Bad Steve. Bad Language Words.

"Me? How is this about me?"

"It's not," Chris shrugged, "well, it is, but...it's kind of, not exactly-"

"You're killing me, man."

"Okay, hold on, I'm gonna take a bathroom break before I get into it." Chris stood to excuse himself but was abruptly stopped by Steve's hand on his arm.

"No, you're not."

"I'm gonna piss myself, Steve."

"That's a tough situation."

"Maybe I'll sit on your lap while I tell the story then?"

"Whatever it takes."

"Oh my God, fine!" he slammed his bottle to the bar top and sat back down in defeat. "Your wife got some crazy idea up her ass that my wife was all hot and bothered around you with some twisted fucking hero worship or some bullshit, and when..." he faded and stopped again, shaking his head as if it would clear the moment away. He took the final drink from this bottle before another quickly landed in front of him as if on cue. "And when she didn't deny it...and the idea wasn't as crazy as she let me think it was...things kinda started to unravel. She tried to pull the (Y/N) card on me and how I felt about her before, but I shut that down fast."

"Chris, that's insane," Steve defended quickly with a hand on his friend's arm, just to try to hold the poor guy to reality. "That's nothing to break up over. There's nothing going on."

"Doesn't make me any less pissed off though."

Steve furrowed his brow as he thought quickly, wanting to find a way to fix this for him, but he came up with absolutely nothing fast. "Do you want (Y/N) to punch her in the face? Worked for you."

"This isn't funny, Steve."

"Never said it was."

"Do you know how many women I could-"

"Evans, don't," he warned, pulling back.

"But I could," he spat in reply. "No, I wouldn't, but fuck if I couldn't park the jet in the hangar within the next ten minutes if I wanted to."

"Hey, you stole that line from me, junior."

"Pfft, not like you're using it. You're a homebody now."

"Yeah, I suppose I am," he relented with a heavy sigh, only now finishing his first drink as Chris was well on his way to a six-pack already. He signaled for another, only to see Evans hurry to slam down the rest of his to join in. "Makes it even more confusing and I don't know why she wouldn't tell me. We're together more now than ever. That doesn't make any sense. And hey, maybe slow down a bit, huh?"

"You're not the boss of me, and I didn't drive so back off, Dad," he snapped. "Couldn't tell ya what goes on in that head of hers, Steve. That's your territory."

"Clearly it's not," he sighed, swirling the liquid in his bottle as he watched absentmindedly. He couldn't figure it out, and he was usually pretty quick on the draw for taking cues and finding the answer to almost anything. He glanced up at his friend, watching Chris wringing his hands together, staring at the finger that no longer carried the ever so slight indent from a ring left somewhere at home after tossing it carelessly away in their bedroom when he had walked out. Steve looked down at his own hand now, thankful to not have the pain that his friend was carrying but confused about the new feelings he couldn't quite identify. "We're a sorry couple of fellas, huh?"

"It's their fault."

"Hmm, that may be a little bit true, but we have our part in this too. So, let's have it, lay it all out now while we've got the chance. You are avoiding her, aren't you?"

"What? No."

"Not super convincing but I'll buy it."

"What do you want me to say, Steve?" Chris answered in a raised voice, hands up in total frustration at both his friend and the entire situation that brought them here. He was so emphatic that other patrons turned their attention and Steve tried and failed to get them to look away as the answer continued. "What do you want to hear? That I've forgotten? That she's not one the most important people in my life? That I don't...that I don't still love her? Maybe just a little? That I know I shouldn't but it's just there? That she's my friend and that's all it's been for a long time, for real, but the feelings won't go away? I've got it locked down, alright?"

"I think that about covers it, yeah."

"Well then, there ya fuckin' go," he waved Steve away, shaking his head in disgust; he wasn't sure if it were at himself or at the man next to him for even going to the topic again. It was ancient history, or so he thought. "At least let me finish my beer before you knock me off the stool."

"Come on, I'm not gonna do that," Steve groaned under his breath, taking a drink and shaking his head in kind at the idea of it.

"That's a first. Alright," Chris paused, fully turning to face his friend for the first time, "so I put it all on the line. Spilled my guts. Your turn."

"My turn...what? I don't have anything."

"Nothing?"

"Nope."

"Really? That's your play?" Chris asked purposefully, holding eye contact so steadily that Steve was now the one appearing uncomfortable in the exchange. "I thought you were walking truth and righteousness. This is your one shot, Steve, and I think you'd be wise to take it."

"Chris, I've got nothing."

"You're telling me, that in the times that we were all together over the years, you never once hit on her? Give her any ideas that her interest in you was reciprocated?"

Steve rushed to run their combined history through his mind, knowing that events were still sharp in his memory even if his skills in battle had waned slightly. Countless dinners and visits to the homes of the other, movies and vacations taken together, and nights doing nothing more than enjoying the discussions held in each other's company. There were parties with the crew and the team alike, and those blurred together some, but he could remember them all...for the most part, at least. Some weren't so clear and there were others that he may have let go; maybe even blocked purposefully from his memory. Steve sat up straighter and his spine stiffened slightly as he began to recall one party in particular. "Wait, that's not what that was," he defended in a rush. "She was a little drunk and I was being supportive to be sure she was okay."

"Weird, that kinda sounds familiar."

"What, like when you shoved your tongue down (Y/N)'s throat at our party when CJ was born? In some dumbass method to make a point?"

"I was trying to get her to see that letting me leave was the right thing to do and if she didn't let me go it was gonna get worse for all of us! That I was an idiot and too far gone and needed to get my shit together. I've explained that to you a hundred times, and I've apologized just as many!"

"Yeah, that was really a study in self-sacrifice."

"Fine," Chris hit his hand against the bar top so hard that Steve actually jumped. "so, what's your excuse? Hmm? It's not often that I feel like the upper hand is mine, Steve, but I'm feeling pretty goddamn powerful right now. My wife looked me in the eye and said that our appearance isn't where the similarities end for you and me, but she wouldn't elaborate even as I begged her to. What do you suppose she meant?"

"Chris-"

"You, know it's funny. (Y/N) said almost the exact same thing to me after I kissed her. That you and I are a lot alike in that regard. I was so damn stupid that I took it as a compliment at the time."

"It was a mistake...a misunderstanding..."

"Right. People fall into each other's lips all the time."

"I'm sorry, Chris, it really was a mistake, and I regret it. I didn't mean to hurt you like this, it was something that I wanted to just forget and now...I don't know what to say."

"Did you tell your wife about this? How far does that honesty shit of yours go?"

"No, I haven't."

"Well, tell ya what," Chris stood, his face filled with a rage like Steve had never seen from him, "you and I are done here until you do. You fucked my marriage, Steve. At least I was an idiot in front of you and didn't hide it. I told you that day that I thought I loved (Y/N) and tried to come clean right away, because I thought that I owed it to you to man up, that you were a stand-up guy that I wanted to be like. You were one of the few guys in my circle that I trusted without a single hesitation." He pushed the bar stool away and took one last drink, staring at it for a moment as he put together what might be the last words that he'd ever say to Steve Rogers. "I was gonna let it go, ya know? I was gonna give you the benefit on this, that she had to have been wrong and misunderstood something you said or a look you gave her and that you're just a nice guy so she took it wrong. But now that you admit it, and now that I know you've been keeping it to yourself, fuck you, Rogers. If you don't tell your wife, I will."

"Chris, wait-"

"Let me know how it feels when that ring comes off to see if we're alike that way too...you fucking asshole."