bakerstreet | #justdatingthings

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#justdatingthings

Part of the charm of being in a relationship isn't found in the amor, the grand shows and trapping. Contentment can just as easily come from the little things - or even the silly things - about being close to someone. At first, you're either naturally standoffish or wary or you're intent on impressing them and not looking like a total nerd. That's how the "getting to know you" process works, unfortunately. As you get more serious...you may actually get less so? Maybe you'll let them see your dorky humor, your weird laugh, your bizarre hobbies, your bed head. It could end up that the two of you have more fun playing video games together, Netflixing and chilling, baking cookies, or sword fighting (if you're in the olden days, where Netflix and cookies are scarce). And, really, you can't help that their clothes are so comfortable on you.

It's a good thing you guys are together. You really did gain a best bud.

Character, preferences, etc. You know the drill!
Thread.
Go forth and kill spiders, share clothes, snuggle together for warmth, play Mario Kart, open jars, bake brownies, hang out on the drawbridge of a castle, slay vampires, whatever you dudes get up to. ♥

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[So what ridiculous/adorable thing should they be doing?]

[ so many possibilities. maybe tree's moved to new york and they're doing touristy things, or painting her place. or something corny like mini-golf? ]

Steve hadn’t really been all that surprised when Tree had decided to move to New York. He didn’t really even think that it had much to do with him living there most of the time. She had seemed to fallen in love with the city when they had visited so it was no surprise when she’d found a place. Sure it wasn’t in the heart of the city, that was too expensive, but it was still New York.

And the place definitely needed a bit of work as well but Steve liked to do things like that so he was happy to help her out with as much as he could. Painting was one of the last steps before she completely moved in so there was a sense of excitement to what they were doing. At least as exciting as painting could be.

“You never realize how hard it is to make a big, flat surface all one color until you have to do it,” he said, running the roller up and down the bedroom wall. Despite his comment he was having a good time. Not really all that surprising though, he always had a good time with Tree.

Tree had decided she was going to move to New York before she had even graduated. As soon as she had come here the first time with Steve she had fallen in love with the city. It was part of the reason she had moved here, the other had been him. She had never thought she'd be the type of girl who would move somewhere for a guy and here she was with said guy painting her new apartment. And it was totally worth it.

"I'm starting to think the stained walls gave this place some character," she grinned at him. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and she had flecks of paint all over her clothes and face. They were official now and there was something that felt so natural about being here with him like this. It was such a mundane thing but at the same time it was fun. Probably because Steve was here with her.

Maybe she could tell him about the time loops. Just not now, not while they were painting. "Thanks for helping me with this, I'm sure you had more exciting things you could be doing."

"Maybe more exciting but I can't beat the company or the view here," he said, leaning over to press a kiss to the back of her neck. She looked beautiful like this, paint spackled and smiling that beaming Tree smile that made him melt a bit. That was what attracted him most to her, that she seemed so excited by life and to be alive exploring everything. It was what made him want to spend as much time with her as possible. Not that she was always sunshine and rainbows but there was no faking or hiding that part of her.

And he still felt a bit guilty that she didn't know who he was, or at least all of who he was. She probably knew who he was better than anyone else but somehow she still hadn't made the Captain America connection just yet. Now that she was in New York it was probably going to be impossible to hide. Oddly enough he didn't think it would change much, he didn't think Tree would see him any differently. At this point it was almost just amusing.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Tree smiled as she leaned into him. "I'll order take out in a bit." It was the least she could do and since she didn't have a functioning kitchen (and she was a horrible cook).

She does want to tell him about the loops, but she isn't really sure how to do that without sounding crazy. Would it be too much? There were already so many crazy things in the world - would he believe her? The loops had become such a big part of who she had become. It was why she was occasionally still jumpy and still had nightmares. It would be easy enough to pass it as what everyone else knew. But she trusted Steve, she loved him. She wanted him to know.

"Good, because I like flattering you," Steve admitted. He liked the smile she made when he complimented her. Sometimes it was a bit bashful, sometimes just pure happiness, and sometimes there was even a bit of well-deserved smugness that looked good on her.

And Steve knew about the nightmares although he'd never asked her about them. He'd just been there to hold her in the night when she had them and he was around. Whatever they were from or about he figured she would tell him in her own time.

