Strawberry Ice Cream [steddie]

USS Butterscotch

CW: canon-typical violence, drugged characters, brief suicidal ideation

Also remember this is from Steve's pov, so everything after he's drugged is going to be through that blurry lens.

Thursday, July 4

Being tortured is not fun.

The cold dark room narrows Steve's vision. His hands are tied behind him, he's sat on a bench to let a man throw another punch into his bruising face. He gasps, blood falling from his lips. "That one stung."

"Who do you work for?" The general asks, a few feet away.

"For the millionth time I work at Scoops Ahoy!" His voice comes out in a pleading tone he's never used before, a desperate attempt at ending this. "Scoops Ahoy."

The other man steps forward and slams his fist into Steve's stomach. He groans, trying to stay upright. "What the hell?! Look at my outfit! You think I just wear this?! Think I'm a spy in a sailor's uniform? Is the Metallica shirt throwing you off, because, that was supposed to be a joke!"

Another punch. He's going to die like this, probably.

"How did you get in?" The general asks.

Steve gasps for air. "I already told you. I told you before. My delivery didn't come, and my friends and I, we thought it was left at the loading dock, so we went in the room, and then it turned into an elevator, and then..."

Under different circumstances he might congratulate himself on coming up with a decent cover story, but right now he's pretty sure it's hysterical desperation.

"And then we dropped and then, next thing we know I open my eyes and, and we're in this... wonderful facility. But I swear to god, nobody knows about us, nobody saw us. You could just let us go, all right?"

The general doesn't look convinced in the slightest, but Steve has to try. For Robin, at least.

"And, I'm not gonna tell anybody about this, okay? Shit happens, life goes on. And uh... ice cream. Ice cream, okay?" Alright, now he's definitely hysterical.

"You guys know what ice cream is. Everybody loves ice cream. I don't know if you have Russian ice cream or if that's considered gelato, I dunno what's what, but whatever you guys want, seriously.

"USS Butterscotch, I mean, you gotta try it. It is out of this world, I'm telling ya!"

For a moment the general just stares at him, and Steve's pretty sure that didn't work. Maybe made things worse, maybe they all hate ice cream.

Then, he starts laughing. So does the other man.

"Ah ha ha ha ha!" Steve joins nervously, unsure what the fuck is going on but really hoping it's good.

"I like this guy," the general says. "USS... Butterscotch." He stops laughing, serious again, and crouches down in front of Steve. "Who do you work for?"

And that sucks, because Steve really have everything he had into that ice cream bit. "Oh, come on. No, no! No seriously—"

The man punches Steve again in the face, and everything goes black.

***

"Help! Help! Help!"

When Steve comes to, it's from Robin yelling really close to his ears. Which is weird because he can't see her.

"Hey, would you stop yelling?" His voice is thick and exhausted.

"Steve! Oh my god," Robin sounds relieved he's alive. Steve's not sure he agrees. "Steve—Are you okay?"