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Steve yawned and pushed himself into a sitting position, and only took him a fraction of a second to orient himself. Mostly because he'd never stayed anywhere this nice before, not even when he was on tour with the USO. The sun was just breaking over the horizon, and he took a few minutes to admire the view before freshening up and heading into his living area. "JARVIS?"
"Yes, Captain Rogers?"
"Has Bruce left for his lab yet?"
"Dr. Banner is still asleep."
"Ah." He probably should have expected that; the serum wouldn't let him go without sleep indefinitely, but it did allow him to function on less per night than the average person. "Are there any grocery stores near here?" he asked after a minute. As long as Tony had seen fit to provide a kitchen, there was no reason that he shouldn't use it, and his stomach was telling him that it was time for breakfast.
"The closest is two miles away and there are two others within five miles," JARVIS replied. "We do have a manned kitchen in the tower that would be happy to send up whatever you would like, though."
Again with the food delivery. Steve shook his head. "Thank you, but I'd like to pick up some supplies."
"As you wish. Would you care to see a map?"
"Please."
The television came to life again, three dots appearing around the tower in the center, and Steve memorized the route to the closest one quickly. It also appeared to be the smallest, but while a ten mile morning run sounded refreshing, running half of it while carrying a carton of eggs, a bottle of milk, and a variety of sandwich supplies sounded much less so. If only because the eggs would never survive. Bruce's kitchen had had pots and utensils and things, and after confirming that his did as well he turned for the door.
"Would you let Bruce known that I've gone out if he leaves for his lab before I return?" he asked as he stepped into the common room.
"Of course. Are you planning to take your motorcycle?"
"No, I'll just walk."
JARVIS took him down to the garage anyway, and Steve realized why when he noticed the unobtrusive staircase leading up and out the back of the building. It wasn't the same entrance he'd used yesterday to bring his motorcycle in, it led to an alley rather than the street proper, but that was much less attention-grabbing than going out through the lobby. Although he suspected that if he wasn't on JARVIS' approved list the heavy exterior door would never open for him no matter how he fought it.
It only took a minute to reach the street from the alley, and somehow despite his time in traffic yesterday he'd forgotten how crowded New York could be. It might be early, but there were already more than enough people out that he was glad that he hadn't planned on a run because even the joggers weren't moving particularly quickly. He'd never have been able to build up any speed while dodging all of the pedestrians.
Supplies were even more expensive at the little shop than they had been in the country, but no one else seemed to think it was unusual so he kept his mouth shut and handed over almost half of his remaining cash. He was going to have to find some sort of job soon if he didn't want to rely on SHIELD while he was staying in the city.
The trip back to the tower was even slower since the number of people on the street had easily doubled during his short time in the store, and he made a mental note to find somewhere off-street to run. The apartment SHIELD had put him in had been far enough off the beaten path that he was able to run outdoors in the early morning or late evening, but that obviously wasn't going to be the case around here. As it was he nearly ran into a woman walking her dog when the foot traffic in front of him suddenly slowed even further, and after an apology that she didn't even acknowledge he followed the gaze of the crowd upwards to see a form rocketing across the sky towards the ocean. With the sun behind it he couldn't make out much, but given that it was a flying metal suit…well, apparently he wouldn't be seeing Tony today after all.
The crowd picked up its pace again a few seconds later—even Iron Man wasn't enough to distract New Yorkers from their morning routines for very long—and Steve continued to move at their pace until he was able to escape down the steps into the tower.
"Did you find everything that you were looking for, Captain Rogers?" JARVIS asked as he stepped back into the elevator.
The elevator began to rise as he spoke, and Steve nodded. "I did, thank you. And Steve is fine."
"Of course, Captain Rogers." There was a minute of silence as the elevator continued to rise, but it came to a halt sooner than Steve had expected. "A moment, please."
The door opened on a room that Steve hadn't seen before, but he didn't have the opportunity to look around because Tony, his arms crossed across his chest and his head hanging, stepped inside as soon as they were open.
"Tony?"
