Nothing puts life into perspective like sleeping in your own bed after weeks of sleeping in a bunk. I left my alarms off, woke up at noon, and spent a few minutes just enjoying warm sheets and the sight of the city outside my window.

After a moment I sat up with a wince at the pain the movement caused and stared out the window for a bit longer.

We all had time off for the next few days. A reward for our days of fighting and helping. I was glad for it. My muscles were all sore as hell, and I was covered in bruises and scratches from all the time spent in Rio.

I rose up slowly and carefully walked into the bathroom. A shower made me feel loads better, and a big breakfast burrito out of my fridge only helped. I prayed a bit late, then changed into a green t-shirt displaying Hulk’s fist on the front. After some thought, I left my armor pack behind, but carried my sword handle with me.

Then I stared at the door for a moment. Um… what now?

I had a day off. No fighting, no technology to make. Nothing planned but nothing.

I missed the days when I was lazy. I mean, I wasn’t as disciplined as the others tended to be, but I wasn’t anywhere near as inclined to waste my time anymore. Months of squatting while patrolling for bad guys, fighting and training alongside the Avengers and Bridge, followed by Rio. I just didn’t have it in me to screw around as much.

What the hell? Maybe I’d just go out into New York City? Knowing my luck I’d end up fighting Rhino in the streets, but it was worth a shot.

Walking up to the door and opening it, I was surprised to see Steve down the hall, waiting for the elevator.

“Hey, Cap,” I said casually, walking towards him.

The blonde haired super-soldier turned to look at me and blinked. He was wearing a black t-shirt displaying a picture of an Iron Man arc reactor in blue and a pair of jeans. He smiled politely.

“Hey Mahmoud. You headed out?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled, moving to wait with him. “I kinda… forgot how to relax, so I thought I’d head out into New York and find something to do.”

He blinked, surprised. Then he laughed. When I gave him a confused look, Steve shook his head. “Would you believe I had the same problem?”

“Ha!” I shook my head as well. “Well… wanna hang out?”

I tried not to seem nervous. Most of my time with everyone on the team was training and missions. Not always, but Steve in particular was someone I only really saw when there was something important to do.

And honestly, I really wanted to hang out with him. Not to be a massive dork, but Captain America was one of my favorite superheroes, and getting the chance to chill together was crazy to me.

He hesitated for long enough for me to be tempted to pull back the invitation just out of nervousness. Then he nodded.

“Sure. Where should we go first?”

“I have no idea,” I rubbed the back of my neck as the elevator finally opened, the two of us going inside. “But hey, we have a whole city to enjoy, right? Maybe just start in Times Square? Act like tourists?”

“Huh. Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

The elevator doors opened. Immediately, outside the doors dozens of feet in front of us, cameras started to flash. A crowd of people wearing cosplay and carrying signs yelled at us as we watched silently.

Together, we eyed the men and women, some of them dressed as us and our friends, all of them cheering. After a moment, Steve hit the close door button.

“Okay,” he said with a nod. “I think we should leave through the garage. Maybe take one of those cars with the tinted windows.”

“Agreed,” I said with nod.

------

We didn’t end up needing the car. I just followed Steve as we walked out of the garage and walked casually onto the sidewalk. In seconds we were just another pair of pedestrians on the streets of New York, walking calmly around. Granted, Steve couldn’t be ‘just’ another pedestrian if he tried. Guy was built like an Olympian after all, possibly literally.

It was a ten minute walk to Times Square from the Avengers Tower. Plenty of time to talk… oh shit.

“So, uh,” I fought hard, trying to find something to talk about that wasn’t work related. Most of those were pop culture related, so… hell, why not? “How goes your list?”

“Hmm?” Steve blinked. “Oh, it’s going well. I mean, I’m still adding to it. I have a lot to catch up on.”

“I mean, so does everyone though,” I noted with a chuckle. “I mean, a lot of people just ignore a lot of the stuff you’re taking the effort to learn. At least you actually watched Star Wars man. Speaking of which, what did you think?”

“I liked it,” Steve said with a smile of his own. “It really resonated with me. For obvious reasons I guess since the Empire was apparently based on the Nazis. Darth Vader really did remind me of some of the Hydra underlings I fought though,” he said with a frown.

