Rise ye sunken ships 2/5
~~
Steve had to admit that Tony had his flaws, but to expect perfection in people was a mistake. It didn’t matter how smart you were, Banner was a good example, or how talented like Barton, or even a god like Thor. Steve himself, the super human, he had his own flaws. His own demons.
He was aware this was beginning to get out of hand. He’d mastered the Google. Almost entirely on his search for information on Tony’s life. Fury had been right, pretty much everything Tony had ever done was available to him through the internet. If asked about it there wasn’t anything he could say. There wasn’t any sort of reasonable explanation for his behaviour.
“I’m beginning to think you’re following me.” Tony was again sitting on the floor, this time he was surrounded by massive sheets of blue paper, what looked like layouts drafted onto each one and Tony at the epicentre pen stuck behind his ear. Only the eye of the storm wasn’t calm in the least.
“I’ve been living in this building for months now; you’re the only interesting thing around.” Steve confessed. Tony gave him an amused smirk.
“Well, as the most interesting man in the world, I don’t always drink beer, but when I do-wait you’re not going to get this reference, never mind that.” Tony made an abortive hand gesture like he could take the words back. “Wait, do you like, go outside and stuff? There is lots to see outside, we’re dead centre in one of the biggest megacities on the planet. More to see than can ever be seen, in fact there is a gentleman’s club just down the block.”
Steve stood up a little straighter stomach tightening with nerves, he had always been the one to do what needed to be done; he wasn’t a coward by any stretch of the word. Just, outside was a lot to deal with at once and he would rather not if he didn’t have too even now. This wasn’t going away to war because that had never been a question; it had been the right thing to do. This was the modern world with all its millions of people and the city of flashing lights, and he didn’t really need to go out there.
“You don’t do you?” Tony looked up at him, mouth quirked a little to one side.
“I go on missions.” He defended himself.
“That doesn’t count, missions are missions and outside there are hot dogs and cheeseburgers and toy stores and strippers. Missions don’t have those. Pepper made sure of it, stripper poles were strictly non-regulation but it’s my jet.” Tony was quiet for a moment. “Let’s go get lunch.”
“You’re busy.” Steve laughed and Tony pulled a face at him.
“My time is so expensive I’m the only one who can afford it.” With a sniff Tony uncurled himself from the floor. His trousers were covered in dust; the arc reactor glowed faintly through the cotton of his shirt, winking at him. Steve wanted to trace the perfect circle with his fingers because he could never draw anything that completely round. “Fury just took out a loan on me. Let’s go.”
Steve wasn’t sure he was allowed outside, he hadn’t tried to leave before but no one stopped them and for that Steve was glad.
Cars were different, boxy bulky shapes giving way to sleek metallic monsters. Tony’s was cherry red and had more curves than a pin-up. It was obscene and sexual the way the cars of his time weren’t or maybe that was just the way Tony stroked her doors and the steering wheel absently when they were stopped at a red light. This was one change he wasn’t sure if he missed or not. Cars also went a lot slower in his time, it at least felt safer.
“Driving in New York is a pain.” Tony said loudly, looking annoyed at they pulled up to another red light. “It sucks all the fun out of it. All of it. None left, just soul sucking and traffic lights.”
“Where are we going?” Steve asked, trying not to gawk too obviously.
“Dunno, JARVIS, where am I going?”
Steve stared at Tony’s profile (the sun glasses cut sharply across his cheeks) unsure of what was going on.
“Anything in particular you’re looking for sir?”
“Hotdogs!”
“Right away sir.”
“Does everyone’s car talk?” Steve hesitated to ask, because if there was one thing watching Tony Stark on YouTube taught him, it was that Tony wasn’t the typical American.
“JARVIS’ AI is linked to my phone by satellite, but now that you mention it, I could build Kit, how cool would that be.” Steve couldn’t answer; he had no idea what Tony was talking about. “Of course, you wouldn’t know, just take my word for it.”
“Okay.” Steve shrugged.
“... Really?” Tony grinned at him, and it seemed distinctly unkind. Steve mentally made a note to look up ‘Kit’ later. Talking with Tony always leads to marathon session on the Wikipedia, one thing always leads to another and another until it seemed like he had spent hours just soaking up information. “You’d be the only one. Pepper doesn’t even listen to me half the time and I pay her to.”
Steve just grinned at him, and Tony counted the beats until the light turned green with a rhythmic tapping on the wheel, humming something Steve had no hope of recognizing. The hot dogs came from a man in a truck converted into some sort of mobile restaurant and Steve was dubious but Tony was all over. Steve ended up eating eight of them while the man watched astonished.
