"Come on boys, the sooner you start your homework, the sooner it's finished, the sooner you can play," Harry explained to Lorcan and Lysander. The boys were hiding in their room, though Harry could easily spot Lorcan behind the curtains and Lysander under the bed.
"We're not here," Lysander said, his voice muffled from him speaking into the floor.
"Then how can I hear you?" Harry asked, folding her arms over her chest, her voice amused.
"We're ghosts. Oooooh," Lorcan said, waving his arms around. Harry rolled her eyes as she walked over to the curtains.
"I've met ghosts – I'm friends with ghosts –and so I have the authority to say that, no," Harry said, throwing the curtain off of Lorcan, "you are not ghosts."
Lorcan looked up at Harry with awe on his face.
"You've met ghosts?" Lysander asked, crawling out from under his bed.
"Oh yeah, loads of 'em," Harry replied, turning to look over at Lysander. "Once when I was twelve my friends and I went to one of their Deathday Parties –our ghost friend, Sir Nearly Headless Nick, was having his 500th Deathday celebration."
Harry smiled down at the twins as they gaped up at her in astonishment. Hopefully they were now too amazed to question her about why they should do their homework.
"Word from experience," Harry continued as she herded the boys from their room, "if you're ever invited to a Deathday party from a ghost-friend, make sure you eat before you go. Trust me, ghosts do not have good catering."
"What's catering?" Lysander asked, his eyebrows drawn in confusion.
"It's a fancy word for food at a party," Harry explained offhandedly as they entered the living room.
It was late September, and Harry had been the nanny for Lorcan and Lysander for over two months now. The living room was no longer drenched with blood; in fact it looked as though it had never been the sight of a murder and suicide, which was a very good thing.
"Now, get your homework and let's do it together," Harry said, clapping her hands and waiting for them to get to work. The boys groaned, though at five years old Harry couldn't see what they were complaining about. It's not like they had to write essays or anything – their homework was just simple math and practicing the alphabet.
"Come on, if we work together it will go by faster," Harry told them, which luckily was what they wanted to hear. They went to get their homework, and Harry went to get the three of them milk to drink.
As she was pouring the milk into three cups, Harry felt a tug in her abdomen, her only warning that someone had tripped her wards.
Harry, in her first week as a nanny, had set up wards around the house and in all the rooms in order to keep a better eye on the twins' safety. The ward that had been tripped was the one she set up outside to warn her of people standing around on the porch. It was there to primarily give her enough warning so she could answer the door before the twins could.
She finished pouring out the milk and, picking up two of the glasses, walked back into the living room where Lorcan and Lysander were sat at the coffee table, their homework out before them.
Harry frowned in concentration as she placed the cups of milk in front of the twins. Whoever was on the porch was obviously not a threat since they hadn't tripped any of her other wards, however they hadn't left, meaning they were just standing right outside the front door.
"You two stay here until I say it's okay to leave," Harry commanded, watching as the two boys looked at her with wide eyes while they nodded their heads in understanding.
She made her way over to the front door where she could hear voices arguing behind it in muffled tones.
Harry could hear four different voices arguing, one of which was very familiar to Harry. Her heart pounded in her chest as she crept silently to the door – what was he doing here?
She was about to open it, but the doorbell rang before she could even grasp the handle.
"Stark!" a muffled yell exclaimed, causing Harry to draw her eyebrows up in curiosity.
She swung the door open and was greeted with the sight of four people on the porch – four people who she recognized right away.
Dr. Bruce Banner was on the steps, as if he was trying to get the others to leave through example. Pepper Potts stood behind Tony Stark, an exasperated expression on her face, while Stark had a 'shit-eating grin' on his. They were opposite of Steve, who looked like he wanted to strangle Stark.
"Steve?" Harry asked, pleasantly surprised over what was taking place in front of her.
"What are you doing here?" she continued, eyeing each of the four individually. Banner and Potts looked apologetic, though Harry could see that they weren't that apologetic, Stark still looked smug, and Steve looked embarrassed.
"It's a long story."
Steve woke up in a hospital room with a pounding headache. The walls were white, the sheets were itchy, and the SHIELD logo was on just about every jar and machine he saw.
None of that was good for his headache.
"Ah, Captain, you're awake," Director Fury said on Steve's right, causing Steve to look over at the man. Steve was happy to note that Fury looked a lot better, his injuries were healing and his much more severe cuts were bandaged. Although Steve was happy to see the man healing, he was not all too pleased to see the man just yet.
"How long was I out for?" Steve asked, partly out of curiosity, partly as a joke.
"Only a couple of hours," Fury replied, walking closer to Steve's bedside. Steve nodded once before heaving himself into sitting position, wincing at the strike of pain that hit his left temple.
"What happened when I was out?" he asked getting straight to the point. He didn't want to be around Fury for any longer than necessary – Steve still wasn't sure what he felt towards the man just yet.
Fury looked at Steve as though he was judging what the best thing to say would be before giving a sigh.
"After you and Mr. Barnes passed out, we were able to round up all the HYDRA agents and detained them. We also were able to secure the Zodiac and were able to power-down the machine that was going to dispense the toxin over all of DC. All in all, we started to clean up the mess," Fury finished, saying the last bit offhandedly like Steve wasn't supposed to get the hidden meaning.
