above - YES. ABSOLUTELY. There was no attempt at a “can we review this and think this over?” and “can we reach a reasonable compromise?” Because nope, the Avengers are presented with a “hey 117 countries ‘agreed’ to this and we better sign because we kinda fucked up in Lagos and this comes on the heels of fucking up in Sokovia (even if Sokovia is technically on the heads of Tony Stark with Bruce Banner and Wanda Maximoff in supporting roles).”
b. Friendly reminder - Steve is pushed to make those drastic choices because Sharon Carter warns him that the order for Bucky Barnes is shoot to kill. Not capture, not question, no further trial or investigation - even in a world where there is available technology to mimic a person’s appearance or with the knowledge that Bucky was savagely tortured and brainwashed and robbed of choice and agency.
And as long as we’re on the subject: Steve is clearly right to be paranoid about what might have been in the Accords. We see that he’s possibly the only person actively trying to read through them, in the initial scene where the Avengers are arguing about them, but he’s obviously not making very good progress because the Accords are like an inch and a half of what I expect is very small print. And once the Accords are signed off on by half the Avengers, we see:
a. The ‘shoot to kill’ order on Bucky Barnes, a prisoner of war who has been tortured and brainwashed for 70 years. They are aware of this, okay, because they know who the Winter Soldier is, which means that a large portion of his files were part of the SHIELDRA dump that Natasha executes. They’re not hunting down a dude who’s been intentionally committing assassinations and terrorist acts, they’re after a guy in need of medical treatment and more therapy than he could possibly ever receive, even in a super soldier’s lifetime. They know his situation, and, honestly, if I were Steve, I’d be feeling pretty goddamn immovable on the subject of Bucky’s execution too. I’m not a lawyer or shit, but I’m actually not even sure Bucky’s legally done anything wrong–I think there are caveats for ‘post-brainwashing and torture’ events. I mean, if you do a terrible thing at gunpoint, that’s considered a mitigating circumstance, surely 70 years of mad scientists tinkering with your brain qualifies. Shit, even if he had blown up the consulate, you would need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d been acting under his own will, not under HYDRA’s forced compliance, in order to justify a ‘shoot on sight’ command.
b. Total rejection of the right to trial. Steve even explicitly asks for a lawyer for Bucky, and is shot down out of hand. Now, like I said, I’m not a lawyer, but I can tell you that the Geneva convention guarantees the right to a fair trial, with a defense lawyer and everything, to everyone. The fucking Nazi Party got trials, okay, and that means that something in the Accords allowed the UN to bypass that requirement, not only for Bucky (who is, yes, the Winter Soldier), but also for the entirety of Team Cap, which included a war veteran (Sam), a loyal SHIELD agent (Clint), and a girl barely out of her teens (Wanda). They do not get trials before getting sent to the Raft, they just get locked up, and there’s every indication that no one outside the Avengers and the UN even knows what happened to them. Y’know what total loss of right to trial prior to imprisonment probably looks like to a dude who survived World War II? Nothing nice, I’ll tell you that.
c. As long as we’re on the subject, the Accords clearly gave the UN the right to treat any enhanced person they deemed as ‘exceptionally dangerous’ terribly. Wanda is placed under comprehensive house arrest, and then she’s tossed in a prison and a straitjacket. When we see her in the Raft, she barely looks cogent, might’ve been drugged, etc. I mean, if I was trying to subdue a vastly powerful telekinetic and psychic, I might go for heavy sedatives as my solution of choice. They don’t even look like they’ve gotten medical treatment for their injuries–Clint’s face is still a mess. That’s not approved treatment of prisoners, ever.
d. Disregard for the need to investigate a terrorist act resulting in the death of a ruler on foreign soil. I don’t care if you have a picture of the ‘perpetrator,’ you should still be doing an investigation.
I’m sure I could think of other stuff.
TL;DR: Steve’s concerns about the Accords pan out, probably in exactly the ways he was most afraid of. Being able to amend a document later doesn’t mean that you’re not subject to it now, and being subject to the Accords is clearly a problem.
rhiannananana asked: Youre looking for short writing prompts right? What about a character making a meal or something? I think I saw marvel in the tags so, uh, what about Steve cooking/figuring out how to work a microwave, since they were apparently made after ww2..?
All right all right all right, Steve with cooking implements, I am very here for this. We’re going to assume that, somewhere between the movies, the Avengers DID actually cohabitate in the Tower, because I’m having trouble letting go of that part of comic canon. This is probably right after the first movie, before Ultron and Winter Soldier. Unfortunately that means no Sam, which I am sad about, fortunately that means I am not within my rights to wallow in the pain that is Bucky Barnes. And awaaaaaay we go.
“All right, and that button does what again?” Steve asked, frowning.
Tony huffed a sigh and drummed his fingers against the counter, agitated. “C’mon, Cap, we’ve done this like twelve times, how do you not have this yet?”
