Wait till she sees him pick a fight with someone twice his size. He's not just stubborn, he's reckless. Regardless, he manages to get along somehow, without major injury. Probably because even the worst bullies he runs into tend to feel it's not sporting to keep hitting him once he's down.
He sets things out and then goes back to look at the art on the walls as if drawn by a magnet. Peering at the details up close, with a little smile on his face. "Hopper? Yeah! I've seen some of his work on exhibit, but it's been a few years. Is that what you wanted to show me?"
He's a lot less awkward now, eager in the face of art, perhaps.
Diana can't fault him for that. She's just the same sort of reckless, even if that same feeling was somewhat tempered a bit. When her temper wasn't running hot that was, then all bets were off. She'd definitely understand the reckless sort of way he viewed conflicts.
"Not specifically, though I am glad that you like it." She smiled as she said this, unable to help but be a bit charmed at the open pleasure he had as he studied the painting. It was nice to see that he was relaxing, even if it was just while distracted. As he was looking, Diana pulled a small album down to set on the table before she focused on getting the coffee poured, and opening up the tin, which turned out to be full of cookies. "Come, get your coffee and I can show you what I did bring you to see."
Partly he's a little ball of rage, and partly he's just so desperate to be seen and noticed as someone worthy. He's not even sure what he's looking to be worthy of. Regard, or respect, or maybe just the space he takes up. And then again, maybe like Peter Pan he figures to die will be an awfully big adventure.
He tears his attention away again when she pours the coffee and comes back to her side. "Sure! Thank you. Smells good."
And cookies. He's not going to take one without being invited, but he could totally eat some cookies. He gives her a sheepish smile and offers to pull her chair back for her belatedly.
A familiar want, to prove oneself. Diana could certainly understand any of those reasons, respect them as a driving force for all she herself didn't seem to need him to prove anything. Steve was Steve, and that seemed good enough for her.
She smiled when he pulled her chair out, settling easily before gesturing to the other chair. "Come. Sit and help me eat some of these."
Permission of a sort as she slid the tin of cookies a few inches in Steve's direction before busying herself with her coffee. A little cream, some sugar (maybe a little more sugar too, though she won't make a big fuss about it) before she sipped and deemed it good.
He's done his gentlemanly duty and takes the other chair gamely at her instruction. "You're awfully kind. Thanks again. Is, um, is this where you live? Like, over the shop? Must be nice to be so close to the park."
He has to take a bus and walk a few blocks to get here, but it's worth it for the trees and the oasis of relative peace. Even more so if he gets to run into people like her.
He puts cream in his coffee, but no sugar, and takes a couple cookies happily, dipping one in his cup.
"Indeed it is, I've an apartment above." Once Steve had taken cookies, Diana took a couple of her own, giving them both a moment to enjoy the coffee and cookies.
And if she smiled at Steve dunking his in his coffee it was hidden by taking another drink of her own.
"It was a stroke of luck that this space was for sale when I was looking, especially with how near the park it is." Granted it had been a different time, but she remembered how much back and forth had been involved in the purchase.
"I bet. No one would ever be in a hurry to let go of a spot like this." He nibbles his coffee-soaked cookie politely, careful not to drop wet crumbs anywhere except his cup. He certainly looks like he doesn't get quite enough to eat, but that has more to do with his unreliable appetite than resources at his disposal. Still, he seems to be enjoying the cookies as a treat.
"Every couple weeks," he answers, nodding mildly. "Depending on work and weather and whatnot. It's a good place to draw birds and plants. Sometimes people, if they don't mind."
Or don't notice him sketching them. He's not above surreptitious gesture sketches.
"Most definitely. I don't see myself letting it go for a good long while, if ever." This was admitted with a smile before she was taking a moment to eat a cookie of her own. She certainly notices how small he is, but then there were those sort, who could eat everything and never seem to put on weight no matter how they might try.
"So what I gather from this is I can expect to see more of you." Slightly teasing to be sure, but at the same time she did like the idea of more chances to speak with him. "And you'll be able to show me all the things you've drawn since I last saw you."
He's eyeing the album she's gotten out now, as well, a little shy and waiting for a more explicit invitation to look at it, but intrigued. "This is really good, by the way," he says after a second, meaning the cookie. "Thanks again."
