A/N: OH MY GOD I'M BACK AND I AM SO SORRY! Seriously, you have no idea how sorry I am. I have absolutely no intention of abandoning this story but I'm going to be real with you. I had major writers block and then when I finally figured out how I wanted this story to go, my computer that had all my fanfiction work DIED. And then SHIT WENT TO HELL. Everything I touch dies, apparently. Though to be fair, my computer is eight years old and wasn't even top of the line when we first got it. Farewell, sweet prince, you was a good bitch. *sniff* BUT FEAR NOT READERS! I am back with more vigor and determination to finish this with dignity and grace. Thank you all for being so patient with me and for sticking to this story even though you had every right to tell me to fuck off. You guys have no idea how much it means to me (i'm kind of stealing Kurt's line but bear with me). Anyway, this time it's Steve's turn! I said it was an intermission but then it got kind of angsty. So it's not a filler, it's actual moving the plot (plot? we have a plot?! le gasp!) forward and hopefully into higher ground. I have no idea what i'm saying now, it's three in the morning and i'm tired. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the next installment of Kurt and the Avengers. Keep a look out for the next part and for sneaky Natasha *ooh* *ahh* Enjoy!

(see end for more notes)

Steve

After dinner, Kurt insisted on washing dishes after the group. Surprised, they let him be and headed over to the entertainment room to watch a movie as Kurt kicked them out so he could get to work.

He hummed to himself as he washed dishes, careful to get a hold of the plate as he buffed and scrubbed. He was so distracted that he didn't hear the footsteps behind him and was startled when a voice called out, "I think I've heard that song before." Kurt jumped and let the plate slip, making it clatter against the sink.

"Oh! Captain, you scared me," he said, a bit breathless. Steve looked guilty and quickly walked over to him, "I'm so sorry, Kurt, are you alright?" Kurt laughed out of embarrassment, "Yes, yes, nothing broken, thank God. Uh, what are you doing here? I don't have any problems cleaning up."

Steve sighed and gave a small smile, "Yes, I know, but I felt guilty. You cooked such a great dinner and then to leave you to the dishes as well, it didn't seem fair. I feel like we're taking advantage of you."

"No! I promise, you're not, I want to do them! I…" he hesitated, unsure whether to divulge the captain his reasoning, remembering who exactly he was talking to. He cleared his throat, "I, um…I like doing dishes. I find it soothing."

Steve wrinkled his nose a little, "Really? I always hated it. When I was younger—back then, I mean—I was the only one in the house during the day, so I was always left with dish duty. My hands turned into skinny prunes and I always managed to crack something by accident." Kurt bit his lip to keep from laughing but couldn't help letting a snicker out. Steve just grinned; he was glad to get a positive reaction out of the Kurt. He had been worried that Tony had said something to the young man to make him wary of Steve. He wanted to let him know that there was absolutely no reason to fear him.

"That's unfortunate. But you've never washed dishes at casa de Hummel. It was always an event to behold. My mom and I would—" He stopped again, feeling a pang in his chest just mentioning her. He looked back down at the soap filled water and swallowed thickly, "My mom and I sang together. We always did the chores together, but dishes were our specialty. She would say, 'the kitchen has great acoustics, the window is our audience and the suds were just special effects.' It was like our own little concert we would do every night."

Steve noticed Kurt's hesitation when talking about her and didn't push, "She sounds like a wonderful mother." Kurt let out a breath and smiled, "She really, really was. My dad took over for a while and then my step mom and step brother. Though I usually do it alone because my brother forgets we're doing chores and tries to start water fights. He is no longer allowed near the sink after dinner." Steve laughed at that and said, "Yeah, Bucky would do that to me too. "

They both grinned as they reminisced and Kurt picking the dish back up to finish the job.

He didn't want to break the companionable silence, but the weight on Steve's mind found that it would be best to let it go now in their moment of pleasantness, "I'm glad we had this talk, Kurt. And I would like to apologize to you as well. If I ever made you uncomfortable in any, I had no intention. I may be leader of this team but that in no way makes me the boss of you. Nor should you feel to be formal around me. I'm just a guy from Brooklyn, after all."

Kurt immediately tensed at the apology and felt dread and guilt building up in the pit of his stomach. Taking a deep breath, he said, "No, Captain, I promise you that you have done nothing wrong. You've all been so nice to me. This…never in a million years did I ever expect this to happen to me, for Tony to just waltz into my life and hand me the best job in the world on a silver platter. I just don't want the dream to end. I don't want to say the wrong thing or act the wrong way, just so that it would all disappear. I had something in my grasp once, something I thought for sure was mine and in a matter of seconds it was gone and I had no idea what I did to make it go away…I—I'm just being careful this time, that's all."

He kept his eyes lowered on his plate, the guilt in his stomach crawling up to his chest. It wasn't a lie, not really. But it sure felt like one to him. His breath hitched in panic when he felt a warm, solid hand land on his shoulder and then relaxed when it squeezed in comfort rather than in a threatening way.

