come back... be here

just a kid from brooklyn.

[cptamerica]

Steve Rogers, Captain America

I can do this all day

ooc:

fc: chris evans

canon will be loosely based on mcu, circa CA:TFA and Avengers

ic: 

age: 27 (104 technically)

he/him, cis male

birthday: july 4th, 1918

height: 6'0"

weight: 175 pounds

scars: none, thanks to the serum

likes: drawing, running, defending others 

dislikes: bullies, injustice, dishonesty

occupation: Avenger, icon

bio: 

steve rogers was born in 1918, to a mother who was already widowed, his father having died in WWI. he grew up in brooklyn, alongside best friend bucky barnes, in the midst of the great depression. by the time WWII arrived, he already had a strong desire to protect the weak and fight for what was right. however, his various maladies made that impossible until he met Dr. Abraham Erskine. he was chosen to test the supersoldier serum, and the results drastically altered him physically. he used his newfound abilities to help the war effort, which eventually led to him sacrificing himself. or so it seemed. almost 80 years later, he was found in the ice and awoken to join the new Avengers initiative. the unlikely team banded together and saved new york a year ago, but steve is still struggling to make sense of the modern world.   

important stuff to know:

steve is a man out of time, and for him WWII was not all that long ago. he had been out of the ice maybe 2 weeks when the battle of new york happened, so everything was all very fresh in his mind. the train, the war, crashing into the ice...

boy's got a touch of PTSD but he'll never get that diagnosed lol he can do this all day

being from the 40s, he has some old-fashioned ideas about propriety and entertainment, but he fully believes everyone should be equal and treated with respect

he is used to being seen as an Icon™️ since he was a dancing monkey for the first part of his stint as cap. he doesn't like it, but he's used to it

since the battle of new york, he's been largely keeping to himself and trying to acclimate slowly to this very fast, very complicated world. he isn't often seen outside of the tower/HQ except when he's exercising

he likes to draw and uses that to escape from his own head sometimes

[fvlcxns]

"Does anyone know what we're supposed to be doing?" Sam plopped down in the seat beside the other. "I wasn't, as per my usual, paying any attention."

[cptamerica]

"Ha ha, you're very funny," Steve said, rolling his eyes with more affection than any true annoyance. He nudged her shoulder with his, shaking his head. "Maybe instead of mission briefings, I should make you flash cards."

[mrstvrks]

"If anyone other than my husband is looking for me, I'm not over here." Tony poured himself another drink, tucked away in the corner of the reception space. "My social battery has officially hit its limit."

[cptamerica]

Upon hearing the words, Steve shifted ever-so-slightly so that his frame would shield Tony from view a little more. He offered his friend a small smile, clapped him gently on the shoulder. "Then I won't take too much of your remaining juice," he teased. "I just wanted to say my official congratulations. I'm happy for you, Tony. You and Bruce deserve this more than just about anyone I know."

[cptamerica]

@cptcvrter 💐 for one of our muses to give the other a bouquet

"They're a little early," Steve admitted, walking into Peggy's office with a vase full of roses, specially grown to be half-red, half-white. "And they didn't have any blue roses on hand to complete the look, but I thought you could use the pick-me-up." He set the roses down, smiled gently and took one of Peggy's hands to pull her up from the desk.

[cptcvrter]

She smiled when she heard his voice behind her, turning around to take the thermos from him. "Well, I should certainly hope not, Captain." Peggy gave him a teasing look, before leaning up to kiss him. She dropped her free hand to rest against his chest when they pulled back, her eyes falling back to the container. "Just things that could be related to that copycat serum we were on about a few months back." Her dark-eyed gaze came back to meet Steve's, brow raised before he could even speak. She pressed a finger to his lips. "Hush. It's fine. I told them not to tell you because I could see the furrowed brow look on your face. And you can't get all wrinkly before Tony and Bruce's wedding, darling."

[cptamerica]

He went to protest, but her finger on his lips stopped him. "You can't keep me from worrying about everything," he said, half-smiling, before a small sigh escaped his lips. "Sam's mother resurfaced. Sent her a letter. So I took her to the storage unit, showed her everything. Now she's trying to figure out what she wants to do." He told Peggy everything, trusted her with the deepest secrets of his heart, and always had. "Maybe that's why I've got the furrowed brow look."

[fvlcxns]

Sam didn't say anything. She didn't know what she could say. Her dad had a big heart and she knew that despite her mom's absence, he still loved her until the day he died. So she nodded, reached up and wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve, and lifted her head from Steve's chest to look him in the eye. "I do trust you," she said softly, returning his smile, small though it was. "I just need time to think about what I want to do."

