Fic: There is no 'I'... 5/11
Chapter 5
The Avengers were back. Paris photo ops done, politicians impressed, scaring the living crap out of any local bad guys achieved. Cap was looking particularly gorgeous as they landed in the back gardens, shield hooked over his shoulders and eyes smiling.
“Well, look at you.” He gestured to Tony’s armor clad self.
Tony grinned behind the face plate and raised his arm. It was a testament to Steve’s confidence in him that while Clint and Natasha visibly flinched, he simply watched Iron Man blast a crash-test dummy across the lawn and into a fish pond.
“I’m good to go Captain,” Tony couldn’t keep his enthusiasm from Iron Man’s speakers. “Sick to death of board meetings, patent negotiations and MRI’s but more than ready to come out and play.”
Cap’s expression turned reluctant. “Sorry Tony, that’s Nick’s decision not mine.”
Tony snorted. “Funnily enough, he said the same thing. Except in reverse. So not actually the same thing but…”
“Really?” Steve frowned, moving closer now that Tony seemed less likely to obliterate inanimate objects in his vicinity. “My understanding was he would oversee team member active status while I, um, Tony?”
“Hmmm?” Tony hovered five feet in the air just near Cap’s shoulder.
“Could you come down here? It’s strange to speak to your feet, especially when they could burn my face off.”
Iron Man landed easily. “Sorry. This is so much easier with the ICC contact nodes. The armor was never ‘heavy’ or anything but now it’s like a second skin. It responds to me just by concentrating on a specific task. To be honest,” he lowered his voice to as much of a whisper as he could while still on speaker. “I think JARVIS is a little jealous.”
Cap’s smile returned, albeit a cautious one. “Only you could think your machine friend is jealous of your relationship with your armor.”
The red and gold plating wasn’t designed to convey a shrug, but Tony gave it his best shot. “He’s still the most complex AI ever invented, but the ICC…I didn’t think it would work as well as this.”
“I’ll talk to Nick. Could you take off the helmet?” Cap asked, expression returned to one of good humor now that Tony’s personality seemed mostly unaffected by the changes wrought on his body. “I like to look at you when I’m talking to you.”
Tony turned that sentence over in his brain for a few long, pleasurable seconds. Reaching up, he unlocked the catches that held the helmet in place; cool afternoon air caught in his hair and ruffled it. Blue eyes zeroed in on the black primary hub still adorning Tony’s left temple.
“It’s still there.” Captain America was not impressed.
Tony ignored the vaguely sick feeling in his gut and forced himself to admire the completely neutral tone of Steve’s voice. Pity about the eyes.
“Yeah, surgical removal deemed too risky at the moment.” Proud of his cool ‘don’t give a shit’ voice, Tony turned back to the garage. Obviously Cap wouldn’t enjoy looking at his face for conversations now.
Almost noiseless footsteps followed him. “Does it hurt you?” Concern now, which Tony appreciated, but it couldn’t erase the glimmer of disgust he’d seen.
“Not even a little.” Removing the gauntlets, Tony dropped them carelessly onto his workbench and said, “JARVIS? Assess all data from repulsor testing and compile a report for Coulson and Fury please.”
“Certainly Sir.”
A low thump behind him as Steve put his shield down. “So, I was thinking of New Orleans this Friday…”
“Not the best idea.” And yes, that was a little harsh, but Tony wasn’t really up to playing recruiter at the moment. “This,” Tony tapped his finger against the hub, “isn’t public knowledge yet.”
Pepper and Tony’s new PA Mrs. Arbogast were still wrangling over the wording of the press release.
Given that they were just dancing around this idea of being friends, Tony could be forgiven for thinking Steve wasn’t particularly intuitive about emotions. When all was said and done, Tony thought Captain America was noble, honest, incredibly cute, polite and an all round fucking wonderful human being. Adding brains and empathy to that combination just wouldn’t be fair.
Occasionally Tony was wrong.
“I hate that thing on your face because it was done without your permission.” Steve’s words stopped Tony cold on the assembly platform. He didn’t look up. “I’m worried because, even with all your tests, it could still do something horrible to you or with you.”
Tony dared one quick glance. “I won’t, I promise.”
“You can’t know that,” Steve stood, arms crossed across the star on his broad chest. “It reminds me that Hammer took you from us and forced that thing into you. I want to tear it out and crush it into a million pieces.” Seeing Tony’s frantic expression, Steve smiled grimly. “I won’t, I promise.”
His vow right back at him. Tony loosened up his tense shoulders. “JARVIS, if you please?”
“Of course Sir.” Unusually concise, the AI removed the rest of the Iron Man armor from Tony.
Stepping down, Tony was glad he’d worn the black bodysuit under the armor for the testing process. Catching up a tablet, he offered it to Cap as he walked over.
“All the details and results of the tests are in there. You okay with this hardware now?”
