Disclaimer: Instead of actually saying the words I'm just going to point you to my empty bank account and maybe laugh hysterically.
When the next weekend comes, Cassie spends the first part of it packing her life in to boxes she can get to New York. She considers throwing some things out and donating her furniture given that she can't really think of a way to transport it on the train. This idea is obliterated when Steve shows up to help with the packing driving a legitimate moving van. Apparently it's a present from Tony Stark. Steve says that the man is now playing around with vehicle design.
Frankly Cassie doesn't really care where this van has come from. It makes moving easy, is provided to her for free, and lets her bring all of her stuff to her new life in New York. There isn't really a lot she cares about bringing, but her couch is awesome and she really likes her bookshelves and coffee table. The rest of her furniture was second hand when she got it so she decides it won't make the trip with her.
Steve and Cassie get all of the furniture moved in about half an hour and the rest of Cassie's storage locker can be condensed down to exactly six large cardboard boxes. Outside of that she has a duffle bag of all of her clothes and a single backpack. When all of her things have been loaded in to the van there's still room to spare and the entire process has taken less than four hours.
"So what else?" Steve asks when the locker is empty. He's looking around like he expects more of her belongings to suddenly pop out of the walls at him ready to be packed away.
The expression of expectation on his face makes Cassie smile a little. It's a small smile, and not her happiest. "That was it," she tells him. She gestures to the backpack that still rests at her feet. "What's in the van, this backpack, and my bag back at the hotel. That's everything I own."
Steve crosses the room and sits on the floor next to her with his back resting against the wall. "Can I ask why?" he asks. "I mean, I understand why you wouldn't have had much before from what you've told me... but you've been settled and in school here for years. You've built a life. Why don't you have..." he searches for a way to articulate what he wants to say. "More of it?"
Cassie scoots along the floor so that she can rest her back on the wall beside him and draws her knees up to her chest as she considers the question. "Habit?" she offers. "Probably?" She has more that she wants to say but how she says it is important. She hasn't said anything about other demigods and Steve hasn't asked even though he might have questions. Cassie's grateful for that because while she almost can't stand the thought of straight out lying to Steve she also can't expose all of her friends and family. So far it's one of the topics where they seem to have silently agreed not to push.
"The way I grew up involved moving around a lot," Cassie says carefully. "While that was going on having a lot of stuff wasn't just hard, it was basically impossible. Even when I finally got settled at-" she shuts her mouth and swallows. Steve looks at her and places a hand on her kneecap, wedging it below her elbow where it rests on her jeans. "At my school," she decides on, forging ahead. "I shared living space with a lot of other kids. Then I was living out of dorm rooms and tiny apartments. Here in D.C, that apartment building we both lived in," she shrugs. "That was the nicest place I've ever lived in." Cassie gestures towards the van. "This is the most I've ever had that's mine."
The words come out with more raw emotion than she means for them to and there's a long moment of softly ringing silence after they've been spoken. Steve doesn't seem to know what to say and Cassie doesn't know where to take the conversation next either so she lets the quiet stretch. "Hey," Steve says, breaking the quiet. He reaches out and brushes some of her hair behind her ear, cupping her jaw. "You've got more than that now," he tells her.
The words aren't really a statement, not with that level of conviction. No. When words are that sincere, they're a promise. It's dangerously close to a vow and Cassie thinks they might both be edging along a cliff they aren't quite ready to jump in to.
Cassie covers his hand where it rests on her cheek and takes it with both of hers. She threads their fingers together and cradles their joined hands against her chest over her heart and enjoys the simple warmth that the nearness of the gesture brings. Cassie ducks her head and kisses the back of his hand. "We both do," she says quietly.
Steve's eyes drop shut for a moment at her words and then he's ducking down the same way she did. Only instead of kissing her knuckles his lips land against hers. It's not a light and simple kiss like most of the ones they've shared since their first. This one feels heavier, weighted with the serious nature of the conversation that preceded it and Cassie can feel herself sinking in to it as Steve's lips move to cradle hers. She slips her tongue along his lower lips and it's like she's entered a passcode as his mouth falls open below hers.
His hands extricate themselves from hers and Cassie finds her fingers scrunching in to the cotton of his tee shirt in their search for something to hold on to. One of Steve's arms slides around her back and the other hooks below her bent knees and a moment later she's sitting sideways against his chest half on the floor and half in his lap. The adjustment happens to quickly and smoothly that Cassie barely even has time to register her surprise at the shift.
Even as the back of her mind is wondering at the logistics of the shift Steve's arms are are wrapping around her waist and the warmth his body is throwing off surrounds her completely, chasing away the chill in the air and making goosebumps pop up over her skin at the temperature contrast. She shivers and pushes closer in to his chest and one of her hands slides down, bunching the fabric of his shirt further and becoming pinned against his stomach where she can feel the muscles expand and contract in rhythm with his breath.
Moving on instinct Cassie moves her free hand from the shoulder of his shirt down in to the neck of his shirt to press her palm over the skin that covers the place where his heart beats. Her entire being shudders as her body adjusts to the rhythm of his and it feels like a piece of her that doesn't always connect has shifted and become secure. An electric zap explodes like a firework in her stomach sending sparks skittering down in to her abdomen and up through her stomach, ribs, and heart.
