So, Tony is getting a lot better at this dad thing, but Bucky and Sam decide that he may not be quite ready to supervise Steve without any supervision of his own.
Sam and Bucky stepped out of the elevator into the main living quarters—they'd been off on a mission, and Sam had to admit, he was a little surprised Steve wasn't waiting at the bottom of the stairs for them like he usually was, although they were back a little early. It had been a quick one—it had to be, since Bucky refused to do overnight missions anymore with Little Steve waiting back at the Tower.
"Little quiet for the middle of the afternoon," Sam commented, looking around the empty living room.
"Yeah," Bucky agreed. "Maybe—"
Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a yell coming from down the hallway, getting louder as it got closer. It wasn't a yell of pain or anger or anything bad, it was just…noise. "Is that Steve?" Sam asked. It was high-pitched enough, it could hardly be anyone but their resident nine-year-old, but Sam was having trouble recalling having ever heard the little guy yell.
"Sounds like it," Bucky said, sounding like he was reminding himself not to worry just yet. They peered into the hallway the yelling was coming from, and a tiny streak of denim and plaid shot by. Steve was halfway across the living room before he spotted them.
"Bucky!" he declared happily, spinning around and running back at them. "You're back!" He collided with Bucky's midsection with an audible whump.
"Yeah," Bucky said, wheezing just a little bit.
"And Sam!" Steve exclaimed, turning and giving Sam an equally enthusiastic hug. "Hi, Sam!"
"Hey, man," Sam said, patting his head.
"What are you doing?" Bucky asked, nodding back at the hallway Steve had come dashing in from.
"I'm runnin'!" Steve said, bouncing on his toes. "You ever just, just feel like you gotta run?" He was talking with his hands, which Sam had only seen him do a couple of times, but they were waving so fast Sam wondered just how much control he had over the motion.
"I guess," Bucky allowed. "Sometimes." He shot a curious look at Sam. They all knew kids needed sunshine and exercise and space to play, and they were pretty good about making sure Steve got it. Seeing as they'd just spent yesterday afternoon in the park, though, it seemed a little early for the little guy to be getting stir-crazy.
"So, there's nothing wrong?" Bucky clarified.
"Nuh uh," Steve replied, still bouncing.
"What was with the yelling?" Sam wondered.
"I was yellin'?" Steve asked, but before Sam could do more than nod, he shrugged. "I guess I'm just excited."
"Alright," Sam said, still a little puzzled. "Well, keep running, I guess."
Steve grinned and jumped and was off like a shot down the opposite hallway. "Welcome back!" he yelled before disappearing around the corner.
Sam looked at Bucky. "Well, that was different."
"Yeah," Bucky agreed, staring curiously down the hall Steve had run into. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., is this…is there anything I need to know?"
"Captain Rogers' heart rate is a bit elevated, but not to a dangerous level," the A.I. replied. "I believe he is simply particularly energetic today."
"Alright," Bucky said, still sounding confused.
"Kids do that sometimes," Sam said, remembering similar occasions with his nephews. "Maybe he had a lot of sugar at lunch." He did have to laugh as he left for his room to get a shower and heard Steve dash through the living room again, having resumed his yelling.
When Sam got out of the shower, Steve was in the living room again, jumping up and down on one of the couches. "Hey, man," Sam greeted.
"Hi!" Steve replied.
"I don't know if Tony wants you jumping on his couch," Sam pointed out. Not that Steve was heavy enough to cause any damage, but it was a couch Tony had bought, so it was expensive. He was also a little surprised, figuring it was not good 1920's manners to jump on the furniture.
"Mr. Tony said," Steve began, bending his knees for a big jump and spinning in a circle while he was airborne. "That I could do whatever I wanted as long as I was outta the lab." Another large jump and a spin. "I figure that makes jumpin' on the couch okay. Look how high I can go!"
"He kicked you out of his lab?" Sam asked.
"Uh huh," Steve said, panting a little bit as he kept jumping.
"What'd you do?" Sam wondered, raising a curious eyebrow.
"Nothin'," Steve replied. He clambered up on the arm of the couch and flung himself down onto the cushions, bouncing back up with a giggle. "But he didn't want me runnin' around in there. Nope, nope, nope." He jumped again, bounced off the cushions, and took off down the hall.
"Okay," Sam said, pointing to where Steve disappeared as Bucky walked back into the room. "That kid is hyper as hell."
"Did I hear him say Stark kicked him out of his lab?" Bucky clarified.
"Yeah."