He almost drops another 'ma'am' but manages to restrain himself. And then he blushes, because her tone is teasing, but somehow he doesn't think she's making fun of him. Like, she might even want to see him again? Once again, he has to wonder what he did to get so fortunate today.
"Umnn...do you want to? I mean, yeah. Absolutely. I would really like that." He has to assume she's interested in his art and his friendship rather than flirting, but that's still huge. He looks into his cup to hide a dumb little smile.
"You are quite welcome." Her smile warmed a bit further as he continued, gaze warming a bit at the smile she noticed him trying to hide behind his own cup. He was... sweet. Genuine in a way that she did like.
"I think I would also enjoy that. It's not often I come across such an interesting man on my days off." She'd gotten more comfortable with the idea of flirting over the years, almost an extension of banter in some ways. She knew she'd like to make friends with Steve, and while she wouldn't rush into anything, she could certainly see herself letting the flirting turn to something a bit more genuine if things continued to go so well.
And don't think she didn't notice that peeking at the album Steve. After she'd taken another sip of her coffee, she reached a hand to slide the album towards him a couple inches in invitation.
"Feel free to look; I was in Turkey last summer for work and had a chance to take some pictures in the countryside. One of my contacts was gracious enough to loan me her color camera for the task even." Arranged in neat rows were a variety of pictures, some of focused subjects; a cat sitting on a bench in a hookah lounge between a pair of customers, sitting like she was queen of the castle with half-slitted eyes. A bird with a beak almost as long as it was and bright blue plumage sitting on a flat rock. More general landscapes, forests and beaches, with a focus it seemed on the rockier terrain, the coasts with high cliffs and twisting rock formations. "With your focus, I thought you would enjoy them as I do."
Diana hasn't seen him in his saltier moods yet, but he's usually not too unbearable. Bucky still hangs around with him, anyway, and while Bucky may be abnormally loyal, her hardly has the patience of a saint. More the opposite.
Steve blinks at her and gives a little smirk. "I don't think anyone's ever called me interesting before, but I'll take it. Do you meet interesting people on days you're not off work, then?"
Oh, if only he knew.
Anyway, he's eager to see the album, especially when he hears what she's got in it. "Oh, wow...I've never seen color photography outside a gallery before. Is it kodachrome?"
He flips through with quiet awe, grinning at the scene with the cat, especially. He does a great deal of drawing still-lifes and nature, but he also has an eye for more human and humanlike interactions.
As if she wouldn't find his salty moods to be part of his charm in some way.
"You Steve are quite interesting, I assure you." She couldn't help but chuckle a bit, hiding her smile by taking a sip of coffee. "And yes. I do meet some... singular individuals in my line of work. Those who keep antiques tend to be rather... eclectic as a general rule." That was putting it nicely anyways. Some tended towards the nicer side of eclectic while others... well, she definitely didn't feel bad about fighting them in that case.
"I believe so, yes. She said it was one of their new types of film, and I have to say the color does come out rather nicely." And there was plenty in the album. Nature, animals, some buildings with architecture that had caught her eye. Also children. After being raised on an island where there weren't any, Diana was absolutely fascinated by them. Which showed in the photos she'd gotten, a younger girl with her mother and grandmother, a pair of siblings playing outside a cafe, a veritable hoard of them splashing in the surf on one of the beaches. "I am fairly certain the camera was worth more than my shop. I was a bit worried when she handed it to me that I would accidentally break it."
Aw, shucks. His ears are pink again, but he's run out of the will to contradict her, just feeling pleased instead. "That so? Artists tend to be a little nutty too, sometimes. I feel like I'm pretty middle-of-the-road."
He pauses to linger over a picture of a mother with her child, and something in his face softens. He misses his mom quite a bit.
"Unh? Oh, geez, that much? I had no idea cameras could get that expensive."
"As if everyone wasn't at least a little 'nutty' somehow." Yes good accept the compliments Steve, Diana is getting especially amused with how little it seems to take to make him blush.
And she notices that shift in expression, not commenting on it but able to relate to that emotion without a shadow of a doubt.
"She did not say a word about it until she had set it in my hands either." Said in a conspiratorial sort of tone, brows lifting because Steve, can you believe such a thing? "I almost dropped it on the spot."
"Sounds like someone was trying to get you into trouble," he tells her with a grin. "Or maybe it wasn't as fragile as you were afraid of? Anyway, the photos are definitely worth it."
