#friendly dance battle where they poke good natured fun at each other but are both also still trying to show off

[forcedhesitation]

they are too precious T_____T

[funnuraba]

A Rough Moral Overview of Archie Comics: Teen Propaganda Machine

Part 1: The 1940s

1941: Archie first appears in a small feature near the end of PEP Comics #22. His popularity builds rapidly, with the audience apparently writing in to express immense interest in the short monthly Archie comic.

At first the Archie story isn’t even mentioned on the cover, but Archie himself slowly starts appearing on the cover, always with PEP’s big star at the time, The Shield. The Shield on the cover is at first much larger than Archie, but he shrinks over time, and after Veronica’s introduction, she and Betty start to feature on covers as well. The Shield continues shrinking...

And by issue #49, the magazine is PEP Comics: Starring Archie Andrews! Archie quickly becomes its own imprint, and the only one of PEP’s lineup that survives into the present day. Ads in the magazine advertise an Archie radio show that was spurred by what was a apparently a massive outpouring of interest from PEP’s teenage subscribers. The concept of teenagerhood itself was a new invention dating from 1944. Archie’s reality included things like school, dating, and modern teen problems like trying to maintain a car and deal with wartime rationing.

Also, sending your dog to fight Nazis. (Note: the above are two separate stories; no Nazis ever actually invaded Riverdale. Oscar, Archie’s dog, gave birth on at least two occasions, including during her army tour, and eventually faded from existence.)

At this stage, minstrel-style caricatures of black men appear on occasion in Riverdale (as train attendants and no-account bums who steal clothing out of the trash), and Yellow Peril-style caricatures of Japanese people are a regular fixture in other PEP features like “Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers”. As a side note, Chinese people are depicted quite differently in Captain Commando. At this point in US history, they were seen as important potential allies in the war against the Japanese. In Captain Commando, they’re drawn like actual humans in comparison to Japanese soldiers. One story shows a Chinese warrior who’s been bamboozled by foolish Buddhist ideals of peace, but finally snaps out of it and gets his followers to join up with US forces in resisting Japanese occupiers. Chinese-Americans were depicted less frequently, but also running in PEP for a time was a rather remarkable depiction (for the time) of a Chinese-American hero: Fu Chang, International Detective. Chinese people would later be collapsed into the Yellow Peril phenomenon in US pop culture and there were some very racist depictions within Archie Comics, but in the 40s there was a different perspective on display for a while.

(Captain Commando and his Boy Soldiers have since lapsed into the public domain; evidently the heroic quality of child soldiers lost its gleam after WWII and reviving the property was never deemed profitable.)

Also in the 40s, many, many stories end with a quite literal punchline in which Archie gets taken out to the woodshed and beaten by his father for causing trouble. This was PEP’s light-hearted humorous fare that apparently spoke quite deeply to a teenage audience of this era. The depiction of corporal punishment is neither “pro” nor “anti”, it’s simply an unavoidable consequence handed down from on high. Archie’s misadventures lead inevitably to physical punishment from an authority figure, no matter how much or how little he’s to blame for things going wrong. Mr. Andrews himself is sometimes a figure of fun during this period, but the 40s and 50s are the time when he most often feels like a self-insert for the writers and artists, who would have been closer to his position in life than Archie’s.

Archie’s position, though, isn’t entirely as the object of abuse. It’s pretty safe to assume that the writers and artists also grew up with corporal punishment and can sympathize with the experience--though they’ve now entered the stage of life where they understand that it was done only for their own good. Archie at the end of these stories is both resentful and rueful; he wishes it hadn’t happened, but there’s no room in the pages of PEP to contemplate a world where it doesn’t have to.

Violence was much more accepted in the 40s, including against the girls themselves--for their own good, in this case, but it’s still jarring to see a man give Betty and Veronica black eyes. Their crime in this case was, of course, being so silly and man-crazy that they nearly drowned him and themselves.

Often the violence was more cartoonish in nature, but it was only in the 40s that you’d see Betty showing up at Veronica’s door with Moe Szyslak’s weapon of choice.

The porter in this panel is one of the kindest portrayals of a black man in this period; the others (and the one depiction of a black woman that I noticed) are frankly unreproducible without heavy content warnings. Also in the 40s, fat and/or ugly women exist only as an object of fun or outright cruelty.

Vague “reducing plans” were advertised in the pages of Archie in the 1940s. This particular method was, as the name suggests, seaweed pills that were also marketed as chewing gum.

You may notice in some stories that the “ugly” and undesirable woman has very nearly the same face as Archie himself; the irony here is very likely unintentional. It’s rarely (seriously) suggested that there’s anything morally wrong with Archie aspiring to a girl much prettier than he is, but an ugly girl expressing interest in any boy is a figure of fun right up into... well, the present day. The Gabby pictured in the panel above her was a semi-recurring character, one of the only plus-size recurring characters ever depicted in Archie. As her name suggests, she was a gossip and one of the undesirable girls, but she was sometimes allowed to be friendly with Veronica or Betty without immediate karmic punishment. She’s also notable because she’s not only one of the only plus-size characters, she’s one of the very few plus-size female or teenage characters. Mr. Andrews, Mr. Weatherbee and Pop Tate all survived the 40s, but Gabby didn’t.

Betty at the inception of “Archie” (the comic) was just Girl. She rather liked Archie and he liked her, and he would try to impress/date her but end up having his monthly funny adventure. But only once Veronica was introduced did she start to gain more dimension, this time as Other Girl. Veronica was rather nice to begin with and it took a short while for them to start getting played off each other as “characters”. There was still little difference. Veronica was always rich and as a result became snooty fairly quickly, but her flaws were the flaws of an object. They existed to create difficulties for Archie, in his struggle to impress her, and Betty was differentiated only by not being snooty.

