Hello everyone thank you for deciding to read my story. I started this story as an attempt to improve my writing skills. There are mistakes and I apologize for them in advance. I'm currently searching for a beta, but I've yet to have any luck.
Disclaimer: The Avengers are owned by Disney/Marvel, and not by me.
Without further ado I give you Avengers False Victory. Please enjoy and leave a review.
The noise, that's the first thing that comes to Steve's mind when someone ask him what it's like living in the tower. It seemed like there was always something going on, or some ruckus being raised. More often than not it seemed that Tony Stark was at the center of it. Today is not going to be any different apparently, the team are in the common room celebrating. Tony had endowed some university with an old Stark Industries building in Svalbard. To use as some sort of research outpost, Steve wasn't too sure or interested to be honest.
The department head a Dr. Grayson had come to the tower to sign some papers, and finalize the deal. Which meant only one thing a small celebration.
None of this really interested Steve but he participated all the same, just sitting on one of the huge sofa's drinking a beer.
"Mind some company captain?"
Steve turns his attention to the owner of the voice. "Well it is your tower Ms. Potts."
Pepper shakes her head at Steve, and sits down on the opposite end of the sofa. "Well it's 12% mine, the other 88 apparently belong to Tony since he did all of the heavy lifting."
Pepper smiles at Steve seeing the confusion written all over his face. "Sorry Steve it's a private joke between Tony and myself. Oh and Steve for the hundredth time please call me Pepper."
Steve lets out a small sigh " I know, I'm sorry Pepper."
Pepper felt sorry for Steve she could see he was clearly uncomfortable with the informal party that Tony was throwing. Out of all of the Avengers that had moved into the tower Steve was the most reserved. He was also the member of the team that was the most hesitant to move into the tower to begin with.
Looking back on it Pepper can't really say that she blamed him. The first month that everyone was at the tower together, well crazy doesn't really begin to describe it. Bruce of course had moved in first, right after the battle of New York. Then eight months ago after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell Maria Hill was hired, and she moved in, her first months were spent between the tower and hearings on Capitol Hill. Four months ago both Clint and Thor showed up at the tower, but they both only stay at the tower half the time. Then finally six weeks ago Steve and Natasha had arrived at the tower, both looking worse for wear. When Clint asked what had happened they both replied in unison "Absolutely nothing.".
Of course Pepper suspected there was a whole lot more to that story than either Steve or Natasha were saying.
"Is all of this really necessary?" Steve ask pulling Pepper from her reverie.
"Well you know Tony." Steve smiles and nods.
"What about me?" Asks Tony who walks up with Bruce and Dr. Grayson in tow.
"Oh nothing Steve and myself were just commenting on your love for celebration." Pepper's reply causes the inventor to feign looking hurt.
Not to be outdone in a verbal exchange, the inventor had his excuse at the ready. "Well who doesn't love a good party?"
"I second that." Says Clint as he, Thor, Maria, and Natasha walk over and join the others at the sofa's.
Feeling vindicated Tony continues. "See Peps Barton knows exactly what I'm talking about. Anyways Dr. Grayson wanted to meet Cap so here we are."
Always polite Steve stands and extends his right hand to the doctor. "Dr. Grayson, it's a pleasure."
The Doctor takes Steve's hand in both of his. "Oh Captain Rogers it's an honor to meet you sir. My wife is going to be very jealous when I tell her about this."
"I'm sorry that your wife couldn't be here today doctor."
"Yeah so was she, my wife is a huge fan. She's a history professor at California State. She specializes in World War II."
At the mention of the war Steve gets uncomfortable. Everyone notices including Dr. Grayson, who lets go of Steve's hand. "Captain I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stir up any bad memories."
Suddenly worried that he had upset Stark's guest, the soldier felt the need to assure the doctor. "No doctor it's fine really, I'm sorry I didn't mean to sour the moment."
"Well Captain you're one of the reasons while I'm here."
"Excuse me."
"Well it will be easier if I show you, one moment please."
With that the doctor walked back over to the bar where he, Tony, and Bruce were earlier. Once there he begin to dig through his messenger bag. Maria, Clint, and Natasha immediately tensed. The three ex S.H.I.E.L.D. agents anticipating the worse, a by product of their previous profession. In less than a minute the doctor produced a yellow envelope from his bag.
Walking back over to the group he hands it to Steve. "One of my students found this in the facility, and it has your name on it."