It's impossible for her to know what Steve feels but he makes a noise that doesn't form all the way because their mouths are still a mess of lips, and tongues, and teeth that somehow fit together without jamming. For a moment his entire body seems to fold around her and she's warm and his body against hers is solid and yet soft at the same time. Cassie thinks she might be happy to never move again.
Then there's a loud metallic clanging sound and they both jump. Cassie bites her own lip so hard she can actually taste blood and Steve cracks his head against the wall. He reaches up to rub it with a colorful swear that could only ever come from a WWII vet and if he were someone else Cassie would be worried about a concussion. As it is, Cassie thinks checking for a dent in the wall might be more to the point.
Cassie takes in a shuddery breath and runs her fingers through her hair distractedly as she tries to regulate her heart again as it no longer beats in time with his. "Gods we need to go," she moans regretfully.
A look at Steve reveals that his eyes are shut and he seems to be trying to count his breaths. "Do me a favor," he says. "Make that argument to me after you stand up."
The words and the tone he says them in makes Cassie burst out laughing. She thinks that it must be easy for people who know Steve's history as a national icon to forget that underneath all of that is a fairly normal guy from Brooklyn, and right now he's a fairly normal kid from Brooklyn with a girlfriend. The fact that that girlfriend is her kind of makes Cassie want to hum a cheerful tune.
She clambers off of his lap and almost laughs harder when Steve's fingers drag against hers like what he really wants is to pull her back down in to his lap again. "Come on," she says, standing up and brushing down her clothes. "I'm guessing you don't wan to spend more time in the headlines than you have to and I for one am not particularly eager to see my face on TMZ."
"You know that there is a very real possibility that that will happen at some point?" Steve checks as he pushes on to his feet and brushes off his own jeans.
Cassie shrugs a shoulder and scoops her bag up on to her shoulder. "I know," she says. "And to tell you the truth I'm expecting it. But I think that a few of the benefits of working for Stark will be his legal and P.R teams. When we're ready to tell people, I think we should talk to them first."
Steve regards her and a small smile has worked it's way on to his face. "That seems smart. Very logical."
"Well I know how you like to plan," Cassie says playfully. "I figure this will be a nice way for you to utilize your skills without getting shot at." They make their way to the door and are out in the hallway when Cassie says. "
"Not getting shot at might be boring," Steve says, playing along. "I might not know what to do if my life doesn't involve some danger."
Cassie cocks her head as they exit the storage facility and make their way towards where they parked the van. "Well," she says. "I suppose if the clever and controlled way of things looks to boring we can always just go for a nice walk together somewhere public with lots of teenagers and their phones on a slow news day and take our chances. Maybe we could even wear some Captain America shirts to make it obvious."
He groans at her words as they get in to the van and Steve puts it in drive. "Do you know how strange it is to have merchandise?"
Cassie frowns as she retroactively puts on her seat belt. It's a little late since the car is already moving and it won't make much of a difference to her in an accident anyway but she figures the last thing they need right now is to be in the news cycle under the header 'Captain America Ticketed by Local Cop.' "Didn't you have that in the 40s? Posters and Star Spangled Man with a Plan and all that?" The look of distaste on Steve's face at his former public catchphrase makes her break down laughing. "Gods if you could see your face right now," she says around her giggles.
Steve suffers her laughing at his expense for a minute and she thinks she can see the corners of his mouth twitching towards a smile. "Yes," he says eventually in a tone of extremely collected dignity. "There was definitely merchandising in the forties. What wasn't there in the forties was quite this level of mass production. I signed some posters, took pictures with some politicians, I never saw my face on a lunch box or-" he looks at her pointedly. "A tee shirt."
"Fair enough," Cassie concedes. They pull up in front of the hotel and she jumps out. She runs upstairs to pick up her bag and checks out at the front desk before sliding back in to the car.
"All set?" Steve asks.
Cassie nods. "Completely," she says. "Let's go get started on a new life. Big Apple here we come for- well. Not the first time for either of us I guess." She blinks over at him curiously. "When exactly was the last time you went back? Christmas?"
"Not exactly," he says. "I've had to go back and forth a few times since we exposed SHIELD to deal with the fall out. And I have a little bit of input on the design for the Tower. I don't always get along with Stark but he seems pretty invested in building an actual working base for the team. He waned to be sure we'd have everything we needed." He shrugs. "The armory and gym are pretty well equipped."
The news makes Cassie perk up a bit. Not many mortal gyms come stocked with the kind of equipment she needs to train. It's just not quite durable enough. However, if the stuff Stark has is designed for someone with the kind of strength Steve or Thor possesses then chances are good that she can get a work out in without having to hold back or put her life at risk. "Do you know if there's an archery range?" she asks as they make their way out of the city.
Steve doesn't look over at her because his eyes are on the road but his eyes flick up to meet hers in the mirror. "Well Barton is going to be living there at least part time so probably. Is that," he gestures vaguely. "Part of what you can do? I don't think I've ever heard you talk about it."
