[ Asshole, Sam thinks with genuine goddamn fondness, when Steve kicks the shield towards him. And the fond exasperation, the sense of familiarity, hits him like a freight train out of left field, because with it comes the chasm of grief and loss that still sits in his chest, entwined with losing Natasha, layered over losing Riley, his fresh grief over losing Bucky even when Bucky is right here, just not yet...
For a moment Sam just stands there, eyes on the shield coming right at him. He remembers the bloodied edge, tastes blood in his mouth and braces himself for Walker to cave his chest in.
Instead he breathes, gentles the pain down into himself where it belongs.
Sam doesn't catch the shield. He grabs it, and lets the momentum carry him, spin him on his own axis. He doesn't stop it and throw it so much as he just carries on its momentum and redirects it himself and back to Steve in a spin that pulls hard on his shoulders.
He's not ever going to be strong in the ways Steve, Bucky and Walker are, but that's alright. Sam was never made for the fight, he was made for the rescue. So that others may live. ]
Briefly. It's just like home. Bunch of people show up out of nowhere. Supply chains collapse, people are driven to the brink. Only a matter of time before something strains too hard and someone snaps. People in power not accounting for the people they take from who were already struggling.
no subject
fresh grief over losing Bucky even when Bucky is right here, just not yet...
For a moment Sam just stands there, eyes on the shield coming right at him. He remembers the bloodied edge, tastes blood in his mouth and braces himself for Walker to cave his chest in.
Instead he breathes, gentles the pain down into himself where it belongs.
Sam doesn't catch the shield. He grabs it, and lets the momentum carry him, spin him on his own axis. He doesn't stop it and throw it so much as he just carries on its momentum and redirects it himself and back to Steve in a spin that pulls hard on his shoulders.
He's not ever going to be strong in the ways Steve, Bucky and Walker are, but that's alright. Sam was never made for the fight, he was made for the rescue. So that others may live. ]
Briefly. It's just like home. Bunch of people show up out of nowhere. Supply chains collapse, people are driven to the brink. Only a matter of time before something strains too hard and someone snaps. People in power not accounting for the people they take from who were already struggling.