Chapter Fourteen
Steve woke up to a whimpering noise later in the evening, disrupting the light sleep he had fallen into during the slumber party.
"Tabby?" He murmured, shifting his sleepy gaze to the other end of the couch, where the S.H.I.E.L.D. prisoner was sleeping.
The rest of the members of the party, aside from Bruce who had long since disappeared, were sprawled all over the media room, sleeping off the large amounts of mead they had consumed throughout the evening.
Tabby whimpered once more, shifting slightly in her sleep.
Steve sat up, focusing on Tabby, whose eyebrows were furrowed.
He knew that she had bad nightmares; everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. did. She had been having them for weeks, which only seemed to bother Steve and Bruce. Everyone else seemed to think that it was fairly normal for someone with a past like Tabby's to have consistent nightmares.
"Hey, Tabby, it's okay." Steve whispered, patting Tabby's head awkwardly.
"Mmm, Steve?" She muttered, her eyes cracking open in confusion.
Steve smiled slightly.
"You were having a nightmare." He explained quietly.
"Oh." Tabby responded, nodding her head sleepily.
"Are you okay?"
"Mhmm," Tabby murmured, shifting so that her head was resting in Steve's lap while her arms wrapped around Steve's nearby arm.
Steve stared down at her curiously.
He had dealt with her nightmares while he had Tabby-duty before, but this was different. This was at a slumber party. He was sleeping with her. Well, not by Tony Stark's definition, of course, but still, he was sleeping in a room with a woman that he found incredibly attractive.
His grandmother was probably tossing in her grave.
Bucky, on the other hand, would have been very proud.
"Hey, Tabby?" Steve whispered, his eyebrows furrowing as he stared down at her.
"Hmmm?"
"Do you think you'd maybe want to get some fondue sometime?"
"Ummmm yeah, okay, sure." Tabby responded sleepily.
"Great. I might have to check with Director Fury about going somewhere, but I don't think it would be too…"
Steve was interrupted by the sound of Tabby's light snoring, causing the super soldier to chuckle under his breath.
"Fondue it is."
"Umm, what time is it?" Jane questioned as everyone in the media room began to wake up.
"I don't know, but I'm going to have to talk to someone about the couches in here. They are so fucking uncomfortable. Is anyone else's back killing them?" Tony questioned, stretching out with a large frown.
"I think you might just be old." Tabby teased, sliding away from Steve on the couch with a smile.
"Careful there, Tabby cat. You might be my new drinking buddy, but I can still put on the suit and wreck you."
Tabby rolled her eyes, still smiling.
"You know, I'm not really that scared of you, old-timer."
Pepper laughed as Tony scowled.
"I don't think you should be putting my shit on blast when Rodgers is sitting right there. He's the oldest person in the building. Hell, maybe he's the oldest person in New York at this point." Tony objected, gesturing towards Steve.
Steve shook his head, not wanting to get involved in any arguments Tony was starting.
"My back is fine. I still have the body of a twenty-five year old, Stark."
Tony's scowl grew more intense.
"I can't wait until we do training combat again. I'll have your ass for that one."
An amused grin crossed Steve's face.
"Oh you will, will you? Go ahead. I'm not afraid of you."
"Remember, this isn't a video game anymore. It'll really hurt when I come for you."
Steve laughed.
"You're all talk, Stark."
"Is that a challenge?"
"If it was, would you accept it?"
"Bring it on, Cap." Tony responded with a grin,
Steve launched himself at Tony, sending the two men crashing onto the floor.
Natasha, Pepper and Tabby rolled their eyes at the men rolling around on the media room floor while Thor and Barton watched the fight with a great deal of interest.
"Aw, fuck! My back! My back, Rodgers, my back! Barton, tap me out here, man!" Tony howled, managing to shove Steve off of him long enough to slap Barton's arm.
Steve laughed, pulling Barton into a headlock as soon as he entered the fight.
"I wish to join this brawl. Jane, please guard Mjolnir." Thor boomed, flashing a smile at Jane before dropping onto the floor and ripping Steve off of Barton.
"They're going to end up breaking something, aren't they?" Tabby asked, stepping back from the pile of men to avoid getting sucked into the fight.
"I'd be surprised if the media room is intact once they're done." Natasha replied with a small smile.
"Why don't we go get breakfast while the boys kill each other? I think I saw an agent walking down the hall with a bear claw when I went to the bathroom earlier." Pepper suggested, glancing towards the door with a sly grin.