[cptamerica]

@cptcvrter sent🕵️for my muse helps yours on a mission

Steve preferred mission work, but especially when it was just him and Peggy. "For an overnight job, there's no one I'd rather have by my side," he said, smiling as he handed her the thermos of coffee. The shipping container they were watching sat across from them, containing sensitive SHIELD equipment. "Did they tell you what we're guarding? Just told me it was better if I didn't ask. You can guess how much I like that answer."

[fvlcxns]

Sam's eyes dropped down to the letter, but quickly came back up to meet Steve's gaze when he placed himself between it and her. She smiled a little, despite the situation, at the joke, but almost immediately stepped back into his embrace. "I guess I just want to know why he didn't turn her in. Why he still trusted her not to come after me or Sarah." Sam didn't immediately say anything in response to Steve's comment, knowing he would try everything in his power to keep her mother away if that's what she wanted. "It's what I want right now, at least," was what she eventually said. "And I think if I ever want to see her.... I don't want to be alone."

[cptamerica]

Steve moved his arm slowly up and down hers, in a way his mom had done once upon a time. So long ago now, but some things never changed. Some comforts were built into the bones of human beings. "He loved her," Steve said simply, softly, sadly. "And he loved her enough to believe that she loved you two. And she hasn't," he pointed out, pulling back just enough to meet her eyes. "Until now she's stayed away, just like he thought she would. He didn't explain everything to me, and I didn't ask -- it wasn't my place," Steve said, sighing lightly. "But I trusted your dad with my life, and he asked me to trust him with this. And you can trust me too," he said, smiling softly at her. "I'll be there. That's not even a question."

[fvlcxns]

Sam let out a breath and kept her head against Steve's chest, burying herself as close to him as she could. She slid her hand up beneath them to wipe her eyes and said quietly, "But he was different. You wouldn't have gone against him." Her voice was still muffled against his shirt, so she eventually lifted her head to look at him. She worried her bottom lip when she felt his hand beneath her chin, but managed a slight nod. She was mad at him for keeping it from her, but she knew why he had. She knew he was telling the truth and she still trusted him more than any living person. Sam let out another breath and put her head back on him, gaze falling to the letter. "She won't be able to find me at the tower, right?"

[cptamerica]

She was right. And she knew that he knew she was right, because she was always right, because she could read him right down to the bones. Sometimes he wondered if she was his somehow, if love had made that connection where biology and time couldn't. If maybe it was just destiny, the two of them. Steve wrapped his arms around her, steered her gently away so that he was between her and the letter. "I can't promise that she doesn't know that you're here. We're sort of in a lot of pictures," he murmured, trying for a joke, to see if she'd laugh. He took a breath, held her tighter. "But I can promise that she will never, ever hurt you. Not as long as I'm breathing." He knew he couldn't do spells or make vows, but he liked to think that his word was still powerful. Most of all when it came to those he cared about. "If you never want to see her, I'll do everything in my power to keep her away from you."

[fvlcxns]

"He was your superior. You wouldn't've done that," Sam replied tonelessly. She was mad. Mad at Steve? She didn't know. She knew she was mad at someone. She couldn't be mad at her dad. She knew she was mad at her mom. Sam sighed, dark eyes falling to the Hydra symbol, taunting her. She reached out and flipped it over after Steve ran a hand over it. "I don't want anything to do with her," she said after a moment, before her gaze found his again. "I just thought she left because she didn't want to be a mom. Not..." Sam gestured towards the pile. "I don't want a connection to that. I don't need one because if she's still involved somehow and Bucky..." She trailed off again, because she never wanted to see her boyfriend like that again. Not after he'd done so good these past few months. She felt the tears spring to her eyes before she could catch them, overwhelmed with all of the information. Wordlessly and habitually, she got up and walked over to Steve, burying her head immediately against his chest. Even if she was mad at him, his arms, resting against his chest, that was always her safe place. "I don't know what I want."