Er. Probably not a good time to mention Vader was one of my favorite villains. “Yeah, a lot of modern fiction is kind of obsessed with World War 2.”

“Yeah, it is,” Steve shook his head. “I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, I’m glad people can see the war from a safe point of view, but… it was a big deal for me.”

“A big deal for everyone,” I sighed. “I mean, Star Wars using the Nazis as inspiration for the Empire isn’t weird. If it wasn’t them, it would have been some other stupid regime with bullshit ideas of what constitutes ‘real’ people.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Although the fact ‘Neo-Nazism’ is a thing is… annoying.”

“People are always going to find some reason to be an asshole to others,” I sighed. “But things are still better. I mean, there’s hate, prejudice. People are still in great pain. But there are more people safe and happy today than at any point in history. It’s far from perfect. But we’re getting better.”

We walked in silence for half a minute.

I decided to change the subject.

“Well, you’ve watched a lot of movies and such. What about video games? You get into those yet?”

“Not just yet,” he said with a shrug. “I’m not sure I’d like them, to be honest. They just look so hard to control, with all the little buttons.”

“See, this is why Nat calls you a fossil.”

“Hey!” Steve sputtered.

I laughed. “Seriously man, just start simple. We can always buy something easy to control to start you out. I’ll train you in video games if you want.”

“See, calling it ‘training’ makes me think it’ll be hard,” Steve said dubiously.

“Yeah, because you hate training, Charles Atlas,” was my sarcastic response. “Seriously, aren’t you basically the living incarnation of an ‘after’ photo?”

Steve grinned. “Yeah, but there is no serum to teach me how play video games. At least until that Matrix movie stuff becomes real.”

“‘I know kung fu’,” I chuckled. “I’ll ask Tony if we can make something.”

“Until then, I suppose you can teach me,” Steve rubbed his head. “What game should we start with?”

“Er.”

Shit. What was a good game to start with? Something simple, something I had familiarity with so I could ‘train’ him. Probably something that wasn’t military focused, since Steve had been in battles that made Call of Duty look like Care Bears… Well, there was always the game series I’d played to the point of obsession.

“Pokemon,” I said at last, not even slightly tickled at the hilarity inherent in teaching Captain America how to play Pokemon.

“That kids game?” he asked, sounding confused.

“Hey, they didn’t base an anime on it for no reason,” I said idly, stopping to drop a few bucks into a homeless mans cap, the man giving me a thankful look. “Granted, it still pisses me off that Ash is ten years old after all this time-”

“What’s anime?” Steve asked.

“...I have much to teach you,” I said solemnly.

“Okay?” Steve didn’t seem to know how to take that. I grinned.

“It’s a Japanese form of animation,” I explained.

“Oh, like cartoons?” he asked. I winced, waiting for the usual distaste older people tended to have towards 'dumb cartoons' up until they watched Avatar:The Last Airbender. But then the patroit surprised me. “I love cartoons! I used to watch them all the time! Although, my favorite parts were the commercials before them.”

“Seriously?” I asked, trying not to sound surprised.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “They used to play ads telling people to support the war effort. Got beat up in an alley once when some guy kept yelling in the middle of one,” he seemed oddly nostalgic. “Yeah, spent a lot of time getting beat up.”

“Me too,” I said without thinking. I winced. “I mean… I was kind of an awkward kid. I don’t get beat up as often anymore, but… Ulik.”

“...I’ve lost a lot more after becoming Captain America,” the sudden comment surprised me. We walked for a moment longer before he spoke again. “Really, I’ve gotten beat up a lot of times in my life. Lost a lot. But nothing ever hurt as much as losing Bucky. Or waking up to find out the world had passed me by. Then getting beat up by my best friend.” He smiled. “I always keep going though. It doesn’t always work. I know I’m going to lose a few more times. Even as strong as I am, there is so much out there stronger than me. I just can’t let that stop me. I have to keep going. That’s why I don’t mind losing. I’m used to it. And I’m used to getting up again after. Because as long as I can stand up for something greater than me… That’s worth losing for. Worth dying for. That’s why I don’t mind losing. I’m used to it. And I’m used to getting up again after.”