"Yeah," Cassie confirms with a nod. "Perfect aim. Something I got from my father. I guess you could call it a gift, or a blessing, but either way the ability is mine now." She shrugs, "I don't think much about how it works, but it has it's uses. Better than poetry anyway."
This time Steve really does turn to look at her despite the traffic. Cassie supposes if anyone is capable of the reflexes needed to drive safely despite distraction it's probably Steve Rogers the Super Soldier. "How expansive is it?" he asks. "Does it work with anything?"
His voice is interested and analytical and Cassie realizes that at this point it's less Steve asking his girlfriend about her past and more Captain America assessing a team mate. She answers anyway because as long as she can recognize that the dynamic as shifted she doesn't mind too much that it has. She knows she can change it back when she needs to and no matter which version of Steve she tells this to, it's still all the same man.
"Range weapons only," Cassie clarifies. "I'm kind of crap with short range stuff. Knives are okay if I'm throwing them but not so much hand to hand. I can hit anything with a gun but I don't really like to use them. Less control," she explains. "Other than that, if it's a launched projectile and I have the right launching mechanism for it, I can hit whatever I want wherever I want to." She shoots him a crooked grin that would have mad Annabeth say that her Mercury is showing. "This includes basketball by the way. Between me and Barton you might have the beginnings of a company team."
Steve cracks a grin and she knows she's managed to break the Captain America mode. "Now that's a corporate function I'd be happy to go to," he says.
For a while they kill time on the drive by chatting about the city that is about to become their new home for the second or third time in both of their lives. Cassie tells a few stories about her time in school, both in New York and California. It's a little bit trickier to do without mentioning certain things they've both non-verbals agreed not to talk about, but she manages. Steve talks a bit about his time in Brooklyn as a kid, and his perspective is fascinating to her. Cassie makes a mental note to introduce him to Nico and Hazel sometime in the future after she's figured out how to bring up the existence of other demigods.
After that they kill some more time by picking through the list of things Steve has in his journal that he still has yet to experience in the future. Cassie doesn't know who's been giving him these suggestions but some of them were definitely jokes played by Tony Stark. She's amused when Steve reveals that all of Stark's suggestions have been starred with red pen and Cassie has fun weeding through which of them are serious and which can be thrown out. She also adds on a few of her own suggestions.
It means a lot to her that Steve trusts her to go through the book like this. After the forth or fifth time she asks if he's sure about adding one of her suggestions he tells her to write in anything she wants. To her it feels like a sign of trust and it's one she files away to savor the feeling the moment brings.
Once they've got through the whole book together Cassie decides that while they have time to kill they might as well get started on the list they have. She pulls out her phone and hooks it in, connecting it to the vehicles car system. She picks a Beatles mixed album playlist and for the next hour or so the car is filled with the sound of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
When the music ends Steve is quiet for a long moment as though he's absorbing the effect. She watches his expression. This right here is what she likes about music, the way it absorbs in to a person and can make something in them shift, even for just a small moment in time. "When did that come out?" he asks. "When did they make the music?"
"They formed in nineteen-sixty in Liverpool England," Cassie tells him. "They lasted ten years. Then Yoko happened."
Steve frowns. "Who?"
"Yoko Ono," she clarifies. When Steve still looks confused she just shakes her head. "A woman one of the guys in the band married and it kind of broke up the group. Don't worry about it too much. Just know that if someone calls you the Yoko Factor it is not a compliment."
"Noted," Steve says.
He's still frowning a little in confusion and with a jolt Cassie realizes that having been born after a decade full of events and learning them second hand is different from missing the decade entirely despite having been born before it happened. The amount of blanks in Steve's personal knowledge of history for the decades he should have been able to witness first hand must be some horrible combination of frustrating, scary, and blackly-nostalgic.
Cassie reaches over and puts one of her hands on top of his where it rests on the gear shift. He flips his hand over to cradle hers and their fingers twist and interlock. "I could-" she starts and then swallows. "I could tell you more about it," she offers. "I don't know too much more off of the top of my head, but I could look some things up if you wanted to know."
She can see the denial forming on Steve's mouth before he gives the words he plans to use a voice and she tightens her grip a little. Steve glances back at her and sees her expression. Cassie doesn't know what her face looks like but it must be something outside of the norm because some of the automatic stubbornness that creeps in to his face whenever he's offered help relaxes and the rigidity in his jaw softens. Instead of refusing he nods at her. "Okay," he says. "I think- I think there's more to catching up on what I missed than just going through the music." He squeezes her hand gently and gives her a quick smile. "Tell me."
The moment feels like maybe it shouldn't be broken but it also needs to be continued so Cassie pulls her phone towards her and types a few key words in to her search engine. When she's found a solid source of information she begins to read out loud to him. She has to stop a few times as she goes to make sure she's got the words right. Cassie goes for as long as she can, but eventually she has to stop because the words and letters are swimming off the page and have started performing cartwheels in her vision.
When she explains the problem to Steve by saying he has dyslexia he doesn't seem pitying or judgmental. "What's that?" he asks.