"How's Bucky?" Steve asked instead of quizzing what Fury meant by 'cleaning up.'
"He's still unconscious. The doctors don't think he'll be up for another couple of hours; preliminary brain scans show he isn't comatose, he has far too much brain activity going on for him to be so," Fury explained.
Steve's jaw clenched; he had a pretty good idea about what was happening with Bucky, and he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. Steve closed his eyes for a brief second and was greeted with flashes of Bucky's memories and a stabbing pain in his head. He opened his eyes to see Fury eyeing him with a critical gaze.
"And what about the Zodiac?" Steve asked, forcing himself to not think about the memories.
"We have contained it," Fury started to explain, walking around so he was at the foot of Steve's bed; they were further away now, however Fury had a much better view of Steve's face.
"Has anyone touched it?" Steve demanded, worry hidden in his tone. Thankfully, Fury shook his head minutely.
"No, Agents Romanoff and Wilson were very explicit in telling the other agents not to touch the Zodiac, even with gloves on. Fortunately we were able to procure tongs and a crate to store the Zodiac in."
"And where is the Zodiac now?" Steve inquired.
"It is safe and secure," Fury answered, causing Steve to scowl. That was not the answer he was looking for, though he knew that trying to get the answer out of Fury would be pointless at the present moment.
Silence fell between the two men as they stared at each other.
Steve knew that he and Fury had their differences, that they didn't always see eye-to-eye. Steve didn't like the way Fury ran SHIELD ('This isn't freedom, this is fear') and Steve knew that the only reason why he was given such respect from the man was because Steve was one of the reasons SHIELD was founded in the first place.
And while Steve really didn't trust Fury, he knew that Fury wanted the same thing as Steve did – to protect the innocent. And even though Steve wanted to be mad at Fury, to blame everything that had happened on him, Steve knew that Fury wasn't the one responsible.
If anything, this experience had taught him that Fury, even though he was the Director of SHIELD, wasn't always the one in charge. And Steve thought that maybe – just maybe – if Fury didn't need to appease so many politicians and Council members, then he would actually be a very trustworthy man who made decisions for the good of everyone – not just the people in power, but for the civilians as well.
In his training to be a SHIELD agent, Steve was told that he needed to 'Trust the System,' and at first he was willing to do so. However, after everything he had gone through he realized that he could no longer trust the system – he couldn't sit back and blindly follow every order given to him.
He couldn't trust the system, but he could trust people.
He could trust people to do the right thing.
Looking at Fury now, Steve realized that maybe he could trust Fury; after all, Steve wasn't the only one who had been negatively affected by this recent ordeal. Fury had been with SHIELD for far longer that Steve had, and knowing that his own organization could turn on him as easily as it had must have been a real blow to Fury. The fact that he was still in charge and standing tall without constantly looking over his shoulder was really impressive, and not something Steve would be able to do with such ease.
So Steve felt like he could trust Fury – he just couldn't trust SHIELD.
And that hurt.
"What happened when you touched the Zodiac?" Fury asked. His question had cut through Steve's thoughts and the silence with equal abruptness.
"Pain, mostly," Steve answered blandly. Fury snorted at Steve's answer, apparently finding humor in it. It was nice to see Fury look human.
"Can I speak freely?" Steve asked, falling back into his soldier behavior.
"Of course," Fury said, nodding his head in permission.
"Director Fury, I respect you, and I trust that all your decisions are made with the intention of protecting civilians from threats. However, I don't trust who you work for, meaning I can't trust you when you are making decisions based off of what your bosses want you to do with the information you have.
"I know it was you who thought up the Avengers Initiative, just like I know you gave the go ahead to experiment with the Tesseract and HYDRA weapons because you were told to do so by the Security Council. If I tell you what happened when I touched the Zodiac, I want to tell my experience to the former, not the latter man."
"I can't guarantee that anything you tell me will strictly stay between the two of us," Fury responded.
"I know, but you can at least try," Steve countered.
They stared at each other, a silent understanding flowing between them. Fury gave a subtle sigh before walking over and sitting himself down in a chair next to Steve's bed.
"So what happened when you touched the Zodiac?" he asked again, relaxing in the chair. Steve didn't answer at first – he tried to think of a way to explain what had happened without sounding crazy.
"Well, there was pain," he started, deciding it would be best to just recount what had happened as it had happened, "it felt like I was being electrocuted and burned at the same time. When the pain reached my head it felt like my eyes were burning. I closed my eyes from the pain and that's when the memories started to play."
"Memories?" Fury asked, eyebrows raised, his voice curious.
"Yeah, just flashes of memories. I couldn't focus on any one of them, the pain was too much and I was seeing more than I could comprehend," Steve explained, thinking back on the slew of images he had seen.
"How do you know they were memories?" Fury asked; he tried to sound indifferent but failed spectacularly at it.
"Well, I didn't at first. All I knew was that I was seeing images that I shouldn't have been seeing. It was only when Bucky tried to pry the Zodiac out of my hand that I knew they were memories."
Steve subconsciously reached up and placed a hand over where Bucky had grabbed his neck in the tussle for the Zodiac. Fury, to his credit, remained silent, waiting for Steve to finish his story before asking questions.
