Meeting The Other: Captain America

Mavis Abeline Colton

After Steve left, Mavis had a moment.

She touched her lips, standing on the stool, watching his butt as he left. When he was gone from sight, she leapt off and carried into the house, where she had her little episode.

She stood with her back to the door, thinking and then it hit; the happy jitters, the excited spasms that would not be held back. She jumped up and down, stomped her feet, spun in a circle. Neither the squeals nor the flapping of the arms could be quieted.

I found him. I found him. I found him. Chanted over and over in her mind, like a mantra, a song on repeat. And he is absolutely gorgeous. Grant made a noise that sounded suspiciously like avian laughter and flapped his wings a few times.

Finally, out of breath and beaming so hard her face felt like it was going to break in half, she calmed enough to remember tonight was her Saturday out with Dani. Dani, or Sheridan, was a rather good friend whom she had met nearly a year ago at a cute little bar called 'The Frog's Toe Tavern.' She was a nifty person, in Mavis's opinion; four years Mavis's senior, tall, slender, with short hair, brown eyes, the mouth of a drunken sailor and eyebrows with a serious case of ADHD. Upon meeting, they had spent the night playing bad pool - which gradually worsened with every drink - and spending countless quarters on the jukebox for classic rock songs - the singing of which also became gradually worse.

It had since become a ritual they upheld religiously. Every other Saturday they met up at the tavern to play pool, drink and bother the other patrons with drunken sing-alongs. Jensen, the bar's owner, found them endlessly entertaining and on occasion - meaning at least once a night - he would join them in their singing. His Other's companion always hot on his heels, the stout bulldog a pile of wrinkles and brown patches sleeping never far away.

Tonight is going to be fun, Mavis thought to herself.

Tonight was a night for revelry.

Getting dressed, she put on a plain, tight black shirt, her favorite black jeans, and brown boots. Making sure she had her wallet - Of course you have it, stupid, it's on a chain - she plucked Grant from his perch and left. It's not often, but he on occasion has led her home on nights where she was too inebriated to navigate. Once she set out on the short walk, he flew ahead of her, as he usually did.

It didn't surprise her at all when he flew back with a small purple flower in his beak, to drop in her palm. He had done this ever since she was small; he'd been with Mavis her whole life. He liked to bring her things; flowers, pretty rocks, shiny things he finds, whenever she was sad or he just seemed to be happy. Mavis found it extremely funny and endearing when he tried to protect her. Grant would land on her arm or between Mavis and whatever threat occurred, puff up his chest and open his wingspan to the fullest extent, screeching in as intimidatingly as possible.

He was also extremely polite; unlike most wild birds one finds in a large city. If Mavis was eating something, and Grant wanted to try it - which he more often than not did - he would gently nudge her leg or head and caw softly and stare with his big yellow eyes.

It was too cute.

She always gave in.

Inside the cozy little bar, Mavis found Dani scanning the jukebox, laughing at something Jensen said, while Edward seemed to be pouting in the corner behind her.

"What's wrong with him?" Mavis questioned, with a nod to the disgruntled peacock, after greeting Jensen, who had retreated back behind the bar.

Dani shrugged, "He got a tail feather stuck in the door." She then launched into a colorful description of a prank her Other had pulled on her that morning. "Tony fucking hacked my phone and messed with my contact names. I've had it on mute all day, I don't want to know what he did to the damn ringtones.​"