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Her lips are red, his eyes are blue
It’ll take everything in me to get back to you
Roses are red, violets are blue
Darling, you’ll never believe how much I love you
The summer Steve Rogers turned eighteen years old, he and Bucky took the train from Brooklyn to Coney Island. It was 1936, and the country was in the middle of a heat wave. Bucky had convinced Steve to go to the beach, but they soon discovered that everyone in New York City was going to the beach. They kicked off their shoes and dropped towels and wallets into a pile a few feet from the water’s edge and went straight for the water.
At the end of the day, when the sun had gone down, they wandered through the carnival, grabbing corn dogs, ice cream cones, and Cokes. Bucky wanted to ride the Cyclone, but Steve didn’t want to - not in this heat, not after eating corn dogs and Cokes. He’d already been prone to vomiting after the roller coaster anyway, and he certainly didn’t want to add to it.
They passed a fortune teller, who declared she’d tell them the future, and Bucky suggested that instead, Steve replied, “Sure, if you believe in that baloney.” But he found himself in line with his best friend. Bucky wasn’t sure he believed in this baloney either, and the fortune teller told him that he’d travel and that he’d have many loves. That all sounded good enough to him, he loved to flirt with women and traveling sounded great. He wasn’t sure how much he’d be traveling considering the economic depression, and news from abroad. Perhaps it was all malarkey, like Steve had thought.
Bucky stepped out of the booth and Steve went in, and sat across from the fortune teller, a middle aged woman with curly hair. She was certainly dressed for the part, with a fringed shawl and jewelry with big beads and baubles.
“You, my dear, are destined for greatness,” the woman cooed, as she peered into her crystal ball. “As for your romantic life, you have a special kind of love in your future. You have a soulmate, my dear. You will know her because you will see color at last, and she will have the reddest lips you’ve ever seen.”
Steve didn’t know how in the world he’d ever see color; he had achromatopsia, the kind of colorblind where he could only see the world in shades of white, gray, and black. He couldn’t imagine seeing what red finally looked like. He couldn’t imagine falling in love with someone instantly and seeing her in color. He wasn’t sure how much to believe, so he kept his fortune to himself, even when Bucky asked for the details. He so badly wanted to fulfill his fortune - to be great, and to find a special kind of soulmate love.
For a guy like Steve Rogers, that seemed like only possible in dreams.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Peggy Carter didn’t usually believe that dreams could be real, or that they could be premonitions. The dream that started the summer of 1936 seemed to be an ordinary dream. The visions came in flashes - whispers of I love you, hands holding hers, arms wrapping around her, and his eyes - the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. She blushed when she woke up, fifteen year old Peggy wasn’t much of a romantic, and didn’t often read romantic books or watch romantic films. To her, it didn’t make much sense that she’d have dreams of holding hands with a boy, and being struck by some beautiful blue eyes.
The dreams returned every month, even as she finished school, university, and met Fred Wells, and matured into an adventurous young woman who also wanted true love. She’d grown more fond of romance as she grew, and found comfort in those dreams. She was excited to marry Fred, and Fred’s eyes were blue, but they weren’t the eyes from her dreams. His voice didn’t match Fred’s as well. As silly as it was, she loved the man in her dreams, the one whose face she never saw beyond those eyes, the one who whispered that he loved her, that she was his soulmate.
Peggy knew that she couldn’t compare the man of her dreams to the real man in front of her. She didn’t even know if the blue eyed man was real. Still, when she broke off her engagement and joined the S.O.E. and the war effort, she knew she was doing the right thing. Maybe her path would also lead her to the blue-eyed soulmate.
She never told anyone about this dream, either, and liked that this was a little secret she could keep to herself. A dream for the future, a goal to find the literal man of her dreams. She couldn’t just focus on him, she had other goals as well, but as the dream kept occurring, sometimes several days in a row, she couldn’t forget this one as well. She couldn’t forget him.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Peggy knew the moment she saw him. It had been years since she first had the dream, and they hadn’t slowed down. It was now 1943, and she was just twenty-two years old, and already a leader in the SSR. She had fought hard to be taken seriously especially as a young woman, and she’d developed a reputation of no-nonsense among recruits and officers.
