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[aenslem]

DOCTOR WHO || AGATHA ALL ALONG

[causalityparadoxes]

The Moon and the President's Wife // BOOM

Bonus:

[notyoujamie]

[buckets-and-trees]

Thank youuu! 💕

Steve and the Skyline

Characters/Pairing: eventual Steve x Reader Word Count: 1280 Summary: With Steve you’re not certain where things are going, but you know you’re going to go somewhere at least literally on Saturdays, and you’re in no hurry. You willing to wait for once. Follow up to Steve and the Sandwich in THE BROOKLYN BOYS drabble collection.

Warnings: Slow burn

Additional Notes: Sorry it’s been more than a hot minute… Work swallowed me up the last six weeks, and this piece also… needed tweaking, even though it’s just stretching past a drabble.

An immediate grin splits across your face when you hear your phone’s text alert.

STEVE: Want to check out the Columbia Street Waterfront District Sculpture Garden?

At this point meeting up with Steve somewhere on Saturdays was part of your weekend routine.

After the first weekend at Defonte’s and then the Carrol Gardens Greenmarket the next day, the Saturday after he’d shot a message your way to meet up at the Robotic Church, leading to exploration of the Reanimation Library, and another visit to Defonte’s.

The next weekend you met him at the Brooklyn Art Library.

And last weekend you met for an afternoon exploring Vinegar Hill.

Was he Googling things to do in Brooklyn? Yes. Yes, he was. He told you he wanted to explore the place he’d always thought of as home again, and you were more than game to join him.

YOU: Yes! 10am?

10am is becoming your standard time.

STEVE: Meet you at the Bergen Street station. Wear good walking shoes and come hungry.

That you can do.

You put on your favorite sneakers, a pair of jeans, and a simple linen button-up shirt – cute but casual and cool enough for the beginning of the New York summer. Cute but casual because these meet ups have moments you think might be romantic, there are moments of flirting, but most of your time with Steve is just normal, but it’s always so nice you can’t complain.

Meeting by happenstance in a lunch line, playing at tourist in your hometown… you can’t ignore the fact that all of it was the kind of romantic comedy plotline you had wanted but never seriously hoped for.

But it’s also fine if it doesn’t fall the way of romance, and you’re not in any rush to define anything. You have embraced ambiguity, because answers mean…

Answers mean decisions, and you want to put that off as long as possible.

As you emerge from the subway, you see Steve waiting for you at the corner. In one hand he’s got one of the fancy boxes that holds two drinks from a café, and in the other hand is a bag you happily assume must have bakery treats. You grin as you approach.

“What’s this?”

“Your usual,” he says, carefully handing you one of the drinks.

You inspect the scribbled writing on the side of the cup, and it is indeed your favorite iced drink, right down to the proper kind of milk. “I’m impressed.”

Steve bows his head slightly, a smirk on his face. “I’ve been paying attention.” He pulls out his own drink and tosses the carrying case into a nearby garbage.

“And what’s in the bag?”

“Chocolate almond croissants from Mia’s Bakery.”

“Mmm,” you can’t help humming in appreciation. “You know the way to a girl’s heart, Rogers.”

He laughs. “If only I’d known how easy it was back when I was a scrawny kid kicking around these streets.”

“Did they even have bakeries back then? Or streets?” you tease.

“You’re hilarious.” He rolls his eyes, turns, and starts walking in the direction you assume the sculpture garden must be.

You laugh and take a few steps to catch up with him.

“I don’t have to share these croissants, you know,” he adds.

But, of course, he does share. He’s found another gem through his internet research. It’s a few blocks from the station to your destination. Earlier in these adventures you would have questioned if Steve knows where you’re going, but he’s proven a more than capable guide for these outings, so you simply walk right alongside him, and then suddenly you’re very unmistakably there.

It’s one man’s eccentric collection of sculptures. There’s no rhyme or reason, but there is color, two golden lions, a sphynx, and a few other pieces.

You turn your head to look at him, and he shrugs and looks back at you, what you can only describe as a bemused smile on his face. “Only in Brooklyn.”

You both laugh. “I don’t know if my life has been changed by this art today, but I like that we can say that we’ve been here,” you muse.

It’s only a few minutes’ worth of looking before you’re done, but as you leave, the two of you puzzle over where the man had found his first sculpture, which one it could have been, and how and why he decided to curate his collection in the Waterfront District.

You don’t ask where you’re going next. These days exploring Brooklyn with Steve simply unfold, and you like how they happen, you not having to worry about a thing. It’s not star-spangled-man-with-a-plan to the letter, but he’s always got options seemingly in his back pocket as these Saturdays play out. One thing you notice is how it seems almost like an indulgent ritual for Steve, seeking out these pieces of the borough he grew up in, some of them old, some of them new, some – like today’s sculpture garden – so eclectic there’s no reason they need to exist, and that’s almost the point.

He steers you to a casual restaurant where you sit and eat brunch, and then you end up wandering around an enormous amount of the Brooklyn Bridge Pier Park. What you’re getting to understand is that these days seem to be a part of a man reconnecting with a place he used to call home, that he lives in now, but is trying to truly build a life in again. He’s a man out of time, who’s already lived another lifetime avenging, running, recovering, and rebuilding after the Snap and the Blip and the Return.

“What?” he asks, brow furrowing.

You give him a small smile. “Nothing.” You plop a bite of ice cream into your mouth. Yes, you had brunch, but there’s always room for ice cream, and it was not a hard choice when you two had come across the ice cream cart walking through the park.

“It’s not nothing. Go on, be honest. You got quiet. What are you thinking about?”

“Well, it’s nothing…big. I was just thinking how strange and yet completely normal it is that you’re Captain America, and you’re Steve Rogers, but then there’s just Steve, when you’re like this, in a park eating ice cream and looking at the Manhattan skyline on a Saturday.”

“Hmm,” he ponders your response, dropping his gaze and then looking out over the East River. You two had planted yourselves in a small shady spot at the edge of the water, leaning against the railing that lines the edge of the waterfront pathway.  

“I like all three – I mean, I haven’t met Captain America, but he’s got a decent track record – but Steve is my favorite.” You bump his arm with your elbow. “I hope you know that.”

His eyes soften – not that they were hard before, but you have noticed that he’s not this Steve for everyone. “You don’t need to say that, but I might need to hear it. Who knew I’d meet a strange girl in the city who knew full well who I have to be to the world but somehow forgets that and let’s me just be me?”

The swelling in your chest, in your heart, makes you want to burst when he looks at you that intently, his blue eyes locking on yours, but you concentrate on trying to breathe evenly and keep cool.

He breaks eye contact, looking away across the water again.

All the easier to resume normal respiration.

“You let me be me, too,” you finally respond after another moment. “No pressure or expectations.”

“It’s easy.”

You smile. “It is.”

You can take easy for now.

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