finding balance

[backin_theworld]

WHO: Steve Rogers, Open
WHEN: Last week of January
WHAT: Random stuff
WHERE: Around Gazin
WARNINGS: None

Life in Gazin has been interesting for Steve since arriving a few weeks prior and he can't seem to find it all amusing that whatever power is in charge of transporting him to all these different alternate worlds and realms in all sorts of different eras of time. If anyone should feel like a yo-yo personified, he'd enthusiastically raise his hand.

When he's not checking in and bugging his best friend, Steve is trying to find ways of passing the time. He can't really say he has much experience in these times, but it looks pretty basic.

Steve is a good guy, all in all, so he offers his assistance whenever he notices someone needs help and he manages to get himself a job helping out on an elderly couple on their farm by cutting wood and fixing things around the several acre lot. He feeds the livestock, which turns out to be the most dangerous job where it comes to dodging the wrath of a black bull he has taken to calling Fury.

At the end of most days, he trudges back to the inn and looks for some decent company in the dining room. He's still unsure of the purpose he has here but Steve is, if anything, a very patient guy.

Comments

[backin_theworld]

Steve's chin lifts up in quiet understanding before Bucky is even done speaking. A girl. Only he didn't realize they'd been there long enough for him to get involved with someone. Even if it's more innocent than not.

"Buck, you know you shouldn't be saying no to anything because of me," Steve pauses, shaking his head. "Having your freedom back means you get to decide things for yourself."

Does it bother him that a witch out in the woods wants his best friend to move in with her? Yeah, a lot. But he also knows he can't interfere with how his best friend leads his life here.

[ostavil]

Bucky gives him a look when he starts in on saying no to things because of him and his freedom. It's not like that, not at all, and he doesn't know how to express that to Steve.

"She offered for both of us, you know. It'd be out of town. But it's not like you're thinking. I'm not that guy anymore and you know it. Absolutely nothing but mutual respect there."

The days of him chasing after women are long gone. Long, long gone and probably best immortalized in the Smithsonian or Steve's brain.

[backin_theworld]

He watches his best friend, his expression telling enough that he had it all wrong and now he can't help but feel like he did when Howard explained what fondue meant.

Steve's face falls and he looks down, thinking that his best friend does deserve to be happy but can also understand why Bucky might feel he doesn't.

"Okay," he replies gently, pausing for a long moment before starting in. "You know, I was kind of thinking after I bank some more of this money I'm making on the Gilbert's farm that maybe I can buy us a place. They got a few acres on the other side that they're willing to lease me. It's on a lake."

He wouldn't stop Bucky from living where he wants to live, but he did want him to know that he could go with live with him.

[ostavil]

"Lake might be nice," Bucky agrees. "Anywhere but town, I think, is going to be an improvement. I didn't mean to just...come at you. It's just that I don't think I'm ready for a relationship. I like the girl but what kind of guy would I be? I'm too messed up in the head to bring other people into my mess."

There's work he has left to do. He and Shuri had made great progress but there's still things twisted and turned around in his head that he needs to straighten out before he's a good partner to anyone.

"I just wish there'd been someone like Peggy, you know? You always had the compass and I had a really complicated road map."