pursuitofcappiness | inbox

[ 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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