SAM WAS SURE JEN KNEW WHO HE REALLY WAS. Most people hadn't paid much attention to him even when he was an Avenger, so he wasn't as afraid as Steve was to make sure people didn't recognize him, but it was hard to hide his true identity when he was trying to settle his affairs and was looking up news articles about himself during his downtime while at work.

"How was that?" Sam asked, glancing up from where Jen's ten o'clock was storming out in a flurry of curses and rants, giving Sam the middle finger as he went.

Jen sighed, practically draping herself across his desk. "I'm a strong, independent woman who knows how to stick up for herself. I used to have no self-esteem and be very passive. I'm sure you know which one people prefer."

He splayed out his hands. "I like the former, but I'm not sure most people would agree with me. So I'm guessing I shouldn't have to worry about calling him for a follow up?"

"You'd be right," she sighed, stretching before sitting back up, "How are you doing, Sam?"

He shrugged. "I'm doing alright." It had been about three days since he had been sent away by Nicky, and he figured he'd give the man his space before trying to connect with him again; if it were up to him, he'd just leave well enough alone, but Steve was adamant that he make friends with the young man.

She nodded, mind already elsewhere. "I'm glad. Hey, listen, do you want to help me consume a box of girl scout cookies? And by help I mean I'll give you three and you can eat them slowly so I can feel better about eating an entire box in one sitting?"

He laughed, standing up from behind his desk and making his way towards her even smaller office, taking a seat in the chair in front of her desk, watching as she opened a drawer and pulled out a box of thin mints.

"Do you have a stash down there?" he joked, laughing as she gave him a pointed look.

"Do you want the drugs or not?" she demanded, and he just laughed harder, throwing his head back, reaching out eagerly when she opened the box, only for her to pull them away quickly.

"I am sharing, but this is a lion share, buy your own," she said, pulling out one and handing it towards him.

Laughing, he nibbled on the cookie slowly, nearly choking when Jen shoved an entire cookie in her mouth as is, laughing harder as she chewed obnoxiously, looking utterly dejected as she chewed, pouting around her cookie.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked, because though he found it incredibly funny, he was the kind of guy who honestly wanted people to tell him how they were feeling; it had been a while, so he had taken some time to just decompress from the baggage everyone else held.

She sighed, dropping her head onto her chin. "I don't know, I just...the practice is doing great, better than everyone expected of me. After all, I moved across the country, but...I deal with more than you know, it's just difficult for me. I mean, I have it much better than my cousin, whom I haven't heard from in years, but it's still hard sometimes."

He smiled sympathetically, nodding. "I can understand that. Honestly, I can. But, and I'm sure you know, you'll overcome it. I mean, look at you now, you're an up-and-coming from L.A. and you're doing great."

She smiled. "Thanks, Sam. And, yeah, life isn't gonna go back to the way it was, for either of us, but we can make it work."

He motioned towards the box of cookies. "Can I have another?"

She scoffed, plucking out another and shoving it into her mouth. "Don't kid yourself." She grinned as he laughed, pushing the box towards the middle of the table. "Go ahead."

º º º

"I can't believe you're actually wearing the crocs," Nicky groaned, looking up from where he was sitting at the dining table, eyes glued to where Steve was walking around, his Captain America crocs on his feet.

"Rhett got them for me, he says they're stylish," the blond replied, looking around as if his boyfriend would manifest out of thin air from where he was teaching second graders at the school.

Nicky sighed. "Do you think they're stylish?"

Steve pursed his lips and shrugged, glancing down at his feet. "I think my boyfriend used his hard earned money to buy these and didn't stop smiling for over two hours after I told him I would wear whatever he wanted to buy me."

Nicky laughed softly, smiling. "You're a good boyfriend, Steve, you know that?"

The blond shrugged. "I try. We haven't gone on a proper date, though, I don't know how to feel about that."

Nicky rolled his eyes. "You're so old-fashioned. Besides, if you held out Rhett's chair for him before he sat, he'd probably die on the spot. Actually, please take him on a date and set up a camera, I want that."