"That sounds like a perfect plan." Darcy agreed, stepping towards the door.
"Wait, don't you guys have to lock me up in my room or something? Mean eye patch guy might think that I'm trying to kill everyone if you don't." Tabby reminded them as they all exited the media room.
Pepper, Jane and Darcy looked at Natasha curiously, waiting for her judgment on the situation.
Natasha waved Tabby's concern off, much to everyone's surprise.
"Nah, you're fine. You're with me. No one will say anything." She responded.
"Wow, Natasha, that's really nice of you. I'm surprised that you're being so cool about this." Tabby commented, following the women down the hallway towards the cafeteria.
Natasha shrugged.
"If you make a wrong move, I'll just kill you."
Tabby laughed.
"That sounds more like you."
"So, who do you guys think is going to win the fight in the media room? Obviously I don't really care, since I don't have a stake in the outcome of the fight, but we could always bet on it." Darcy said as they entered the cafeteria.
"Well, I know Tony isn't winning, so I'd probably bet on Steve." Pepper replied.
"I don't know, it looked like Thor was tossing him around when we left." Jane objected.
"Have you ever fought with Steve? He never gives up. Even if he's getting the shit beat out of him, he'll just stand up and ask for more. Honestly, I'm beginning to think something is really wrong with him." Natasha argued, snatching an apple off a nearby agent's plate as she walked by.
"And speaking of Steve not giving up, Barton told me that he was talking about fondue with you last night." Natasha commented.
All of the women turned to look at Tabby curiously.
"Steve asked you on a date? And here I thought you were going to go for Dr. Banner for sure." Darcy said, staring at Tabby expectantly.
"What are you talking about? I never talked to Steve about fondue." Tabby argued, her eyebrows furrowing as they found a table to sit down at.
Natasha shrugged.
"Clint doesn't lie to me. He said he overheard Steve asking you if you wanted to get fondue. You apparently said yes."
"Did he say when? Maybe I drank too much last night." Tabby muttered, racking her brain to remember every conversation she had had with Steve the night before.
She couldn't just pretend that she remembered having the conversation that Natasha was telling her about, because what Natasha was talking about sounded dangerously like a date. Tabby knew for a fact that she wouldn't agree to a date with Steve when she had kissed Bruce that night.
Oh, shit. She had almost forgotten about Bruce.
She had been pretty buzzed off of the mead Thor had supplied when she kissed the scientist. She hadn't really thought through the whole thing; he had been there, she had had an excuse, and he had been looking hot that night. She hadn't really worried about what the other Avengers would say, what kind of trouble she would end up getting Bruce into, or if she was really ready to move on from Loki. After all, Bruce wasn't the kind of guy you had a rebound relationship with. He was the kind of guy you dated for the long haul.
"Yeah, he said it was in the middle of the night, when everyone else was asleep." Natasha answered.
"What? I didn't talk to Steve in the middle of the night. I was sleeping off the mead." Tabby argued.
"Maybe you talk in your sleep. You already have those insane nightmares. You know, Bruce and Steve totally stalk your room at night because those nightmares give them an excuse to hold you without having Fury chew their asses out." Darcy informed Tabby, laughing.
Tabby rolled her eyes, trying not to read too much into Darcy's statement.
"Maybe I did, but if I talked in my sleep, I need to sort all of this out with Steve. I don't want to give him the wrong idea."
"I think you might be a little late for that. You slept on the same couch as him last night. I'm surprised he hasn't proposed to you yet." Pepper teased.
"I don't think they're wrong, Tabby. You should go on the date with Steve. It might do him some good to get acclimated with the twenty-first century." Natasha commented, taking a large bite out of the apple that she was holding.
"Let me get this straight, you're encouraging me to date one of your teammates?" Tabby asked, unable to believe that Natasha would willingly surrender the attention of one of the Avenger boys willingly.
Natasha shrugged, focusing on the apple as she spoke.
"He's been a lot easier to deal with since you've showed up. All of the boys have been, even Dr. Banner. I think you're good for them. I think you're especially good for Steve."
"I think she's right, you know. Before you showed up, Tony and Steve were always at each other's throats. Now they're still fighting, but Tony hasn't talked about how to actually kill him in a while." Pepper agreed with a small smile.
