Dinner went smashingly, of course – Tony was, after all, directly involved.
He got along well with all of his arch nemeses, especially Banner, with whom he'd immediately bonded after poking the man with a desert fork to test his mettle.
Exclusively discussing science would have alienated the rest of his soon-to-be-tenants, though, so he forced himself to talk to them too. Natasha was forever aloof, Barton gave his own snarky nature a run for its money, Thor was really fucking loud, and Steve seemed unable to remove the smile from his face, presumably from the sight of all his friends getting along.
When dinner was over, Tony announced that they were going to have a look at his tower to acquaint them with what was going to be home for most of them from now on.
He showed them around the higher levels of the building; the floor that they'd trashed had had all of his workspaces and tech removed, and was now simply a comfortably casual bar and living room area. Downstairs from that was a similarly-shaped space set up as a kitchen and dining room, large enough for all of them and probably a number of guests. Above these two levels was what had apparently once been Tony's rooms for his more permanent staff and his friends.
"I converted the floors that would have housed Ms Potts and Rhodey into rooms for you all," he informed them as he waved his arms at the doors, "That's a third of a floor for each of you, and a spare room in case anyone feels like having a sleepover. Feel free to pick your own room. Oh, and the level above your two floors is my own personal floor. I won't use it much, since I'm going to be living in my mansion across town, but I'd prefer it if you didn't go up there."
"No problem, Tony," Steve said, smile still present.
"Awesome. Move in whenever; I'm not fussed. JARVIS will allow all of you access to most of the building, so don't worry about security or anything. I have to get back to my place so that my lovely assistant doesn't think I've gone off and drunk too much. 'Night."
0o0o0
Settling in to the tower was easy enough. Steve didn't have much in the way of belongings, so transferring it all from his sparsely used SHIELD apartment in Brooklyn was no big deal, and after calling dibs on a couch he had settled himself down to enjoy getting used to the Tower.
He was happily reading a book on modern history when something seen from the corner of his eye caught his attention.
He glanced up, out the window, but didn't see anything.
Figuring it was a trick of the night-time New York lights on the new glass, he turned back to his book. A few minutes later, another light caught his attention, and he glanced up to see the fastest flash of bright blue before it was gone again.
This time he set the book down and made his way outside. He stood on the balcony for a short time, wondering what the flash could have been, before his mouth dropped open slightly at what he saw flying towards him.
Iron Man, in full suit and glowing blue in the appropriate places, was carrying a huge steel net via a harness attached to his torso. Inside the net was possibly half a New York block, in pieces.
The supposed villain paid him no mind as he flew by, slower than normal because of his burden, moving towards the place where the garbage barges - now rubble barges - docked for the night. Steve laughed in wonder as he realised that Iron Man was actually helping with the cleanup - far from stealing the city, he was cleaning it! Steve had thought that the miraculous disappearance of rubble in the night had been a product of a hoard of determined workers toiling throughout the night; apparently it was just one such person.
He heard the distant sound of stone meeting stone and metal barge, and smirked at the returning glows of light that marked Iron Man's position in the sky.
"Iron Man!" he called just before the man reached his position and while the suit's "face" gave no visible reaction, he did change direction in order to land on the balcony near Steve.
"Captain, fancy seeing you here," Iron Man said in greeting, "You shacking up with Stark, then?"
Steve coughed at the implication; "No, I am not. You disrespect both me and Tony when you say things like that."
"Oh, you're not shacking up with him, but he is Tony," the metal man said with what had to be a grin behind the mask, "Really, Captain, I've been around the block too, you know; I get how these things work."
Steve frowned in what he hoped was a manner to discourage further discussion on the topic; "The entire team is living here, actually."
"Thank you for that important tactical information, Captain. Now I know where to hit if I want to make it hurt."
Steve resisted the urge to slap his forehead. What a rookie mistake; he should have realised that Iron Man was fishing for information.
"Speaking of hitting where it hurts," Steve said after a moment of silence, "Why were you so torn up over Agent Coulson? He didn't die, by the way; they managed to resuscitate him. Fury was ly-"
"I already know that," Iron Man scoffed, "SHIELD keeps secrets like a sieve holds water. As to the question; Coulson is my annoyingly goody-two-shoes agent. It doesn't matter that he's SHIELD or a total twat most of the time - no one on this Earth is allowed to hurt him, especially if they're not actually from Earth."
"Except you."
"Are you kidding?" he laughed, his helm tilting back slightly, "I couldn't put a scratch on him! Trust me – I've been trying to escape his tail for years, and I've even thrown cars at him in the past. The man is incapable of dying; he's more like the son of God than the son of Coul."
"You may have a point," Steve conceded, "He was stabbed through a lung and a bunch of ribs."
"Exactly; he is a god."
"That doesn't explain how he's your property, though."
Iron Man put a hand on his hip, "He's assigned to watch me, and he has been ever since I first made an appearance, even before I started on the path of villainy. Which reminds me, why did you call me over in the first place? I have things to do," he gestured to the netting currently wrapped around his middle.
