Peggy Carter (Hunger Games AU) (
impaledqueen) wrote in
thecapitol2015-05-22 01:03 am
Entry tags:
Rock on, ancient queen
Who| Sam Wilson and Peggy Carter
What| Peggy's passing along a message from D13. That message may not be officially sanctioned by D13, but no one needs to know that.
Where| A club with a blind spot.
When| Pre-Binding
Warnings/Notes| TBA
It's not the first time Peggy's put on the charm to get a man to come meet her for some drinks. It's not even the first time she's done it to covertly pass around information. It's the first time she's done it to a tribute, but to be fair, up until now all the tributes she's dealt with were seventeen or under.
She's waiting in a blind spot shoved in the corner of a flashy bar. She deliberately asked Sam to meet her when it was busy--no one likes to sit in a dark corner, so that would be the only spot left available once the place got crowded enough, and their presence in the blind spot could easily be handwaved by them simply having nowhere else to sit.
She already has a glass of (untouched as of yet) scotch in front of her when she sees Sam come in. She gives him a bright smile and a wave to beckon him over.
What| Peggy's passing along a message from D13. That message may not be officially sanctioned by D13, but no one needs to know that.
Where| A club with a blind spot.
When| Pre-Binding
Warnings/Notes| TBA
It's not the first time Peggy's put on the charm to get a man to come meet her for some drinks. It's not even the first time she's done it to covertly pass around information. It's the first time she's done it to a tribute, but to be fair, up until now all the tributes she's dealt with were seventeen or under.
She's waiting in a blind spot shoved in the corner of a flashy bar. She deliberately asked Sam to meet her when it was busy--no one likes to sit in a dark corner, so that would be the only spot left available once the place got crowded enough, and their presence in the blind spot could easily be handwaved by them simply having nowhere else to sit.
She already has a glass of (untouched as of yet) scotch in front of her when she sees Sam come in. She gives him a bright smile and a wave to beckon him over.

no subject
If he thought that's all it was, he wouldn't have agreed to meet her. But Sam knows how to flirt and go out on a date with someone to cover up another intention for meeting, too. God knows he's done it with more than one person here. If she thinks she's going to get anything out of him, she's mistaken, but he does want to know what she wants.
When he gets to the bar and sees she's chosen to sit at the back, in a place he knows damn well is a blind spot, his supicion grows. Still, he doesn't let on. It's not like he's going to admit to knowing where the Capitol can't see them, after all, and on the off chance that she doesn't know this is a blind spot, Sam isn't going to tell her.
Sam smiles back, swinging by the bar to grab a drink before he heads over to join her. "Best seat in the house, huh?" he teases as he sits down.
no subject
She smiles as she takes a sip of her scotch, but it's a conservative sip. She's looking to give off the appearance of typical socializing, rather than actually do something that might lower her inhibitions.
"I'm glad you agreed to share a drink with me." She reaches her hand across the table to lightly brush her fingers against the back of his hand. Her voice gets softer, soft enough that he'll have to be paying attention to hear her. "I have to admit that I've been overlooking you, but a friend of mine recommended that I give you a chance." She moves her finger to encourage him to lean forward as she leans forward herself. The more they look like canoodlers, the better. "I want you to keep smiling, laugh once in a while, and listen."
no subject
He’s still not a spy, but he’s had too many meetings lately in blind spots pretending that he’s having a completely different conversation than the one he’s actually having not to pick up on exactly what she’s doing. But there’s too much at stake here for him to trust her with nothing else to go on, so he gives no sign that he’s picked up on her secret meaning. Instead he grins like she’s just being forward. “So you want me to do what I always do on a date? I like a woman who knows what she wants.”
Sam swirls his drink around, looking at her over the rim of the glass. “This friend of yours got a name?” He’ll wait and see who she chooses to namedrop before he decides how to go from there.
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"His name is James. You text with him sometimes?" She won't use Bucky's nickname in public. It's too unique. She trusts that Sam knows Bucky's given name. "He and I go back."
She's still smiling like this is a normal, flirty conversation and not one where sh has just revealed that she knows one of her best friends is still alive.
"He wanted me to tell you something, actually."
no subject
It's not hard to figure out who she's talking about. He knows Barnes's district, and thanks to Compton running his mouth at the crowning, he knows a little bit more about what happened before Barnes went off to 13 - but he doesn't know how Carter found out that he knows Barnes. Or if she even did, maybe she's just fishing and hoping he'll incriminate himself by admitting to communicating with someone who's supposed to be dead, but is really very much alive and involved in the rebellion.
He's used to keeping calm under worse pressure than this, so his heartrate stays steady and his smile doesn't slip - but there's an edge to his focus now, and anyone who's looking for it could tell that he's paying more attention to what she's saying.
If it was just Sam, he might take a leap on trusting her, just a little, give her a little more to work with - but it's concerning Barnes. Anything he might say could imply Barnes has been back in the Capitol, put him at risk, and Sam won't do that. So he just gives a shrug. "That so? I meet a lot of people, you know, no guarantees I'm gonna remember a specific one. But you can give it to me anyway, see if it jogs my memory."
no subject
(That had definitely been Bucky's voice she had heard. They haven't spoken in nearly four years, but he wouldn't sell her out, right? But what if District 13 told him to?)
"He says that Albert would like to remind you of your conversation."
She stretches her fingers over his wrist, paying careful attention to his heartbeat. She really hopes that Bucky is right about this man.
"There's a little more, but I don't want to bore you if you're not interested."
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But not many would know about the conversation that he and Albert had had about something like this happening, and that Albert had promised to remind him of it. And no one would think to follow through with it, no one except Albert himself, and Sam's world dips and turns sideways a little.
