calling_logs | (no subject)

WHO: Steve and OPEN, Steve and Sam.
WHAT: Apartment hunting.
WHEN: Nowish?
WHERE: City of Tomorrow, City of Nightmare
NOTES/WARNINGS: Probably none. Maybe some schmoop and angst.

Thus far, Steve's resisted doing more than making occasional visits. He knows plenty of people have found an apartment, moved in on more or less permanent basis depending on who they are and what they are. Some (like Thomas) who have started businesses. He hasn't done it himself because it felt like abandoning his duty - his responsibility, his commitment, his purpose. People who count on him and need him and have expectations of him.

It's been months.

He's finally cracked.

He needs somewhere he can let his... fur out. Somewhere he can run, somewhere he doesn't have to keep the wolf locked under his skin and keep who and what he is secret, all the time. Somewhere, maybe, that he can even choose what he's responsible for and where everyone who looks at him doesn't immediately see Captain America, and have a comic book or trading card collection featuring him. He just -

He doesn't know what will make him happy, he doesn't know what he wants, but he's starting to get a guilty idea about what maybe he needs. Doesn't want to need it, but does anyway.

He can't quite decide where to look for that 'vacation home'. He knows he wants something small and basic. Whether he fits, he doesn't know. He knows his favorite two places, the ones he's most comfortable in, are Nightmare and Tomorrow. So those are the places he looks - walking the streets, head tilted up to look at buildings, checking properties and stopping for a meal here and there. Tracking to people he knows via scent along the way.

And, eventually, wearing fur and on four feet, making his way back to Sam's apartment and clawing at the door.

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This would be Sam's expression lighting up little when Steve implies that not only is he gonna keep coming over Sam's place, he's gonna do it often enough to need to keep some stuff there.

"Hell no, it's not a problem at all. I don't have near enough here to fill up the dresser, you can have a whole drawer if you need." ...and then it's his turn to realize how that sounds. He ducks his head a little, considers qualifying it or something, but then just lets it stand. He meant it exactly how he said it. "Wasn't kidding when I said I missed you. I'd like to have you around more."

The good news is, Steve doesn't know quite how it sounds. He's busy being a little unsure of the situation, to start with, and a lot busy being touched by what comes after it to backtrack and dig innuendo out of an innocent remark.

"A drawer's probably about how much space my clothes would take up if I brought about half of them over." He doesn't exactly pack heavy, and he's not a complicated kind of guy. Especially not when it comes to clothes - or gratitude. "Trying to find the line, here. Don't want to be following you around like an actual stray, don't want to keep turning up and stealing your pants, either. Seemed like bringing my own would be a pretty good compromise. Glad you think so, too."

A pause and: "I've missed you too, Sam."

And not just because Sam was good for him.

Well, at least there's something comforting in that, that Steve hasn't gotten any better at figuring out when Sam is flirting. Though in all fairness, sometimes Sam himself isn't even sure he's flirting.

He kind of was this time, but, well. That's beside the point.

"I can respect that. Spent a lot of time trying to find a balance to things, figure out where the line is." He very nearly says that as far as he's concerned, there's no line - but that's not true. Or at least, it shouldn't be true, he should have some boundaries when it comes to Steve. And he probably does, he just can't think of any right now.

Especially not when Steve says that he missed him, too, and Sam ducks his head a little before he smiles back at him.

"You know you're welcome here as much as you want, right? If that means you wanna stay here whenever you're in town, hell yeah, I'm on board."

"I know, but that line." He smiles, and it's warm and pretty damned comfortable, really, even easy. "Moving in's probably over it. I'll see about leaving some pants and getting something close, though."

He wants pack and connection, but he knows better than to reach out too hard for that. He does not know that wanting it doesn't mean he should automatically resist it just because it might be influenced by the wolf. "Besides, I'd keep you up all night howling."

That line, the one that Sam's pretty sure he's supposed to have. He's not a fan of it right now. But it's good, it's fine - one of them should probably draw it right about now. Sam's a little bit too stuck in how much he'd missed Steve, and in that Steve'd missed him, too. He's probably fooling himself, thinking that the way he felt about Steve was ever gonna be purely platonic, but just because he realized that doesn't mean he needs to keep poking at it.

Still he laughs a little at that joke, eyes crinkling in amusement - and doesn't let himself think about Steve keeping him up all night howling in a very different way. "I'm up half the night anyway, man, at least howling might be entertaining. Give the neighbors something to talk about."

And he's gonna let it go at that, he really is, except - except he finds himself asking, "You don't gotta answer, but - can I ask why moving in is over the line?"

Mention of giving the neighbor's something to talk about cues Steve into the accidental innuendo and he actually seems pretty damned flustered for a bit. Makes him want to - hell, apologize or pursue it and he's not quite entirely sure which one just then.

"Because it'll give the neighbors something to talk about?" he shoots back, because - exasperated and flustered. "I don't know. Just seems like not having another space to go to's a pretty big step, especially since I shed and don't quite trust myself yet." The last. The last is the real thing. The rest of it's evasions around it.