stands_for_hope | The Metropolis Not!Vengers in... Location, location, location!

"And I got pies and ice cream - not quite as interesting, but... why not?" He shrugged. "We're having vegetarian ziti with a little meat on the side for us carnivores."

Clark leaned over and seemingly looked at the wall before smiling and leaning back.

"I like that brand of sauce," he said as he settled into the couch. Lois, distracted from the yoga, slipped onto the couch to curl up next to him. Diana followed the two of them into the kitchen.

"Is there any way I can assist in making the meal?"

"Well, the pasta part takes a while. Maybe you could set up the water to boil for the noodles?" Jim suggested. "Steve's the one who knows the recipe. And after that, you can try some of the gummy bears Steve picked up. We went through the candy aisle at the drug store."

"Lois took me to a shop wherein we picked out some lovely chocolates. She said that we would share them with you after dinner."

She walked over to the cabinet and pulled out a pot from where she'd found one of the pans that morning, walking over to fill it with water as Steve watched.

"Thank you, Diana. Uh... really all I need otherwise is to find a decently deep pan for frying up the eggplant and a pair of small bowls. But I should be able to find the bowls."

Diana nodded.

Steve looked to Jim.

"Do you mind slicing up the eggplant into slanted pieces roughly a quarter of an inch thick, maybe a little thinner?"

"Gotcha." He washed the eggplant quickly once Diana was done filling the pot and then, without even thinking, he started slicing. He didn't even have to measure. Just a swift series of chops and one eggplant was done and he set it aside to get the other - they'd needed two, given how many of them they were feeding. And then, after that, he pulled out a few more veggies to do roughly the same, since they were going to have salad as well.

Diana settled at the table and stood out of the way as Steve found the bowls, cracked a couple of eggs into one of them, and assembled a breading in the other. Then the pan was filled with vegetable oil and Steve started the process of making the eggplant and boiling the water for the pasta.

"So everything go well, Diana?"

She nodded immediately, leaning on her arms to smile at Steve and Jim both.

"My sisters in this world are no less wonderful than those in Themyscira, no less brave, no less kind. We met a woman who assisted us in buying clothes, another who helped me to purchase the underthings required for them, and Lois stood by every step, ever helpful and watchful. This world has such wonders, so many people, so many smiles. I know that I will never know all of them, but I hope to try with as many as possible. Lois said that working at the community center will help me do so."

"She's right," Jim agreed. "When I was wandering, I saw a lot more women in the shelters than men - and there needs to be more men's shelters, sure, but there needs to be more women's shelters, too - more than men's. Women and children. So somebody standing up for them, I'm all for it."

Tomatoes, carrots that he turned into shoestrings, lettuce that he cut into small chunks instead of leaving it as huge leaves. The salad was coming along well enough and could live in the fridge until they were ready for it.

"I'm glad you're settling in all right. You're probably doing better than I did when I woke up from the ice, especially considering how old the knowledge you had about the world was."

She wobbled a hand.

"Occasionally, items would wash up on our shores. On the best of days, they would contain books or other pieces of knowledge, though usually it was merely some piece of a vessel which we examined and learned as best we could from."

"Huh," because Steve hadn't known that. Diana nodded and looked back to Jim.

"The women at the community center mentioned that there were many shelters for women which I could volunteer. I have signed up to assist them as well."

Steve clapped his hand on her shoulder.

"If they accept male assistance, I wouldn't mind being signed up to help with that too."

Diana put her hand over Steve's with a warm smile.

"I will ask."

"Probably better if I don't," Jim admitted. "I'd be too tempted just to go... uh." He chuckled. "Fix things. Violently. And I'm not... uh. I wouldn't be good around women in that situation."

Diana's expression was... not kind.

"I have been informed of the limits to which I should restrict my... protection. I admit that I am not particularly pleased at the necessity for restraint. But I have been told that I will do more good with restraint than not."

She bowed her head to Jim.

"Suffice to say, that I understand your desire."

Steve put his other hand on Jim's shoulder.

"Not to mention that you're going to have enough work ahead of you fixing up the building the way you want it. You're still going to buy the place, aren't you?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Gotta talk 'em into selling, first, but I do intend to buy the building, fix everything up. Add an elevator - not sure where I'm gonna put that in yet - and probably rewire the whole place, just to make sure it's up to code. It's not like I don't know some good electricians now."

"If you need any help on figuring that stuff out, you should talk to Clint. He owns his building, from what I understand. Or he tried to own it. He wasn't very clear on the details, but I know it got worked out eventually."

He laid out the fried eggplant on a paper towel on the counter as Diana watched.

Diana merely Steve at his work, her eyes following his hands as he poured the pasta into the pot to start cooking..

"I'm sure the tenants will appreciate all that. The other apartments don't look nearly so nice as this one. Not that I'm surprised."

He leaned down and nudged Diana with a smile.

"He fixed up our little shoebox apartment back when we lived together the first time. It was definitely the finest closet in Brooklyn."

