New York City, Thursday Evening

[imafuturist]

Having a birthday on the 4th of July when you were also Captain America was A Thing. A hilarious, terrible thing.

But that didn't stop Tony (mostly Jan) from throwing him a birthday party with more doubles than strictly necessary. Their friend groups were weird.

The barbeque had gone one since the afternoon and now it was finally getting dark enough for the fireworks to cap off the celebration.

Tony staked out a couch for them both to enjoy the show now that it was slightly less unbearably hot. "C'mon, birthday boy."

[for the guy!]

Comments

[heroic_jawline]

"Not much to it," Steve said with a little smile. "Dugan would start with old Irish drinking songs mostly to make Monty look like he'd bitten a lemon. Naturally Buck and I knew 'em, Frenchy loved to tick of Monty and Morita wasn't going to miss out on any sort of ridiculousness. Danny Boy sung at the top of your lungs isn't a pretty song."

[imafuturist]

"Aww, I'm sure you sounded lovely," tpny replied. "The others... Eh."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve laughed. "You are biased."

He peered around. "Sam hitting on Carol yet?"

[imafuturist]

"It's cute how he always swings for the fences."

Carol was deeply amused and totally allowing this to continue.

[heroic_jawline]

"Well, a healthy sense of self-worth is important," Steve said, finishing off his hot dog. "Is there steam coming out of Rhodey's ears?"

[imafuturist]

"Shhh. Don't let him know that we all know."

Tony was such a great friend.

[heroic_jawline]

"The other Rhodey's starting to wonder," Steve said, making a noise suspiciously close to a giggle.

[imafuturist]

"Oh no. Who would have guessed this would happen?" Both of them. It was both of them.

Cruel people they were.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was definitely snickering now. "Oh, no."

[imafuturist]

"Play nice while I rescue Rhodey with a beer," Tony said. "Maybe get me a hotdog."

[heroic_jawline]

"Yes, dear," Steve said fondly, getting up as well. "I'll try to make the other Tony look less like he hates being here."

[imafuturist]

Tony grinned and kissed him on the cheek for that. "I'll rescue you if it looks tense."

[heroic_jawline]

"So give me five minutes," Steve muttered, running his fingers through his hair and ambling over.

"I'm so glad you could make it," he said sincerely, smiling at Tony. "I know how busy you are."

[imafuturist]

Tony seemed to startle a little bit, putting on a quick PR smile that Steve unfairly knew the difference between.

"Well, I was invited." Wasn't that a shock? "So I thought I could swing by."

Also. No Pepper with him. Which wasn't ideal. But a lot in his life wasn't exactly ideal these days.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve had defaulted to slightly strained earnestness, like being more sincere would make Tony believe it.

"I'm glad you're here," Steve repeated. "Do you need a hot dog?"

[imafuturist]

"Sure?" He eyed Steve suspiciously for a moment before doubling down. "Yeah. Who doesn't love tubular meat?"

[heroic_jawline]

"I'm feelin' real compelled to say 'that's what she said,' right now," Steve admitted.

[imafuturist]

Well, that at the very least forced Tony to let out a short bark of laughter that caught the attention on their Rhodey to give a suspicious look at the pair.

But not enough to cause him to stop enjoying the trainwreck of his other self. Look, it was fun when you were on the outside.

"Is that my influence?"

[heroic_jawline]

"Probably," Steve said with a grin. "I didn't even know the phrase until a year ago."

[imafuturist]

Tony smiled clear and bright, perking right up for a moment before it was all carefully packed away again with a sip of terrible beer as he looked out at the rest of the party.

Because it wasn't reallyhis influence, right?

"So, how old are you now? Past a hundred, right?"

[heroic_jawline]

"The timelines make things even more confusing, but I think I'm 101 now," Steve said. "Too old for Legos. I should write them a sad note."

[imafuturist]

"Well, clearly they never took cryogenically frozen super soldiers into account for their advertising. Sloppy work on their part."

Luckily no more frozen super soldiers existed out there. Right, Steve?

[heroic_jawline]

RIGHT.

...shit.

"Maybe I'll even get free Legos for making them feel ageist," Steve said.

[imafuturist]

DAMN IT, ROGERS.

"I think 'I'm Captain America' would aldo work."

[heroic_jawline]

"There might be other centenarians who'd like Legos," Steve said. "Not just me!"