Holly POV
After her outing with Steve into the city, it took a couple days for Holly to go back out into the city. Emotionally she just needed a rest before going out again. Nat and Clint had been on a little side mission for Coulson so they didn't find out until the next day. This didn't stop them from nonchalantly just entering her apartment and waking her up and demanding answers and showing concern.
"Just don't tell me you did it because of Rogers batting his eyelashes at you." Clint said, just plopping down on the bed next to her while Natasha took a seat on her other side, leaning against the foot of the bed. "Just tell me that much."
She rolled her eyes and flipped him off. "Fuck you."
Natasha smiled. "Now this is getting interesting."
Holly sighed and sat up, looking at her two old friends. "Since you apparently don't seem to care that I was sleeping, what do you want to know?"
"Mostly if you're okay. Pepper told us when we got back about you going out with Cap yesterday. Did you really go to Ground Zero?"
"It's not Ground Zero anymore, Clint. It's...it's nice. What they did there."
The archer looked at her with those eyes that saw more than most and took her hand. "Hey, this is us, Hot Lips. What made you go there?"
"I had to. It was like this...I don't know. Weight. I wasn't going to be able to stay here if I didn't just...go." She sighed. "I don't know what I expected. I was...scared."
Natasha's brow furrowed. "You? Scared? Of what?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, we know there's more to this world than we can see. I mean, fuck, I can move things with my damned mind. We know people who can read minds and walk through walls and come from other planets." She fidgeted and played with Clint's rough fingers, her foot absently tapping against Natasha's leg. "I was afraid I'd...feel them there. Or I wouldn't feel anything. It's stupid."
"No, it's not." Natasha said, stretching her legs out and tapping Holly back with her own foot. "We all have our ghosts, real or imagined. All of us."
She nodded, giving Natasha a tap back. "Yeah. I know."
"How do you feel about it now?" Clint asked, curiousity in his tone.
"Better. They might have been sent in there to die, but they saved lives. That's all they ever wanted to do. What SHIELD was meant to be, you know? I miss them, all of them, but I haven't been honoring them by hiding away in California. Sure, I haven't been a little church mouse or anything but I could have been doing so much more."
"Maybe you needed that time, Holly. Besides, being a teacher isn't a waste." Natasha said.
"Yeah." She shrugged. "Speaking of, I've got a lot of work to do today before I do another hololecture."
"Let's get some food then, Professor." Clint teased, moving off the bed and not letting go of her hand so she was forced to go with him. "Do the thing?"
She sighed. "I haven't even been awake 10 minutes."
"Please?"
"Fine."
Clint grinned before jumping backwards off the elevated bed area, only to float midair thanks to Holly's ability. "I wouldn't have minded this during the fight against the Chitari. I had to use a grappling arrow and crash through a damn window when they blew up the roof I was on." He grinned as she fake dropped him more than once before letting him float right to the floor.
Holly somersaulted off and landed next to Clint just as Natasha landed on his other side. "Yeah because my life's work is to just float your fat ass around."
"My ass is not fat! I have a nice ass!" He defended, getting up and posing to make his butt stick out. "Come on, it's nice!"
Natasha looked at Holly with a smirk. " You know, Rogers' has a nice one, for an old man."
Holly giggled. "True. Thor's got a cute butt too."
"Hey! My ass is SO much better than alien or old man ass! Come on! Both of them are cheating anyway!"
Neither woman said anything and just headed for the kitchenette to get something to eat.
"Oh come on!"
Pepper POV
"Welcome home, Miss Potts." Jarvis' soothing voice greeted her as she stepped into the elevator from the underground parking area. Happy had insisted she not wait for him and she'd gone straight to the express elevator. There was a major need for a bubble bath and a glass of wine. Maybe a bottle.
"Thank you Jarvis. How are you?"
"I am performing at peak efficency. How was your day?"
"Frustrating but thankfully over. I'm guessing nothing major happened here or I would have saw it on the news."
"No, the day has been a quiet one. Shall I fill you in on events?"
Pepper felt she had a special relationship with Jarvis since they both worked tirelessly to try and protect Tony from himself as well as to encourage him when the spectre of his father or his own anxieties from the last few years began to overwhelm him. Jarvis knew enough to inform her on what was going on in the tower without invading anyone's privacy. The AI knew enough to "leave" a room when complete privacy was expected.
