Authors Note: Hi, thanks for reading. I won't be adding content notes per chapter, so please be aware now that there will be highly graphic and explicit sexual content in later chapters. If you are under the legal age for viewing such material in your country, please navigate away now. Taking the time and effort to feed back is always appreciated, please help me to become a better writer!
These characters and property belong to Marvel, not me, and this work is in no way claiming ownership of, or profiting from my use of them in this fan fiction.
"JARVIS?"
"Yes Sir?"
"Do the thing would you?"
"Certainly Sir, Captain Rogers is in the Melee gym suite. The punching bags Sir"
Tony let out a sigh. He dropped into his chair and propped his elbows on his lab workbench. Resting his chin on his fists, he sighed again, his brow furrowing.
"Sir" JARVIS said levelly, not asking.
"Yes JARVIS?"
"This is the twenty sixth time you've enquired as to the Captain's whereabouts in the last two weeks"
"Yes JARVIS, I know"
"Would you like me to reclassify him as a security threat?"
"What?! No. No!"
"Well, then perhaps you'd like to tell me why you are using my tracking sensors to cyber stalk him, sir?"
Tony's mouth fell open. Looking up at the shifting holographic globe that was his AI's avatar, he gaped, lost for words.
"I'm- JARVIS! I'm not- why would...ugh!"
The projection stilled for a moment, then resumed its shifting. Clearly it was willing to wait him out, and a battle of wills against an ageless sentient computer was a losing battle indeed. Tony scoffed at the machine, "Ugh, fine. I'm not stalking him JARVIS, I'm just worried. When he got defrosted, he seemed fine at first, seemed excited to dive into missions and do the hero shit, but...I don't know. He's been moping. Hiding I guess. He's always either in his room, or down in the gym slapping those punching bags off their chains. I figured he'd wanna get out there, see the brave new world and all that, you know?"
JARVIS let out a sound of consideration, then fell silent for a beat.
"Well? Out with it Pinnochio"
"Perhaps his temporal displacement has resulted in a consumptive ennui, brought about by the loss of his brain's familiar sources of positive neurochemical stimulation?
"What?" Tony asked flatly.
"Perhaps he is lonely," Offered the AI.
"Uhhh, ok?" said Tony, lacking the awareness to fill in the next step in the social formula.
"Perhaps you should go and talk to him" The AI threaded his tone with just enough strain that even Tony would pick up on the cue "Instead of using biometric trackers to obsess over his whereabouts and activities from the isolation of your lab"
"You've been talking to Pepper again haven't you?" Tony shot back sullenly.
"We may have had a brief exchange on the subject of mental health protocols. Or two." JARVIS replied with an evasive tone.
"Well don't. My mental health doesn't need protocolling, jesus. And you can tell her as much the next time she decides to tinker with you. Why would I want a goddamn electric nursemaid? Look, see me, I'm getting up, alright? It's my idea, I want to do it. I'll go talk to him. Not that I'll be able to do much good about it. He doesn't even like me!"
"Via the kitchen Sir, I set a pot of the Captain's favorite blend brewing while you ahh, deliberated?" Stalking out of the glass paneled room like an offended cat, Tony made his way toward the elevator, cursing under his breath about motherboards and high octane blowtorches.
Tony entered the gym to the thump of fists against sandbag, grunts, and the sight of Captain America in red jersey shorts and a sweat soaked grey vest. Jesus, he thought to himself, does the guy even know how sexy that is? Brushing the thought off, he called out with a little more awkwardness than he'd have liked,
"Hey! Rogers, what'd that bag ever do to you huh?" Wincing at himself, Tony gritted his teeth into a smile,
"I'm just training. What can I do for you stark?" The man replied, wary but courteous. Christ he must really dislike me, thought Tony.
"I ahh, was just making some coffee and thought you might like some. Here" Their fingertips brushed each other's palms as Tony handed one of the mugs to the soldier.
"Thank you, that's kind of you Tony. How come you aren't holed up in your lab?" The Captain's mood lightened considerably as he took a sip, and realised it was just as he took it.
"Oh, I've just been thinking; I don't know why I ever imagined it would be a good idea to build an all seeing, learning capable, self aware robot butler in my home, and then give my ex girlfriend access to it's programming functions"
"Ah, the missus giving you trouble Stark?" Steve smirked.
"If by missus, you mean JARVIS, then yes. He's been on my back about something I-'' Tony cut himself off abruptly as his genius IQ brain caught up with his mouth, realising that the obvious follow up would be what exactly Javis was hassling him about, "Coffee!" he blurted, pointing at the mug he'd brought to Steve. "I uhh, I keep leaving the used coffee grounds in the machine and it drives him up the wall you know? That's all"
"Doesn't it empty automat-"
"Anyway, so what about you Iceman, what are you up to down here?" He interrupted, knowing the nickname would be irritating enough to distract the Captain. It didn't have the expected effect of riling the man up though. Instead, Steve paused for a moment, his face slack and eyes shuttered.
"Just keeping the old skills sharp I guess" he muttered "Never know when the world's gonna need a big dumb chunk of muscle to jump into an ocean"
"Oh…jeez. I-"
"Forget it" Steve interrupted, his head shooting up. "Look, thanks for the coffee, really. I'm gonna hit the shower"
Tony sighed, watching as the larger man slipped past him with surprising grace, and turned away down the hall.