Tony looked up and then blinked slowly. "JARVIS, what's the probability that Captain America is standing in my elevator versus the probability of me hallucinating that Captain America standing in my elevator?"
"There is a 100 percent probability that Captain Rogers is standing in your elevator. However given your lack of sleep and adequate nutrition of late, there is also a three percent chance that you are hallucinating."
"Hm." He blinked again. "Well, three percent is three percent." He unfolded enough to free a hand and poke Steve's arm.
"Tony?" Steve repeated.
"So you're not a hallucination. That's good. Hello."
"Hello," Steve returned, automatically shaking the hand proffered in greeting. "Are you okay?" He realized the absurdity of the question as soon as the words were out of his mouth and rephrased. "What's wrong?"
Tony stepped back, turning to put his back against the side of the elevator as it began to rise again, and waved his hand vaguely. "Nothing to worry about. Just a little short on sleep. For some reason the third day is always the hardest."
"You've been awake for three days?" Steve had done that sort of thing a few times, generally after an extended string of skirmishes when someone had to stand watch even though it was highly unlikely that the enemy had anyone still capable of conscious thought either, but he couldn't imagine why Tony would be doing that to himself here and now.
"Sixty-seven point six hours, to be precise," JARVIS said before Tony could answer. "And, you haven't eaten anything in over thirty nine hours, sir."
"I have so," Tony objected. "I ate whatever that…thing…was that Rhodey threatened to force down my throat if I didn't chew and swallow for myself." He paused. "I think there was cheese."
"That was a burrito, and that was thirty-nine hours ago."
"I've had coffee."
"Miss Potts has made it clear on numerous occasions that coffee is not to be considered food."
"Maybe you should eat something and get some sleep," Steve suggested when Tony looked inclined to continue the argument. He wanted to talk to Tony, but he also wanted him fully conscious for the conversation, and right now he was a little bit concerned that Tony was going to fall over right in front of him.
"Definitely the plan, Dr. Cap, although probably not in that order." Tony yawned and then shook his head quickly, and when he opened his eyes again a moment later he seemed slightly more alert. "When did you get here? Did JARVIS get you set up with whatever you need?"
"Yes, I'm—everything is swell. And I got here yesterday, I was just out getting some groceries." He held up the bags he was carrying.
"Groceries?" He looked vaguely alarmed. "JARVIS, what's wrong with the kitchen?"
"The kitchen is in perfect working order." The elevator came to a halt, opening on a bright room that Steve hadn't seen before. "My apologies, Captain Rogers, but I thought it best to get Mr. Stark back to his rooms first."
Tony stepped out as Steve was assuring JARVIS that it was no problem, and then Tony paused, turning back to Steve. "So are you planning to stay for a while, or is this just another stop on your trip?"
"No, I think I've done enough traveling. I was thinking I'd stay for a week or two, if you don't mind."
"Stay as long as you like, it's no problem. And that means you'll still be here when I'm awake again. Good. Goodnight." He nodded and turned, heading in the direction of another door as Steve echoed his 'goodnight' reflexively despite the fact that it was still very much morning.
The elevator door shut and the elevator began to sink again, and Steve couldn't help a frown. "Is he okay?"
"He will be fine. In all likelihood he'll sleep most of the day and then awaken again at dinnertime."
"And that will really be the first time he's eaten in almost two days?" That Steve couldn't do. "Shouldn't he eat before he sleeps?"
"He tends to lose track of time when he's working, and if I send anything up now he's more likely to fall asleep in it than actually consume it."
The elevator came to a halt, this time opening on the common room of Steve's floor, and he stepped out and headed into his rooms. And then froze, arm half-raised in the process of putting his groceries on the counter. "JARVIS? If Tony is still here, who left in the Iron Man suit earlier?"
"No one. All Iron Man suits are accounted for."
"But I saw someone flying east on my way back." He knew that he wasn't hallucinating things, and if the suit had returned to the tower he was sure that he would have seen it.
"Ah, I understand your confusion. That was not Iron Man. That was War Machine."
