Deja Brew

You’re doing an interview with Fox News?” Bucky asked incredulously.

“Yeah. Why, should I not have agreed to talk to a bunch of racist assholes? I mean, it’s not like they are going to make assumptions about me based on the stereotypes of the time I was born, right? It’s not like the whole reason I agreed to do this interview was to prove they are awful. That would be deceitful. I’m Captain America, the poster child for having a moral compass. How dare you accuse me of such a thing,” Steve said with a devilish smirk.

“Steve Rogers, you are such a little shit,” Bucky laughed. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

“Oh, you like me?”

“Not anymore I don’t,” Bucky stuck out his tongue.

Steve mimicked the action in retaliation.

“But seriously. We should probably talk about where our relationship stands. We started to talk earlier, but never really got into it,” Bucky said nervously.

“Yeah, we probably should.”

“I guess I’ll start. I sort of overreacted on Monday. I haven’t had the best luck with the guys I’ve dated in the past. I’m so used to being lied to by my partners. When I met you, something felt different. I felt like maybe I could actually be in a healthy relationship, but then I found out about the Cap thing and freaked. All I could think about in the moment was that of course you would lie to me about who you are. Everyone else has. So I freaked out on you and left before you made it worse. And me telling you this isn’t me trying to excuse my behavior, I’m just explaining what was going through my head at the time. When you came to my place last night, I was more mad at myself than you. I knew I reacted poorly, so I took it out on you.”

“You know, I planned on telling you that week,” Steve told him honestly.

“Really?” Bucky asked hopefully.

“Yeah. After our date on Saturday I spoke to Tony. I wanted to know in what capacity you would be working with the team. When he told me you would end up working with us, I asked him to hold off telling you. I wanted to be the one to do it. You can ask him if you want. He knew my whole plan. That’s why I asked you over for dinner on Friday. I was going to cook us a nice dinner, maybe have a glass of wine or two. Then I was going to sit you down and tell you about how I was actually Captain America. I figured you might freak out a bit, so I planned to give you the weekend to process if you needed it. You coming over on Monday and figuring it out for yourself kinda threw a wrench in my plan.”

“I probably still would have freaked out a bit. But I do think that plan would have been much better than me figuring it out. Now, the big question is, what do you want our relationship to be?”

“I want whatever you want, Buck,” Steve said earnestly.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. If you want to be just friends, I’m okay with that. If you want to pursue a romantic relationship, I’m okay with that as well. I’m very much okay with that, in all honesty. I want to be a part of your life in whatever capacity you want me in it.”

“What if I never want to speak to you again?”

“I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I would respect your choice. If that’s what you want.”

“It’s not. I want a romantic relationship with you. But, maybe we could take it slow?”

“Absolutely.”

————

“Captain Rogers, I’m sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but Ms. Potts is on her way down to pick you up for your interview,” Jarvis alerted him.

“You’re not sorry. You’re not capable of feeling things,” Steve muttered.

“Yeah, stupid ceiling robot,” Bucky said, mocking Steve’s tone.

“Jerk.”

“Punk.”

“I thought you two were getting along now,” Pepper said as she walked off the elevator.

“Yeah, Jarvis told me you two were making quite the ruckus last night. Wink, wink,” Tony added, stepping off behind her.

“I did no such thing, Sir,” Jarvis said in his defense.

Tony pouted when his A.I. disagreed with his story. Pepper just rolled her eyes, as if this was normal. Steve assumes it was.

“So Captain, are you ready for your first interview?” Pepper asked.

“Yes. I think. I’m a little nervous, but I think I can get through this.”

“Wonderful. Let’s head over to the studio then.”

Due to the early hour, it didn’t take long for Steve and Pepper to arrive at the studio. Upon arrival, Pepper went to speak with the show's host while Steve was dragged off to hair and makeup.

After an hour of poking and prodding at his head, they decided he looked good enough. He was led to the stage so that he could meet the man who was to be interviewing him.

As expected, the man who was going to interview him was old and white. He greeted Steve pleasantly enough, but he knew the interview would take a turn. Steve was planning on derailing it as quickly as he could.

Someone told them that it was nearly time to go on air, so Steve and his interviewer took their seats.

“Good morning and welcome back. I’m sitting here with Captain Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America. How are you this morning, Captain?” The interview asked.

