Lee High School- October 24th, 2012- 3:40 P.M
"Got a minute soldier boy?"
Steve shut the door to his locker only to find a rose-shaded Tony Stark lounging against the locker right next to his with a very large cup of pink iced coffee-it had been quite the culture shock when Natasha introduced him to the variety of colorful caffeinated drinks out there on the market.
They sure did taste good though.
"I could probably spare a couple for you Tony."
Tony took a long, obnoxiously loud sip of his drink as he slid off the locker and fell into step with Steve.
"So…I'm having a thing this weekend"
Steve adjusted the history textbook under his arm as they squeezed past a group of students that had just piled out of a nearby classroom. He politely nodded at a few to apologize for bumping into them while Tony failed to acknowledge their existence entirely.
"A thing? What, like a surgery?"
Tony's shades dropped to the edge of his nose.
"That was a joke wasn't it? I'm so proud I might cry."
"Please don't."
Tony pinched the top of his straw and swirled it around for no other reason than to amuse himself.
"I'm having a get together this Saturday."
"A get together?"
"A social gathering, a jamboree if you will."
"Tony,"
Steve stopped in the middle of school quad, forcing Tony to do the same.
"You can just say you're having a party."
"I'm having a party."
Steve took a gander around the immediate area to make sure that no one was paying close attention to their conversation. Once he was sure everyone was more engrossed in themselves than anything else he gestured towards a pair of vending machines off at a shaded corner of the quad.
"Tell me you're not planning on having this party at the same place we keep our top secret hideout," Steve pleaded as they attempted to naturally stroll towards the area he pointed out.
"I'm not."
"Tony."
"I'm not!"
They reached the vending machines only to find Bruce sticking his hand up the take-out port of the machine on the right while Thor leaned against the side of it with his arms crossed. The demigod shook his head as he watched the young genius struggle with the mechanism, once he noticed Steve and Tony approaching he smiled.
"Hail friends."
"Thor," Steve quietly greeted his teammate with a nod that the Asgardian reciprocated.
"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked, pointing down at his roommate with his cup.
"He's fighting the steel beast and losing," Thor answered.
"I am not losing!"
"He's losing."
Steve looked from Thor down to Bruce and then back up to Thor.
"What happened?"
"His bag of potato chips got stuck and the machine won't give him back his money."
"It's fine, I think I almost got it."
Tony bent down to look through the slot and watched Bruce wiggle his right arm around.
"You sure? Because you have notoriously short arms."
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response."
"I offered to shake the machine until the chips came out but Banner refused my help," A surprisingly nonplussed Thor told Steve.
"That's probably for the best...wouldn't want you to break the poor thing."
"I would not break it," Thor replied indignantly. "It would be a soft shake."
He demonstrated the motion with his hands but it failed to instill Steve with any confidence.
"How about we table that idea for now."
"Suit yourself."
"I just about have it," Bruce grunted. Tony leaned in closer to the slot and took his shades off completely.
"It sure doesn't look like you do."
"Will you just-"
Bruce pulled his arm out with authority only to find that his was empty and his bag of chips was still stuck right between the take out slot and the machine itself.
"See? Short arms."
Thor sighed dramatically and made a show of rolling his eyes before he lightly tapped on the side of the vending machine with only the knuckles of his pointer and middle fingers. Bruce's bag of chips then gracefully fell out of the slot and onto the ground by his feet.
"See? Soft shake."
"Well I don't know about you gentleman but I sure feel like we lived up to the whole 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' mantle today," Tony quipped as he tossed his cup into a nearby trash can.
Thor merely ignored Tony completely and turned to Steve.
"What brought you both over here anyway?"
Steve nudged his chin over in the direction of the school's favorite billionaire.
"Apparently Tony's having a party this weekend."
"A party?" Bruce asked, opening up his bag of chips as he stood. "Please tell me you don't plan on throwing it at the hideout."
"Philistines, the lot of you."
Tony reached into Bruce's bag and stole a chip while he openly glared at his three housemates.
"I'm throwing it at my place FYI."