[cptamerica]

"I've disobeyed superiors before. That's not why I listened to his wishes," Steve replied. He was never one to hide from the consequences of his actions, but this scared him. The thought that, even for a second, he might lose what they had. Sam was the closest thing he had to a child, the closest he would ever come to knowing how it felt to be a dad -- losing that would devastate him. In a way no other loss, not even Bucky or Peggy or the Avengers, could come close to. And he had accepted this secret, knowing that one day it might be the death of him. But then she came forward, buried herself in his chest, and his arms wrapped around her like they had hundreds of times before, but now they were free of that weight. He held her close, his head on top of hers. "That's fine," he whispered, and he knew the thickness of his voice would give him away immediately. Would tell her that there were tears in his eyes, even as he squeezed them back. "That's fine. You don't have to know right now. We can figure it out together. You and me, kid." He took a breath to get a grip on himself, and pulled her back just enough to tilt her chin up. Looking down into her warm, brown eyes, he held her chin and cheek gently. "Together," he said again. "Because maybe she couldn't make the right choice, but for me, Sam -- it never was. I'd pick you over everything else, you hear me?"

[cptcvrter]

Peggy reached around Steve and gently dropped a very suger-hyped Morgan onto his lap. "Tony's about to kill her," she explained about the same time Morgan bounced up and threw her arms around Steve's neck with an overexcited 'hiiiiii.' Peggy smirked and ran a hand through Morgan's dark curls. "We're going sledding if you want to come. She needs to get this energy out." She looked at Steve and smirked. "I think you'll approve of her sled." ; @cptamerica

[cptamerica]

Steve's confusion lasted only a second. "Hello to you too, Sugar Princess," he said, wrapping his arms around her so she didn't bounce into his chin or off his lap completely. "Sledding sounds fantastic," he agreed, scooping her up easily. He tucked her under one arm like a load of firewood, which made her squeal like crazy and turned to Peggy with an eyebrow arched. "Oh? Can't wait to see it. Hope you've got sleds big enough for all of us," he added, grinning.

He did approve of Morgan's sled, and there was one more for the two of them to share, so Steve was happy. There was something about snow that really made him feel like a kid again, that let him really embrace this feeling and let go for a few hours. "She's got zero fear," he noted, watching Morgan drag her Shield-shaped sled up the tallest, steepest hill in the park. "Just like her dad."

[fvlcxns]

Sam left at the same time Steve did, but being in the air meant she didn't have to deal with traffic. She flew to where Steve told her — a bunch of storage units. She came to a stop when she reached the ground, trying to figure out why Steve had brought her here, of all places. But she didn't get to think too much into it before Steve got there. Still, without questioning it, she followed him inside. The frown on her face deepened when he opened the door and she looked inside. With each passing second, the pit in her stomach grew. "Track her down," Sam repeated, tearing her gaze away from the boxes. Any questions she thought to ask died on her lips when her eyes found Steve's. With a sigh, she stepped forward and flipped through some of his notes. But what her father was hiding became clearer with every page she turned. "Steve..." She lifted one of the pages, scanning over it to make sure she read it right. But the words written in her father's handwriting were clear as day. "So he just didn't want me to ever know?" She looked at him over the top of it, expression unreadable as she realized Steve knew all of this. "It was just supposed to sit in a storage unit like it never happened?"

[cptamerica]

"Maybe... Maybe he thought of it more like --" Steve struggled to find the words, had struggled with this choice for years now. "It wasn't just his decision. It was mine too. I could've broken his promise and told you everything from the start," he pointed out, his voice low and soft. "But if you didn't need this pain in your life, I wasn't going to put it there. And neither was your dad. That's what parents do, they shield their kids from the worst of it. My ma used to do the same for me, never let me know how close we were to losing the apartment or running out the pantry." Steve came to stand in front of her, on the opposite side of the pile she was flipping through. The words upside down from his angle, but the Hydra symbol all too clear. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. But I'm also sorry that you have to know this now," he said, running a hand over the embossed Hydra logo on the top of the paper. "It's your decision now. Where we go from here."

[cptamerica]

🎄 - - for our muses to decorate for winter / the holidays together | Bucky bc soft | @wintrsoldicr

"It's cutting it a little close," Steve said, when Bucky opened the door. "But I wanted to wait until you had your new place." A box of holiday decorations, Christmas and Chanukah all mixed together. They used to decorate for both, together every year. Most of it was new by necessity, since it had been so long, a tradition Steve had thought lost forever. But some of it... He set the box down on a table and hefted out a large, old menorah. "Your sister had it sent to me special. After..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "I figured it was time for it come home."

[fvlcxns]

She smiled at him, teasingly scrunching up her forehead when he tapped it. Sam easily settled against his side, melting into his embrace. Losing her dad had been the hardest thing she'd ever gone through. His death had left a hole and even though no one would ever be ever to fill it completely, Steve did as much anyone ever could. "I am, too." She put her head back on him. "I love you."