When Betty and Veronica were allies, it was because Archie had blown it somehow, and they were naturally compelled to be allies by virtue of both being girls. (When they didn’t like each other, it was also because they were both girls, and such was the natural state of being girls.) The panel above--both in the same pose, their identical faces lifted in scorn towards all men--would be echoed in other later stories, whether by chance or by accident.

Their posing in the 40s was frankly pretty ludicrous and transparent in its intentions.

Sexual attraction wasn’t explicitly commented on in the 40s comics in the way we understand “explicit” today, but it’s allowed to exist more openly than in later years. The va-va-voom effect highlighting the breasts would have to become more euphemistic as the decades passed.

In general, there was very little pretense in the 40s.

Artists had no qualms about showing the girls nearly in the nude (I cropped out a panel of Veronica in the bath above), nor about showing adult men leering at them. Even Mr. Weatherbee was occasionally moved by their charms. Generally adult men were “punished” for showing visible attraction, but only in humorous ways. It was more common for the teenage boys to drool over the girls, but the only disapproval shown when grown men did it came from women their own age, playing the role of scold or prudish spinster. There was also the occasional gag in which an adult man was misunderstood as a “masher” or peeper and received undeserved punishment from the supposed target.

There were various write-ups of celebrity activity in the 40s and 50s, and there too the attitudes towards women were pretty much what you’d expect, but even in the late 1940s the realities of life were not entirely veiled from teenage eyes. There was room for what would now be considered adult jokes.

Also in the 40s, Archie cross-dressed, like, a lot, in a way that noticeably vanished once the 50s rolls around. It’s always as a gag, and it’s usually noted that he makes an ugly girl, but in this era it seems to have been an idea that could be poked fun at without threatening the moral fiber of all America by the mere suggestion.

In fact, one semi-famous 1948 story, “The Battle of the Jitterbugs” (reproduced more fully elsewhere) revolves entirely around the girls and the boys competing in a “fair contest’ to see which sex is better at dancing--since boys only lead and girls only follow, it’s impossible to determine who can dance better overall. The obvious solution is for two girls to dance with each other and two boys to dance with each other.

Crucially, the idea is suggested by Reggie, the prankster of the group, framing it as a joke from its inception. Archie, the main character, follows through with it as a means of asserting male superiority. There’s also no possibility that two boys could dance, or two girls could dance, without the conceit of one performing the role of the opposite gender. But in practice, the whole thing does involve a lengthy depiction of two boys dancing together, and indeed, jokingly flirting with each other.

Again, the joke-flirting comes in the form of mocking from Reggie, both en femme and en homme. Archie, the protagonist and everyman, is uncomfortable throughout and finally throws Reggie right out Pop Tate’s door after Reggie goes too far in impugning his masculinity.

At this stage, the usual band of crones step in to punish him for imagined crimes against women, and he finishes the story sitting in bed with a broken leg, making a pronouncement that stands out rather sharply to the modern eye: “Confidentially, Jug! I’m no longer interested in women... or dancing!”

Veronica and Betty are significantly more comfortable with each other. In fact, it’s a rare 1940s story where they don’t quarrel with each other at all! Veronica’s femininity is seemingly unthreatened by the hat and pants, even though Archie Comics would continue issuing dire warnings against women in pants up through the mid-1970s.

It’s hard to imagine they lost after this! The tone of this page is downright celebratory, a rare occasion of early Betty and Veronica working together and coming out the victors of the story, not by one of them winning Archie, but by both of them showing their own skill at something without trying to show the other up. “Battle of the Jitterbugs” is a true rarity in these early years, a depiction of female triumph that doesn’t exactly defy the era’s pop culture as a whole--women were creating their own art even in the 1940s--but it does defy nearly every other Archie story up to the mid-1970s.

[anim3tingz]

Match-Up for kiyowife

First off, I just wanted to thank you for your submission. I always love getting a chance to write and learn about others in the process. On top of that, you actually helped me to add other criteria onto the request form I didn’t think of before: Your Sign, Your Type, and Love Language. It helps me not only to get a better feeling of who you are and how you show love but also what you’re into. So, thank you.❤️

Also, any book and tea recommendations? ☺️

Now onto the Match-Up…

I actually have two (2) people I matched you up with. When I was reading your submission I saw you listed you were ‘Bi’ (I’m ‘Pan’ so it’s nice to meet a fellow LGBTQ+) so that automatically opened up your potential matches. Usually, I’d just choose one match for each person, but we love options don’t we?

First up we have…

Eijiro Kirishima (Red Riot)

Relationship Song: Medicine - James Arthur

Kirishima is an absolute sweetheart. Like, you honestly couldn’t find anyone more patient or kind than him. You get pissed easily? He’s okay with that. Hell, he’s best friends with Bakugo who, let’s be honest, is the complete definition of a hot-head if I’ve ever seen one. So, if you get in a mood he’ll be very patient and understanding. He’ll try to help you out if he can, he’s a great listener, but he also understands if you need to have some time to yourself. He’d be the type to make your favorite tea/food or buy your favorite snack/candy. Maybe even surprise you with your favorite movie and a stuffed animal. Even if you don’t want to speak to him about whatever is bothering you he just wants to remind you that he’s there for you and that he loves you.

This boy is very athletic so he loves the fact that you are athletic too. He’s seen you play sports before and he just loves watching you in action. You’re crazy powerful when you’re in your element. So, when he gets the chance, he loves to spar with you. Not only does he get a good training session in, but he gets to battle with his fierce, beautiful, bronze beauty. There was one time when you ended up pinning him to the ground. Your legs straddling him as you both were panting from the strenuous match. Poor baby just about died and went to Heaven. With your thick thighs straddling his waist and your curls cascading around your head like a halo he thought you looked so damn beautiful. He wouldn’t admit it but he was very turned on, not that his red face and growing bulge didn’t give away how he felt.

