[for Various] Steve Rogers' Birthday

[onlyapassenger]

Memorial Day had passed by with little more than a couple of a beers and a five minute conversation, but Bucky'll be damned if he lets Steve's birthday go the same way. Even during the darkest days of the War, birthdays were always given the special treatment; hell, Toro once blew their cover making sure Bucky had a good one. The gruelling grind of the past couple of months is still fresh in body and mind, but in the simple preparation for the day's get-together, Bucky's found some semblance of peace.

He's not much of a party animal -- he's not even much of a planner -- but things fall into place easily enough. They set up in and around Steve's place, that nice bar of his getting some use for once. There are a couple of goats spinning on a spit outside, courtesy of Thor, and a more traditional grill manned by Bucky himself. Platters of cheeses and fruits and vegetables line a table covered in a red, white and blue tablecloth, and there's more than enough flag-themed birthday cake to go around (strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream make up the familiar stars and stripes, doubling as both food and decoration). Music from Steve's youth plays in the background out of borrowed speakers, and in lieu of streamers, there's a banner that stretches over the front door of his house that reads HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLD MAN.

It's not a lot, but it's something.

[Open to Marvels, significant others/close friends of Marvels, and any assorted friends of Steve. This post will be linked to the main community on July 4th. Slated post here. ST/LT welcome!]

Comments

[notawastedlife]

"I'm warm in anything, it's a warm island," Tony said, adjusting a lapel and eating a piece of goat off a kebab on his plate. "Speaking of warm feelings..." He suggestively popped his eyebrows. "I hear a rumor about you and Langkowski."

[bannered]

The emotion that bubbles up inside Bruce could really only be described as annoyance, and his gaze scans the party until he finds Peter, conveniently standing on the other side of the group.

"Really?" he replies, injecting his voice with naivety as he maintains a mild death-glare. "What rumor would that be?"

[notawastedlife]

Tony paused at this with the plate halfway extended towards Bruce, and then after a moment held it out the rest of the way.

"That you've struck up a beneficial scientific partnership," he said, which was diplomatic, he thought, which wasn't entirely his style so he added, "So to speak."

[bannered]

Bruce takes a kebab from the plate without glancing at it, merely holding it between his fingers before he looks down at exactly what he's taken.

"Something like that," he says, biting a piece of meat off the skewer with a sigh.

[notawastedlife]

"You're ambivalent and I don't know why you're ambivalent," Tony said. "She seems nice, she is... fairly scorching. Is it the used to be a man thing? You can't let that get to you, be cooler than that."

[bannered]

"Not ambivalent, just - " Bruce pauses, searching for the right word as he finishes chewing. It's not even that Wanda used to be a man; he hadn't even been aware of that fact until she'd shared it with him, showed him the literal reality of the situation. There had even been another version of him who had known Wanda as a man - they'd roomed together, for crying out loud. If it's getting to anyone, it would most likely be her, since now she has both versions of Bruce Banner to contend with in her head.

" - private," he finishes, though he manages a small half-smile, since it is Tony, after all.