"NYYYYEEEOOOWWW!" Steve yelled, running back through the room with his arms out like wings and making airplane noises. He ran in a circle around Bucky, and then disappeared into the hall again.
Sam snorted—this was weird, but it was kind of hilarious.
"Well, I can see why he wouldn't want that in the lab," Bucky said, smiling just a little himself.
"Oh, hey, guys," Tony said, coming in from the elevator. "Thought you weren't going to be back until dinner."
"Things actually went without any hitches for once," Sam said. Which was nice for a change.
"Cool. So, um, I should probably warn you—"
Steve dashed by again, still making airplane noises. This time, he had a bath towel tied around his neck like a cape.
Tony sighed. "I guess he hasn't calmed down yet, huh?"
"No," Bucky said. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Did you do this?"
"Um…"
"Stark," Bucky growled.
Steve ran by again, still wearing his towel cape and singing, if Sam wasn't mistaken, 'Ride of the Valkyries'.
Tony looked like he wanted to laugh, though he sobered quickly under what was fast turning into a Winter Soldier glare. "I might be partially responsible for this," he admitted. "A little."
"Stark."
"Alright, in my defense, I haven't actually slept in thirty-seven hours."
"I don't know if that's a good defense," Sam pointed out.
"It's relevant," Tony replied, waving a hand dismissively. "I was in the zone on my new project, right, and I didn't want to lose my groove, so I just didn't go to bed last night. Anyway, little guy comes down like he does and we're chatting, and like I said, I'm tired, so I wasn't quite thinking straight, and I…might have let him have some coffee."
Steve ran back into the room, jumping up and running across the couch, then leaping over to the next one, towel cape flapping behind him. He made a circle of the furniture, jumped up into the air with a spin and a flourish, yelled, "Ka-pow!" when he landed, and ran off again.
Sam totally failed at hiding his amused snort, though he did try for Bucky's sake, who looked torn between laughing and exploding at Tony.
"You gave him coffee?" Bucky demanded.
"Yeah," Tony said. "He's been like this for almost an hour. Spangles is on a major caffeine high."
"An hour?" Sam clarified. "How much coffee did you give him?"
"Well, it was kind of a big cup, and he drank the whole thing—"
Bucky sighed and threw his head back and Tony raised his hands defensively.
"I'm sorry, alright? I wasn't paying attention." Tony sighed. "As long as we're admitting things, I should probably go ahead and get out of the way that it was espresso."
Bucky sighed and pressed a hand to his temple. "Stark, I swear—"
"I know, I know," Tony said. "But look, as soon as he started bouncing off the walls, I realized what happened, and I sat him down—practically had to hold him down—and had F.R.I.D.A.Y. do a comprehensive scan."
"Captain Rogers' vitals are all within acceptable levels," the A.I. chimed in.
"Acceptable in a textbook, or acceptable for Steve specifically?" Bucky clarified. Sam was wondering the same thing.
"Acceptable for his current physiology specifically," F.R.I.D.A.Y. responded, just a tad crisply.
"I shouldn't have done it, but it's not going to hurt him," Tony said. "I checked. And rechecked. And checked again," he said seriously, and Bucky nodded. Occasional lack of sound judgement aside, Sam knew Tony took Little Steve's wellbeing just as seriously as the rest of them did—and he'd only gotten even more protective after the mango thing. If Tony said Steve would be fine, then they could trust that.
"So, what, we just wait for him to come down?" Sam asked.
"Pretty much," Tony said.
Steve dashed back into the room, climbed up the nearest couch, and launched himself through the air onto Sam's back. "Hiya, Sam!" he said, flinging his arms around Sam's neck to catch himself and making him stagger forward under the impact.
"Hey, dude," Sam coughed, reaching up to pat his arm. "How's it going?"
"Awesome!" Steve enthused. "Hey, did you know?" he started, bouncing himself up and down as he spoke. "Did you know there's an animal called a narwhal? It's a whale with a horn! Like a sea unicorn!"
"That's cool," Sam said, trying to maintain his balance as Steve continued to bounce.
"And!" Steve continued. "And! And! And! There's a squid that lives down deep in the ocean! So deep, there's no lights or nothin'! And it's even bigger than this whole living room!" He stopped bouncing long enough to lean forward to see if Sam was as impressed with this information as he was.
"Giant squid, right?" Sam asked.
"Yeah!" Steve confirmed, resuming his bouncing. Bucky laughed and tried to hide it behind his hand when Sam glared at him. "I was readin' about 'em this mornin'! You know, my fish book from the library?"