Now Kirishima isn’t very book smart. He finds the work a little challenging. He asked you if you could help him study so a couple times a week you guys have little study dates.

He doesn’t care about where you two go out on dates, although some of his favorite times are you guys just staying at home. You guys would end up binge-watching some TV show or watching a movie, cooking dinner, or attempting to bake something. You actually got him into reading more and recently you guys have decided to read books that have been turned into movies. So, you guys would read the book and then end up watching the movie version once done. You guys are currently reading the ‘Divergent’ series.

One of his favorite things to do with you is sneaking out to the beach with you at night. He’ll lay out a blanket for you two to sit on so you guys don’t get sand all over your clothes. With you sitting between his legs he’ll wrap his arms around you and rest his chin against your shoulder. The night sky would be littered with stars as the sound of the waves crashing against the shore echoed throughout the air.

When you told him about having Mysophobia he was very patient and listened to you and asked you questions when he was curious about something. He’s very understanding. So, wherever he plans on hanging out with you he makes sure to clean himself up and makes sure not to leave a mess when you two hang out. If he does he gets right on top of cleaning it up. Also, if he sees you get into a cleaning mood while hanging out he’s not afraid to get up and help you out. He just loves spending time with you no matter what you guys are doing.

When he hears you are wanting to get help for your phobia he’s there to help you in any way. He doesn’t pressure you at all. He’s more like the friendly hand standing behind you just to remind you he’s there if you start to feel like you can’t do it. He’s always there to support you.

There are occasionally times he’ll just want to hug you, particularly after a villain attack or if he sees you get injured, and he completely forgets about you having Mysophobia. So covered in sweat, dirt, blood he just goes in for a hug. As soon as he gets his hug though he’ll reel back and profusely apologize. He’ll do whatever he can to make it up to you, though. He really is sorry.

PDA:

Whenever you guys are walking or just standing beside each other he loves to reach over and grab your pinky with his. It’s such a simple gesture. A simple reminder to you that he’s there beside you. He loves watching the soft smile creep onto your face from doing so. His heart flutters at the sight. If he’s feeling particularly playful he loves to swing your hands, pinkies wrapped together, back-and-forth with a grin plastered onto his face.

He loves to hug you from behind and place kisses on your cheek. Then afterward just resting his head on your shoulder, maybe pressing a few kisses to your neck, with his arms still wrapped around you. This is probably his favorite way to hold you, especially if he feels like someone is getting a little too close to you for his liking.

2nd up with have…

Nejire Hado (Nejire Chan)

Relationship Song: Feels Like A Dream - Emilee

Much like Kirishima, Nejire is a total sweetheart. She’s very patient and understanding when you get pissed off. She gets that sometimes it’s best to leave you to yourself when you get angry. However, she’s more likely to poke fun at the situation once she believes you're in a better mood. “Oh, hey grumpy. Are you feeling any better?” / “Did Aizawa-san say something mean again? I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He’s just a grumpy caterpillar.” She just tries to make the situation a little better by joking about it. Now if the situation called for being serious she’d make sure to pull herself together and be there for you as needed.

Nejire thinks you are absolutely beautiful. The way your curls fall effortlessly around your head, disheveled or put together you look flawless in her eyes. The little twinkle you get in your eyes when you are curious about something or how they widen when you get flustered from accidentally tripping or from her getting all up in your face. You just look like an Amazonian goddess in her eyes.

Despite her inquisitive and talkative nature she actually does prefer to just sit back and enjoy quiet activities like reading, painting, baking, etc. So, when you two hang out it usually ends up turning into some sort of creative outlet date. One of her favorite things to do with you is going to the bookstore so you two can pick out a book for each other, head to a cafe for some hot tea, and then go to the park for a little picnic date. Just you two on a blanket under a tree reading with a cup of tea is Heaven to her.

Nejire doesn’t really get jealous. She’s confident in the relationship, however, she is known to make comments toward whoever is getting a little too close to you. These comments often sound like backhanded compliments, but with her innocent smile and face, it often comes across to people as she didn’t mean it like that. However, you would know otherwise.

Like Kirishima, she’s very understanding and patient when listening about your Mysophobia. But, be prepared to answer her questions because your girl will have questions. Hope you have nothing to do for the next hour. Nejire is very neat so you wouldn’t have to worry about her making a mess or lacking in personal hygiene. If you get into a cleaning mood she’ll be right there with you. She loves to play music and dance while cleaning so be prepared for some impromptu dances with her.

PDA:

Nejire loves grabbing your pinky with her and swinging your arms when walking. One of her favorite things to do when your pinkies are intertwined together is to bring it up to her lips and kiss it. Then she’d lean in to press a sweet kiss against your lips pulling away to rest her forehead against yours as she looks into your eyes smiling.

As for hugs, the girl’s got two favorite ways to hug you. Surprise attacks from behind like so...

Or, by running and jumping into the hug. This is her personal favorite.

[machi-kun]

one for the yearbooks

Having an awkward time in high school might be an essential life thing – but some variety would be appreciated, if he’s allowed to be a little picky.

C’mon.

How is it possible that he can’t have one normal interaction with Tony freaking Stark?

This is a fill for the 2020 Stony Bingo, Round 2! Square O-2: Avengers Academy

Read it on AO3 | Meet Ugly, Getting Together, Fluff | Rated G

***

On his first day on campus, Steve gets a fist to the nose.

Which, to be fair, is not unusual – he is Captain America, and he sometimes runs towards a punch to the face, whether it’s a good idea or not, because sometimes the people doing the punching are HYDRA or AIM so a fight is expected. And he heals fast. He is no stranger to a surprise attack every once in a while.