"Kurt, I may not know much about you but despite everything that's been said, I trust Tony. I trust his judge of character and therefore I trust you. You don't have to walk on eggshells around me, you can be yourself. Other than being a super villain or in some way trying to hurt my team, I can't think of anything that would make me want to fire you. I'm so sorry that you feel like you have to be careful around me but you don't. You're a good kid with a good heart, that which I can tell for sure. I'm not going to take this away, I promise. "

The younger man began to tremble slightly, his hand tightening around the plate he was holding. It wasn't until he finally spoke in a soft whisper that he realized his lip was throbbing from biting too hard, "Are you sure? Are you sure you can't think of any reason, besides me wanting to create a doomsday device that would make you ask me to leave?"

The hand on his shoulder tightened as well, "No, son, I can't think of any reason."

Kurt clenched his jaw once, blinked rapidly to stop his unshed tears so he could look the Captain in the eye to say in a calm, even tone, "Not even if you found out I was a homosexual, sir?"

They stood in silence for one seemed like the longest minute in Kurt's life but he stood his ground and didn't look away. He needed to know, needed the knowledge of the Captain's opinion if Kurt even thought to stay in the tower for longer than the summer. His guilt was now heavy and if he took a chance to think about too long, he would probably throw up.

The hand on his shoulder hadn't moved away, hadn't moved at all in fact. Finally, Steve lowered his eyes to match Kurt's height and said, "I still can't think of anything."

Kurt sagged as relief washed over him. He wanted to cry again, just let go this time but he shuddered a breath instead and said, "R-really?"

Steve smiled, his eyes a little sad but also understanding, "I don't know much about this era, I'm learning something new every day. But one thing I've already learned in my own era was that love was love, no matter who the person was. No one had the right to judge which love was right and which was wrong. Bullies, no matter who they were persecuting, were just that; bullies. And you may not know this about me, but I hate bullies."

Kurt couldn't stop the few tears that slipped away from him and hid his eyes in his sleeve. Steve waited patiently and took a step back, letting the young man calm himself down. Swallowing thickly, Kurt looked up again with a water smile, "Thank you. You…you have no idea what that means to me."

That was an understatement but he would acknowledge that later.

"No, you don't have to thank me, Kurt. Anyone with decency in their heart should have the common sense to know that."

"For a forties man, you're a lot more modern than a lot of people born in this day and age. It's very refreshing, nonetheless," Kurt replied and gave him a bright grin.

They should talk about this a little more, talk about how this was the reason why Kurt was so scared to be around the Captain, how he was so nervous that if Steve found out, there would be a scramble for Steve to be reassigned to other living quarters until Kurt was gone. Kurt had had nightmares about it and spoken to Blaine every night after he made sure the others were all asleep. The guilt inside him had receded to only a single brick rather than the Great Wall of China that had inhabited his abdomen up until now. Now he felt like he can really move forward.

But not tonight.

"You said you knew the song I was singing earlier? It was around your time, wasn't it?" Kurt asked, moving over slightly, an unspoken invitation that Steve needed no help in deciphering.

Nodding, he immediately took up as the dryer, taking the wet plates from Kurt and placing them back into the cupboards, "Yes, it was widely popular in the 40's. Bucky and the others sang it all the time until we got sick of it. Hearing now, I don't seem to mind it as much."

"Do you remember the words?" he prodded, his lips curled up into a smirk. Steve laughed and sighed in mock defeat, "I'm pretty sure it's embedded into my brain now, one of those things that will never go away."

Kurt laughed along with him and started singing again, softly but loud enough for Steve to hear, "He was a famous trumpet man from out Chicago way. He had a boogie style that one else could play, he was the top man of his craft, but then his number came up and he was gone with the draft."

Slowly, hesitantly, Steve started to join in, trying to find the right tone to match Kurt's, but he smiled anyway, the words flowing out of him like he was back with his brothers in arms, "But then the company jumped when he played reveille, he's the boogie woogie bugle boy of company B!"

So busy laughing and singing in the kitchen, neither of them realized there was someone by the door, leaning against the wall and smiling in a mix of victory and fondness.

"Sir," Jarvis said, speaking through Tony's ear phone, "should we tell them that we have a dish washer they could use so that they do not have to clean those manually."

"Do that and I'll install a program to make you talk like Patrick Star." He was still smiling so he was joking. Mostly. "No, let them have their fun, it's good for the both of them. They'd probably ignore you anyway. Don't let them know I was here, alright? And if someone else tries to go into the kitchen, warn them."

Jarvis paused though Tony could hear a very soft sigh coming from the AI, "Yes, alright. Will that be all, sir?"

"And the company jumps when he plays reveille, he's the boogie woogie boy of company B!"

"Yeah, make a video of that and put it in my possible black mail folder on my private hard drive. It might come in handy someday."

ooh, tony, you bad boy. that definitely it isn't a black mail folder, that's a "steve is singing and probably smiling and getting wet and i want to burn that into my retinas" folder, don't lie *wink*

okay, before anyone says anything about steve's reaction to kurt, i would just like to say in my own defense, i took a leaf out of the comic book version of Captain America, Earth-616 where he had a best friend who was the first gay Marvel character. I'm not sure if they'll ever address that issue with the movies but until then, i'm characterizing this part of him from that version. and i totally believe that all captain america's in all universes, he's completely okay with the gay, canon, fanon and otherwise. that's just my two cents. thanks for reading and comments are always appreciated.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy- The Andrew Sisters

The Avengers and Glee do not belong to me but to their respective studios and companies.