"When I heard Bucky scream out of pain, I immediately thought of him. When that happened it must have been like I had given the Zodiac something to focus on, because after that it just showed me Bucky's entire life, from the moment we met all the way through him becoming the Winter Soldier and up until the moment we met again.
"Once all his memories were shown, Bucky let go of the Zodiac and I followed suit," Steve finished. He omitted the part where he saw Harry's memories – he might trust Fury, but he didn't trust him that much.
"Did you learn anything in regard to who Mr. Barnes had worked for or what missions he was assigned?" Fury asked, his professional curiosity at work. Steve shook his head at Fury's question.
"The thing about touching the Zodiac was that the only time I knew what was going on was when Bucky's memories were mine as well. When a memory would play of him and me together, then it was like I was just watching my own memory, so I knew what was being said. However, if I wasn't present in a memory then I have no idea what was going on, because the only thing I was relying on was what was happening, not on what was being said.
"The whole thing – it was like this: at first, when it was all the flashes of memories, it was like someone was playing every movie ever made all at the same time on the same screen and was fast-forwarding all of them – it was just a bunch of images on top of the other and I couldn't comprehend anything that was going on. When I was looking at Bucky's memories, though, it was as if someone was fast-forwarding through a silent film – I didn't know what was happening in each scene, but I was able to discern the overall narrative."
Bucky's overall narrative was that he was forced into becoming an assassin; Harry's was that she is a witch.
Steve still doesn't know how to feel about either one of those facts.
"So I can't tell you anything because I'm not fully sure I know what's going on myself," Steve concluded, looking at Fury apologetically.
Fury nodded in understanding, his elbows set on the armrests of his chair, his hands intertwined.
"Do you think Mr. Barnes is reliving his memories while he sleeps?" he asked in contemplation.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he was. I still get flashes of images in my head every time I close my eyes; I don't think it's that far of a stretch to think that Bucky is reliving the memories he had forgotten."
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, each distracted by their own thoughts. Finally, Fury got up from his chair, back into his imposing stance as Director of SHIELD.
"Very well. Thank you Captain Rogers, I'll let you rest now," he said before making his way out of the room. Before he could leave, though, Steve called him back.
"Fury!" Steve said, causing the Director to turn back around to look at Steve. "I don't want anyone getting into contact with the Zodiac ever again. I don't care where you store it, or if you try to destroy it, under no circumstances do I want to find out that SHIELD is experimenting with the Zodiac like they had experimented with the Tesseract."
They looked at one another, Steve's expression serious, his tone commanding.
"I'll see what I can do," Fury replied. With that he turned and left Steve alone.
It wasn't a promise, but it was a start.
It had been three days since Bucky woke up – five since the Zodiac incident.
It had been three days of awkward interactions between Bucky and Steve and neither really knew what to do.
Steve couldn't recall why he thought that he and Bucky would immediately go back to being friends once he woke up. For one thing, Bucky had just gotten back all of his memories – even the ones that were purposefully erased – and so he wasn't in the right mindset to have a nice conversation with an old friend. For another thing, Steve had seen all of Bucky's memories, and even if he didn't know the context behind all the memories – outside of the ones he was present for – him knowing about them at all was a big betrayal of Bucky's trust.
As a result, every time they would be in the same room together, there was guaranteed silence. Which was why Steve was really glad Natasha was around.
Bucky trusted Natasha – they had once been lovers, after all – and while it stung that Bucky no longer trusted Steve, he was just glad that Bucky had someone he could talk to about all that had happened.
Especially since Natasha would not judge Bucky regarding what he did as the Winter Soldier.
However, Natasha being Bucky's confidante left Steve feeling useless; he wanted to help Bucky in any way he could, and the way Bucky wanted Steve to help was by being as far away as he possibly could be. It wasn't ideal, but after everything that had happened between them, Steve was willing to give Bucky his space if it meant he was healing.
So getting a text message from Natasha at four in the morning caused Steve to snap into action.
The message simply read "Bucky wants to talk," but it was all Steve needed to get a move-on.
He was at the SHIELD base where Bucky was being treated not even fifteen minutes later. He walked into Bucky's room without knocking, stalling when he saw that Natasha was the only other person in the room, her back to the door.
"I got your text," he said lamely, causing Natasha to turn around.
"Good," she said as she made her way past him and out the door, Steve following.
They walked together through the base and down into a secret garage that Steve didn't know was there. They walked past parked cars and motorcycles, stopping at the end of the row of vehicles where Bucky was packing a car with duffel bags.
Natasha walked over to Bucky, placing a hand on his shoulder and motioning towards Steve. Bucky stopped packing, allowing Natasha to continue, before he walked over to Steve. They stood in awkward silence, and Steve had to resist the urge to rock back-and-forth on his feet. He looked at Bucky, who looked healthier than he had when Steve had first seen him in this century.
The nice thing about Bucky having his memories back was that Steve could see Bucky's old self in the way he held himself – the bad thing about Bucky having his memories back was that he walked around as if he had a giant weight of guilt hanging off of him that refused to come off.
"Going on a trip?" Steve asked Bucky, trying to break the ice. Bucky turned back to look at the car, before looking back at Steve.