"I don't think they had a name for it when you were growing up," Cassie tells him. "Remember when we talked about what it would have been like if I'd grown up when you did?" Steve nods. "Well, I probably would have been labeled slow or challenged," she says. "Dyslexia is just the name for my problem. It's like, there's a way letters are supposed to be configured on the page to make sense and my brain doesn't read that program. I see the letters and they don't stay where they're supposed to on the page by the time my brain starts trying to understand them," she shrugs. "It makes reading and writing a bit more complicated."
Steve frowns. "I'm sorry."
Cassie mostly brushes that off. "It's not your fault. If anything I can blame my Dad and Grandfather. The reason I'm dyslexic in the first place is that my brain was hard wired to understand Latin and Ancient Greek instead of English. To my brain, understanding English is like trying to feed in the wrong kind of code in to a computer program. You can teach the machine to read it right but originally the program just rejects it because it can't read the other coding language."
"That's," Steve looks like he doesn't quite know how to put what he wants to say in to words. "Insane."
"Pretty much," Cassie agrees easily. "A lot of things about me are. Sorry about that."
They take an exit in to New York. "Well I was frozen for nearly seventy years and ended up a national icon. Now it turns out that my best friend from the forties is actually alive with amnesia and I spend my time fighting aliens and gods and I recently brought down my own intelligence organization," Steve points out. "I can run faster for longer and lift more weight than anyone else alive. I heal in minutes and can punch through walls." He shoots her a smile. "A lot of things about me are insane too."
After a moments consideration Cassie tips her head and smiles back at him. "Our first date brining down a government agency I guess," she concludes. "Though we did go for dinner once you were out of the hospital, and I'm pretty sure dinner is normal."
"Very normal," Steve agrees. "And we've eaten take out and talked and I helped you move. According to Sam all of that's pretty normal for dating these days."
Cassie grins. "Definitely. And now we're even road-tripping with good music. According to every romantic comedy I've ever watched that's like the most normal couple thing to do. Although," she says holding up a finger. "We may need to make a stop for road food at the next rest stop."
At her words Steve throws on a blinker and changes lanes as a sign proclaims a gas station at the next exit. "I think we can make that happen."
When they reach the station Cassie pops out of the car and bounces on her toes to stretch out her legs. Ten minutes later they're both back in the car with junk food and coffee. Cassie offers to drive but Steve tells her he's enjoying it and she props her feet up on the dashboard and occupies herself by separating a bag of M&Ms in to color order and arranging them in to little patterns. She hands them to Steve a handful at a time and her organization makes hims smile. The next pattern she makes is his shield out of the multi colored candy, leaving blank spaces for the white parts.
"So I was wondering," Cassie says as they cross the bridge in to Manhattan. "Are we paid for by the government still? Or do we all work for Stark now?"
Steve shrugs. "I'm pretty sure Stark's paying for everything now," he says. "But for God's sake don't say in front of Stark that we work for him. It's going to be hard enough to deal with him once we've all moved in to the Tower. Although," he pauses as though he's just been struck by a thought. "The government does technically owe me money."
"Did they never sort out your paycheck before you went in to the ice?" Cassie asks with a smile. "Do they owe you back pay?"
She's making a joke but Steve nods seriously. "Actually they do," he says. "The government passed a law that all soldiers declared Missing or Killed in Action who were then recovered alive would be owed pay for the time they were gone for," he shrugs. "I was gone for nearly seventy years and now here I am alive and healthy. If I felt like filing the paperwork, they'd have to pay me."
Slowly Cassie begins to work through the math as she comprehends what he's actually telling her. "So that's roughly seventy years of Captain's pay on a quarterly pay scale," she says out loud. "Plus the raises you would have gotten every few years. Then adding any of the extra money you got for the parachuting and special operations training. And then adjusting everything for inflation." She concludes. "What would that even be? Like a million dollars?"
Steve shifts uncomfortably and Cassie can see the back of his neck flush red. "More like three," he mutters.
"Million?" Cassie asks, her voice coming out much more squeakily than she intends for it to. "Seriously?"
Steve is still looking uncomfortable as they approach the Tower. "A lot of that is because of the special operations training and then the inflation adjustment," he explains. "Besides, it's not like I've done the paperwork for it yet."
Cassie realizes suddenly that her mouth is hanging open a little ways and she shuts it with a click. She swallows as she absorbs this new information. Apparently, not only is she dating a real live superhero national icon, that same guy is also a millionaire. It's a lot to take in but Cassie feels pretty motivated to get over it given that the bomb she'd dropped on him when they'd first started dating was that she was a demigod. "Okay," she says finally. "Possible millionaire. Right."
A few minutes later they're pulling in to the security booth that guards the entrance to Stark's private parking garage. They're waved through after presenting identification, which in Cassie's opinion is probably not strictly necessary for Steve given that he's almost literally one of the most recognizable person on the planet. As far as she knows technology has yet to reach the point of being able to produce Mission Impossible style face masks.
Though given that she's about to start working for Tony Stark, maybe she shouldn't write off the possibility without some kind of proof. Unfortunately, proof of lack of existence generally took longer to find than proof of existence. She'd probably have to go through all of Stark's files and R&D labs to be sure and frankly that seems like a bigger time commitment than she's willing to commit.
