Chapter 3

Steve

Steve realized Mark was at S.H.I.E.L.D. for a while. He began to wonder when Mark would return to the mansion. Steve could feel his stomach start to grumble, the ice cream he got with Andrea and Tony only held off his hunger for so long. Steve decided he would try and surprise Mark with a meal for the house when he returned.

Steve went down to the kitchen. He paused for a moment, deciding on what he would make for the house. Steve did not have the skills Mark possessed in the kitchen, but he still knew how to cook. The very least, Steve was a better cook than Natasha. Steve went to the pantry and looked to see what was available. Since Mark began living here at the mansion, the pantry was filled with multiple ingredients for any meal he wished to make. Steve felt overwhelmed by the selection. Steve grabbed some pasta from the pantry and decided he would focus on something simple. Steve looked for what protein he would make and again found the choice difficult. Steve always enjoyed when Mark cooked, everyone in the mansion did. Steve didn't know how to cook the proteins which Mark bought for the household, though. Steve grabbed the chicken and realized this was going to be a very simple dish. Steve looked for vegetables when he heard someone enter the kitchen.

"Taking a hand at cooking?" Natasha asked.

"Well Mark isn't back from S.H.I.E.L.D., and I thought I would surprise him by making something."

"You are the only one he willing let's use the kitchen," Natasha said.

"He let you cook a few times," Steve said as he was deciding on what to make.

"The house voted me out of the kitchen, remember. Mark may have let me in the kitchen, but everyone else kicked me out." Natasha said as she looked over the island counter to see Steve looking through the vegetables. "What are you deciding on?"

"All I have is chicken and pasta right now. I don't know how Mark decides on what to put in the dishes. He always goes through the kitchen grabbing everything he needs to the meal. I can't seem to decide on what to put in the dish."

"What about a sauce?" Natasha said.

"That is another thing to decide on, the choices are overwhelming. I don't want to mess this up," Steve said.

"You put too much pressure on yourself. Mark will be happy you started something while he was out," Natasha said.

Steve looked around the pantry and the refrigerator, "There is no sauce anywhere."

Natasha laughed at Steve. "You think Mark get the sauces for his dishes from a jar? He makes it from scratch."

"Every time?" Steve asked stunned. Natasha just nodded her head. "He always wants us to eat well, no matter what we ask him to make. So he makes it from scratch."

Steve slowly turned his head to the pantry. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"What will be?" Mark asked as he walked through the door.

"The chef is back, just in time. Poor Steve was about to burn the place down making dinner," Natasha said with a grin.

"He is not you, Natasha," Mark said in Steve's defense. Natasha slapped Mark's arm at the comment. Mark ignored it and walked over to Steve. "What were you planning on making?"

Steve looked over at Mark with only the chicken and pasta in his hands smiling. "This is as far as I got," Steve said. Mark laughed. "Okay, I withdraw my previous statement, Natasha."

"Thank you," Natasha said as she sat on a stool.

Mark grabbed the pasta and chicken from Steve. "You can still make something for everyone. I'll just help. So what were you thinking for a sauce?" Mark asked.

Steve felt at ease with Mark here, he could help get everything for the dish. "I thought of a cheese sauce and then putting some veggies in it."

"Okay, grab the flour. I will need that," Mark said as he walked to the refrigerator. Mark grabbed cream, cheese, and garlic. He put it on the counter and went to get some broccoli as well. "Simple chicken and broccoli alfredo will do," Mark said. Steve grabbed two pots and one pan. Mark looked at the pan, "Why don't you grill the chicken? You like to use the grill."

Steve paused for a moment and thought about the idea. He put back the pan and grabbed the chicken. "Sounds good."

"I will get everything else ready," Mark said. Steve grabbed a plate to put the chicken when they finished and went outside to grill. Steve actually loved to grill, it might be the fact he liked healthy cooking. He got the chicken cooked quickly and wondered if he did it too fast. Steve put the chicken on the plate when they were done and cleaned the grill. He figured cleaning it would give more time for Mark to ready everything else. When Steve finished cleaning, he grabbed the plate and went inside. He saw Tony, Andrea, and Clint all waiting for the food. Steve was glad he cooked so much chicken for everyone; he could eat three helpings alone.