"Yeah, something like that," Bucky replied. It was still weird for Steve to hear Bucky sound like he remembered, but with a hint of a Russian accent thrown in.
Steve waited for Bucky to elaborate; however, the longer the silence dragged on, the more it looked like Bucky wouldn't continue talking. Steve noticed that Bucky had the same look on his face as the one time Bucky told Steve that he had gotten a date with the girl Steve had a major crush on when they were fifteen – it had been one of the few times Steve had been furious at Bucky.
Surprisingly, he was more upset at Bucky over that incident than he was over finding out that his best friend had been a Russian assassin for over fifty years. The former was purely Bucky's own fault, the latter he had no choice.
"Listen, Steve, I have something I want to say but I don't want you interrupting me with your…morals or anything like that," Bucky rushed out, pausing only to think of an accurate word to describe whatever Steve's objections would be.
Steve gave Bucky his best 'really?' face, but he nodded anyway to show Bucky that he understood.
"I've done, a lot of bad things in my life," Bucky started, and once he had started he couldn't stop. "I've killed, a lot of people – a lot of innocent people – and before you can interrupt and tell me that it wasn't my fault or anything like that, I have to say that, yes, it is my fault. It doesn't matter if I was coerced into doing it; it was still me pulling the trigger.
"And I have done so many things that I can never atone for, that I can never apologize enough for, or take back. And I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. I have all of these memories that are mine, and they're all awful – except for the ones when we were kids," Bucky amended, causing Steve to smile sadly.
"But the thing is, I have all of these memories of all the wrongs I have done, and they're all really bad – however, I've come to realize that I have a way that I can atone. It definitely won't be enough to wash away all that I have done, but it's a start.
"There are things I can do, things I know I can fix, but they all require me to leave – to head back to Russia."
Bucky paused, breathing deeply to calm himself.
"I'm going to Russia, and Natasha is coming with me. Hopefully we can clean up the mess I've made."
Bucky waited for Steve to respond, and Steve wanted to respond. He wanted to tell Bucky that it wasn't necessary, that everything he had done as the Winter Soldier wasn't his fault.
But the more that he thought about it, he realized that those words weren't the words that Bucky wanted to hear – they were what Steve wanted to hear. And Steve owed Bucky more than just empty words.
Steve nodded his head in understanding, looking at Bucky with a resolved look on his face.
"Do what you gotta do," Steve said at last, "whatever you need to do to – whatever you need to do."
Steve watched as Bucky relaxed right in front of him, as if Steve's permission took off a large weight. Steve knew that the 'whatever you need to do' would result in more blood on Bucky's hands, but hopefully this time around it would not be the blood of the innocent.
Bucky nodded his thanks, and just when he was about to turn back towards the car, Steve continued.
"And just know that I'll be here for you when you're done. Whether, after everything, you want to get back to being friends or if you never want to see me again – I'll be here for you. I'm marching on your command," Steve concluded, trying to play off his sincerity with a joke.
He could see the gratitude in Bucky's face, and Steve tried to ignore the wave of sadness that hit him.
He just got his friend back, only to lose him again – maybe this time, it would be forever.
They said nothing else as they shook each other's hands, and as Bucky walked over to the car, Natasha walked back over to Steve.
"Thank you for going with him," Steve told her sincerely.
"Yes, well, he isn't the only one with blood on his hands," she replied.
Steve nodded in understanding, knowing that Natasha still felt guilt over her actions before becoming a SHIELD agent.
"Take care of him," Steve said, the 'take care of yourself' implied in his tone.
"I always do," she assured him, her 'I will' unsaid.
She gave Steve her smirk that she normally had right before a mission – a smirk to show her excitement and anticipation of what was to come.
He watched as they drove off, feeling a wave of melancholy hit him. He stood in the garage for a while, alone. He tried not to think of anything, to not worry over his friends.
In the end, he decided to walk around the base.
And so he walked, meandering around corridors, trying to get lost in the maze that is a SHIELD base; he tried not to think about anyone – about Bucky, or Natasha, or Fury, or Harry.
He tried not to think about his thoughts on Fury and Harry, about whether he should demand information from Fury or let everything slide. He tried not to think about whether or not his friendship with Harry was genuine or not.
He tried not to think – which means all he could do was think.
He walked for hours, falling into circular reasoning in regard to whether Harry had used magic on him or not.
If she had, then he had been manipulated without knowing it, meaning that he couldn't trust her. But Steve didn't feel like she had used magic on him, but he might think that only because of magic.
In the end, Steve knew he needed to talk to Harry, but he didn't want to bring her up anywhere near Fury or SHIELD. Steve didn't need audio from the memories to know that Harry and Fury did not like each other – it was quite clear from their body language that they hated the other. Besides, Steve demanding answers from Fury about Harry would only make Fury question where he had gotten his information from; and Steve would like to not bring up the fact that he had also seen Harry's memories while in Fury's presence.
Was he angry at Fury that he had kidnapped Harry and sent her off to England? Yes, he was furious – he was angry that they thought she was a threat, and he was angry over the inconvenience he now faced over wanting to talk to Harry, but not having the means to do so.
But was he angry enough to barge in and demand answers? No, he wasn't – especially not if it would result in more trouble for Harry.
