Disclaimer: I don't own Hannibal King, Steve Rogers or any other Marvel characters mentioned in this non-profit Non-copyright infringement..-ing fic. And I don't own Motel 6.
Summary: The Avengers have to go up against some vampires; problem is they don't really know how. Blade is currently...somewhere so they have to settle for second best, Hannibal King.
A/N: This fic came from…I don't know where but I hope you enjoy.

Settling for Second Best

Chapter 3

--

"He knows he's leaving after all this has blown over right?"

"Yes, I made it clear to him that he's only going to be working with us on this one mission"

"Good, I don't know how much damage my place can take; he already stained the carpet in the conference room with his dirty boots"

"I thought you didn't' care about the carpets"

"I don't"

"Then-"

"Steve"

"What?"

"Dinner's ready" Steve looked after his friend and rolled his eyes with a small smile, Hannibal was right, Tony didn't seem to like him for whatever reason. The Avenger continued down the hall, stopping at the vampire hunter's door and knocking. Once. Twice. A blond brow arched as he pressed his ear to the door, muffled…noise came from the other side and Steve was sure King would call that music but to him it was noise, loud noise. He opened the door and looked around the room and spotted the brunette in front of the radio with a bath towel around his waist. Steve cleared his throat loudly to get the others attention but that went unnoticed and he crossed his arms. He watched as King nodded his head in a way that looked like it would cause an aneurism, water droplets from his hair flew through the air and caught the light. King turned quickly with a hand in front of his torso and a hand out by his shoulder, fingers moving with the music liked he was tickling nothing to the beat.

"Radio off" The noise cut off and Steve mad ea subtle face at the high pitched ringing in his ears then looked to his left to see a pink Pepper. "Um, Tony would like for you guys to hurry up, dinner's getting cold."

"We'll be right there" Steve said with a nod then Pepper smiled and walked back down the hall. King looked completely caught off guard and confused liked he'd missed the punch line of and elaborate joke. The blond tried but he couldn't hold back a laugh that he had been holding in since he opened the door and spotted King.

"Either I have jokes tattooed all over my body, or you're laughing at me' Hannibal accused as he pointed a finger at Steve as he took a step toward the bed.

"I'm laughing at you son" he answered honestly as his laughter died down and he gave a small shrug. "Sorr-"

"If you want to add the 'Father Son' thing into this relationship, I think I can do it. Y'know, before I wasn't sure but," he paused as if to think about what had changed his mind in the past six-ish hours.

"Right…um, what were you doing?"

"Oh, listening to music"

"Yes but the hand motions?"

"Oh, air guitar"

"Air guitar?"

"You don't know…I'll teach you sometime," He offered as he ran a hand through his dripping hair. "But I think we should go eat first, Mister Money's gonna have a bitch fit." He realized a bit too late that he had actually cursed and he made a face that pulled his brows together into a line. "Woops?"

"As much as I enjoy our chats, I agree, you should get dressed"

"Usually they're trying to get me out of my clothes," King commented as he looked down at the towel around his waist "or the rest of them anyway" he shrugged as he looked up from tugging on the dingy ivory towel to catch Steve leaving the room. The vampire hunter pulled the towel off and snapped the waistband of his Robot Chicken boxers with a broad grin.

"What's up ladies?"

"Shut up and eat"

Hannibal's brows came together as he sat in the chair across from Tony, he could only get so far away from the guy when the table was a square. "Are you always a rude ass?"

"Are you always an obnoxious ass?"

"Why yes, yeas I am" he answered with a smile causing Steve to chuckle and earned them both a glare from Tony. The rest of dinner was fairly boring as fuck, Mr. M talked to Steve about past Avenger missions and things like that, things he couldn't really be included in. He finished his dinner quickly and headed to his assigned room, flicking the light as he stepped in. It was 8:46PM, the moon was out but King couldn't see it because it was on its fuckin' merry way to the other side of the build which meant….he'd get full blast of the morning sun. Fucking great. His charcoal shirt came off before he scratched his full stomach, dinner was good at least, he thought optimistically. He pulled a white tank top from his duffle bag and pulled it on as he sat on the bed and yawned. He wasn't tired, just bored, and figured that everything was voice automated in the house save for the toilets so he said, "TV on" He paused and stared at the black screen, waiting for it to do as it was told. "Aaand whatdya know Mister Money's a bit low tech!" he groaned out, walking to the television to turn it on manually and the screen came to live with an infomercial. Yawn. King walked to the bathroom, stopping at the open door to laugh, the television was on in the bathroom.

