Reality in Motion

find your liesel

Over the weekend that her brother was in town, Steve had learned a lot of things. His notebook was filled with different pop culture topics, history he had missed and words he didn't know the definitions of. He liked Frankie. Even when he tended to get a little...overexcited.

Just like Dawson had, her brother had taught him a lot about how to be a modern man in the modern world. Except where Dawson had taught him about video games and action movies, Frankie had tried to teach him about relationships and dating - he found out that Frankie was something called "bisexual" which meant he liked both men and women. Not that it was a problem for Steve; he knew that there were gay people in his time, but that was a different time. It wasn't so easily accepted as it seemed to be now, in the modern world. And though it wasn't a problem, Steve found himself struggling with understanding it, but it didn't mean he would treat him any differently.

In an effort to try and help Steve, Frankie specifically made him something called a "Tinder" that would connected him to different women who found him attractive and who he found attractive as well. While it confused Steve, it clearly humored the kid to make him a profile, using one picture and filling his biography with the simple statement of "I'm Captain America." so Steve let him have his fun. He had "matched" Steve with a lot of different women - apparently a lot of women found him attractive which was still weird to him; he was so used to women not finding him appealing. A part of him still felt like his skinny self stuck in the muscular body science had given him.

After her brother had his fun, Steve couldn't figure out how to get the damn app off his phone and Q was no help. She said it was a good way for him to meet women and get out there. He assumed the "there" was into the dating scene. He knew that was going to be her reaction because she was always pushing him to go out and meet new people. Especially women. But just because he knew how she was going to react didn't mean he liked how it made him feel. Whenever they tried talked about relationships, he always got a bit nervous which in turn made him become serious and he shut it down rather quickly. The last time they tried to talk about his past relationships, he had gotten super defensive, super fast and flat out told her that he thought she only cared about him as a soldier. In hindsight, that may have not been the best move. She had shown him time and time again that he was wrong and he knew she really did care about him as a friend, not just an assignment.

Still, she respected his wishes and hadn't really brought it up again, just hinted at it here and there. And each time she did, he would just as quickly shut it down. Not because he didn't trust her or because he thought she didn't really care, but because...well he wasn't sure why. He just chalked it up to embarrassment at the lack of experience he had compared to her. He knew at some point, she would wear him down enough that they would end up talking about it.

Luckily, they did more than just making Steve uncomfortable with the "Tinder" thing. They were able to juggle her brother's visit along with the already set schedule that was in place. Frankie seemed happy enough to do whatever she told him - going with the flow and staying in her apartment while they went through their daily routine. Then afterwards, the three would hang out in Q's apartment or go to all the tourist spots that Steve had been taken to before. Thankfully, they avoided the World War II Memorial. He was better with the other war memorials, but they didn't stay there for long because Frankie was very uninterested in them.

The weekend passed quickly and on Monday morning, after their daily activities at the Triskelion, she left him to take her brother to the train station so he could catch his train home. Steve had exchanged goodbyes the night before and Frankie made him promise to call him the next time they were in the city. While Steve was a little sad to see him go, he was also a bit relieved. Each interaction felt like a mini test to see how well he could get along with her brother. And even though he had passed the Big Tests and they got along well, there was bound to be a slip up or a mistake. He was looking forward to getting back into known terrority where he didn't have to worry about anything except his usual routine.