Steve just really wanted to talk to Harry before deciding how angry he was going to be with Fury. That was the best plan of action.
"Hey Spangles, you alright?"
Steve snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look at Tony Stark.
"What?" Steve asked, confused, surprised to see Stark at the SHIELD base.
"You've been staring at the wall for five minutes now," Stark explained, taking off his sunglasses to get a better look at Steve. "You know, filming you staring at a wall is only funny for the first four minutes. Once you hit the five-minute mark, though, it just becomes sad."
"Oh, right," Steve replied, "I was just – What are you doing here?"
Steve wanted to say he was thinking, but he really didn't want to discuss what he was thinking about with Stark. Not that Stark would take much interest in it.
If Stark noticed his change of subject, he didn't comment on it – though he did raise his eyebrows up in disbelief.
"Fury has a project he wants me to work on, and I've been so bored recently that I said I would take a look at it," Stark answered, shrugging his shoulders like it was no big deal.
"Right," Steve said as a way of saying something to keep the conversation going.
"What about you? I heard about what happened with you – what with HYDRA and your Terminator friend," Stark joked; Steve at least understood that reference.
"I uh," Steve began, trying to decide if he should be sincere or not. He looked at Stark, who wore dark colored jeans, a white wrinkled shirt, and a dark leather jacket; Stark looked a lot better than when they had first met. Steve couldn't explain why: maybe it was the fact that Stark looked more laid-back, less defensive; or maybe it was because Steve could no longer see the muffled blue glow of an arc-reactor coming out from Stark's chest.
"I'm not doing so great," Steve said at last, deciding to give Stark a chance and be honest.
"Life in the 21st century not your cup of tea, old man?" Stark asked, sarcasm rolling off of him in waves.
"No. I mean, I like it well enough, but I'm finding it hard to trust people," Steve confessed, his melancholy creeping into his voice. Steve was realizing that he couldn't trust a lot of the people he met, however, he could trust that Stark would always be a pain-in-the-ass.
Steve was startled to see the look of empathy on Stark's face, not expecting him to react in such a way. Although, if Steve thought about it, it wasn't that surprising at all.
"You know, if you're looking for trust, you should buy a dog," Stark said finally, waving his sunglasses around to emphasize his point.
"I don't think my landlord would approve," Steve replied, going along with the joke.
"You should find a different landlord, then," Stark said, slipping his sunglasses back over his eyes.
"Yeah, I really should," Steve agreed. He wanted to get away from SHIELD for a while, which meant that he wanted to get out of the apartment they had placed him in.
They descended into silence, each in their own thoughts, before Stark spoke up again.
"You know, after the Chitauri attack, Stark Tower was partially destroyed."
"Yeah, I know, it was such a shame," Steve cut in, sarcasm rolling off his tongue.
"I know, I know. You thought it was a great, big, ugly building," Stark said, and Steve could hear the eye-roll. "Anyway, I remodeled the tower – "
"Does it still look like a llama?" Steve asked, unable to help himself. Ever since he and Harry had watched 'The Emperor's New Groove,' Steve couldn't think about Stark Tower without thinking about how Harry had pointed out how much it looked like a llama head.
"I – what?" Tony asked, confused and slightly insulted. Steve shook his head, waving his hand as though he was waving the point away.
"Never mind," he apologized; Stark eyed him critically.
"Right, anyway, I've remodeled the tower and I've added to it. What I want to say is that I've made rooms for each of the Avengers, and the only one on our team who has even seen his room has been Bruce. Do you know how big of a blow it is to my self-esteem that no one has come to appreciate what I've done for them?" Stark asked, affronted.
Steve was astounded by what Stark was implying, just as he was astonished by what Stark had done for the rest of the team.
"Are you asking me to move in?" Steve asked, perplexed.
"Pftt, no. What do you think we are, married?" Stark snorted, "I just want you to come, check out your room, maybe stay awhile, you know, just for a break."
Steve was touched by his offer, even if Stark was trying to play it off like it was no big deal.
"Why? What's the catch?" he asked, partially because he was curious, partially to offer Stark a way out of the 'sincerity territory' he was heading into.
"No catch," Stark said, causing Steve to raise his eyebrows in disbelief. "Okay, I just want to win against someone in Scrabble. For some odd reason, Bruce and Pepper are really good at Scrabble and I have been in last place every time we play – it's getting annoying. So just, come over, check out your rooms, stay a while, and join the three of us in a game of Scrabble, because I swear to God if I end up in last place one more time I'm going to take the board and give it to Dummy to play with."
Steve's lips twitched at Stark's reason. It wasn't the reason why Stark was offering, but it was a reason all the same, and one Steve didn't mind hearing. He found that the thought of living with Stark and Banner wasn't as bad of an idea as he would have thought back when he had first interacted with the two.
"Okay," he said at last, causing Stark to smirk mischievously.
Steve had been living at Stark Tower – or Avengers Tower, as Stark was trying to get everyone else to call it – for over a week now. Overall it was a quiet and relaxing time. Steve had his own floor in the tower, which was big surprise when he first learned of it. He had thought that he would have been isolated by living on his own floor; however it soon became clear that having his own floor was probably for the best.