They park the van and Steve grabs Cassie's duffle bag before she can. At this point Cassie knows better than to fight him on the gesture so she just rolls her eyes and grabs her backpack, swinging it over her shoulder. They leave the rest of her things in the car for now and Cassie suspects that Star probably has a team of movers lying in wait somewhere to swarm the vehicle once they're out of sight.
Stark's elevator is just as slick and well designed as absolutely everything else he owns and Cassie momentarily wonders at the detail of the wood paneling and chrome. She's also pretty sure the elevator music being played is ACDC. The whole experience has her hoping fervently that the entire building isn't designed with quite this much of Stark's personality involved. Cassie grateful for this job and everything that comes with it so she's willing to get over a lot, but she may have to redesign her apartment so she's not living in Starkville if she's staying long term.
As she thinks that she's distracted by the feeling of Steve taking her hand. First she looks down at their interlocking fingers and then she looks up at him. He's wearing a nervous kind of smile and she returns it. He squeezes her hand once, hesitant, asking without words if she's sure. Cassie catches sight of his reflection in the polished paneling, tall next to her own small, blurred, form. He's inclined towards her like she's centering him and Cassie shifts her hand to grip his more firmly.
For once in her life, Cassie is actually planning for the long term.
Maybe forever kind of long term.
The doors open with a ping and they both step out in to a huge space that looks like a very spacious high end lounge or living room. There's low furniture made of black leather and Cassie can see a bar down at one end of the space. If she squints she can see several long divots in the floor and decides right then and there never to ask how they got there. One wall seems to be completely made out of glass and Cassie lets herself be drawn in by the view until it looks like all of Manhattan is spread out below her.
The city seems to glitter from this high up and everything looks organized and neat. The light at this time in the day is Cassie's favorite because it makes the very air look golden. It reminds her of the glow that used to come from Cabin Seven after dark at Camp Half Blood. She closes her eyes and breaths deeply, letting the warmth spread across her skin and feels calm and centered in a way nothing else does.
She spins and beams at Steve. "This is amazing!" she says brightly. Her smile is so wide that it's actually making her cheeks hurt.
Steve isn't looking at the view though. He's staring at her looking dazed, like she's something wonderful and amazing and he can't quite believe she's real. Steve is looking at her the way she's seen Percy look at Annabeth. Like she's everything.
Cassie doesn't know what to do in the face of that kind of look so instead of speaking she holds her hand out to him and beckons him over to her. Steve puts down her duffle bag and crosses the space towards her in four long steps. Instead of taking her hand he wraps his arm around her waist and Cassie lets herself fold in to his side. She shuts her eyes and puts her head on his chest, soaking in the light and the moment and everything about it is good.
Then, as she thinks may soon become typical, the moment is smashed with the baseball bat that is Tony Stark. "Now this," he drawls from the doorway. "Is adorable. Seriously guys this," he gestures at them. "Total Hallmark moment. Do we have golden retriever puppies anywhere? Maybe a wheat field for you to go skipping through. He approaches them as he speaks and reaches out, tugging a lock of Cassie's hair where it curls loosely near her shoulder blades. Cassie swats his hand away and frowns at him with her best 'Dude what the hell' face. "God you two will have tiny little all American cherub children."
Steve frowns at the children comment but Cassie pushes past. Long experience has taught her that people who use sarcasm the way that Tony does can only be dealt with by either giving as good as you got or by being unaffected. Unfortunately both of those options go against Steve's entire nature so Cassie moves to keep everything moving before something can go wrong. "That depends," she says coolly. "Do you have a black room of alcohol and regret to set the move where you hang out?"
Her assessment is proved accurate when Stark takes the comment in stride and rolls with it. "Not a room," he corrects. "I keep a house out in Jersey for my depression and regretful angst. The rest of the time I live seven floors up from this one with Pepper there to keep me from succumbing to life's dinner things. Like alcohol and you know, fun." He claps his hands together. "Meanwhile labs R&D and your office," he says pointing at her. "Eighth floor. The rest of the Merry Men and Romanov will be living on floor twenty-two besides Banner. We had fifteen specially reinforced for anything involving the Other Guy."
Even though Cassie doesn't think isolating Dr. Banner is the best idea, she can see the wisdom to Stark's logic. Besides, if everything Steve's told her about the good doctor is true, the man probably insisted on the separation himself. She makes a mental note to herself to make sure she checks in with Banner soon and often. Cassie has the feeling that the psychology courses she took might pay off sooner than she had thought they would when she was taking them.
"Tony!" a new voice calls from the door. Cassie turns and gets her first real life viewing of Pepper Potts. The woman is as pressed and neat now as she has ever looked in magazines or on screen. She wears a business suite and a pair of pumps that are damn near tall enough to give Cassie vertigo. She walks across the floor with sure strides and her heals click loudly on the hard surface. "I hope you're playing nice," she darts at Tony as she draws even with them.
"When am I not nice," Stark demands to know.
