Chapter 1
“Come on, Steve! You’ve got to go out for once!”
Natasha’s voice resonated in the room with mixed pleading and frustration. Steve didn’t even look at his phone laying on a table a few feet apart from his stool and his canvas. He didn’t want to miss that sunset. He only growled. His friend didn’t surrender.
“Let’s be serious. When was the last time you had a night out?”
This time, the young man gave a proper answer.
“When I had time. Which I currently don’t. Please, stop insisting, Nat.”
Silence followed his words and for a few seconds, Steve sincerely believed Natasha had given up and hung up. But she didn’t.
“We’ll be back before ten. What about that?”
He sighed. He had almost finished his painting for a commission online. Next, he had to do the one for his teacher - although he was two years into a Doctorate he still took classes. Moreover, that one was going to be tricky. Commissions were hard work, hours on a painting, but at least, the directions were precise. Meanwhile, what his teacher asked for the assignment was for him to “choose a painting and redraw it with a new emotion.” To begin with, he had no idea what original painting he wanted to pick, let alone what kind of emotion he would have it switch to.
“Steve, come on. I’ll promise, it will be in a nice bar, just the three of us, we’ll just enjoy a drink and talk for a bit and be back before ten.”
Steve chewed on his brush.
“When you mean the three of us...?”
“You, me and Maria.”
“Right. Of course.”
Him, Natasha and Natasha’s girlfriend he had known for as long as he had known Natasha herself. They were of very good company indeed and weren’t (too much) nosy about his intimate life.
He kept chewing. A drop of paint slipped from the brush and crashed on his already stained jeans. When realizing it, he smashed the tool on his apron and looked thoughtfully at his painting. It just missed a spot of sky in the middle up and the trees on the landscape. Steve drove his wheeled stool to the table where he had left his phone to check the time. It was five in the afternoon. He could be finished in one, two hours max. It would left him with plenty of time to prepare the new canvas for his assignment. Plus, Natasha was right. He had barely left his flat during the last few months. And the virus had little to nothing to do with that. Maybe this night out would do him good. Heck, maybe it would even inspire him.
“Fine. I surrender. I’ll come.”
It was almost as if he could hear Natasha’s grin.
“Excellent! We’ll pick you at eight, okay?”
“It’s perfect.”
The call ended. Now, to finish this sunset...
At eight, Steve was ready. He had a light dinner and took a shower. He put on a fresh pair of jeans and a nice red pull-over that hid the smeared shirt underneath (he had realized that apart from buttoned-up shirts he kept for more formal occasions, he had not one T-shirt left spared of paint stains). The two girls rang on the intercom and he answered them.
“Evening Steve” said Maria, “you’re ready?”
“Yup. Coming right now!”
He stuffed his wallet and his keys in his pocket and ran down the three floors’ worth of stairs. When he finally got outside, he took his time to catch his breath, his hands on his knees. His two friends looked at him with pity in their eyes.
“You know, Rogers” said Natasha, “we could have waited a few minutes. No need to have an asthma attack for us.”
Steve would have gladly answered with a “real funny, Nat” if he hadn’t been on the verge of having an asthma attack indeed. Bloody skinny, weak body. Fortunately, his breath came back quickly and they started walking. The blond immediately changed the subject.
“Where are you taking me? By the way, I’ve already eaten.”
“Yeah, we also ate” Natasha replied.
“Tho,” said Maria, “the place we’re taking you to does have nice pancakes.”
Steve shrugged.
“Then maybe we could try them later.”
The bar was actually mid-distance between Steve’s home and the flat Maria and Natasha shared since the beginning of the year. Steve walked between the two girls. People looked at them - two fierce women and a man whose head didn’t even reach their shoulders. Steve tried not to think about it. It was somewhat easy because his two friends kept his mind distracted by their meaningless chat.