He doesn't want to hope because he's not sure he can handle it, if what he's thinking turns out not to be true.
"He's been talking to Albert?" There's no point in him trying to keep the fact that he really cares about the answer to that question out of his voice, but hell he hopes he isn't making a mistake trusting her.
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"Yes, he has. And others as well." She lowers her voice, smiling as if they're muttering sweet nothings to each other. "Joan Watson, Punchy O'Connor, Wyatt Earp, Lady Sif, Carlos the Scientist, and Cecil Palmer, more specifically."
She slowly strokes her finger up and down the inside of his wrist. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind you mentioning that to anyone trustworthy and relevant."
no subject
His eyes squeeze shut as he fights not to have a reaction obvious enough to draw attention to them, but it’s hard. The grief he’d felt when Albert hadn’t come back is still fresh, and he’s having a little bit of trouble breathing while trying to come to terms with this.
His brother is alive.
“Thank you,” he says quietly, when he’s pretty sure he can speak without getting too worked up. He looks back up at her, guard dropped enough that there’s genuine gratitude in his eyes. “From me and the others who aren’t gonna know who to thank.”
Given the lengths she’d gone to here, Sam’s assuming she isn’t going to want her identity passed around.
no subject
"It's for the best if no one besides you knows who to thank," she confirms, the little circles she's making in his wrist now becoming less probing and more soothing. She has an inkling of how he feels right now. She also thought someone very important to her was dead just to find out he was alive. Except her dead friend had chosen to fake his death and had been gone for years before he showed up at her doorstep, and thus she ended up getting much more angry than Sam is right now. "It's safer that way."
Sam is now one of the few people who know about Peggy's connections to District 13. So far, that knowledge has been restricted to her contact, the handlers back in 13, and a few people she's been asked to pass messages to before.
no subject
And especially given what she’s done for him, what this means. More than what it means for Sam, it’s what it means for Jet - Sam’s been trying his best to keep Jet out of the spiral he’d started to fall into, just to try to keep him going, but now? Now he doesn’t have to. Jet doesn’t have to keep struggling to go on without the person he loves most, and with that on top of finding out his brother is alive, Sam couldn’t ask for anything better.
He starts to tell her that he owes her, to ask her if she needs anything, tell her if she ever needs anything that he’s there, but he cuts off before he gets the first word out. Maybe it’s not something he can do for her, but if she’s in contact with Barnes, with 13, then there’s something they need to know.
“You can get a message, to where our friend is?”
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She sincerely hopes that she hasn't made a mistake by trusting him. Taking him to a blind spot now means that the Capitol is more likely to watch them both more closely; if one of them slips up, the other could possibly be implicated. She only has a scarce few contacts, but none that she's known so very little about.
She's afraid, but not really for the fact she might die. She's afraid that she might be tortured into betraying what she loves, and she's afraid she might die before having a chance to make amends with Bucky.
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"Okay. That's-" Not perfect, seeing as the only member of District 13 that Sam really trusts even a little is Barnes, but it'll have to do. "Gotta go with what we've got, I guess. Look, there's something coming for them, something big. We're trying to stop it, but..."
But they need to be prepared, and they deserve to know about the threat coming their way, even if Sam isn't entirely sure about 13.
"I don't think I should go into details here."
It may be a blindspot, but it's one of the more public ones, and there are still people watching them.
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"Just..." She leans forward, uncomfortably close, like she might be ready to kiss him, before she turns her head so her face moves past his and instead her mouth is at his ear. "Just whisper it to me. Pretend you're talking about something sexy."
They can't go find a different blind spot. It would look like too much of a coincidence for them to plausibly say they didn't know they were in a blind spot. Besides, in a crowded space, they're less likely to be overheard, because everyone else is talking over them and her head and hair is blocking half his mouth from view, making it effectively impossible to read his lips. If he pretends to be saying something explicit to her, it would explain why they were whispering.
no subject
It feels weird, doing this with her - says the guy who flirted easily with people he's talked to much less, he knows, but this is different. This doesn't quite come to him naturally, but he's doing his best.
He lowers his voice, murmuring to her like he really is trying to charm her. "They've been building a weapon geared specifically towards the destruction of our friends. We don't have much time. We know where it's being kept and we're infiltrating to dismantle it, but I don't gotta tell you how dangerous it's going to be. They need to be warned, in case things go to shit." There's a pause, then he adds, "And I am going to be real damn pissed if I get found out because I trusted you, all right?"
Barnes and Albert better know what they're doing here.
no subject
Peggy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, making sure her gestures can be misinterpreted for those of a woman who just heard something very erotic before opening her eyes again. "Thank you for letting me know. I'll warn them."
The offworlders are better than nothing. Hopefully, this won't blow up in everyone's face.
She starts to run her fingers over his wrist again. Pretending to be intimate isn't so strange for her. It comes naturally now. Then again, she's had to do it for much longer than Sam has. "Likewise. If I'm discovered because of you, I'll find a way to haunt you after they shoot me on national television." Don't think she won't.
no subject
Sam has faith in the teams going in this, and most of them have faced worse odds than this and come out ahead - himself included - but that doesn’t mean he’s going to get cocky and assume nothing’s going to go wrong. The people in thirteen are just as much in danger as any of them on this mission, and they deserve to know about it.
Sam pulls back at her last comment, and there’s a touch of warmth in the wry smile he gives her that’s not just for show. “You know, I believe you could. I better not risk it.”
Time to end?
That might be encouragement or that might be a threat. Maybe a little bit of both.
"Now we have a while left to enjoy a successful date, so..." she squeezes his hands, "tell me about yourself."