so I have a serious issue-

I created this plot nearly a year ago and couldn't find a way to fit it into my marvel series (the occursus series; aka freefall, it happened one night, and missing spark)... BUT it fits perfectly into my newer marvel series (flocci non facio; aka union's valkyrie and heart of irony)

I am so excited for the fact that I have an opportunity to write this oc myself as well as create this kind of dynamic with another character for Sam as well as give Steve a proper therapist to help him transition into this world!!

I swear if someone even thinks about taking aka stealing!! a tiny detail I will report your butt faster than Yondu could put his arrow in you

See it's one of my brainchildren that I'm proudest of and it goes a little like this :

Riley Carson knew exactly what he was going to do when he graduated from high school - join the U.S. Air Force with his best friend. Before that though he literally stumbled into a high school romance, oh did Riley know that Marabella Verasco was the one. Mara only had one thought for Riley when they graduated, seeing him get into the Air Force because she would never be the one to take away his dream. He was her dream after all. But Riley had one last thing to do before he left, marry Marabella, and so he did and the next night he was kissing her goodbye before heading out with Sam Wilson.

Mara had to say goodbye to the love of her life and their best friend that day. She moved forward with her life while her boys were out fighting to keep the world together; she got into an esteemed college where she got her degrees and became a lawyer, she decorated the Carson apartment and made it a home, and she got a job at a firm in Washington D.C.

Only Marabella Carson's life came to a crashing halt with the remorseful knocks of a man in uniform holding a folded flag. 'Ma'am, I'm so sorry for your loss,' the words echoed in Mara's ears as she fell to her knees clutching the only piece of Riley the Air Force could give her. Her spiral of complete despair caused her to flounder in the deep, oh and she welcomed the flood coming to take her, especially when she was informed that there was no body to be placed in his grave.

Mara quit her job and destroyed the coffee table that she had dreamt of chasing Riley's children around. After putting on a painted face for the funeral numbly taking the pity and cold hands squeezing hers, Mara let herself fall into a never ending circle of self hate and tears. Alcohol filled her glass every few minutes with pain killers on the side and sobs when they stopped working the way they had and the feelings came hurdling back to sweep her off her drunk feet. Voices filled her head, screaming that his death was all her fault. That she was the one who told him to go, that's she's the one who made sure he was out there just to die.

She shut people out just as quickly as she could down a shot. She blocked out the knocks on her door and the pleas leaking through the keyhole.

That is until one day her front door is unlocked and her long-gone best friend walks through the front door with a couple bags of groceries and Sam Wilson panics at the sight of the woman he once knew. This Mara who sobs at the sight of him and tries to down a bottle of beer while mumbling for him to leave isn't the woman who kissed his cheek goodbye.

He takes the drinks, and tells her to pack up her bags at the sight of the overdue bills on the kitchen table. He helps the drunk, close to overdosing woman empty the apartment and move into his house on the outskirts of D.C.. As sobriety comes to Mara again through Sam's help and the help of a therapist, guilt pours into Mara's overwhelmed soul. The day that she comes home from therapy with a small slip telling her best friend that she's no longer required to go, the woman hugs him tightly. Sam's shirt is soon soaked as Marabella sobs out apology after apology because she knows he was there when her husband fell from the sky. Sam begins to cry with her, trying to calm her all the while breaking down himself because he lost his best friend too.

Mara's life changes for the second time. Fully abandoning her rising career as a lawyer Mara takes to becoming a therapist, she wants to do something good in this world and help the people who have stories just like her own. She changes in the next few months too, dedicating all her time to studying, the veterans center, and training with Sam. That was one of Mara's requests from Sam when she explained to him how she wanted to turn her life around. "Step one, become a therapist and work at the veterans center. And Step two,  teach me to protect myself." For the two being pulled apart by battles inside and out the runs and spars become exhilarating rushes of freedom from heavy burdens they can't quite seem to let go.

Marabella Carson's life finds its new track, Mara keeps living and she knows that somewhere Riley is smiling proudly because of her coming back to herself at last. Of course though, once a SHIELD agent appears on the Carson and Wilson doorstep, Marabella can almost feel the tension of a new wave rising on the horizon. But when the third big change of her life comes - Marabella Carson knows she'll fly far above it. Even if the wave sweeps along a certain blond haired, blue eyed super soldier from the forties that looks at her in all the ways she's not yet prepared for...

there we go!! so it's a past love transitioning into new love kinda fic. I decided to research Riley a little one day and the idea hit me with a bag of bricks to the head and it won't get out so I need to see it come alive lol. Marabella's character development is HUGE in this fic because a love interest or super soldier can't heal wounds or hearts y'all. Mara isn't going to look at Steve and kiss him immediately and forget Riley's name in two seconds oki? oki.

title : flying high
timeline : PRE-AVENGERS through TFATWS
love interest : Riley Carson; Steve Rogers
oc name : Marabella 'Mara' Velasco Carson
Marabelle's faceclaim : Nadine Lustre

NSJSJS I LITERALLY LOVE THIS PLOT SM YALL HAVE NO IDEA SNDNNSN