"Detectives Rogers and Stark, you team up to stake out the drug-lord Stark has been tracing." Fury barked out from the podium in the meeting room. The two detectives glanced across the room at each other sceptically; while each of them had been working in the New York police precinct for some time, they had never been given many assignments together as the majority of the team assumed their personalities would conflict. This was assumed correctly.
It was when the meeting had been dismissed and the team disbanded that both Stark and Rogers, acting independently, approached Captain Fury. They glared at each other as though they had claimed the time after the meeting to talk with Fury for themselves.
"What is it?" The Captain snapped, his remaining eye peering between his two employees.
The detectives glanced back and forth to see who would have enough guts to complain in front of the other. Eventually, Steve couldn't risk Stark painting him in a bad light so intervened first.
"Is it really a good idea to put me and Stark together on this one? I heard Romanov had something she wanted help with and I really feel I'd be more suited for that."
Tony joined in, nodding vigorously, "Clint was saying he'd just finished a case so I'm sure-"
Fury didn't have time for their petty bickering so interrupted, "I put you two together for a reason so stop complaining and do your damn jobs!" On that he turned and marched out of the meeting room to his office across the main room where all their desks were arranged. This left Steve and Tony standing p beside each other peering at the ground awkwardly. Their eyes met as they both began scanning the other.
"Well, I feel that went well." Tony grimaced before shuffling around the larger detective and heading for the door. Steve, on the other hand, just continued peering at the floor in disappointment.
Steve was rummaging through some old case files in the old data room, where they stored stacks of boxes full of old cases, and working through some negative feelings when he jumped at the sudden presence of another voice. In the surprise, he dropped the box of files on the floor, scattering the papers everywhere. He tried to grab the fluttering sheets helplessly before they got strewn too far.
"So, I heard you're stuck with Tony." Natasha popped up from seemingly nowhere. Steve didn't even hear the door open. He often considered how her stealth was wasted on detective work.
"You were in the briefing with us, Nat. Of course you know." He sighed, turning his back to lean against the towers of dusty boxes. He didn't even care that the dust would leave a mark on his freshly ironed shirt.
"Bet you weren't impressed." She smirked as she crossed her arms and stuck out her hip. Her red hair moved slightly in the breeze of the old fan that Steve had propped up on a wonky shelf. He would comment on the way it made her look like someone from a shampoo commercial but he wasn't quite sure if their friendship had exceeded that boundary yet. She was hard to read.
"I just don't feel like Stark takes it seriously… at all. He's always cracking jokes when he's supposed to be working and messing with people. That's without mentioning how he flirts with everything that moves!"
She leant her head, "He can't do all of those things and still be a good detective?" She challeneged, "Besides, he's never flirted with me."
"Aw, shucks. I should have known you'd side with him." With a sigh he pushed off the boxes and knelt down to begin clearing up his mess until Natasha placed her boot on a document he was collecting up.
"No, Steve. I'm just saying maybe you should give him a chance instead of jumping to conclusions. After all, you haven't even worked on a case with him before." After she saw her message was sinking in she lifted her foot and stepped back. "Anyways, hiding in this dingy file room won't help anyone. It's dusty and stinks of damp."
Rogers conceded to her point and agreed to leave after he'd tidied up the mess. He moved slowly to increase the time before he'd actually have to come face-to-face with the other detective. Even if he was destined to work with the man it didn't mean he had to be enthusiastic about the prospect. Finally, after what must have been an age he brushed the dust off himself and stepped out of the data room begrudgingly.
"Ah, detective Rogers. I've got the case set up on the board, if you're ready?" Tony said with a raised eyebrow as the other man approached him. There was a couple of seconds of them just peering at each other with a slight disdain before the other man responded.
"Of course, let me just grab my notebook." He said to gain some more time.
However, he couldn't put it off forever and was sat in the meeting room staring at Stark's case board before he could even blink. Images of the drug lord and statements from witnesses were taped up and linked together. Steve was gazing off into the distance when he was addressed.
"Have as many sexual fantasies as you want at home, Rogers. I know I'm just too damned gorgeous but for now can you focus?" Tony mocked effectively snapping the detective out of his own head.
"I-I… I wasn't!" Steve stuttered as his face grew increasingly beetroot coloured. Maybe he was thinking about Stark but that was only out of complete boredom! He hunched over is notebook as a scowl curled across his lips.
Tony stepped away from the board and squared his shoulder in front of where Steve was sitting, "Look, Mr Perfect. I know this isn't your case but if you could take your head out of your ass for once, that'd be great! The rest of us have cases too." He folded his arms and mentally prepared himself for the backlash.
Rogers blinked and slowly rose from his seat with his arms placed defiantly on the desk in front of him; the pose made the muscles in his shoulders and upper arms stand out. His chair squealed along the tiled floor as he moved it back with his legs. The detective peered into the other's eyes.
"If you would take your job seriously then neither of us would be in this position of me babysitting you in the first place!" Growling, he managed to enunciate through gritted teeth.
"Are you trying to say I can't do my job properly?"
It wasn't clear to the other colleagues in the precinct which man started the fight but all they knew was 10 minutes after Rogers had been called into the briefing room both men were on the floor wrestling out their differences. Unfortunately, neither man heard Captain Fury storming into the room until he made his presence known. The other detectives in the office pretended to be oblivious to the event but secretly a few of them had just won an office bet: Rogers and Stark would fight before the month was up.
"What do you think you're doing?" He snapped, clearing using what restraint he had left to prevent himself from cussing out both men. His eye was nearly popping out of its socket in anger.
Both men scrambled to pull themselves off the floor and justify their actions but the captain wasn't having any of their nonsense today. He raised his hands to silence them and with his mouth in a scowl pronounced,
"Do you know why I paired you, detectives? It's because you are the best detectives we have in this precinct and putting you together will mean that we solve more crimes and faster which is, in case you forgot, your job! And God knows we need our arrest numbers up this month. So, you will work together without another word of complaint. Understood?"
The scolded men nodded like guilty children and hurried off to their desk without a backward glance. If they had looked back they would have seen Fury shaking his head in utter exasperation.