Steve leaves later than normal for his morning run and chooses the longest of his various routes.
He's hoping to loose track of time so he won't be hyper aware of when it's time for Pete to be waking up.
It doesn't work.
He sits down on a park bench and drops his face into his hands.
He didn't sleep well.
The picture he has of Jim is already soft at the corners where he keeps pulling it out of his wallet.
He still smiles every time he looks at him though.
All he needs to do is work things out with Tony. This would be fine except he doesn't think he can look Tony in the eye right now.
'What did he do?' he jumps to his feet in surprise as Natasha appears on the bench beside him.
'Natasha,' he sits back down, 'hello to you too. You're up early.'
'I was on an early assignment,' she smiles easily. 'Come on, Rogers, what did Stark do?'
'How did you even find me?' Steve looks around. 'Why were you looking for me in the first place?'
'I got back to the tower, asked who was in and was told you weren't. You don't go running at half four in the morning unless you're upset,' she bumps their shoulders together. 'When you still weren't back by quarter to seven I got Jarvis to track you and got a cab.'
Steve laughs,
'Alright.'
'What did he do?'
He doesn't bother asking how she knows it must have been Tony that upset him.
He hands over the photo of Jim,
'That's Jim,' he tells her.
She just blinks at it,
'Ok?'
'The incubator in Tony's lab?'
'Right,' she agrees. 'Tony's baby.'
'Yeah,' he grimaces. 'Well, he's mine.'
She just stares at him.
'Mine and Tony's,' he clarifies. 'He explained it... they manipulated my cells and added Tony's DNA, or something, it probably wasn't as simple as that sounds.'
'I'm guessing he didn't tell you,' she looks at the photo again.
'He doesn't trust me.'
'He doesn't trust anyone,' she dismisses.
'I just don't understand why,' Steve accepts the photo back. 'He knows I... He must know I like him? And he knows I like kids. Pete likes me. Does he just not think I'll... bring anything extra?'
'Cap,' Natasha scowls at him, 'I don't know what was going through Tony's head, but I can tell you this much; there is no way he thinks he'll be a better father than you. Whatever he was planning, he thought it would keep you around and that it was best for you and the boys.'
'He did say something about not wanting me to prefer Jim to Pete,' Steve recalls.
'That sounds like the sort of logic he'd go in for,' Natasha smiles.
'What about the others though? Bruce, Pepper, Colonel Rhodes and Jarvis all knew too.'
Natasha gazes at him for a moment,
'Why do you think he decided to tell you?'
'You think they talked him into it.'
She shrugs and they sit in silence for a moment,
'What are you going to do?'
'I need to work out some sort of...' he grimaces, 'arrangement with Tony. I need to know to what extent he's going to let me be a father.'
'You're just going to let him decide?' she stares at him.
'I don't want to fight over our son,' Steve tells her quietly. 'I'd rather be on good terms with Tony, and be on the edge of Jim's life, than be a more prominent fixture but have Jim know that his parents are fighting.'
'It's Tony,' she rests her head on his shoulder, 'he needs a shove in the right direction occasionally, but he's a good guy; he won't want to keep you apart.'
'I hope not.'
Natasha stays with him for a little before he decides to finish his run. He walks her to the curb were it turns out the 'cab' she got to find him turns out to be one of Tony's suped up cars.
'He won't mind,' she smirks as she slips behind the wheel.
He just laughs and waves her off.
Time to go home.
He starts out jogging but his speed picks up now he's moving towards what he wants. He pulls himself back from a full out sprint as the tower comes into view. The doors open to him as he jogs up and the lift is waiting for him.
'Welcome back, Captain Rogers,' Jarvis greets him.
'Hey, Jarvis,' he leans against the wall as the lift rises. 'What's the time?'
'Three minutes past ten, Captain.'
He steps off onto his own floor intending to go straight to the shower but stops when he sees what looks like a large picture frame covered with a dust sheet.
'What's this?'
'A gift from sir,' Jarvis tells him.
'Ok...' he pulls the sheet aside to find a beautiful oil painting. He finds himself studying the brush work before he can stop himself, 'it's lovely. The artist must have been a fan of Da Vinci; it's in the same style.'
'I do not know if the artist was a fan of himself,' Jarvis responds blandly, 'but he certainly has a recognisable style.'
Steve takes several hurried steps away from the painting,
'It's an original. Of course it's an original. How much did it cost him?!'
'In fairness to sir, on this occasion, it cost nothing as it was already in his possession,' Jarvis replies. 'To truly answer your question, however, I would estimate its value in the region of fifteen million dollars. Conservatively.'
Steve swallows heavily,
'What am I supposed to do with it?'
'Hang it on the wall?' he can hear Jarvis' amusement.
'I can't have a fifteen million dollar painting by Leonardo Da Vinci hanging in my lounge!'
'It is yours,' Jarvis dismisses, 'you may do whatever you wish.'
This is too much.
This is exactly what he should have expected from Tony Stark.
He needs a shower.
'He can't buy my forgiveness with this,' he adds as he strips off his shirt.
Jarvis doesn't reply.