There have been many times where Tree has asked herself how she got so lucky to end up with Steve as a boyfriend. Maybe the universe was returning that cosmic karma after all those deaths. It's corny, it's ridiculous but she's okay with that.

"I have a few job interviews next week." She knew she probably should have had a job lined up before deciding to move to New York but there was no going back on it now. The jobs were nothing spectacular but they'd be a start. She could work, maybe do something volunteering. Do something somewhere that would be good and help people.

She definitely sleeps better whenever Steve is there. The nightmares still come, they're not as bad as they used to be. But Tree can't help but wonder if they'll always be a part of her life. Maybe she should find a therapist but how could she even begin to explain it to them? They'd think she was crazy.

Steve didn't know how he got so lucky to end up with Tree. Maybe this was why he'd been frozen for 70 years, just to meet this woman. If anything could make up for losing everything that was familiar to him it was her.

"You're going to do great. Any place you interview at would be lucky to have you," Steve said. That he could attest to because personally he was lucky to have her. There was no doubt in his mind that whatever she set out to do she'd do a good job of it. Even if she was still finding out exactly what she wanted to do she'd at least have a start.

"I don't know," Tree shrugged. "I don't really know if any of these jobs are even what I want to do - but it's a start. My dad is coming to visit in the next week or so too." She stopped painting mid-roll and looked at Steve, she was suddenly a bit more serious. Actually, more than anything she was nervous. "He wants to meet you. We've talked... a lot, about things - you. All good things I promise." She paused again. "I... I've never introduced him to a boyfriend before."

She turned back to the wall and started painting again. "You can say no, that's totally okay. No pressure or anything, I mean... meeting my dad is kind a big deal." Tree really hopes Steve says yes, and more than anything she hopes they get along. Steve and her dad were the most important people in her life. They meant the world too her.

"I just, I love you both more than anything and if you got along that would be...." her voice trailed off. She realized she just said the word love. It's not one she said before, and maybe it was too fast but Tree can't help it. Steve was so ridiculously easy to fall for and she had fallen for him - fast and hard.

Steve paused and listened to her talk about her dad, how much the man meant to her and how much it obviously meant to her for Steve to meet him. And he was perfectly fine with that, he wanted to meet her dad as well, but he was fairly sure that when he did the man would realize who Steve was. Again, he was perfectly fine with that but he felt like Tree should know first.

And she’d said she loved him. The moment she said it he knew that he loved her too. It wasn’t like those feelings magically appeared but she had but a name to them when Steve hadn’t exactly been sure that’s what it was. He hadn’t realized being in love could feel different each time if it happened to you more than once. Things with Tree had almost seemed too easy he was afraid that it couldn’t be love. But it was.

“Tree,” he said, reaching out to put a hand on hers, stilling her painting so that she would have to look back at him. “I love you too. And I want to meet your dad. Before we do just... promise me you’ll google Captain Steve Rogers? Will you do that for me?”

He hoped that she didn’t think this was a cop out or anything on his part, it wasn’t. He just felt like it might be easier for her to believe if she could see it online, that he wasn’t making things up.

Tree stopped and looked up at him. She almost loses focus on everything else he says when he said 'I love you too.' She hadn't been sure what she was getting into when they started dating him. But he was good and all she knew was that she wanted him in her life in any way possible.

"I... probably should have found a more romantic way of telling you that then," she gestured to the paint roller. She stooped to put it back in the paint tray before she looked at him again. Should she say it again? Because she wanted too. She wanted to say it over and over again, especially since he had said it back. She felt giddy, like a school girl. Like how she had felt spending time with her mom in the alternate universe, only this was so much deeper. This was what her mom would want for her.

Except she hesitated and her brow furrowed. "You want me to google you?"

"I know it's a weird request," he said, reaching up to scrub his hands over his face. Maybe that wasn't the right way to have her find out who he was but he felt like it should be in her hands to find out who he was when she wanted to and when she was ready to hear it.

"But I guess you could say I'm well known in some circles. I don't think it will change how you feel about me but your father is definitely going to have heard about me," Steve said. He was almost sure that Tree wouldn't care much that he was Captain America. She might think it was neat but honestly if she didn't recognize him then he doubted she would actually care. "I can tell you if you want but to be honest... you'll probably want to read up on me."

