"The slippers were silver, in the book," Laurel said. "I remember reading it after seeing the movie and thinking it was wrong. But they made them red for the movie to take advantage of Technicolor." She blinked, and blushed slightly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to nerd at you like that."

Steve grinned. "No, it's fine," he said. "That was kind of cute." It really had been, and he hadn't been expecting that.

"Cute?" Laurel asked, blinking. "I start nerding and you think it's cute?" She grinned teasingly. "Since when are you into nerds?"

Steve grinned at her. "Who said anything about nerds in general?" he shot back, standing up. The theater had just about cleared by that point.

"Come on, you have to admit it takes a pretty impressive amount of nerdiness to just spout trivia like that," Laurel pointed out as she got up as well. She moved out to the aisle.

"True," Steve agreed. "But that doesn't mean I think nerds in general are cute." He looked at her for a moment to see if she got it.

Laurel looked at him and raised an eyebrow, expecting him to elaborate. Then it clicked, and she blinked, her eyes a bit wide.

"Oh no," she said, shaking her head. "No, I'm not cute, not at all."

Steve just smiled his disagreement and headed out of the theater with her.

"You can think what you want."

"I'm not cute," Laurel insisted as she walked outside with him. "I swear I'm not. I'm abrasive on my good days and downright caustic on my bad ones and I guarantee I'll say something to offend you without even realizing it."

"You haven't yet," Steve pointed out. "And you are cute. You can be quite charming. And I haven't yet seen you be anything but helpful."

Laurel turned even redder.

"Don't say that, I'm not cute," she said, not able to stop the embarrassed grin from forming.

Steve grinned. "You are," he said, touching her shoulder. "And you won't convince me otherwise."

Laurel just kept blushing and mumbled something about how he was entirely too nice. Because he really, really was.

Steve grinned and left the silence for a few minutes.

"So, back to the tower, or would you prefer to stay out for dinner?"

"Either one," Laurel said, working on getting her face back under control. "I'm sure you have somewhere in mind around here."

"I know a few places," Steve said with a grin. "What are you in the mood for?"

Laurel thought about that for a moment.

"I wouldn't mind a good burger," she said tentatively, almost like a question.

Steve nodded. "Then you're right, I know a place. If you want, anyway." He looked at her, leaving it up to her if she wanted to continue their day out.

Laurel nodded.

"Sure," she said. She was still having fun, she didn't want to go back to the tower just yet.

Steve nodded and led the way to his favorite burger place. It was, predictably, an old-style diner. But they did have fantastic burgers and shakes and malts.

Laurel recognized the little burger place. She'd seen it a few times before, but had never gone in. She was surprised when they were seated immediately, in spite of how busy it was.

Steve settled in to browse the menu. Maybe he'd try something new tonight. Maybe. It did happen sometimes.

Then again, maybe not.

"Do they just keep a table for you?" Laurel asked as she picked up her menu. "We were seated really quickly."

"Not always," Steve said. "If there's a table empty, yeah, I usually get it first. I try to tell them not to, especially not when it's busy, but they don't listen."

"What did you do to to make them do it?" Laurel asked, a bit teasing. "Was it the Chitauri invasion?"