~~
“Every time I remember that Clint is a vegetarian I get hungry, it’s interfering with my work. I vote him off the island.”
Steve smiled to himself as Tony poked his head into the gym to address him. It seemed that after a few false starts he’d managed to capture Tony’s attention enough to hold actual conversations. Tony hadn’t made it easy for him, swanning about drumming on the walls and ignoring Fury with a pathological intensity.
“I want a something full of meat, I feel like I’m eating for two.”
Steve just sort of smiled at him, hitting the punching bag again. He hadn’t meant to imagine what Peggy had looked like all round and pregnant with Tony. He still hadn’t asked Tony about it, the other man was skittish about anything remotely personal, but that didn’t mean the question wasn’t always on the tip of his tongue. There was still the possibility that he was wrong, and he couldn’t decide if that would be better or worse after all this.
Would she have glowed? Running her hands along the tight skin of her stomach and feeling Tony kick? How many times in the dead of the night in Europe when it was cold and people were dying left and right had he used that image to keep him going. Innocently imagining their future life together.
“Woah tiger.” Tony said with a wide smile when the punching bag swayed alarmingly. Tony stepped into the room properly, looking curious. Today he wore a printed t-shirt under a jacket and jeans, his hair a dark wild mess. Steve grabbed the bag stilling it.
“Wouldn’t be the first one I broke.” He always felt a little bad about that, just sometimes he would lose himself in the rhythmic impact of his fists on the bag and there was nothing but the burn of his lungs drawing in more air and suddenly the weight of the bag would give way under his fist and he was left standing there the bag spilling sand all over the floor.
“What are the extents of your physical strength?”
“It’s hard to tell, S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t been able to measure it accurately.” It wasn’t for a lack of trying and Steve didn’t mind too much. The key to the serum is somewhere inside him surely, only every time they think they have a value just a little more focus is all he needed to push himself harder. It frustrated Tracey from the medical division, she was a nice lady and always talked about her own kids while taking Steve’s vitals. Steve felt a little bad about that too.
“Huh. Well I guess we can’t all be super human.” Tony sniffed a little. Steve would beg to differ; Tony was like Howard, in his own way so far beyond what normal people could imagine. Howard was always so aggravated because his ideas were too big for the time too grand to imagine. Tony was every bit the same, single handily trying the change the world, if that wasn’t superhuman Steve didn’t know what was.
“I was made this way.” Steve shrugged, “none of it would have worked without Howard.”
As always the mention made Tony’s face go tight, but he didn’t flee instead he just shrugged like he was trying to be fluid and let it all roll off of him. “I know. He talked about you.”
“He did?” Steve froze, emotion welled up fast and hard, like poking a dark bruise, sometimes it wasn’t so sharp, just a dull ache, but then he would remember it was there and the pain was bright hot and impossible to ignore.
“The war, it haunted him I think.” Tony shrugged, smiling wide in an unfriendly way. “Ask Fury, they were apparently BFFs, he was just my dad.”
“Thank you.”
Tony looked stunned, then a little confused. “For what?”
“I don’t have anything of them left, at all.” Except you. The epiphany hurt something sharp, but at least it helped clear up some of the questions he’s had about why he’s fascinated by Tony. He knew enough about Tony by this point to know that Tony wouldn’t have anything charitable to say about that.
Now Tony was looking desperately uncomfortable. “That’s ... not good? Not good. Right. Food. Meat, I need meat, um.”
“Sorry, I have a meeting with Black Widow soon.” Steve replied. It hurt a little how relieved Tony looked.
“Right.” Tony smiled at him, and was gone.
Steve hit the bag, pulling his punches so he didn’t break it, but it didn’t calm his thoughts any. When Bucky died Peggy had told him to respect his choices. Time wasn’t a choice anyone made and still Steve lost it all. So much potential, he hadn’t been given access to the full report on Peggy’s death (MI6 was close lipped), had he been there could he have helped?
She was a capable agent but everyone needed someone they can trust at their back. Steve wanted to know everything.
Steve stopped crying long before his meeting with Natasha, he was a grown man after all. He couldn’t get the image of her pregnant with Tony out of his head, only it was amazing because she was amazing, and that was Tony there growing in her womb.
