Chapter Text
Peggy was the first like him he’d seen since agreeing to the experiment. She smelled like the sea. She smelled like half his home. She just didn’t smell of the boy at the docks that had taken him into his pod. Who had stumbled over his name until letting out a laugh and asking if ‘Steve was close enough’. But she smelled and felt like pod.
When the day was done, and his feet ached from the marching and running, they would slip down to the lake together. Peggy would slip her seal pelt up over her freckled shoulders and Steve would relax and let his red, white, and blue speckled scales come back out. They would stay in the water, wiggling their not toes as Steve brushed Peggy’s fur and wove her a crown of flowers, and Peggy would rub against him in a silent promise to braid his hair when she had fingers again.
Drill Sergeant still didn’t like that Steve refused to have his hair cut and that his status as the potential super soldier allowed it. Steve liked the feeling of Peggy twisting it up into a bun every morning. It made up for the lack of webbing between his fingers. And it almost made of for the fact that Drill Sergeant couldn’t see his fins stand up in an angry challenge in his ‘human looking’ shape. Even as small as he was Drill Sargent would have at least stepped back.
“There will be lakes and rivers over there too right?” Steve asked for the hundredth time that night
Peggy nodded watching as Steve paced in the little lake, fins twitchy. “It’s okay to be nervous about tomorrow.”
Steve pulled a face. “I’m not nervous. It just needs to go right. Buck is pod. I need to be there with him. Pod stays together. I thought he knew that. Pod stays together.” He paused before grabbing Peggy’s hands and holding very tightly. “You’ll stay with me too right? Bucky’ll like you.”
Peggy smiled at him. “Of course. Pod stays together.”
∞§∞
The alchemists both promise that it shouldn’t be to bad. Steve could already shift back and forth between bodies. At the same time they both warned him it will hurt.
Steve was sure somewhere in there he screamed, told them not to stop and screamed again.
They hadn't warned him enough. But he had to go after Bucky
Pod stayed together.