Steve laughed at that, shaking his head. After a moment, he asked, "Are you gonna ever tell him? About you, I mean."

Nicky frowned, his heart rate picking up, schooling his features immediately. "What do you mean?"

Steve's expression and tone were as kind and understanding as always, but Nicky couldn't help but feel patronized, knowing that the man was using his character voice, rather than speaking his true feelings; that tended to happen when one was a prominent figure in society, but it still hurt to hear, like he wasn't fully trusted yet.

"You tell him when you're ready," the blond said, not moving from where he was standing, "But you know just as much as I do that he would understand."

Nicky sighed, going back to fiddling with his papers, "Yeah, I know, I just...I don't know. It was never an issue because neither of us were having sex, but now that he has you..."

Steve moved from his position, just standing between the dining table and the counter of the kitchen, to sit across from Nicky, sitting back and just looking at him, seeming all as if he was truly a man from the forties and not just a twenty-nine year old. Nicky suddenly felt like a kid again, fidgeting under the gaze of whatever unfairly pretty person was looking down at him.

"Nick," Steve said, and it was so Captain America, 'listen, son'-esque that the psychologist was ready to just melt into the floor and hide, "You know better than that."

He sighed. "I know. But just 'cause I'm a professional doesn't mean I don't get to be difficult."

Steve laughed softly, tilting his head. "Why are you still single? I'm not asking why you haven't had sex, I'm asking because you'd think someone would find you as cute as Rhett and I do."

The younger man blinked, glancing around the room, squinting at the corners of the ceiling and the floor, turning back to Steve and narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Did Rhett put you up to this? Am I getting punk'd?"

Steve just laughed, shaking his head. "I'm not coming on to you, but sometimes I think you don't know how great you are. It's sad."

Nicky scoffed. "Wow. Thanks, Steve, you really know how to reel 'em in."

Steve laughed and reached out to nudge Nicky with his foot. "Give yourself some credit, Nick."

The younger man shrugged. "I do. But when's that ever been enough?"

º º º

Sam had just been planning on getting groceries. He was planning on cooking Steve an actual meal, more than just bacon and eggs for breakfast and takeout for dinner, which seemed to have been the specialty at the Green-Reiser residence.

He was generally overlooked, happily humming as he thought back to some of the recipes his mother had left the family, passed down from her grandmother and onward.

He was pushing his cart towards the car that Tony had gotten for him for Christmas—he had argued against it, and Tony himself even agreed that it wasn't smart to have a car in New York, but the billionaire had figured it was prudent since Sam had a job, and wouldn't take no for an answer, so there it was—when he overheard an argument between some girl scouts.

"Captain America is the best Avenger!"

"No, he's not, he's a war criminal now, my mom said so, Iron Man is the best."

"What about The Falcon?"

Sam very well near brained himself against the sidewalk. He slowed down, listening carefully to the conversation.

One of the girls scoffed. "My mom says he's just a token Avenger, he doesn't do anything."

He frowned at that, his stomach turning. He had been called that many times throughout the years, news articles being printed about how the Avengers were trying too hard to be politically correct and how some people didn't feel safe knowing he was a part of the team, others saying that he didn't actually do anything. Steve had gone out many times, publicly stating that Sam was an important member of the team and reminding people that he was a war veteran and should be treated with respect, though he often got so upset he could barely finish his sentences.

Sam had never liked their statements—who would?—but he wasn't surprised to hear them, nor was he surprised to hear children so young already being taught how to hate. It was a sad thing to hear, but not an entirely new thing.

But then something else.

"Shut up, Janet! He's amazing! If you even bothered to look him up, you'd see that he was in the army, just like your dad is! He is one of the coolest Avengers and you're just being awful. And my mom says that your mom doesn't know how to make a quiche so what does she know?"

Sam turned to find a girl, about thirteen years old, glaring at whom he assumed was Janet, the latter girl staring at her, shocked.

"Yeah, Janet, that's not a nice thing to say," one of the younger girls said, "They're a team just like us, we all do stuff."