"Well that took a while," Natasha said. Steve was confused by the comment until he saw Mark had everything else ready and they just waited for the chicken.

"Did you really do all that in such a short amount of time?" Steve asked. Mark took the plate of chicken from Steve. "Don't be too surprised, you know I am a good cook. I mainly had to make the sauce from scratch, and it is a simple sauce, so it didn't take long."

Steve took his seat at the table while Mark finished the rest of the dinner.

"So what did Fury say when you told him the news?" Tony asked.

"Guess," Mark replied.

"He probably said something about those damn UN bastards not letting him do his job," Clint replied.

"Along those lines, yeah. He wasn't surprised by how things went. We talked about what will happen in the month until they make their decision."

"And what does Fury think will occur in that month?" Andrea asked.

"Well, I will stay here on the team for that month. The UN didn't say no, so we will use that to our advantage. Fury wondered if some of the world leaders will make a move against me. I thought the same thing, but they would be dumb to do something like that," Mark said as he walked to the table with a few plates of food.

"Make a move against you?" Natasha asked.

"Fury and I think some of the world leaders might hire an assassin or two to come after me. Mainly because of the blackmail we presented them. No worries, they will come after me alone, and I can take what they throw at me," Mark said bringing two more plates to the table. Andrea reached for this one, taking it away from Tony. Andrea stuck her tongue out at him.

"Would the United Nations really do something like that? They are world leaders after all," Steve asked.

Everyone looked at Steve when he asked this, well everyone but Mark. Mark was preparing the last plates of food. Steve didn't know why everyone looked after he asked that question.

"World leaders want power. Threaten that power, and they come for you," Mark said bringing Tony and Steve their plates. Mark walked over and grabbed the last plate for himself.

"And you threatened it in the best way possible, by showing their people how bad they truly are. If word gets out of their behavior, then the people would overthrow most of the leaders," Tony said.

"Yup," Mark said taking in a bite of the pasta.

Steve didn't touch his food yet. He was shocked at how calm Mark was over everything that happened today. He watched as everyone was calm about the events. They did not seem worried about the possibility of assassins coming for Mark or what the UN would say. Steve finally took a bite of his food.

"Hey," Steve heard, and he looked over to Mark. "It will be okay. This isn't a Red Skull situation. And we don't need to worry about them having a weapon to take me down. We have four people in this house trained as assassins and Tony's security system. We will be okay. They most likely will call me out, and I take down the assassins outside of the mansion."

"You just seem so calm about this," Steve said.

"Because we did all we could, for now, Steve," Andrea answered. "We played our hand as best we could. We have the advantage moving forward, so it is looking good for us," she said with a mouth full of food.

"You love the alfredo Mark makes," Tony said looking at Andrea.

Andrea looked at Tony's plate which was empty, "Don't judge," She said.

"It's part of the way things will be for Mark to get what he wants, Steve," Clint said returning to the subject. "He is fighting for what he wants."

"Something actually profound comes from Clint," Natasha said as she cleared her plate.

"I have my moments," Clint said as he followed her with his plate. Steve got up to get another helping. He saw Mark follow him into the kitchen.

Mark put his hand on Steve's back as Steve put more food on his plate. "Hey, this is different than the last few weeks. I know how to deal with this. It will be all right," Mark said. Steve finished filling his plate.

"Just don't kill anyone; I don't want the UN to have anything on you, even that," Steve said.

"Deal," Mark said putting his plate in the sink. Steve felt more at ease when Mark agreed to work on being an Avenger and not an assassin. Steve watched as Mark did some of the clean-up in the kitchen. Steve went back to the table with his second helping. Maybe the month will go by quickly, and soon Mark will be able to join the Avengers with no worries. Steve wished he could maintain the same calm everyone else had about the situation.