~~
“After the war Howard wanted to build something that could stand up to supernatural forces.” Fury said, he was sitting at his desk and Steve was flicking through some old faded photographs of Howard when he was young, older than Steve remembered him, but younger than the photos on the internet. “What happened with you and Hydra made him realize that his weapons were not enough. That’s what he told me when I took the job of director.”
Fury didn’t smile, Steve wondered if he was even capable of it.
“We keep the balance of the world and protect the world from the threats that go above and beyond the ordinary. Basically we keep tabs on the mutant rights movements and advanced tech.”
“Like the Iron Man suit.” Steve said, finally understanding a little more.
“Stark’s suit posed a threat; out of respect to his father we handled the situation before it could get too wildly out of hand.” Something clenched hard in Steve’s stomach, if the Avenger’s Initiative was anything to go by, when S.H.I.E.L.D. handled things it wasn’t with a gentle hand. “Still he destroyed the Stark expo site, Tony’s Malibu home, the Monaco Grand Prix, and took out two blocks and an overpass in Los Angeles as well as his own reactor and associated research division.”
“Ah.” Ouch. Steve had read about a few of those incidents.
“It was one of Howard’s expeditions that found you.” Fury continued, sitting back, looking through Steve. “He never stopped looking for the plane.” He owed so much to Howard, and Fury for keeping up the effort long after Howard was dead. He could almost see why almost everyone seems to think that Tony is more trouble than he is worth; Fury did it for Howard.
“Howard was a good man.” Crazy as they come, but good at heart.
“When he wanted to be. He still built weapons.”
In Steve’s time that had been a good thing, everything for the win. Peace was something that took a little time to figure out.
“He helped me when he didn’t need too, and he was an amazing pilot.” Steve didn’t want to forget them the way they were and it was hard to correlate with the way people remembered them after. Fury gave him a squinty look, like he was trying to understand something. Steve got that look from a lot of different people.
“You do know that Tony Stark is nothing like Howard Stark.” Fury’s gaze was level and assessing.
Steve had to disagree. “I want him on more missions.”
“Stark doesn’t want to be on more missions.”
“...Have you asked him?”
Fury just blinked at him, as if this was somehow not a reasonable question. Steve flushed a little; it was just a valid suggestion.
“He’s valuable to the team in terms of recognisance and air support. Thor doesn’t have the sensor capability that Ironman does.”
“We’ve considered that.” Fury said evenly. “Stark is unpredictable and potentially dangerous. He can’t be trusted on the team full time. Which is why we have hired him on as a consultant.”
“For his father.” The words rang a little hollow. Steve hadn’t been able to get very close to Tony, but he knew he would hate that.
“A promise is a promise.” Fury said evenly.
“If he finds out, he’s going to hate you.”
“I never wanted Tony Stark’s love. Not even once. I’m not going to weep any tears - as long as he stops blowing shit up and making a scene. Focus on your team Captain.”
“Sir.” Steve said smartly, knowing a dismissal when he saw one. Still, he refused to move.
“Yes Captain?” Fury could arch his eyebrow perfectly, managing to convey a whole set of emotions without needing to move anything else. Still, Steve was stubborn.
“What is Tony’s problem with Howard?”
“That is a whole lot of none of my fucking business, and all the shrinks in all of LA would probably take years to work through his issues.”
“Thank you.” Steve left, he had few more questions, and not many more answers but that was okay.
~~
“Aren’t you a vegetarian?” Steve asked, watching Clint tuck into a huge sandwich made seemly almost entirely out of all the sliced meat in the fridge some mayo and a single sad piece of lettuce.
“Nah.” Clint used his thumb to rub a smudge of sauce from the corner of his lip. “I just say that because it freaks the fuck out of Stark.” Steve opened and closed his mouth a few times in confused. Clint chuckled low and amused. “I don’t know what he has against vegetarians, but it’s more than worth it to watch his face.”
“He says it makes him hungry.” Steve said, watching as Clint took the next bite with a vicious relish. He couldn’t help the small smile.
“I hope he gets fat.” Clint said viciously. “Capitalist neo-libertine massive prick.”
“What has Tony done to you?” It was a little above the usual level of antagonism. Only a tad, but still more than the usual.
“Have you met him? Short, dark hair, massive god complex. Refers to himself in the third person as The Phoenix.”
“He does what?” Steve blinked at that, but could in fact totally see it.
“Have you never listen to him talk to that bloody robot thing of his? Can you imagine making something for the sole purpose of listening to you talk? How ridiculous do you need to be?”
Or how lonely?