She marched onto the field at Camp Lehigh to meet her new recruits, candidates for Dr. Erskine’s super soldier program, and all of them looked the same except for one. They were all built, muscular, and looked rather arrogant from their stance, except for him. He was shorter than her, golden hair, scrawny, and had a nervous look on his face. He didn’t fit in among these soldiers - but he had the most striking blue eyes she’d ever seen. The hand holding hers in the dream and the arms around her didn’t match his physique, and yet, Peggy felt drawn to this young man more than anyone else. Those were his eyes. They had to be his.
His name was Steve Rogers, and she soon learned he was kind, respectful, and intelligent, and he was truly trying his best among these other athletic recruits. He was also the best choice for the serum. He would be the one the serum would help. If it did what Dr. Erskine claimed, Rogers wouldn’t have to worry about his stature or build, and he would be stronger, faster, and be able to fight harder. His goodness and kindness, nobility and intelligence would only be improved with the serum, so Peggy pushed for Steve to get it as much as Erskine did.
She also knew she was right the moment he stepped out of the tube, fully transformed into a muscular soldier. This was the man of her dreams. Not just in looks, in his heart too. She’d already grown to care about him, through their conversations. He was just so kind, so respectful, and his nerves around her charmed her to the core. Even without her dreams, Peggy could’ve loved him. The dreams just made her sure.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The tube hissed open and Steve stepped out, assaulted by colors and sounds around him as his refined senses adjusted to their surroundings. And there she was. Peggy Carter stood in front of him, absolutely beautiful and perfect, and finally, in full color. He’d always thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen and now she was even more so. Her rich brown curls, her green jacket, and the reddest lips he’d ever seen.
The girl from the fortune! You will know her because you will see color at last, and she will have the reddest lips you’ve ever seen. He’d found her at last. This meant even more to him than the new body he was in, and his new strength and stamina. He’d found the girl of his dreams. He remembered the other part of his fortune - that he was destined for greatness. Perhaps that would be true as well, now that had the super soldier serum coursing through his veins.
He didn’t have time to think about how to pursue her, how to tell her they were meant to be together, because as soon as he stepped of the tube, he had to jump into action - to prove himself, to apprehend Dr. Erskine’s killer, and then he was immediately signed to the USO tour, and he felt like he never stopped. He missed her terribly, but somehow he knew he’d find his way back to her. He had to, they were meant to be together.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Their wishes were granted, when Steve’s USO group performed in Italy, and he went rogue, with the help of Peggy, to rescue the 107th regiment. From then on, he was no longer just Captain America, the symbol, but he was Captain America, the real hero, the real soldier. He finally felt like he was reaching his dreams, his full potential, in the body he was supposed to be in, instead of the one that held him back before the serum. He grew closer to Peggy too, though she’d always been kind to him even before. She really was the woman of his dreams, and he believed the mysterious fortune teller from that summer on Coney Island was correct. Maybe Peggy really was his soulmate and they would have a special kind of love.
There was never time to talk to her about anything beyond the war and plans. He was falling for her already, because of her beauty, her kindness, her intelligence, and her abilities, but he still wished he could sit down and talk to her about herself. She liked music and dancing, he knew, from the time they flirted at a bar, and that interaction made him wonder if she felt the same way about him. He also wished he could dance - maybe she’d be the one to show him how?
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Shortly after, Peggy, Steve, Bucky, and the Howling Commandos were sent on a mission through the Alps to try to take out some of the Red Skull’s operatives. The days hiking through the terrain, mostly snowy forests and mountains, were hard, and finally, they reached a small town.