"Your place?" Steve arched an eyebrow.
"Yes my place. You know not all of us were thawed out of the ocean or dropped out of the sky in New Mexico. Some of us actually lived somewhere before we were 'asked' to move into the clubhouse."
"I did not drop out of the sky I was brought to Midgard by the Bifrost."
"And we're all real proud of you for that."
"Let me guess," Bruce cut in, moving his bag of chips out of Tony's reach. "You're planning on inviting half the school to your mansion for the 'party to end all parties'".
"No I was actually thinking it would just be us."
"Just us?" Steve asked.
"Well us and any of our wacky sidekicks that make up our friend group."
The three outright stared at Tony, all honestly too dumbfounded to compose any sort of response that would fit the moment. And Tony to his credit didn't comment on the assuredly goofy looks on their faces, instead he quietly paced around their little nook.
Bruce was the first to shake himself out of this stupor.
"Who are you and where are you keeping Tony Stark?"
Tony stopped pacing and snatched the entire bag of chips out of Bruce's hand before the prodigy could even think about reacting.
"I swear it feels like I turn around for one minute and suddenly everyone's turned into a comedian."
"What's the occasion?" Steve asked.
"Does there need to be an occasion? Is it really so strange for me to just want to hang out?"
"Yes," all three answered in unison.
Tony grew oddly quiet as he snapped his fingers together a couple times and clapped his hands together, all the while looking off to a seperate area of the quad. He paced around some more before he turned on a dime back towards the boys.
"Well it's almost Halloween so that's an occasion right? And you know… I figure… we've been living together for a little over a month now so…. Look I don't need you guys to show up, I can have plenty of fun by myself, loads of it even."
"Will there be...refreshments...little snacks on trays?" Thor asked after a moment of collective silence.
Tony's forehead crinkled and opened his mouth to say.
"To answer your first question, yes. For your second, that can easily be arranged."
With a hearty smile Thor went over to Tony and wrapped his admittedly huge bicep over the much lankier teen's shoulders.
"Then I gladly accept your invitation, do I need to as they say RSVP or does my verbal consent suffice?"
Steve turned to Bruce who was wistfully eyeballing his bag of chips. "So I guess we have plans Saturday?"
"I can't lie, it actually sounds kind of fun."
"It's guaranteed to be an experience that's for sure. Now we just need to tell Natasha and Clint."
"Yeah where are they anyway?"
Vice Principal Coulson's Office
"And there haven't been any further incidents since Stark and Thor's run in with Kraven?"
"Nothing beyond a few fights here and there over who gets to use the bathroom first in the morning," Clint was laid out on Coulson's burgundy leather couch with his legs dangling over the armrest.
Natasha occupied the loveseat adjacent to him, her nose buried in her chemistry notes. "So you're just gonna leave out the part where you started most of those fights then?
"You can't prove that, it's my word against Thor's."
"Okay...no further incidents," Coulson said as he closed the manilla folder on his desk and tossed it over to one of his many, many piles of such folders that clogged whatever surface space of his desk that was available.
Vsst. Vsst.
Clint's phone vibrated in his pocket, he furrowed his brow as he reached into his pocket to fish out the buzzing device that was starting to numb his hip.
"Who is it?" Natasha asked without looking up from her notebook.
"I don't have to tell you."
"But you will."
"It's from Tony," Clint said as he frowned at the screen.
"Never mind I don't want to know anymore."
"Actually… I think you might. He's throwing a party this weekend."
Natasha's vibrant eyes narrowed.
"Tell me he's not-"
"He's not. Apparently he's throwing it at his mansion. His exact phrasing was, and I quote, 'Prty at Castle Stark ths saturday. B ther or else youl make Goldylocks and Capsicle mad."
Natasha shook her head in disgust as she folded her legs under herself and shut her journal.
"English isn't even my first language and I'm still insulted by his grammar."
"I think it's a good idea," Coulson cut in. "You guys should go to it."
Natasha sighed as she stuffed her journal into her purple and black backpack. "Don't tell me this is another attempt to get us to 'act our age for once'."
