ten_fwd_ooc | shout your confessions meme!

[ He blinks, and slowly lightens up. Guess it's no surprise Bucky is one of the obvious culprits. ]

Huh.

OK.

Where, uh. Where should I start?

[ Is this weird? This is weird. He rubs the back of his neck. ]

You should relax first. I won't get angry with you if you say something awkward.

[ She shrugs and brushes her hair back over her shoulder. ] What would you say to a woman you like? If you were going to spend time with them?

[ He looks vaguely like she just asked him the answer to a complicated math problem. ]

Um.

You look ... really nice today. Would you like to go for a cup of coffee?

[ She smiles a little, the closest her expression gets to serene these days without her being in the middle of some sort of intense physical activity. ]

That sounds nice. I'd like to. [ It really does sound nice, and she'd love to, because she barely remembers Steve from when she was eight; and she is after all a woman the same as any other. That hasn't been altered, not yet at least. But Steve wasn't talking to her, not really. She bets it's Peggy he wants to ask. ] You'll do fine, Steve.

[ He smiles a little crookedly. The shot of confidence in his arm is appreciated, even if it makes him feel a little awkward. ]

Thanks.

Just promise you'll let me know if I do anything stupid?

Of course I will.

Who do you want to ask?

[ The question startles him, almost as if he hasn't thought that far ahead yet.

(He has.) ]

Oh, uh. I mean in general. Generally speaking. If I, you know, should talk to someone, a woman, um, in the future.

Steve. [ The subtle shift in her expression really says everything she could say; her head tilts by degrees, her eyebrows lift a fraction of an inch, as if she's simply expecting him to remember that this is her and she doesn't believe for a second that he's that lacking in charisma. And then there's the stunningly simple fact that if he hadn't had at least an inkling of knowing who he wanted to direct his attentions toward, he wouldn't have been so nervous about talking to women specifically. ]

[ He assumes that smiling expression that's two parts bashful and one part coy, which makes it hard to tell whether he's more embarrassed or amused by her reaction. ]

Right, I forgot. [ No secrets here. ] There may be someone specific. Or, uh. Someones specific.

It's hard to say.

Really it's more confusing than anything.

[ She sort of hates that expression because it's so hard to read, even if she's inexplicably happy when Steve does manage a smile. ]

...More than one person?

Well, I --

[ He rubs the back of his neck. ]

It's not like that! It's ... I'm not sure if they're just being nice or if they're, you know, uh. Interested.

I mean, in me.

[ She's not quite sure how to respond to that, really. At least not tactfully without giving away that she likes him, which would be very uncomfortable if they're both confined to the ship. ]

There are a lot of people interested in you, Steve. You're nice.

[ He arches his eyebrow. ]

You can take the kid gloves off. I've heard every metaphor, haiku, and limerick about my ass there is.

Most of them from Tony.

How can you tell when someone thinks you're nice, and someone just wants a, uh. Um, a booty call?

[ She blinks once, and both brows lift. She does, admirably, resist answering that query the way the still-new impulses of blurting things out tell her to. ]

If I was talking about your ass I would have said that much. A lot of people are handsome, Steve. Not all of them are nice. [ Case in point, the aforementioned Stark. But to the question she only shrugs, lifting her shoulders in a motion still too practiced to be entirely natural. Sinthia's still working on it. ] I don't know. No one's ever wanted one with me.

[ Steve turns bright red. He's pretty sure he used that phrase correctly. Unless Clint was pulling another one over on him. ]

I didn't mean you specifically, just that... you know what, never mind.

[ He laughs nervously. This is awkward. ]

Good. You're a nice girl, and you deserve to be treated right.

Neither of us is blind. If I can tell you look good chances are good that everyone else can, too. And they might want...normal people things. [ Yeah, you might have a hard time getting her to out and out talk about sex. ]

I don't really know what that means. To be treated right.

[ Talk about sex? With Sinthia? No, thank you. ]

Uh, thanks. I guess I just have to take a chance, huh?

[ Man up, Rogers. ]

What are you saying? Sinthia ... you deserve someone who loves you, who's willing to sacrifice for you, and treat you like a queen. That's what it means to be treated right.

[ She's trying. It's not really succeeding, but hey, effort gets her points. she still sighs shortly, as if frustrated with the delicacy of language she doesn't know when she adopted. It was certainly never a mission requirement. ] I don't think it's supposed to be that hard.

No, I know...what it entails. I just don't-- [ Sinthia stops abruptly short of saying deserve it, because she knows that will just start another lecture when she can't reconcile everything that easily. ] I think it's different. For people like me.

[ He's watching her from under a furrowed brow, giving her that nothing-escapes-Captain-America patented look. ]

What do you mean?

Steve, I'm not like the girls in all those movies you watch. [ She says it soft, but it's still unmistakeable. ]

People won't treat me like that if they know who I am. Or where I came from.

[ He tilts his head back slightly, quietly appraising her. He squares his jaw, and gives a quick head shake. ]

You're right. And I'm not like any of the fellas in those movies, either. You don't have to be, Sinthia. You're special.

You're not dating me, Steve.

[ It's so simple, said with as little trace of desire for exactly that to happen as she can manage, and Sinthia can manage a lot. She isn't wholly comfortable with being directionless, missionless, but she rarely lets it show beyond a quiet sort of reservation. ]

[ He looks startled. ]

No, I'm not. But I do know you well enough that I can point out when it's a double standard to say a lot of people are interested in me and not in you.

You know, Schmidt once said that he and I were the same. I refuse to believe that. But you, Sinthia? You I don't mind calling my kin.

You're a good girl. Anyone would be lucky to have you, and an idiot to turn you down.

I don't think it's a double standard if it's true, Steve. People are going to be interested in you, you're Captain America, the definition of a nice, single, man. I'm a brainwashed assassin who doesn't know how to be a normal person. [ She huffs out what might have been an attempt at a laugh, and turns out vaguely disappointed, the noise a child might make before they run to hold onto their comfort animal. Notably Sinthia lacks one of these, and just lowers her eyes so she's not looking directly at Steve's face. ]

I didn't leave humanity behind. I just...never had any to begin with.

[ His expression sours at her description of him. He doesn't say anything to argue, but sometimes being Captain America doesn't feel much like a compliment. He looks askance, shaking his head. ]

I don't believe that. I knew you when you were little, and you were plenty human. You are plenty human. Maybe you're different, but who isn't?

[ He reaches for her hand. ]

You are so much more than that, Sinthia. I can see it.

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