"So all the history books were right? It wasn't a bunch of wartime propaganda?" asked Sam, a bemused, slightly dumbstruck smile on his face. "Your birthday actually is the Fourth of July?"

Steve tried not to flush too hard as he buried his face deeper into his sketchbook, pencil scribbling across the paper in rapid strokes. "Yeah," he admitted halfheartedly.

His birthday had never really been an issue, back home – in the forties, his mind corrected absently. Some of the other boys on the block had thought it amusing that he shared the date with their nation's most infamous holiday when all he did was talk about how much he wanted to serve said nation's military when he grew up and got big and strong. Of course, they found it far less amusing after Bucky chased them off with a few choice words and more than a few good hits. Steve remembered protesting the incident, insisting he'd gone too far, but secretly being grateful when the other boy insisted it was no big deal and sheepishly offered to buy him some new pencils with the pennies he'd saved up.

But after becoming Captain America, scrutiny and disbelief over his birth date had risen time and again; the Commandos had all thought it hysterical upon discovering it to be true. Dugan especially had laughed uproariously over the fact until a round of celebratory liquor had been poured into his mouth by a very annoyed Morita.

The memory of such times with his short-lived team brought a bitter smile to his face as he filled in another line on the sketch of the Avengers base he'd been working on for the better part of two months. "Most people don't believe me when I tell them," he said flatly in lieu of admitting the nostalgic pain in his chest.

He could've had something close to a normal birthday if Bucky were here…

Bucky…

Oh, Steve did not need that stress right now.

Sam seemed to have a similar thought, because he leaned forward across the back of the couch to lightly slap an arm on Steve's shoulder. "Well come on then," he said, not even having to force the levity in his tone or the smile on his face, "You're not spending your birthday cooped up in here like a convict. We're going out!"

"Out?" Steve parroted, startled, but not protesting as Natasha appeared out of nowhere like the shadow she was and deftly slipped his sketchbook and pencil out of his fingers. "Out where?"

"New York," she said decisively, steamrolling Sam entirely, "Brooklyn. The Statue of Liberty. The Empire State Building. Central Park. All the most famous 'Land of the Free' landmarks America has to offer in this state. Let the world see this nation's hero as the America-loving super-soldier everyone knows and loves. And then we'll come back here," she continued, a truly predatory grin lighting up her face, "And get absolutely hammered. Pun intended."

Sam snorted, and Thor, who had just entered, blinked, clueless to the man's source of amusement.

"Are we set to fight a foe worthy of Mjolnir's lightning, Lady Natasha?" he asked, hefting said hammer in one grip as the assassin pulled their teammate to his feet.

"Nah, big guy, we're going out to party. Steve neglected to tell us his birthday is today," Sam said, ignoring Steve's protest of 'You're the one who assumed!'

"Ah! A celebration of one's birth! This is a most important occasion! I shall inform the others and bring them posthaste!" Thor boomed, and practically flew out of the room, and oh boy.

"Guys, I didn't mention it because I didn't want to make it into a big deal!" Steve protested, because it wasn't, not really; there were plenty of other things they could be doing today aside from partying. Hell, last he knew, half the team didn't even celebrate Independence Day; Wanda and Natasha were from other countries and Vision didn't really get human holidays all that much.

Natasha paused in her mission to drag him out the door, sharing a look with Sam that clearly said they thought he was a bit of an idiot. "Steve, we want to make it a big deal," she said plainly, tugging his hand a bit.

"Yeah buddy," said Sam, looping an arm around his shoulder in a comfortable half-hug, and for the first time in a long while Steve didn't automatically stiffen at the contact; he wasn't Bucky, but that fact didn't sting nearly as much anymore. "We're your friends. The entire country has celebrated its birthday for hundreds of years. I think it's about time someone else's birthday got the same level of festivity, don't you think?"

Steve furrowed his eyebrows. Natasha's eyes sparked with mischief. Sam grinned like a bit of a loon.

Several voices, Thor's booming excitement and Rhodey's exasperated calm and Wanda's completely done sighs and Vision's humble inflection all reaching them distantly, moving towards them steadily with Thor clearly in the lead.

"We're your friends," Natasha repeated quietly, and if her voice was a bit softer than normally, neither Sam nor Steve mentioned it. "We want to celebrate your birthday with you. Would you rather we not?"

And despite his initial wish to simply sit through the day and draw, he couldn't bring himself to say no.

"Can we at least avoid the public?" he asked, smiling slightly, "I'd like to celebrate my birthday, not have half the country show up for autographs."

"Done," Sam said with absolutely no hesitation. "That's just what I was gonna go for. I know a diner in Westchester that has the best pizza-"

The rest of the team arrives, and there is much debate about places to go and whether Stark should be involved or not because he was sure to draw a crowd without even trying, and this is all so different; it's not the Commandos taking him out for a rare night of drinks and no work for once.

But it's something.

He's not alone on his birthday. He can't ask for more than that.

(Later the next day, upon waking with a rapidly fading headache from all of the alcohol he'd inadvertently consumed, he'd find a brand new sketchbook with a full set of styling pens and pencils, a lazily scrawled note on top reading 'These cost more than a few pennies nowadays, but I thought you'd appreciate some more.' He can't stop grinning for days.)

A/N: My best attempt at a birthday present for Captain America. Steve needs lots of hugs at all hours of the day. Happy 4th!
~Persephone