“I’m doing well, thank you,” Steve answered amicably. He knew he had to start off well.

“I think the number one thing on everyone’s mind is, how are you adjusting to the new century?”

“Well, things aren't so bad. Food's a lot better; we used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot trying to catch up. I’ll admit, it was a little strange to wake up seventy years in the future though.”

“What would you say was the most challenging thing for you to adjust to?”

“Honestly, I like to think I adjusted pretty quickly. People have a tendency to treat me like a ninety four year old, instead of a twenty seven year old. The new technology was pretty easy to get accustomed to. I do have an eidetic memory.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. Is there anything that you miss from before?”

“Mostly just the friends I had made. The only family I had were my mom and dad, and they both passed before I became Captain America. When I joined the army, the Howling Commandos became my family. Most of them passed away before I came out of the ice.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. How has your time with the Avengers compared to your time with the Commandos?”

“For starters, the woman on our team is actually allowed to fight with us. Peggy, I mean, Agent Carter wasn’t allowed to be on the front lines with us because she was a woman. I’m so glad that Black Widow has the opportunity to fight alongside us.”

“I was planning on asking about your relationship with Agent Carter. You two are one of the greatest love stories of the twentieth century.”

“Really?” Steve chuckled. “We were never romantically involved. I did look up to her. I made sure to tell anyone who would listen that the war would have ended in a week is Dr. Erskine gave the serum to Peggy instread. She’s the one who taught me everything I know. My entire fighting style is based on hers. And dumb luck. There is a lot of that involved.”

“I find that hard to believe,” the interview said incredulously.

“Well, believe it. Peggy Carter trained me how to fight. Every time I was in battle I would think to myself, ‘what would Peggy do?’”

The interview began to look flustered. He was clearly trying to get Steve to stop talking about Peggy, but Steve wasn’t going to lie. Peggy Carter was one of the best soldiers he worked with. He wanted to be just like her. He wasn’t going to say something else to please a misogynist interviewer.

“You said that you have been catching up on historical events that you missed. What have you found to be the most interesting?”

“The Vietnam War.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“I have a lot of issues with it. I mean, it’s basically just American imperialism. I read the great novel called ‘The Ugly American’ that was published a few years before the war that I think sums it up perfectly. The American Government went into Vietnam and did whatever they wanted. They ignored that the Vietnamese people needed, and they just did whatever they could to further their political agenda.”

The interview looked at Steve, clearly thrown off by this answer. He quickly regained his composure before continuing.

“Well, they did that so they could stop the spread of communism.”

“Would now be a bad time to mention that I was part of the socialist party back in the day?” Steve asked, knowing what kind of reaction he would receive.

“You were a socialist?” He managed to choke out.

“I still am. I mean, my mother was a poor immigrant who had to work herself quite literally to death off to feed herself and her chronically ill child. If we implemented socialism in this country, things might have been easier on her.”

“But socialism is the precursor to communism. Don’t you think we should avoid succumbing to the communists?”

“Not at all. I think Marx had some great ideas that, if implemented, would greatly benefit our society.”

“You said your mother was an immigrant, right?” The interviewer asked, clearly wanting to change the subject. “What are your current thoughts on the issue of immigration? Surely as Captain America you don’t want terrorists entering the country?”

“Based on my research, most terrorists are heterosexual, white, American-born, males. The media just focuses on those who aren’t to support their anti-Islamic crusades. Or, at least, that’s how I see it. America is the land of the free. We should be willing to let everyone in.”

“Oh,” he stumbled, clearly even more flustered. “I noticed you used the term ‘heterosexual.’ What are your thoughts on the gay rights movement? Homosexuality wasn’t legal when you were growing up, right?”

“Yeah, it was. Imagine how hard it was for little thirteen year old Steve Rogers realizing that he found both men and women attractive. I always figured that I could just only go out with women and ignore my attraction to men,” Steve told him with a smile.

“What?” The interview asked, dumbfounded.

“I believe the technical term for it is bisexual. I’m thankful that I grew up in Brooklyn when I did. It was one of the fastest places in America to be openly queer. Then I joined the army. Turns out, a lot of guys are into men. And those who weren’t were very open to the idea of, what’s the modern term for it, topping? A lot of guys were very into the idea of topping the great Captain America. I learned that I very much have a preference for being a bottom. I believe the current term is a power bottom,” Steve told him, trying hard not to laugh at the look of shock on the interviewer's face.