Pepper rolls her eyes and suddenly Cassie finds herself liking this older woman even if they have only just met. "Only when you breath in, or out," she says. She extends her hand and Cassie shakes it. Peppers grip is firm and she levels Cassie with a small but genuine smile. "Pepper Potts," she introduces. "And you're Cassie Morgenstern. I've read your file." She explains before Cassie can ask.
Cassie hauls in a breath and lets it out slowly. At this point she's trying to adjust to the fact that she has a file in the first place. She guesses that like with TMZ, she's just going to have to get used to it. "Well I hope it was complimentary," she says. "Nice adjectives and all."
Her acceptance wins her a wider smile from Pepper. "I can't tell you how happy I am to have another girl around," she says candidly. "Natasha is around sometimes but not often, and she's really not one for casual conversation."
With Pepper there Tony's impulses are curbed and his energy seems more directed. She and Steve are given the quickest possible tour of the building and even having skipped several floors that solely contain garage space and labs the whole thing takes almost an hour. There's a full gym, a target range, a pool, and all of the medical equipment Cassie's ever heard of and some she's unashamed to admit she hasn't given that Stark has designed it himself. There'll be a learning curve but Cassie hasn't survived this long without being able to adapt and overcome.
Eventually Steve and Cassie are dropped off on their floor with a set of key cards and a rather suggestive wink from Stark which earns him a smack upside the head from Pepper and an apologetic look thrown their way as the elevator door slides shut. "Let's check out yours first," Cassie says, looking at the doors in front of them. Stark said that the floors where the team lives are set up with three or four apartments each. Cassie's apartment is supposedly between Steve's and Sam's. The apartment on Steve's other side is empty and no one says so but Cassie is under the impression it's reserved for Barnes when Steve finds him.
Steve unlocks his apartment door with the pass card and by pressing his palm against the door to push it open. There's a mechanized click before the door opens and they step through. As soon as they're over the threshold the lights come on inside and a smooth male British accent says. "Good evening Captain Rogers and Miss Morgenstern. Local weather in Manhattan is seventy-four degrees and sunny. Local time is seven thirty nine P.M. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask."
The voice is pleasant enough but the sound of it makes Cassie jump about a foot in to the air. "Who the Hades was that?!" She spins on the spot, looking around at the walls and ceiling to figure out where the voice had come from. "Hello? Who was just talking."
"I am Jarvis," the disembodies voice says from the ceiling. "I am an AI designed by Mr. Stark. I run the house. I can be accessed verbally from anywhere within the building. Simply address me by name and I will respond."
Cassie turns to Steve wide eyed. For his part, Steve looks like someone is repeatedly giving him paper cuts. Not really in pain, but definitely irritated and not enjoying the experience very much. "This building is run by a robot," Cassie hisses. "No one told me that this building was run by a computerized robot. Did you know that the building was run by a robot?"
Steve just shakes his head. "I knew that Tony had him in his suite and in his place down in Malibu before it got blown up. He didn't mention he was installing Jarvis here."
There's a moment of quiet for the both of them to adjust to the new addition to their living situation. Eventually Cassie shakes her head and straightens her shoulders. "Right well, I'll just pretend that there's a nice elderly British man in a fancy suite hanging out in a room upstairs being our butler or something." She puts her backpack down next to the couch and crosses to the window. It takes up the entire wall like the ones downstairs and Cassie supposes that the whole side of the building must be glass. The air-conditioning costs must be through the roof but Stark probably didn't notice little things like climate control bills.
"Oh and we are never watching Terminator while we live here." Cassie tells Steve over her shoulder. "Or that one with the computer called Hal, or Transformers. Really I don't think we should watch anything that involves machines rising up and taking over the world."
Steve just shrugs and drops her duffle bag. "I can live with that." He wanders over in to the kitchen which is really only separated form the living room by a large kitchen island surrounded by diner style stools. Cassie decides not to ask if Steve's even heard of the movies she just listed and instead flops experimentally on to the couch to see how comfortable it is.
She amuses herself for a few minutes by testing out the other furniture and finds it all to be comfortable to the point of ridiculousness. However the room set up is also basic enough that Steve can move it around and add other pieces if he wants to. Cassie wouldn't be surprised if her own apartment is a bit smaller than this, but she doesn't care. Whatever her apartment is like it's sure to be the nicest place she's ever lived in.
Next she makes her own investigation of the kitchen. The appliances are all stainless steel and the cabinets are made of warm looking reddish wood. The counters are some material Cassie can't identify by sight but it's highly polished and shiny and smooth under her fingers. An investigation of the drawers and lower cabinets reveals that they're already filled with pots, pans, dishes, glasses, and flatware. Steve must have moved all of his things in at some earlier point. Either that or Stark decided to go the extra mile to make sure the residents of his tower were well supplied.
The other cabinets are too high for Cassie to reach them from the floor so she kicks of her shoes and pulls herself up so she's perched on the counter top and through a little careful maneuvering she's able to get the first one open without falling off. Her eyebrows shoot up at the discovery that these cabinets aren't empty either. Someone's done basic grocery shopping for Steve in advance of his arrival.
