The next three days were a constant blend of annoyance and anticipation for Steve; he did his best to stay unruffled while working at the Stark Tower despite Tony's occasional non-sequitur comments and the grins of the other men.

Natasha managed to ride the elevator with Steve at one point and shot him a sidelong look as it brought them down to the basement. "You're not looking forward to Tony's bacchanalia in your honor I take it?"

"I'm putting a good face on the whole thing. See?" Steve managed a grimace and for the first time in a long while Natasha actually snickered, her soft laugh lasting only a second or two.

"Men will be boys," she murmured, and sighed. "Your fiancee's okay with it?"

"Yep," Steve nodded. "Her grandfather's going to be there, as a sort of . . . chaperone."

"Good idea. Tony's less likely to put a senior citizen in the line of fire—present company excluded."

"Yeah. Um, Natasha?"

"Yes?" the elevator stopped but she didn't step out. Steve felt the heat rise on his face, but he rushed through his question anyway, before his courage failed him.

"Are there really . . . male strippers?"

He risked a look at her face; one groomed eyebrow arched up as Natasha stared back, the very faintest of smiles at the corners of her mouth.

"You don't need to worry. Tony won't hire any."

"No—I mean yes, I know he won't," Steve blurted. "That is, he'd better not! I just . . . never mind."

Natasha finally did smile, her gaze soft. "It's the twenty-first century, Captain Rogers; sexual equality goes both ways but your fiancée strikes me as someone who's not going for the downtown hamburger when she's got top sirloin like you at home, sir."

She strode off, leaving Steve red-faced and trying hard not to laugh at himself.

Later in the day Tony called him up to the penthouse and was sprawled on a sofa surrounded by no fewer than three holographic screens hanging in the air like ghostly windows. "Okay, so Pepper's got us booked for the Cosmopolitan Lounge. I've got dinner lined up, along with poker, karaoke and a floorshow to sear your eyeballs out."

"Tony!" Steve huffed, torn between laughing and wanting to throw his hands in the air. "You really don't need to go to all this trouble . . . and expense. Seriously, a night out at Waffle World could cover the basics for me."

"They have pole dancers at Waffle World? Damn, I need to get out among the little people more often," Tony shot back cheerily. "Slick themselves up with syrup, do they?"

"No! What's a pole dancer—you know, never mind. I don't want to know," Steve huffed gloomily. "I guess it won't do any good if I tell you I don't want any strippers at the party, right?"

"Right," Tony nodded. "Not a damned bit of good. You know and I know that you're faithfully devoted to your one and only, that no other woman will ever mean as much to you as your beloved Lauren, yadda yadda yadda, but on the other hand you've got Clint, Thor, Bruce and whoever else you've invited to think of, Steve. Don't be selfish. You might not want to see hot and gleaming naked girl-flesh on parade, but why make your teammates suffer? Don't you owe them some wonderful mammaries?"

"Sometimes," Steve managed through gritted teeth, "I hate you."

"That's a given, but I won't take it personally," Tony grinned. "So who else is coming? Pepper wants a head count. Or I guess in our case a dick count."

"Joe, Binh, and Fury, I guess. I feel bad leaving Natasha out, but I don't think she would want to come."

"You guess right," Tony shuddered. "Even though I'm pretty sure she's got a dick. Or several. Severed. In jars."

Steve tried not to laugh. "Intimidated?"

"Cautious. Okay, so two guests for sure, and as for Fury, I'll let you go up and invite him to the shindig."

"Why me?" Steve asked, and realization dawned on him. "Ohhhhh, I get it. If you invite him he'll be instantly suspicious and insist on going to make sure you don't do something spectacularly stupid, but if I invite him, he'll think everything's under control and he won't feel compelled to go. Cheap shot, Stark."

"It's called strategic initiative, thank you very much, and it's been damned helpful in keeping me alive, Cap. In this case, it will help insure that nobody rains on the parade, capice?"

"Tony," Steve paused and stepped closer, looking at the man sprawled on the sofa. "Seriously, why go to all this . . . trouble? I'm touched, but it's a lot of work."

Tony looked up, and his dark eyes locked on Steve's for a moment, his mouth bracketed with tiny strain lines. "Someone once told me not to waste the second chance I got at life. The way I see it, you got shortchanged out of the lifetime you should have lived, and while none of us here can make up for what you missed out on, we can pick up the ball."

Steve blinked, a little startled by the obvious sincerity.

Tony added, "That, and let's face it; Starks know how to throw parties."

"Yeah," Steve nodded, finally grinning, "You do. Thanks. I'll go see Fury."

"Good. Maybe we can get him drunk enough to do Karaoke. I bet he does a hell of an Isaac Hayes."

-oo00oo—

Binh was delighted to be invited, and even Fury had agreed to stop in briefly, leaving Steve with the impression that the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. knew perfectly well what was going on. By the time Steve made it home to Time Was, he was starting to wonder if he might actually enjoy part of the planned events.

Lauren was amused that he didn't know what Karaoke was. "It's people singing songs with the music playing behind them. They do it in front of an audience of their friends and generally everyone has a silly time doing it."

"But I . . . I don't know any songs unless they do the National Anthem or something by the Andrews Sisters," Steve fretted. "Or maybe some hymns."

"Trust me, nobody does hymns for Karaoke, sweetheart," Lauren giggled. She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, running the water, and Steve peeked in, noting with interest that she'd lit some candles as well. This looked very promising.

"Not all of us are amazing singers like you," he sighed. "So. Planning on a bath?"

"Oh yes," she twinkled up at him, rising and batting her eyes. "And I wasn't planning on taking it alone."

Steve bit back a groan. "You don't know how happy I am to hear that."

"How happy?" Lauren smirked, pressing up against him, her hips wriggling slightly. "Oh, very happy, apparently."

"I like the thought of you naked in hot water," Steve admitted. "It gets better when I'm part of the picture as well."

"Agreed. Lose the clothes, Hero, and I'll introduce you to the joys of Loofa for two," Lauren told him as she began to unbutton his shirt.

It look a while between kisses and touches, but by the time they were both naked the tub was half-full and topped with inviting foam. Lauren urged Steve to get in first and settle himself, which he did, grateful that the remodeling had gone so well. The oversized marble tub was one of the few luxuries he and Lauren had agreed on and as he stretched out he sighed.

That only lasted until Lauren leaned over and tested the water, her hand slipping under the foam and touching his thigh. "You look comfortable."

"There are still a few tense spots," he assured her, holding out his hands to help her into the tub. "We'll have to work certain muscles until we ah, both relax."

"Yes," she murmured, stepping in and straddling his hips. "Oooh yessssss!"

It took a while for the sloshing to stop, but afterwards even Steve had to admit that there was nothing like a hot bath to relieve stress, even if you ended up with foam up your nose.