“JARVIS seems to know what he’s doing.” Steve said, at the very least JARVIS knew where to get a good meal when out on the town. Steve had heard JARVIS several times in combat, he wasn’t sure what to make of Tony’s reliance on him/it in those situations. What if there was a loss of power? Could the suit function without JARVIS?
“JARVIS isn’t real, it’s fucking creepy is what he is. Like a figment of Tony’s imagination come to life or something surreal like that. Christ, what if Tony makes Skynet-he totally would.”
“I’m not really sure what you’re talking about now.” It was easier to flat out admit when he didn’t know rather than to try and pretend.
“Skynet is a super freaky AI that gets really smart and decides that the world is better off without people and so it builds robots to kill everyone and sends one back into the past to kill the mother of the future head of human resistance.” Clint said it so earnestly that Steve was tempted to believe him. Time travel wasn’t all that much weirder than the soap opera between Thor and Loki that played out in smashed buildings and the most epic sulking fits.
If it were a real threat Steve liked to think he’d be briefed about it.
“This is from a movie.” He sounded almost confident, only the smallest of inflections on the last bit to give away his doubt. Clint gave him a pitiful look.
“I remember the days when you used to believe everything I said. I blame your corruption on Tony. Also, the internet.”
“I’m sure Steve soils himself with the devious depths of the net every night.” Natasha said, completely bland and it isn’t true but his ears flame anyways at the insinuation. It wasn’t like he wasn’t aware of the other uses for the internet. In his search for Tony he’d uncovered, well, a lot more of Tony than he thought was ‘public domain’.
“I do not.” The protest is token, they wouldn’t believe him either way.
“Give him half a chance and Tony Stark will soil himself all over you.” Natasha said and Clint wiggled his eyebrows at her.
“Is that what happened when you were under cover as his assistant?” Clint made a crude kind of hand gesture.
“How many innuendos can you fit in one sentence?” Natasha arched an eyebrow at him, reaching past him to the jar of peanut butter on the lowest shelf.
“How many philosophers does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Clint said back. As usual they could be talking in code, but chances were they were just talking shit. Natasha snorted, it wasn’t lady-like, but little of what she did was ‘lady-like’.
“Depends if the light bulb is your dick.” Natasha was only crude when Clint was around. When it was just Steve she was usually polite enough (much to his relief, he didn’t know if he could deal with that), but the two of them fought like cats and dogs. They both looked viciously satisfied with it. Steve wasn’t entirely sure what any of that meant, either they hated or loved each other; that or that had worked together long enough to wear away at each other’s sharp edges until they fit into the groves left over. He didn’t worry about them in combat; they were both trained, and seemed to have an intimate grasp of each other’s movements on the field. They were a priceless pair.
“It’s illuminating.” Clint shot back, miming the twang of a bowstring going off.
“Laughing? Who did you assassinate this time?” Tony frowned, he was leaning against the door, legs crossed at the ankles and sunglasses in place despite the fact that they were indoors and it was cloudy outside.
“Classified.” Natasha smirked at him and Tony sort of snapped his teeth back at her; but he didn’t make a single move to get closer to her.
“But we’re working our way up to this nosy ex-weapons genius.” Clint answered. Tony looked over the rim of his glasses at them.
“I’ve got my eye on you.” Tony replied in a faux-rough voice, Clint cracked up laughing and Natasha looked like she was trying hard not to. “Fury.” Tony said to him and right, that made a lot of sense. Steve smiled at him and Tony quirked his mouth back.
“Was there something you needed Mr. Stark.” Natasha raised her eyebrows at him, and Tony pulled an irritated look.
“Don’t do that, it creeps me out. Gives me the shivers. I’m here for,” Tony looked around, eyeing the remainder of Clint’s sandwich for a moment before sort of meeting Steve’s eyes. “Steve.”
“Steve?” Natasha stared at him, and Tony sort of flinched away from her look.
“Yes. Captain Rogers, walk with me.” Steve shrugged, there was a chance that if he followed Tony that Tony would bring him out for food. Tony knew were to get the best food around, and it beat the canteen food any day; he was beginning to think that Tony’s initial assessment of radiation and sawdust might not be that far from the truth. Anyone who spent any time on the front lines knew the value of a good hot meal.
“What did you need Tony?”
Tony looked at him sideways. “To get away from Natasha, she’s like a robot, I bet she has eye-lasers. If I could just get close enough I could reverse engineer it.”
