The next set of recs, only eight stories this time. The prefatory notes to my first post still apply.
The Sky and Everything Beneath by jibrailis (7186 words, general audiences). At the end of the movie I immediately wanted lots and lots of stories about Steve taking bittersweet road trips to see America for himself. This would be one of those, except in a car rather than on a bike and with slowly-accreting team. This is probably the best Steve gen I've read post-movie, and its last two paragraphs are absolutely perfect.
Blueprint by Jai (1240 words, general audiences). Another road trip story, this time with the team at a remove, but still important, particularly the diverging-but-related origin stories of Steve and Bruce.
Six Meetings Before Lunch by victoria_p (4130 words, general audiences). And now for something a bit lighter: Six times Steve and Thor hang out. Lovely friendship and adjusting to the 21st century.
Afterwards, they wander into a hookah lounge where there's some sort of after hours poetry reading happening, and Steve isn't sure how it happens, but suddenly he's listening to Thor recite The Lay of Thrym to thunderous applause.
Thor doesn't want to talk about Loki, so Steve doesn't ask. They all have secrets and sore spots and Loki is one for all of them now. Instead, he orders another round of drinks and hands Thor a glass when he comes back to the table, gaggle of girls dressed in black in tow.
Some of Thor's newfound fans are art students, and Steve finds that he can still talk to people about things that aren't SHIELD or war-related, even if he still has almost seventy years of art history to catch up on. He goes home with several names and numbers jotted down on napkins, and while Darcy teases him about his ability to hook up, they're all for art supply stores and galleries.
Maybe it's time to try his hand at painting again, now that he can afford oils and canvas. He knows portraits aren't popular in this day and age, but he's always done well with life drawing, so his first subject is Thor, microphone in one hand, beer stein in the other, reciting the story of how Mjolnir was stolen from him and how he and Loki tricked the Frost Giants into giving it back.
Even Gods Do by Cluegirl (8351 words, general audiences). Steve has trouble sleeping after the battle. I love stories about Steve that remember that he's stubborn and snarky and quick, rather than some eternally, naively virtuous innocent. A fair amount of team goodness in this one, too.
. . . he turned around at a perfectly normal speed, mindful of his size in the small space, and set the folded pile of clothes and linens down on the small chest of drawers. Then he fixed the Director with his Captain Face -- one part uniform-respect, one part insubordination, and two parts fair warning that he meant to have his way. Colonel Phillips had hated the look, and called it Steve's 'Captain Guess-Which-Order-I-Want-To-Hear-Next' face, which was a pretty fair assessment of it. By the time Steve and the Howling Commandos had tracked Schmidt down to his last base, the Colonel had gotten pretty good at guessing right too.
Picture This by AnonEhouse (1757 words, general audiences). Another immediately-post-movie exhaustion story; the punchline amuses me.
Soft Skills by Lady_Ganesh (4154 words, teen and up). From the author's summary: "The team tries to bring Steve Rogers into the 21st Century. It mostly works."
[Tony]'d heard a thousand stories about how brave and strong and handsome Captain America was; it'd taken him longer to realize that the guy was pretty smart, too, even if he was seventy years out of date. It took Steve about ten minutes to go from learning how to point and click on a laptop to a Google search for 'possible weaknesses Iron Man armor.'
Fan Mail, also by Lady_Ganesh (2039 words, general audiences). Steve goes to a fan's prom. I like the details in this one, like Steve actually preferring texting to phone calls, and this exchange, while Steve & Tony are suit-shopping, cracks me up:
Steve handed Tony his phone. "Take a picture for me?"
Tony's eyebrows went up, but he obeyed. "The girl already thinks you're handsome, Captain."
"I'm getting another opinion," Steve said, looking up his contacts. Pepper Potts, Natasha Romanoff. He briefly considered sending the photo to Agent Hill, but he didn't want to insult her. He cc'd Fury instead.
Pepper's response was almost immediate. Buy it. Buy two.
Sticking w/one. "I guess I'll take it," he said, and went to change. Looks good came from Fury as he left the dressing room.
the hip and the dead by hollimichele (5580 words, general audiences). Steve moves into a neighborhood of hipsters in Brooklyn, meets the neighbors, and discovers (as the tags say) that postmodernism is confusing and irony is hard. I like the ups and downs of emotion in this one.
Next up: Natasha and others.