pursuitofcappiness | inbox

Yeah, those all definitely happened in my New York, too. Did you guys have the raindrop cake craze? Or the explosion of food trucks? Or when everyone was suddenly allergic to gluten?

[ Look, she's not saying gluten intolerance isn't a thing, but the sudden growth of people that were violently allergic to bread after their favorite food group used to be carbs is enough to make anyone side-eye it. Julia firmly believed in just saying whatever the fuck they wanted to say and not paint it in the level of bullshit the hoity-toity community - especially the ones her mother surrounded herself with - often did. ]

The bloody mary version of the freak shakes were also making a comeback last I checked. Like the ones with a cheeseburger on top and all the fixings.

[ She hasn't really had a chance to take the time to enjoy it all, considering everything going on. But, sometimes it was nice to try and at least stay in the loop so she didn't feel totally disconnected. ]

Yeah, we had all of that. Raindrop cake, which... it was okay, but not anything to write home about, and so many food trucks. Couldn't walk around two blocks without finding one, and hey, they had better food than a lot of the restaurants did.

I really don't know how people would've survived when I was a kid. Bread was one of the things we'd actually have around the house.

[ Bread, maybe some cheese, and vegetables growing in the backyard. It was a simple life, and not a great one, but one made richer by his parents doing the best they could.

Now... people were putting cheeseburgers on milkshakes. He's glad for the abundance of food and the creativity, but... lines need to be drawn somewhere. ]

I guess it's comforting to know that some things are a constant.

And that when I come to visit you, we can get real cheeseburgers. Not that stuff at the diner.

Something to prove that the restaurants didn't really have to when they opened their doors.

[ To change the mentality of food trucks, elevating them to a higher standard than a hotdog stand. Her expression softens as he opens up just a little bit about his childhood. Historically, she knew the era he'd come from had been rough on a lot of families. But, it was completely different hearing it come from someone who'd actually been there. Julia at her core was a fixer and she'd developed quite a bit more patience to be able to empathize without jumping into action, but she'd had a lot more practice than she could have ever hoped for in just her short lifetime. ]

People adapt. I think, presented with the same circumstances you faced in your childhood, a lot of people might find a way to flourish. And appreciate what they have when times are prosperous.

[ Julia finishes off one of the pastries, her smile growing at his last words. ]

Good. It's weird the little things I've missed since being stuck here. But, I look forward to it. [ Strange optimism was a specialty of hers, holding onto little things to help get through dark or uncertain times. It made it a little easier most days. ]

[ Steve had never really thought of himself as adaptive, but he'd also never really seen a reason to until he woke up from the ice, and then again, here. Things had... gone exponentially worse than when he was young, because at least with war, at least with the Captain America project, as he took his ups and downs, he understood everything. All the events had a logical beginning and a logical trajectory, and so, things were simple. But then seventy years later, it was like everyone operated on a completely different set of laws, like waking up on an alien planet.

And then he did wake up on an alien planet, that called itself Deerington, Maine. ]

People have a way of doing that, yeah.

[ Especially here, what with the whole world getting turned upside-down on a monthly basis. He supposes, then, that people have actually... managed quite well. After all, people don't think about home with a sense of sadness, but rather, as a goal. There's still a home to go back to. Maybe after all this, they might even let him drop himself off in 1945, but now... would he want that?

He hadn't really considered the possibility before, giving up the future, giving up fame and recognition. He'd wanted those things and gotten them and quickly realized they weren't things he'd cared about.

He supposes he has to give himself time to consider what it is he cares about. ]

What do you think the first thing you're going to do is, when you get back home?

Well, we have to move the moon. [ She says it like she's talking about the weather - casual and matter-of-fact. It'd be logistically impossible to find a way for Steve to visit if she no longer had a world to call home. ]

Hopefully, after that, I can just get a giant slice of pizza or something and just... take a minute. [ Because if they succeeded in moving the moon, they'd have a reason to celebrate. Beer, takeout of some kind, and laughter. That's what she was looking forward to. The weight of the fate of the world off of her shoulders for a little bit. Yeah, it wasn't her job to bear that burden, but her sense of obligation to it was hard to shake. Especially when being told to let it go. Usually had the opposite effect.