“Excuse me, what? Is captian America gay?”

“Captain America is a character that I play when there are cameras turned on. Steve Rogers, on the other hand, is a raging bisexual with a preference for men.”

“But you claim to be bisexual, so that means you will still probably end up dating a woman.”

“Nope. I figured she. I got the serum that it would fix everything that was wrong with me. I am still very much attracted to men, so clearly there isn’t anything wrong with it. I’m actually currently in a relationship with a man. We’ve only been on one date, but we’ve known each other for a while and I feel like he’s something special.”

“Okay, let's move on from sexuality, what were your thoughts on the civil rights movement?”

“I’m actually very upset about that.”

“Really?”

“Yes. From the reading that I've done on the subject, it seems that the only real reason that the civil rights movement happened was because the Soviet Union was using it as propaganda against the United States. They were making posters about how the country was still lynching people well onto the 1950’s. The only reason Kennedy seemed to be so on board with it was to prove to the Soviet Union that we weren’t that awful. I wish I had the chance to match alongside Dr. Martin Luther King. I wish that I was still alive so that I could have helped speed up the process. The color of a person’s skin shouldn’t matter. Every human deserves to be treated equally. You don’t want to get me started on the pay gap.”

“The pay gap?”

“Yeah, the fact that women get paid less than men for doing the exact same job. How companies will deliberately give a woman a different job title so that they can pay them less money than a man and legally get away with it. I think it’s despicable. In my experience, women are much more competent than their male counterparts. I saw it with my mother and Peggy Carter back in the day. I see it with Black Widow and Pepper Potts now. Both the Avengers and Stark Industries would fall apart without them.”

“So Captain America is a gay feminist who supports the civil rights movement and immigrants.”

“Yeah pretty much. I’ve actually watched your show in the past. I really do not understand why in this country it’s okay for an entire television station to be so bigoted. Back in my day, new was unbiased. No one took a side on issues, they would just tell us what was happening. I have serious issues with how the media has changed. And I find it horrific that you seem to think it’s acceptable to preach bigotry on your station.”

“Well, I think that’s all we have time for today,” The rattled interview concluded. “Thank you for joining us today, Captain.”

“Thank you so much for having me,” Steve said with a devilish smile.

As soon as the camera cut off, the interview glared at Steve.

“What the hell was that?” He asked, clearly irritated.

“What do you mean?” Steve asked, feigning innocence.

“You know exactly what I mean.”

“Oh, are you talking about how I gave my honest opinions about things? How I refused to hide who I am? Is that what you are talking about?”

Steve felt himself getting riled up. He wanted the interviewer to say something obviously bigoted. He wanted an excuse to punch him like he so desperately wanted to do, but he couldn’t. Mostly because Pepper noticed what was going on and made her way over to the pair.

“Thank you so much for having us on your show,” Pepper said sweetly to the man.

“Don’t expect it to happen again,” he spat out before storming off.

Pepper turned to Steve with an unreadable look.

“I’m used to this sort of thing from Tony. I didn’t realize I have to watch out for you too,” she sighed.

“You really don’t, ma’am. I only get like this with bigots,” he said in an attempt to reassure her.

“That doesn’t make me feel better. Luckily, the next interview I have set up for you is with Jimmy Fallon tomorrow night. Hopefully it goes better than this.”

They quickly made their way out of the studio and headed back to the tower. Steve was very excited to see what Bucky and the other Avengers thought about his interview.

What he wasn’t expecting, was to find the secretary of the World Security Council, Alexander Pierce, to be waiting in front of the tower.

“Shit,” Pepper mumbled under her breath. She rolled down the partition between the back seat and the driver. “Happy, I’m going to need to do a few laps to make sure no one is watching us, then take Tony’s short cut into the tower.”

“You’ve got it, Ms. Potts,” Happy agreed easily.

“What’s going on,” Steve asked Pepper nervously.

“I assume Pierce wants to talk to you about the interview. Or he wants to get to James. Probably both. Either way, it’s better to sneak us back into the tower and make sure that you and James are both safe.”

“I can handle myself. But Bucky’s safety is my priority. If taking the ‘short cut’ into the tower helps, then I’m all in. Is there anything else that I could do?”

“I’m sure that Tony and Fury already have the team gathered. They are likely just waiting for you.”