Chapter Two: Steve
4 Days Later
"What are you doing?"
Clint jerked in surprise at the sudden question. He tried to stand, head smacking solidly into the underside of the lab table. Falling onto his rear with less grace than he preferred, he rubbed his aching head and turned to glower at the tall frame standing in the doorway to the lab.
Steve Rogers folded his arms, looking unimpressed at the archer's glare. "Isn't Stark scheduled to use this lab today?"
Clint grabbed the air horn that had clattered to the floor and returned to the task of fastening it to the underside of the lab chair in front of him. "I think I saw his name on the roster."
Steve took a step into the room. "What are you planning to do with that?"
Clint flashed Steve a quick grin. "'I' am not going to do anything with this. I'm just putting it out of the way."
Steve's eyes narrowed, and he tilted his head to one side. "Does this have anything to do with all those cupid pictures in the cafeteria with your face on them?"
Annoyance flickered across Clint's face, but vanished quickly.
"What, I can't put an air horn underneath a chair without my motives being called into question?" Clint replied snarkily. "If you insist on hanging around, the least you could do is help."
Steve dropped his arms and tucked his hands into his pockets. "I'm not sure I want to get in the middle of whatever this is."
Clint finished securing the air horn and jumped to his feet, sliding a roll of duct tape halfway up his forearm, leaving his hands free. He gave Steve a sly grin that immediately set the super soldier on edge.
"I'm not sure you get a choice," Clint told him. "You might as well resign yourself to being on my team."
Steve straightened, frowning. "You'd tell Stark I helped you?"
Clint shrugged and moved to the door, glancing left and right down the hallway. "I won't have to. When he's done having his heart attack, the first thing he's going to do is check the security footage."
Steve instantly glanced up at the security cameras in the corner of the room. "You didn't disable the cameras?"
Clint snorted in amusement. "He's going to know it was me anyway. Besides, the last time I disabled security cameras for a prank, Phil read me the riot act and made me spend two weeks moving through HQ without being seen by any of them." He shook his head, smiling fondly at the memory. "Getting chow at lunch time was a pain in the ass."
Steve glanced between Clint and the cameras. "But . . . the cameras will show him that I didn't do anything!"
Clint's answering smirk was less than reassuring. "Exactly. You didn't help, but you didn't exactly stop me, either."
Steve's eyes unerringly traveled to the air horn under the lab chair.
Clint glanced at his watch and snagged Steve's shirt sleeve. "Oh no you don't. Tony'll be here any minute, and I'm not having you undo all my hard work. Come on. Let's go pick out a good spot."
Steve allowed Clint to pull him out of the lab and to the right. The two could hear Tony's voice as he argued with someone, though neither man could pick out any specific words. Stopping in front of a door a couple rooms down from the lab, Clint opened it and shoved Steve inside before following him in and shutting the door until it was open just enough for the younger man to see the hallway.
Steve blinked in surprise, glancing around his new surroundings. His eyes slid over unfamiliar lab equipment and nonsensical computer screens before landing on a whiteboard filled with black, red, and blue math equations that went way over his head. Strangely enough, a sketch of a small purple cat waving at him from the corner of the whiteboard distracted him from noticing that he and Clint were not alone in the room.
Bruce was sitting at a table, peering into a microscope and taking notes, seemingly unphased at the sudden appearance of two Avengers in his lab.
"Good afternoon, Steve," he said, not lifting his head from the microscope.
Steve looked at Clint, who was still watching the hall, then turned back to Bruce. "Er . . . sorry for barging in on you like this, Dr. Banner."
Bruce smirked, finally glancing up at Steve. "I take it the prank war is going well?"
Steve floundered for a moment, wondering how Bruce was involved, when Clint answered for him.
"It's about to go nuclear," he said gleefully, flashing Bruce an excited grin. The expression made the archer look ridiculously young.
Bruce added more notes to his tablet. "Sound exciting. Is Coulson aware that you're contributing to the corruption of his boyhood hero?"
Clint scoffed. "Steve got himself involved. Besides, he used to hang out with the Howling Commandos. Pretty sure whatever corruption wasn't done by them got finished by Howard Stark."
Rather than the familiar pang of loss that accompanied any mention of his former life, Steve felt a strange rush of gratitude at the idea that someone wasn't going to walk on eggshells around him. He might be completely lost at modern technology, but he was far from naïve.
"Well, if I'm already involved in this ridiculous war, then we need a battle plan," Steve stated. "I mean, an air horn under a chair? That's amateur stuff."
Clint and Bruce both turned to stare at Steve, identical looks of surprise on their faces.
Steve grinned. "What? I grew up with Bucky as my best friend. There wasn't much the Commandos or Stark could teach me that I didn't already know."
A sudden, earsplitting blare filled the room, causing all three men to jump. Steve's eyes flew to Bruce to make sure he was all right as Clint closed the door, muffling Tony's outraged shriek of his name.