"I hate being wrong about you and Dr. Banner, but you were flirting with Steve all night long last night. Why don't you just go on the date with him? You owe it to him and you owe it to yourself. Obviously you like him and if you cancelled the date, I think you'd kill the guy." Darcy chimed in.
Tabby shook her head, brushing a strand of hair out of her face as she avoided eye contact with all of the women.
"Steve is the nicest, he is, and I know that I would be totally lucky to have someone like him, but I don't think I could possibly go on a date with him. I just wouldn't feel right about it."
"Why not?" Darcy persisted in exasperation.
Tabby shrugged, frowning down at the table.
"I think it might be an actual crime to lead on Captain America."
"I can't believe you dipshits broke the TV. Fury is going to kill you." Tony chuckled as he and the rest of the male Avengers sat around the media room, recovering from their spontaneous brawl that had reduced the media room to shambles.
Barton chuckled, throwing a piece of glass in Tony's direction.
"You started this, remember? If Fury is killing anyone, I'm going to make sure it's you." The assassin responded, grinning at Steve, who nodded with an amused grin.
"You guys are up the creek without a paddle here. I'll just get Bruce to tell Fury that I was helping him out with science shit while you idiots were fighting." Tony said, smirking at all of the men.
"You dare lie to your authorities?" Thor demanded.
Steve rolled his eyes.
"I'm sure Tony has done a lot worse to a lot more important people. Come on. Let's get this place at least a little bit cleaned up. I don't want Director Fury too upset with me." He said, standing up and brushing himself off.
"Oh, yeah, you have to talk to him about taking Tabby out on a date, don't you?" Barton teased, smirking at Steve.
Steve stared back at Barton as Tony and Thor looked at him curiously.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The soldier muttered, flipping the overturned coffee table over in an attempt to avoid meeting Tony and Thor's stares.
"Do not get too close to my brother's companion. He may be in another realm, but she is his companion." Thor reminded Steve, standing up slowly.
"I don't know how many times I'm going to have to remind you, Shakespeare: your brother broke up with her. She's fair game." Tony reminded the demigod, rolling his eyes.
"Something that Rodgers is taking full advantage of." Barton snickered.
"Hey, show some respect." Steve growled, returning an armchair to its original state with an unnecessary amount of force.
Barton shrugged with an amused grin.
"I'm just saying. I heard what I heard. Tabby had one of her weird nightmares, and since Banner wasn't around, you got to handle it all by yourself. Then you decided to swoop in with the whole 'well, hey, maybe we can get fondue because I'm really cultured and refined'. It was pretty impressive." He chuckled, ignoring the dark look he was getting from the super soldier.
Tony coughed loudly, drawing the attention away from Steve.
"I'm sorry, did you just say fondue?" He demanded, working to regain his composure.
"Yeah, is that a problem?" Barton asked, staring Tony down curiously.
"I do not understand what this 'fondue' is, either." Thor admitted, sitting down on the couch, which had been broken in half sometime during the brawl that had occurred earlier.
Tony glowered back at Thor.
"I know exactly what it is. Rodgers, where did you hear about fondue?"
Steve stared back at Tony evenly.
"I was a soldier during World War II. You taste a lot of things when you're traveling the world." He responded coolly.
Barton sat down on the other side of the broken couch, watching the emerging conflict with a great deal of interest.
"Oh, so you were traveling through Europe killing a shitload of men, but you always stopped for some cheese and bread?" Tony snarled.
"I don't see what difference it makes to you." Steve replied, folding his arms across his chest.
"Oh, I'm going to…" Tony began; his posture stiffening as he slapped on the wrist bands that would call the iron man suit to attention at a moment's notice.
"Whoa, let's just hold on for a minute. Tony, Steve just wants to take Tabby out for some food. What's the big deal?" Barton inquired, jumping up to stand between Steve and Tony, who were glaring at each other, silently daring one another to make the first offensive move.
"I'll tell you what the big deal is. I grew up hearing a man extend invitations to fondue. Those invitations had a funny way of culminating into something a lot more serious than cheese and bread, so I'm going to ask you one more time, Rodgers: where did you hear about fondue?" Tony demanded, his eyebrows lowering as he directed his hate-filled eyes at Steve.
"Howard Stark." Steve responded with an equally menacing glare.
"Oh, shit." Barton murmured, glancing in between the two men quickly.
Thor joined Barton in the middle of the two men as Tony launched himself at Steve, both of the men yelling incoherent arguments at each other throughout the process.
