43A/N: So, I know that I'm ridiculously late to the party (by about, say, 8 years), but I have always loved Steve and Peggy, and wished that they had gotten more time. That being the case, along with the fact that Endgame is coming up, I decided to indulge in a little (ok, a LOT) of escapism AU. This story is based off of a series of 20 OTP prompts that I collected. 19 of the 20 chapters have already been written, so updates should be regular. I'm aiming for once a week. This first chapter is canon-compliant, but all of the others take place in the 21st century, and Peggy is neither old, nor dead, which means: AU! My abbreviated headcanon for this particular story is that, after Steve crashes his plane, Peggy goes on to start SHIELD. At one point they are experimenting with cryostasis technology, and Peggy volunteers as a test subject. Fast-forward to after Avengers 1 (when Tony hacked into SHEILD's databases), and he uncovers the forgotten project and finds Peggy. If anyone's interested I have a whole timeline and everything written down! Anyone? No? Just me then...
Well, sorry for the somewhat wordy introduction, but please enjoy the first chapter of Steve&Peggy's 20 Questions.
Thank you!
~Mellpen00
1. What did they notice first about each other?
Her right hook. It would have been kind of hard not to notice.
Hodge had been a jerk from the start. Jerk was an understatement, but Steve tried not to be too critical, he wasn't there to judge the other recruits, after all. He was there to train, so he made up his mind to keep his head down, to push himself, and to do whatever Erskine asked of him. Still, even just the few days of settling into the base were some of the hardest. Hearing how Hodge and some of the other guys talked really made Steve's blood boil. They weren't there to serve their country, or to help people; they were there to show off how much they could lift, how far they could run, and how well they could fire their rifles. At least five times in as many hours, Steve had to clench his fists behind his back to keep from hurling himself at Hodge's oh-so-punchable mug. So, it was no surprise to Steve that the woman who captured his heart had done so by knocking that egotistical smirk off of Mr. Bully's face and making that same face eat dust.
They had been lined up on their very first day. Someone had called them to attention and they had done so reflexively. An agent introduced herself, and Steve could feel, more than see, all of the men's eyes train on her, and not in a good way. Now, Steve wasn't blind, he knew she was beautiful – uncommonly so – but she was also currently the highest-ranking person on the field, so he gave her his full attention. Agent Carter (as she had introduced herself) had garnered a less-than-respectful comment from Hodge, and Steve had to bite back yet another violent urge. But then… Oh, then what came next was a sight that Steve would never forget. Agent Carter told Hodge to step forward. She waited until he said something suitably inflammatory. Then, without any warning, she pulled her fist back and BAM! decked him! Right in the nose! Her delivery had been so perfect, and her attack so sudden, that Hodge sprawled in the dirt in an undignified heap.
Steve smiled for the first time since Bucky had left. Right then and there, he knew that he would never in a hundred years meet someone else like Agent Carter.
His determination. In a camp full of soldiers that were all pushing their hardest, no one pushed harder than the 90-pound asthmatic.
Peggy loved her job. Honestly, she had done too much and fought too hard to not love it, but that didn't make it fun. She had to spend all day and night dealing with bureaucrats and glorified rugby players. To be sure, there were a few exceptions – Colonel Phillips at least treated her with his own brand of derisive respect, and Dr. Erskine was a genuinely good man – but still, being surrounded by that much pretension and ego nearly all the time was exhausting. Things got better when she began to oversee the physical training of the recruits though: when the overconfident high-school stars slowly realized that this wasn't going to be a cake walk for them either. They all began to push themselves, and as a result they began to leave false pride behind. They would work hard, and the ones who did best would brag, and then the others would work harder and surpass the braggers the next day. Competition was the best motivator for these men, and it made them push as hard as they possibly could. There was one recruit, however, who passed them all when it came to determination, even if they routinely left him in the dust during races.
At the beginning, she had briefly wondered what he was doing in the camp, but had quickly just written him off as Erskine's pet project. The days rolled by, however, and he became the most interesting one of the bunch. He lagged behind, but he never gave up. At the end of an exercise all of the men would finish within five minutes of each other, chests heaving and sweat pouring off of them, and then He would show up ten minutes later – his entire frame wracked with his shuddering coughs and wheezes – and collapse on the ground. By the time he had been on the ground for thirty seconds, the drill sergeant would get impatient and order everyone to line up for the next exercise. The men would groan and line up slowly, and Peggy would turn her eyes to Erskine's man. Without a moment's hesitation, he would brace his arms against the ground and raise himself up by sheer force of will.
How? She would wonder. How can someone be so… Whatever he is?
Eventually, watching this man, this Steve Rogers, Peggy learned more clearly than ever before that true strength, true fortitude, and true value, come from what is inside a person.
It was Peggy's job to record each of the men's times and scores in training. Over and over she had to write the name Gilmore Hodge at the top of the list, and the name Steven Rogers at the bottom. So, when it came time to rank the candidates for the Project Rebirth, it was Peggy's absolute delight to type the name Steven Rogers at the top, and put Gilmore Hodge in the very last space.
A/N: I hope I made a good first impression. Please let me know what you think!
Next up: What's their favorite thing to do together?