Re: Bar: Janus/Steve
Steve believed in free love the same way he believed in all other philosophies similar—it was a choice. And while it wasn't one he would make, he would fight for people to have it. He might've been called a traitorous hippie, but he'd never looked the part. He wasn't a longhair and he never could get used to the slang, but the radical acceptance, the choice of empathy for the world versus imperial invasion—he was all about that. It didn't mean he wasn't a patriot. He was nothing but. He had the same want as Allen, to help the country he loved become what it could be, and to fight for the liberty of every person to live the life they wanted. Vietnam wasn't a fight for liberty. He'd given his testimony in Detroit, during the Winter Soldier Investigation, but it was hearing everyone else's as well that told him he had made the right decision leaving. He would never regret that, and if it made him a bad American to refuse to support genocide, to try to bring up a discourse of white supremacy in a civil war they had no context for, well, he would accept the title, though he would dispute it. It didn't feel too long ago if he thought about it for long enough.
Allen brought it up in him some, of course. It was natural reflection. But, Steve wasn't trying to relive those days, nor was he trying to resurrect his memory of the man next to him. He did find himself pleased with the smile that hinted at gratitude, not for what it acknowledged in him, but just as a sincere expression on a face familiar.
The man kept quiet for a moment after he told Allen—Janus—he was glad he came. The once-soldier was drinking deep from his glass, and Steve wasn't going to interrupt that. Ghosts could shake you, he knew that too. He returned the new smile, whiskey wet on his lips. "Well, I'm glad you do." He set his glass down. "So you're at the B&B, working at the bus station." He worked the threads of his knowledge of the man named Janus on the forums into the fabric of the kid he'd known so long ago, and tried to come up with something more complete. He tipped his head in query. "How do you like it? The work or the B&B."
He had already asked, he knew, but there was room for more nuance now, so Steve thought he'd ask again.