Fingers wrap around her almost-finished cup of coffee, head canting to the side slightly as she regards him. ]

What about you? Assuming everything works out with your situation. [ And assuming they remembered each other and either had a way to pass between the worlds or at least a way to come back to Deerington as they saw fit. ]

[ Okay, yeah, he's going to come back to that one in a second, Julia, don't think that he's going to just let that one slide. ]

I'm probably going to keep running. They've got a spot for me in Wakanda, but I don't want to get them in trouble with the UN.

[ And, as far as Julia probably knows, Wakanda is just a poor third-world nation in need of international assistance. No, he hasn't really given it any thought that Wakanda might not exist, or that Sokovia might not either. He hasn't exactly tried to find either of them on a map here. ]

And if they lift the accords and decide I'm not a wanted man, I'll probably go back to Brooklyn. I don't know, the Avengers kind of split, and it was more Tony's thing. He'll keep it running and I'll... find something else to do.

Teach health, maybe.

[ Honestly, it was way better than living out of a bag and catching the next train if anyone caught wind of him. ]

But uh.

[ Yeah, he is definitely coming back to that first thing. ]

What do you mean, you have to move the moon?

Well, those all sound like plans. [ Not good, not bad -- but directions. She could appreciate the options, the flexibility to have pieces in place if plan A through C fall through. It was nice to have a few safety nets and not need them than to bank on a single thing only to watch it fail. She was all too familiar about having so much faith in plan A that anything alternates were a far off dream.

And yeah, she doesn't blame him for circling back. ]

The stars and planets are literally aligning in enough of a wrong way that if we let everything get into position, the world will end. So... we're working on a way to keep that from happening.

[ She doesn't know about the moon brain yet or having to be up for 5 days straight. ]

But, that's a problem for home me to help figure out a solution to - considering how much this place likes to screw with us. [ She couldn't afford to be distracted with something she could do nothing about here. Unless somehow the harmonic convergence showed up. ]

[ Uh, yeah, that seems like a really difficult thing to do. Not to mention, he doesn't understand why planets aligning would cause an incident - surely planets aligned all the time? Or maybe they needed to be on the same plane, which was much more rare. He wasn't a scientist, so he never really thought much about it.

It confuses him, but he doesn't think she wants to spend her time explaining something he definitely doesn't understand. ]

I always feel like it's the world ending. You gotta do something, or the world ends.

Don't know why it couldn't be don't do something, you've gotta pay an extra five bucks.

[ That's his way of saying sorry about your lot, Julia. And, it sort of puts things in perspective. At least he doesn't have to think about moving any moons. He's pretty sure that's out of his capabilities.

Which just makes him wonder about hers, but no, he's more polite than he is curious. ]

[ She didn't find talking about the components of spellcasting, or really getting in deep about her powers on a not!date. But, he gets it. In the most basic form of everything, that's what it boils down to. That driving feeling that if she didn't do it, someone else might not. So much of what they'd done lately had been dependent on cooperative magic and while they'd made it through the actual spellcasting without her for a while... She hadn't exactly stayed quietly on the sidelines.

Offering a sad smile, she sits in the shared understanding - knowing the choices they both had waiting for them at home weren't going to be easy. ]

On the upside, neither of us will probably be having to deal with this particular world ending anytime soon. Hopefully.

[ She knocks on wood to be safe, trying to always be careful of what she puts out into the universe. ] Even if it feels like it. And we're not alone. [ Speaking of not being alone-- ]

This was nice. Even if not all of the subjects were happy. [ Her tone is light and just a little self-deprecating - making it clear that the comment was meant for herself. She had a tendency to get serious in the lightest of moments. A curse of sorts. ] I enjoyed this. And hopefully, we can do it again sometime.

[ He knows that smile. He's given that smile more times than he can count, but they're not at the point in their relationship where he feels entitled to calling her out on it, to cheer her up some more.

