Immortal

Part 5 - Who's He?

I didn't get any sleep that night; I could barely concentrate on the conversation going on around me.  Natalie knew me well enough to know something wasn't right and was continuously asking me what it was. I couldn't give her an answer because she had no real clue the half of what I had dealt with the last seventy-odd years.  She only knew the very minimum.

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Over the coming weeks I got to be around Steve a lot more.  We talked and hung out; he liked to game and go to the movies but his mannerisms were indicative of someone far older than his thirty-odd years which kept nagging at me.

Steve, for his part, wasn't put off by my stand-offishness.  I don't know what Natalie told him about me before we met but he took everything in his stride and just let me get on with my own way of doing things whenever we were around each other.

I had started to relax a lot more around Steve when he showed up at my apartment one night.  I say apartment; it was part of an old warehouse that I had renovated to my needs; it was near where the docks had been at one time, which was surprisingly largely quiet.

When I opened the door Steve stood in clothes that somehow didn't look like they should fit him, didn't look like he was used to wearing jeans and a t-shirt and was better suited to a uniform of some kind or at least smart trousers and a button shirt on a regular basis.

“Hi.” Steve smiles.

“Evening… to what do I owe this honour?” I smile and lean on the door, offering him to come inside.

“Well… I found this bottle of what seems to be moonshine in Natalie's apartment and wondered if you wanted to share it with me.”

“Moonshine…? You know nothing gets me drunk right?”

“You ever noticed nothing gets me drunk either?” Steve points out.  I had noticed and it was just something else I wanted to ask him about but part of me didn't want to know the answer. Part of me already knew the answer but wouldn't let me know it; I was still working on retrieving all my memories from before HYDRA.

I nodded and settled with a simple answer as I closed the door and locked up for the night “True… very true… wait are you trying to get me drunk?”

“Maybe..” he shrugs and sits down. “Besides… what's the worst that can happen when drinking an unknown substance?”

I had to admit; nothing in drink or drug form had been able to kill me yet.  I took the offered bottle and popped it open to take a sniff. The smell alone brought tears to my eyes.

“Jesus Fucking Christ!” I blink and hold it out to Steve to do the same.

“Language!” He frowns and then laughs at my expression.

“Shut up and sniff this stuff. You sure it's drinkable?”

Steve rolls his eyes and inhales before coughing roughly “let's find out.”

It would be a great many more years before I found out what we were drinking and just why it did what it did.

The first mouthful burned and we discovered it was best to sip instead.  The liquid went straight to our heads and we ended up a laughing heap on the floor after the second glass. We didn't have a third; we didn't need it.

Through all my confusion about if I already knew Steve; everything I did around him felt natural.  Even down to the casual flirting - especially down to the casual flirting. We'd throw each other small glances and side-eye. I'd catch him checking me out when we went to the gym together and I made sure I saw his ass on more than one occasion in the showers after the workout.