The One Where People Finally Start Moving into Avengers Tower (and Cap find the future disappointing)

It took John most of the rest of that morning wandering around HQ to track down where Barton, Romanova and Rogers were, spread out and bored as they were.

Rogers was in the same tiny gym that John had met and sparred with Romanova, and provided the reasoning behind the broken punching bags that John had seen last time, when he sent another one half flying, half collapsing to the floor. John had walked in mere moments before and was taking the time to watch the other man's training style, in a hope that it might help him later if he ever did lead this man into battle. It was always good to know your own men's strength and weaknesses. Apparently the super soldier serum hadn't been an exaggeration.

"I'm sure Stark could design some more resilient training equipment for you," John said by way of greeting once Rogers had picked up the punching bag and thrown it over to join the pile of already broken ones.

"Captain Watson," Rogers greeted, saluting much more casually than he had the day before.

"John, please."

"Steve, then."

John nodded his acceptance of the exchange and nodded at the pile of bags. "Pretty impressive display."

"It's the serum," Rogers replied, picking up one of the new punching bags and hanging it up. "I was a puny little thing before hand."

John waved that away in dismissal. "I was a puny little thing," he said. "The right training can make any man more than he thought he'd be as a kid."

Rogers half laughed, checking the wrappings on his fists, before starting up his barrage once more. "I grew over a foot during the experiment," he ground out between punches.

John settled himself onto one of the weight benches to watch. "That is a bit unusual, I grant you," he said with a teasing grin. "You were shorter than me."

The fact that John had been calling his puniness pre-serum unusual, rather than the serum itself, startled Rogers enough that he stopped punching and started laughing instead. "I've only known you a day, talked to you for maybe half an hour, yet you've already surprised me more than most people around here."

"I was under the impression that almost everything about the future would be a bit weird."

"People are people, no matter what century you're living in," Rogers remarked. "And the future is kind of disappointing. I was promised flying cars."

This time it was John's turn to laugh, feeling absurdly pleased that Rogers was adapting more to this century than anyone would have had him believe. S.H.I.E.L.D. was obviously walking on eggshells around Rogers still, and Pepper hadn't seen enough of Rogers to know anything more than to be able to call him a sweetheart. Which wasn't really pertinent information.

"Again, I'm sure Stark could help you out with that. He's an irritating little git, but I can't deny he's a genius."

Rogers shook his head and returned to his exercise. "Tony doesn't like me much," he muttered. "Besides, I'm stuck here whilst he's off travelling the world."

John ignored the first part of Rogers' comment, because he was almost certain that Stark did like the super soldier, and instead addressed the latter, which tied in nicely as to why he was here. "Actually, you're not stuck here."

Rogers stopped training again, swinging around to face him and scowling. "What do you mean?"

"I've just come out of a meeting with Fury -" which wasn't technically an outright lie "- and he's allowing me to move each of the Avengers in to your tower."

"Into Stark Tower?" Rogers repeated, looking a little dazed.

"Umhmm," John agreed, biting his lip to keep from laughing again. "Although it is officially Avengers Tower now. It's still owned by Stark Industries, but as the Avengers is a group that is a benefactor of both Stark Industries and S.H.I.E.L.D., once the Avengers become properly established as a separate entity to both corporations, Pepper said that the building would probably end up officially being owned by the Avengers' name."

"Officially?" Rogers asked doubtfully.

John shrugged. "I don't understand all of the legal jargon that Pepper told me last night, but from what I understand it will become the Avengers Tower, and will be powered and run by Stark Industries as part of their contract with you."

"We don't - have a contract with them… do we?"

"No idea," John answered cheerfully. "The point is that you can move out of this miserable dump and into rooms that you can redecorate to your heart's content. The gym over there is a lot better too," he added the last comment with a scathing glance at the gym they were currently in. "Interested?"

Rogers stood frozen for a long moment, as though he couldn't believe it, before he nodded once, firmly. "When?"

John stood up with a pleased smile. "As soon as you're packed. I need to find Agents Barton and Romanova first, too. I suggest we meet in the lobby at midday with your luggage." With that, he left Rogers standing where he was, still gaping a little bit, and went in search of the others. There was no way of knowing where either of them were, or whether they were even still in the building, and without any way to contact them John thought his best option was probably to work from bottom up.

He found Barton in the shooting range, scaring the life out of a cluster of very green looking agents. One of them was pinned to the wall by an array of arrows that hadn't so much as scratched his skin, but had him very firmly trapped in place. Which was impressive considering he was one of the many wandering around in the skin tight blue suits.

"Barton!" John barked as he entered, and tried not to start laughing when Barton 'accidentally' let loose the arrow he'd been aiming, and sending it widely above the heads of the quivering agents. John had no doubt that it would take a lot more than someone barging into a room yelling his name to get the infamous Hawkeye to misfire his weapon, but it was a very effective way of scaring the new recruits even more.

"Doc," Barton greeted with a crazy grin. "Just in time! I was training some of the newbies."

John eyed the 'newbies' for a moment, not a single one of them holding a bow and arrow, or a gun. There wasn't even a peashooter between the lot of them. "Yes," John replied dryly. "I'm sure you were." Moving to the guy who was stuck to the wall, he carefully plucked each of the arrows from their places, and signalled that he and the rest of the recruits leave. "I'm hardly a newbie," John told Barton as the last of them scurried out.

"Oh yeah? Is that a challenge?" Barton asked, moving a hand to the quiver that was strapped to his back.

John watched him with amusement. "I'm afraid a bow and arrow are a little out of my skill set, but I am a pretty good shot with a hand gun or a rifle. I'd love to compare our abilities sometime. For now, however, I suggest you pack your things and get ready to go."

"Go? Go where? I haven't heard anything about a mission," Barton asked, immediately switching to business now that his playtime was apparently over.

"No mission," John reassured. "Not as such. But the Avengers Tower is now mostly repaired, and is ready for everyone to move in. I figured you'd probably prefer the suite of rooms Stark has provided for you there, rather than whatever S.H.I.E.L.D. has to offer."

Barton grinned widely, and looked about three seconds away from whooping, but he just grabbed his arrows that John offered back, and raced out of the range to apparently gather his things together. John watched him go with a rueful shake of the head. Watching the Avengers really was going to be looking after a bunch of overgrown kids, wasn't it?

He allowed himself only a moment's introspection, before heading off once again, this time in search of Romanova.

John never did track Romanova down, but she was waiting in the lobby at midday, just like Rogers and Barton.


AN: Cap beating up punching bags, Clint terrorising new recruits and Tasha being exactly where she needs to be exactly when she needs to be. All par for the course really. Next chapter up Monday!