Old Soul » 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝔸𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕊𝕚𝕩

"I'm a little stuck on the shield," Howard muses aloud. "Circular? That's not protective at all.."

Eliza shrugs. "Dinner plates can be surprisingly good frisbees." She looks to Howard, who has a slightly puzzled look on his face.

Peggy then storms in the door with Steve awkwardly in suit. "Howard. Eliza."

"Peggy," Eliza nods, Howard saying a similar sentiment.

Steve stands awkwardly and picks around at some of the things Howard had to offer him, in particular, his new shield. He picks it up, slinging it onto his arm and displays it in front of him.

"How do I look?" he asks with a weird smile. Looking towards Peggy in particular. She purses her lips, lifts a gun from the table and directs it to Steve, who narrowly ducks behind the shield as she shoots three bullets into the center.

"Yes, I think it works," she says pointedly. She then storms off, her heels clicking violently against the linoleum floor.

"Steven, what in the world happened?" Eliza asks, shocked at Peggy's outburst.

"It's complicated?"

Eliza scoffed and headed down the hall after Peggy.

"Wait for me!" Eliza asked of Peggy, smoothing her skirt as she slowed to match the other girl's pace. "What was that? What did my brother do?"

"He was kissing another woman! Behind some cabinets!" Peggy shouted, waving her arms in the air. "Can you believe the nerve!"

"That doesn't sound like Steve at all," Eliza responded. "I can't believe it."

"Well start, because I caught him doing so," Peggy slows her pace to a stop and sighs. "I thought we had something, you know? I know we never said it aloud but I felt we had a connection of some sort. Something was there, I'm sure of it."

"Peggy, he likes you, trust me. Give him a chance to talk, okay?" Eliza tells her, to which Peggy gives a nod.

"I think I just need to take a moment on my own, thank you, Eliza," she smiles. She returns it and nods.

Eliza leaves Peggy at the elevators, and Eliza turns around to see a smirking Bucky leaning against a filing cabinet.

"What's this about Steve kissing ladies behind cabinets?" He asks, a little grin on his face.

"It's Steve- he's not known for thinking before acting." Eliza giggles. "What are you doing here, I thought I instructed you to be on strict bedrest until that abdominal lesion is healed. You can't rip those stitches, James."

"Liz, I got bored," he rolls his eyes. "I missed you, you left for too long."

She bites her lip and looks around. "Okay, let's go, I'll take you back to bed." She grabs his hand to lead him, but instead, Bucky lifts her arm up and pulls her closer to him, her back hitting his chest softly. "James!"

"Can it be your bed?" He giggles. Eliza's face heated up and she looked towards Bucky, their faces close and breath mixing as he leaned in against her cheek. She felt him break out in a grin and she pulled back away. "I'm sorry, I know I promised not to mess with you, but it's so nice to know you still like me."

She wrinkles her nose at him with a small grin, "Seriously, James?"

"Seriously, Liz?" He mocks her a bit. "I know you like what I do, let's be us again, come on!"

"As much as I adore you, we can't do that to Steve, he's got such a big mess on his plate, and you're part of it," Eliza explains, taking his hand in both of hers. "We can talk about this- us later. Right now, you need to go back to bed."

"One of these days, I want a kiss for all my patience with your nurse-ly doting."

***

"Erskine's notes were incredibly detailed, Steve," Eliza says, annoyance lacing her words. "I don't think you'll be stable enough to-"

"I've lived with this for months now, I think whatever it is that I'll be doing, I'll be fine," he waves her off and turns to his team, The Howling Commandos.

After the success of her brother's impromptu rescue mission, Steve was allowed a team of men to infiltrate HYDRA bases, collect info, and destroy them. Eliza's concern lay with Steve's overconfidence. He was headstrong, and this was something that was his greatest strength, but also his greatest weakness. Eliza knew that Steve's do-it-all attitude would be the death of him one day. Even when he was 6 feet tall and the world's first successful super soldier.

Behind her came Peggy, clipboard in her arm and ready to address the newly formed Howling Commandos to tell her the plan for their first mission.

France, 1943, the Howling Commandos invade a HYDRA base for the first time. On the team with Steve, notably, is Bucky.

A pit formed in Eliza's stomach when she learned that information, but they'd never listen to any opinion she had. Two independent and headstrong boys. That's always how it was- while Bucky was friends with the both of them, and always had some sort of romantic connection with Eliza, no matter what. he was Steve's first. Eliza always appreciated that. Deep down, she knew that Bucky was exactly the kind of friend a kid like Steve needed.