So, it was in her court now. If she asked he'd tell her now but he didn't know if she wanted that. He paused for a moment before adding, "I kind of messed up our 'I love you' moment there, didn't I?"

It was weird and honestly made her a little bit nervous. Was it something horrible? Normally people would say not to google them, but this was different. And he was well known? What did that mean? Tree knew she didn't know much about what was going on the world, had she missed something?

But he had said he loved her. They loved each other. That beat everything else. She could read up on him later, right now she could really only think of one thing.

A smile spread across her face as she threw her arms around his neck, stood up on tip toes and then kissed him. "We could try again? I love you Steve Rogers."

Steve grinned and kissed her back, glad that what he'd done hadn't completely ruined the moment. At least it hadn't ruined it so bad that they couldn't correct course and try again. He was so lucky to have someone as amazing as Tree, who was understanding and willing to give him another chance when he screwed things up.

"I love you too, Tree Gelbman. I love you like crazy," he said, lifting her up and spinning her around before he set her down and kissed her again.

As far as Tree was concerned the request was weird but it definitely hadn't ruined things. She didn't even really care, she could google him later. Right now all that mattered was she was here with her boyfriend who she was head over heels for and he loved her back. She laughed as he spun her around and kissed him back eagerly.

"I think that's enough painting," she pulled back slightly. There was still a lot to be done, but right now all Tree could think about was curling up on the couch with him and getting takeout and googling him - but mostly curling up on the couch.

"Mmmmm, what should we do instead? Install that new shower head? Assemble the bookshelf?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He was fairly sure that she was thinking the same thing he was, of just spending time together being close and ridiculous like young couples in love tended to be. Well... maybe not so young on his part but Tree made him feel that way. She anchored him in the here and now that most things never did. He felt less out of time with her.

"I may have a jar or two that needs opening," she teased. She actually did have a long list of things she needed to do but those could wait until later.

She pulled back slightly. "I kind of want to google you now though. Sorry, but... you can't just lead with that." She took her phone out of her pocket and gave him a guilty smile. "If it's just embarrassing smutty pictures, there's totally nothing wrong with that. You should see some of the ones of me on Danielle's instagram - actually, no. Please don't. That was the old Tree and I don't really like her."

Tree looked down at her phone and went to google. She was nervous, why wouldn't he just tell her whatever it was? Unless it turned out he was a creep she didn't think anything could change how she felt about him.

And then the search results came up.

"Ohmigod. You're Captain America?"

How did she not recognize him? How did she not realize? He had even told her he was with the Avengers when they went out for coffee the first time, but she had just passed it off as a line. She should have realized by now that Steve wasn't the type of person to do that.

"Guilty as charged," Steve said, having the good sense to look a little bashful about it, like it was an accident or something and he hadn't meant to be Captain America. At least she wasn't horrified or anything and didn't seem all that upset. Also a lot of what he said or did probably made sense now.

"I hope that's not a disappointment or going to be a problem? I wanted to tell you it just never seemed to come up?" he said, like that was any sort of excuse. Honestly he thought for sure that at some point she would have noticed or someone would have said something. But it never had and so he jut... didn't say anything either.

Tree was far from horrified if anything she felt like a massive idiot. She shook her head and continued to scroll through the search results.

"What, no!" She looked up from her phone and shook her head. "Steve, it's not a disappointment or a problem. I just can't believe I didn't realize. You even told me on our first date and I thought it was just a line." Tree slipped her phone back into her pocket and looked up at him.

"You being Captain America doesn't change any of what I feel about you." It didn't. Even if it was hard to wrap her head around the fact he was Captain America, that wasn't who she saw in front of her. She saw Steve Rogers. The amazing guy who she had fallen hard and fast for. Maybe then she wouldn't feel so alone in this anymore.

He had been honest with her, maybe it was time she was honest with him. It had been hard enough to convince Carter and Ryan about the loops when she had been stuck in them. And it wasn't like she could tell anyone else. Not really, they would think she was crazy even if there was a lot of crazy in the world. But Steve had seen crazy, he had fought crazy. Maybe he'd believe her.

"There's... probably something I should tell you too. But uh... maybe we should sit."