Steve took the envelope from the doctor and looked it over. Sure enough on the front of it in very neat writing it was labeled Captain Steve Rogers. All eyes are on the soldier.
It's Dr. Grayson that breaks the silence. "My wife figured it's probably something left over from the war. We found all sorts of equipment, even some medical equipment. That Mr. Stark has been kind enough to let us keep. That's not even the strangest thing we found a little room that appears to be nothing more than a heater. We figure it was most likely used to help warm up soldiers that were exposed to the elements for too long."
Steve is transfixed on the envelope in his hand, when Tony pulls him back to reality. "Hey Capsicle it's polite in this century to say thank you when someone hands you something."
The soldier quickly collects himself. "I'm sorry. Thank you Dr. Grayson I really appreciate you bringing this to me."
The rest of the team could see that Steve was drifting off. He did that sometimes, he would get lost in memories of a life long gone. A life he had before he crashed the Valkyrie into the ice. Steve looks around suddenly realizing that he was drifting, deciding that now was a good time to excuse himself from this party.
"Well again thank you for bringing this to me doctor, and it was a pleasure to meet you. Now if you will excuse me I have some other matters to attend to." At this Steve turns to leave, walking to the elevator he gets on, and presses the combination for his floor at the tower. The others wait until he is gone before they speak again.
"I'm sorry it was not my intention to upset Captain Rogers."
It's Bruce who allays the doctor's concern. "No he's not upset Dr. Grayson."
It's Clint who speaks up next. "For us World War II is ancient history, but for Steve it was just a couple of years ago." He says this with a somber look on his face.
Realization dawns on Dr. Grayson "Oh I'm a fool that thought never crossed my mind."
"Yeah most people don't think about it." Replied Maria who was sharing a sofa with Natasha. "It used to happen all the time when he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. ."
Pepper took it upon herself to change the mood. "Tony there are some papers in legal that Dr. Grayson needs to sign before he leaves."
"That's right." Tony agrees signaling an end to the festivities.
Tony, Pepper, Bruce, and Dr. Grayson excuse themselves and board the elevator.
"J.A.R.V.I.S." Tony says while listening to Bruce and Dr. Grayson talk about his research.
"Yes sir." The A.I. responds
"J, we need to go to the 13th floor." Tony responds and the A.I. gladly complies.
This left Thor, Maria, Clint, and Natasha in the common room by themselves. All four sitting in an enjoyable silence. It's Maria who speaks first.
"Well I need to get up to operations, and browse through today's intel." Operations was the floor of the tower that the Avengers actually operated out of. It housed the armory, a conference room, training facility, gym, hanger bay, a small yet state of the art medical center, and Maria's office.
Clint took this opportunity to leave as well claiming to have a favor to do for Thor.
It was Thor who stood up next. "Well Stark does know how to have a good time, alas I must take my leave. I am to meet Jane in Japan I should be gone no more than a week. If an emergency happens, I have my Stark issue phone."
"Take care big guy." Clint waves as he's walking towards the elevator.
With that Thor was out on the balcony and a second later he was gone. Leaving Natasha alone with her thoughts.
"J.A.R.V.I.S." Natasha says calmly.
The A.I. is quick to respond as always. "Yes Miss Romanoff. What can I assist you with?"
Natasha takes a quick look around making sure that she is in fact alone. "Where is Captain Rogers now?"
"Captain Rogers is currently in his quarters, and to answer your next question; yes he is alone."
"Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S.."
"Your welcome Miss Romanoff."
Natasha left the comfort of the sofa, and begin to make her way to Steve's quarters. She wanted to check on him. Her and Steve have been dating now for two months before they ever even came back to the tower. Both Steve and Natasha had wanted to keep things a secret albeit both for different reasons. Natasha hated the fact that J.A.R.V.I.S. knew, but it was impossible to hide anything from the A.I. since he was literally wired into the whole tower. Natasha smiled to herself as she remembered when her and Steve had seen one another again for the first time since parting ways at the cemetery in D.C.
Steve and Sam had been in Kiev tracking down a lead on Barnes. One night as Steve exited the bathroom after taking a shower Natasha had been sitting in a chair waiting for him. She had tracked him down because she needed help dealing a with a rather nasty element from her past. An unfortunate side-effect of putting all of her secrets out on the web for everyone to see. Over the course of the mission things got crazy, and well in the process her and Steve admitted how they felt about one another. If Natasha is being honest with herself there had been tension between her and Steve since things went south in D.C., she's surprised it took them as long as it did to act on their feelings.
