"Jarvis, is all my travel information set up and correct?" Steve asked, smoothing out his shirt.

"Everything is ready for your departure at 8am tomorrow," Jarvis confirmed. Steve sighed, looking at himself in the mirror. In all the recent chaos, his trip needed to be pushed back a few weeks, but he finally felt comfortable enough to leave. He hadn't told Celia about it yet, but he was planning to over lunch in a few minutes, when Celia was finished cooking. The rest of the team knew about his monthly trips, but he didn't talk about it with them. The only reason they were clued in was in case there was a mission that popped up. And Tony knew because he provided the private jet.

This would be the first time Celia would be going to bed without him there, and that kind of worried him. Steve knew she'd be able to handle it, but it didn't stop him from fretting about it now. Would it be over the top to ask her to skip the training and take it easy while he was gone, so her healing wouldn't be as intense? Telling someone to be careful usually had the opposite effect, at least when it came to Tony. But he hoped Celia would be a bit more mature than that. He'd have to see if the conversation could naturally lead in that direction.

Steve started walking to the kitchen, but paused when a sound caught his ear. For a second, he could almost imagine it was his mom in the kitchen making them supper. He peeked his head around the corner, watching as Celia flitted around the space humming an unknown tune. Celia stopped when she finally noticed him, shooting him a sheepish smile.

"Oh hey, sorry about that. I tend to make a bit of noise when I'm cooking alone," Celia chuckled.

"No, don't apologize," Steve said, waving her off as he hopped up on one of the stools. "It sounded nice. What was it?"

"Just some song I heard on the radio. I don't even know the name," Celia shrugged, plating up a bunch of bite sized foods on the counter.

"My mom would always sing while she was in the kitchen. It was usually her favorite hymns," Steve explained, letting his gaze go soft in memory. "I used to love listening to her."

"Really? I think I can remember a few. All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all," Celia sang quietly.

"Wow," Steve breathed out, smiling in surprise. "You have a beautiful voice."

"No, it's nothing special. I can usually stay on key, but I'm no Mariah."

"Well, I don't know who that is, but I certainly enjoyed your singing," Steve said earnestly, grinning at Celia's embarrassed flush. "Did you grow up in the church?"

"Uh, yeah," Celia mumbled, immediately finding something else to busy herself with.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," Steve said quickly, mentally kicking himself for asking such a personal question. He just got so caught up in everything that he forgot it was probably a sore subject.

"No, it's alright. My parents had a very skewed view on what religion should be, which kind of soured me on the whole idea," Celia explained, setting down a couple napkins. "It wasn't all bad though. I usually enjoyed singing in the choir. But I can't ever see myself going back. Too much history."

"I'm sorry that was your experience," Steve said sincerely, looking down at the countertop. Church had been very important to him once upon a time, but he hadn't sought one out since he'd been found. There was still too much anger and hurt in his heart.

"There's no harm in asking, as long as you don't take offense if I decide not to answer every time," Celia shrugged, pouring a couple glasses of water.

"Deal," Steve agreed, hoping he could change the subject to something safer. "What's all this?" All the food was in small pieces, like she'd made a bunch of appetizers instead of one cohesive meal.

"I thought I'd give you a chance to practice your technique without an audience. Give Tony less ammo," Celia grinned, pulling out a pair of chopsticks for each of them. Steve chuckled and grabbed his set, placing them against his fingers like Celia had shown him during the dinner with the team. "I figure if you do good today, I'll make something a little harder for you to try with tomorrow."

"Um, about that, I kind of have something I need to talk to you about," Steve sighed, figuring now was as good of a time as any for this. He didn't want Celia to go out of her way to do something he wouldn't even be there for. "I'm actually leaving in the morning."

"Is everything okay?" Celia asked, looking worried.

"Yeah, everything is fine," Steve assured her, feeling dumb for having brought this up like it was something bad. "It's just something I've done since they found me and I pushed it back a bit after everything-"

"Oh gosh, I had no idea! You didn't need to mess up your plans because of me."

"It wasn't your fault, really," Steve said quickly. "And there was no harm in postponing for a few weeks. But it feels like the right time to get back to it."

"How long will you be gone?" Celia asked, obviously not fully believing his excuse.

"I leave Saturday morning and will be back Sunday afternoon."

"So just the weekend?"

"Yeah."

"Shit, Steve," Celia snorted, rolling her eyes. "You made it sound like you were going to be gone for a long time."

"I know it's not a long time, but it'll be your first night sleeping alone, you know?" Steve mumbled, staring down at his utensils. "I don't want to go without knowing you'll be alright and that you'll ask the team if you need something."