Some ten mines later, they arrived at the bar. It was a somewhat Irish bar with large windows, a low ceiling but very well-lit and ventilated. Maria briefly left them to go salute the owner of the pace. There was also a pool table in the back with men already playing. All the stools near the counter were taken. All the men here were - Steve couldn’t help but notice - huge. And all the women looked like they were either Nat’s or Maria’s (or even the both of them) sisters. They found a double bank near the entrance to the back door and sat down, with Steve facing his two friends.
“Is it a gay bar or something?” he joked.
Maria huffed but Natasha gently smiled. A waiter arrived and they commanded their drinks: a mint mojito for Maria, a vodka for Natasha and a blonde beer for Steve.
“So, how are you guys doing?” Steve asked when the waiter had left.
Maria started talking about her job at the police force and Steve listened with attention. Though he knew her for a very long time, he did talk way more to Natasha than to her and thus he didn’t know the latest news about Hill.
“So, I assume it’s going pretty well” he said when she was done talking about her newest missions and the new responsibilities she had gotten recently.
“Yeah, you could say that. I’m hoping for a promotion before the end of the year.”
“I guess it’s great then.”
Steve had always struggled with the thought of Natasha - a freelance artist, ecologist and LGBT activist - dating a cop - which also happened to share the same activism. And today probably more than ever. Although it had honestly nothing to do with himself having trouble with authority - the racist one especially. So once again, he couldn’t resist himself.
“But apart from your job, everything is going fine? I mean, with Trump being president? With what’s happening in the street? Do you, like, support Trump?”
“You well-know I don’t Steve! But the authority being currently flawed doesn’t mean we should drop off all laws and let ourselves fall into chaos!”
“’Sides, she only does traffic right now” chimed in Natasha, calmly.
The two glared at her. Steve because he thought this topic was too serious for this dumb jokes, Maria because it wasn’t even true and was thus conflicted about whether she should kill her girlfriend or have mercy in the name of Love. Natasha shook her head with disappointment.
“You guys are no fun.”
She rose, moving her empty glass under their eyes.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna refill this.”
They watched her leaving then Steve apologized for having let himself be carried away.
“No, you’re right” said Maria with a sigh, “I mean, your concerns are rightful.”
At this point, Steve rose too and excused himself. He hurried towards the toilet all the other way across the bar while hoping he could be back before Natasha would.
Meanwhile, at the counter, Natasha had slid between two leather jacket men.
“Over there!” she shouted to the barman who gestured to her to let her know they had seen her.
As she was waiting for them to finish what they were doing, the men near her turned to her. One had sunglasses and the other was bald with a huge beard.
“Hi lady, comin’ here often?” asked the first one suggestively.
“Yep, but not for you, sorry” she replied immediately.
The second one stood down his stool and tried to grab her by the hip. She resisted and he growled, visibly frustrated.
“Come on, we just want to buy you a drink. Isn’t it all profit for ya?”
Natasha had taken a step back while looking around for the barman. Unfortunately, they were laughing at some joke from a client afar from where she was.
“Please” said Natasha, “I can buy my own drink. And I’m already here with my girlfriend...”
She didn’t finish: the bald man swore and spat to her face.
“Fuckin’ lesbians!”
This was getting out of hand, Natasha thought for herself. She eyed Maria but Maria was focused on writing a text.
“Okay, no need for...”
“For what?” shouted the sunglasses man. “For treating you like you deserve? You fucking lesbian.”
The redhead had no doubt she could take the two of them and within seconds but she also didn’t want to do it except as a last resort. Unfortunately, things didn’t get left at that.
“Hey!” shouted a man from across the counter, near the pool table.
He had dark long hair and a missing arm. Maybe he was not as tall as the two other men but his muscles were clearly bigger.
“Fucking stop talking to her like that!”
The black man next to him put his hand on his only forearm in an attempt to calm him down.
“Barnes...”
Natasha’s eyes widened. Was it...?
The bald man took a step onwards.
“And why would we do that, crippled? Or are you like, you know, one of them?”