"Yes Jarvis, please do. And can you begin a bath in the penthouse for me?"
"Of course, it has already begun." He paused. "Sir has spent a good portion of his day with Dr. Banner in the Playroom. Work has been more theoretical than practical and sir only tried to tempt the Hulk into appearing three times."
"Only three? Tony must be distracted." Pepper quipped. That and Bruce was getting used to Tony's antics. "Continue please."
"Also experiencing frustration with work, Sir and Dr. Banner went out to lunch with Holly and Captain Rogers at a bistro near Central Park."
"Oh that's nice. Were there any issues?" They were all becoming more recognizable and she worried about Bruce and Steve, neither one particularly in favor of massive attention.
"No, there were not. Sir returned alone to the Tower while Dr. Banner, the Captain and Holly decided to spend the afternoon at the Metropolitian Museum."
Pepper smiled. "Oh that's nice! I'm so glad to hear that. Bruce spends much too much time cooped up in this tower."
"I agree. And it is good for Holly to also spend time out in the city, yes?"
"Yes Jarvis. She's been doing so well after finally going out a few weeks ago with Steve."
"Captain Rogers is rather protective of Holly. I find this acceptable as I know you do as well but Sir seems to be wary of it. Does he not trust Captain Rogers?"
Pepper shook her head as the elevator opened and she stepped out into the penthouse, the sunset over the city beautiful from such a high vantage point. "He trusts him Jarvis but when it comes to Holly, I don't think Tony trusts anyone except maybe Peggy."
"That assessment seems accurate. Do you believe Holly will stay here now that she is able to go into the city without issue?"
Stepping into the oppulent bathroom, Pepper breathed in the smell of the lavender bubble bath that was automatically dispensed into the bath as it was drawn. Perfect. Stepping back out into the kitchen area, she picked out a bottle of wine and poured a healthy glass before toeing off her shoes and heading back for the bathroom. "I certainly hope so. It's nice to have her here. I think Natasha made a good call in finally introducing Holly and Steve to each other."
"Agreed. They have been positive influences on each other."
Steve POV
Steve found himself actually enjoying the 21st century a bit more now that he was living in the Tower with his fellow Avengers. Sure, there was the occasional mission and he hadn't stopped looking for Bucky, but there was a good amount of downtime, something he hadn't dared to allow himself after he was thawed. He'd been afraid of his own thoughts, of actually forcing himself to deal with being anachronism with nothing familiar to ground him. But it was different now. He'd made friends. Real good ones who didn't care about him being a Super Soldier or being in his 90s, though they all teased him for it.
Pepper was a soothing influence, somehow able to deal with Stark and his inability to not be blunt to the point of rudeness. She showed patience, as did Banner, ironically. Each day the scientist would teach him something new about science and not get frustrated when Steve didn't quite understand it right away. Coulson had become a good friend, having moved on a bit from what Holly had called his fanboy reaction to Steve. He was always willing to listen to an "old" war story.
Holly was something else and he wondered if part of the reason they got along so well was that at times, she reminded him strongly of Peggy, like Natasha could at times. But that wasn't fair to her, she was her own woman. Barton had taken great joy in showing Steve some old SHIELD training videos that had made it to the internet when everything fell apart. One began with Maria Hill disguised as a rather ineffectual trainer, the session being one to teach a lesson to a group of new male agents who didn't have respect for women. The group had no idea what they were in for. Then Holly had come in. She'd been about 16 at the time. She was dressed like a teenager, though a bit provocatively, acting like she was just the kid of a SHIELD agent, looking for her dad. Hill left to look for him, leaving Holly at the mercy of the young male agents. Or so they thought.
It didn't take long for a few comments to be made and even some blatant advances. Rather disturbing considering how innocent and young she looked. Holly didn't break her cover until one of the agents grabbed her rear.
Holly's brother had put music to the video, a song from a Disney movie Mulan, as sung by Holly herself for her entrance video to Julliard. He watched very amused as her voice sang "I'll make a man out of you" as she wiped the floor with 8 agents in less than 2 minutes before showing her repeatedly wiping the floor with them in other training sessions. She did all of this with practiced ease.. Then at the end, Agent Hill came back in, no longer pretending to be ineffectual, followed by Agent May and Coulson, who both looked quite pleased. The agents began to complain but were cut off by Hill verbally ripping them up one side and down the other about their failure and lack of respect for women. He wondered if Peggy had ever done a similar exercise with a similar dressing down.
