Who: Peggy and Steve. What: Lunch. When: May 12th. Where: A café. Rating/Warnings: None Status: Complete
Now that Steve sort of more or less had Fury on board with the special unit, and with Tony lined up and possibly Bucky in the future, Steve had been busy carefully putting together a report to let Fury know he was taking this very seriously. After leaving the report for the director, Steve was walking back to the elevator when he passed an open door. It was really just absent curiosity that made him peer inside as he passed by, and he almost stumbled over himself.
Seeing Peggy working behind her desk made Steve feel all hot in the face, and he felt like he was spying when he shouldn’t be. Then he was struck with a certain moment of confidence, so he knocked on her door and poked his head inside with a slight smile.
“Uh. Hey.”
If he peeked inside all he would see was organized chaos. Peggy was still working on getting everything sorted out and she hadn’t had time to wade through all the files that were towering high on her desk. There were so many things to read up on and things were starting to make her head swirl. Were there really alien attacks and things like that? And trying to figure out what kind of a team she wanted to lead was also hard.
Her head was about to drop onto the desk in frustration when she heard a voice and a knock coming from the door. It was the man she met the other week, Steve, and she smiled back at him, “Hey there! How are you?”
It was probably a bit ridiculous how happy he was that she remembered who he was, and he grinned a little bit with a shrug. “I’m all right. Better than you look, anyway,” he said, giving her a sympathetic look. “You look a little like you might need a break before your head explodes”
"The hazards of a new job and trying to get everything under control. Nick is the kind of guy that wants to get things figured out as quickly as possible," she fully agreed with her boss in that regard, but a break was always a good thing, "but I do agree my head might explode. What kind of ideas did you have?"
“That’s Fury for you.” Steve shrugs a bit, leaning against the doorframe. He wondered if she’d actually go with him, if he suggested something. He wanted to do it, for the sake of his dream self if nothing more. “Uh. There’s this café or something just down the road? Word is they have good soup and sandwiches, good coffees and stuff. If you wanted to try it out. With me.”
Making friends high on Peggy's to-do list since she moved here. She didn't want to spend forever hanging out at the office with Fury or alone in her apartment. So, when he offered the opportunity to go try a new place with him she couldn't help but take the offer, "That sounds lovely. I don't believe I have tried every place around here yet and company is always an added bonus." She clicked a few things on her computer to save and lock before getting out of her chair and grabbing her purse.
Steve was momentarily surprised that she agreed. He felt his cheeks turn a bit pink and he stopped leaning, standing up straight. “Great,” he said. Because it was. It was really great. “Hopefully I don’t end up being bad company.”
“I’m sure you’ll be wonderful company,” Peggy reassured him as she placed her purse on her shoulder and grabbed her keys for the office. Once outside the door she locked up and then turned to look at Steve properly, “Alright, lead the way or else I will get us hopelessly lost to this mysterious cafe.”
“I’ll most definitely try.” He stood aside to let her pass, then he led the way out of the building. Outside, he took in a breath to try and calm his nerves. “Apart from trying to get everything organized, how are you liking Orange County so far?”
"It's a nice place to be. I can't complain about the weather and some of the people are quite strange. It makes it so I'm not really ever bored," she explained with a light laugh as she followed alongside him. She wasn't quite sure if she absolutely loved it here or not yet, but she was getting there.
“No, yeah, it’s definitely never boring.” Steve gave her an amused sort of smile. “Hopefully none of the weirdness scares you away.”
"It may take a lot to scare me off. I've seen a lot of things in my life," most of those things she would never really be allowed to talk about, but it just meant Peggy was good at sticking around, "Tell me more about yourself."
“I don’t know what much there is to say.” A lie, a total lie. Steve wasn’t going to launch right into the being a superhero thing. “I grew up in Brooklyn. I always thought maybe I’d be an artist but I got into nutrition and fitness. So I came out here because it seemed like there was a better market for it. Californian stereotype, I know.” He gave Peggy a smile. “I was an athletic therapist for a while but now I’m self employed. Personal trainer.”
"What kind of art? And do you still do anything artistic or just completely focused on fitness? And that's awesome that you're a personal trainer. I really should get back into fitness, so maybe I will stop by your gym," she explained as a light flush appeared on her cheeks at the idea of going just to see him.
“Sketchwork, mostly. I don’t really know what I had planned on doing, I just like doing it. I sort of stop and do a few pieces now and then, but I’m a lot busier than I expected.” He couldn’t help but grin a bit as she blushed a little. It was pretty. “I got a lot of clients pretty early on, and a few high profile ones. But on weekends I volunteer at a community centre, running a sports class for kids.”
"You seem to be too good to be true. There has to be something wrong with you," she moved to playfully knock her shoulder against him with that comment. She did think that he was practically perfect from what she was learning about him.
“Nah,” he said, though now it was his turn to blush, “I just try to do good things. No point in being a jerk, you know?”
He looked adorable when he blushed and she was almost tempted to set herself a goal to see him blush more, "Good words to live by. There aren't enough people like you around. But I can't complain because bad guys keep me in business."
“Well, ma’am, that’s very true.” A brief look of mortification came over Steve. “Sorry - That wasn’t - You’re not a ma’am. I mean. I’m not saying you’re old. Or anything. Would you believe me if I told you that I just sometimes had dreams about the forties and the slang just sort of stuck?”
A confused look passed over Peggy's face as he commented on these dreams he had and she was honestly surprised he was making such a big deal out of one little word. She reached out to place a hand on his shoulder and looked at him earnestly, "You sound a little crazy, but ma'am is not the worst thing I've been called. It is not a big deal, Steve, take a deep breath and I will pretend it never happened."
He had done the same thing in the dreams. Called her something he thought maybe wasn’t appropriate. He’d went on a ramble then, too. “Sorry.” Steve gave an apologetic smile. “The last time I told someone something was swell, I got a real funny look. So maybe I’m just paranoid or something.”
“I’ll give you a funny look, but you shouldn’t paranoid about it,” She pointed out with a smile as she gently squeezed his shoulder before pulling it away. A quick thought about how muscular he was went through her mind and she hoped to God she wasn’t blushing over it, “I think most people tend to shrug that kind of thing off. So, please don’t stress yourself out over it.”
“Sorry,” Steve said again. “And sorry for apologizing all the time.” Geez, he was a disaster. Fortunately, they got to the cafe pretty quickly and Steve found them a table, pulling out Peggy’s chair for her.
“You have too good of manners for your own good,” Peggy teased him as she thanked him for pulling out her seat and took a spot across from him. The lunch date was off to an interesting start, but she couldn’t deny that she wasn’t enjoying this interaction with him. It was nice to get away from her desk and get some fresh air, “Alright, let’s start this lunch over and pretend nothing on the walk happened.”