"Let's just say that Colonel Fury would very much prefer The Avengers to be...distracted this weekend."
"You're running an Op?" Clint asked as he sat up.
"A team of agents are looking into an anomaly the Helicarrier picked up. Nothing you guys need to worry about."
Clint and Natasha shared a look.
"And you don't want the rest of the Avengers to know about it because?" Clint asked.
"The anomaly could raise some questions that we'd rather not answer yet."
"You mean like how some jerk in a trenchcoat wrecked a bunch of our guys and we just acted like it never happened?"
"Easy Clint," Natasha warned.
"It's an honest question."
"And it's a question I appreciate," Coulson said, holding his hand up to placate the growing tension between the two partners. "But transparency is a dangerous concept in our line of work. Especially with all the different variables in play right now."
Clint immediately imagined how...colorful Tony's reaction would be if he found out about all the moves S.H.I.E.L.D has made in the background. The young playboy already had his own suspicions that he had absolutely zero qualms about voicing, Clint didn't want to live in a world where Tony Stark was proven right.
"Okay okay, I get it. So I guess we're babysitting this weekend then?"
"My entire week is spent babysitting you boys," Natasha smirked.
"Oh you're on a roll today."
"Well I'm glad that's settled," Coulson smiled as he began writing in the book laid out in front of him.
"Now, if you'll both excuse me."
"Got more paperwork?" Clint asked as he and Natasha began to gather their things.
"Nope. Sudoku. I've been stuck on this one all day."
Stark Manor- Manhattan- Saturday, July 26th- 8:25 P.M
"Welcome to Casa De Stark."
The Avengers stood in the opulent foyer of Tony's family manor that was larger than the entire commons area of their headquarters, both the marble of the floor and the chandelier that dangled from the ceiling sparkled brighter than even Steve's shield at its most polished.
A white and gold staircase wrapped around the northwest side of the room and led up to the second level of the estate, from where the group was huddled together they could spot two archways to the north and the east that peeked into a sitting room and what seemed to be a wide hallway respectively.
Thor, dressed in a nice smoke gray jacket and black t-shirt, rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he looked around the "room".
"I've seen better but this place is serviceable I suppose."
Bruce eyeballed his much larger Asgardian teammate but seemed to keep any comments he had to himself in favor of gaping at the decor. Tony rather languidly walked towards the stairs and beckoned the rest of the group to follow him.
"I can give you the grand tour later if you want, Rhodey and Pep are already upstairs in my room."
Steve, Clint, Bruce and Thor all just stood there by the front door with varying degrees of dumb expressions on their faces as they surveyed their new environment. It was only when Natasha had put her phone away and wordlessly followed after Tony that the boys picked up their jaws and went for the stairs.
Tony had his hands tucked deep into the pockets of his jeans as he led the way up the winding steps that in the eyes of Steve and Bruce scaled all the way up into the heavens with the enthusiasm of a jaded tour guide.
"I obviously haven't been here in a while so it's not exactly in tip-top shape right now."
The other four boys simultaneously peered over the side of the bannister closest to their side of the stairs, the pure white and gold layout of the foyer appearing immaculate even as it was fading from their ascending view.
"Obviously," Steve muttered to himself.
Thor picked up his pace to catch up with Tony and clasped him on his shoulder.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, friend. It happens to the best of us."
Clint and Bruce turned to each other and shook their heads, not in disbelief or disappointment, but in that special way that could only come from cohabitating with a billionaire and an alien prince on a daily basis.
Steve watched the exchange with a fonder small smile but noticed out of the corner of his eye that Natasha was still periodically checking her phone every few seconds or so. He tried not to look at her for long because he knew that she would surely notice his staring if he did. Something must have definitely been on her mind if her guard was down enough to engage in the closest thing she had to a nervous tick.
Truthfully something had felt off with her ever since his bet with Tony but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.
"JARVIS, do me a favor and turn off the downstairs lights."
"Of course sir."
"Thanks buddy."
"You have JARVIS wired into the mansion?" Bruce asked.