As far as explanations went, that wasn't a very useful one. "Isn't Tony out of the weapons business? Since when does he build war machines?"
"No, in this instance the suit is named War Machine."
"Oh. I didn't realize that he ever designed suits for other people." That definitely hadn't been in his SHIELD file, and it equally definitely should have been. Although…. Steve frowned. He hadn't really had very long to look through the SHIELD files that Fury had given him before he'd been picked up and taken to the carrier, and he knew that a good portion of them had been redacted anyway—national security, or something like that—but something had felt slightly off about the short video from the drone fight. The presence of a second suit might explain some of that.
"He doesn't," JARVIS replied as Steve tried to recall the specific images that had given him pause. "War Machine was and is a special situation."
Something in JARVIS' tone suddenly suggested that further questions would not be welcome, and despite his curiosity, in the end it wasn't Steve's business. He let the subject go, putting away the groceries and then setting about making breakfast.
Breakfast was followed by a tour of Bruce's labs, and while Steve didn't understand as much as he might have liked, what he could follow was impressive. After lunch Bruce had a meeting with another researcher for some project they were doing together, though, so Steve was left to his own devices. At least until his request for a list of local gyms from JARVIS ended up becoming a tour of the tower. He hadn't really intended it that way, but as it turned out there were two gyms actually in the tower, a public one on one of the lower levels and then a smaller one on one of the private floors, and he'd made the mistake of asking 'What else is in this place?' when he'd seen the full-sized track and lap pool in the public one. It had been more of an exclamation than an actual request, but JARVIS hadn't taken it that way, and once the tour had started he hadn't wanted to be rude.
Most of the public levels had been…well, not overly interesting, as far as Steve was concerned. Aside from the gym and the kitchen, which was also its own level and more like an eating area with innumerable tables surrounding several small restaurants than anything else, there were a dozen floors of suites for business guests and at least three times that number full of offices and conference rooms and…well, whatever else business people needed. Despite the fundraisers he'd attended with the USO that wasn't a world that Steve had ever belonged to, and he was just as glad to leave those levels behind.
There were some empty levels and then a block of open labs as one went higher, both scientific and technology-related as JARVIS explained them, and a reference library that would have been more interesting if it had contained something besides technical manuals and scientific journals. After that came another ten or so levels of research and development, the secured labs used by Bruce and Tony and presumably others that required special clearance to access. Well, special clearance or an invitation, apparently, given his earlier visit, but this time JARVIS didn't offer to stop and Steve didn't ask.
A block of currently-unused floors separated the labs from the private levels—and as long as they were here, was Steve absolutely certain that he wouldn't prefer a private floor instead of just his suite? JARVIS would be happy to have his things moved down—and then came the smaller gym on the same floor as a library that did interest him, a couple floors of private suits including the floor that Steve and Bruce were staying on, and finally several levels reserved for Tony's use.
The tour concluded with a stop on the upper deck, and since he wasn't quite hungry enough for dinner yet Steve decided to go change and check out the private gym more closely. There was no track there and even more devices that he didn't recognize than there had been in the little gym by his SHIELD apartment, but unlike the larger gym it was unoccupied and free weights were free weights. And he certainly knew what the punching bag in the corner was for. Only one, though, and one that looked like it hadn't gotten much use at that, so he reminded himself to hold back as he wrapped his hands.
He hadn't stopped at many gyms in the last three months, and it felt good to lose himself in the familiar rhythm of boxing. He still had to fight to keep a few of the memories that would send the bag flying from intruding, but somehow it wasn't as hard as it had been before he'd taken his trip.
"Either that's a lot tougher than I realized or you're taking it easy."
Steve's final punch went wild as he jerked around at the question.
"Oops. Didn't mean to startle you."
Judging by Tony's smirk that was exactly what he'd intended, but Steve declined to rise to the bait. "You're feeling better?" he asked instead.
"I'm fine. You were, weren't you?"
"I was what?"
"Taking it easy on the punching bag."