For one thing, JARVIS was programmed in every room of the Tower, so it wasn't like Steve ever felt truly alone. It became painfully clear through his interactions with JARVIS that Tony Stark was, indeed, JARVIS's creator. The computer program was just as smart and probably a lot more sassy than Stark was, which made every interaction between JARVIS and Stark fun to watch.
For another thing, despite the fact that Stark, Pepper, Banner, and Steve all had their own kitchens and living spaces, they all still ate and hung out in the communal kitchens and living room.
It was fun, having breakfast with Banner, or hanging-out with Pepper as she read through paperwork and Steve drew in his sketchbook, or watching Stark come out of his lab on a mission for coffee, mumbling under his breath about whatever it was he was working on.
And, true to his word, Steve sat down to play Scrabble with the others on his second night at the Tower. Tony wasn't kidding when he said Pepper and Banner excelled at Scrabble – by the end of the game they were both at least a hundred points ahead of both Steve and Tony. Steve wound up in last place, much to Stark's delight.
Living at the Tower was oddly comforting to Steve, and after a week he felt so at home that he had accidentally left his sketchbook in the kitchen. Knowing about how curious the three could be, Steve wasn't all too surprised when he walked in on Stark, Pepper, and Banner looking through it.
"What are you doing?" Steve asked, cutting off their conversation, his face expecting an answer. He was happy to see that at least Pepper and Banner looked embarrassed by their actions, though he saw Stark pick up the book to bring it closer to his face.
"Nothing," Pepper replied guiltily.
"Eating breakfast," Banner added on, picking up his fork and turning to look down at his plate.
"Who's the chick?" Stark asked, still staring at Steve's sketch.
"Tony!" Pepper admonished, while Banner sighed at his plate. Stark ignored her and instead turned the book around to show Steve his own drawing.
It was of Harry, at around the age of fifteen. The picture showed her face in profile, body pointed towards the viewer – she looked as though she was sword fighting against an opponent off the page, except instead of a sword, she had her wand in her right hand, her left hand pulled back as if ready to fling additional spells.
He knew she could do it, had seen her do it several times in her memories.
All the while her face was set in determination, a fierceness about it that Steve had never seen in person.
"Oh, that's Harry," Steve said, walking over to get himself a cup of coffee.
"Hear that guys? It's Harry," Tony commented under his breath, causing Pepper to roll her eyes and Banner to smile in humor.
"So who's Harry?" Tony asked, leaning against the counter next to where Steve was pouring out his drink. Pepper, bless her, yanked Steve's sketchbook out of Stark's hands and placed it on the table next to Banner.
"Harry's my," Steve began, stopping when he realized he didn't know what she was. His instinct was to say friend, however he still wasn't sure if she had magically manipulated him into being his friend or not, or if they were still friends after the eight whole months of not speaking to each other. It was confusing.
"Girlfriend?" Stark prompted, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, causing Steve to roll his eyes.
"No, she is not my girlfriend," Steve refuted – that much, at least, he was certain of.
"So is she imaginary then?" Stark asked, still curious.
"No, she's very real," Steve replied, stirring in milk to his coffee.
"Is there something you want to tell us?" Tony asked, reaching over and taking Steve's cup of coffee before Steve could even pick it up for a taste. "Like are you a stalker or pedophile or something else unsavory?"
Steve gave Stark a look of pure loathing, which intensified when Stark took a sip of his coffee only to spit it back out into the cup.
"Why did you put milk in this?" he asked, horrified, causing Steve to roll his eyes as he yanked his cup out of Stark's hands, pouring out the coffee in the sink before starting all over again.
"Harry and I are friends," Steve affirmed at last, his anger at Stark making him sound more certain than he really was, "however we haven't talked to each other since December because SHIELD thought she was a threat because she was getting close to me, and if I had learned about that before I had touched the Zodiac I would have been pissed, however I learned of it after the Zodiac incident and now I can't really blame SHIELD for their actions because Harry is a witch which complicates our friendship a bit."
Steve finished his rant with a sip from his freshly made coffee, looking at the faces of Stark, Banner, and Pepper. He smiled in amusement when he was met with three, wide-eyed, confused faces.
"I'm out," Banner said finally, throwing his hands up in the air in defeat.
"I'm late for work," Pepper said as well, walking over to Stark to kiss him goodbye.
"Wait, hold on. Stay here for a second you two," Stark said, pointing to Banner and Pepper. "What do you mean, she's a witch?"
Stark was confused and intrigued both at the same time, and Steve could see that both Pepper and Banner were interested in his answer just as much as Stark was.
"She's a witch. She has magic," Steve confessed. He felt lighter by saying it, as if keeping that piece of knowledge had been weighing him down.
"Like Loki magic?" Stark asked, eyes narrowed.
"No. More like magical wand waving, cauldron stirring, broomstick-riding witch," Steve replied, finding enjoyment out of watching the flabbergasted looks on the three's faces. Steve watched as Banner looked like he wanted to ask a question, but thought better of it at the last minute.
"Are you serious?" Pepper asked, unsure if she thought Steve was crazy or not. Steve nodded his head in answer.
"Well, that at least explains the other drawings," Banner said at last, referring to the other sketches Steve did from Harry's memories.
"What's her name?" Stark asked, gears turning in his head as a plan formed.