"Of course," Tony replied.
"I'm surprised that you didn't wire him into our apartment."
Tony glanced over his shoulder and winked at his roommate. "Well who needs a handy dandy A.I helper when I have you?"
"You walked right into that one," Clint said as he elbowed Bruce.
"Thanks Clint."
At first glance the second floor was simply a narrow hallway and one very wide door that looked like it belonged on a luxury cruise ship. In reality "simple" was the last word that should have ever been used to describe what waited behind that door.
"Here we are," Tony announced as he pushed it open and revealed a bedroom the size of a small home.
"Now this is something," Natasha admitted as the group collectively froze after taking no more than two steps into Tony's bedroom- his penthouse really.
To their immediate left was a walk-in closet that was bigger than any of their bedrooms back at headquarters, the warm slightly orange glow of its lighting helped create an image of a high end clothing store's dressing room. If the dressing room was the size of the store itself.
Next to the closet was an alcove that housed a king sized bed, a small end table and an even smaller red lamp. By all accounts it was the most "normal" of what they had seen so far.
Across from that little nook was a balcony that overlooked the skyline of the city. At that moment Pepper was standing on the threshold between the penthouse and the balcony where she leaned her shoulder against the exposed sliding door jam as she absorbed the comforting evening air.
To the left of the balcony was a tall chrome fridge and an equally long obsidian freezer.
To the right of the sleeping room was a wrap around black leather couch big enough to seat all 8 of them more than comfortably. A noticeably elated Rhodey nearly melted into the back of his seat with a healthy bowl of popcorn nestled in his lap and a large theater sized HD flatscreen TV in front of him.
In the corner adjacent to this entertainment area was a grand mahogany desk with the initials T.S etched on a gold plate.
And finally the room was rounded out by a window wall that gave a perfect view of the entire city.
"Feel free to make yourselves comfortable, we have drinks in the fridge and the bathroom is behind a door in the closet."
And with that Tony went off to join Rhodey by the TV, leaving his teammates to mingle amongst themselves. Natasha was the next one to break from the group, immediately doubling up with Pepper on the balcony and leaving the boys clustered together without a clue of what to do next.
Being the oldest of the bunch- excluding Thor of course- Clint took it upon himself to rally the troops.
"I guess there really was a benefit to keeping Tony around."
Clint chuckled almost maniacally as he clutched Steve and Bruce's shoulders with enough force to startle the both of them and their respective levels of sturdiness. He rubbed his hands together as he made a beeline for the couch with a perplexed Thor in tow.
"I believe I was promised refreshments and little snacks on trays."
Bruce sighed as he took off his glasses and cleaned them with the bottom of his purple dress shirt. Once he was satisfied he placed them back to their rightful place and went to check out Tony's desk.
Steve very calmly took off the old school leather bomber jacket Clint had gifted him and stepped into the closet to properly hang it on one of the many available hangars. He took a moment for himself and ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, enjoying a rare moment of solitary calm.
There was nothing for him to worry about, all their homework for the weekend was done, they were in a prime position that gave them a line of sight with a good portion of the city in case any situation arose that required the services of The Avengers.
He may as well enjoy himself, after all there was never anything wrong with a little shore leave.
The Bronx- Under the bridge
About 7 miles away from The Avengers get together a different collection of teens working under the S.H.I.E.L.D umbrella were busy doing some mingling of there own with a crowd that unfortunately didn't possess the means to live like a Tony Stark or a Justin Hammer.
"Look I haven't seen Grover around here in weeks, none of us have. People disappear all the time around here."
Daisy Johnson and Grant Ward were both in silent agreement that standing out in the cold questioning the Bronx's homeless community wasn't exactly how they had wanted to spend their Saturday night. But they were also conscious enough of their own privilege to understand that they still had some place warm to return to at the end of the day, these people didn't.
So it was only natural for the two junior agents to be met with a series of cold shoulders. Not that it made it any less frustrating when the last man willing to entertain their questions walked away and left them standing there in the dark by themselves.