But on his first day, the person who punches him is not even a villain or an enemy. It’s actually one of the Academy’s first students, the famous – or infamous – Tony Stark.

It wouldn’t be a problem with other people. Or rather, most other people, because Steve knows he’s strong, but the Academy definitely has people who are much stronger than he is; But point is, Tony Stark was not a person Steve was expecting to be able to deal such a strong blow, not when he’s out of his armor.

Problem is, Tony is always in his armor in some ways, because his right hand is a prosthetic, made of metal. And he is right-handed, so that’s the hand he swings around when he’s showing off the buildings on campus, which is exactly why Steve gets a fist to the nose in the first place.

Steve doesn’t get angry, of course not. It’s obviously an accident, and if he’s very honest, he could have been paying a little more attention and easily avoided the blow, and the only reason why he didn’t is because he had stopped walking to stare at the gigantic building Tony had been gesturing at, which was, coincidentally, Stark Tower. And Tony is very flustered when he realizes what he’s done, something Steve did not expect at all, and he’s not even bleeding or anything, his nose is just red and a little swollen.

But it’s awkward. Of course it’s awkward. But it seems like it’s so awkward for Tony that as soon as they pass by Van Dyne’s Outfits, he hands Steve off to his friend, the bubbly and enthusiastic Jan, that seems very excited to give Captain America the tour when Tony has to suddenly go back to his Tower on a very short notice.

Steve tries to tell Tony it’s fine, but he never gets the chance. He wonders if the Iron Man boots are meant to make him faster when he runs, or if he really is that fast on his own, but he also never gets the chance to ask.

Jan is nice. Steve likes her. She’s graceful enough that she only pokes fun at Steve’s nose once.

She says she’ll talk to Tony later, but Steve never gets the chance to ask what for. And that is it.

That’s his first day in the Academy, and that is his first significant interaction with Tony Stark.

But it definitely wasn’t the last.

****

Steve loves the campus.

Other students have come in after him, and as the paths and dorms and training rooms start to fill, he readily settles into the spirit of teamwork the Academy promotes. It’s his favorite thing. He makes plenty use of the Gym and the Archives, gets a lot of work done at SHIELD HQ, and he even practices some speeches at the Auditorium every once in a while. It doesn’t even take much convincing for Fury and Pepper Potts to allow him to make an obstacle course, and it’s great to see other people use the space he’s put together for them.

He really likes the Academy.

And Steve really likes Club A. Even if most people thought he wouldn’t, for some reason.

Steve likes dancing, and he likes spending time with his friends, both of which Club A is made for, so why wouldn’t he? It’s fun, hanging out when the training is done, or after a round against AIM – Vision plays sometimes, but even when he doesn’t the music is nice, the bar has a nice selection of beverages and snacks, and there’s a pool table.

And Steve is nothing if not competitive.

The first few times, though, he was there alone more often than not. Sometimes Sam would come along and they would play or dance, or maybe Steve would sit at the bar talking to Natasha or Jan, or meeting the new people that had arrived on campus when he wasn’t looking. But many times, he’d been there by himself, just playing pool.

And that’s when Tony Stark shows up unannounced, of course.

Not that he should announce every time he goes somewhere, though Steve suspects sometimes he does just because – what he means is…

You don’t walk behind someone playing pool if they don’t know you’re there. Because if you do, you might get hit with a pool bat on the stomach when they wind up for a shot.

Which is exactly what happens, and Steve feels the resistance in movement only a millisecond before Tony yelps loudly in pain, and drops his drink on the floor with a loud shattering sound.

Steve is mortified.

He drops the bat in a haste, and raises his hands into the air as if to indicate it’s not an attack, he didn’t do it on purpose – but of course he didn’t do it on purpose. He knows it, and Tony knows it too, or so he says as Steve starts to apologize profusely, ears burning in a way that indicate they must be flaming red in embarrassment. Steve hadn’t seen him, hadn’t even heard him come into the club, distracted as he was with planning his shots. Tony laughs even, if a little too winded, despite the fact that his belly clearly hurts where he’s still holding it, and says:

“Guess that makes us even, huh?”

And Steve might laugh a little at that, but it does not quell the shame he’s feeling much, if he’s honest.

Steve stops himself from just pulling Tony’s arm away to check his stomach, or from just putting his hands on him all over to check if he’s fine – he’s fine, he says he’s fine –, but of course Steve gives him a hand to stand up, and Tony gives him the Gauntlet hand.

It’s the first time Steve has touched Tony’s armor directly.

He’s almost a little distracted by how… amazing it is. It’s a little on the heavier side, definitely a little heavier than Tony’s other hand if Steve were to grab it too, but it’s sleek and bright and incredible, plates locked together seamlessly, mechanical joints bending and gripping so naturally it can only be the work of a genius. Steve has to snap his gaze away from it and back to Tony, or else he’ll pull too hard and only cause another accident, like pulling Tony directly into himself or something.

But no. Tony gets up, swaying a little before settling steady on his feet, and takes in a deep breath before letting go of his stomach. He can’t stand up fully straight yet, but it’s fine. He assures Steve he’s fine. He even jokingly asks if he should join the game, smirking, but Steve feels overwhelmed enough to simply give up the game entirely, and quickly makes his way out when he sees Loki coming in, knowing he and Tony are friends and they will be fine, so he can go back to his dorm and groan in shame as loudly as he can.

****

All things considered, he and Tony are friendly enough.

For all his boastful posturing, Steve can tell Tony is a little embarrassed to talk him, probably because of the awful luck they seem to be having every time they meet. The punch and the Club A incident are only the beginning; There was that one time they were both working at the Asgardian Forge and Tony dropped a hammer on Steve’s foot, and that other time in the Avengers Dorm when Steve accidentally broke the punching bag and hit Tony on the floor below, distracted while tinkering with his tech. Steve still feels awful about that, because Tony bruises a lot easier, and for a lot longer than Steve does, and a poke to the gut with a pool bat is very different from a punching bag falling onto you from above, even if Tony assured him he felt fine.