"Harriet, but she likes going by Harry," Steve answered. He wasn't entirely sure about her last name – she said it was Peverell but there were several occasions when he saw her in memories writing out her name as Potter.
"What about her last name?" Stark pressed.
"Peverell," Steve answered, deciding to go along with what Harry said rather than what he saw. After all, if Stark was planning on looking her up, he would be more likely to find her under the name 'Peverell' than 'Potter.'
Stark nodded his head before walking over to take back the sketchbook and fleeing from the kitchen. Steve, Banner, and Pepper were left in the room, looking at each other in confusion.
"I need to get to work."
"I'll go see what he's doing."
Pepper and Banner left the kitchen, trying to act like they didn't have a thousand questions they wanted to ask Steve about Harry.
Steve was left alone, drinking his coffee and wondering why he put milk in it when he hadn't first checked the expiration date.
Two days had passed since the sketchbook incident, and Steve was working out in his own private gym when he was interrupted by Stark.
"Didn't realize you had to work out; I thought you were just always like this," Stark snarked as he walked up to Steve.
"Well, I can't draw, so I have to do something to pass the time," Steve replied, giving Stark a glare. Stark still hadn't returned the sketchbook back to Steve.
"Yeah, about that, I think I found something that you would find interesting," Stark said, rocking on his feet like a child giddy to show off.
Steve looked at Stark, intrigued, who just nodded at Steve to follow along.
Stark led Steve to his personal lab, a place Steve had yet been allowed anywhere near. Stark held the door open for Steve, who walked into a very cluttered working space.
There were metal bits and pieces everywhere, Stark's helper-robots working on their individual tasks poorly. In the center of all the mess was what appeared to be the project Stark was working on: a giant metal body was being assembled.
"Are you building a new suit?" Steve asked, looking at the metal body with interest. He noticed what appeared to be the metal head on a table next to the body. The head was domed, a black screen curving around it, almost as if it was supposed to be a face.
"Oh, that thing? No, not a suit. I told you, I'm done with being Ironman," Stark said, walking over to a wall of computer monitors.
"Is that the reason why Sir has built another two suits since he first assured Mr. Rogers that he was done with being Ironman?" JARVIS piped in. Steve smiled as Stark scowled.
"No one asked you, JARVIS," Stark pouted, though Steve could see the affection Stark had for JARVIS.
"Apologies, Sir, I didn't realize that was meant to be a secret. You are normally much more open about your work."
It was a mark of how long Stark and JARVIS had been working together that they could banter in such a natural way. Steve was amazed by how at ease Stark was with JARVIS, and how human JARVIS seemed to be – Steve still had difficulties talking with the AI unit.
"JARVIS, bring up Project Witch, will you?" Stark asked, instead of making another crack at JARVIS.
"Of course Sir," the AI replied. Steve watched as the monitors came to life, displaying information at a fast rate, most of which was incomprehensible for Steve.
"That's the project Fury wanted me to work on," Stark told Steve once he was satisfied JARVIS was doing his job.
"Pardon?" Steve asked, confused. Stark pointed to the metal boy he was building, causing Steve to understand.
"Fury doesn't trust human guards for certain objects," Stark began, not needing to elaborate that the 'certain objects' included the Zodiac, "so he asked me to develop a more, artificial, guard."
"So you're building a robot guard?" Steve asked.
"So I'm building a robot guard," Stark affirmed, turning back to the screens.
Steve didn't understand why a wave of unease hit him at learning of Stark's project; though the image of Harry fighting off the horde of metal men in his head might have had something to do with it.
"Here we are. JARVIS, open up File F-U," Stark commanded, nudging at Steve to look at the screen as well.
"So, after finding out about your witch friend, I decided to do some research –"
"Even though you could have just asked me," Steve said, cutting off Stark's speech. He waved his hand at Steve's interruption.
"Anyway, did some research – "
"You hacked into SHIELD – "
"I might have hacked into SHIELD – "
"You hacked into SHIELD – "
"For someone who doesn't trust SHIELD, you would think that you would feel pleased over the fact that their security system is so easy to hack – "
"That's not a thought I take comfort from –"
"Anyway," Stark said, cutting off the back and forth, "I looked around for your witch, found this file instead, thought it was funny that SHIELD would have a classified file entitled 'F-U,' so I looked at it. Guess whose file it was?"
"I'm guessing its Harry's," Steve answered.
"Yep," Stark agreed, motioning towards the monitors where every inch of the screen was filled with different video feeds of Harry, standing in public places, and flipping off the camera. There must have been over a hundred different recorded videos of Harry just standing and flipping off cameras.
Steve smiled, though it wasn't nearly as big of a smile as Stark had on his face.
"Your friend has spunk, I'll give her that," Stark commented, his eyes roving over each feed, respect on his face.
Steve couldn't help but agree.
"So next weekend you'll be here all alone," Stark said, drawing Steve's attention away from his meal.
"Why's that?" he asked, eyeing Stark critically.
"Well, Bruce is going to be giving a speech at some university in England, and Pepper and I have a board meeting in London, so we'll be there for the weekend," Stark explained trying to act like it was no big deal.
"That sounds like fun. Hope you all have a safe trip," Steve said, going back to his meal.
