#platonic affection

"You need someone to keep an eye on you. You keep getting hurt. If you stay here, I'll keep you safe." He didn't believe you. You couldn't keep him safe when he couldn't even look out for himself. With Johnny gone, he didn't know where else to go but to your door.

"If you're going to live here, there's going to be some rules."

"I'm a grown man. I can look after myself."

You gave him a small reassuring smile, setting down his sectioned plate for dinner. "I know you can, sweetheart. But you aren't doing a really good job at it, are you?" He glares at you a little, but he knows you're right. "So, you're on my phone plan, I'm restricting your access to the news. I've noticed it stresses you out."

"I want to keep up to date with everything going on." He protests, almost irritated by your suggestion.

"I do too, but doom scrolling isn't the best way to get that. I have newspaper subscriptions, so you'll always have something to read. You can still watch the news, but it's better to unplug." Simon nods quietly at the explanation as he eats, looking at the sealed cup you'd gotten just for him.

He was already letting you take care of him, and you were doing it pretty well. Maybe he shouldn't protest so much. You gave him a routine. Up at five to work out with you and then help you feed the animals at six thirty before a shower and breakfast. He would sit on his porch for a few hours reading the papers, doing the cross work puzzles, and cutting out the comics he found funniest.

His favorite time was eleven thirty on the dot, when you started setting up afternoon tea. He didn't like the finger sandwiches you made, so you made him his own snack tray with ants on a log, apple slices with caramel, and peanut butter sandwiches without the crusts. Sometimes, you even included pieces of chocolate that he would let melt on his tongue.

You made sure his tea was cold in his vacuum sealed cup so it wouldn't spill. After noticing he didn't like getting things on his fingers, you bought some bug themed food skewers.

"What are these?" He grunts, picking up a small square of peanut butter sandwich by the ant skewer.

"It's your peanut butter sandwich, si." You tease, grinning at the deadpan look he gives you. "Food skewer. Keeps stuff off your fingers."

"They're for kids."

"If you're using them, then they are for you." You shrug as you take a sip of your tea. "Do you like them?" He grunts, eating his sandwich square in one bite. He watches as you grab one of your own, eyes narrowing curiously.

"Yours are heart-shaped." You catch the hint of longing in his tone, nodding in acknowledgment.

"Would you like yours cut like that tomorrow?"

"Yes." He agrees quickly, leaning back in his seat.

"Okay. Do you want to do a puzzle after tea time?" He nods, and the two of you fall into a comfortable silence, just watching the chickens feed.

Gif by @lasaraconor Gif by @djo

Ok so my friend and I were just discussing the “straight baiting” in CATWS and somehow because I’m the autistic person that I am I managed to turn it into a whole Natasha Romanoff character analysis, and I figured some other autistics on tumblr would appreciate it

TW for brief, non-explicit mentions of SA

Natasha trying to set Steve up showed her playful/flirty side, caring side, and avoidant side all at the same time. Playful/flirty is quite obvious and I don’t rlly feel the need to explain that… But it masks her caring side so well. Because we know she doesn’t have any romantic intentions, so what she actually wants, on top of teasing him, is to genuinely set him up with someone. Natasha’s highly empathetic, so she can tell he misses Peggy and has had a hard time adjusting to life in the future. So she’s trying to help him move on and be happy and live in the moment without outright saying it and sounding like she’s preaching at him. It’s more of a gentle nudge, but like a really kind and caring gentle nudge. But then we also have her avoidant side. She doesn’t want to outright SAY she cares about him and wants to ensure he’s okay, because the way she was raised, if she shows she cares then that’s a weakness. In a way it still is because she still works as a spy. So she cares about him, but she doesn’t want to show it because she’s scared, so she hides her care under playful banter/flirtiness.

The kiss, and that whole mall scene was probably my favourite part of the whole movie. It does a great job of showing Natasha’s competence, and demonstrating the building trust between them. At the beginning of the movie Steve begins to doubt whether he trusts her because she didn’t tell him about her ulterior mission. When they’re hiding from HYDRA, Steve’s first instinct is to punch his way out of it. But when Natasha says “put your arm around me and laugh at something I said” he does it. He trusts her. (Which ofc is touched on later, “if it was up to me to save your life, would you trust me to do it?” “I would now” AAAAAA) Then when we get to the kiss itself, it’s so… respectful. Given the situation, you’d expect a lot of men to take advantage of Natasha and try to turn the kiss into something hot, and then excuse themself by saying they were making sure it was believable. But Steve doesn’t do any of that. He doesn’t grope her or try to kiss her at all, it’s literally the bare minimum. All it is is their lips touching. And the writers don’t make a weird sexual joke about it, instead Steve and Nat make a normal human joke which seems very natural to both characters and doesn’t sexualize either of them. “You still uncomfortable?” “That’s not exactly the word I would use.” I just love that because it was so matter-of-fact and respectful. Steve’s like yeah, objectively Natasha’s really beautiful and kissing her wasn’t uncomfortable, but I’m also not interested in her romantically or sexually, and of course I’m not going to take advantage of her.

The car scene tied it all together nicely. I like how the playfulness is maintained throughout their relationship, and it’s fun! And it’s not weird! Natasha’s sense of humor is just flirty and she likes teasing people, but it’s also not sexual. “Was that your first kiss since 1945?” “That bad, huh?” “No, no, I didn’t say that-“ was both funny, and says a lot about their closeness that they can joke about what was probably really awkward at the time. And when Natasha asks him “who do you want me to be?” And he replies “how about a friend?” Her smile gets me every time. Because she looks relieved. She looks relieved because even after kissing her, he doesn’t want anything romantic or sexual. He just wants her to be his friend. And she’s so used to men taking advantage of her. Or even if they aren’t taking advantage of her, they’re at least into her. Take Tony and Happy in Iron Man 2. Neither of them were harassing her, but if she’d kissed them they probably would’ve kissed back a lot harder than Steve. Both of them were trying to look at her in her bra and totally would’ve slept with her if she’d consented. Which is probably the way a lot of men feel about her. So to ask Steve openly, “who do you want me to be?” without making her intentions clear beforehand, and having him answer “a friend” means so much to her. Because Steve is one of the few men in her life who sees her as a person and a friend, and doesn’t even consider her sexually.