Elaine smiled and blushed a bit.

"You don't have to do that," she protested.

"I know I don't." Steve smiled a little. "I want to anyway." Because he was nothing if not courteous to a fault. Besides, he was trying to make her comfortable.

"Thanks, then," Elaine said, still a bit pink. "It's nice of you to do that."

Steve just smiled and nodded, settling back in his seat and ordering for both of them when the waitress came over.

"Thanks," he murmured, taking a sip of his coffee. Elaine's tea was set on the table in front of her, along with a variety of sugar and substitute packets.

Carefully, Elaine felt the mug of tea and tested the liquid level with a finger to see how full it was. Once she did that, she felt the sweetener packets until she found one of plain sugar and poured it into the tea. After a quick stir, she tasted it and sighed. Perfect.

"Happy to be away from the house?" Steve asked quietly. He could tell she was more relaxed here.

"You have no idea," Elaine replied. "It... wasn't comfortable there with... you know." She blushed as she stumbled over her words.

Steve nodded. "Yeah, I can imagine." It had never been a problem for him, but he could imagine how awkward that would be.

Elaine lapsed into silence, not sure what to say next. It was kind of awkward, since she wasn't sure where 'safe' conversational waters were anymore.

Steve felt about the same way, and so he stayed quiet, sipping his coffee.

"Last I checked Fury didn't have any new information. I'm sorry, Elaine."

"I guess I haven't been keeping as tight a lid on myself as I thought, huh?" Elaine asked softly. She shook her head. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Steve. I already told you it isn't your fault."

"I know. But that doesn't mean I like your situation any more than I did before." Steve shrugged a little. "I just want to help you." Which was probably not the best thing to say, in retrospect, but it was the truth.

Elaine bit her lip slightly.

"Steve..." She sighed. "I can't ask you to do anything for me. Really, I can't. It's not fair to you." And it still kind of hurt whenever she thought about the fact that he didn't want her like she was forced to want him, but she couldn't tell him that.

"You're not asking me," Steve pointed out reasonably. "I'm offering." Which were clearly two entirely different things.

Elaine was quiet for a moment.

"But why?" she asked finally. "You don't... You weren't hit by them too. So why?"

"Because I want to," Steve said, and then paused. Oh, yeah, that was great. Give her some kind of false hope. He liked her, but he knew that even if he grew to like her more, that kind of a relationship wasn't possible.

"But why do you want to?" Elaine pressed. Inwardly, she was feeling more and more conflicted. The cursed part of her was rejoicing at the fact that he seemed to like her, and the 'real' part of her was getting more and more tense as she realized that he must just feel obligated to help her.

Steve hesitated, trying to think of an answer to give her that wouldn't be too hard on her but would still be the truth.

Then he sighed quietly. "You're a good person, Elaine," he said quietly. "I don't like seeing you upset. I just want to see if I can help." It was sad and kind of sappy but still true.

Elaine bit her lip. That wasn't the answer she was looking for, really. After a moment, she sighed.

"I kept having to talk myself out of calling you," she said after a few minutes of silence. "At least once a day. I kept wanting to, but..." She trailed off. "It's hard to tell what's me, and what's not."

Steve flushed faintly. "I see," he said quietly. "I... can't say I understand. But I sympathize." Which was really the closest he could get.

"I think I'm starting to get on Kae's nerves a little," Elaine admitted. "Just with... everything. I can't really help it." She paused for a moment. "Although, it might help if I toned it down on the country love songs." She quirked a bit of a grin.

Steve snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure that doesn't help your case." He shook his head a little, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Not really," Elaine admitted. "But I've always had a soft spot for country music, and most country is either love songs or drinking songs. Maybe a couple of anthems thrown in for spice." She smiled a bit. "You might like the genre, actually." Now they were back in relatively save conversational territory, and she was able to relax a bit.

Steve blinked. "I... haven't listened to much. Tony's music tends to be too loud for my tastes." He kind of missed music back from before. But there wasn't much he could do about it now.

"Tony also strikes me as either a classic rock or a heavy metal kind of person," Elaine replied. "You might mesh well enough with classic rock, but heavy metal is definitely not the genre for you, I think." She was quiet for a moment. "Or, you know, we might be able to find something you're familiar with. It's not impossible."