Taking the tablet, Steve glanced at the test on the screen. “Getting there, it’s very strange.”
“I can’t even imagine.” He really couldn’t. To be seventy years behind the current technology would break his brain. “I can tell you more about how it works over dinner?”
Steve’s head came up with a jerk, eyes bright. “Absolutely. You have somewhere in mind?”
Tony had meant up at the mansion with the team, but realizing he’d just asked Steve out and been accepted, he thought furiously. “Sure do. Wear something nice and we’ll leave at seven?”
“See you then.” Lifting his shield in his spare hand, Cap strode briskly out the door.
“Crap.” Tony cursed. “How the hell did I manage that?”
“It’s a wonder to me as well, Sir.”
*****
Richard Delven was about as unimpressed by Tony as it was possible to be. Saving the world, obliterating terrorism and revolutionizing the computer industry was nothing to the man who Tony guessed was just shy of eight feet tall and built like Thor’s big brother. He’d suspect a super power or demi-godhood but for the SHEILD file proclaiming his new bodyguard one hundred percent ordinary human. Just very tall, with a glare that would rival a super model on the chiseled black features.
“Did I actually impregnate your sister or do you just loathe me on principle?” Tony asked while he waited for Steve in the foyer.
“I don’t have a sister Mr. Stark.” Delven answered in a smooth, uninterested baritone.
Tony was mildly nervous tonight for two reasons. One, he’d landed a date with Steve and was either going to mess up tragically or start making some headway towards seeing that perfect body sans clothes. Two, Delven had Tony’s suitcase armor cuffed to his wrist. Oakley had been carrying Tony’s case.
“You’re wearing Kevlar aren’t you?” Tony wondered as Steve walked down the staircase.
Almost swallowing his tongue, Tony wondered what it was about men born near the start of the twentieth century that they could all walk into a room like Cary Grant. The sports coat and dress pants even looked like they had been cut by a thirties tailor.
“Nice clothes.” Tony offered the massive understatement.
“Thank you.” Steve smiled. “Virginia organized them for me.”
Tony frowned in confusion.
“Pepper,” Natasha reminded him, stepping down behind Steve. “Now that the panic is over, your car is here. Make sure you’ve got your phones.”
Suspecting that Natasha had a mission plan already lodged for this dinner, Tony waved his new cell under her nose. “What panic?”
“Nothing.” Steve caught Tony’s elbow, nodded a compatriot smile to Delven and guided him out the door.
*****
The Alietres maitre-de hadn’t battered an eyelid at the sunglasses not quite hiding the tech on Tony’s face. She’d simply led them to an exclusive private nook, taken their orders and left. Waiters never had a chance to work at Tony Stark’s table; he’d been served by owners themselves rather than risk the staff making him unhappy.
Odd really, he wasn’t that hard to please.
“I read your file just after we found you.” Tony thought it best to be up-front from the start. “You won a few art prizes before you joined up?”
A light pink stained Steve’s cheeks. “A few.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “You’ve saved, like, a thousand lives, faced down Hitler, received the thanks of a grateful nation, had about fifty marriage proposals and your art prizes embarrass you?”
Steve chuckled before taking a drink of his wine. “Those other things were after I changed. The art is just me.”
Seeing the truth of that, Tony was intrigued. “You wanted to be an artist?”
“No, I wanted to be a soldier.” Steve nodded his thanks to the maitre de as she placed his meal before him. “I make my art because it’s part of me, it isn’t a choice.”
“Really?” No wonder Steve called Pepper ‘Virginia’ they’d likely been discussing Picasso for hours or something.
Steve gave Tony an assessing look. “If you hadn’t been born Tony Stark, what would you be?”
He didn’t even really need to think about it. “A mechanic.”
Steve nodded encouragingly. “Because you like working on cars.”
“Well, probably a designer for Oracle or someone really. But when it’s all said and done, I’m a mechanic.” Tony knew his degrees would argue that, but it was fundamentally true.
“And I’m a painter.” Steve smiled. “Nice to meet you Tony the Mechanic.”
Tony laughed. “Pleasure’s all mine.”
“So,” Steve ventured with a cautious tone. “I looked over the results you gave me…”
“Work talk,” Tony cut him off. “Is forbidden over dinner, it’s a twenty-first century thing.”
“Okay.” An amused glint entered baby blue eyes. “What shall we talk about then?”
Tony swirled the ice in his very well behaved lime and soda. It rarely took much effort to get the people he wanted into bed. Mostly all Tony had to do was choose, but then, he’d never really tried with someone he actually liked before. Pepper and Rhodey were both delicious, but he’d never wanted to take the risk of trying to seduce them for fear of it becoming more than just lust mingled with liking.
Steve Rogers was probably going to fall into that very same boat.
“Well, tell me what’s so great about Pepper’s modern art collection.” But he was Tony Stark and faced with the perfect package that was Steve, he couldn’t help himself.