Fandom Meme, 13 & 14

[osprey_archer]

13. Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?

I like both fic and art, but I almost never watch vids. My brain just works less well with video for some reason.


14. A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

This isn’t a case of someone in particular changing my mind, but there is a corner of Captain America fandom which is obsessed with Rumlow, and that made me low-key ship Steve/Rumlow in a dirtybadwrong kind of way. Think about it: Steve has just woken up after 66 years in suspended animation on the ice. He’s adrift in a new world, with few ties or emotional connections. Rumlow, as his colleague on the STRIKE team, is probably one of the closest things he has to a friend… and Rumlow, as a secret Hydra operative, has every reason to want to get closer. Close enough, if possible, to compromise Steve’s judgment, even to lure him into Hydra…

Of course Rumlow does not succeed in this operation, but imagine Steve’s shocked horror at finding himself betrayed by his new best friend/lover. (His new Bucky, he caught himself thinking once, traitorously.) Because if there’s one thing Steve needs, it’s a new source of suffering in his life, am I right?

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Steve is like "IS THIS LOVE?" and Rumlow's like "We're bros, man! Bros!" and Steve's just... not quite sure what that means emotionally but also he is SO ALONE that he will take whatever is offered. And Rumlow doesn't seem to MIND that Steve is more emotionally invested in their whatever-this-is than Rumlow is.

[kore]

Rumlow will occasionally go over to Steve's Apartment of Loneliness but NEVER stay the night and Steve never goes to his place. He might not even know where Rumlow lives. (Rumlow bugs Steve's apartment while he's there. Steve's apartment probably has so many bugs in it....Fury's, SHIELD's, HYDRA's....)

[osprey_archer]

Do they have sex in Steve's Apartment of Loneliness or is that 100% a locker room/safe house after a mission thing? I can see the bugs putting Rumlow off. He's A-okay with seducing Captain America for the cause but he does object to doing it where his coworkers might hear a recording.

Steve of course is dying to snuggle but he would never ask.

[kore]

(STEVE, HOW WE LOVE TO HURT YOU)

Oooh good point about Rumlow def not wanting to get put on the record like that. He's a slippery guy. Maybe if he did come over once or twice, he'd be almost totally silent, like just grunting ("Bad day"). (Poor Steve.) I LOVE the idea of a safehouse. Maybe they even wind up staying in the same safehouse a couple of times. Or bunk up in the same hotel on a mission. (THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED.) There's how much time between Avengers and Winter Soldier when Steve is okay with "being Nick Fury's janitor" (LOL)? Plenty of time for some long-term missions!

[osprey_archer]

I think there's two years between the Avengers and Winter Soldier - at least, there are two years between the movie releases, and I think at that point internal and external chronology were running parallel. (Of course the Snap did for that, as for everything else.) Plenty of time for weird messy relationship shenanigans!

They have lots of after-mission safe house sex, but when Rumlow comes by Steve's place one time and Steve sort of vaguely hints in a sexy direction, Rumlow reacts in a way that makes Steve wonder if he somehow imagined the whole safe house thing. Or maybe this is some Bro Code thing he just doesn't get?

I can also just imagine Rumlow hinting at things with Steve and Bucky, like, God, you two were real close, weren't you? And Steve is just... unsure what to do with this.