she's a real peach!

[womanofvalue]

WHO: Peggy Carter
WHERE: Peach Trees - 7I
WHEN: August 31st
OPEN TO: Bucky Barnes
WARNINGS: n/a

---

It's almost exciting to have so many new things to explore, to the point that Peggy has stopped looking past the why. Well, that's hardly true. She's never going to stop wondering why these things are here, but she can at least enjoy the fruits of their spoils. Literally, in this case, given that she's dragged Bucky out to the grove of peach trees in the name of exploration. That ocean or lake or whatever it had been has yielded nothing, along with the strange room they can't breach (but that weighs on her mind), and it's left her wanting more answers and receiving none.

She's using the peach trees as an excuse both to get out of her house, but also to drag Bucky with her, because perhaps, if there's anyone, he might understand what's been troubling her lately. Unfortunately, that does require Peggy to inevitably talk about the vials of blood and how they've put her in such a place in the past, not to mention the other emotional icebergs that Steve Rogers presents.

"Here," she says, already half-climbed atop a tree and fishing around for some of the peaches to drop down, craning back as she uses a branch to support her as she winces, seeing that she'd just narrowly missed striking Barnes in the head. "Duck?" she offers, belatedly, perching on a little spot halfway up the tree with a peach in hand.

They're quite good, actually. They must be something else, given that she'd heard rumours of people healing after eating them, but as far as she's concerned, all she really wants is the fresh fruit.

Comments

[lefthandfree]

This place gives him plenty of reason to get stuck in his head, so when all else fails, that’s where he usually finds himself. The reality is that there simply isn’t enough here to occupy his mind with in the day to day, his stint in Romania seemingly so much more complex by comparison even when the concept was more or less the same. There are differences here of course, situations he encounters that he might not normally find himself (earthquakes are things he generally avoids being susceptible to, anyway), but when your whole life was already likely to be uprooted in an instant, the surprises didn’t feel hardly any different from what he would have experienced otherwise back where—when—he’d come from.

Maybe it’s a cheap thing to do, but even when he’s out here with Peggy, he finds it difficult to keep his full attention on what’s actually happening around him. There’s safety here, and he can afford the luxury of time, even at the cost of what limited company he shares with Peggy, so getting lost comes easily. Really, it’s probably a good thing that the peach narrowly misses him, because the proximity is what jars him back to the present, allowing him to actually catch Peggy’s suggestion in a timely way at all.

“Jesus—” he remarks, ducking out of delayed reaction and looking up warily. Ripe peaches rain from the branch above, Peggy’s movement being just what they needed to fall, apparently. Timely reaction doesn’t really change that he’s standing under the branch though, and a healthy peach strikes him squarely in the temple. “—ack! ”

The only thing it really hurts is Bucky’s dignity, but he’s long foregone the idea that he can hold onto it even in the best of times. So he laughs, amused and sheepish, swiping his temple to brace the ghost of a wound before leaning down to pick up the offending peach.

“Thanks, that helped a ton, Agent,” comes the wry remark as he stands again, smiling despite the tone as he gestures the peach toward her as if it was some kind of prize. “Think this guy owes me an apology though, huh?” He withdraws the peach and scrubs the side gently against the cloth at his chest, just above the strap of the satchel he’s brought along for collecting peaches.