[cptcvrter]

"Darling, don't jinx it," Peggy teasingly reprimanded, before laughing. "He is fine. And he also has Bruce who I trust a little more." She smiled when he kissed the back of her hand and used her grip on his to tug him towards her. "The only disaster that might be waiting for us is Tony losing his mind over wedding color schemes." Peggy smirked and slid her arms back around his neck. "Relax, Captain Rogers. Let's appreciate the fact that there's no world-ending catastrophe for once."

[cptamerica]

"I trust them both," Steve said quickly. "But I trust Tony to find a way to make me panic even more." But he laughed when she tugged him forward, knowing he would've moved even if she didn't have superstrength. She was magnetic, and he had been drawn to her from the first time he'd seen her. He just didn't always know how to say so. "Okay," he promised, sliding his hands to a respectful position on her waist. "Okay, I'm trying I swear." It was a half -joke, and she would know it. Steve smiled a crooked, genuine smile down at her, soft. "Sometimes I'm not sure what to do with myself when the world isn't shaking beneath me." It wasn't the stability that felt strange -- Steve had always been sure of where to put his feet, even when things got tough. Had known what to do and who to count on. But not needing to do anything, just... existing? "Feels wrong. Like I'm skipping school," he laughed.

[cptamerica]

"You're cute. But you're a liar." Steve grinned down at her, grateful to hear her laugh. To feel her steady herself in his arms, safe enough to take stock. How much she trusted him still shocked him sometimes, but he did his best to honor that, to show her what it meant to him. And he knew that Bucky had been brought up with the same sort of values. Steve let out a slow breath, a smile on his face. "That's a pretty serious word," he pointed out, kissing the top of her head. Then he met her gaze and softly nodded. "Then chase it, Sam. Catch it and keep it close, because if it slips away, you'll always wonder what could've been."

[fvlcxns]

"I know I'm cute. That's how I get away with so much when it comes to you," she teased, smirking up at him. She hummed in response to what he said about Bucky, leaning into the kiss to her head. "You don't have to wonder too much, though." Sam looked up at the man who, despite the weird technical age thing, had so easily slipped into the place her father left after his death. "You got Peggy back," she teased, before her expression shifted into a genuine smile. "I know it majorly sucked, but I'm selfishly glad you went all iceberg. I'm glad you're here with me."

[cptamerica]

"That and the evil mastermind," Steve said, tapping a finger against her forehead. He smiled down at her, shrugging. "I wondered for a while. And it was more than long enough for me." He laughed, chuckling at her words, and gathered her into a big side-hug. "Me too, kid," he said. Because she was, always would be no matter how old she got, and in a lot of ways, she was his. A puzzle piece he hadn't known was missing until she barreled into his life. "I'm glad we're here together. You, me, Peggy, Bucky. It makes everything worth it. Don't doubt that for a second, okay?"

[fvlcxns]

Sam was expecting Steve to launch into his typical overprotective mode. One she'd seem him frequently slip into where she was concerned over the last few months. Not whatever this was. She just looked at up for a moment, not sure where they'd even be going, but nodded. Honestly, she'd follow Steve wherever without question. "Okay." She continued to look at him for a few seconds more, before she hopped off the edge of his desk. "I'll meet you in the lobby in ten."

[cptamerica]

She followed him. Of course she did. She trusted him, trusted him the way soldiers trusted each other, the way kids trusted their parents -- and having been both, Steve knew there wasn't a lot of difference between the two. It was faith, plain and simple. And so he held onto faith that this would all work out the way it was supposed to.

Keeping information from Sam wasn't his favorite thing. Keeping a secret from anyone didn't generally sit right with Steve. But a promise to a dying friend trumped his own principles. And truthfully, he could see some of the reasoning. Something like this would only hurt Sam. If she could go her whole life without that hurt, then Steve would shield her from it. But if she had to face it, like now, then he'd be there with her.

Steve took Sam to a storage facility. Not a particularly fancy or impressive one, mid-range. Lowkey enough to blend in, quality enough that it wasn't an easy target for thieves. She got there first, he followed on his motorcycle. But the key was in his pocket. With a nod of his head, he led her inside and down the winding hallways until they got to a particular unit. "This was your dads. He asked me to take care of it," he explained quietly. When he opened the door, there were only a few boxes inside. A small table. Scraps of paper and maps with scribbled notes, but none of it had been touched in a long while. "It's everything he knew about your mother. Everything he could track down. Including who she worked for."