“Oh.” Still if Steve followed him long enough there was still a high probability Tony would find him food. He wasn’t sure why Natasha hated Tony, and Tony would go out of his way to avoid getting close to her. “What’s Skynet?”
Tony pushed his glasses into his hair and gave him a blinding grin that seemed way out of proportion to the question. “Oh Steve.”
~~
“I’ll be back.” Tony said, voice fake low over the intercom, it was unprofessional but Steve snorted back.
There had been creature sightings in Newark and so there they were. Giant lizards sounded familiar. Thor was sort of bouncing on his toes, but in a more regal fashion, princely bouncing on his toes in anticipation.
“Can they be tamed?” Thor said, eyes shining.
“I don’t think so?” Steve had no idea. He’d convinced Tony to go on this op with the sightings of the giant lizards; he’d been gleeful as a child at Christmas. The entire trip under the river had been one long argument about how Tony was not the terminator (android versus cyborg versus technologically enhanced super prosthesis). JARVIS wouldn’t decide to take over the world. ‘Still fucking creepy.’ ‘He can hear you.’ ‘That is correct Agent Barton, I am always patched into communications.’ Steve had a burst of inappropriate laughter at the look on Clint’s face.
“Heat scanners are not picking up anything unusual. There is a couple having sex a few doors down from your current position. Missionary style, an oldie but a goodie.”
“Iron Man.” Steve said sharply and Tony laughed.
“Just kidding.” Only with Tony it was pretty impossible to tell.
“Nothing?” Steve asked, there was silence for a bit, Tony doing whatever Tony did in the suit. He’d caught enough half muttered phrases to think Tony was talking to himself, only to realize that Tony was talking to JARVIS.
“Nothing reading out of the usual.” Tony replied turning a smart answer into something that made him sound bored.
They were let out onto the twilight street. Civilians hadn’t been evacuated, code amber still no immediate threat of destruction and potential threat to human life. (For that purpose Banner was left at HQ, he didn’t seem put out by it at all. Apparently he was in the middle of something delicate and no one should look that gleeful about being up for 24 hours straight waiting to see if a mouse would explode.)
“Still noting.” Iron Man said helpfully. There was a faint whine from the propulsion systems that allowed him to hover as he made a pass close by. A dog down the street barked in panic as Iron Man passed.
“How about you maintain radio silence until there is something to report Iron Man.” Natasha said in a smooth low voice with only a hint of threat.
Tony said nothing. The silence sounded accusatory, Steve tried not to smile too obviously. Tony reminded him of his own team, non-regulation but effective. The others were warming up to him, but even Thor had a warriors code, Tony didn’t seem to abide by a code that wasn’t his own whimsy. The evening was cool but not cold, and the twilight stretched out the shadows cast by the street lights flicking on one by one down the street.
Something made the hair on the back of his neck rise. The air sharpening around him, he didn’t quite understand his instincts but he did learn to trust them. Usually there was a bullet flying for him, reptilian part of his brain faster than any logical thing he could understand.
“Iron Man, one more scanner sweep.” Steve rest his weight a little more evenly between his feet. Something was coming. Natasha looked at him, but fell into a more relaxed stance, ready for anything.
“Scanning, still not, oh hello.”
“Status.”
“The signal is indistinct, it’s not showing on the heat scanners well at all, double checking with Stark Industries imaging satellites. Woah, what the fuck? JARVIS, what is that?”
“It seems to be a species of the genus Velociraptor, it is inconclusive on species designation.”
“Do not engage Tony, wait for us to catch up, where are they?”
“Coming up out of north east, Richard drive, there is a lot of tree cover. Also I would like to formally lodge a complaint that you don’t think that I, man of metal and super advanced technology, couldn’t take on a pride of raptors.” Steve wasn’t sure what a raptor was, but he assumed big lizard. “A... murder of raptors? A herd?”
“Pack.” Clint answered him, “saw it on BBC.”
“Alright,” Tony agreed, “there is a pack of raptors, and I would like to note for the record, I could take them, this isn’t Lost Planet.”
“Stand down.” Steve bit out.
As it turned out, a Velociraptor was a large lizard, about shoulder height, they stood upright on massive haunches balanced with long tails. Covered in a mix of scales and long feathers. One of them was sitting in the pool of light left by a street light. It was dragging its leg and letting out a pathetic braying almost honking sound. Steve was going to make towards it when Tony cut in.