"You really don't have to worry about me. I'd already be sleeping alone if you weren't so stubborn and let me take the couch. Or if Tony's elusive bed had shown up by now," Celia scoffed, grabbing a little piece of meat with her chopsticks. How did she make it look so easy? And how was she making sleeping alone sound like no big deal? She was probably used to downplaying a lot of things in life and that idea made Steve sad. He knew what that was like.

"Maybe so, but at least I'd be in the same state, in case it didn't go well," Steve pointed out.

"I never expected Captain America to be such a pessimist," Celia teased, popping another bite of food into her mouth. "We could always test it out tonight with me sleeping on the couch."

"You mean me sleeping on the couch while you take the bed?" Steve argued, carefully bringing his first piece of food to his mouth.

"Pessimistic and stubborn."

"Look who's talking."

"Oh, I wear mine with pride though."

"Yes you do," Steve agreed. They chatted through the rest of lunch about nothing serious, focusing more on Steve learning his new skill. It actually wasn't that hard with the pressure to perform in front of others taken away. Celia always hit the sweet spot of friendly teasing and patient instruction.

"I knew you'd get the hang of it," Celia said proudly, wrapping up the leftovers while Steve cleaned up the dishes.

"I had a good teacher," Steve brushed off, spraying down a bowl of sticky sauce.

"I thought about going into teaching, once upon a time. Decided against it in the end," Celia said, grabbing a towel to dry.

"I bet you're great with kids. Do you like them?" Steve blurted out, barely stopping himself from smacking a sudsy hand across his forehead. What did he think she was going to say, that she hated them?

"Sure, kids are great," Celia replied easily.

"Have you thought about if you wanted to have any?" Where the hell had his filter gone?

"Uh-"

"I'm so sorry, that's really none of my business. I'm not sure why I asked that. Just ignore me, please," Steve stammered, locking his jaw to keep from saying anything else so intrusive. He'd embarrassed himself by asking about her past, and now he was asking about her reproductive choices? Maybe this time away would be good for both of them.

"That's probably a conversation for another time," Celia said, signalling a definitive end to that line of questioning.

"You know, I can take care of the rest of these dishes myself. You shouldn't have to clean after you did all the cooking."

"Okay," Celia agreed, surprisingly. She always insisted on helping, no matter what. Steve had really messed things up. "I've got a couple things that need to be folded and put away, if you don't mind."

"Of course not! Do whatever you need," Steve replied, trying to sound as normal as possible. He sagged against the counter as soon as she was safely out of sight, hanging his head in annoyance with himself. He'd never asked any of the team about their family planning thoughts, why would he ask the woman with the well established privacy boundaries? It was like he'd packed his brain alongside his toothbrush for his trip.

This day away would give him a chance to clear his head. They were just stuck in this feeling each other out period that all roommates had to deal with in the beginning. It was getting better since they'd gotten busier and it would continue going in that trajectory, he was sure of it.

Tony drummed his fingers along the wall of the elevator as he took the short ride up to Steve's floor from his lab. Well, it wasn't just Steve's floor anymore, but it was still normal for him to think of it that way in his head. He didn't have any regrets inviting Celia to live in the tower, but it still took some getting used to. Having the team in the tower was still weird at times, but that was starting to feel more normal.

It was rare for him to go on any particular floor besides his own and not run into at least one of them. That wasn't too annoying, but it was nice to be able to rely on his busy in the lab excuse whenever he needed to get away from everyone for a while. Jarvis was set to only let in certain types of messages when he was safely tucked away in there.

Celia had sent a message along a few minutes earlier, asking him to come talk to her about something whenever he had a chance. He wasn't rushing, but he had to admit he was intrigued. She wasn't the type to come to him specifically with things, so Tony wanted to know what this was about, sooner rather than later. But if this was just some dumb clinic thing, he was going to be annoyed.

He walked toward where he heard sounds coming from in the kitchen, finding Steve elbow deep in the sink. So hilariously domestic.

"You know, there is a dishwasher not two feet away from you," Tony pointed out, suppressing his giggle at Steve's little twitchy startle. "I know the technology is advanced, but it's not that hard to get a handle of."

"Very funny Stark," Steve grunted, turning to glare at him momentarily before going back to his task. "What are you doing here?"

"Celia wanted to talk to me, so I figured I'd stop by," Tony replied. Steve immediately dropped what he was doing and spun around, staring at Tony in thinly masked concern.