"Yeah, it does sound like fun. Would be even more fun to get a tour of the city from someone who really knows the place," Stark said, his true meaning being heavily hinted. Steve looked at Stark with a glare.
"Don't," he warned.
"Don't what?" Stark asked, his voice sounding hurt even though he wasn't.
"You are not going to meet Harry," Steve said in a commanding tone.
"Okay, but do you want to see her?" Stark asked, expectantly waiting for a response.
They knew where Harry lived – her file from SHIELD had told them as much – so Steve could go and see her if he wanted to; however it seemed rude to go and meet her with no warning.
"I do," he started, really wanting to continue on with his 'but,' only for Stark to cut him off.
"Great! We leave at 8 on Friday."
And with that, Stark left the room, causing Steve to bang his head down on the table.
"You know, when you offered to bring me to London to see Harry, I had assumed that I would be seeing her alone," Steve told the others as they walked down the street.
"Well, you know what they say about assuming things," Stark replied, causing Steve to roll his eyes.
"Really sorry about this Steve," Pepper said, "I didn't realize Tony was planning this."
Steve smiled at Pepper, hearing the sincerity in her voice.
"I did," Banner stated, placing his hands in his pockets.
"Thanks Bruce," Steve and Stark said at the same time, but for two very different reasons. Bruce shrugged his shoulders, not phased by their reactions.
"Ah, there's the house," Stark spoke up, quickly walking away from the group and up the steps. Steve rolled his eyes before following after.
"Stark, don't," Steve commanded as he saw Stark about to knock on the door.
"Why not? We're all here," Stark said, as if it makes sense to knock on someone's door without warning the people inside of their imminent arrival.
"Tony, don't," Pepper piped up, walking up to Stark and laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Well, one thing, you three shouldn't be here," Steve said, starting to answer Stark's questions, looking pointedly at Stark, Pepper, and Bruce.
"Why not? We all have our own questions we want Harry to answer," Stark said, not backing down.
"Tony this isn't the proper time for you to get your questions answered," Pepper told him, her voice showing her disappointment in his actions.
"Really Tony, we can get them answered another time," Bruce said from the stairs; he looked like he wanted to leave, with or without them.
"I know," Stark said, much to Steve's chagrin, "but we're here anyway and aren't you curious for the sake of science?"
"Stark she isn't some science experiment," Steve warned, his ire building at Stark's plan.
"Which you would know all about, Captain," Stark responded callously. The fact that Steve and the other's didn't react to Stark's barb was due to the fact that it wasn't the first time he had used the same insult when talking to Steve – if anything the three rolled their eyes at Stark's comeback, too used to his behavior by now.
"Tony, he's right," Bruce said, taking a step away from the door, "come on, let's go."
"Just one question," Stark said, turning back towards the door.
"Tony, I swear to God, if we don't leave within the next minute you're sleeping on the couch for the rest of the year," Pepper said, her CEO voice coming out.
"Why are you so against us being here?" Stark asked Steve mockingly. Steve had to resist the urge to punch Stark right in the face.
"Oh, I don't know," Steve responded, sarcastically, "maybe it's because I haven't talked to Harry since December – you know, when you were dealing with AIM and all of that, that's the last time we talked. And maybe I just wanted our first conversation since then to be between the two of us, especially seeing as how I'm mainly going to be asking why she didn't feel like she could trust me enough to tell me the truth about her life.
"So yeah, I'm just a bit against you being here," he concluded, glaring at Stark. Pepper and Bruce waited with baited breath as Stark pondered what Steve had said.
"All of that is valid, I'll give you that," Stark said, nodding his head in agreement, causing the other three to look at him with odd expressions on their faces.
"But all I have to ask is: what were you going to do about the children?" he asked, looking at Steve with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Before Steve could stop him, Stark rang the doorbell.
"Stark!" Steve admonished, hearing the bell ringing inside the house. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose while Pepper looked furious at Stark, who looked as if he had done nothing wrong.
The door opened immediately, and the four watched as Harry was revealed, her face showing her surprise at their presence. Steve realized that she must have been standing behind the door, as if she knew they were there.
"Steve?" Harry asked, her tone a mixture of happy, confused, and surprised at Steve's arrival.
"What are you doing here?" she continued, eyeing each of them in suspicion. Steve suddenly felt embarrassed, not sure of why he thought that seeing her again was a good idea.
"It's a long story."
Author's Note:
So the contest is still open. I do have to say I really enjoyed reading your guesses for the wand woods, and there were several times when I read a guess that was so close but would assign the right wand to the wrong person and I would just sit in anguish because you were so close.
Therefore, here's the deal: next chapter I plan to reveal the wands in-story, so you have one more chance to guess for a win. Just for clarification, Harry has two different wand woods for her bracelets HOWEVER, since I didn't specify that she had two in the previous chapter all you need to do is guess one wood correctly (big hint for Harry: think canon).
So again, the challenge is to guess the wand woods for Steve, Bruce, and Harry gets a prize - the prize being a one-shot of whatever you want to read in regard to the story universe (so if you're curious about Harry's school life, or want to read about Harry and Steve watching a movie, or something else, now is your chance). And if no one gets a 100% correct guess, I will choose those I feel were the closest and offer up the prize to them.
Once again, thank you so much for all the positive reviews! Have a great week!