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

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house of am

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

[continued from here]

Steve wakes up slowly, happy and warm and content enough he's not sure where he is at first. The clues he gets initially aren't helpful because they're such universal parts of his life, as far as his hindbrain is concerned, that they're just a part of 'how he should wake up'.

There's a warm body up against him, deep brown hair pressed up against his nose and mouth that smells like home, a ratty old mattress beneath him that's too firm for anyone but someone like him--

And a metal arm across his stomach. Huh. That shakes some things loose.

It doesn't halt the grin on his face, though. That's... probably never going away, or at least it won't be budging anytime soon (probably until Jim looks at him, disgusted, and tells him to 'stop lookin' like a loon'). Instead, he just reaches over to grab his phone from the the bedside table (amazing the things that survive a plain crash when they're kept in the right pocket) and peers at the time.

Huh. Nearly two. That's fair. But--

"Hey, sleepyhead. You get some good rest?"

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"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."

"That, I have seen, is one of the most damaging of the ways of the world of men," she said honestly, glancing between the two of them.

"Scars of the mind are just as worthy of kindness and respect as those of the flesh. And to admit to them is wisdom, not shame."

Steve agreed with a bob of his head as he turned to drain the pasta.

"It took me a little while to be on board with therapy, talking to people about what's going on in my head. But I'll be honest and admit I don't think I'd be here if I hadn't."

"My problem is," he admitted quietly, "that I've already had enough of people mucking around with my head. I'm not sure about letting people do it for my own good."

Steve looked over at Jim.

"If you get a good one, it's more about you working things out for yourself without feeling bad about it than anyone doing anything to you."

Diana nodded in agreement and reached a hand over to gently settle on Jim's arm, encouraging and sweet.

"I think I already did most of that." He patted Diana's hand gently. "I just ... still sit up in the middle of the night with a gun in my hand. To the point where Clark stopped noticing unless I take the safety off."

"My mother has drawn her sword in the night many times in my life, and it has been centuries since any attacked her in anything but sparring. Some behaviors may be changed through talk. Others, one merely learns to accept as a new way of being."

"Guess we'll see how I end up," he sighed, but he shrugged. "I don't think I've tried to kill anyone unintentionally for a while, though."

Steve nodded as he mixed in the sauce and started layering the massive dish with cheese, fried eggplant, and pasta.

"Lucky for you, I come complete with baked pasta."

Diana gave his arm a soft squeeze.

"I am honored to call you shieldbrother, as I call others sister. Though troubled, your heart is strong. And if there is a way in which I may share your burden, you have only to ask."

"And somehow, I wound up in an apartment with all you people willin' to put up with me," he said, looking between Steve and Diana and through to Lois and Clark. He'd never discount luck again.

"I've been puttin' up with you for years," Steve pointed out.

"You're my uncle! Gotta put up with family!" came from through the moon gate.

"Brother," was all Clark added.

Diana smiled playfully at him.

"Shieldbrother. And family is as Lois has said."

Steve just grinned, bright as the sun and impish as can be.

"Can't blame anyone but yourself and now you're stuck with the lot of us."

"I think I'm fine with that." He smiled at them all - then eased himself back into joking by asking, "So what was the damage today? Do I have enough to buy the building or do I need to head back to work early to scrape up rent?"

Lois walked over then, holding out his card.

"Don't worry. We didn't go too wild or anything," though she leaned over and kissed his cheek regardless, "though that's mostly because Diana looks good in everything. It's utterly unfair how amazing bright colors look on her."

Clark peered through the moon gate.

"I'd put forward that you look amazing regardless of clothes, Lois," he said with a playful little smile on his lips. It did make Lois laugh, but she had a sock stuffed into one of her pockets or something because she tossed it his way and bounced it off of his nose for it.

Diana giggled into her own hand.

"I think," Jim said as he slid the card back into his wallet, "that we're gonna need to start keeping sock baskets in every room. And I'm gonna go call my boss, tell him I'm taking a few days. Gimme a few minutes."

He stood, digging into his pocket for his phone as he headed back toward the bedroom that he was now sharing with Steve. Just for the sake of quiet while he was on the phone.

Steve threw off a salute and let him go while he pulled Diana's attention back to him. Lois sat at the table and took in the proceedings, while Steve focused on getting the food finished and put in the oven.

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