If Tony is not actually embarrassed to talk to Steve, Steve is definitely embarrassed to talk to Tony.

Still, they are friendly. If they walk past each other they wave and smile, and if they have to fight or train together, they do it very well. Funny enough, when there are other people there to kind of buffer their interactions, nothing ever goes wrong. Both Tony and Steve hang out with Natasha a lot – Tony with far more flirting involved it seems –, if they meet, nothing weird happens. No accidents, no unfortunate bruising. When Jan and Loki and Sam or even Enchantress are there, everything goes well.

It also keeps the awkwardness away, and they bond surprisingly fast over these peaceful moments.

They are friends, Steve thinks – they just can’t seem to be alone together without one of them getting a minor injury. But it gets to a point where it starts to bother Steve. Sam says Steve is like a pack animal – and months later, when Steve gets actually turned into a werewolf Sam has the time of his life making fun of him –, and he can’t stand the idea of someone not liking him. But the problem is not that Tony doesn’t like him, or at least, Steve doesn’t think it is.

The problem is that Steve can’t seem to have a single alone interaction with Tony that doesn’t result in bruising, and he’d really like that to stop. He wants to spend time with Tony, he wants to genuinely meet Tony, and talk to him, and learn about him. He’s more than the Academy’s first recruit – he’s their teammate and their friend, and he’s important, so Steve wants to have the chance to get to know him better. That’s all.

But they keep screwing it up somehow!

Steve then decides to do what he does best: bond in battle. He’s not lined up to go to a mission anytime soon, seeing as Thor, Wasp, Jessica Jones, Hellcat, Daredevil, and Luke Cage are all still off-campus fighting AIM, so he’ll have to get to Tony in one of the training quarters. Problem is, Tony rarely goes to the Dojo, and he trains at the Gym at odd times.

So Steve’s best chance is the Blasting Range.

He goes there as casually as possible when he realizes Tony’s in, firing his repulsors at the training dummies in quick, agile motions, with the ease only a practiced fighter can have. Steve would stop and watch him for a few moments if he could, but that would be creepy, and he’s there on a mission; He doesn’t have time to dally before going to one of the available lanes and taking his shield in hand, ready to sling it at his target.

Tony sees him, and smiles. It’s casual. He says hi to Tony, Tony says hi back. He asks about how Tony’s day is going, and Tony says it’s fine, and asks the same. Again, painfully awkward, when it’s just the two of them. But this is Steve’s battleground, this is something he understands, and he will not let the shame stop him from achieving his goal.

“You have pretty good aim.” He comments, stopping only for a few seconds between one throw and the other, the shield ricocheting back to his hand in a perfect trajectory.

Tony stops before he can fire his next attack. “Is that a pun?”

“What?” Steve blinks, and groans loudly once he realizes what Tony means. “No! Tony. I’m just saying it’s pretty impressive how you use your armor.”

Tony breathes out an airy little laugh, raising his eyebrows in an amused expression. “Well, can’t have people thinking Captain America is the only one who can fight long range in this campus.”

“No one thinks that.” Steve shakes his head, exasperated, but the corners of his mouth tug upwards a little without his permission. But he can’t help it. It’s working. They’re here, just Steve and Tony, and look at that – they’re having a normal conversation and no one has been hit yet! And Tony’s smiling too, he also likes spending time with Steve, and this is everything Steve’s wanted for months. “Not with all the new people we got now. You want to go tell Hawkeye and War Machine and Spider-Woman you think they’re not good at long range?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“That’s what it sounds like you said.”

“Shut up, Steve.”

“Sounds like you’re just scared, Tony.”

Tony stares at him, face blank, and without breaking eye contact, raises his hand and aims at Steve’s target, and blasts it.

“Hey!” Steve exclaims, and throws his shield at Tony’s target, and it shakes violently as the blow hits it right in the head.

“You started.” Tony smiles, and fires again.

“Go hit your own robot!” Steve complains, but at the same time, he throws his shield again, and not only it hits Tony’s target, but also the poor, innocent robot to his right, in the other free lane.

“Now you’re just showing off!”

“You gave me no choice.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tony smirks, and his eyes shine with mirth. “We’ll see about that, Cap.”

They… destroy the Range.

A little bit.

Maybe.

All the practice dummies are scorched black and without heads, some of them falling from the supporting beams completely, and the entire back wall is dirty with soot and piled with rubble and scrap metal. At certain angles, Steve can even see the dents his shield left, and there’s a hole about the size of a football in the second lane, where Tony’s repulsor managed to blast through, despite the entire building being reinforced.

Thankfully no one on the other side of the wall got hit too, but it did alert Fury to what they were doing.

The Range gets shut down for a few days. Tony even says he’ll help with the maintenance, and they can upgrade the whole thing while he’s there. He doesn’t seem to be at all fazed by Fury’s lecture, smiling wide all the way through it, and though Steve’s ears burn a little with embarrassment, hiding his smile is surprisingly hard when Tony’s so damn happy, even if Fury stares him down with all the might of his one good eye.

They’re not without bruises this time either. At one point, Tony attempted to grab his shield and it escaped his hands only to jam painfully into his arm, and the head of one of the dummies got thrown into the air with one of Tony’s explosives and it fell on Steve, and he might have a huge bump hiding beneath his hair, but it’s definitely there, because Steve can feel it.

But it’s fine. For the first time, they’re alright. They’re having fun together, and not even bruises can take away the joy they’re feeling.

They’re friends. They’re good friends.

Steve can’t stop smiling.

****

The Civil War puts a damper on things.