There was a chorus of agreement from the other girls and Sam couldn't help but smile as the first girl that spoke up smiled smugly, crossing her arms and nodding. "Falcon is the best because he proved that anyone can do anything, doesn't matter what society says."

So she had seen one of his speeches. Sam had given a talk at a school in D.C. about overcoming the stereotypes placed upon people, telling them that they could be whatever they wanted and he was living proof, learning to overcome loss and finding his place in a world that was still, to this day, trying to bring him down, proving them wrong by being better and trying to do good things in the world. The fact that she had remembered his speeches nearly had him tripping over his feet.

So no one could blame him for what he did next.

º º º

Nicky was lounging on the couch, watching YouTube videos with Steve while Rhett graded papers.

"So why are they only seven seconds long?" Steve asked, glancing away when Rhett stood up to answer the buzzer at the main gate, letting in whomever was on the other end, "Does that add to the comedic effect or—"

"I'm not sure, but I think it's an interesting way to study the current generation and the changes in general culture over the years," Nicky explained, acting as if he didn't watch large compilations of these videos to get himself to laugh.

Steve hummed, raising his eyebrows. "Oh, well that's interesti—"

The door, which Rhett had unlocked before sitting back down, burst open at that moment, causing Nicky to shriek and Steve to jump to his feet, on the defensive, before sighing and collapsing back onto the couch.

"Sam, what the hell?" he demanded, struggling to catch his breath, "I thought you were attacking us."

"Steve, I fucked up," the man declared, his arms filled with bags, "I fucked up so bad."

The blond rose to his feet and made his way towards the man, helping him carrying in the near dozens of bags he was carrying, gawking when he caught sight of most of the contents. "Sam...Sam, did you just buy five hundred boxes of girl scout cookies?"

"They said I was cool, Steve!" Sam cried, looking very conflicted.

"Aw, hell yeah, hit me up with those Caramel deLites, let's go!" Nicky whooped, vaulting over a groaning Rhett, immediately diving into a bag, pulling out a box and brandishing it over his head.

"He has a jar of savings set aside to stock up," Rhett explained to the others in the room, all three of them watching the younger man with varying emotions.

"That was fake Monopoly money, my God," Nicky groaned around a mouthful of cookies, "And why are you so against them, I mean, you had those dumb sugar rations back in the day, you should be gorging yourself."

Rhett wrinkled his nose. "No, thanks, I'll just support the boy scouts when the popcorn sales start up."

Sam scoffed, reaching down and grabbing a cookie from Nicky who held out his hand towards Steve who took one for himself. "Have you even had one of these, Rhett?"

The blond shook his head, shrugging. "I've tried one or two."

He blinked for a moment before saying, "That's really sad, Rhett, and that's no way to tell. Here," he grabbed a box of Thin Mints and threw it towards him, "Try a few of those, then try to tell me you don't like 'em."

Rhett rolled his eyes, opening the box regardless. "I can't believe you bought five hundred boxes of girl scout cookies, how much money was this?"

"They had a card reader and Tony actually took half the share, this is only half of their entire stock," Sam said, opening another box and handing it towards Steve.

"You bought out their entire stock?" Nicky cried, nearly spitting out his cookie, "That's insane!"

"They said I was cool!" Sam countered, pointing his half eaten cookie towards him harshly, "Do you want me to leave?"

"Please don't," Nicky said quickly, and he hoped he didn't sound as desperate as he thought he did and, if he did, he hoped Sam thought he was talking about the cookies.

Sam just smiled and reached over, grabbing the uneaten cookie Nicky was holding in his hand. "Then I won't."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So I saw that hilarious Tumblr post about Sam buying out an entire stock of girl scout cookies because he heard one of the girl scouts say Falcon was the best Avenger, so I had to put it in here. I actually made a plot for it in my plot shop and it is currently being written by andrewgarfieIds so check that out!

I've decided to split this particular part into two since I really wanna have Sam and Nicky bonding more (or maybe they won't next chapter, really, who knows) but, yeah, here's some character development and stuff like that.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!