Well, Steve didn't know what he was expecting from her but it wasn't that she had a secret of her own. Maybe this was some sort of karma for going so long without telling her his secret. He didn't expect whatever Tree said to change how he felt about her though, he loved her and was crazy about her and there was no way she could hide anything that would make him change how he felt about her.

"Alright," he said, checking himself to make sure he didn't have any paint on his pants before he sat down on the couch. He kept his hand in hers though, wanting her to know that he supported her whatever it was she was going to tell them. They were in this together, no matter what "this" was. "What is it you want to tell me?"

She was grateful for him holding her hands and she forced herself to smile as she sat down next to him. Her heart was pounding in her chest, once she had ended the loops she hadn't told anyone about them. Her friends from college knew, but that was different she had only gotten out of those loops because of their help. Tree still isn't sure if telling Steve is the right thing, but it's been hard dealing with this mostly on her own and the dreams haven't gone away.

"This... is going to sound crazy, but I kind of getting the feeling that out of everyone you'll get crazy now."

Tree sighed and bit her lip before continuing. "When I told you that my roommate tried to kill me, that was half a lie. She did kill me. Multiple times. Someone on my campus, built this machine and somehow it caused me to get stuck in a time loop. And it was my birthday. And every time Lori killed me I would wake up and the day would start over again."

She swallowed. It was hard to think about the huge impact that this had still had on her. That even though Lori was gone what she did still cast a huge shadow. "I died over and over again trying to figure out who was killing me. Lori was smart, it took me a while to realize it was her. But all those deaths... medically I should probably still be dead right now. I don't know if I've fully recovered."

"And then I thought I got out of it, I thought that I was free of that stupid loop after dying sixteen times, after I beat Lori," Tree can feel tears then and even though she had been nervous about telling Steve now it was like she couldn't stop talking. "Only I got thrown into the loop again, only this time I was in a different dimension. But in this one my mom was alive, and I almost stayed. I killed myself over and over again just to relive that day again, because I thought I was going to die anyways might as well go out on my own terms. And then I thought I'd try not dying, I could live a life even without all these memories I was supposed to have but that would be okay because I'd have my mom. But then the version of my friends in that dimension died and I realize I couldn't let anyone else die because of me. And I realized that what I had with my mom here..."

The tears began to fall then and Tree closed her eyes for a moment. "So all those nightmares, I'm dreaming I'm stuck in the loop again. That I'm reliving my deaths or that I'm seeing people I care about die over and over again."

"Tree..." Steve reached out and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close the instant he saw the tears start to fall. He absolutely believed her, had no reason to doubt her no matter how crazy the story sounded. If she said this happened to her then he believed that it had.

And it broke his heart a little that she had to face something like that. Not just all of the deaths but also losing her mother all over again. Steve couldn't imagine if he lost Bucky when he'd gotten him back after thinking he was dead all those years.

"That you for telling me," he said, murmuring the words to the top of her head as he held her close. "For trusting me that I would believe you. And I do believe you. But you don't have to face this alone."

Tree managed a small smile. Telling him had felt good, it felt better than talking about it with Carter and Ryan. When he pulled her close she curled up against him and rested her cheek on his chest. She felt safe there, wrapped in his arms.

"I've wanted to tell you for a long time, but I was scared you might think I was crazy because it sounds crazy. Trying to convince Carter and Ryan to help me was hard enough."

She closed her eyes for a moment wanting to take in that feeling of safety. "I can remember all of them," she said slowly. "Everytime I died. Sometimes they blur together, like a bad dream and other times... I don't know. Even the ones I did to myself when I thought it didn't matter."

"Getting stuck in that loop though, it made me realize that I wasn't a good person. I was horrible, dying over and over changed that. I know I should consider myself lucky but... sometimes, I don't know."

"I appreciate you trusting me enough to tell me. But I don't think you're crazy," Steve reassured her. No wonder she had nightmares, that would be enough to drive just about anyone crazy. To be able to go through something like that and come out a better person? Steve wasn't sure how many people could do something like that.

"And it's horrible that it happened but to come out a better person? That takes a lot of strength and I don't know many people who could say they didn't just go crazy. You don't have to deal with it alone anymore. I'm here for you, okay?"

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