"I think we should just call this one a bust and pack it in," Ward grumbled as he kept an eye out for any unsavory characters.
Daisy, the less experienced of the pair, wasn't ready to admit defeat just yet. Even if she personally couldn't wait to get to the safety of her own bedroom.
"Ward, someone here has to know where our guy is. I just..have a feeling."
"Oh so you're psychic now? Being Quake wasn't enough, you needed two sets of powers instead?" he challenged.
"Shut up," she (lightly) punched his arm and paced in a little half circle around herself as she stared down at her sneakers. "I'm just following my instinct."
"Yeah but you're still a rookie though…"
Daisy knew he was technically right but regardless…
"You're such an ass."
She didn't need to see him to know he shrugged in response, she really didn't. Honestly if he was ever forced to emote without nonchalant gestures and snarky comments then he may very well have no other choice than to live as a mute.
Which wasn't all that bad of an outcome the more she thought about it, it would make him as attractive as he thought he was. Well it would definitely push him a little closer to that ideal at least.
"I can't argue that… Look I wanna find this guy just as much as you do. And you've...been doing really well lately, honestly. But sometimes a lead goes dead. It's nothing to be ashamed of, it just means we need to regroup and try to find a new one."
Once he was finished she finally turned back to him, ok...when he was being all sincere like that he actually was mildly attractive so she threw him a bone in the way of a soft sigh and a small, small, small smile. Not because he was attractive but because of his sincerity. Mostly.
And more importantly she knew he was correct. Garrett preached and preached the benefits of knowing when to change your approach until it was nearly plastered into their brains. It was getting pretty late and she never mixed well with the cold on her best days so the best option seemed to be pulling the plug and hoping for better tomorrow.
"Yeah you're right, it's not like anyone else here is gonna want to talk to us."
Ward's relief was plain to see as he blew a visible breath into his cupped hands and rubbed them together. "It's like that guy said, no ones seen Raymond in weeks. If he hasn't been back since then he's probably not gonna come back here anytime soon."
"Excuse me...did you say you were looking for Raymond?"
Daisy had to stop herself from physically jumping out of her skin when a new voice, much younger than the man they had previously dealt with, cut into their conversation. The way Ward's eyes had narrowed briefly told her that he was caught off guard as well but when he turned to meet the intruder she could tell he was back in survival mode by how stiff and straight his posture had become.
"Who's there?" He asked with more bass in his voice than had been there just seconds earlier.
A slender man who appeared to be around their age with scruffy blonde hair and an equally messy beginning of a beard stepped forward out of a dark nook with both his hands held up in the air. He was dressed in a ratty olive green sweater with a yellow hood and a very faded pair of brown sweatpants.
And for some ungodly reason he was wearing socks with sandals during an evening of New York Autumn. Daisy guessed it was warmer than just wearing regular sandals but...still…
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Danny Rand,"
Rand? Why did she know that name?
"I wasn't trying to eavesdrop but I heard you mention Raymond's name. You meant Grover Raymond didn't you?"
"Are you a friend of his, Danny?" Ward asked, making sure to still keep his guard up just in case.
Danny dropped his hands to his sides and seemed to telegraph that he was purposefully relaxing his stance.
"He was the first person to show me any kindness here."
"You live here too?" Daisy knew it was rude to blurt it out like that, and she was aware that there were far too many people their age living out on the streets. But to see an example of that statistic standing right in front of her was like a bucket of water hitting her face.
To her surprise Danny not only nodded but smirked.
"Don't worry about me, I know how to take care of myself. But is Grover okay? He went missing out of nowhere not too long ago."
"Well that's what we're trying to find out," Ward replied as he relaxed a little himself. She couldn't blame him even if it went against their training, Danny had this very odd calming nature about him that was apparently a little infectious.
"Do you know if he had any other place where he liked to hide out?" Daisy asked.
"Only one comes to mind. There's this patch of bushes in the Bronx Park that blocks a little clearing where he keeps a tent. Most people don't know about it so he calls it his Oasis."