Steve doesn’t like to fight his friends. He particularly doesn’t like to fight Tony, because he likes Tony, he respects Tony a lot, and it aches that they’re fighting over one of the things Tony loves the most: his tech. Steve doesn’t want Tony to think he doesn’t respect Tony’s intellect or his creations, because he does – but the Civil War… that was a bad call. That’s all. People are allowed to make bad calls, even Tony. Doesn’t mean Steve doesn’t like him anymore. He needs Tony to know that.

Tony says they’re fine. He’s smiling when he says it too, and he offers Steve a hug.

Steve desperately wants to hug him, and he desperately wants to believe Tony’s being sincere when he says they’re alright, but deep down, he worries.

So he stupidly says no.

Tony doesn’t seem to take it personally, but Steve regrets not taking his chance to give Tony a hug.  

But he didn’t want to take the chance and hurt him.

He doesn’t know where Tony’s bruises are, even if Steve is sure he has them.

****

When it finally gets to a point where Steve is losing sleep over it, he decides to talk to Bucky.

Winter Soldier Bucky. Not Forties Bucky.

Not that the other Bucky wouldn’t be helpful – at first, having two of his best friend walking around was weird, but with some time, Steve got used to it, and came to see them as they really are, two distinct people, separated by time and experience, and that’s okay. He learned how to be fine with it because both of them seemed to be fine with it. But he won’t lie –, they are wildly different people.

And Steve knows he and the younger Bucky share a… very specific view on how to deal with their problems. Which means: suck it up, and do it. Maybe in a less aggressive and more motivational way, but that’s the gist of it. And Steve knows. Despite what Tony thinks, he’s not that unaware of how he may come across.

But this is Tony. And Tony is always complicating Steve’s life, it seems.

So he asks Winter Soldier Bucky. Maybe this will provide some other ideas Steve could try to get back to Tony’s side.

“Write him a song.”

Or maybe not.

“I’m not gonna write him a song.” Steve complains.

The Winter Soldier shrugs. “Works for me.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Steve gets a very nasty look for that one.

“I just—” He huffs, frustrated. “I want to have one normal afternoon with him! Is that too much to ask?”

“Why don’t you? Ask?”

Steve stops. “What? Like—”

“Did you ever ask him to hang out with you? Just because you want to?”

Did he—

No.

Steve never thought of that.

“You’re an idiot.” Bucky tells him, and Steve has no choice but to admit that he has a point. “Just ask him out.”

So Steve does.

****

He asks Tony to help him study.

Which, okay, not his best strategy, but it works nonetheless. Maybe Tony is just as eager to hang out as Steve is, not that Steve would allow himself to believe that, even if the mere idea is enough to make his chest feel all tight and warm with happiness.

Not that they actually study much, because twenty minutes in Tony starts joking in that weirdly endearing, flirty way he always does, and Steve, for once, is feeling so elated that he actually managed to get to spend a day with Tony Stark without any injuries so far that he just jokes right back, and their conversation stretches for hours without any of them noticing.

But others do, of course. Eventually, they get kicked out of the Archives by Bobbi, because she wants to use the computer to watch dog videos and they’re bothering her.

Both of them end up with a little bruising from that.

But for the first time, it’s neither of their faults, so they laugh.

And it seems to work, because even after being kicked out, neither of them wants to leave. They laugh all the way to the park, they joke around while Tony grabs them a bite from the shawarma stand, they sit together by the tree and Tony even leans against his shield where Steve props it against the trunk, and both of them sort of lie down together, to avoid putting their asses on the floor and risk putting pressure on the tender bruises Bobbi was so kind to gift them with.

And it’s great. It’s just… It’s amazing.

Steve loves it.

“We should do this again.” He says, as they’re both walking back in the direction of Stark Tower, lazily strolling through the long way around on campus.

“What, get kicked out the Archives?” Tony laughs, eyebrow arched. “Is it not enough that you cause me minor injuries, Rogers? Now you want to employ Mockingbird to do it?”

“No, I mean… We should hang out. Just the two of us. Again.” Steve says, a little awkward, and he rubs his nape with his hand trying to ease away the hot feeling that blooms in his skin.

“You mean—” Tony stops, and Steve stops too to look at him, startled by the way Tony’s eyes widen and his cheeks suddenly bloom red. “Are you— Are you asking me on a date?”

“I – uh—” Steve jumps, caught off guard, and without even thinking about it, he says, “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Tony shrieks, his hands trembling, and he’s – he’s so flustered that Steve’s flustered, and now they’re both flustered and fumbling over words, two idiots screaming at each other on the sidewalk. “You have to better than maybe, Rogers!”

“Yes?” Steve decides. “I don’t know, yes!”

“Was that a date!?” Tony looks back in the direction of the Archives, but it lasts less than a second, his gaze snapping back to Steve like magnets. “Is that why you were flirting with me?”

“You were flirting with me!”

“I always flirt with you! You never flirt back!”

“You mean punching me in the face was flirting?” Steve jabs.

“I said you never flirt back. But when it’s disastrous injuries you always do it back.” Tony points out.

“I said I was sorry!”

“I said I was sorry too!”

“So what’s the problem!?”

“I don’t know!” Tony throws his arms in the air. “So I guess I’m going out with you, then!”

They both stop, heaving breaths and just staring at each other, mortified they’ve just essentially yelled their way into… a date, it seems.

It doesn’t sound wrong.

Actually—

It sounds… nice.

Yeah.

“Will you?” Steve asks, almost in a whisper, because now the silence around them in the street sounds deafening, and it all feels too intimate to speak too loud. Tony’s cheeks are still red – adorable, his mind decides, and his heart agrees –, his breath still hard, his hands still shaking, but his eyes are locked onto Steve’s and Steve doesn’t want him to leave.

“Yeah.” Tony breathes, in a low, equally intimate tone. “I will. We can… go out.”