"Uh huh."
"Can you imagine a squid so big as that?" Steve asked. "It could just…" He made a weird sucking noise that Sam assumed had something to do with tentacles and suckers, swinging his legs up and locking them around Sam's waist in demonstration. "…and grab you right up! And its one eyeball is bigger than my whole head!"
"Yeah, that's pretty cool, but you know what? You need to stop bouncing, or you're gonna knock me over," Sam said.
"Okay," Steve said, not sounding the least bit put out about being told to stop. He let go of Sam and dropped down to the floor, landing with a roll and getting a little tangled in his towel cape before he popped back up. "Bye!" he exclaimed, and he ran off into the hall again.
"Wow," Bucky said.
"Ow," Sam complained, rubbing his neck. The kid weighed, like, fifteen pounds, but Sam was pretty sure his enthusiastic bouncing was going to leave a bruise or two. "How long is this supposed to last?" he asked Tony.
Tony shrugged.
"That's helpful, thanks."
The coffee high ended up going for another half hour or so. Sam and Bucky settled into a couple of the chairs in the living room and just watched as Steve made his laps around the Tower. He would occasionally deviate from his running to jump on the furniture, spin in circles until he fell over, or try to coerce one of them to come run with him, though he never stood still enough to get an actual answer. He would yell or sing or make his airplane noises, and Sam could have sworn at one point he was making elephant sounds.
"So, from here on out, no more coffee for Steve, ever," Bucky declared.
"Did pre-serum adult Steve drink coffee?" Sam wondered. He knew caffeine didn't do anything for Big Steve anymore, but he wondered how much of an effect it would have without the serum.
"Not really," Bucky said. "He said it was too bitter, but it did hype him up pretty good. Nothing like this, though," he added with a chuckle as Steve shot by again. He was going awfully fast, but Sam didn't think he was wearing a shirt anymore. "Mostly just made his hands shaky if he had more than a cup. Then he met Peggy, and he gave up coffee altogether and became kind of a tea snob."
Sam laughed. He would definitely categorize Big Steve as a tea snob. The little guy didn't seem to be too picky about what he drank. Sam did wonder how much sugar Tony (who liked his coffee sweet) had put in it, and if that was affecting Steve's hyperactivity too.
"Is something the matter with our young Captain?" Thor asked, walking in from the direction of the elevator and sounding worried. "He has just run past me shrieking and waving his arms in the air, but he was gone before I could ask what the trouble was."
"No, he's fine," Bucky said. "Stark gave him coffee."
"The delicious morning brew?" Thor asked. "I don't understand why it should affect him thus."
Bucky went on to explain how caffeine worked in the human body and why it was making Steve so energetic. It took a little while for Thor to understand—caffeine didn't seem to affect him either—but once he did, he was laughing merrily.
"Speaking of our tiny little hyperactive friend," Sam said, noticing how quiet it was. "It's been, like, ten minutes since he ran by."
"Awful quiet too," Bucky said. There was no yelling or pounding of little feet. He looked at Sam. "Maybe it finally wore off."
Curiously, the three of them got up and split off into the different branches of the hallway to see if they could find him. Sam found him curled up on the rug outside of Natasha's room. His head was pillowed on the towel he'd been using as a cape, and he was missing his shirt, one shoe and one sock (although, not from the same foot). He was fast asleep.
F.R.I.D.A.Y. would have alerted them if Steve's heart had gotten overworked or something and he'd passed out, so this really was just sleep, accompanied by exhausted snoring and just a little bit of drooling. Sam crouched down in front of him, smiling. "Finally ran out of steam, huh, little buddy?" he asked softly. He couldn't resist pulling out his phone and snapping a few pictures—not for blackmail or anything, it was just that cute—then he picked him up carefully and headed back to the living room. Steve made a contented little snuffling sound and nuzzled his head into Sam's chest, and Sam smiled fondly and hugged him a little tighter.
"Found him," Sam said quietly, coming back into the living room. "He was asleep on the floor outside Natasha's room."
Bucky laughed. "Crashed hard, huh?"
"Looked like it. Though he did take time to make a pillow out of his cape."
"You're ridiculous, Stevie," Bucky said, reaching up a hand to ruffle Steve's hair softly. He nodded down to one end of the couch. "Why don't you put him over there? I'll go see if I can find his shirt, and we'll let him sleep it off."
So, coffee and the little guy turn out to be a very interesting combination.
Up next, there's a fancy party, and Steve gets to wear a suit.