Steve shrugged. "I have to. I break them when I don't."
"Hm." Tony tilted his head, staring for a moment, and then he shook his head. "Well, JARVIS has informed me that it's now been forty-seven point three hours since I've had anything to eat, and if I don't eat within the next point seven he's going to go tattling to Pepper. The traitor."
"The count is now at point five," JARVIS interrupted.
"You know, NASA has been drooling over you for years."
"Yes, you've mentioned that on several occasions."
His tone made Steve bite back a grin, even if he had no idea who this Pepper person was.
"Anyway," Tony said with an exaggerated sigh, "he also informs me that you've been here since yesterday afternoon, and apparently being mostly unconscious when you greet someone is considered lousy hosting—I'd love to know when he downloaded Miss Manners—so I thought I'd see if you wanted to join me for dinner."
"Sure," Steve agreed readily.
"Good. Do you like pizza? I already ordered pizza."
"Pizza's fine." He should probably be annoyed by the presumption, but the fact was that pizza really was fine. It wasn't as if he'd ever had the opportunity to become a picky eater. He glanced down at his wrapped hands and workout clothes. "Give me a few minutes to change?"
"JARVIS will bring you up whenever you're ready. The pizza should be here by then."
After he'd changed out of his sweat suit, JARVIS took him up to the same floor he'd dropped Tony off on earlier, and this time Steve took the opportunity to look around. The setup was similar to the common area of his floor, with a sitting area and a kitchen and all of that and several doors leading off it, but this one was obviously lived in, and he doubted that Tony shared it with anyone. Except…. He paused over a picture of Tony and a woman standing together, their arms around each other.
"That's Pepper," Tony said, coming up beside him and handing him a plate.
"Your girlfriend?" Steve wouldn't have guessed that Tony had a girlfriend, he'd gotten the impression from a few articles he'd seen that Tony was rather loose, but he knew that he wasn't married and judging by the picture the two of had to be more than casual friends. Plus there was the fact that JARVIS was keeping her up to date on Tony's status.
Tony nodded. "That, plus she's the CEO Stark Industries."
Steve's eyes widened—Tony actually let someone else run his company?—but if Tony noticed his surprise he didn't show it.
"Sometimes I think the board likes her better than me," he continued. "Well, most of the time, really. It seems like I should be hurt by that, but then I remember that I can actually get things done when I'm not stuck in meetings listening to them. Anyway, she's in Japan this week, but you'll meet her when she gets back. Oh, help yourself." He waved a hand at the counter where several boxes sat. "There's beer in the fridge or wine and liquor in the cabinet."
Alcohol didn't have much of an effect on Steve, but he liked a beer now and again as much as the next man. He opened the fridge and reached for a bottle and then stopped. It wasn't that there weren't bottles available—he'd have been in more trouble if he'd wanted something non-alcoholic—but none of the half-dozen or so labels were ones that he recognized. Several of them weren't even in English.
"What's wrong?" Tony asked, coming up behind him.
"I don't…." He gestured and then shrugged. "I've never had any of these." He could just pick one and drink it, of course, even if he didn't care for it he'd drank things he didn't like in the past, but it seemed like that would be a shame with so much variety available.
"Right. Well, what kind did you like back when dinosaurs roamed the earth?"
Steve rolled his eyes. "Budweiser. There wasn't much else around." At least not that he could afford, and then he'd been over in Europe where you drank whatever was offered on the rare occasion when you had the opportunity.
Tony shook his head and reached past him to grab a bottle. "Here, try this one. Even Bruce admits it's pretty good, at least the once in a blue moon I can actually get him to drink something besides juice and water."
"Thank you." Pizza came next, and judging by the writing on the boxes Tony didn't share his aversion to the idea of delivery. Maybe it was just another thing to get used to. Or maybe it was a Tony thing.
Tony had a dining table, but it was buried in a pile of what looked like schematics, and Steve ended up following Tony into the sitting area and taking a seat on one of the chairs beside the couch. There was silence for a minute as they both ate their first piece of pizza—Steve was hungrier than he'd realized, and for all his complaints about being forced to eat Tony's slice first disappeared just as quickly—and then Steve cleared his throat. "Thank you for letting me stay here."