The door to the media room opened, revealing a very confused Bruce Banner on the other side.
"Guys, what the hell?" He shouted over the loud argument, surveying the scene warily.
"Oh, hey, Bruce, great. Think you could take Tony to the lab? We, uh, we all have some things that need to get worked out." Barton panted, struggling to keep Tony away from Steve.
Bruce nodded slowly.
"Yeah, sure. Tony, buddy, we need to get to the lab now. You can play with Cap later." He said, striding over to the struggling Tony and placing a hand on his shoulder.
Tony glared back at Bruce.
"Now is really not the time, Banner." He growled.
"It never is." Bruce sighed, tugging on Tony's shoulder lightly.
Tony spared Steve one more glare before turning to face his friend.
"On a scale from one to ten, how ready are you to turn into the big guy and kick Rodgers' ass?"
"I'd say the chances of that are in the negatives."
"And you're sure about that?"
Bruce shrugged.
"I'd say so. Now let's get to the lab. We need to look at some of the test results, and you should probably get yourself cleaned up. Is that your blood on your neck?"
"Huh? Oh," Tony murmured, wiping the smeared blood on his neck, then glancing down at his hand in surprise, "no, I think that's Barton's. You missed a few things."
"That's probably for the best. This way. You can tell me all about your night in the lab. Take it easy, guys." Bruce responded, nodding towards the rest of the male Avengers before guiding Tony out of the media room and towards the lab.
"Okay Tony, what happened this time?" Bruce sighed as they walked down the hallway, throwing an exasperated glance at a sullen Tony.
"Steve decided to invite Tabby to fondue." Tony replied, looking at Bruce expectantly.
Bruce raised his eyebrows.
"How dare he…?" He responded hesitantly, unsure of why Tony was so outraged.
Tony let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head.
"You don't get it, Banner. He learned about fondue from my father."
"Your father?" Bruce echoed as they walked into the lab.
Tony nodded, snatching a bottle of scotch out of a nearby cabinet and pouring himself a drink.
"The one and only. Let me tell you something about my old man; I learned everything I know about women from him, and as Pepper has kindly told me, all I know about women is how to get them into bed, and how to blame them when everything goes to hell. Apparently Rodgers also took a few notes on women from my dad."
"So, Steve learned to take women out for fondue from your father?" Bruce questioned.
Tony shook his head.
"Fondue was just a guise for dad. He used to tell me, "Nothing breaks down a woman's walls like a pot of warm cheese". It gives her an excuse to say she's never done anything like it before, which opens up the conversation to other things she's never done before. Then, sometime during the date she'll spill something, probably fish for a compliment and after that it's a done deal."
"A done deal? You mean, it was that simple for your father to just…?"
Tony rolled his eyes.
"Women aren't that complicated if you're not afraid of them."
"I'm not afraid of them." Bruce objected.
"Right, I forgot, you're just opting out of the whole relationship experience because of the Hulk. I'm surprised you're so calm, actually. It doesn't bother you that Rodgers is planning on going the fondue route with our little Tabby cat?" Tony inquired, setting down his scotch long enough to focus on a computer monitor, scanning the test results quickly.
"Steve is entitled to invite Tabby to fondue, and Tabby is entitled to accept or decline, depending on what she wants." Bruce replied automatically.
"You aren't even a little bit worried about America's wonderboy stepping up to the plate?" Tony demanded cynically.
"You know that we're talking about Steve, right? I'm sure he's harmless." Bruce replied, chewing on the cap of his pen as he examined the test results.
Tony scowled.
"You don't care enough."
Bruce chuckled.
"You care too much. Why are you so offended about this, anyway?"
"I just don't think Tabby is the kind of girl you fondue with." Tony muttered, shrugging.
Bruce rolled his eyes as he continued to analyze the test results, not too worried about Tony's comments. Steve might have invited Tabby to fondue, but there was no pressing danger as far as the scientist knew. Steve had only had a single girlfriend in his entire lifetime and the relationship hadn't lasted more than a few months. The chances were better than not that he had no idea what to do beyond inviting Tabby on the date. Even if Steve did know what he was doing, Tabby had opted to kiss Bruce the previous night instead. As far as he knew, Tabby wasn't even remotely interested in Steve.
At least, he hoped she wasn't.