“They are spreading out, it looks like an attempt to bait and flank, oh, oops.” Steve hadn’t been paying attention to the barking dog (stimuli processed and deemed irrelevant) cut off with a single high pitched yelp that turned wet and descended into a whine that stopped suddenly.
There was a roar, and the distinct sound of Tony’s pressure weapon firing. That idiot.
“Thor, Black Widow, break up the formation from the left, Hawkeye with me, let’s not let them get us flanked.”
“Confirmed.” Black Widow was little more than a black shadow with hair that caught the light, flashing dark red in the gloom. Thor was the opposite, in his battle armour the cape billowed and his breast plate was shined after each use. He was impossible to miss. They made a good team, Thor was the obvious target, representing the apparent threat and hard to miss. Black Widow, like her namesake hid until the moment to strike where she was effortlessly lethal.
“Iron Man?”
“Good, good, I am so good.” Tony said back. The one standing in the pool of light was watching Steve, head cocked to the side so it could watch them better. Steve got a little closer, they didn’t seem to be hostile yet.
When he was a few meters from it still, it threw back its head and let out a shrill sound, casting off the injured ploy and lunging at him with spring coiled force. He barely had the time to bring up the shield and still it ran right into it, full weight behind it.
“It was a signal, they are closing on your position fast.” Black Widow informed him.
“Fight me with honour lizard creature.” Thor bellowed, cracking the tarmac with a swing that missed the fast little lizards. They were swarming at him, dancing out of the way and lunging at his back.
“Incoming.” Clint said, and the sound his bow made was a low bass, a thump that echoed in Steve’s stomach this close. “Five coming from the left and rear. Six.” Steve shoved the one off of him, and it skid backwards hissing at him, crouching low but waiting for him to turn to the others. They emit a sort of rattling click, mixed with hisses and the occasional short screech.
“Watch the claws on their feet.” Thor said, sounding dismayed.
Steve looked at the one, and flung his shield, quick, it wasn’t expecting his reach to be quite that long and it hit it in the centre of its body mass, knocking it off its feet with a yelp. Natasha shot it dead from 15 meters, a cluster of three shots right through its throat spraying the ground with black blood. Steve nodded a quick thanks to her that she didn’t even notice, busy as she was picking off the creatures all engaging Thor.
Steve grabbed his shield, the movement of getting it from the ground to his hands so familiar he barely even noticed it, already turning and flinging it again. The creature had already been in the air, lunging for Clint’s exposed side. The shield hit it and it fell to the ground where Clint with his offhand drew a small gun from the small of his back and shot it twice in the chest. It screeched.
“Heads up.” Tony said.
It was only through training and unshakable nerves that stopped Steve from looking up when Iron Man deplored the flares are dangerously low levels. Natasha and Clint were too well trained to look, and when asked Thor admit that had been one of Loki’s favourite tricks. Of course all of the dinosaurs stopped and looked up.
“Veloci-kiss my ass.” Clint hissed, letting two bolts fly in rapid succession.
“That was pretty lame.” Tony said, whatever else he was about to say was drowned out by a loud crack, Thor’s hammer finally finding the mark and sending one of the creatures flying into a second one. Natasha threw a knife at another, turning on the last in her range even as it left her fingers. Steve vaulted over the downed one picked up his shield and threw it in the same movement, it hit with a sickening crunch and the dinosaur let out an ear-splitting scream, this close it rattled his molars.
“I dare you to do better.” Hawkeye huffed.
“I am going to T-wrecks you.” Iron Man chuckled gleefully and Black Widow broke radio silence to snort at the same time Hawkeye groaned.
“That was awful.” Hawkeye hissed. “Awful, I should shoot you for crimes against humanity.” He did shoot, but one of them went down, arrow sticking out of its neck. “Bulls-eye.”
“Whatever.” Iron Man replied.
The rest went down in a fashion, the last few scattering with a scream as their comrades fell in groups.
“Black Widow, Iron Man, don’t let them escape.”
She leapt after them taking off tearing down the street while Iron Man sped past overhead firing at the ground in front of the one in front, they both swung around and right into Black Widow’s assault. She tossed two of those little electric buttons that burst into life causing them to both rear up with a sharp cry. Shooting one while Iron Man landed on the back of the other crushing it into the ground at her feet.
In the ensuing silence the sound of the doors all the way down the street opening at once seem ominously loud. People were peering out in groups, some pressed up against their windows. Like some sort of genie from a bottle a mega-phone crackled to life, Clouson’s droll voice piercing the night.