Ward and Daisy looked to each other before they looked back at Danny. It all felt too convenient but Danny truly didn't feel like a threat, then again maybe he wasn't the one they had to worry about. Even if he wasn't the one who set it, the area he's sending them into could still very well be a trap.
They would need to talk to Garrett before they progressed any further.
"Thank you," Daisy said. "You've been a lot of help."
Danny bowed to them both. "I just hope Grover's okay."
"We'll do our best to find him," Ward said.
"I wish you luck," Danny met both of them in the eyes one more time and then pulled out a very dated walkman out from the front pouch of his hoodie.
Once his headphones were plugged in he walked off into the night, the faint beat of his music the only sign he was ever there to begin with.
"You think he'll be alright?" Daisy asked once the sound of his walkman was replaced by the night's breeze.
"I don't know. Hopefully. What I do know is that we're going to have a very busy night. Come on, the others are waiting for us."
Ward nudged his head in the direction of where their van was parked and set a brisk pace for her to follow.
Unbeknownst to Ward and Daisy they were being watched the entire time by Danny who had hidden himself in the shadows once he was out view. When they were gone he looked down at his right fist which was glowing an ethereal gold with the intensity of a dying star.
Grover's disappearance only reminded him how fragile life could be, not that he had needed a refresher in that particular life lesson. Regardless, he had spent enough time dawdling.
It was time to pay the Meechums another visit.
Stark Manor- 9:45 P.M
"What's this called again?" Steve asked as he leaned over the back of the couch to squint at the gargantuan television screen.
"Pro wrestling," Rhodey answered with a mouthful of popcorn.
"Oh I see. And that is…?"
"Only the single greatest form of entertainment," Clint replied from a couple of cushions away from Rhodey. On his left sat Thor who was happily devouring an entire tray of mini sandwiches.
"It reminds me of a game we would play as children," the demigod said with a mouth full of bread, cheese and assorted lunch meats.
"It's all fake though right?" Pepper asked as she walked up next to Steve.
The audible and shrill gasp that Clint and Rhodey simultaneously released was unlike anything Steve had ever experienced. The closest thing he could relate it to was that one time he had walked in on Dum Dum Dugan when he was…
Nope. He had repressed that for a very good reason, better to keep it that way.
"I'm gonna need you to keep all that negative energy on that side of the couch," Rhodey said to Pepper as he waved his hand around in a circle to designate which area to stay in. "This side of the couch is only for true believers."
"Excelsior," Clint said as he and Rhodey fist bumped without making eye contact.
"Okay..."
Luckily for Pepper at that moment Tony and Bruce returned from their tour of the manor.
"We miss anything interesting or otherwise mildly entertaining?" Tony asked as they approached the couch.
"Pepper just said the F-word," Rhodey said with the grace of a student tattling to the teacher. Tony promptly looked at the screen, then looked at his oldest friend, and then finally turned to his other oldest friend.
"Pep...we've been over this."
"Tony for the love of…"
With a knowing apologetic nod to Bruce, Steve took the opportunity to slip away from the gathering. As entertaining as the whole exchange seemed to be it was just a little too much for him to keep up with. And it wasn't like he had much to contribute to that particular conversation anyway.
Besides, it hadn't escaped his notice that there was a member of their party conspicuously absent from the proceedings.
He found her out on the balcony, the red of both her hair and the jacket that went to just above her elbows were a fire raging against the cold expanse of the night.
And as he sidled up to lean his forearms against the railing next to her he quietly thought to himself that her presence was just as intensely warm to match.
"I never knew you were such a party animal," he teased in a decidedly low timbre.
Natasha regarded his presence with green eyes that were always analyzing something. Somehow he was lucky enough to get her to crack a gentle smile, as with most things not combat related he had absolutely no clue what he was doing.
Just do what I do Stevie. Wing it and hope for the best. And if you mess up be ready to give them a really good apology or a really good excuse.
"Gotta keep you on your toes somehow Rogers," Natasha quipped. "It got real rowdy in there a second ago huh?"