“Okay.” Steve says, in a soft, incredulously happy tone. “Okay. We can… Where should we go?”

“Aren’t you supposed to know? You asked me.”

“I wasn’t planning that far ahead.”

“What?” Tony grins, maliciously. “Sorry, can you repeat that?”

“I’m gonna take it back.” Steve threatens.

“You can’t, too late, Captain.” Tony teases. “You could come over. I have a hot tub.”

“Knowing us, one of us would slip and break something.”

But it’s not a no.

Tony laughs, and grabs his hand. “No, we won’t. And I think it’s worth the risk. What’re some minor injuries between us anyway?”

And frankly – how can he not agree with that?

So Tony pulls, and Steve goes.

[waiting4morning]

Fic: Snow Day

Title: Snow Day Fandom: Mass Effect Andromeda Rating: PG Pairing: Jaal/SisRyder (pre-relationship) Summary: Trapped on Voeld during a blizzard, the Nexus team finds a fun way to kill time, and Jaal learns a few new things about Ryder.

Note: So I guess there’s some thing running around that Tumblr doesn’t let you find posts with links to them?? In any case, if you would prefer to read this on Fanfiction.net, I’m there under the same name.

Thank you very much @quinzelade for beta reading this for me. <3

Jaal followed the human Pathfinder, ostensibly giving a tour of the Resistance headquarters on Voeld, but he was far more interested in observing her. She walked into the hangar shivering from the cold, but the wonder on her face was easy to see and gratifying. He sometimes forgot what a marvel the headquarters was, but through the aliens’ eyes he was able to see it anew.

The largest space was in front of them, the hangar with a few shuttles undergoing maintenance, or waiting for fighters to go on the next mission. Further in through the hangar was the medical bay,—with far too many beds filled—the barracks, and command center.

Ryder, in particular, seemed to focus on the details around her. Nothing seemed to be beneath her notice: an injured fighter was staring at her, so she walked over and made cheerful small talk, chuckling as she wiggled her five-fingered hand for the man to wonder at; later, she quietly agreed to check on a supply drop that was missing so that panic wouldn’t spread among the ranks, then talked with genuine interest to a priestess about specifics of angaran spirituality.

He could almost hear Evfra’s warning in his head: “Don’t trust too readily.”

But he was finding it harder and harder to maintain a cool, professional distance. Joan Ryder and her companions were—there was no other way to say it—enticing. They bickered among themselves like adhi, but the next moment were hunched over a vid, howling with laughter over jokes he did not understand and watching each other’s backs when it was needed most. And they were so different from each other. Vetra with her spiky shell as hard as armor; Liam and Ryder both with that flexible mass on their heads that they called “hair;” Peebee with her odd tentacled head, and Drack who was so old Jaal still had trouble comprehending it. But these differences didn’t seem to separate them except for good-natured digs that even Jaal recognized as playful.

In short, they felt like a family.

And of course, there was Ryder.

Jaal hummed to himself as he watched her examine a broken console, her face alight with interest. She was curious about everything angara, always turning to him to ask a clarifying question, or asking him to explain something that didn’t quite translate, surprising him a couple of times with her insight.

He was beginning to admire her intelligence, ready laugh (very angaran), curiosity about everything they saw. Other aspects of her were hard to read; she felt very flat—emotionally—to him sometimes, but he was beginning to see that this wasn’t like the angara, who might suspect you had something to hide, but a natural reserve that seemed common to all humans to varying degrees. Not quite shyness, though he thought Ryder had some of that too. At least her facial structure seemed flexible and emotive when the occasion warranted. He wondered at times if he would ever be able to read the body language of Drack and Vetra, whose faces were far more rigid.

Jaal had read the accounts of the ketts’ arrival. From what he understood, they’d always been aloof, even when they were pretending to be peaceful.

These aliens had few pretensions. Even when they were perplexing, there was an honesty about it.

But despite her alienness, there was something powerful about Ryder, something compelling that he found difficult to explain.

Was he wrong in feeling drawn toward them? Evfra wouldn’t approve, but then again, the old man approved of very little.

“Oi, Joanie!” The one called Liam waved over at where Jaal and Joan were standing. The Intelligence officer had been explaining several of the symbols on the large, globular map. At Liam’s voice, she turned, her strange, furry eyebrow ridges—no, he thought, correcting himself, just eyebrows—rising in expectation.

“Something up, Liam?”

“Overheard scouts talking to the Admiral. Blizzard sweeping through. We’ll be stuck here for a few days.”

“But Techix!” Joan protested. “We told Admiral Do Xeel we’d go.”

Jaal stepped forward. “During a blizzard, my people will find shelter. Even the kett do this. Very little will be happening while we wait the storm out.”

Joan glanced at him, the light from the nearest sun lamp catching her oddly colored green eyes, and nodded. “SAM, tell the others to remain on the Tempest for now. No sense in all of us getting trapped in the base.”

“Acknowledged, Pathfinder.”

Joan turned to Jaal again, her face determined. “Okay. What can we do to help?”

Jaal nodded in approval. “Let’s speak to the admiral again. I’m sure she’ll be more than happy for a few extra hands getting the barriers in place.”

Within moments, Ryder, Liam, and Vetra were helping shift the snow barriers outside the hangar. These were large, metal fences that prevented the snow from piling up too high outside the secret entrance during a blizzard. Once those were in place, everyone, including the forward watch posted just outside, retreated inside and shut the doors.

Vetra scurried over to the nearest sun lamp, shivering so hard her mandibles made a clacking sound against her bony jaw.

“Now what?” Joan asked, walking up to him, snow crunching under her boots.

“Now?” Jaal shrugged. “We wait. Those without tasks will find something to do.”

“What about us?”

“Well… we could sing, dance, play games, maintain our weapons…”

“Snowball fight!”