“Please remain indoors it may still be dangerous, for your safety, I repeat please remain indoors.” Still Steve could see people hanging out of their windows to take better photos.
“Oh, guess what, we’re like totally trending.” Iron Man landed with a clang next to them.
“Trending?” Steve looked at him and Iron Man gave him a cocky sort of grin.
“You’re internet famous Cap.”
“Tony, shut up and help move the bodies.” Coulson looked away from his megaphone and gave Iron Man a blank look.
“I’ll consult- that’s my job I consult, Cap, put your back into it. See I’m doing my job, I do it well. I would like to point out that the suit can withstand most electrical currents, up to a point I tested it personally, so you and your taser can stay over there. I said lift Mr. America, lift.”
They were surprisingly heavy, mostly muscle without an inch of fat, living machines built for killing, sharp talons on the feet for ripping and shredding. The surviving creatures were tranquilized and loaded onto a separate truck. Despite his vocal protests Iron Man eventually did deign to lend a helping hand.
The briefing after was quiet, it was well dark, approaching the middle of the night and edging onto early morning. Fury showed no sign of even noticing that these were not regular hours. None of the other agents did either, Thor could probably fight for days and Clint and Natasha were too used to odd hours. Tony of course was not included in briefings unless his input was needed (rarely).
“So, we need to figure out where the dinosaurs are coming from.” Clint said waving a hand around. “This is not Journey to the Centre of the Earth, I refuse to deal with this any longer.”
“Objection duly noted and dismissed agent Barton.” Fury said while Natasha sniffed, looking amused. “This isn’t your average zoo escape, they are coming from somewhere. We’re having no luck with the source, for now all we can do is be ready for another attack.”
~~
Movie night seemed to be a thing; they would all meet in the television room at headquarters. At first it was just Tony and him, and then Thor joined in, as always curious about Midgardian culture. Bruce was next, he walked past and wasn’t fast enough to duck the arm Thor threw around his shoulders, roped rather physically into the fold.
Tony actually rarely paid attention to them, tapping away near silently at whatever he had on hand, sometimes a thin pad thing and sometimes something smaller and brighter that fit into the palm of his hand. Still he kept suggesting films over their occasional lunches.
So it was a thing now. Tonight they were on the second Star Wars (the second old one Tony explained, new ones were shit, you’re lucky to have missed them).
Thor took up the couch, sprawling like only a prince could, one arm thrown along the back of the couch Bruce was curled up against the other end, brown loafers kicked off and surprisingly colourful socks tucked under his thighs. That left the smaller couch for Tony and him.
“Feet.” Tony demanded imperiously and Steve arched an eyebrow at him as Tony shoved his feet over his lap, sitting sideways along the couch.
“Sorry?” Steve said trying to sound strictly polite and Tony looked at him, letting his bottom lip stick out a little. It was the most ridiculous thing.
“You can’t expect to get away with that.” Bruce said, but he was smiling at them, one of those tentative little half-smiles that he gave when he was feeling particularly at ease. Steve was finally beginning to get the hang of that smile, team was team, big and green or not. In the future everything was different, but comrades in arms was something that had been the same since ancient times.
“Watch me.” Tony laughed, wiggling his toes while Steve huffed.
Which was when Natasha walked in, her gaze jumped around the room, lightening quick analysis of threats and exits that she was still trying to teach Steve to do instinctively. Her sharp look settled on them, Steve with Tony’s feet in his lap, Tony leaning back against the arm in an artful sprawl so he could better goad Bruce. It was impossible to tell her tactical assessment from the blank face, and Steve figured that was the first lesson in spy school. Give nothing away.
“Hey, want to watch a movie with us?” Steve asked, because it was the polite thing to do. Just because she wasn’t a freak didn’t mean she wasn’t also team.
“We are watching the war of the stars, it is an epic tale from a galaxy far far away.” Thor said with a grin so wide it was threatening to pull his face apart. “Obi Wan is a great and honourable warrior. Stark says that I can also be a jedi.”
“Taking orders for lightsabers.” Tony smirked at her, refusing to move from his loose sprawl, although as small as she is she probably wouldn’t fit comfortably on the couch with them. Still Steve felt like he should give his seat to her, but knew better to try. “I tried a few times when I was younger, but there has always been problems with a portable energy source that can power a laser. If I modify the hologram technology I should be able to make a beam that self terminates. As for the force, you’re going to need to master that one all on your own big guy.”
“No problem.” Thor boasted and Steve snorted. “Loki would like these films, these Jedi are great mages.”
