( closed | action )

[uprightness]

Who: steve rogers, peggy carter and one tiny natasha romanoff.
Broadcast: nope
Action: on the starstruck
When: backdated to nat's glorious augment malfunction.



[ it's just one of those days on the starstruck in yet another drifting week.

it's the time that steve spends busying himself with his work and his reading, trying to fill the time without feeling too idle. as he lacks a place to jog, he uses the treadmill more often than not, letting out the excess amounts of energy that seem to build up while the ships drift towards a new planet.

it's one of those days but on his way back from another run, he stops solid at the entrance to the kitchen, momentarily frozen mid-drying his hair with a towel.

finding peggy there isn't unusual, not by far.

but then there is the child. the girl he knows is natasha and at once, it's clear how uneasy he is around her, staying awkwardly rooted where he is. ]

Hey -

[ natasha might be one of steve's closest friend but this smaller version of her really, well.

to say that she creeps him out wouldn't be a lie.

he still makes no attempt at moving, whatsoever. ]

Comments

[uprightness]

I like to know what I eat, figured you might want to know what all of this is, too. Not so you can be picky so much as you can have - intel.

[ knowledge. but he'll use her language if that's what will make his point clear. ]

Some of it looks foreign. I appreciated an explanation about it all when I showed up here, thought you might want the same thing.

[outstandingbalance]

You can only ask questions like that if you know there's another meal coming.

[She shrugs it off. Protein paste doesn't scare her.]

You could tell me what you're doing with it though.

[uprightness]

We don't really know anything, here. It's not really up to us. So far they let us keep whatever it is we had and store food we found on planets but if there's anything I learned about the Atroma, they're unpredictable.

[ it's more of a briefing, really. the soldier in him kicks in, it would seem. ]

those are protein cubes, they taste like chicken. we'll heat them up but we'll need the gel for the flavor. If I ask you to taste them and see what you prefer, will you sass me some more?

[outstandingbalance]

I make no promises.

[Meaning that she probably will.]

[uprightness]

Fair enough.

[ at least it's honest. he'll line up the gels in front of her, anyway. Taking out an apple from the little fridge, he works on slicing it. if he's concerned about sharp objects around the girl, it doesn't show. after training with Nat, he knows enough to expect the unexpected and that is, at least, something that seems to hold true to the girl as well. ]

verdict?

[outstandingbalance]

[She takes her time trying them, making a show of not being particularly impressed by any of them. But not disgusted, either. She pretends not to notice the knife at all.

When he asks, she nods to one of the gels, half shrugging.]

It tastes like food.

[Not exactly high praise.]

[uprightness]

Teriyaki?

[ he reads the label. makes sense. ]

right. so we'll mix the two of them and heat them up.

[ he pockets that knife, thank you very much. ]

The apples are from the last planet we've been at. It was mostly a jungle. ]

[ he'll push a little jar in her direction. it's filled with something that smells quite like cinnamon ]

alright?

[outstandingbalance]

Dessert?

[She doesn't trust treats, and a spiced apple is enough to seem like a treat to her, but she doesn't refuse it outright.

She considers how she can get it without give anything in return.

But for the moment, at least, she can't even find the hook.]

[uprightness]

[ she gets a small shrug in return. ]

A version of one. You can just look at it as flavored fruit.

[ terms seem to mean a lot to her. the semantics of these things matter and so he maneuvers around them as best as he can. ]

we'll warm it up just like we'll do the protein.

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha is suspicious of all of this, which is perhaps why she seems so intent on categorizing and qualifying things. Organizing information. Dealing with it in what she considers the most rational way.

It's not a very natural way for a kid to deal with a baked apple though.]

I'll eat it.

[uprightness]

[ dare he smile at her? oh he dares. ]

alright then.

[ warming it all up it is. ]

have you kept that jacket?

[ he does hope she did. it can get chilly on the ships and for all her toughness, he does want her to have something on her. ]

[outstandingbalance]

I didn't waste it.

[She has few things of her own here, and the jacket is warm at least. It also gives her somewhere to hide weapons.

That was a priority.]

Why? Did you want it back?

[uprightness]

Not at all. I'm just glad you kept it.

[ she lied about so many things, he wasn't even sure she had an actual need for it. the fact that she kept it is already encouraging. ]

Here you go.

[ he'll place two plates in front of her. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[That earns him a suspicious sideways look. She doesn't understand what his game is.

She is, however, starving. After very little hesitation she starts eating like she's not sure where her next meal is coming from.]