Rogue couldn't imagine not needing caffeine in her daily routine. Before the war, she'd needed her morning, afternoon, and evening jolts just to get through the crazy days of teaching superpowered teenagers and the endless nights of missions with the X-Men. Now, she needed it to keep herself focused after night after night of restless sleep, being woken constantly by nightmares and even occasionally her own screaming. It was one of many reasons why she wasn't quite ready for a real relationship yet - how was she supposed to explain that to someone? And who would ever understand it even if she did?

...Steve might though, on some level. She wondered if he dreamt about the war, if the bad memories plagued him, or if anything kept him up at night at all. Perhaps not. He had been a soldier, after all, and she had been a prisoner. An experiment.

None of that mattered right now, though. They were new friends, forging what she hoped would be something meaningful and fun for the both of them, because they could sure as hell use it. And he had a birthday that she had to make wonderful.

"I promise that no gifts will be purchased, and I won't do anything that I don't absolutely want to," she assured him with a sincere, if slightly mischievous, smile. There was a lot of wiggle room in that promise, but he was just going to have to deal with it.