"They started arguing about pro wrestling. At least I think they were arguing? It was honestly hard to tell."
Natasha smiled sagely and turned back to the overlook. "Don't worry they'll find something else to fixate on in a few seconds."
"I don't doubt it."
Of all the different combinations of the Avengers there were fewer duos more comfortable with silence than Steve and Natasha. In the back of his mind he was still concerned about whatever it was that had been nagging his roommate earlier but he didn't let that keep him from enjoying the moment.
No amount of training or experience would ever give him the advantage over her when it came to secrets and the art of conversation, coercion, etcetera. He knew it, she knew it, their teammates and their vice principal knew it.
He was a sensational listener however, always had been. And he always would be for every one of his teammates and their extended friend group. It was the best he could offer them when he wasn't wearing the mask and holding the shield.
"You know the apartment I grew up in was about the size of Tony's closet."
Natasha cocked her head a little bit to the side. "You grew up in Brooklyn right?"
"Mhm."
"Have you ever thought of going back and paying that old apartment a visit? Or Brooklyn in general?"
Steve was quiet as he gazed up at the moon. "I can't say that I haven't."
"But?"
"But...the Brooklyn I left behind is long gone. I'm not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing it's just how it is. Everything's different. A year ago, or I guess 70 years ago, I could walk anywhere in the boroughs and know where I was going like the back of my hand. Now I don't know if I could last five minutes on my own out there."
Natasha wrung her hands together, lightly rubbing the knuckles of her right with the thumb of her left. She peered over the railing before she spoke again. "Only one way to find out."
Steve swallowed a chuckle and nodded to himself. He knew she was right but he couldn't help but wonder if that was also a backdoor offer of sorts to show him around. He didn't want to presume but they were teammates, roommates, and he was pretty sure (fairly confident, mostly hopeful) that they were friends.
It was a pleasant image, the two of them strolling through his old stomping grounds. But he wondered if he was missing the point of it all, he needed to be able to rely on himself if the situation called for it.
For his sake and everyone else's.
If he couldn't go anywhere without someone holding his hand he'd be a liability no matter how strong he was.
Maybe he could explore the city with her a couple times before he ventured out on his own. Assuming she would even be interested in doing so.
"Hey," Natasha said breaking the silence.
"Hello."
"Tell me a secret."
Steve was ashamed to admit that his hand almost slipped off the railing and sent his entire person tumbling over the edge. Thankfully he was able to right himself before his companion could notice.
"Uhhhh…?"
Natasha faced him and what she said next came with a raw and dare he say vulnerable tenderness that was definitely new.
"Tell me something nobody else knows."
Say something.
He couldn't, the potent mixture of her unorthodox request and the gravity of her gaze pulling him in left him with a mouth full of cotton and a head filled with not much of anything useful.
This was dangerous, he wasn't in danger per se but the more he stared into her eyes that were making no effort to break away from his own the more complicated his thoughts and fee….instincts became.
And sorry but as a super powered teen that was mathematically almost 90 years old charged with leading an entire club of other extraordinary beings the last thing he needed was another dose of complicated.
"Come on Steve just say yes. It'll be you, me, and a pair of lovely honor students ready to dance until the sun comes up. Do it for me….please?"
He shook the memory away and exhaled through his nose. It was a sign of weakness and more than a little rude but he needed to break eye contact so he took a peek down at their nearby parked vehicles.
It was just a little too much all at once.
"I'm not saying no but you gotta admit that's an...interesting request to make out of the blue."
He met her eyes again and found zero signs of change in her countenance. She was still regarding him with unflinching consistency and a calm facade. She could have been confused for a statue if the windows to her soul weren't so electrifying.
She was a professional, the skill gap between them would never be completely closed.
"I can't explain it to you right now, not completely. But I want to trust you with something down the road. I need to know that you trust me first."
In his limited experience Natasha never spoke in a way that was completely apologetic. She could show sympathy and empathy when appropriate but she would never be outright sorrowful or regretful. This was the closest instance he had ever been witness to.
"I do."
