Free Falling

She found a nice, make-do park that was mostly fenced in on a street corner. It looked like a building had been there before, based on the patterns of the houses. The fences would provide good cover if the attacker recovered and ran past. On a somewhat rotted park bench Dani laid the bleeding kid. He looked familiar… very familiar.
She dug through her purse, knowing that she didn’t have anything useful that she could remember. Her hand touched something cold. I KNOW I didn’t have anything cold in there this morning… She grabbed it and pulled out an ice pack. Sighing, she decided to add this to the ‘figure it out later’ list. She reached into the bag again, and realized that her clothes that she had changed out of were no longer within.
“What the actual heck?” She would have started freaking out if the boy hadn’t started making noises just then. Her hand connected with a wad of absorptive, band-aid-like cloth, and she handed that to him. “Hold this against your nose, buddy,” she commanded. Sitting up, the boy complied.
“Wadabben?”
“What?”
“Wad habbend?” The boy again asked, ability to speak obviously impaired.
“I beat that jerk off, dude. Why were you fighting him?” The boy cocked his head, confused.
“…I don’d remember…” he slurred, still not entirely coherent. Dani sighed. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, so she handed him the ice pack. “Og… dat feels bad…” he nasally complained as she moved his hand to press the cold bag against his sore nose.
“Leave it there, it will keep you from puffing up too much. I don’t think it’s broken,” she said, noting that it wasn’t crooked. “Alright, what’s your name, kid?” She asked, trying to distract him as he seemed to be starting to panic.
“Ub… I’m Sdeeb…” he informed her.
“Sdeeb?” He shook his head.
“Sdeeb,” he stressed.
“…Steve?” she guessed. He nodded emphatically. “Ok, Steve, we’re gonna chill here until you feel OK and then I’m gonna take you home, we cool?” He looked confused at her slang, but nodded. “So, Steve…” She had a revelation at that moment. Steve!? She knew where she had seen him before. “Chris Evans!?” no, he had to just look like the guy… he couldn’t possibly be the real Steve Rogers! Steve sighed.
“Doh,” he said, obviously meaning ‘no’. “I’m SDEEB!” he again stressed.
“Uh… what’s your last name?”
“Rogers.” Dani stood up. “Where are you going?” he asked groggily. She didn’t answer.
It can’t be the real Captain America… that’s just a bunch of movies! She began to pace. None of this should be real… She grabbed her hair with her hands. Horrible stuff happens! This guy is gonna get iced in like fifteen years…
“Excuse me?” The voice pulled her out of her panic. She turned back to Steve, slowing her breathing. “Are you ok?” She pulled herself together.
“Yes. I’m… Danny, by the way,” she said, deciding to use the masculine version of her real name if she was going to pretend to be a boy. She had gone to the effort of tying a cloth around her chest when she had changed, so she really could pull it off. She took a moment to really look at the kid. His clothes were too small and he was painfully thin and bony. His breathing was a bit raspy too… “Steve, how much do you have to eat each day?” His expression turned to panic momentarily before he gained his composure.
“Enoub. Why, do you deed food?” he asked, obviously lying and trying to deflect. Dani, having watched all the marvel movies several times over, realized that this was just how Steve acted.
“Ok. I’m going to take you out to eat, alright?” She wasn’t going to let the kid starve, as he obviously was.
“I hab to get hobe for didder soon…” He was a terrible liar. Dani decided to call him out on it. “Doh, really!” he continued to obviously fib.
“You don’t have any dinner today, do you?” she gently pressed, taking a shot in the dark.
“I… I…”
“Just one time, ok?” After a little bit more prodding, Steve finally gave in.
XXX
Dani felt badly, watching him eat. While he tried to work through the large meal slowly, he was obviously starving to wolf it down. She had tried to tell him to just eat it how he wanted to, but he insisted that he wasn’t going to eat ‘rudely,’ in true Steve fashion. She gave up as he was obviously upset, just glad that he was eating.
Once she had shown a true interest in him, he became somewhat of an open book. Dani got the impression that he didn’t have anybody aside from Bucky to talk with, and since they were both boys, she doubted that there were a lot of heart-to-heart moments. So, she listened attentively to Steve’s account of his father dying in a drunken accident at his young age, of all the times he had been a target for bullying at school, and how he couldn’t see his mom most of the time because she always had to work to keep their apartment. Dani tried desperately to keep the pity she felt out of her voice and expressions, because she knew that Steve would clam up if she didn’t. He was too proud to fish for sympathy, he just needed to talk it out.
The waiter walked up to collect the bill, and Dani reached into her purse to pull out the thirty dollars she knew she had stuffed in there that morning. What she pulled out instead was the exact cost of the meal she had bought. Astounded, she laid the money in the outstretched hand and waited until the man left before rooting through her bag. No other money was to be found. She huffed in annoyance. This bag was really starting to get on her nerves.
Her attention was pulled back to Steve as he finished his meal. Dani had bought an extra dish for his mother after he balked, realizing that his mother would still have no dinner that night. He was currently loading the chicken, vegetables and baked potato into the thin brown paper bag the restaurant had provided. He looked up at her as he did so.
“I have to go to school tomorrow but I don’t have to do anything after. Where… where do you live?” he questioned, speaking normally now that the blood had cleared from his nose.. Dani replied without thinking things through.
“I’m homeless,” she nodded. Steve looked aghast.
“You have to come stay with us!” he pleaded, looking genuinely upset at this revelation. Dani mentally facepalmed.
“Uh… actually, I live in that… park that I brought you too… You can find me there,” she asserted, trying to avoid going home with this kid. She needed time to think, to process everything that had happened in the day. He finally nodded after staring at her determined expression for a few moments.
“Ok. I’ll bring my best friend with me, ok?” She agreed, and they both parted ways.
XXX
The end of the alleyways behind the buildings led right into the park. Dani found a nice looking wooden crate at the mouth of one of the alleys. It was obviously old, but sleeping inside would keep her off the ground and keep her dry if it rained. She knocked the rectangular thing over so the opening was on the side, laid down a blanket that had conveniently appeared in her bag onto the bottom, and crawled inside. She decided that she could analyze what had happened in the morning, because right now she was far to tired to deal with harsh realities.

Notes