He turns through the last couple pages happily and sighs. "Maybe I'll get to travel some day. You think? I've never been outside the state."
And mostly only outside the city for short field trips and occasional apple-picking with the church he used to go to, when he was young.
"She is absolutely the sort to try and get me into trouble." Not like she would comment, but to be fair everything was fragile in her hands. Not that her friend had known that when she'd teased her, and Steve certainly didn't.
At his comment, Diana simply tilts her head a bit. "I don't see why you cannot."
And it was true. Sure, he might have health issues, but since when had that ever stopped a person doing what they dreamed of? It was the type of resilience that she admired from humanity, that stubborn optimism.
"Where would you like to go? Anywhere in particular, or is it more travel for the sake of travelling?"
"Some day, maybe. If I can make a go of it as an illustrator." He smiles at her. Health issues might keep him from trying too hard to cross the ocean recreationally (a boat, especially, would not agree with his constitution well), but mostly it's finances holding him back.
He and Bucky get along amazingly well, considering how shaky the economy still is, the fact that they're just starting out, and the way Steve is barely able to hold down his part-time job. Art might pay better some day, and that would help.
"A little of both," he tells her. "I'd like to see Rome, I guess. Barcelona. Maybe Paris. Got any recommendations?"
She seems pretty sophisticated. He has a guess she does plenty of traveling, herself.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-06-13 01:03 am (UTC)He sets things out and then goes back to look at the art on the walls as if drawn by a magnet. Peering at the details up close, with a little smile on his face. "Hopper? Yeah! I've seen some of his work on exhibit, but it's been a few years. Is that what you wanted to show me?"
He's a lot less awkward now, eager in the face of art, perhaps.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-13 02:07 am (UTC)"Not specifically, though I am glad that you like it." She smiled as she said this, unable to help but be a bit charmed at the open pleasure he had as he studied the painting. It was nice to see that he was relaxing, even if it was just while distracted. As he was looking, Diana pulled a small album down to set on the table before she focused on getting the coffee poured, and opening up the tin, which turned out to be full of cookies. "Come, get your coffee and I can show you what I did bring you to see."
no subject
Date: 2017-06-14 02:15 am (UTC)He tears his attention away again when she pours the coffee and comes back to her side. "Sure! Thank you. Smells good."
And cookies. He's not going to take one without being invited, but he could totally eat some cookies. He gives her a sheepish smile and offers to pull her chair back for her belatedly.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-14 02:29 am (UTC)She smiled when he pulled her chair out, settling easily before gesturing to the other chair. "Come. Sit and help me eat some of these."
Permission of a sort as she slid the tin of cookies a few inches in Steve's direction before busying herself with her coffee. A little cream, some sugar (maybe a little more sugar too, though she won't make a big fuss about it) before she sipped and deemed it good.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-14 03:35 am (UTC)He has to take a bus and walk a few blocks to get here, but it's worth it for the trees and the oasis of relative peace. Even more so if he gets to run into people like her.
He puts cream in his coffee, but no sugar, and takes a couple cookies happily, dipping one in his cup.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-14 03:53 am (UTC)And if she smiled at Steve dunking his in his coffee it was hidden by taking another drink of her own.
"It was a stroke of luck that this space was for sale when I was looking, especially with how near the park it is." Granted it had been a different time, but she remembered how much back and forth had been involved in the purchase.
"I take it you go there often?"
no subject
Date: 2017-06-15 01:26 am (UTC)"Every couple weeks," he answers, nodding mildly. "Depending on work and weather and whatnot. It's a good place to draw birds and plants. Sometimes people, if they don't mind."
Or don't notice him sketching them. He's not above surreptitious gesture sketches.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-15 02:51 am (UTC)"So what I gather from this is I can expect to see more of you." Slightly teasing to be sure, but at the same time she did like the idea of more chances to speak with him. "And you'll be able to show me all the things you've drawn since I last saw you."
no subject
Date: 2017-06-15 02:59 am (UTC)He almost drops another 'ma'am' but manages to restrain himself. And then he blushes, because her tone is teasing, but somehow he doesn't think she's making fun of him. Like, she might even want to see him again? Once again, he has to wonder what he did to get so fortunate today.
