This place along with The Thingy as Peter enjoyed calling it - it was really damn catchy these days - certainly had a way of dropping surprises on all of them. Compared to others, Steve's list wasn't nearly as long, but a few of them had been heavy.
This was one of those surprises.
Steve had been going over his greeting and possible things to talk about with James the entire morning. An early riser by nature, the subject ideas had been cycling since before sun up. He'd considered making a list and running it by Bucky, Tony, and Bruce. Steve even wanted to ask Allison. They seemed to have some experience with kids by a variety of means. Surely they could provide some pointers.
There had been a brief moment that he had considered asking Addison, too.
He wasn't a stranger to talking to or with kids; teens if he was being respectful to James' actual age. He was just a stranger when it came to talking to a person who was his kid in another universe. With Natasha.
That was still a thing he was coming to terms with and had probably had a hard time looking her in the face. Bruce, too. And Allison.
Honestly, Steve was trying to wrap so much of it around in his head that he'd nearly lost track of the time. He'd wanted to be there early, get a decent seat for him and James, and get a few cups of coffee in before the discussions began.
Another misstep and failure tucked away in his ledger, as Natasha would say.
"At least one of us is good at being on time." Steve gave a slight grin as he took a seat across from James. He'd given a slight wave when he entered the diner, one of the places he was a regular outside of May's restaurant. It wasn't long before there was a carafe of coffee and two mugs on the table.
"Coffee?" he asked, flipping both cups over and paused before pouring.