The Romanov Chronicles, Pt. II: The Deception

[stonegirl78]

"Hey, mini-Romanov!" Stark said, coming over to give me a one-armed hug, the other arm clutching some invention or other. 

"Stark," I said squeezing once before disengaging. It had been a long drive from the farm. As usual. 

But at least the atmosphere in the car had relaxed. Once Sam had realised that Steve and I had truly made up, even though I would have thought it had been obvious over breakfast that morning. 

"Milady?" I turned to find Steve carrying my bags. "Should I take these to your room?"

I shook my head at him. He'd been doing that the whole day - opening the car door for me, calling me 'milady' and 'your highness', not letting me carry anything. He was behaving exactly like a knight from one of those courtly love ballads. A knight in jeans and flannel. I'd tried talking him out of it, but he just avoided the topic. I hoped he'd get over the need to 'atone' for his slip of the tongue soon. Otherwise we were in for a whole load of teasing. 

I hoped that Clint was out of the country. 

"Milady?" Tony began, so I talked over him. 

"Thanks, Steve," I said, "but you can leave those there - I'll take them up later, after all the presents have been unloaded."

"Very good, Your Highness," Steve said, with his same obliging grin, stacking my duffel and my backpack near the doorway and coming over to join us. "Tony - nice to see the Tower's still here."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Stark said, glancing at Steve, then at me, then back again. "What's with the servant act, Rogers? Don't tell me it's some kinky sex thing."

"It's not some kinky sex thing," Steve said flatly. I just whacked Tony on the shoulder. "I screwed up. I'm making up for it."

"By being her slave?" Tony asked, eyebrow raising. "I had no idea you were into that sort of thing, Romanov." He grinned.
"Hey, I didn't ask for it," I protested.

"Leave her alone, Tony," Steve said at the same time. 

Tony raised his hands in surrender. "Ok, ok fine, I'm leaving. You two are scaring me. Agreeing... Couples shouldn't do that..."

"The minute you agreed with Pepper about something, the world would end," I called after him. 

"Did someone say presents?" Clint rounded the corner, and I braced. "Pitchka!" He closed the distance and picked me up, swinging me around in a circle. "How're you? Did you have fun at home?"

"Hey Clint," I said into his shoulder, half-giggling as he put me down. "I had fun. Laura and the littles send their love." I turned to my bags. "And yes. I did say presents." I dug into the backpack. "Nate's started finger-painting, and he made some stuff for the fridge - and this one's for you..."

 

[stonegirl78]

Tuesday Morning...

 

So I'm back from running - I have to say, running with a friend has helped me get out and up my distance. And my pace. I was running a few minutes late, and I clocked a 9:28 mile to our rendezvous point even though I stopped at at least two lights, which is awesome. 

 

Also, my new workout gear arrived - two new capris and the most awesome base layer/compression top with zipper ever. I feel like an Agent of SHIELD wearing it. Which is awesome. Really. I love it so much I'm not even sure I want to wear it running. Although it doesn't have any pockets, which does kinda suck. But I'll take the feeling like Agent May any day. 

 

I'm so far tracking everything I eat (well, it's only been breakfast, but I logged it), and I did a few minutes of bar hangs/assisted pull-ups after my run. So far, so good. 

 

7 hours ago, Manarelle said:

 

Crazy, crazy, crazy. I'm glad for you (and a little jealous), that you can do that for fun, but you're still crazy. I hear you though on being acceptable but not really as badass as you want. If it helps at all, you do eventually lose the taste for junk food. Not the craving, but it takes less and less to hit the "ick, I'm done with this" point. You'll get there, just keep pushing. 

 

If you don't mind my asking, what are you using to track food - a website/app, or good old fashioned paper? 

 

Edit: Whoops, sorry. Good luck!

 

I take the label with pride! (and tbh, a few years ago, I probably couldn't have imagined doing that either). For me, the trouble comes when I get emotional/overeat. The craving is for the release I get, for lack of a better term. So it's not even that I crave the actual snack, and I have no sense of proportion either, which sucks. I can (and have) gone through entire bags of chips, just because. I get the feeling there is no moderation between me and potato chips. Maybe I should just give them up entirely. But I love them.... Decisions for another day.

 

And I'm using the Fitbit app to track my food - maybe not the most accurate, but it's not bad, and it's nice to keep everything in one place (I'm also tracking sleep, water, steps, and, of course, mileage).

[Manarelle]

Hey! How'd the last week go? Did you fight the good fight, or did the potato chips win?

[stonegirl78]

17 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Hey! How'd the last week go? Did you fight the good fight, or did the potato chips win?

 

Hey! 

 it went... ok? I mean, I did something weird to my ankle so it got all swollen and I didn't end up running a few days, but I'm really happy with how I ate. No bags of chips. (a pizza and some garlic bread, but I don't have the same problem with those, and, well, PMS). 

I didn't manage to track all week, which I'm trying to do this week... and I'm glad to see you found my new challenge too (I'm so excited to write Deadpool again, you have no idea!! Wade's happy you're here too. And who's this Maranelle chick? See? Wade likes to be released from his cage every now and - no, Wade, no jokes! No! Bad Wade! *shakes head*)

 

 

[Manarelle]

7 hours ago, stonegirl78 said:

 it went... ok? I mean, I did something weird to my ankle so it got all swollen and I didn't end up running a few days, but I'm really happy with how I ate. No bags of chips. (a pizza and some garlic bread, but I don't have the same problem with those, and, well, PMS). 

 

Oh yeah, total sympathies on the PMS side of things. This is my week for it and I have zero motivation to do anything other than hide in bed.  Glad to hear things went well, and that the ankle wasn't a long-term issue. 

 

Also, HECK YEAH for the new challenge! I love it already. You write all the characters so well! Give Deadpool a highfive for me, please.