"You get jobs workin' where you can," he said by way of explaining. "Sometimes it was the docks, sometimes it was construction, sometimes it was washin' dishes in the backs of restaurants. If it keeps you fed, then you do the work. I learned somethin' from each job. Learned how to arrange crates in a warehouse from the docks, learned how to patch walls from construction, learned how to cook a few things from the restaurants." And he wouldn't be ashamed of any of his jobs. They'd kept a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs. They'd kept Steve alive. "An' it's not hard to do, any of it. You've just gotta learn what you're doin'."

"Mostly," Steve continued, "I did whatever'd keep me. Started doin' work at a grocer, sold papers, worked at the pharmacy a time or two, went to school for art until the money ran out, then I did illustration when I could and sold pictures for a coupla cents when I couldn't."

He gave Jim a faint, thankful smile.

"B--Jim here kept me pretty much kept me alive when we were younger. Roof over our heads, food in our bellies, not a lot, but it was enough to keep body and soul together."

Diana smiled at the both of them, warm and a little bittersweet.

"I can imagine such things, though I find it sad that there are so many with so little and others with so much."

"Nobody in this apartment who hasn't felt a pinch to the wallet once or twice," Steve admitted with a little shrug. "And I'll admit, it feels like it's only gotten worse since we were first kickin' around, eh, Jim?"

"Feels like there aren't as many ways to get back on your feet if you fall down," he agreed. "I got lucky. I got somebody who wouldn't let me stay down. Put a roof over me and gave me a chance to find a job. Most people don't have that. They just keep trying to find a way to keep food in 'em."

He looked at their own countertop then and shrugged. "Once I get construction on this building started, I think I'll start workin' with the mission. Make sure they've got enough food to go around. Maybe start a fundraiser so they can get a bigger space so they can feed more people."

Steve glanced over at Jim.

"I'd be up for going in on that."

He pulled out the cheese and started slicing it up to layer it into the dish and followed it up by opening the sauce jars.

Diana looked between them.

"Do you mean Clark? Lois mentioned that she came to know you through Clark. But you knew Steven previous to this."

Steve nodded.

"Got it in one."

"Yeah. Clark actually ran into me - literally - when I was on my way to the mission for lunch. We busted a theft together. He offered me a shower and a shave, and now I'm buyin' the building out from under him." Jim glanced through the moon gate and smirked. "Shows you need to be careful who you make friends with out there on the street."

"Shows that a little kindness can bring the most wonderful people into your life, more like it," came a voice from through the moon gate. Diana giggled.

Steve looked over at Jim.

"He says that, but we met when this lug over here came to help me out against three little jerks who were bothering this girl in our class. Then again--"

Steve lowered his head and gave Jim his most impish little grin.

"Maybe he shoulda been more careful. The amount of trouble I've gotten him into is the stuff of legends."

"I've had more shiners because of him than anybody else I've ever known," he agreed. "Going up to pull him out from under guys three times his size, ending up fighting the guys while he's catching his breath - can't remember ever losin', but I can remember having bruises all over my face, broken ribs, split lips, bloodied noses..."

Diana sat up a little and gave a firm nod of respect towards Jim, and then to Steve.

"And yet, you are still together to this day. Still fine friends. I have never found another like that myself, but...I hope to. Someday."

Steve looked over at Jim and there was... a lot in his eyes.

"Yeah. Jim and I are pretty much in it for the long haul."

"Well, you're missin' the part where I fell off a train and lost my arm and got brainwashed, killed a bunch of people, and where Steve crashed a plane into the Arctic and froze for a while, then both of us woke up and tried to kill each other, and I shot him a few times, punched him in the face with my left arm, he broke my right arm, and then I shoved him out of the bottom of a crashing helicarrier. Other than that, it's not been a bad friendship. We're..."

He met Steve's eyes for a few seconds.

"We're figuring out anything past friendship."

Diana turned to Jim and gave him a soft, gentle smile.

"I was aware of the fullness of your past. Steven and I had much time to talk on his first night in Themyscira, and I make no exaggeration when I say that you were foremost in his mind."

Steve nodded back to Jim dutifully.

"See? All those years of you talkin' me up to girls. I had to do you the favor back."

Jim snorted a laugh. "Well, I appreciate it, but like I said, it's only about halfway true. Steve's got a permanent case of rosy glasses where I'm concerned. I got a bad temper, especially now, and I'm real bad with getting stuck in my memories. It's... It's why I'm goin' to see people down at the VA."

He paused.

"Uh, that's to say, Veterans' Affairs. It's a hospital for the people who went to war."

Steve slings a thumb at Jim.

"He says that like he didn't paint me up just as rosy. Not a girl I met who wasn't disappointed in the real Steve Rogers."

Diana, however, seemed the most interested in the Veteran's Affairs hospital.

"We have those who specialize in handling the troubles of warriors, healers whose gifts lay in the mind as opposed to the body. We have not gone to war for centuries, but some wounds last so long and longer and it is a weight that we all bear. I am glad to know that there are such places in this world."

"The girls who acted like jerks toward you, I never invited back, either," Jim said to Steve, but then gave Diana a smile. "But yeah, I'm glad, too. I just... It's kind of weird to admit it. You didn't do that back when me and Steve were younger. People whispered about it, called it 'shell shock,' talked about people with it like they weren't really people. ...It's a lot better now."

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