"I don't know if I can do this."
"Honestly, it's kind of cute,"
Steve rolled his eyes, smiling lightly as he looked over at Lottie who was trying to disguise her laughter. He knew that he looked absolutely ridiculous in the red, white, and blue get up that Senator Brandt had given to him. But seeing that little smile on Lottie's face made it all a little more worth it.
"Your outfit is...nice,"
Steve tried to keep himself calm as he let his eyes rake over his best friend, before quickly focusing on her face once more. The black suit was skintight, and Steve had never really seen a woman in something so revealing before.
Lottie blushed, tucking hair behind her ear as she avoided Steve's glance.
"If all goes well, they want to market us to the kids, make us superheroes," Lottie explained, biting her lip. Steve stared down at her as he stood just a few feet away from her, unable to look away. "Something about comics: Captain America and Slate. Don't understand why they want me in them, I'm just the glorified tour manager."
"You won't be on stage with me?" Steve questioned, slightly shocked at the new information. People ran about around them, getting the show prepared, but Steve's eyes were locked on Lottie the entire time.
"Apparently men don't like a woman smarter then them, it won't sell well. I get the crunch the numbers, make sure the stock is rising,"
Steve frowned as someone called out one minute, signaling that the show was about to begin.
"You should be out there with me. Erksine said we were meant to be a team,"
"On the battlefield, not on the stage," Steve frowned once again as someone ran up, handing him the hat part of his outfit and the shield with his speech written on the inside. He put them on uncertainly, looking over to Lottie. She quickly changed her frown into a smile, but Steve saw right through it. "Sell a few bonds, bonds buy bullets, and bullets kill Nazis I guess. Give them hell, Stevie."
Who's strong and brave, here to save the American way?
That's how the next few months went by. Lottie watched from the sidelines, always adjusting her black cat suit as she watched Steve with a smile as he grew into his role, prancing around the stage as she tracked the bond sales from behind as they grew.
Steve's eyes, over the months, never lost sight of Lottie. He always caught her eye mid performance, a smile exchanged between them. And once she began to blush at the interaction, Steve's confidence boosted enough to even shoot her a wink every once and a while as he went through the motions.
Who's strong and brave, here to save the American way?
The routine upgraded itself along the way, becoming a bigger production as the idea of Captain America and Slate became well known around the world. The faces of the war, the pair stopping the war. Lottie didn't feel like she was doing much, though, just another worker on the side crunching numbers. Not that Steve felt any different, dancing around on the stage as he was called a hero around the country.
Hitler was added into the routine, always sneaking up on Steve. It never failed to make Lottie laugh to see her best friend, in that ridiculous outfit, pretending to punch Adolf Hitler in the face. It never failed to make Steve smile, either, when he caught sight of her laughing on the sidelines.
Who will campaign door-to-door for America? Carry the flag shore to shore for America? From Hoboken to Spokane, the star-spangeld man with a plan.
Lottie couldn't deny the jealousy that flowed through her veins as she watched the crowds take pictures with Steve after the show. The amount of young women who came in, who only wanted to take a picture with Captain America. None of them knew the real Steve, the skinny kid from Brooklyn with the heart of gold. None of them would ever love him the way she did.
What she never saw was that same look on Steve face when the young men of the shows came back to meet Slate. Steve couldn't help but fum at the way they grabbed onto her, the way they treated her like a piece of property, like she didn't deserve to be respected. They saw the beautiful and strong woman that Lottie had become thanks to Erksine, but none of them knew that Lottie that always wanted to be chased around the schoolyard when they were six. None of them would ever love her the way he did.
We can't ignore there's a threat and a war we must win.
Over the months, as their popularity grew, Steve and Lottie both couldn't help but admit how much they hated the position they were in. But when it was officially announced that they had comics of themselves, of the adventures of Captain America and Slate, they couldn't even deny their excitement.
When they got the first copies of Steve's comics, the first comics of Captain America, they couldn't even deny their excitement. Reading through the cartoon pages of Captain America fighting the Nazis and taking down HYDRA, it filled Lottie with pride to see what he had become, even if he was a stage boy meant for more.
Lottie's comics told a different story.
Steve was furious as they spent the night reading through her comic, and he could see the sadness in Lottie's eyes as she looked on her own comic. Lottie was the brightest, most caring, most compassionate person Steve had ever met in his life, and just like himself she had been blessed with a power that others only wished they could have. And yet here she was, a cartoon sexualized for the sake of entertaining the men, made out to be another pretty face.
Steve knew Lottie was meant for more than this.
Who'll hang a noose on the goose-stepping goons from Berlin? Who will redeem, heed the call for America? Who'll rise or fall, give his all for America? Who's here to prove that we can? The star-spangled man with a plan.