Natasha is brought out of her reverie when the elevator arrives on Steve's floor.
"Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S."
"Your quite welcome Miss Romanoff." With that Natasha made her way to Steve's quarters.
Steve walked into his quarters and immediately tossed the envelope onto the coffee table that occupied the center of the room. He then sit down in a chair and sighed heavily. Steve hated getting lost in his head like he had with the doctor. It happened often when he was first thawed from the ice. Now it tends to only happen when someone brings up the war to him, and even then it doesn't happen all the time. Steve decided to clear his head by drawing, he picked up a sketch pad and a pencil up off the coffee table. He then begin to sketch; he has no idea how long he's been sketching when his door chime sounds.
Getting up Steve walks over to the door and checks the door panel. His mood brightens instantly when he sees who it is. He then presses the release to open the door.
Natasha walks right past him into the living area, and she knows instantly that he's been sketching. Steve follows her back and takes a seat on the sofa this time and invites her to sit.
Which Natasha does a little to eagerly, sitting right next to Steve if they were any closer Natasha would've been sitting in his lap. She doubted he would mind any. Natasha starts the conversation.
"You alright?" Natasha ask the concern evident in her voice.
"Yeah. You know us old timers always thinking about the good ole days." Steve leans back with a cocky grin on his face.
Natasha leans her head so that it's resting on Steve's shoulder. "Yes and you had to walk five miles both ways to school."
Steve laughs despite himself. "I wouldn't go that far. With my asthma I would've been lucky to make it five blocks let alone five miles." Steve decides to change the subject to something more pleasant.
"So Nat are you ready for our date tonight?" Steve ask wrapping his arm around Natasha.
Natasha snuggles up just a little closer. "Sure am. I'm even thinking about going blonde tonight." This caught Steve's attention.
"Deciding to change it up a little bit are we?" Steve asks with a playful tone.
"Well I've gone brunette for our last two night's out. I don't want to get too comfortable."
They both had taken to wearing little disguises to throw people off who might recognize them. This helped them keep some degree of privacy. Since they have been living at the tower they also leave at different times for their nights out to avoid suspicion. Natasha could care less if the team knew they were dating, but Steve didn't want them to know for a few reasons. Deep down Steve knew they would be found out eventually. He wouldn't like it, but he'd deal with it when it happened.
Natasha looks at Steve expectantly. "So..."
"So what?" Steve replies closing his eyes.
"You never told me where we are going tonight."
Understanding dawns on Steve. "Sorry."
"It's called Freddy's. It's a small Italian restaurant in Mid-Town."
Natasha smiled. "Sounds good. I'm looking forward to it."
"I'll have J.A.R.V.I.S. send you the address."
It was then that they were interrupted by the A.I..
"Miss Romanoff, Captain Rogers I think you both should know that Dr. Grayson has left the tower. Dr. Banner is now boarding the elevator to come back to his quarters."
With the announcement Steve and Natasha knew that their reprieve was over. Natasha kisses Steve on the cheek as she gets up.
"Looks like it's the stairs for me." She says smiling.
Steve follows her to the door before replying. "I'm sorry Nat."
"It's fine, really. I'll see you tonight." With that Natasha walked out making her way to the stairs.
Steve notices the time, and decides that he should check in with Hill. To see if anything requires his attention. As team leader Steve made it a priority to know what was going on. Plus it often times made things easier when people actually talked in his experience. He also liked know exactly what was going on, as opposed to getting his information second hand. One of the many things he picked up in the army. Steve called the elevator and waited on it to arrive. Once it did Dr. Banner exited the elevator and greeted Steve.
"Captain." Bruce says with a nod.
Steve replies much the same. "Dr. Banner."
Steve then boards the elevator where Clint is waiting.
"Barton. Where are you headed?" Steve ask the resident archer.
Clint replies, while typing on his phone. "Operations. Yourself?"
"The Same." Steve says as the doors close and the elevator resumes traveling to the operations floor.
Clint breaks the silence first. "Going to check in with Hill?"
Steve nods in response to Clint's question. "Yes. I thought I would see if I can lend a hand. I'm not sure how much intel she had to go through today to be honest."
Clint nods still enthralled with his phone. "You still worried?"
Steve pauses for a moment before he answers. "Yes I am."
The response draws Clint's attention away from his phone. "Did it ever occur to you Cap that some speed bumps are unavoidable?"