Barton said those particular agents would almost run in fear when they saw Holly coming down the hall, something she was very proud of. Something she had in common with Natasha.
She was more than her ability to fight and had showed as much patience as Banner and Pepper in helping him to learn new things. Just the same, she'd enjoyed teasing him about the merchandising inspired by his apparent legend and horrifying him with what women said they wanted to do to him on an internet site called Tumblr. That had led her into a giggle fit and as embarrassed as he was for some of the comments, seeing her that happy was worth it. She had read them outloud in a mock sultry tone and thankfully broke down in laughter before getting through very many.
He'd gotten to watch more of Holly's performances, both at Julliard and elsewhere. Stark hadn't been kidding when he said he hadn't missed a performance. They ranged from full musicals to individual songs, either by herself or with others, including some rehearsals and auditions. One even included Barton as the drummer in the background, part of her video application package to Julliard. He'd also played opposite to her in a version of Who's On First, which was a thrill for Steve because he recognized it immediately. Having Barton help her was to make it more plausible for him to "visit" her at school if she needed back up, establishing who he was. He was actually very good as a comedian and the pair had explained that they had previously memorized the bit to keep from being bored during long mission flights.
One performance would have never in a million years been done in his time but was actually quite entertaining in the fact that everyone had expected him to be wholly offended by it. There was a cartoon TV series about a group of foul mouthed little boys in a small town called South Park and they had done a movie musical. While Holly had been at Julliard, a group of students had pushed to have that be one of the semester big performances and had performed the musical numbers to prove it could be done. The school hadn't agreed, it being much too controversial with one of the songs being about two characters accusing each other of having sex with their uncle to say the very least.
Holly had had a bit part in it, her moment shining in the big medley number where she played the female version of a boy character who stood out in the town. She had explained it was a bit of a parody of Les Miserables and her character began the song.
Standing on a box, she stood out from the rest of the "kids", a single light focusing on her and then growing to shine on the other students.
God has smiled upon you this day
The fate of a nation in your hands!
And blessed be the children who fight with all our bravery
till only the righteous stand!
She was really hamming it up, being rather melodramatic but her voice was amazing to hear and the performance was a particular favorite of not just Stark but of Barton as well.
You see the distant flames, they bellow in the night!
You fight in all our names, for what we know is right
And when you all get shot and cannot carry on
Though you die, La Resistance lives on!
Then the other children began to sing around her while the "boys" being sent on the mission moved aside, looking at the other singing "kids" in horror and confusion as they sang about what could possibly happen to them.
You may be stabbed in the head with a dagger or sword
You may be burned to death or skinned alive or worse!
But when they torture you, you will not feel the need to run
For though you die, La Resistance lives on.
Then it was a group of mothers singing a reprisal of Blame Canada, the men, all dressed as soldiers singing about their excitement to be soldiers. Satan made an appearance about his plans for after the execution after which the two which had sung about uncle sex happily sung about their doom. The "boys" questioned their mothers' intentions, questioning why the song had become a marathon. Each part had involved lighting the one specfic group before lighting the next but after the boys, it became a huge medley, each group singing independently of each other, each with their own spotlight.
It was hard to take Holly seriously as she sang so passionately about such silly things
They may cut your dick in half and serve it to a pig
And though it hurts you'll laugh and dance a jigless jig!
But that's the way it goes
In war you are shat upon
Though you die, La Resistance lives on!
Holly explained that though the professors and the school board had chosen not to do a stage version of the South Park movie, it was what made them finally choose to do a comedy, namely The Producers. She had tried out for a small part, namely the insane former Nazi who had written the horrible play Springtime for Hitler that the main characters wanted to put on Broadway so they could steal the money and go to Rio when it failed. She'd done well, able to do a very good German accent as well as pronounce the German in the song accurately while dancing. She'd done so well that she'd gotten the lead, normally a male role, made female by making Max, Maxine.
He remembered how hesitant Holly had been to have him watch The Producers, given that it included Nazis, even in parody form. He'd loved it, getting the giggles out of the young man who'd played a flaming gay actor playing Hitler, singing a confessional to the audience about his career. The musical would have made even Colonel Phillips laugh. Nearly everyone had gathered in Stark's theater to watch the recording, everyone laughing when Holly admitted that she modeled the egotism in her performance after Tony.