"Why? I mean, what's up?" Steve asked, stumbling over his words.

"She didn't say. What happened?" Tony questioned, interest fully piqued. He was getting pretty bored with the will they, won't they that Clint and Natasha had going on and he needed some fresh meat.

"Nothing happened," Steve replied quickly, too fast to be natural. Interesting.

"Right. And if I ask Celia, she'll say the same thing?"

"Why would you ask her? I already told you nothing happened," Steve grumbled, aggressively drying off his hands.

"Okay, I believe you," Tony said, raising his hands in surrender. He wouldn't push too hard. Not yet at least. "Where is she?"

"She went to her room a little while ago, so try there. Just make sure you knock first," Steve warned. Spoken like a man who hadn't and seen something he shouldn't. He couldn't resist teasing Steve a bit more before he went on his way.

"When you say her room, which one are you referring to?" Tony asked, the pinnacle of innocence.

"End of the hall," Steve sighed, shaking his head in resignation. Tony shot him a smirk before walking in that direction. Why couldn't these two crazy kids just give into their desires and see where it led? There was obvious sexual tension there. And if it didn't work out, they could just be mature and deal with it. Tony had worked with people he slept with all the time.

He walked down the hall, peeking into Steve's bedroom as he passed. Tony was kind of disappointed to see it as immaculate as ever, hoping to see some rumpled sheets or an errant article of clothing thrown somewhere. Not with their resident boy scout. He was about to knock on the door of Celia's room when the sound of her voice caught his attention. Tony paused, tipping his head closer so he could hear more clearly. Sure, he was being nosy and rude, but he couldn't help himself.

"I know it's short notice, but you know how it is. We take the opportunities we can get and one's come up. I'm sure I'll be able to come more consistently in the future, but for now it's kind of crazy."

Well, what was this about? Tony couldn't resist the pull of figuring out a mystery.

"Just get as many as you can. I can be there all of Saturday and most of Sunday, but I can't spend the night."

This was getting juicy.

"Yes, I remember how comfortable your bed is, D."

If Celia had a secret boyfriend, Tony was going to scream.

"Look, I'll be there in the morning, okay? Just do what you can to get things set up and I'll take it from there. Bye." Tony heard Celia groan and loudly pull the zipper on a bag. He waited a few seconds before tiptoeing back down the hall, then making obvious noise to announce his arrival. He was an old pro at this trick.

"Oh Celia, I hope you're decent," Tony called out before rapping his knuckles on the door. She opened it a few seconds later, looking as if she hadn't a care in the world. A pretty good poker face, he could admit.

"I'm rarely decent, but I'm sure you don't mind," Celia snorted, waving him into the room.

"I love what you've done with the place," Tony said, spinning around in the empty space.

"Thanks, but I think the thing that would bring the whole room together would be a bed. Any updates on when this fancy piece of furniture might be showing up?"

"Why? Is sharing with Cap that big of an issue?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Maybe her Mystery D had a problem with it.

"I'm sure Steve would appreciate having his own space back."

"Are you sure there's nothing going on?" Tony prodded. He couldn't leave without getting some details from at least one of them.

"The only thing that's going to be going on is me going on a quest to find some discarded sidewalk furniture to bring into your beautiful, pristine tower," Celia grinned, scratching her chin in contemplation. "Can Jarvis check for bedbugs?"

"Alright, jeez!" Tony grumbled, already feeling the itch at that possibility. "I'm sure it'll be here soon."

"Sounds great, thank you," Celia said with a slight smirk. Tony needed to come out of this conversation on top before he could leave.

"So, you're probably going to be so bored without Steve here this weekend. Got any plans?" he asked, keeping his eyes away from anywhere she could've stashed that cell phone she was using earlier. He couldn't let on that he knew what her answer should be.

"Not particularly. I figured I'd take a few days off training, so Steve wouldn't have to worry about me getting hurt while he's away," Celia replied easily. Cool as a cucumber. Now Tony really had to know what was up.

"Sounds amazingly boring. Steve will love it," Tony scoffed, walking back toward the door. "Well, I'm gonna go back to my floor and threaten some furniture companies for you. Don't be afraid to tell Jarvis if you need something. Fresh towels, more milk, wedding bands." That finally got a reaction out of her, Tony sneaking out of the door as she stuttered something in shock.

All joking aside, he needed to know what she was up to. She was admittedly a person who skirted the line between legal and not, and that could cause problems for all of them. Tony could have Natasha follow Celia around again, but he didn't want to involve anyone else in case he was jumping to conclusions. He'd have to take care of this himself.