Chapter Text
Steve adapted to the 2000s remarkably well. As in, remarkably. Everyone expected him to be confused by things like smartphones and the internet and, hell, satellite television. In a way, he had been. But what no one had accounted for was his almost endless patience and determination to learn everything in this century to his advantage. (He once confessed to Tony that he was sad that Howard's flying car had never worked out, which led Tony into creating an actual Back to the Future-style hoverboard that Pepper promptly nixed).
He even took to videogames with a kind of wonder that was adorable as far as Tony was concerned. Steve and Thor could spend hours playing things like Kirby's Yarn World or Little Big Planet while Tony not-so-quietly criticized the structural integrity of their contraptions. Although Thor and Clint loved games like Call of Duty, Steve avoided them. He'd had enough of war to suit all the lifetimes he'd had, he said, conscious or not. Weirdly, Steve's favorite game for almost two months was the atrocity known as Nintendogs. He explained sheepishly to Tony while he was deliberating names for a beagle puppy that he'd been allergic as a child, not to mention too poor. And now as an Avenger, it would simply be 'irresponsible' to have a pet that they would hardly have time for.
He named the beagle Tommy and showed up twice a day to check up on it. Even more weird was the time that Tony caught Natasha playing fetch with Tommy. She'd simply given Tony a steely look and said that Steve was caught in meetings all day.
So, besides his juvenile choice of video games, Steve was adapting just fine. He only needed something explained once or twice before he understood, and after a long talk about what an AI was and how JARVIS was so much more, things went faster as Steve simply had JARVIS explain or project images of anything he wanted to learn about.
Not even the galas, publicity events, and status parties the Avengers attended could faze him. Bruce and Thor were uncomfortable with them, and Thor was a prince. Bruce dealt by deflecting to someone else as fast as possible, and Thor finally settled on 'best behavior' being translated as 'jovial to a fault.' But Steve was always gracious, back ramrod straight, smiling, walking carefully past everyone—even the paparazzi—with an easy smile on his face that could have put Tony to shame if he were a lesser man. So maybe Steve didn't schmooze unless directed, but he was charming almost to a fault. He explained to Tony later that his experience selling bonds helped a lot. People took a lot of pictures and did things like ask him to kiss babies all the time, and his military training as well as his mother's influence ensured he would be a gentleman, or at least respectful, at all times.
And he was Captain fucking America, for Christ sakes. People seemed to take it for granted that he would be perfect and wonderful and charming and heroic as second nature.
It wasn't until a year and an alien invasion later that Tony ever found out otherwise.