Tony shook his head. "It's really not a problem. We've got plenty of extra space. Where did JARVIS end up putting you, anyway?"
"The suite across from Bruce's."
"What?" He frowned. "JARVIS, I know we've still got a ridiculous number of floors sitting unused so why did you put our guests in the same place?"
"Because they each refused their own floors," JARVIS returned. "In fact, Captain Rogers indicated that even a single-bedroom suite was overly large for him."
Tony shot him a look, and Steve shook his head quickly. "Please don't misunderstand, it's all very nice, but I really don't need more than a bed."
"He doesn't need more than a bed, he says." Tony sighed. "Well, let JARVIS know if you decide you'd like something larger."
Steve couldn't imagine why he would—how he could, and besides, he was only going to be here a week or two—but there was no reason to object. It wasn't as if he ever had to take Tony up on it. He nodded.
"So what have you been up to these last couple months?" Tony asked around another mouthful of pizza. "You ticked SHIELD—and Fury—off something awful when you stopped using your credit card regularly."
Judging by his grin Tony approved entirely, and Steve felt his lips twitch in return. "A lot of sightseeing, mostly. The national parks, some of the cities I visited on tour before but never got a chance to really see, that kind of thing. How did you know that I stopped using my card?"
"Because pretty much as soon as you stopped they started hounding me. For some reason they were under the impression that I was keeping an eye on you somehow."
Steve tensed. "Were you?"
"You're a big boy, Cap. I figured you could take care of yourself. Besides, if I was going to keep tabs on you I'd be obliged to keep tabs on the others too, and while Bruce makes it easy and it might be kind of fun to see if I could build something that will transmit all the way from Asgard—actually, I should talk to Thor about that the next time he turns up—I don't think I'd like what our two favorite officially-spies-and-we-won't-talk-about-what-isn't-on-their-resumes would do to me if they found out that I'd slipped trackers into their shoes." A pause. "Not to mention that slipping trackers into people's shoes is just so 70s."
That was a very good point. Well, maybe not the part about the 70s, Steve had no idea what had been going on then, but about how Natasha and Clint would feel about being watched. And he was glad that someone had had faith that he was capable of surviving on his own in this time. He finished off his second slice of pizza and then paused, debating whether he should say it now or wait until they were both finished eating. In the end he'd never been one to put things off, though, and he looked back up, waiting until Tony met his eyes. "I owe you an apology. For what I said back on the carrier. I—"
"Ah, no, no, no." Tony interrupted. "Crazy Loki and the Glow Stick of Doom, remember? There's nothing to apologize for."
"Yes, there is. Loki might have been the…well, the instigator, I suppose, for lack of a better term, but I was the one who said those things. And I was wrong." He shook his head. "You probably already know this, but I knew your father."
Tony's jaw tightened.
"We were friends, and—"
"I don't want to hear it," Tony interrupted, and all traces of laughter were gone from his face.
"What?"
"I don't want to hear it. He might have been a great friend, but he was a lousy father, and I don't particularly enjoy hearing about him."
Steve stared. He wasn't sure what he'd expected, but that wasn't it. "I don't—I wasn't going to say anything about him. I mean, not anything else. Honest." Not that Howard hadn't been a good friend, but the particulars weren't really relevant at the moment. "I was just going to say that it's still hard sometimes when someone I expect to be here isn't, and three months ago it was worse. And I know it wasn't fair of me, but you were there and he wasn't and…well, I made some judgments that I shouldn't have. I am sorry."
"Well, I'm still blaming the lunatic with the crazy hat," Tony said after a minute, and if his words were casual, Steve didn't miss the fact that he had begun to relax again. "But if it matters so much, apology accepted. The lab experiment crack was out of line too."
Steve smiled.
"But that was not an apology, because it was entirely Loki's fault," he added quickly.
"Of course."