Very little brings me more relief than knowing you weren't here to witness any of it. [ quick; vehement. it's hard enough for barnes to adjust to any sort of life, let alone one lived in the shadow of such events. it had taken peggy ages to mend her bridges with the man. ]
I wasn't. [ she's blunt. honest about it, because this secret isn't one worth keeping. ] For months, we barely spoke to one another. What's happening now is a sort of...work in progress. [ a difficult path, really. she keeps taking those. ]
He wasn't particularly talkative, and he hung up rather abruptly. But he wasn't exactly... impolite or hostile. It seemed more like he - had forgotten social graces and needed to rediscover them.
-- That's fairly typical for him. [ she doesn't coat her answer in anything sweet. it's plain and honest. ] So long as HYDRA's programming isn't in play, he's...alright. Laconic and dealing with a great deal of guilt, yes, but -- he's work befriending, if you feel you have the patience.
[As long as the programming's not, she says. So simple, yet so not.]
... I suppose if I can make friends with a womanizing and arrogant millionaire I could afford to spare some patience for someone in far more need of acquaintances.
Fair enough. [ she concedes the point and makes certain to acknowledge the depth of patience and tolerance in the man sitting across from her. ] It takes a certain kind of person not to clean Howard's clock every quarter hour.
[ she means punch him in the face, though. not...actually clean his actual clocks. ]
[HE LOOKS VERY PREPARED TO CORRECT HER because he doesn't clean them THAT regularly. But then he catches on and snaps his mouth shut for a moment. Ehem.]
And I won't have to be concerned about handling any strange inventions here, too. Have I ever told you about the time I had accidentally caught myself in one of his terrible contraptions?
[ peggy is certain he has told her. perhaps more than once. but right now -- blood low-key buzzing with whiskey and the new year ringing in her ears? she's prepared to hear it again. prepared to hear it a hundred times because as lovely as some of these fleet-based opportunities have been, she feels a spike of nostalgia now and then. ]
Caught yourself! Heavens, don't tell me you were poking your nose where it didn't belong. Howard's work-bench is a perilous place.
[ things have been too blue. she'll join him in shunting them towards cheer. ]
It was some terrible gravity machine that flattened me like a pancake in the shed. Quite the opposite of what Mr. Stark ever intended it to do. I couldn't move for hours!
[A WOEFUL SIGH.]
Oh, it was the worst. A mouse had gotten caught in it, too. I dare say I've grown more appreciative of those nasty little creatures after it kept me company for a few hours while I lamented over my whole life story.
Serves you right for venturing into the shed, I imagine. [ of course jarvis had reason to enter a shed. peggy doesn't doubt he's the one who put the gravity machine out there in the first place when howard had need of room for other disasters. ]
...Has he ever managed to invent something that hasn't gone terribly wrong? Somehow?
[ an exception is made for his hand in enhancing steve, of course. ]
As hard to believe as it often seems, Mr. Stark gets... quite frustrated at times with how — pear-shaped, you call it, his inventions become. His intentions are usually quite innocent.
[Howard doesn't show his frustrations extremely often, but.
He is surprisingly human under all that gelled hair and ego.
Not that Jarvis has to tell Peggy, he's pretty sure.]
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[He considers this whole situation for a moment.]
You're on good standing with Mr. Barnes, still?
[Not that he's... super surprised. But.]
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-- Have you met him yet?
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He wasn't particularly talkative, and he hung up rather abruptly. But he wasn't exactly... impolite or hostile. It seemed more like he - had forgotten social graces and needed to rediscover them.
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... I suppose if I can make friends with a womanizing and arrogant millionaire I could afford to spare some patience for someone in far more need of acquaintances.
I will aim to do my very best, Miss Carter.
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[ she means punch him in the face, though. not...actually clean his actual clocks. ]
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And I won't have to be concerned about handling any strange inventions here, too. Have I ever told you about the time I had accidentally caught myself in one of his terrible contraptions?
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Caught yourself! Heavens, don't tell me you were poking your nose where it didn't belong. Howard's work-bench is a perilous place.
[ things have been too blue. she'll join him in shunting them towards cheer. ]
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[A WOEFUL SIGH.]
Oh, it was the worst. A mouse had gotten caught in it, too. I dare say I've grown more appreciative of those nasty little creatures after it kept me company for a few hours while I lamented over my whole life story.
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...Has he ever managed to invent something that hasn't gone terribly wrong? Somehow?
[ an exception is made for his hand in enhancing steve, of course. ]
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... However...
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1/2
... I may have... misplaced it for the sake of job security.
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Tragically, Robert Stark the dish-washing robot met a grizzly fate.
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-- Dare I ask?
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... He had been caught in the... failed explosion of another kitchen invention. I had elected to ban Mr. Stark from the kitchen since then.
I may have to put locks on the doors.
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[He smiles, sympathetically on Howard's part.]
As hard to believe as it often seems, Mr. Stark gets... quite frustrated at times with how — pear-shaped, you call it, his inventions become. His intentions are usually quite innocent.
[Howard doesn't show his frustrations extremely often, but.
He is surprisingly human under all that gelled hair and ego.
Not that Jarvis has to tell Peggy, he's pretty sure.]