I just did a scholarship application where I had to write a resume for a fictional character. I chose Steve and then went totally nuts doing research. On one end of the street of his official address in the 1920s-1940s was gay bars, brothels, and tattoo parlors, and the other end was Brooklyn’s Filipino town. I’m imagining skinny little Steve as busboy for a Filipino-American restaurant, picking up words here and there, bringing home food that the chef insists on giving him, etc.

darthstitch:

regardingrinth:

fandomfrolics:

ohmygod this is amazing??

like maybe he was trying to find a job at one of the brothels because he heard the pay’s good and it’s becoming harder and harder to make ends meet and there’s a huge market for his body type, really. but then a man making his way home with some fresh groceries sees steve just standing outside the door, staring at it and biting his lip and willing himself to go in and the man stops and at first chastises him, thinking he’s a customer. but slowly he gets the truth through steve’s evasive mumbles and defiant posture and he says ‘come work for me.’

and it’s hard at first, it’s fast-paced and exhausting and he has to take far too many breaks but the people are so warm and genuine and welcoming, even the ones who he can’t understand. and where he lacks – with lifting the heavier dishes, unloading supplies – he makes up elsewhere, scrubs one too many tables, stays a few more hours (sometimes bucky comes in and keeps him company and eventually they end up doing dishes together, rinsing and drying in the rhythm that they have).

and it’s like, steve stumbling over the words a little at first but making a really conscious effort to learn the correct pronunciation of ‘pancit’ and ‘sinigang’. the boss handing him an extra thing of adobo during the long, cold winters, made special with chili dialed back for Steve’s delicate stomach. bucky and steve sitting in a back room and passing a dish of customer-rejected sisig back and forth while the owner’s daughter tries to teach them pick-up lines in tagalog. steve talking to the owner about the similarities and differences of being an Irish immigrant and a Filipino immigrant.

darthstitch have you seen this post yet?

Just imagine Steve learning to speak tagalog and then eventually finding out what the words gwapo or pogi means when he hears it constantly from the old grandmas or girls who gossip to each other in the restaurant about him and new drama in town. 

Omg they would so call him tisoy/pogi/gwapito and he and bucky woukd be adopted just like that.