That was enough for her to break contact and stare at her interlocked hands. "That's probably a poor decision on your part."
"You better prove me right then."
"Aye aye Captain."
Steve's nose scrunched up at the use of his title but he didn't dwell on it, that wasn't a hill he felt keen to die on. At least not with her.
"Full disclosure I don't have many 'big' secrets."
There was a "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" joke sitting right there for the taking but Natasha thankfully didn't bite.
"A secret's still a secret. It's important as long as it means something to you."
She straightened and shifted towards him to lean her side against the railing, giving Steve her full attention both physically and symbolically. He took a deep breath before he mirrored her position.
A tiny bit of air was all that separated the two.
"There's a brown notebook that I keep locked in my desk. It's filled with sketches and portraits. Whenever I'm not doing homework, fighting bad guys, or spending time with all of you I'm drawing."
Now that piqued her interest there was no doubt about it. Everything on her face grew just a smidge bigger; her pupils, her grin.
"You're an artist?"
"Well that might be overstating it a bit."
Natasha rolled her eyes. "Don't be modest. You draw, I don't care if they're stick figures or a bunch of squiggly lines, that makes you an artist."
Well when she put it like that…
"And you enjoy doing it?"
"Yeah...I do."
"Then you don't need to say anything more than that."
He had never talked to anyone about his hobby. Not Bucky, not any of the other Howling Commandos...not even Peggy.
It felt...liberating. Acceptance wasn't something he had ever struggled with, even when he was not so super and was forced to deal with the odd bully he still had Buck in his corner.
But he had always kept his art close to his chest, he had done so for long enough that it was nearly an impossible thought to ever share his work with someone else.
He was probably getting ahead of himself again but with Natasha the idea didn't seem quite so outlandish anymore.
Should he say thank you? He really wanted to but that was weird right? All he did was do what she had asked of him. He had no reason to thank her, that would be strange?
Right?
And then the unthinkable happened. Tony Stark butted into their conversation at an opportune time.
He announced his presence by knocking on the glass side of the sliding door and kept himself halfway inside and outside the penthouse as he eyed them both like he was waiting for one of them to bite his head off.
When no such verbal lashing came he spoke his piece.
"Hey so Thor ate all the snacks, like literally everything I had in the fridge and freezer. Sooooo we're gonna order some pizzas."
"I could go for a slice," Natasha said as she pushed herself off the balustrade.
Steve quickly followed suit and the three slowly went back inside. "Sounds good to me."
"Fantastic, come pick your toppings then before I give you both nothing but olives or...something."
Get ready for the mother of all Author Notes.
So yeah...this is a thing again.
I've thought about updating this story multiple times during the like(dear god) 6 or so years that have passed since the last chapter. Honestly the reason this story kind of went off the rails from a production standpoint is that the evolving nature of the MCU kept changing my outline because they just would not stop writing awesome new characters(well new from a movie standpoint) that I wanted to include in this story.
But now that we're in a post Endgame world and the MCU is in kind of a transitional phase I was finally able to look at my plans for this story from a fresh point of view. And here we are.
Now here's the elephant in the room.
A very good portion of this story is begging for a re-edit, I started this story when I was like 14 I'm surprised it's readable at all.
But I realize that, by some minor miracle, this story still has a somewhat regular audience waiting for new content. So I figure I'll finish the story first and then go back to raise the earlier chapters up to the quality of what I put out now.
Some things will be a little different moving forward of course. For example Tony and Thor were a little calmer in this chapter and that's how it's gonna stay. They'll still be outrageous and hopefully hilarious but they won't be quite as HYPER all the time.
This chapter is the first part of a three chapter mini-arc. The next chapter will conclude some stuff that was set up in this one and then it'll transition into the Halloween arc(hopefully going up around Halloween IRL). And then after that we'll finally have Bruce do some stuff!
Lastly I just want to thank anyone that is still reading this story in 2020. I appreciate you more than you'll ever know.
I'm gonna try to update this monthly if I can but I'm also notoriously awful with deadlines so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, stay safe everyone and be kind. I'll see you soon.