"I know, and I don't think they are unavoidable. I'd just rather we ironed them out before something like New York comes our way again."
The soldiers reply seemed almost like he has had this conversation a hundred times already. Clint supposes that's exactly the case.
Since coming back to the tower Steve had been advocating team building at least three times a week. Everyone seemed to be behind the idea with Tony being the only hold out. Tony would always give the excuse that the team worked together flawlessly during the Chitauri invasion. Which generally brought Thor around to side with Tony. With Natasha and Maria siding with Steve, while Clint and Bruce stayed out of it. Though Bruce tended to try and be the voice of reason. The team had been on little missions since reforming, and aside from Tony not staying on task they had all went off without a hitch. At least until the team got back to the tower Then Steve and Tony would argue over chain of command and Tony's need to be in the center of everything. It's at that point that Tony would normally bring up what he referred to as Steve's control issues and his inability to adapt.
They've avoided an all out blow up, but Clint was sure it was only a matter of time before Tony's ego and Steve's patience reached their limits. Truth be told Clint agreed with Steve New York had been by necessity and from Clint's understanding it had been a bumpy ride to get there. This was different; this was by design nobody was forcing them to work as a team now. They didn't have a common foe like Loki to rally against now, no tragedy like the death of Agent Coulson to unify them.
Clint understands that they have been fortunate that, the team hasn't had a major crisis since they have all reformed. It makes Clint laugh to himself when he thinks about it. Even the Hulk will listen to Captain America, but not Tony Stark no Tony Stark listens to no one except Tony Stark. Clint thinks that Steve has been to accommodating to Stark. If this were S.H.I.E.L.D. Stark would've been put in his place after 20 seconds. Clint thinks that's what Steve needs to do, Stark needs to fall in line and he needs to do it before someone is injured.
"You alright Barton?" Steve was looking at Clint with a hint of concern.
"Yeah. Sorry about that Cap. I was just thinking is all."
Steve can't help but laugh at that. "That's fine. It seems to be going around today."
With that the elevator stopped and opened up revealing the operations floor. Steve allowed Clint to step out first, Steve then took the opportunity to do the same. They then continued to walk towards Maria's office.
"So Cap would you mind if I gave you and Hill a hand with the intel?" Clint is genuinely curious, even though he is pretty sure he knows the answer.
"Well I can't speak for Hill, but I'm all for it. Wait don't you have anything better to do?" Steve asks dubious of Clint's interest in going over today's intel reports.
Clint picks up on Steve's suspicion immediately. "Well I had asked Nat to spar. Instead she told me she had other things to do."
Steve instantly saw where this was going. "Which means you would have to be upstairs with nothing better to do than listen to Tony babble on about god knows what."
Clint nods at Steve's response. "Yep that exactly. So it's this or take a nap."
Maria interrupts their conversation. "What's this talk about a nap?"
It's Steve who jumps to the archers defense. "Well Maria it's this or Tony's ramblings about everything."
Maria chuckles in understanding. "Wise choice Barton. Well than shall we get started?" With that both men took a seat and listened to what Maria had to say.
Natasha arrived at the restaurant first which was to be expected since she had left the tower first. Her and Steve made it a point to never leave at the same time unless it was something non-relationship related in order to avoid suspicion from the others. Which was difficult since both Clint and Maria had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.. She was confident however that no one had caught on to them.
Right on time she could see Steve being shown to the table by the waiter. As always he looked handsome, he wasn't dressed too fancy. They had avoided going places where they would have to dress up to nice. That would be too much to explain to the team.
Once Steve arrived at the table he couldn't help but stare. "You look nice Nat. Being blonde suits you."
Natasha raised an eyebrow at Steve's comment. "Are you saying I look better as a blonde Rogers?"
Steve instantly on guard for fear that he had misspoke, begin to back pedal. "No Nat that's not what I meant at all. Your natural color is way better."
Natasha smiled to herself, because she had Steve right where she wanted him. She always loved seeing him squirm, it quickly became her favorite new hobby after they got partnered together at S.H.I.E.L.D.. " So what you are saying is that I'm an ugly blonde? Is that it Steve."
Steve is quickly realizing he has no escape now. "What? No! Nat it's impossible for you to ever be ugly."
Natasha smiled "Says the man that still wears his hair like it's 1940."
That's when he realizes that she got him again. "You know Nat one of these days you're going to get tired of this."