“We have a safe house here,” Peggy told them on the outskirts. “Let’s go in shifts in the middle of the night. There are blackout curtains, there should be a stash of food, blankets, and firewood. We’ll be here a couple days before we can move on. It’s a small apartment, and I believe the rest of the building is empty, but we shouldn’t take up too much space in case the Nazis come looking for us, and we should keep quiet, and limit our use of candles and fuel.”
“Understood,” the commandos replied. In groups of two to four, after dark, after the town had gone to sleep, they made their way through the snowy streets to the small second floor apartment.
It was sparsely furnished, but with two couches in the living area, a small kitchen, a washroom, and a bedroom with one bed.
“Is anyone hurt?” Peggy asked. No one was hurt.
“You take the bed,” they said to her. “You’re the lady.”
Peggy was about to protest that she was perfectly fine to sleep on the floor or the couch, and just because she was a lady, didn’t mean she had to have the bed. But the commandos insisted, and she really was grateful to sleep in a bed instead of a sleeping bag in a tent. It was nice to be inside, in a shelter with heat.
They all sat around the living space with a candle in the middle, passing around a flask of liquor, and Dum-Dum Dugan made a simple warm dinner in the kitchen - some jerky and boiled potatoes. With her bowl and canteen in hand, Peggy sat down next to Steve in the cramped space, and he smiled to himself to have her so close to him.
Everyone knew they loved each other. Steve had never been in a relationship and it was hard for him to hide his admiration and attraction to Peggy, but none of the guys could blame him. She was beautiful and kind, and brilliant at her job. It seemed that she had chosen him as well, and they could tell, even in the subtle way she blushed when he smiled at her. Perhaps this would be the trip where they’d finally confess their feelings. Perhaps.
Steve had never told anyone about his fortune - not even Bucky, so there was no way anyone would possibly know that he thought she was his soulmate. He wasn’t even sure if anyone would believe that such a thing could exist, that soulmate love was any more special than any other love. His love for her certainly felt special, though.
She was everything he could ever want - kind, smart, beautiful, and brave.
After a while, everyone was starting to fall asleep. Peggy yawned and rose from her spot on the floor against the wall, whispered a goodnight, and then retreated to the small bedroom and closed the door. After a pause, to give her time, and to not look so obvious, Steve rose as well and knocked on her door.
Bucky noticed and nudged Dum-Dum, and waggled his eyebrows at his friend. Was Steve going to make his move?
Peggy answered the door. “Can I come in?” Steve asked. “I just wanted to talk. Unless you’re tired.”
“No, no, come in. It’s okay,” she replied. Steve closed the door and Peggy sat down on the bed. She patted the spot on the bed next to her, and Steve gulped, and then sat down. He’d never even been on a bed with a woman, and he was going to sit on a bed next to the woman he loved. He had to be brave, he had to try. He could take on an entire army and be brave, but this conversation was scarier than any other mission.
“What’s on your mind, Steve?” she asked.
“I um…well, I was wondering if you believe in fate,” he asked.
“Fate, such as premonitions or destiny? Or like dreams or tarot cards?”
“Kind of like that,” he said. “I guess like fortune tellers and dreams, perhaps. Is it possible that soulmates exist, like you’re destined to be with that one person and you’re meant to find her?”
This was a strange conversation indeed, Peggy thought, and she wondered if he knew what she knew. “I suppose I could believe in that,” she said. “We live in a world with super soldier serums and Red Skulls, so why not? I’m usually fairly logical, and I suspect you are as well, but why not?”
He nodded. “When I was eighteen I went to a fortune teller and I wonder if it’s coming true,” he said. “She said I was destined for greatness and I wonder if she was referring to my serum, but she also said I’d find my soulmate one day. At the time, it was so far-fetched and I didn’t believe any of it, but so much has changed.”
For a moment, Peggy thought he was about to say he’d found his soulmate, and he was going to ask her how to approach a lady to ask her out, and it would break her heart, because Peggy was so certain that Steve was the man from her dreams.