"I was just going to point out another way that you aren't a villain," Steve admitted easily, looking pointedly at the net, and the man in the suit snorted.
"Another thing that belongs to me is New York. No one gets to live here except people that I allow; I chase off everyone that doesn't meet my approval."
"Even heroes?"
"I don't have a beef with you just yet, Captain. We're off to a good start; let's keep it that way."
0o0o0
True to his word, Iron Man scared off everyone that he didn't want taking up residence in New York.
A few villains made their attempts on the weakened city, but Iron Man blasted them to kingdom come; he'd even dropped Dr Doom into the water in front of the Statue of Liberty and told him, in no uncertain terms, to go back to his own country. The Latverian monarch had honestly looked close to tears.
Anyone who didn't leave immediately found everything they loved and held dear, asides from people, being incinerated at an alarming rate until they left. The people of New York were, unsurprisingly, rather fond of Iron Man, and had been for some time. He may occasionally blow up things in Ohio or set trucks on fire in California, but he kept their city safe, and that was all that mattered to them.
Meanwhile, Iron Man visitations became an almost regular thing for Steve. Even after the worst of the debris removal was over and the metal man no longer spent his evenings hauling rubble, he would fly past the window repeatedly until he caught Steve's attention. They would then talk about just about anything; from what Fury had looked like pre eye patch to where their favourite hotdog stands were to the state of affairs in the USA that week.
At the same time, it also became a semi-regular thing to have Tony over for dinner. Sometimes he wouldn't turn up at the tower for weeks at a time, and sometimes he'd appear and sit down like he'd never left. The man was an enigma; he baffled Steve endlessly, but that only succeeded in drawing Steve in further. He loved puzzles.
Then again, sometimes not knowing what Tony would do next was a hazardous state of being.
"Do you have something to tell me, Steve?" Tony asked with a smirk one evening, drawing the attention of everyone at the table.
"Um..." Steve replied, trying to think of whatever it was that he'd done wrong this time.
"You see," the billionaire continued when it was clear that Steve was drawing a blank, "last night I finally looked at this security footage from the tower that JARVIS flagged for my viewing. It was really one of the most intriguing things I've ever seen."
Steve paled as he suddenly realised where this was going. The entire team was looking appropriately nosy, and he knew that Tony was very unlikely to let this matter go unheard by the rest of the tower's residents; friends they may have become, but Tony was still very capable of being a major asshole.
"I have nothing against you making friends," the man said, and Steve was absolutely positive that he was enjoying this, "and inviting them over is fine too, but I'd prefer it if you wouldn't let such-well known villains land on my balcony without at least a token fight. If nothing else, it's bad for the team's reputation, and since you're so new to this you can't afford bad press."
Steve nodded silently, looking appropriately contrite. His team openly stared at him, obviously wondering what had possessed him to do such a thing.
"There's only one villain in New York," Bruce said slowly, frowning.
"You're letting Iron Man land on the porch?" a horrified Clint exclaimed.
Tony looked offended; "It's not a porch, it's a balcony."
Clint rounded on Tony, "Iron Man is landing on your balcony, and you're more upset about me calling it a porch?"
Tony just rolled his eyes; "You don't know this since you pretty much never leave the tower, but Iron Man has been New York's hero for years now. He kicks out the other villains, he never actually attacks the city himself, and I hear he once actually saved a cat from a tree."
"He blew up four blocks in Seattle yesterday because he didn't like the way that their silhouettes fit into the skyline!"
"I never said the guy was sane."
"Why, exactly, did he save a cat from a tree?" Bruce asked, looking amused. Clint sent him a betrayed look, which was ignored.
"Apparently some kid saw him fly past and screamed for his help. He probably thought she was being murdered or something, so he came back and she asked him to get her cat."
"And he actually did it?" Steve asked with an amused smile.
"Yup; man's obviously a fruitcake. Personally, I would never save something fluffy and potentially squishable in a suit that enhances my strength."
"That just shows the kind of person that you are, Tony," Natasha said calmly, "You should get an award; "Tony Stark, a worse person than most villains"."
"Thanks," he drawled dryly, smirking, "Well, I have shit to do tonight; may god help me if Pepper finds out I haven't prepared for tomorrow's board meeting. I will see all of you around."
He stood and grabbed his plate, throwing it into the sink and then walking to the elevator; "Happy heroing, I s'pose."
The second the doors shut, Clint stood up too; "Dick," he muttered as he walked over to the kitchen and pt his dishes into the dishwasher, closely followed by Tony's, "Can't even clean up after himself."
"I think he usually hires people to do things like that for him," Steve said with a smile, standing as well.
"I guess Tony's leaving was the end of dinner?" Bruce observed as Natasha got up as well.
"Apparently so, Friend Bruce," Thor said, and the two of them rose as well, "Shall we challenge each other on the device named "Wii" to determine our levels of skill in music-playing?"
Clint snorted; "If it's anything like last time, count me in. Thor's "skill in music-playing" is absolutely classic."
AN: Seriously, though, this isn't a major project. I might throw a chapter at it every little while if I'm stressed or something, but it's mostly one of those projects that stays in my mind and never escapes. Really.