"Steve!" she calls, hopping off the counter. She wanders down the hallway off of the main room, investigating as she goes. There's a closet door that when opened reveals a water and dryer unit and another one that seems to be set up as a maintenance closet. "Steve?" she calls again, more quietly this time given that she must be fairly close now. The apartment is big, and Cassie has seen Olympians bend physics to make themselves more space, but somehow she doubts Stark has that kind of pull just yet.
"In here," Steve's voice calls from a half-open door at the end of the hall.
Cassie steps through it and lets the dark polished wooden door fall shut behind her. She stops there though because this is clearly the bedroom. As is evident by the king sized mattress resting in it's fancy bed frame against the wall. However, the thing about the bed that really stops her is that it's been made up with a set of bed linens that exactly match the color and patterns of her own.
And that's not where the strangeness stops.
Cassie's bookshelves have been set up against one wall and filled with every book she'd packed from her apartment in D.C. The photo she has of her mother and grandmother is sitting framed on one of the two bedside tables. Her amazingly comfortable couch is against the wall of windows, making it a perfect place to relax in natural light and her coffee table sits in front of it.
Slowly Cassie makes her way over to wear Steve is standing frozen in front of the open doors of his closet. She has a feeling she might know what's inside of it that has him locked in to place but it's still a surprise when she sees it. Her clothes are hung up beside Steve's, her few dresses and skirts hanging near his jackets and suites. Their jackets are packed in together and her running shoes, boots, and sandals are lined up along the floor next to his sneakers and running shoes.
She swallows as she searches for words. She glances at Steve and from the look on his face she thinks he might be panicking. If she had been wondering weather this was Steve's idea, she isn't now. "Well," she says slowly. "I guess the moving people must have thought we were living together. Maybe Stark said something..." She hasn't known the man for very long but it seems like the kind of personally invasive and meddlesome thing he might do. "Or maybe the movers messed up. Hold on, I'm going to go check the hallway,"
Steve nods mutely and Cassie quickly ducks out of the room and makes her way back out through to the main room and in to the main hall of the floor. A quick inspection reveals that there are only two other doors on the floor rather than the previously alluded to three. A brief pace-off also shows that the middle apartment belonging to Steve takes up approximately twice the hall space as the other two.
With these measurements made she steps back in to the apartment and slips through the space back down the hallway to the bedroom. Steve has drifted to the window and is looking out at the city with an expression of utmost concentration like the key to the answer to his most crucial question is down there somewhere. She doesn't go to him yet and instead follows a whim and steps sideways in to the en suite bathroom. An examination of the cabinets and counter top shows that all of her toiletries have been unpacked and arranged. The sight of her shampoo sitting on the shelf beside Steve's aftershave freezes her in place for a moment, but one of the two of them has to be functional and Steve has already called the position of shocked immobility.
So, she takes a steadying breath and shuts the bathroom cabinet with a snap. She steps out and the light goes off behind her without her having to throw a switch. Cassie makes sure that her steps make noise to avoid startling Steve farther and takes a spot seated at the edge of the bed with her legs crossed beneath her. For a few interminable moments silence ticks by and Cassie counts her own heartbeats.
When she hits eighty-three her A.D.H.D kicks in and she can't come up with any more cat's cradle patterns to go through without any string to use. "So..." she says, stretching the word out in to the silence. "Do you have any kind of timeline for the power of speech? Because we probably need to have a conversation, and that might be hard without words. And since neither of us knows ASL and I don't really know where to find dry erase boards..." Steve is moving again, turning towards her and Cassie lets her words fade out.
"I'm sorry," Steve says, his voice seems to crack a little at the lack of use over the last few minutes. "I don't mean to make anything more-" he gestures vaguely around them to the space that has somehow become set up as the both of theirs instead of just his. "I don't know what to do right now."
Cassie throws up her hands. "Well I don't either!" she says. "Stark apparently decided that we were living together before we did and converted two apartments on this floor in to one big one so one of those doors off of the living room probably goes to a guest room and somewhere around here there is almost definitely office space and my couch is here in front of your window and my clothes are in your closet and my shampoo is next to your aftershave and until now I didn't even know what kind of aftershave you used until ten minutes ago..."
She's ranting and she knows it but now that she's started talking and the words are coming out she doesn't think she can make them stop. Steve is now moving again and he reaches her in two steps. He kneels down in front of her on the floor and grips her hands. His grip is just on this side of too tight and the pressure is grounding so Cassie grips back. If her mini-freak out has accomplished one thing it's that Steve can now have a turn being the calm one.
"What do you want to do?" Steve asks quietly. "I can talk to Stark. We'll figure it out." Cassie hauls in a breath and exhales on a ten count because Steve is now in fixer mode and while that's clearly more comfortable for him it doesn't leave her a relaxation method. Feeling her pulse slow by a few beets, she decides to share the calm and grips Steve's wrists. She concentrates for a moment and can actually feel his pulse lower as hers does. She can hear Steve's own shaken exhale and looks up from their hand to find the his gaze is still fixed on their hands. "How did you do that?" he asks, not looking up yet. "Just now. What was it?"