“I have had a recurring dream about my soulmate since I was young. I’ve been looking for him,” she confessed.
“Really? We both have soulmates?” he asked. “Then fate does exist, Peggy, don’t you see?” He took her hand. He really thought she’d pull away because his action was so bold, but she wanted to hold his hand.
Peggy nodded and smiled.
Steve continued. “The fortune teller told me that one day I’d see color, and the first time I’d see color, I’d see my soulmate, and I’d know her by her red lipstick, the reddest lips I’d ever see. Peggy, that girl was you. You were right in front of me the first time I saw color, when I came out of the capsule after getting the serum. I knew it was you immediately, your red lips - you were the first person I saw in full color. And wow. I had no idea that colors were so bright.”
Peggy smiled. “My dreams always had a man with golden hair and blue eyes, and he said he loved me, he held my hands and wrapped me in his arms. I knew the moment I saw you that it was you. You have the right color blue.”
“I’ve found you,” he said.
She nodded. “I’ve found you.” Then she leaned in and kissed him, and she knew for certain he was the man from her dreams, her soulmate, when their lips met. The visions from her dreams became real. Everything was right - his arms around her, his golden hair, his eyes.
“I love you, Peggy,” he whispered. “My soulmate.” His words were straight out of her dreams. So she kissed him and kissed him until they laid back onto that one little bed, and kissed until they fell asleep in each others’ arms.
When Steve didn’t come out of Peggy’s room until morning, the Commandos knew that they were together. There was no need for words or confirmations, but they did seem happier now that they’d confessed their love. They always sat side by side or walked hand in hand.
Nothing had ever felt so right.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Peggy and Steve completed their mission, returned to base, and settled into a routine again, balancing their duties with work and the war and spending time together. As they grew closer and fell deeper in love, they realized that soulmate love was indeed something special. They were each other’s perfect match in every way.
As they grew closer and slept in each others’ arms more often, Peggy realized that the dreams had stopped. She’d found her soulmate at last; there was no reason for the dreams to lead her to him. Her dreams had become a reality. The man with the blue eyes and the golden hair told her he loved her nearly every day, and wrapped her in his arms and kissed her, and held her while they slept. It took her a while to realize that the dreams had stopped.
“You don’t need the dreams anymore,” Steve said, “I’m here, and I’ll always be here.”
Peggy simply replied, “I love you.”
One night, they sat together in the corner of a pub, Steve’s arm around her and Peggy leaning against him, and Steve asked, “What do you think we’ll do after the war?”
She thought for a moment. “I suppose we’ll both find work with the SSR or some other agency. I assume you’ll have to go on some victory tour as Captain America –”
“You’ll come with me, won’t you?”
“You know I really don’t need the attention,” she replied. “But I’ll come with you because I want to be with you.”
“That’s what I meant,” he said. “I don’t really want the attention either and I wouldn’t ask you to join me on stage.”
“Then after I suppose we’ll find a place to live and get married.”
“Sounds perfect. I do want to propose, though, so give me a chance to get a ring and everything.”
Peggy laughed. “Of course, darling. I’ll wait as long as you want, as long as we get to be together.”
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
They fought together and loved each other fiercely, their love growing stronger as the days and months passed. It was 1945, and everyone could feel that the war was drawing to a close. The tides were turning in the Allies’ favor on both fronts. Peggy and Steve were making plans for their life together after the war, and then their beautiful plans for their wonderful, romantic, fulfilling life fell apart as Steve’s plane went down in the Atlantic. He saved the world, he won them the war, but he was gone.
What happens when a soulmate love falls apart? Peggy had never considered life without him, he was her happily ever after. Now she didn’t have a happily ever after or a soulmate, and she didn’t know how to move on.
Somehow she had to. While in mourning, she got a position at the New York office of the SSR and tried to be everything that Steve was, and live up to his example, his guiding light, to be a force for good in this world as it rebuilt itself after the war.