Out of nowhere, a frozen projectile flew through the air and splattered against Joan’s chestplate. Snow splashed up into Joan’s face and, standing next to her as he was, Jaal felt some prickles as it hit his exposed skin. He looked up to see Liam, grinning and laughing as he retreated.

“Oh, you’re on!” Joan whooped and ran after Liam, who yelled something about “jump jets” and “cheating.” Within minutes, a snowball war began to rage from one end of the hangar to the other. Jaal looked around at the other Resistance fighters standing around in the hangar. A few seemed shocked, others seemed annoyed, but more and more, he saw smiles. There hadn’t been much opportunity for fun lately.

“Vetra, come help!” Liam shouted, ducking. A snow ball hit his leg and he yelped, diving behind a crate.

“No way,” Vetra said, still huddled next to the sunlamp, “I’m—” But whatever she was going to say was muffled with a squawk of outrage as Joan threw another snowball which went wide and it hit Vetra squarely in the cupped portion of her cowl, splashing up into her face.

Silence fell, then Vetra rose to her impressive height, scooping out snow from her cowl, eyes narrowed to slits.

“Eat snow, Ryder!” she crowed and joined Liam. Soon Joan was huddled behind a stack of crates, unable to even poke her head out without getting splattered by snow. Jaal hesitated, unsure. He felt drawn to the fun, but would the other Resistance members disapprove? Evfra would object, for sure.

He caught Joan’s eye and she grinned, her face alight with joy, and suddenly he was grinning back, and diving into the fray.

“Someone needs to watch your back,” he said, skidding to Joan’s side, scooping up a massive snowball almost the size of her head and lobbing it in Liam’s direction.

Liam and Vetra dove out of the way, but the snowball was big enough that when it hit, it still got snow on both of them.

“Ha!” Jaal laughed.

“Right on!” Joan whooped, lifting her hand, palm facing outward.

Jaal looked up at it quizzically. “What are you doing?”

“Oh yeah. You wouldn’t know...” Joan said. “Give me your hand?”

Jaal extended his hand slowly, wondering what she was going to do.

She reached down, raising his arm so that it was facing outwards like hers and tapped their palms together. “We call this a ‘high five.’ It’s like, um, cheering on a teammate that did something awesome.”

“‘High five,’” Jaal repeated. “Five fingers up high?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Joan said, crinkling her nose as she smiled in a way that Jaal found unnaturally fascinating. Angaran noses didn’t do that. “Between us, we have eight fingers. Maybe when humans and angara high five should call it a ‘high eight’ instead?”

“Maybe.” His fingers twitched and curled over hers. Her eyes widened, the skin on her cheeks changing color.

“Less handholding, more snowballing!” yelled Liam just before a snowball smacked Joan in the side of the head. She spluttered with indignation, yelling a few words Jaal’s translator couldn’t pick up, and scrabbled around in the snow, packing frantically.

The fight resumed with renewed fury and soon, Jaal was pleased to see other Resistance fighters joining the fray, their hesitation about the new aliens disappearing in the joy of just playing.

Suddenly, a pair of fighters barreled through the middle of the hangar, shouting something and running toward the doors.

Snow balls dropped from hands, friendly taunts stopped dead. The runners reached the massive door to the hangar as it cracked open just enough to let in three angara, one of whom was being supported by the other two. Jaal saw blue blood running from the injured angara’s leg, though it seemed strange until he realized it had frozen to her skin.

The Resistance fighters who’d been in the snow ball battle drifted off, some back to their duties, the others, greeting the newcomers and getting them closer to the sun lamps.

Joan bit her bottom lip, turning to Jaal. “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have—”

Jaal put his hand on her shoulder. “No, this was needed,” he said, gesturing at the fighters with his other hand. “Look. Can you not see the burden lifted in their eyes? We fight an unending war… that doesn’t mean we forget how to live. How to have fun. You gave that to them today.”

“Thanks, Jaal,” she said. “That means a lot, coming from you.”

“How so?”

She looked startled, then lowered her eyes in an expression he didn’t quite understand. If she were angara, he’d accuse her of being coy, but that didn’t seem to fit with what he knew of her so far.

“Well…. You’re obviously important to the Resistance, and Evfra’s top lieutenant... I’ve seen how beloved you are here. Your good opinion is worth having.”

He cleared his throat. “You honor me, Pathfinder.” Heat flooded into his crest, turning his frills a brighter blue, he was sure, though he didn’t think Ryder had learned to read evidence of his embarrassment.

“Pathfinder.” SAM’s voice coming out of the speaker of her helmet—set next to them on a stack of crates—made them voice jump. “The temperature is continuing to drop due to the blizzard’s arrival. I recommend retreating further into the base where the concentration of sunlamps and people are higher.”

“Right,” Joan said, breaking eye contact with Jaal and scooping up her helmet. “You heard him,” she said to Liam and Vetra who stood at a nearby sun lamp, looking damp and disheveled from the snow fight. “Let’s get further in and dry off.”

“No argument from me,” Vetra said, using her longer legs to quickly outpace the rest of them.

Ryder gave Jaal one last smile, then turned to follow her. Liam hurried ahead too, brushing snow from his hair, leaving Jaal to catch up. But he didn’t mind the momentary solitude. He needed to remind himself of what was at risk. As much fun as the snow ball fight was, as intriguing as Ryder and her crew were… he had to keep in mind what was most important: ensuring the survival of his people against the kett.

But perhaps…

“Jaal,” Ryder said, pausing to turn around. “You coming?”

He smiled and easily leapt forward to catch up with her, enjoying the look of surprise on her face. “Yes,” he said. “I am.”

She laughed, nose crinkling again. “So are all angara good jumpers or just you?”

Perhaps the angara would no longer have to fight alone.