Tabby chewed her upper lip as she sat in her room, trying to come up with a nice way of rejecting Steve before it was his turn for Tabby-duty.
If she simply told him that she had been half-asleep when she had accepted his offer for a date, he would just offer again.
She would have to figure out a way to get him to understand that she wasn't interested without hurting his feelings.
There was a knock on the door, sending a wave of panic shooting through Tabby's stomach.
"Um, yeah, come in." She called, trying to regain her composure.
Steve entered the room sporting a sheepish grin.
"Hey, Tabby, how are you?"
"I'm just fine. I'm surprised to see you looking so collected. I thought you were going to get torn apart when Thor joined your little fight this morning." Tabby teased.
Steve chuckled, sitting down in one of the chairs that were scattered around the room.
"As long as he leaves the hammer out of it, it's a pretty fair fight between Thor and I. Barton is the one who doesn't fight fair. He always has a knife or something in those vests of his." He replied, smiling at Tabby.
Tabby laughed, shaking her head.
"I can't believe how intense you guys are. The only time my guy friends from back home would fight would be if they were completely drunk. Even then, they'd all get bloody noses and cry like babies after about five minutes." She giggled.
"Maybe it's a good thing that the average man doesn't fight that much. It could be a small step towards world peace." Steve responded, shrugging.
"Maybe everyone is just a coward nowadays." Tabby countered with a smile.
"That could be it, too. I think that statement would probably hold true for Stark. He's all bark and no bite, unless he's got a suit of armor protecting him. You know, he had a meltdown when I told him that we were getting fondue."
Tabby bit down on her lip.
"Right, about that. Um, Natasha was telling me about it this morning. The thing is, I don't really remember having that conversation with you. I think I was probably half-asleep when you said something about it." She explained lightly with a small smile.
"I guess I should have figured as much. You were sort of slurring your words." Steve chuckled, nodding his head.
"Well, that might have actually been the mead." Tabby reminded him, laughing.
"So, do you still want to get fondue, then?" Steve asked with an easygoing smile, clearly not expecting anything but a positive response from Tabby.
Tabby forced herself to smile.
"You know, I would love nothing more to go get fondue with you, but I need to clarify something with you, first."
Steve nodded eagerly.
"This isn't a date…is it?"
Steve coughed nervously as Tabby stared at him curiously.
"What? No! No, of course not. I just heard about fondue while I was in Europe and never got the chance to try it. I thought that, you know, since you like food, you might like fondue. Uh, I invited the rest of the guys too. Did you…did you want it to be a date?" He rambled, not meeting Tabby's eyes.
"Oh, great. No, I mean, you're a total sweetheart, Steve, and any girl would be beyond lucky to have you, but I'm not really ready to jump into the whole dating game. You know, getting dumped by a demigod kind of messed me up a little bit."
Steve nodded, his eyebrows furrowing.
"You're still in love with him?" He asked, sparing a glance at Tabby.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I'm not going to jump off a cliff about it anymore, but we dated for like, six months, you know? And he was just so different from all of the other guys I dated. You don't just forget someone like that after a few weeks, you know?" She replied, shooting Steve an apologetic look.
"No, you definitely don't. I think I'll always love Maggie. She was, uh, the woman that I left behind when I, you know, went under. I'm not saying that I'll never love again, but I think there'll always be a place in my heart for her." Steve said with a half-hearted smile.
"It's a good thing this isn't a date, then. I think the combination of our emotional baggage would drown us before we even had a chance." Tabby laughed, patting Steve's arm.
"Yeah, you're probably right. So, why don't you tell me a little bit more about Loki? This time I'm not trying to extort information out of you, I'm just curious." The soldier said, his crystal eyes focusing on Tabby, who smiled.
"Of course, but you have to tell me about Maggie when I'm done. Did I ever tell you about the time Loki got jealous of this guy I was working with in the library?"
"Oh, shit. Hey, Tony, how fast do you think you can get Thor into the lab?" Bruce asked as he scanned the analysis he had run on the test results.
Tony looked up from the sandwich he had been eating in surprise.
"Um, right away, why?" He asked, his voice muffled by the food in his mouth.
"If my assumptions are correct, and I did all of the math to the analysis right, it looks like one of the infinity stones might have shifted while we were running the tests."
"What do you mean 'shifted'?"
Bruce removed his glasses and tossed them on a nearby desk as he turned to look at Tony.
"I think we might have a lead on what Loki has been up to."