"Well shit. I guess he's really gonna hate me now"
Tony passed the next couple of days up in his lab, avoiding the others in the tower. It wasn't hard, given that Nat was the only one who was likely to seek him out for anything other than Avengers shit. Put plainly, he was sulking. It was easy to charm and banter with rich, stupid socialites when he was being Tony Stark, CEO, philanthropist and tech genius, but he knew he was bad with people on a genuine human level. The evidence of that playing out in his attempts to connect with the Captain stung. He felt vindicated in his belief that he'd been right to stay in his lab, alone, where he belonged. And that made his sulking all the richer. He spent much of the time working on his suit, and threatening to shred JARVIS's code for making him embarrass himself like that. He was just in the middle of one such rant, tinkering with a repulsor, when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. He turned, a small magnetic screwdriver clamped between his lips, to see Steve Rogers, standing at the plate glass door, two mugs in one hand, the other raised to knock again. Staring in shock, until the Captain raised an eyebrow and lifted the mugs a little, he snatched the screwdriver out of his mouth and threw it across the room. Rushing over to the door,, he entered the code into the pad, as it also scanned his fingerprint, and checked his biometric readings. Opening up, he said blankly "Hi!" His surprise overriding his already poor manners.
"Hi. I brought you some coffee"
"Coffee? For me?" Tony slapped himself mentally. Wake up dummy, he thought to himself. Steve just laughed softly.
"Yes, coffee! For you. It sounds like you need it. Well…can I come in?"
"Oh, yeah, sure! Come on" he gestured into the lab, taking the coffee Steve slipped into his hand as he passed by. "Sit anywhere, but uh…touch nothing. Some volatile experiments…well, mistakes laying around"
"Noted" Steve grimaced as he glanced around at some of the menacingly glowing contraptions. He couldn't guess at what a single one was supposed to do, and wasn't entirely sure he'd want to know.
"You know, I've always wanted to see inside here. I wonder what you get up to when you stay up all night, locked away in here" Tony was taken aback, he hadn't thought he'd enter the Captain's head for a moment, outside of Avengers business, let alone that he'd have paid attention to the hours he kept.
"Oh, really? Cool. Cool…well, you're welcome up here any time you're like. I could give you the do/don't touch tour of it all if you like some time" his eyes widened a little at Steve's soft chuckle. He realised he hadn't ever heard the man laugh outright. He wondered how it would sound, and what his eyes would look like as he did.
"Sure Tony, I'd like that. I ahh, I actually came up here though to apologise. I think I snapped at you a little the other day. I've just been having some trouble…adjusting I guess"
"Nah, well maybe a little" Tony risked a small joke "No, really it's all good. I have a tendency to be a little insensitive. JARVIS tells me so all the time. And that's coming from a computer" Steve smiled, showing some teeth. Spurred on, Tony continued "I'm sorry you're not feeling great. I had noticed" the soldier's eyebrows raised a little at that, but Tony didn't clock it "I guess I just thought about how cool it would be to basically leap 70 years into the future. All the crazy advances, the new technology. I didn't really think about the rest of it. Leaving behind.. everything"
"Yeah. Seems like everyone thinks of it differently. An escape, a fresh start, an opportunity, a loss, a noble sacrifice" he finished the last with a mocking tone "but honestly it's a little of most of those. I don't know how to feel, but it's a lot."
Absorbing this for a moment, Tony spoke slowly, unsure when it came to giving personal advice.
"Well, I don't know what that's like, but I imagine, I mean, if it were me; I guess I'd wanna get out there and see it. So far everything is strange and different, but that's just the world right? You can go to another country and everything can feel new and overwhelming, and the people might have different ways, but underneath it, they're just people too. Same hardware right?" At the Captain's slightly puzzled look, he continued "uhh, same basic make up right? Some stuff is gonna have changed, and you might miss some of that, but why don't you go find out what's still the same, and what new things are good, and exciting"
Looking at the floor, his lips pressed together, Steve's brow furrowed, his eyes tight. Tony held his breath, afraid he might have said something wrong, again. Looking up at the ceiling, the broad man exhaled deeply, shook out his shoulders, as if shaking off a weight, and looked Tony in the eyes.
"You know what Stark?" Tony tensed "that is actually some really good advice" startled, Tony blinked.
"Uhh, it is?"
Steve laughed, a shade deeper and fuller than Tony had heard before, and he was surprised to find how much it broadened his own smile into a wide grin.
"Yeah tin man, it is. Why are you so surprised?"
Tony blustered, still off balance. How did the Captain keep doing that to him?
"I don't know. I guess I just don't do this a lot" gesturing between the two of them "You know the personal talk stuff"
"Sounds like maybe you could use a little of your own advice. Aren't you supposed to be a genius or something?" Steve ribbed gently.
"Yeah, but I guess statistical modeling based off of theoretical mathematics doesn't make for great interpersonal relationships. At least, not according to Pepper"
"Well maybe you're not as bad at it as you think. Try switching that big brain off every now and again. Anyways, I'll let you tinker, mad scientist. And thanks for the advice" Steve stretched as he stood, and gave the other man a playful cuff on the shoulder as he walked by. Returning to his work, Tony found he was smiling to himself, before he was interrupted by a small hum from JARVIS.
"What?" He asked in a weary tone. The computer only used non verbal vocalisations when he was trying to irritate his creator.
"Sir?"
"What is it? You made a hmm noise, what do you wanna say? Huh?"
"Oh, nothing sir, just collating new data"
"Ugh. Fuck off JARVIS"