"So, uh . . . what exactly did you have in mind?" Clint asked, intrigued.
The remains of what had once been an air horn dropped onto the table in front of Steve's tray. Steve looked up from his lunch to find Tony Stark, wild-eyed and determined, staring at him.
"Can I help you?" Steve asked mildly.
Tony slid into a chair across from Steve and leaned forward. "Whatever Barton offered, I'll double it."
Steve frowned, feigning confusion. He leaned back in his chair, balling up his napkin and tossing it onto the remains of his meal. "Offered?"
Tony scowled. "Don't play coy with me, Spangles. I know you were there when he set this up. This is a one-time offer to join the winning side."
Steve stood and picked up his tray, carrying it to the conveyer. "Sorry, Stark. I don't know what you're talking about. Clint didn't offer me anything."
Tony narrowed his eyes, easily keeping pace with the taller man. "'Clint', huh? And how long have you two been so chummy?"
Steve deposited his tray, smiled his thanks at the worker who was collecting silverware, and headed for the exit to the cafeteria. "We're teammates, Tony. Makes sense that we talk and get on friendly terms."
Tony jogged around him and turned, walking backward to keep eye contact. "Friendly's good. I can do friendly. I'm a friendly guy. Ask anyone. So why don't you join my team?"
Steve paused in front of the elevator and pushed the button to head up. "Why exactly are you so involved in whatever grudge match you and Clint have going on anyway?"
An annoyed scowl flickered across Tony's face. As the elevator doors slid open, the scientist followed Steve inside.
"He started it!" he exclaimed. "I was completely innocent!"
Steve raised a disbelieving eyebrow at Tony.
Tony nodded, waving the look away. "Yeah, okay, not even I buy that. But he did start it!"
"What did he do?" Steve asked, curious in spite of himself. He was only aware of the cupid pictures and the wasabi-coated blueberries, but he had a sneaking suspicion there was more to the story than that.
To Steve's surprise, Tony shifted from one foot to the other and avoided his eyes.
"He . . . let's just go with he started it, and he needs to learn not to mess with me and science." Tony frowned at the lit up number eighteen that Steve had pushed. "Where are you going, anyway? The eighteenth floor is R and D."
Steve's mouth curved slightly. "I'm going to R and D."
Tony's sharp gaze narrowed on Steve in suspicion. "Why?"
"I'm going to check in on Bruce and make sure he doesn't need anything," Steve replied, stepping off of the elevator as it arrived on the correct floor.
"What? Why?" Tony demanded, chasing after Steve.
Any reply Steve had died before reaching his lips. Turning a corner, both men found Clint near Bruce's lab, but he wasn't alone. Another agent, a head taller and about fifty pounds heavier than Clint had the archer backed into the wall and was looming over him menacingly. Steve couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was about the man that set him on edge, but every instinct he had screamed at him that his teammate was in trouble.
Before Steve could act, Tony suddenly strode forward. "Barton! Don't move! I've got a bone to pick with you about that air horn!"
Steve didn't miss the flash of relief on Clint's face, and he doubted Tony did either. Coming to a stop in front of Clint, Tony fixed the other agent with a dismissive look.
"You can go now," he told the agent pointedly. He turned to Clint. "Not you."
The agent looked as though he wanted to argue, but Tony merely grabbed Clint by the arm and forcibly led him down the hall. Steve followed, keeping an eye on the agent until he was out of sight.
"What the hell, Barton?" Tony was saying. "Scare the guy with the heart condition?"
Clint scoffed. "Like I didn't check your medical records first? You're fine."
"And now you're recruiting?" Tony continued, ignoring Clint's reply. "You're on dangerous ground, Legolas. Better watch yourself, or I'll get Bruce on my team."
"No fair bringing biological superhuman weapons to a knife fight!" Clint protested.
"You started it!" Tony shouted back, releasing Clint's arm to wave at Steve.
"How do you even know Bruce wants to be involved?" Steve spoke up.
Tony gave him an offended look. "He's my science brother. He has to be on my team. It's part of the code."
"There's a code?" Steve muttered.
Clint smirked. "That's assuming he's not already involved."
The stunned look on Tony's face sent Clint cackling. "BRUCE!"
Tony whirled around and stomped in the direction of Bruce's lab. Clint used the distraction to grab Steve's arm and run in the opposite direction.
"Are you sure it was a good idea throwing Bruce's name out there like that?" Steve asked, following Clint into a stairwell and down the stairs.
"He'll be fine," Clint called back, leading Steve onto the sixteenth floor and through the hall. "It was time for him to take a break anyway. If anyone can handle Tony, it's him."
Steve shook his head and let himself chuckle at the image Clint put in his head. It had been awhile since he'd felt like one of the guys, and he missed it.
As they ducked into a vacant conference room to wait out Tony's tirade, all thoughts of the agent harassing Clint slipped out of Steve's mind.
end chapter 2
A/N: Sorry for the reeeeeeally long hiatus. I'm still working on this story though.