The dreams returned, which brought her comfort, broke her heart, and puzzled her all at once. In her dreams, she could see Steve again and hold him, but when she woke up, he was gone again and she was reminded just how alone she was. It puzzled her because why would she have dreams about him, as if to lead her to him, if he was dead?
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
While in New York, she went to Coney Island and found a fortune teller, just as Steve had, and knocked on her door. The woman answered, and ushered Peggy in.
“Are you here to have your fortune told, my dear?” the old woman asked.
“I have questions for you.”
The woman hesitated, apparently not keen on answering questions without getting paid for her services, but Peggy continued. “How often do you tell a fortune about a soulmate prophecy?” she asked.
The woman led her into her sitting room and indicated that Peggy sit down. Clearly she was going to have to answer questions anyway. Peggy sat. “Not often, my dear. Perhaps only three or four times in my career.”
“Then I suppose you’d remember them all, if the fortune is so rare?”
“I do,” the fortune teller replied.
“Then do you remember a young man with golden hair and blue eyes, a bit short - shorter than me, very skinny?”
“Yes, he came with his friend in the summer of…oh, 1936, I believe,” the woman said. Then she looked up at Peggy’s face and a look of recognition came across her own. “You’re the girl. The young lady from his fortune. The one with the red lipstick. You’re that boy’s soulmate, aren’t you?”
Peggy nodded. “I’ve had dreams since probably about 1936, a recurring dream about a man who calls me his soulmate, with golden hair and blue eyes. We found each other, we loved each other so much.”
“So the fortune came true!” the woman exclaimed.
“Well, yes, I suppose it did,” she said. “But he’s gone. I lost him. His plane went down at the end of the war.”
“I’m so sorry, dear,” the woman replied. “You would’ve had a beautiful life together.”
“What happens then?” Peggy asked. “He’s gone, now what? Do I love and miss him forever, or do I have a new soulmate - I certainly don’t want another love. I can’t imagine loving anyone else at all, especially not as much as I loved him.”
“He’ll always be your soulmate,” the fortune teller answered. “Those dreams - they stopped when you found him, didn’t they? They were leading you to him?”
Peggy nodded. “But now they’ve come back. Now I can’t get away. Every time I close my eyes I see him, I hear him. I love to dream of him, but it hurts, it breaks my heart.”
The woman looked at her, confused. “I don’t know how prophecies work, my dear, but you shouldn’t be having these dreams still if he’s dead. The dreams are leading you to him, my dear girl. But they can’t be leading you to someone who’s gone forever.”
Peggy didn’t understand. Steve was gone, forever.
“I’m happy you found each other for that short time, miss. Even if it was a short time. I wish I could help you more, but I don’t understand.”
Peggy thanked her and left. The dreams continued.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Arms around her, lips on hers, his striking blue eyes, golden hair that she brushed out of his face. “Peggy,” he whispered. “My soulmate, my love. I love you so.”
Peggy woke up in the middle of the night, and got out of bed. She went downstairs to the kitchen of Howard’s elaborate home that she and her friend, the waitress and aspiring actress, Angie Martinelli, shared. She got herself a glass of water and sipped it, staring out the window into New York City at night, lost in her thoughts, her memories, and the dreams that never left her alone.
“God, English, you scared the living daylights out of me!” Angie exclaimed. “What in the world are you doing awake at this hour?”
“I have dreams,” Peggy said, and wiped her cheek to prevent the tears from glistening in the moonlight.
“Nightmares from the war?” Angie asked.
“Sort of,” Peggy said. She took a deep breath and sat down at the kitchen table. “Do you believe in fate?”
“That’s quite a question to be asking at this time of night,” Angie replied and sat opposite her. “I suppose yeah. Like the kind of fate where you know you’re meant to do something with your life? Like how I know I’m supposed to act?”
“Or fortune tellers and soulmates and prophecies?”