Natasha shakes her head. "Only when you quit being such an easy target,"
Steve chides himself for allowing her to get him yet again. Secretly though he loves that she does this. he loves that she keeps him guessing and on his toes.
"So how was the meeting with Hill?" Natasha starts.
"It was rather uneventful to be honest nothing that required our attention."
Natasha looks at Steve a devilish smirk crossing her face once more "So no jay walkers or little old ladies that need help crossing the street?"
He couldn't help but laugh at this. "No not a one."
She feigns being upset "Come on Rogers it's no fun when you don't play."
He grins from ear to ear before responding. "I know. I guess this means I win."
She can't hide the surprise from her face. "Well played solider, well played. It looks like you maybe picking up my bad habits Steve."
Steve attempted to look put out. "Well we can't have that can we? It may hurt my squeaky clean image."
Natasha scoffs at his remark. "It just might."
Their banter is cut short as the waiter arrives with their food. They begin to eat and talk about their day. they also begin to plan their next date. They sit at the table talking and just enjoying each others company until the waiter informs them that the restaurant will be closing soon.
Steve looks around noticing for the first time that they are practically alone. "Well looks like I should pay, and we should head back."
Natasha sighs "Yeah we've been gone for almost three hours. I'm surprised Tony hasn't called."
Steve hands the waiter some cash "Don't worry the butler is covering for us."
The waiter takes the money. "I'll be right back with your change sir."
Steve shakes his head in protest. "No you keep the change for yourself, I'm sorry we kept you so long."
"Well Nat I guess we should make our way back to the tower."
Natasha agrees reluctantly "I left first, so you go back first. I'll come in about a half hour later."
Steve agrees "Alright but first." Steve leans down and he and Natasha share a kiss before parting.
It was after midnight when Steve arrived back at the tower. It would probably be close to one o' clock before Natasha arrived back. Steve walked into his quarters and flopped down in his chair. He had just seen Natasha and already he missed her. He went to retrieve his sketch book from the coffee table, and noticed the envelope that Dr. Grayson had been kind enough to bring him. He had honestly forgotten about it since this afternoon.
Steve decided to open it, despite the bad memories it threatened to bring to the surface. Once he opened it all that was inside was a single disc, along with a single slip of paper the paper contained six numbers he recognized the numbers instantly as his S.S.R clearance code. Steve is perplexed he knows this isn't from World War II.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.." Steve calls for the A.I..
"Yes Captain Rogers. What can I assist you with?"
Steve who is looking at the disc in his hand as if it were a long lost artifact. "Are you busy?"
"Captain Rogers that's a pointless question, I have plenty of processing power to handle any request."
Steve smiles, living in the tower run by an A.I. had taken some getting used to. Despite that Steve liked J.A.R.V.I.S.. "J.A.R.V.I.S. can you play this disc?"
The A.I. was prompt to respond "I'm not sure Captain, try inserting the disc in your terminal and I will scan it."
Steve gets up and walks over to the terminal, Tony had these computer terminal's installed in everyone's quarters. Steve rarely used his, in fact he only used it for Avengers business. Steve takes a seat and inserts the disc in the proper slot on his terminal. Then J.A.R.V.I.S took over.
"One moment Captain, I'm currently running diagnostics on the disc now."
Steve understood what J.A.R.V.I.S. was telling him despite what people thought about him and modern technology, he understood more than people thought. A low beep informs Steve that J.A.R.V.I.S. has finished scanning the disc.
"Captain the disc is safe to run. It appears to be a video disc."
Sudden the soldier is very curious. "You mean it's a Blu-Ray?"
"No sir think of it like a early version of DVD that was never made available to the public. The time stamp on the disc is 12-10-91."
Steve's a little lost at this point, but is thankful for J.A.R.V.I.S. patience. "Okay. J.A.R.V.I.S. can you play the video?"
"Yes sir I can give me just a moment."
Steve is grateful not for the first time since moving into the tower for the presence of the A.I. "Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S.."
"You are most welcome sir."
Steve sit back and waited for the video to start. Once it does Steve is not prepared for the scene that plays out before his eyes. On the screen is Howard Stark a much older Howard Stark than Steve knew. Steve recognized him from photos he had seen since he was thawed from the ice.
"Hello Steve if you're watching this video then it means two things. The first being that my wife Maria and her team successfully thawed you from the ice. The second is that I'm most likely dead. Steve, I need your help..."