Tony choked in time with Bruce both of them looking horrified. “Not a good idea.” Bruce mumbled. “Bad, bad idea.”
“Just hit play.” Natasha said, and somehow she fit herself in between Bruce and Thor, compacting herself into a neat little ball under Thor’s outstretched arm. If she thought anything was weird at all she didn’t say.
“Note:” Tony mumbled out loud, “requisition new couch, and maybe a television that isn’t so shit. P.S. start making TVs.”
Steve wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not, which he was just beginning to accept as normal.
Steve actually gasped when Darth Vader revealed his identity and also secretly agreed; Loki wouldn’t like this movie. Thor wanted to watch the next one immediately, and it only took a little cajoling to get everyone to agree. It was a thing, but it was a good thing. Even Tony ‘my time is worth more than you will make in a life time’ Stark agreed to stay for the next one, he even began to mumble a little about something called Space Balls which needed to be seen too.
~~
Steve wasn’t sure what the meeting is about, Clint had dropped by his room, sticking his head in with a faint smile, ‘Fury wants to see you at two, try not to let him eat your head, he’s in a snit.’ Fury in a snit is like a room coated with bear traps, you know it only takes one wrong step and it was all iron teeth.
“Mr. Fury?” He looked through the door into his office. Fury’s office was a dark little corner of S.H.E.I.L.D., a warren of halls and fire doors. Steve wondered if he hid his office for some tactical reason. Fury would do that, and not just to confuse the lesser agents.
“Come in Captain.” Fury had these sort of glasses, only it was more like monocle, and it was really hard to look at. Steve had a horrible moment where he wondered if this was what it was like to be Tony, because there were a million inappropriate comments were building like a dramatic Hollywood car crash behind his teeth.
“Was there something you needed sir?” Steve swallowed them down forcefully, because he was an adult and that was the mature thing to do. Still he couldn’t stop looking at it.
“Sit down son.” Steve took the seat across from him. “You’ve been integrating well, you’ve exceeded all the projected values for your adaptation, a lesser man wouldn’t have been able to do what you’ve done here. I’d like to congratulate you.”
“Thank you sir.” Steve flushed a little, he never liked having to take a compliment, after all it wasn’t just him, he had a whole team of people pointing things out, correcting him when he was wrong. “I’ve had a lot of help.”
“This is what I want to talk to you about.” Fury took off his weird little glasses thing and set them down on the document he was reading. If it were not for the leather jacket hanging on the door and the shoulder holster next to it, he could have been any office manager. “Initially your association with Tony Stark was deemed a positive way to integrate you, he represents a lot of your past, don’t think I don’t know what you see when you look at him.”
Steve flushed again, but this time it wasn’t pride or embarrassment but something awful, squirming in his stomach. He’d asked Fury initially, but still he hadn’t been able to get evidence. It had sort of become his little secret, pressing his ear to a seashell and listening to the echo of the sea inside. “It’s not like that.” He argued, because it needed to be said, no matter how untrue it felt on his tongue.
“Soldier you’ve gone through a major trauma, it makes sense to see your loved ones in him. Your obsession with him has gone past healthy, for your sanity and the sake of the team I advise you distance yourself from Stark. I have it on good authority only three people are capable of dealing with his shit all the time.”
The tangle of emotion was overwhelming for a moment. He didn’t like Tony only because of that. He couldn’t, that would be the cruellest thing someone could do to Tony, fresh on the horror was a wave of anger. Who was Fury to tell him how close he could be with his team mates?
“I believe your words were it’s none of your business.” He’s not quite snapping, but it’s the tone was the one he knew means that he’s about to do something against orders. It’s amazing most people don’t see right through him, Bucky always did. He would smother his grin rocking on his toes when Steve would say that yes he understood the tactical importance of leaving team six without back-up. They both knew as soon as they were dismissed exactly where they were going.
Bucky would have probably liked Tony. Or he would have hated him. Bucky was a good judge of character, and Tony was quite the character. Steve may be a little biased in figuring it out. Without him Steve just had to go with his gut.
“Look. You’re an important asset, and Tony Stark is dangerously unpredictable, destruction follows him around like the bimbos that throw themselves at him.” Fury watched his expression and it was like being shot, such a direct stare piercing through his skin and trying to look at his thoughts. Steve has been called an asset way too many times to be offended by it at this point in his career. “Think about it, are you thinking clearly when it comes to him. If it will help you any, that question you asked me? Yes.”
Part 3