Angie shrugged. “I don’t know about all that. Do you? You seem like a perfectly logical woman, Peg. I didn’t know you believed in all that.”
“I didn’t, for a time, but I do now.”
Angie got up again and got herself a glass of water as well. “I met a man in the war and he visited a fortune teller when he was young, and the woman told him about a special soulmate love he’d find, and the woman would be his perfect match. He’d find her because of her red lipstick, and he would be color blind until he saw her.”
“Peg, that’s crazy.”
“But it was me, Angie,” she said. “I was that woman. And I’d been having dreams about my own soulmate since that same summer, a wonderful, sweet, handsome, noble man with golden hair and the bluest eyes I’d ever see, the kind of blue you could fall into and swim in like an ocean. We found each other. We loved each other so much. He - Steve - made me believe - and the dreams stopped when I found him, like they were leading me to him all this time.”
“What happened to him?”
“I lost him,” Peggy said. “His plane went down and he saved the world at the end of the war.”
“Oh God, Peg,” Angie said. It explained everything - why Peggy had been reluctant to date or talk about her past, why she’d thrown herself into work, why she was so secretive about well, everything. “I’m so sorry, Peg.”
“I went to see the fortune teller,” she said. “She can’t tell me why the dreams are back. The dreams lead me to him, but they can’t lead me to someone who I can’t be with, someone who’s gone forever. I love the dreams and resent them at the same time. In my dreams, I am loved, and he’s here with me, but when I wake up, I’m back in the world without Steve.”
Angie wondered, but couldn’t say out loud, what she thought. All she could do was hug her friend and be there for her.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Peggy moved to Los Angeles with the SSR in 1947, tried to date again, saved the world quite a few times, and then moved back east to Washington, DC, and owned her own little house in Alexandria, Virginia The dreams continued, but she got used to them, and she tried her best to let him go, but knew in her heart, that she would always love Steve more than anything, more than anyone. She knew, also, that it was up to her to protect Steve’s legacy, his work, his goodness, and his memory. That would be her life’s duty.
She settled into a routine of work and missions, and ignored her loneliness. She had her friends and coworkers, but she hadn’t told anyone the story of her soulmate since that night with Angie in New York. As she went on, she found comfort in the dreams, grateful that once she’d had an incredible love, because some never find love at all.
One evening after work, she sipped her tea, and thought of him with gratitude and peace. There was a knock at her door. She set down her teacup, and opened the door.
Steve Rogers, her wonderful darling soulmate with golden hair and ocean-blue eyes, stepped out of her dreams again, and wrapped her in his arms.
“I’ve been trying to find my way home to you for so long,” he said. He explained it all to her, that he’d been frozen in the Arctic for almost seventy years, he’d fought in the future as Captain America, and missed her, ached for his soulmate. He’d ignored his new friends’ urges to find love, insisting he had his soulmate and no one would ever compare to her, to Peggy, and then at the end of their wars, he’d had enough of fighting, and they tried out their new time machine - a real time machine, Peggy couldn’t believe it! - and he’d come home. She supposed that if fortune tellers, prophecies and soulmates could be real, time machines could exist in the future, too.
“I missed you, Peggy, I love you so much. I never stopped thinking about you.”
“The dreams returned when I lost you, and I never understood why,” Peggy said, wiping her tears and kissing him. “They were trying to tell me not to lose hope, that I’d find you again, that you’d come back to me. Now I understand.”
Steve nodded. “I’ll never leave you again, my love,” he said. “I love you too much. Soulmates are supposed to be together, to live happily ever after.”
Peggy leaned in and kissed him again. “I love you, Steve.”
They did live happily ever after. Peggy’s dreams disappeared with his return, because for once, reality was better than the life in the dreams.
Her lips are red, his eyes are blue
It’ll take everything in me to get back to you
Roses are red, violets are blue
Darling, you’ll never believe how much I love you.