Cassie blinks and shifts her hand so that her thumbs can move over his wrists, noting that the previously pounding rhythm is now a gentler beat. "Apollo," she explains as evenly as she can. "He's the god of music along with... everything else. Music is mostly about the rhythm of sound," She shrugs feebly because the explanation sounds weak even to her. "I guess it's called a heartbeat for a reason." As though she's looking at someone else, she notices that her hands have started shaking a little. "I didn't know that I could do that."
Steve's hands move, steadying her own. "Does that happen often?" he asks. "New abilities?"
"Not since I was about seventeen," she admits. "That was when everything was most weird for me. Puberty was a really major suck fest. I grew six inches in two years and kept tripping over stuff. And kept accidentally setting things on fire."
That gets Steve to crack a smile and he leans forwards and lifts her hands, kissing where her pulse throbs at the base of her wrists. "You still haven't said what you want," he says quietly. "With Stark," he clarifies. "I can go find him now and get the movers back in. Or-" he stops and Cassie's newly calmed heart skips a beat. She raises an eyebrow at him in a silent prompt for him to keep going. "Or we can figure it out tomorrow," Steve finishes. "We can go find some food and sleep on things. And maybe you could," he stops and swallows. "Stay?"
Cassie untangles one of her hands and brushes it through his hair. "Are you asking me to move in with you?" She asks it straight out because she needs to be sure. This moment and this question are important and there doesn't seem to be room for grey areas or misinterpretation.
Steve begins to open his mouth but Cassie stops him by holding up a hand. "Because that's what it wounds like and if you are then I need you to be really sure you want me to live here because I am an honestly terrible roommate. I am loaded with emotional baggage and family problems and I keep insane hours. And clearly I talk a lot when I'm trying not to freak out and for the two of us to have done this when you first could have been doing this we would have had to have been married already! Because I know we don't really bring it up much which is fine but you did become an adult in the forties-"
She doesn't know what she would have said next but it ends up not mattering because Steve's mouth is covering hers and his free hand is on her knee and he's standing to shift the height differential so Cassie ends up tipping her head back to continue their kiss. His other hand works free of hers and tangles in the hair near the base of her neck, his thumb moving softly over the edge of her jaw.
When he pulls away he does it slowly and leaves his forehead pressed against hers. "I have never been happier to not be in the God damned forties," he says fervently, his breath hot against her skin. "In the forties I'd never have met you. You wouldn't have looked at me twice or we'd both be dead and I couldn't have done this," he punctuates the words with another kiss and it's at the same time lighter and more feverish than the last.
This time when he backs away they're both breathing hard and Cassie has no idea what to say or how to sort out the million thoughts that are running through her head. "Being frozen," Steve murmurs. "Alien invasions, Hydra, SHIELD... meeting you was worth all of that. So, whatever we do next is up to you. If you want your own apartment I'll go talk to Stark now. If you want to put off dealing with any of this until tomorrow then we wait until to tomorrow. If you want to stay here with me then I will be privileged enough to find out if you talk in your sleep, and we can burn everything while we try to figure out how to cook in that absurdly large kitchen together." The next kiss he gives her is on her forehead and Cassie stands up on to her knees to wrap her arms around his neck and lean in to his chest.
She buries her head in to his shoulder and the scent of his now recognizable aftershave fills her noise when she breaths in. Her mind races and she thinks of Annabeth and Percy together in their apartment and Hazel and Frank in the specially converted barracks they have at camp. She thinks of Selena and Beckendorf and her brother Michael and all of the kids she's known who died before they turned twenty.
And Cassie makes a choice.
"I guess all of my stuff is here already," she mutters in to Steve's shoulder. "It would be a lot of work to move all of it out now."
Cassie doesn't even have to lift her head to know that Steve is smiling. A tension she hadn't realized he was holding seems to relax and the ridges of muscle in his chest soften just slightly. "Thank you," he murmurs, and it's so quiet Cassie wonders if she actually heard it or not.
"What for?" Cassie murmurs. "My unbelievable boyfriend just asked me to move in with him in to an apartment that probably costs more than my entire experience in medical school."
Steve pulls back far enough to look at her. "Thank you, because an amazing girl just agreed to move in with a kid from Brooklyn," he says. He's looking at her with an expression that Cassie can only label as adoration and it's never a look that's been leveled at her before. She's dated guys who have looked at her with affection, or care, or any of a million other positive emotions, but Steve is looking at her like she's hung the moon and if her aunt hadn't almost literally done just that, it would seem so unbelievably big that it would be terrifying.
Well...
Okay.
It is, still, a little terrifying.
A/N: So what did you guys think. I know this chapter was a little bit slower than others, but I wanted it to be a bit more relationship development than plot work. Next chapter will be Cassie settling in to the Tower and meeting the rest of the team. I knew eventually I wanted Steve and Cassie to end up living together and this just seemed like a good way to do it. Have I gone insane? I can always edit, besides this is my Fanfic. Writing Cassie freaking out was kind of fun because she's so calm about everything else. I thought a good freakout over something that's basically normal might be humanizing. And warranted. Anyway, hit the button and tell me what you thought. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo