Work Text:
november 1943
“So Rogers,” Howard drawls. A handful of the men from Azzano are clustered around a table in the mess hall, relieved from duty for the day after yesterday’s heroic return. Howard technically isn’t supposed to be in there at all, but no one’s bold enough to tell Howard Stark what he can and cannot do.
Steve makes a halfhearted hmm sound, but most of his attention is on Bucky—pressed up a little closer than he really should be, but who’s going to question that Steve might be a little extra clingy to his friend after coming so close to losing him—nudging their feet together under the table and glancing at him every few seconds, just to confirm he’s really there.
“Sounds like you had yourself a fun night,” Howard says, eyebrows raised. A couple of the guys whistle.
Steve’s breath catches. He pulls his foot quickly away from Bucky’s.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Mm-hm,” Howard says with a grin. “I walked past your tent last night, Cap, and you sounded real happy. I’ve gone home with enough girls to know what it sounds like.”
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken this time, Howard,” Steve says, a little stiffly.
“Come on, Rogers, who was the lucky girl?” one of the other guys hollers. “Was it Carter?”
Steve blinks, and his shoulders relax a little. Girl. Right. Of course they'd have no idea who he was actually with. “No, not Peggy. It was, uh—one of the USO girls. I didn’t get her name.”
“Damn, Cap, that’s low, even by my standards,” Howard says.
Steve winces. “Look, let’s not spread this around camp, okay? I don’t want any of the girls gettin’ treated differently ‘cause of me.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Howard waves a hand. “No one’s gonna spill your dirty little secret, don’t worry.”
Steve lets out a relieved exhale, as one of the other guys shouts, “So was she any good, Cap?”
Steve’s eyes flick to Bucky, and with a carefully bashful smile, he says, “She was alright.”
Bucky coughs. Steve has to hide a grin at the hint of indignation in his voice. “Only alright?”
“Well I don’t have any other girls to compare her to, do I?” There’s a handful of whoops and cheers in response to that—seeming to assume, understandably enough, that this means it was his first time—but Steve can’t tear his eyes away from Bucky.
Bucky rolls his eyes, but it’s fond. “Nah, that's true. Guess this one was pretty special then, huh?”
“Yeah,” Steve says, trying and failing to hide a smile. “Guess it was pretty special.”
present day
“Did you find it?” Bruce says, when the door creaks open. He doesn’t look up from the calculations he’s running, but out of the corner of his eye he sees Tony drop into the chair beside him.
They’re working on an experiment, trying to figure out how to control his hulking out, and Tony had thought he’d seen something in one of his father’s old journals that might help test their current theory.
“No,” Tony says, after a long pause. “I didn’t find it. What I did find was infinitely worse.”
Bruce furrows his brow. “Bad news? Is this one not gonna work?”
“Worse.”
He shuts off the screen in front of him, and turns to face Tony. “Uh, Tony, you’re scaring me a little. What’s wrong? Did something happen? Is it more aliens?”
Tony blinks. “What? No, no, nothing like that. What I found was the wrong journal. My dad’s personal journal, not his scientific one.”
“And this is terrible because . . . ?”
“It’s his journal from 1943!”
“I’m not following.”
“I am emotionally scarred, Banner. That's the year he met Cap. He wrote, and I quote, ‘Rogers got down and dirty with a USO showgirl the other night, and it sounded like he was having a reeeal good time. He got real bashful when we brought it up—guess it was his first time—but hell, I’ve been with one of ‘em too. Who can blame him, they’re lovely dames. I’m just hoping it wasn’t the same girl.’ I did not need to know any of that. Why would I want to know any of that.”
“Why would you read me that?” Bruce says with a groan. Steve is his co-worker too, for fuck’s sake. He doesn’t need to know about his sex life.
“Because it’s horrifying.”
“That’s not a good reason, Stark! Also it’s not that bad. It’s just sex.”
“It’s Steve Rogers, America’s icon, having sex! My dad told me bedtime stories about him growing up!”
“Mm-hm.”
“My dad might have slept with the girl Steve Rogers lost his virginity too!”
“Mm-hm.”
“Banner, this is very upsetting news to me, and you look like you’re barely even paying attention.”
Bruce groans and leans back in his chair, preparing to not get any work done for the rest of the day.
——
When Jen brings up Captain America’s supposed virginity for the fifth time that week, honestly, Bruce is just happy not to be the only one forcefully aware of Steve Roger’s sex life anymore.