The so-called Barnes stood up immediately, clenching his fist.
“Because if you don’t stop, I’ll freaking punch you in the face, asshole.”
Alerted by the shouting, the barman finally showed up.
“Hey, hey! No fighting guys! No fighting or y’all have to get out!”
The bald man laughed.
“Don’t worry, pal. This pussy will never act. He’s just talk.”
“That’s it!” Barnes shouted before throwing his fist in the man’s jaw.
The punch throw the man directly to the ground. During one second, he stayed there, completely appalled by what had just happened - but the next one, he was already up and fighting back.
“Aw, come on!” said Natasha, “this is not necessary!”
But someone - the sunglasses man - grabbed her around the waist.
“Yeah, not necessary to be that man-hating baby!”
Natasha had patience - but up to a certain amount only. Quickly, the bar became a battleground. Barnes, his friend and the redhead were fighting the two men who somehow gained two more allies. When Maria saw that, she jumped to his feet and went to grab her girlfriend before pushing her towards the exit. Natasha resisted.
“Stop it! Stop it! WTF are you doing? They insulted us!”
“I believe you” said Maria, “but really, babe, let’s just get outside before it gets uglier.”
People not involved in the fight were already trying to leave while the barman warned the belligerents they were about to call the police.
“Listen!” said Nat, “you are the police! Do something!”
“I can’t! If I have to act, it’ll have to be against that armless guy who threw the first punch. And if the police do come, I... I don’t know what will happen. So I don’t want us to be there at all.”
They finally managed to get outside. They stepped away from the door and the redhead snatched her bag away from Maria. She looked and was pissed.
“Maybe Steve’s right, after all...”
Maria frowned, her heart missing a beat.
“What? Nat, what are you-”
“Where’s Steve anyway?”
They both looked around and didn’t find his scrawny body.
“He must still be in the toilet” said Maria eventually. “Let’s just wait for him.”
Natasha shook his head.
“Hell no. I’m getting him back myself.”
And she stepped inside the bar again.
Steve was peacefully peeing. He was a bit surprised for he had only drink half a beer yet, but then, he remembered he had forgotten to go to the bathroom before leaving. His business done, he washed his hands with great care before stepping back into the cosy bar. Or, at least, attempted to.
He had not even begin to move towards his place that suddenly, he received a fist in the face that send him to the ground. Shocked, he raised his hands to his nose and felt the warmth of the blood. A deep voice came to his ears.
“Oh shit, oh fu- I’m so sorry, man, I-!”
Steve didn’t think twice; he got right back up and punched back the man who had just attacked him. The man groaned and grabbed his painful ribs. In the mere second after that, Steve’s artistic mind encaptured the whole silhouette: the long hair, the bluest eyes of all... and the missing left arm. For one moment, Steve felt bad for hitting a disabled person. Then he recalled his bleeding nose.
“Why the heck did you punch me for?”
The brunet looked at him, puffing.
“You don’t understand... Lesbians...”
At this instant, Steve saw Natasha at the bar’s entrance. She both look dismayed and furious. Dismayly furious if you will. Steve felt sick.
“Because they’re lesbians? Seriously?”
The armless guy managed to stand again. He no longer seemed sorry.
“Yeah, seriously. You got a problem with that?”
Well, thought Steve, he would no longer feel bad.
“A big one!”
The rest was a bit of a blur. He fought for his friends, that was for sure. Received many punches because of that, no denying it either. Then the police arrived and they were kicked out of the bar. The armless guy and three other dudes were taken into custody but luckily for him, Maria had managed to get him away before the cops actually started arresting people. He left the two women shortly afterwards, however, and went home alone.
At home, he cleaned his face and put off his now dirty pull-over. He headed for his bedroom and took out his phone. It was nine past twelve. At least, Natasha kept her promise, he thought bitterly. Still, he couldn’t believe it. There was so much homophobia out there in the world. And that guy with just one arm? Yeah, he was the worst of them all.