So he offers one back, a warm one, genuine and kind. He reaches out across the table and gently places his hand over hers, not too much of a romantic gesture, something that could easily be construed as friendly or maybe a little more than that. ]

Yeah. Anytime.

[ He really means that, he could use having someone else around to just be there, to just kind of understand. No obligations, no expectations, just show up and have a conversation. Yeah, he thinks he could handle that. ]

And, um.

[ He bites his lip a little as he looks down, trying to put together the words. ]

Thanks. For. Inviting me here.

[ Mmmm okay, he's gonna work on that. ]

[ Julia, out of habit, often bit her lip when she was thinking. It was habit, but there was no denying that watching him bite his lip... Was that just a little bit of a flirt? Paired with the comforting hand over hers, she couldn't help but let the sad smile turn into a much lighter smirk.

Her other hand moves to rest on his. Like a growing tower of comfort Jenga. ]

Hey. [ Her attempt to get him to look at her. She shifts the hand beneath his so their palms are touching. ] Thanks for coming and taking a chance to meet the lady who barged unannounced into your room on the ship.

[ Because he very easily could have brushed her off. Even if they'd created something of a routine in that brief time on the Titanic, a kinship of sorts that spanned the unfair class divide. A story for the ages. ]

[ He's not mad about that at all. Even though he'd been an artist in that life, she hadn't been a threat to him. And Steve was mostly used to people barging in on him only when they were being a threat. So very honestly, he says: ]

I'm glad you did.

And that I wasn't out.

[ Would've been awful if his door had been locked and she'd gone to the next one. Then their paths wouldn't have crossed.

It's funny, how something like that happens by accident, but changes your life. ]

Let me do the dishes.

[ He gets up once they're all done, to clear the table, to take it away to the sink. He does all his dishes by hand, even if there's a dishwasher. He seems not to trust it or something, like it's just much better when he does it by hand. ]

Me too.

[ She could have barged in on someone who was more interested in making a quick buck by turning her into the person she'd been running from. Even if she'd have found out quicker that he'd been doing the same - sneaking around third class to breathe. She'd hated keeping up with the pretenses, the motions of dinner settings and etiquette and which fork to use when.

She smiles, letting him take the dishes and she just watches him - gathering up the few things she’d brought along. Rising to her feet, she meets him when he comes back, unsure of the goodbye protocol. This… wasn’t a date. But, it wasn’t wasn’t a date. Like, date!lite. Kind of.

Before she can overthink it, she looks up at him - taking his hand again and giving it a squeeze. ]

Seriously, thanks again. And I look forward to next time we do this.

Edited 2020-04-29 03:06 (UTC)

[ If she's unsure about the dating protocol, well. Steve is at a worse disadvantage, probably because he used to just watch Bucky say goodbye on their double-dates and copy him, and then after that, had only gone on some pretty awkward first dates.

And he hadn't, at least for a year now, not since Sharon. That hadn't worked out for a lot of reasons, and he just had kind of given up entirely.

So, he doesn't have any expectations. He gives her hand a squeeze back, and then pulls her in for a little bit of a hug - it's so brief, it's not really a hug, more like, a tap. Oh, no, he really is awkward. ]

Yeah.

[ There goes playing it cool since he doesn't have expectations. ]

I'll call you?

[ It’s grounding, honestly. That reminder that she wasn’t the only one who could be awkward at times. Even if she was incredibly smooth in other aspects of her life. This piece was still rusty. It had been one thing with Penny, someone who had come into things already in love with her and she’d been the one trying to figure how to feel about it. It made hard conversations and opening up to chances easier. Even if she’d figured out she couldn’t return the feelings he had for her with the qualifiers he kept putting on her and her grief, it had been a great stepping stone.

Accepting the quick hug, she smiles, a coy expression settling on her face - playfully light. Yes, this part she could do. ]

Hopefully sooner rather than later. [ Biting her lip, she takes a step back - putting a little space between them. ] Bye Steve. [ And with that, she grabs her bag from the table - giving him one last look over her shoulder before heading out of the coffee shop. ]

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