“...” I struggle to think of something to say. Sam was right. Steve really could pull an awesome speech out of his ass. Seriously. “I guess I have to do the same thing. Though, I guess getting knocked out by Ulik isn’t the same as what you went through.”

“What’s the one thought that keeps popping into your head when you think of that fight?” Steve asked.

I stopped walking. An uru knuckle flashed into my mind. The realization ever since that without Tony and Thor, I would have-

“...I thought I was going to die.”

“That feeling. That helplessness. It’ll always pop up after someone beats you down like that. Believe me, I know,” he stopped me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “There’s just one thing you can do. Get up. Over and over. Never stop and never give them the satisfaction.”

I nodded and clenched my fist.

“Now, come on,” Steve pulled me by the shoulder. “Tell me more about anime. Got anything I should add to my list?”

I laughed. “Man, where do I even start? Well, the oldest one I can think of was called ‘Astro Boy’. Oh, ‘Fist of the North Star’ is pretty good too! Oh, and don’t forget...”

------

We got to Times Square and immediately grabbed some slices of good old New York City pizza from a random shop we found. As we left the shop, Cap was kind of staring at the slice of pizza on his plate.

“You okay?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah, just… still getting used to food around here. Everything from my time was kind of bland. Nowadays the food is always too sweet, or spicy, or just complicated,” he took a bit of cheese, sauce, and bread, then sighed. “Still, worth it.”

I’d never really thought of that. Food was cooked differently from culture to culture, I knew that from watching Gordon Ramsey kickass, but I didn’t realize there was such a jump between food back in the forties and food in the present.

“How often does that happen?” I asked, taking my own bite and swallowing. “Finding something as simple as food changed so much?”

“A lot, to be honest,” he shrugged. “Like here,” he pointed with his pizza at the city around us, a billboard flashing with the latest Broadway show. I hid my excitement at the sight of it. “These billboards used to be painted. Not giant TV’s or electric lights.”

“Huh. And I guess the buildings were smaller too.”

“Oh yeah,” he grinned. “I don’t know though. The city still feels the same sometimes.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I admitted. “I’m a Cali native. Everything here feels like San Francisco got a size upgrade sometimes.”

He laughed. “I can imagine. How long did you live here before we met?”

“Like, two months?” I blinked. “Man. Lots of things have changed since then.”

“For all of us,” Steve shook his head. “SHIELD, Hydra, new Avengers, BRIDGE.”

“And now I’m a billionaire,” I said idly. “I was homeless before.”

“You were?” he sounded surprised, then looked embarrassed. “Oh right. I forgot, sorry.”

“It’s cool, man,” I said as I led us to a table to eat at. “I had superpowers. My homelessness barely counted.”

Seriously, I had the Omnitrix. I didn’t have to deal with the same problems others did when it came to that. And every day I was thankful for that. It's why one of the first things I'd done with the money X and Jarvis stole from Hydra was donating it to shelters and programs focused on helping homeless people recover their lives.

We sat together for a while, eating our food in silence. Steve surprised me when he reached into a pocket and pulled out a notebook. No, actually, a sketchbook.

“One sec,” he said politely. He started drawing, quickly bringing an image of Times Square to life in pencil. I didn’t disturb him, just watching. I wasn't sure how seriously he took his art but I'd learned to let people do their thing when the inspiration struck.

When he finished, he put it away and looked around. “So. Where to now?”

“Well, now we go shopping,” I grinned. “I have a room at the Tower now. So do you. Let’s decorate them, fill them with cool things we don’t need.”

He winced. “I’m not sure about that. I never really was the kind to just get things I don’t need.”

“Me neither,” I got up. “But then, I never really had the chance to do that much. Plus, it’s my day off. I can be an idiot if I want. And hey, we still have a few places to hang out. You down?”

Steve shook his head, shrugging with a grin. “Yeah, sure. Where to first?”

“A nerd store,” I said easily. “I’m getting Avengers merchandise.”

“Can’t we get those for free?” he asked as he got up to follow me.

“Yeah, but this way annoys Tony more.”

Steve thought about that. “You know, maybe I should get something...”