"Umnn...do you want to? I mean, yeah. Absolutely. I would really like that." He has to assume she's interested in his art and his friendship rather than flirting, but that's still huge. He looks into his cup to hide a dumb little smile.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-15 03:31 am (UTC)"I think I would also enjoy that. It's not often I come across such an interesting man on my days off." She'd gotten more comfortable with the idea of flirting over the years, almost an extension of banter in some ways. She knew she'd like to make friends with Steve, and while she wouldn't rush into anything, she could certainly see herself letting the flirting turn to something a bit more genuine if things continued to go so well.
And don't think she didn't notice that peeking at the album Steve. After she'd taken another sip of her coffee, she reached a hand to slide the album towards him a couple inches in invitation.
"Feel free to look; I was in Turkey last summer for work and had a chance to take some pictures in the countryside. One of my contacts was gracious enough to loan me her color camera for the task even." Arranged in neat rows were a variety of pictures, some of focused subjects; a cat sitting on a bench in a hookah lounge between a pair of customers, sitting like she was queen of the castle with half-slitted eyes. A bird with a beak almost as long as it was and bright blue plumage sitting on a flat rock. More general landscapes, forests and beaches, with a focus it seemed on the rockier terrain, the coasts with high cliffs and twisting rock formations. "With your focus, I thought you would enjoy them as I do."
no subject
Date: 2017-06-15 02:33 pm (UTC)Steve blinks at her and gives a little smirk. "I don't think anyone's ever called me interesting before, but I'll take it. Do you meet interesting people on days you're not off work, then?"
Oh, if only he knew.
Anyway, he's eager to see the album, especially when he hears what she's got in it. "Oh, wow...I've never seen color photography outside a gallery before. Is it kodachrome?"
He flips through with quiet awe, grinning at the scene with the cat, especially. He does a great deal of drawing still-lifes and nature, but he also has an eye for more human and humanlike interactions.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-28 11:22 pm (UTC)"You Steve are quite interesting, I assure you." She couldn't help but chuckle a bit, hiding her smile by taking a sip of coffee. "And yes. I do meet some... singular individuals in my line of work. Those who keep antiques tend to be rather... eclectic as a general rule." That was putting it nicely anyways. Some tended towards the nicer side of eclectic while others... well, she definitely didn't feel bad about fighting them in that case.
"I believe so, yes. She said it was one of their new types of film, and I have to say the color does come out rather nicely." And there was plenty in the album. Nature, animals, some buildings with architecture that had caught her eye. Also children. After being raised on an island where there weren't any, Diana was absolutely fascinated by them. Which showed in the photos she'd gotten, a younger girl with her mother and grandmother, a pair of siblings playing outside a cafe, a veritable hoard of them splashing in the surf on one of the beaches. "I am fairly certain the camera was worth more than my shop. I was a bit worried when she handed it to me that I would accidentally break it."
no subject
Date: 2017-06-28 11:56 pm (UTC)He pauses to linger over a picture of a mother with her child, and something in his face softens. He misses his mom quite a bit.
"Unh? Oh, geez, that much? I had no idea cameras could get that expensive."
no subject
Date: 2017-06-29 12:10 am (UTC)And she notices that shift in expression, not commenting on it but able to relate to that emotion without a shadow of a doubt.
"She did not say a word about it until she had set it in my hands either." Said in a conspiratorial sort of tone, brows lifting because Steve, can you believe such a thing? "I almost dropped it on the spot."
no subject
Date: 2017-06-29 01:07 am (UTC)He turns through the last couple pages happily and sighs. "Maybe I'll get to travel some day. You think? I've never been outside the state."
And mostly only outside the city for short field trips and occasional apple-picking with the church he used to go to, when he was young.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-29 02:29 am (UTC)At his comment, Diana simply tilts her head a bit. "I don't see why you cannot."
And it was true. Sure, he might have health issues, but since when had that ever stopped a person doing what they dreamed of? It was the type of resilience that she admired from humanity, that stubborn optimism.
"Where would you like to go? Anywhere in particular, or is it more travel for the sake of travelling?"
no subject
Date: 2017-06-29 10:19 pm (UTC)He and Bucky get along amazingly well, considering how shaky the economy still is, the fact that they're just starting out, and the way Steve is barely able to hold down his part-time job. Art might pay better some day, and that would help.
"A little of both," he tells her. "I'd like to see Rome, I guess. Barcelona. Maybe Paris. Got any recommendations?"
She seems pretty sophisticated. He has a guess she does plenty of traveling, herself.