Hannibal King moved down the hall of his assigned room, opposite the direction going to the kitchen so he could further explore the place and kill time. King looked at his watch and pushed a button that made the time light up in green, 9:57PM. He was only checking out the place because he was bored as fuck and there was shit on TV, no shows, no black and white movies, all the shows were reruns and the movies sucked. By the time e was down with his mental complaint about the television he came to a bathroom, the last door was a closet or something, he wasn't really paying attention. Following a hall to the right, he found himself at a gym of sorts; it was nothing like what he had back at home with the Nightstalkers. It was better; he would have an interesting time going back to them after all this. King stretched his arms as he walked over to a bench that sat next to a wall lined with dumbbells, a lot of dumbbells. With a clank, seventy pounds came of the rack and the hunter started curling it lazily. Again, he was bored and he didn't really need exercise at all but it was something to do.

"Can't sleep?"

"It's like ten twenty"

"So you can't sleep"

"I'm not tired" he responded as he looked up to the mirrored wall and spotted Mister Money himself, he looked a bit, what's the word? Oh yeah, stressed. "You okay man?"

"Me, no, yeah I'm fine, fine" he replied as he sat down on the bench and slouched forward, letting his hands hand between his knees. "About earlier-"

"-about you being an ass?"

"…Yes, sorry about that-"

"-standard procedure?"

"Something like that, so-"

"-you wanna start from the top? Okay, Hannibal King"

"Tony Stark" They shook hands, that was followed by a small silence then the two men broke out in laughter. Hannibal knew he misjudged this guy but also knew that if he slipped up he'd see another side of this guy that he didn't know existed.

"What are you two up to?"

"Kissing and making up" Hannibal answered before clapping a hand on the older man's back.

"Yeah, bit you're not suppose to kiss and tell" Tony chuckled as he walked to Steve and gave him a pat on the shoulder then walking past him to the door. "G'night!" he called over his shoulder as the door slid closed, hiding him from sight.

"T-"

"I know, I know, I left the TV on, I'll get it later."

"What?"

"I don't know," With an even louder clank, the dumbbell dropped back into place and King got to his feet. "How bout a quick match"

"A quick match before bed?"

"Before bed, huh? Sounds good, alright"

"Well, you missed your nine o'clock so-"

"What? That wasn't my fault! I-" He was cut off in mid stream by a kick to his ribs, it hurt, and it was going to bruise. "The fuck was that for"

"You said we could have a match" He explained as his opponent pulled himself together then he sent another kick to King's head, which he dodged, then a punch to his stomach. The brunette staggered back and coughed, the kick had no extra force behind it but that punch. Fuck. "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, c'mon" He managed to get out before being punched again, kicked and kneed, both hands flew to his nose and he cracked it back. "Ow!" The complaint started slow and punctuated when King kicked Steve in the solar plexus. His grin instantly dropped when he noticed he was being rushed, he tried to dodge it but ended up face down on the mat with a blond on his back.

"Time for bed" Steve announced with a yawn.

"Sorry…You're not my type" King managed to get out between ragged panting and he licked his lips, tasting sweat. His fingers twitched under Steve's knees and he concentrated on slowing his breathing, which was slightly difficult at the moment.

"Not your type, what do you mean?"

"Your technique is different than anyone I've fought before. Fuck, we definitely have to have more matches though, I'm a quick learner so let's keep going." He paused to catch his breath. "I wish you were my type but then this would be as easy as Sunday morning"

"Right, then there would be no point in a sparing match" Steve said finally, he let out a breath that he felt like he'd been holding in for a while and he scratched the back of his neck.

"Exactly….and as much as I'm sure I'll enjoy you being on top later, my uh, hands are falling asleep"